Inside Kosovo's Islamist Cauldron

[TomSea]

Inside Kosovo's Islamist Cauldron

A 19-year-old former Islamic State recruit talks about life in a hotbed of militant Islam, and how close he came to joining the ranks of killers.

Kacanik, KOSOVO – A plume of smoke hangs over our table in the corner of a dark, shabby café in this rugged town in southern Kosovo. The lanky 19-year-old sitting next to me is chain-smoking through half a pack of L&Ms, his hands trembling as he recalls how he joined one of the world's most brutal militant Islamist groups.

Through his neatly trimmed beard, Adem, who asks me not to use his real name for fear of arrest, says he had never even left Kosovo. But two years ago, he found himself on the perilous and far-off Turkey-Syria border -- a major entry point for foreigners seeking to join the ranks of Islamic State (IS).

He was taken by IS recruiters to a Turkish village, where he waited to be smuggled into a war zone. After a two-week training camp in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Syrian and Iraqi territory that the group calls its "caliphate," he would be assigned to a fighting unit.

Hours before the recruiters were to sneak him across the border, however, Adem turned back and made his way home.

"I realized that what was going on in Syria had nothing to do with Islam," says Adem, who keeps looking over his shoulder as if he might be found out at any moment by Kosovar authorities. He looks like any other teenager, in skinny jeans and a silver chain hanging over his T-shirt.

More At: http://www.rferl.org/fullinfographics/infographics/inside-kosovos-islamic-cauldron/27825148.html

[Sanguine]

So normal, so banal.