“Believe me, Akhi [brother], it will fill their hearts with so much terror, because everybody can do this.”

“And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know, whom Allah knows.” (Qur’an 8:60)

“Go to a hospital and calmly slay them!,” Bild, July 27, 2017:

How does ISIS recruit its attackers in Germany? What are the last instructions before the terrorists strike and kill as many innocent people as possible?

For months, BILD reporter Björn Stritzel pretended to be an Islamist willing to carry out an attack (always in consultation with the security authorities).

In a new series, BILD documents the chats with the ISIS terrorists.

My ISIS instructor recommends a video to me. It is a straightforward instruction on how to kill. At the beginning of the video, past ISIS attacks in the West are celebrated – the axe-attacker from Würzburg is also briefly shown. This is followed by the headline: “Explanation of how to slay the disbelievers”.

A ruined house can be seen, in which a prisoner is chained to a concrete pillar with handcuffs. A masked jihadist explains in French why terror attacks against the “crusaders” must be carried out.

Then the terrorist – who is introduced as Abu Sulayman al-Faransi – shows several knives (from a kitchen knife to a combat knife) and explains which ones are suitable for an attack. “Jack-knives are bad because of the unstable blade”….

My German-language ISIS instructor wants me to use the knife techniques shown in the video – in Germany. He immediately suggests several suitable targets: “Go to an old people’s home, that’s very easy.” I ask whether that is permitted, even by ISIS’s radical interpretation of Islam. “Is an old people’s home allowed from an Islamic perspective?” His answer is clear: “Yes, inshallah. Or to go a monastery or a church.”

He is obviously suggesting targets where potential victims will show little resistance, or that have a special symbolic value. An attack of this kind already happened: on July 26, 2016, two ISIS terrorists cut the priest Jacques Hamel’s throat in a church in Normandy. Amaq later published a letter claiming responsibility first, and then a martyr’s video of the terrorists, who were shot by the police.

My instructor knows about the shock that this murder caused worldwide. This is exactly what he wants to repeat. “Believe me, Akhi, it will fill their hearts with so much terror, because everybody can do this.”…

In order to remove any last doubts I might have, he promises me heavenly rewards for the murder: “It will also encourage many Muslims to do the same, and then you will receive your reward.”

What he means is the reward in the afterlife. In this Salafist-jihadist ideology, when a jihadist’s deeds inspire others, this counts extra towards heavenly rewards. Not only is one’s own terror attack added to one’s “martyr account”, but also the attacks of those who were inspired by it….

I explain to my ISIS instructor that, despite the knife techniques in the video, I am too clumsy to kill a person. He also has a solution for this problem: “Akhi, trust in Allah, wallahi it is very easy. Simply walk into a hospital … Take flowers with you and go to the inpatient ward, where the severely ill are. Then calmly slay them. Very calmly.”

Hiding a knife in a bouquet of flowers in order to murder severely ill people – so this is what jihad is for my ISIS instructor.

“Sheikh al-Adnani rahimahuallah has said this many times. We want very simple operations, because the enemy cannot stop these. Do you understand, akhi?”

Al-Adnani – whom my ISIS instructor refers to here – was one of the highest-ranking ISIS leaders….