Portrait of Radicalization

Since the origin of the Islamist jihadist movement, the question has remained, what motivates non-Muslims to convert and then leave their homes to fight in a faraway land? Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert was a German street criminal turned rapper with the stage name Deso Dogg. He latter converted to Islam and took the name Abu Talha al-Almani and pledged allegiance to Mullah Muhammad Omar who he called “…one of the greatest men.” In 2012, Abu Talha left Germany and traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. According to recent press reports and social media posts, including a photo of the German jihadist’s dead body, confirms that Abu Talha died in a U.S. air strike.

What was the significance of Abu Talha’s time as a fighter and why is his death significant?

Born to a German mother and a Ghanaian father who disappeared, his German mother and a U.S. American soldier stationed in Berlin raised the biracial youth. He is said to have “experienced racism and developed a distinct anti-authoritarian streak confounded by his fractious relationship with his American stepfather” while in juvenile detention.” Denis Cuspert was first exposed to rap music in 1995 after the fall of the Berlin Wall and he began to make contacts for a career in both rap music and as a criminal. As a rapper, Deso Dogg was a well-known rap artist and between 2006 and 2009 he recorded four albums on major labels and performed with U.S. rapper DMX. He sported tattoos on his hands STR8 and THUG from his days as an infidel or non-believer; in an interview, he stated, “Allah will erase them from me one day.” Fifteen years before his conversion to Salafism, he protested U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. and coalition buildup of forces in the Middle East after Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. Later he served a “short sentence” for violating the German Opium Act and missed additional prison time for an illegal weapons charge.

After his conversion to Islam, Abu Talha changed his music style to nasheeds or Islamic devotional music. However, his music continued to attract young people that according to German security officials quoted in a New York Times article, “did not realize that what they were listening to was inspired by a radical jihadist theology based on the fundamentalist Salafi branch of Islam.”

“Deso Dogg is important. He can really captivate you. These hymns can support a radicalization process,” said Guido Steinberg, an Islamic studies expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs” Hate Speech International

German authorities considered him an influential figure “who incites (sic) violence and unrest through inflammatory videos and fiery speeches that praise terrorist and attack the west.” There appears to be circumstantial links of Abu Talha to Arid Uka, a Muslim from Kosovo who was convicted of killing two U.S. servicemen on a bus at Frankfurt Airport. Uka stated he attacked the Americans after viewing a staged video posted by Abu Talha to his Facebook page, which depicted the rape of a Muslim woman by men in U.S. uniforms. Uka told the court “It made me really angry”

In Germany, Abu Talha was critical of U.S. operations in the Middle East and is said to have wished for the death of President Barack Obama calling the President an enemy of Islam. German authorities determined that he was a security risk and “demanded that he surrender his passport” however he claimed he had lost it.

Fearing arrest by German authorities, Abu Talha left Germany for a “German jihadi colony” in Egypt in 2012 and eventually arrived in Syria. During this period, he married a woman that European press reports was a CIA (Some reports state she was FBI) informant and she was able to report Abu Talha’s activities back to the CIA until her handlers decided it was unsafe and she was ex-filtrated from the region.

“We were already a long time in the bedrooms of the terrorists.”German intelligence official

In Syria, Abu Talha joined ISIS and pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In Syria, he began posting videos in both English and German (some postings were translated into other languages including Turkish) on social media and YouTube. His first video had 190,000 views its first two weeks posted to the ShamCenter on You Tube and the Turkish translation views were even higher according to Hate Speech International. His rap star status served to recruit other potential jihadists that traveled to Syria to join ISIS. Abu Talha’s success as a recruiter is measurable by the number of photos posted on social media of him and recruits in Syria. Although Abu Talha often poses in military gear and holding weapons, it is unclear if he has participated in combat operations. Western press reports in 2014 falsely reported that he Abu Talha was killed during a firefight in Aleppo in 2014.

The U.S. Department of State in January 2015 designated Abu Talha as a “specially designated global terrorist.” Reportedly, Abu Talha appears in a July 2014 video standing next to a pile of bodies allegedly victims form the battle to control the Shaer gas fields and a video of Abu Talha holding the head of beheaded victim posted in November 2014 in addition to the intelligence gathered by the U.S. informant were basis for the State Department’s designation.

Conclusion

It is unknown whether Abu Talha was a combat fighter, however; his value to ISIS was similar to that of American imam Anwar al-Awlaki whose value to the jihadist movement was not in his use of a rifle or mortar but in their skill to communicate the jihadist narrative and message to others. Abu Talha's charisma and status as a rapper attracted not only Germans but also other Europeans to fight in Iraq and Syria. Will his death affect ISIS recruiting or will his status as a martyr attract more fighters? That is an ongoing argument, however, one thing that is certain the decapitation strategy has not proven decisive in countering violent extremism in Iraq and Syria.

Dave Mattingly is a writer and national security consultant. He retired from the U.S. Navy with over thirty years of service. He has made multiple deployments to the Middle East. He is a member of the Military Writers Guild.