My fiancé may be involved in an ISIS recruiting group in California
Al Salam Alykum everyone, peace be upon you.
Forgive me for writing this in the least appropriate manner, but all I was thinking of was how to get my message out there to everyone that is may be concerned in a way or another in or outside the United States. My fiancé could be involved with a California-based recruiting group affiliated to ISIS.
S.R. is what I will call myself on here for reasons that are beyond obvious to anyone who might be reading this. I'm a first generation American from Palestinian origins born and raised in Southern California, I'm 22 and I'm attending a Cal Sate Un in the SoCal area that I shall not give its name out for my own safety. Without introductions, all you need to know is that I'm engaged to a family friend's son, another Palestinian called Ahmed Darrous, Darrous is his last name. We don't have in our culture the social trait of giving out children first and second names. Ahmed has always seemed like the conservative kind of guy when my parents spoke to me about whether I'd be interested to know him more. I honestly did not mind as long as they were informed that by knowing him better that doesn't give them the green light to start talking on my behalf, especially when it comes to something as serious as marriage. Ahmed is studying engineering in one of the UC's in the SoCal area and by mentioning that I mean to say that it's not like I was getting to know some FOB that couldn't speak any English, Ahmed is an over achiever and has received several certificates for completing successful internships, volunteer work and community improvement programs that he took part of. Ahmed, until last week, was not any less American that anyone I might have encountered on the street.
We have been engaged since December 2014, and according to our Middle Eastern family traditions we couldn't hang out alone and so either my younger sister would join us or his sister would, sometimes both but that's occasional. Saturday 09/12/2015 we chose to go to the city of Claremont for dinner, my sister had joined us for the night. He said he's made reservations in some Spanish restaurant, which was in like a ground floor of a 2 story building with a small Spanish bazar outside the main dinning hall where people waited to get seated. I remember he got a phone call and asked us to go sit and that it shouldn't take him long, which is fine I mean it's not like the first time he excuses himself to answer a phone call. We sat there and were served water. The waitress showed up again and asked if we were ready to order, and still no sign of him. I asked the waitress to take our orders when my fiancé comes back. Ten minutes have passed and my sister gave me the look and in a joking manner asked me if he was fooling around behind my back, I honestly thought of it too! If it were a friend he could straight forward tell him: hey I'm out with my fiancé or something, and if it were work or school related I think this could have been answered in front of me as it would be short apology or something.
I told my sister I was going to check on him, and I started walking towards the main entrance but there was no sign of him. I walked back and started heading towards the other exit which led to the bathrooms and a fire exit which leads to a one car parking lot that must have been part of the restaurant's property or assembly point. I heard his voice before going out, he was speaking in Arabic and for some reason I choose to steal out and listen to his conversation. He wasn't loud but wasn't hushing either, and the following are part of many things that I heard which I cannot recall now:
1) They sent him a message with Abu Selma (or Salimah, I can't quiet remember the exact name) - one of many names common in the days of the prophet and are recently reused among ISIS members)
2) I asked them to make sure they did not send men with photos or videos posted to the internet of them back in Sham (another term for Syria) or Iraq since they may be interviewed on the borders trying to get in. You know reporters wanting to know why they fled Syria and how is it back there and so on
3)There's no way they can enter the country (they were talking about the United States now) before getting their European green cards
4) They told them (I'm not sure who "They" and "them" are in this section) the officers cannot deny asylum status or send them to court if they stick to their stories
5)These are all suggestions though, if they can avoid interviews in Romania and Greece that would work too
6) we cannot risk accommodating Zuhair (a male name) if they send him to the USA through Bucharest, he has been on at least two videos in Raqqa (a city in Syria that is considered as an ISIS base-land) that can be found on YouTube. This should be clear to Abu Rayah before contacting the guys in Berlin.
It's worthy to mention that Ahmed, the one I supposedly knew and the one I got engaged to, has no relatives in Syria or Iraq to talk to or about with anyone else. Raqqa is an ISIS dominated land and not sure why he would mention it to a friend over the phone if that was the case, I'm just trying to justify what I heard.
Confronting Ahmed is definitely the last thing I'm thinking of at the moment. May be this message is a confrontation, after all. I only hope that if Ahmed sees this at any point in the next few days, he understands that i'm doing this out of love, that until this moment I still desire him, and can't see myself being the mother of anyone's children but his. Until now, there is still a chance to back out.
Other than the internet I don't know how I can get my message to anyone that cares about this country, or to those that can do something about this issue without jeopardizing my younger sister's or my own well being. I did not discuss what I've heard with my parents yet and not so sure how I would bring up such a topic on the table in the first place! I really need all the prayers that there is to be able to at least get through this situation that I've put myself through. Don't get me wrong, I love Ahmed, but this is someone else, someone who is a member of recruiting ISIS militants to enter the States and God know why. I only ask of you to think of this act of Ahmed as an individual act. I do not represent my fiancée's behavior by being a Muslim individual in any way. After all, I'm not any less American than anyone else
Please keep me in your prayers.
