‘Hipster jihadi’: Meet the new poster boy of ISIS!

New Delhi: This bearded Egyptian known as the ‘hipster jihadi’ is the new poster boy of ISIS, which is ruling over much of Iraq and Syria. This ‘hipster jihadi’ sports trendy curly hair and black-rimmed glasses. According to a report in Daily Mail, “He’s been pictured on the back of a horse carrying a machine gun and waving a scimitar in the air – and standing in front of a dusty car holding the same weapon. On Twitter he’s posted gruesome pictures of decapitated heads in a basket and rants glorifying Isis and its murderous leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But a photograph of him showing off his six-pack suggests that he had a very different lifestyle until recently. He’s been identified as Islam Yaken, an Egyptian university law graduate brought up in a wealthy family in Cairo, according to the Telegraph. Yaken was educated at the well-regarded French Lycée in Heliopolis, a well-to-do area of Cairo, and at the distinguished Ain Shams University.” The report said, “He can speak English and French and used to seem more concerned with burning calories in the gym than a holy war, according to his social media postings. He was known as a ‘funny but respectful’ person - and supported the former president of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi - but now his former school-friends are understandably concerned. Aliya Mikkawi wrote on Twitter: ‘Islam Yaken's story is freaking scary. He used to be at school with me.’ Yaken is reportedly living in an apartment belonging to someone else in the Syrian city of Raqqa, an ISIS stronghold, and wants his family to join them.” According to the report, “The capture of Qaraqoush, Iraq's biggest Christian village, and at least four other nearby hamlets, brings the Islamic State to the very edge of the Iraqi Kurdish territory and its regional capital, Irbil. The Islamic State has already seized large chunks of northern and western Iraq in a blitz offensive in June, including Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. The onslaught has pushed Iraq into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops.”