The chapters of the book are divided into journalistic missions – memories and anecdotes from when she reported for The Washington Post or the New York times. This combination meant she was able to build relationships with people in the inner circles of terrorist groups.Īfter 9/11, a woman who lost her husband in the bombings turned to Souad and said: “Why do they hate us so much?” Souad then made it her life mission to find out and report back – so that people could understand the dynamics between the West and the Muslim world.
Souad was perfectly placed to report – Muslim, European, female and fluent in Arabic. Souad became interested in terrorism during her studies – Germany is actually a hotbed for terrorism and many of the 9/11 bombers could be sourced back to Hamburg. She writes “More than once, neighbourhood parents spoke to my sister Hannan’s primary-school teacher and asked that she be removed from the class because she doesn’t “fit in.”Īt the age of five Souad went to live in Morocco with her grandmother where the Moroccan dialect of Arabic became her mother tongue alongside German. The post-migrant experience in Deutschland isn’t great – as a non-white child Souad was constantly othered.
She was born in Frankfurt to a Turkish mother and a Moroccan father, both of whom came to Germany as guest-workers in the ’70s. Souad Mehkennet is a journalist who reports on terrorism and Jihad for The Washington Post and The New York Times. Compelling, insightful, and shockingly relevant, Mekhennet’s chronicle is a must-read and nothing less than a revelation.This month I, Alice Austin, read I Was Told To Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad. In fearless prose that reveals bracing truths, Mekhennet demands that readers travel with her into the heart of old battles and new wars as she pushes past what we want to hear to reveal the complicated realities at the heart of how organizations like al-Qaeda and ISIS continue to thrive. Born a German Muslim of Moroccan and Turkish descent, she has faced a litany of personal and professional challenges while covering conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, but she has let nothing, from gun-toting jihadists in lawless locales to arrest by brutal Egyptian authorities, keep her from running down a story. Over the course of her career, Mekhennet has written for such outlets as the New York Times and Der Spiegel and is currently a national security correspondent for the Washington Post. A riveting memoir and a literary bombshell that effectively eviscerates every preconception, misconception, and prejudice readers have about the Arab world, I Was Told to Come Alone reinforces the singular significance of journalism, especially foreign journalism, at a time when it is facing its greatest challenges.
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