A harrowing account of the dynamics of the Middle East. Mekhennet goes to places where others cannot risking her life to get her story out. Her unique access gives us the story of extremism from both sides, those who terrorize, and what brings them to that point.

NOTES FROM
I Was Told to Come Alone
Souad Mekhennet

October 30, 20171: Stranger in a Strange Land


That was the moment I stopped asking my parents to leave. Instead of giving in to my fear and alienation, I took them as a challenge, one that continues to this day. I decided to work as hard as I could and do my best to prevail over the forces that so frightened me. That was what I meant all those years later, when I told the ISIS leader on the Turkish-Syrian border that he’d taken the easiest way out. I believed my way was harder.


November 2, 20173: A Country with a Divided Soul


I had a very bad feeling that we in the West were destroying the structure of a country that had not been a democracy but that had offered a place to a woman such as al-Hashimi, a Shia, who was able to study and enter politics. Maybe it wasn’t a system we liked, but we, the decision-makers, were now destroying it and destroying all those people, intelligent people like her who came from diverse backgrounds and who should have had a role in the future of their country. I felt that her killing was another step toward disaster.


November 15, 201714: The Search for an Islamist Beatle, or How I Found Jihadi John


I had my own reasons for acknowledging my role in the story. I wanted to send a message to Jihadi John and others like him: we will tell the world who you are and stop you from spreading fear—and a Muslim journalist, a woman, has the power to do this. In the end, we broke the story with the BBC snapping at our heels. I was proud of our achievement, but it also had a personal resonance. I was sending a message to those in the West who blame every Muslim and Islam.


November 15, 2017Epilogue


If I’ve learned anything, it’s this: a mother’s screams over the body of her murdered child sound the same, no matter if she is black, brown, or white; Muslim, Jewish, or Christian; Shia or Sunni. We will all be buried in the same ground.


November 15, 2017Epilogue


Watching her, I was filled with anger and guilt. Anger because it seemed we hadn’t learned much from the suffering of the past fifteen years. Guilt because it was part of my job to give people clear information that could help dispel racism and fight violence, and I, along with other journalists, had clearly failed. This shooter stood for all those people I’d come across who killed because they had created their own ideologies of hatred, and in their sick minds, a justification for taking other people’s lives.


November 15, 2017Epilogue


The world is not facing a clash of civilizations or cultures, but a clash between those who want to build bridges and those who would rather see the world in polarities, who are working hard to spread hatred and divide us. While the work of the bridge-builders is certainly difficult, there are people in every generation who live their beliefs, and who are willing and able to seek out common ground. I was lucky enough to have the examples of my parents and grandparents to show me what is possible.


All Excerpts From

Mekhennet, Souad. “I Was Told to Come Alone.” Henry Holt. iBooks.
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A powerful and difficult piece to read through: it is painful to read about the things humans do to each other simply because they believe in different things, look different, for example. Souad gave terrorism a more balanced, multi-faceted perspective, especially focusing on individuals. This gives this book a more human touch, with some humor sprinkled in. I am awed by her doggedness to dig out truths.
What I did not like about this book is that Souad seemed to ramble in some areas. I think these parts can be skipped.

*I got a free copy in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley

Souad Mekhennet is a female investigative journalist. She is a Muslim of Moroccan / Turkish heritage, although born and raised in Germany as a German citizen. This book is her biography, her memoirs. She tells of her experiences as a journalist who, over the decades, has traveled across the Middle East and interviewed members of (or closely linked to) the Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and numerous Jihadist terrorist groups.
Her desire to be a journalist was her belief that she could write the unbiased truth about important events and she could make positive changes in the lives of people. She states that her quest has always been to understand “Why do they hate us?”.

I found the book interesting, thought provoking, eye opening and also terrifying. The further I got in the book, the more I learned. The book did open my eyes to how the Western countries (including Russia, Germany, Britan, France – not just America) interfered many decades ago into a Civil War and a culture they did not understand. The Western countries fought and helped destroy previous Middle East governments and rulers, which left a void where ISIS formed. This seems to me like the very basis that began the “why they hate us” Yet I can not help but firmly believe that the Muslim countries of the Middle East have gone way beyond in their need to BLAME someone other than themselves for their own crisis they find themselves in for the past several decades.

* This is my Google search of Middle East history of wars/conflicts *
The Middle Eastern countries were in their own Civil and Religious wars with each other long before any of the Western countries interfered [intervened]! The Middle Eastern predominately Muslim countries have been in many wars /conflicts since well before the 1800s, even 1700s – yet they now chose to blame the West!

My questions: If all the Western countries had not intervened – would the world be different today? Would ISIS still have formed? The Middle Eastern countries have been fighting EACH OTHER for CENTURIES!

The book tells the truth that a very large number of Muslims actually become radicalized (turned into terrorist) in GERMANY and other Western countries!! I don't think the majority of Western citizens (Americans) actually know or understand this. I sure didn't!

The “Epilogue” (which was NOT actually the last chapter) of the book more or less confirmed exactly the facts that strike fear in the minds and hearts of Americans and citizens of Western countries.

Although Souad attempts to relay that “not all Muslims think this way”, after reading the book, specifically the “Epilogue” chapter, it does nothing to erase my belief that that, as a whole, Muslims do in fact hate all Westerners.

The book reaffirms my belief that Muslims, by their own religious beliefs and culture, can never fully integrate into ANY Western society. Our religious beliefs, political democracy, our laws and our culture directly oppose the Muslim culture and way of life.

If you want more knowledge of the political history of the Middle East, Muslims, Terrorist and Jihadist – read this book.

I thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Review will be posted on amazon, goodreads, netgalley and moonshineartspot.blogspot.com

An interesting account of a reporter who put herself in danger while meeting with key Al Queda operatives in order to get her stories.

ScrappyMags one of my best of 2017!!!

Scrappymags 3-word review: Alarming. Entrancing. Disturbing.

Genre: Non-fiction/Memoir

Shortest summary ever: Our author Souad Mekhennet is a reknowned German journalist who has written for many top publications like the NYTimes and Washington Post. Her many interviews with Jihadists and insiders in ISIS and Al Queda is astounding. She grills them, asking important questions, trying to remain unbiased, veering to that key question, "Why do they hate us so much?"

What’s good under the hood: This should be required reading. Everything is good. I was visibly tensing despite knowing she is safe (duh she's written this book). My anxiety level was at an 8, nearly too high for me to settle down to read, yet I flipped through pages like a Tom Clancy novel. Written with candor and class, Mekhennet's story captures her Muslim upbringing, which I appreciated, because as much as journalists (and myself as a teacher) try to stay unbiased, we have them and Mekhennet made clear statements about how difficult this was for her. Her own memoir as a Muslim youth was notable, where often she was ostracized in German society. In that respect, she could understand some of the anger jihadists grew living (and born in) Western nations feeling unwelcomed, but her upbringing (with strong parents and the beauty of Islam) turned her one way, while jihadists turned another. The book then focuses on her travels while reporting, the many faces of both sides of the story from those in the government to those in the middle of the desert - hiding. Straight up jihadists. I remember a professor telling me in college, "One person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter" and Mekhennet touches on this, staying in the middle yet challenging both sides with issues of torture, lack of due process, and questioning the logic of jihadist views that oppose mainstream Islam along with their depolorable actions. Her experience shows a balance of both sides, yet make it clear - she does NOT support terrorism in any shape or form, but the book vividly shows WHY these jihadists came to be. The remaining question is - how do we deal with this on a global scale? 

Watch for the lines of Mekhennet's marriage proposals/wooing by jihadists and government officials. It adds just a touch of laughter in an otherwise serious and intelligently laudable narrative.

What’s bad or made me mad: The surprising part, nothing was the author's fault that made me mad, it was merely the truth that angered me. Mad at Western governments for not caring about Muslim people and mad at jihadists for spreading terror and hate. In that respect, it's a thinking book, and it will pull at your mind long after the final page. 

Recommend to:

Everyone. Most appropriate for those age 16 and up as it does mention jihadist beheadings. 
I used to teach AP Human Geography and this would be a fantastic book to read for that class or many Poli Sci classes (Politics and Revolution). 
Anyone looking to answer the question "why do they hate us?" It certainly opens that question to consideration and understanding.
Read with an open mind and always try to place yourself in the life of the "other" person. My remaining questions are how to reach these youth who turn to radicalism and not a more positive path and how do we hold all accountable for atrocities, both jihadists and those who commit crimes under the guise of "government". Those thoughts haunt me...

Sincere "shukraan" to NetGalley, Henry Holt and Co. and the Ms. Mekhennet for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and for making me consider, think, ponder, wonder and feel.

Sound Mekhennet is of Moroccan descent and German birth. As such, she has always walked a line between the Muslim and Western worlds. Fortunately for the rest of us, she is a journalist of the first order and seeks to educate these two worlds about one another's beliefs, experiences, and cultures by writing for The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others.

I am in awe of Mekhennet's bravery, tenacity, and her ability to make connections with some of the most shadowy figures of jihad. Her memoir is a paean to investigative journalism and its increasing importance in our world.

Sometimes a reporter is simply lucky enough to pick the right restaurant for tea.

That's one way journalist Souad Mekhennet, a contributor to the New York Times and Washington Post, among others, a veritable force in modern journalism, describes her experience back in 2001, listening in on conversations of the regulars in a Muslim neighborhood in Hamburg. Some of these regulars were affiliated with the al-Quds mosque, which several al-Qaeda operatives from the so-called Hamburg Cell, who would go on to attack the United States, attended.

I Was Told to Come Alone is an intense, descriptive collection of her experiences from the front lines of reporting on jihad, extremism, and terrorism. It's both thrilling and terrifying: as in the title, she's often instructed to leave her phone, blindfolded, threatened overtly and obliquely, and had to make weighty decisions in the interest of colleagues' security. Yet despite the dangerous conditions, she's managed to break and report on some of the most important news stories relating to the Middle Eastern conflicts, bringing the perspective and sensitivity of her own Muslim background as well as her worldly open-mindedness and healthy inquisitiveness.

She's been at the epicenter of some of the most pivotal current events in the intersection of the Middle East and the West in recent years: 9/11 and the aftermath, war in Iraq, the Arab Spring, Europe's refugee and terrorism crises.

But it's not all luck: Mekhennet is a talented and dedicated journalist - a sensitive writer with an eye and a sense for an engaging, important story, a polyglot (speaking German, English, several Arabic dialects, French), and well-versed in cultures and how and why they can clash, drawing on her own upbringing in both Western and Arabic countries.

She straddles these cultural lines effortlessly, and it's clear that being a woman has been a boon, not a drawback, difficult as it can sometimes be. I loved this - she does endure blatant sexism and the topic of her marital status (and whether she's interested in marrying jihad fighters comes up far too often for my own comfort, I can't imagine how she feels about it) and yet she handles this constant prodding about her gender with unflappable grace and patience.

It seems that being female has sometimes allowed her special access behind the lines, maybe even saved her life, although also being Muslim comes into play too. It's been a helpful combination at least, as she's made it out alive from interviews, dinners, and teas with Taliban commanders, al-Qaeda officials, and any manner of jihadi mujahideen. Even when she admits her fear or nervousness in her writings, she's kept her cool in situations that make me nervous just reading about them.

As she encounters Muslims who identify solely by religion, not taking into account the countries of their birth or which gave them refuge, rather clinging to an us-against-them mentality, she comes to a chilling realization.

I began to understand that I was entering a world from which my parents had always tried to protect me.

But it's not that she was shielded from discrimination. It's everything to do with the path one chooses. An interviewed Berlin rapper-turned-fundamentalist explains his reasoning for sympathizing with ISIS and becoming more involved in what's happening in Syria:

"'Maybe because of my own experience growing up here, I always felt I should support those who are weak, the underdogs,' he said. I've often heard this argument from members of terrorist organizations. The problem is that if it's taken too far, 'supporting underdogs' can easily turn into oppressing others."

Mekhennet then reminds the reader of her own upbringing as the child of guest workers in Frankfurt, when she was also often singled out by what some refer to as "German Germans". She gets it, what these others feel as "outsiders", but she doesn't let them get away with it. She's been through the same, and it hasn't made her bitter, or hard, or angry. Or when it has, she's turned that negativity into something else: curiosity, education, the drive to understand and educate others with truth and peace.

She's always showing this contrast: every Muslim has choices to make, see what her family chose, what she's chosen, despite their struggles against racism and xenophobia. Compare their difficult road with what she says is the easier way out: becoming angry and fighting with violence instead of openness, understanding, and integration.

Mekhennet has the steadying influence of her culturally blended family (a Moroccan father and Turkish mother) who had been through separations, heartbreaks, loss, and the pain of never being fully accepted in a country that had allowed them to come as Gastarbeiter, guest workers, tasked with the jobs that 'German Germans' didn't want to do - cleaning, cooking, etc. Grunt work.

In her interviews with many of the refugees who came to Europe in 2013-2015, she's startled to find that many refuse to do the kind of her work her parents did. Or they balk at the idea of their wives or children doing such work. She argues that, unlike the official narrative put forth by some politicians in support of the refugees, they were not the intelligentsia or highly skilled workers as claimed, but rather farmers and laborers. These same farmers and laborers told her they were above doing the same work in Europe.

The more alienated Muslims felt in Europe, I thought, the more separate they actually became, embedding themselves ever deeper in the faith and community the majority culture were criticizing. I remembered how, when I was fifteen or sixteen and enraged by racism and violence against Muslims in Germany, I wanted to wear the hijab as a sign of protest. My parents talked to me. 'You're angry,' they said, explaining that fury wasn't a good reason to adopt a religious practice.

She's concerned with what she sees and hears in the refugee way stations, and with what their reaction will be when Europe doesn't turn out the way they're expecting.

Mekennet is perhaps best known for uncovering the identity of Jihadi John, the mysterious British-accented ISIS fighter who appeared in several notorious beheading videos. She solves the mystery of his identity, but at great personal risk to herself.

Warned about the potential dangers of attaching her name to this massive story, she rationalizes her decision: "I had my own reasons for acknowledging my role in the story. I wanted to send a message to Jihadi John and others like him: we will tell the world who you are and stop you from spreading fear -and a Muslim journalist, a woman, has the power to do this."