Graham Holt

Reluctant Jihadist Graham Holt

Rafe, a second-generation British citizen, whose grandparents fled India during the separation, grows up with Muslim parents still steeped in their traditional culture. He is unappreciated and bullied at school and so falls under the thrall of a fiery Imam who persuades him to leave his family and join a madrassa in Pakistan. His teachers in the madrassa, however, reject him as a fighter; he is too slight of build and asks too many questions. He is persuaded to return to England, albeit partly radicalised toward the strict adherence of Sharia law, and completes his education to find work in the oil industry. Unfortunately for him, his assistance to his radical Imam brings him under the scrutiny of the anti-terrorist police. He is treated badly by the police and becomes determined to fight, wanting to join Islamic State and the new caliphate. A more moderate Imam persuades him not to flee to Syria, just to become a suicide bomber like other young men, but to help, and see for himself how the caliphate works. He retrains as a paramedic and joins a hospital in Aleppo in the midst of the Syrian Civil War. His subsequent kidnapping by an IS group and forced employment at the main hospital in Raqqa with his colleagues, changes his life and his views. Meanwhile, in America a new president campaigns, and against all the odds is elected. His pre-election anti-Muslim rhetoric leads to an isolationist policy in which America intends to leave the Arab world to its own devices. Like Rafe, events suck America back into the Syrian Iraqi conflict, and the president also is forced to changes his views. As Rafe becomes involved in the clash of American and disparate Arab forces against Islamic State, he gains both stature and self-confidence, but his allegiances begin to change.