Girlfriend tricks would-be fighter into abandoning IS

Australian woman spies on boyfriend as he becomes embroiled in radical Islam, even faking cancellation of his flight to Syria

An Australian woman successfully prevented her boyfriend from traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State, tracking his movements and ultimately calling him from a Sydney travel center, posing as an employee, to tell him that his flight had been cancelled.

In an interview with The Australian newspaper, the woman — identified by the assumed name “Soroya” — recalled following and spying on her then boyfriend, “Abed,” as he became enmeshed in radical Islam and even planned to join the extremist group as a fighter.

She said that as the formerly non-religious Abed became more observant, he met a man at his mosque who called him “brother,” and introduced him to a group of Islamic State recruiters she called “The Crew.”

Alarm bells began to ring, Soroya said, when the couple argued over the definition of “jihad,” with Abed insisting that it meant “holy war.” At that point, Abed informed her that he was thinking of leaving Australia for Syria, where he would join the Islamic State.

Soroya said that by this stage, his recruiters had told Abed that they would kill him if he changed his mind about joining IS. She began to track his movements, sometimes even disguising herself with a niqab, and following him as he met groups of men in car parks and at their homes.

Her determination to stop him leaving the country eventually led Soroya to lie about his flight, just days before he was due to begin the journey to Syria, where the Islamic State controls swathes of the war-torn country.

Once Soroya had tricked Abed into believing his flight had been cancelled, she strove to impress on him the importance of the people around him in Sydney.

“I had to be smart and on the ball all the time. I gave up my life,” Soroya told The Australian. The 10-month effort paid off, but she warned that there are many susceptible Muslim Australians who are being targeted by recruiters for the extremist group. Abed, who is still in Sydney, is in touch with a sheikh who is helping to guide him away from the Islamic State, but the couple have split.

Soroya said that the effort was worth it. “I unf***ked his mind,” she told the newspaper.