Tarannum Sattar
I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.
– Tom Stoppard
In this day and age, as we talk about journalism, the next thing that pops into our mind is media. Be that print or electronic. And the media is always deemed to be negative, always.
As much as it is true that the media exaggerates moles into mountains, it is also true that there would be no stories, no entertainments, no trade and no globalization without the media. No war even.
Evidently, the root of the media lies in journalism. I can claim the statement not only as a journalist but also as a print media person. There’s always a hype about how manipulative the media is and about how they alter stories or edit the materials as convenient. The influences can be galore; political or military.
But not all we see in media is manipulated. Despite of some juggled up journalism; there are some very curious journalists who go out of the way to capture stories.
One such example of heroism is the recent act of Said Ramzi, who using his pseudonym, infiltrated into an ISIS cell. While there, he secretly filmed them with a hidden camera for six long months while they were holding their meetings.
After spending six months with the jihadists, he learned about the many things he would never have known otherwise. His prime notion was to get into their group and try to figure out what goes on inside the mind of the jihadists.
What he discovered in the process was shocking. He shared his views about his experience during his six months stay. What he termed the young men, who were no more than 20 years of age, were “lost, frustrated, suicidal and easily manipulated”.
He filmed them constantly in a bid to make a documentary that was supposed to be aired in Canal+ after his successful return from ISIS group.
During his stay, the jihadists held two meetings where they planned to carry out an attack in the name of Islamic State.
Below is a statement that Ramzi made:
“The terrorists of 13 November (Paris attacks) are all descendants of immigrants. So the dread of Muslim terrorists is real. I want to fight those guys who kill in the name of Allah. And the weapon that I have chosen is infiltration.”
Ramzi got to meet the man who is known as the “emir”, which in Arab means the ruler. His name was Oussama and he tried numerous times to persuade him to join the suicide squad.
“Towards paradise, that is the path,” Oussama said. “Come, brother, let’s go to paradise, our women are waiting for us there, with angels as servants. You will have a palace, a winged horse of gold and rubies.”
Oussama is a young French-Turkish citizen, who was arrested by Turkish police and handed back to France while he was attempting to reach Syria. He was jailed for five months in France before release but is till subject to parole.
Ramzi was deeply disheartened and said that his father taught him Islam, and what they were doing was not Islam. He also mentioned that they were paranoids and would keep testing him through various means.
On a final take, Ramzi was ordered to carry out a suicide attack on a nightclub.
Ramzi’s mission ended when the group was arrested by police and one man who escaped arrest sent him a text message saying, “You’re done for man”. He broke the cell phone immediately.
Experiences or risky ventures as such done by a journalist are not an everyday scene. He chose to risk his life and thrust himself into the militant group to give a view to the readers.
I do hope that the day isn’t far when journalism will be out of the spicy judgment scheme and step into a world that is more reliably transparent. So that our children are not fooled or victimized by the hollowness of the promises made by frustrated terrorists.