Saved by Love from the Islamic State

nkThere is nothing stronger than a mother’s love. And Dutch mother Monique Verbert proved this adage recently when she rescued her 19-year-old daughter from the Islamic State (IS) after traveling there disguised in Muslim dress.

Verbert’s daughter, Sterlina Petalo, had previously gone to Syria to marry a Dutch jihadist, a former member of the Dutch military. Verbert’s safe return to Holland with her child, a feat of bravery in and of itself, also represents the first time that a girl who had voluntarily gone to the Islamic State to marry a jihadist has returned home safely to the West.

“She basically saw him as a sort of Robin Hood …that he was a nice man and fought against Assad,” Verbert said in an interview on Dutch television that was reported in Die Welt. “She said again and again: “Mum, look at that guy. Isn’t it good what he does?”

Petalo’s story is not an unusual one for the dozens of girls from Western countries who have travelled the same path to the Islamic State to wed a jihadist. Die Welt relates the Dutch teenager converted to Islam at age 18 during a spiritual quest and soon became radicalised. She started calling herself ‘Aicha’, covered her hair, shunned friends, and read the Koran and Islamic websites, “hardly leaving her room.” Petalo’s mother, who is separated from her father, said her “greatest scare” occurred when her daughter appeared for the first time completely veiled.

“Then I truly asked myself: ‘girl, what are you doing’?”  Verbert said.

But Die Welt reports that the “decisive day” occurred last January when Petalo saw her future ‘husband’ on a television program. She contacted him via the internet and subsequently decided to travel to him in Syria. Warned by a friend of her daughter’s intended departure, Verbert was able to prevent this first attempt to leave the country by contacting the police, who put Petalo’s name on a list of potential terrorists and took her passport away. Petalo, however, successfully left Holland for Syria on a second try, using different identification.

Finding the police and Dutch authorities powerless to help get her daughter back, Verbert took matters into her own hands, appearing on a television show in an effort to contact her. Later, Verbert discovered her child had separated from the Dutch jihadist and was now together with another IS fighter in Raqqa, the IS’s main city. Verbert then travelled to Turkey, but could not get over the border to Syria and returned home.

After receiving a call for help from her daughter, Die Welt reports Verbert decided to return to Turkey to try and reach her again. After locating her child, she crossed into Syria, completely covered in Islamic dress, and successfully brought her out and back to Holland safely. Details concerning how this was accomplished, however, are unknown, since Dutch authorities are remaining silent. Petalo is currently in custody, as she may still pose a security risk and may also face charges for aiding a terrorist organization.

French anthropologist Dounia Bouzar has studied the phenomenon of young people in France who are suspected of wanting to leave, or have already, like Petalo, left their families and country to join the Islamic State. Last spring, Bouzar set up a center to prevent such departures and was also hired by French police, seeking assistance in this area.

From her work with the 130 families that have contacted her, Bouzar published a book last October titled, “Ils cherchent le paradis, ils ont trouve l’enfer” (They Are Searching For Paradise, They Found Hell). Of the youths at risk, Bouzar told the French newspaper, Le Figaro, that as many as 80 percent were atheists with many coming from atheistic homes, an astonishing 60 percent of their parents were teachers, and 90 percent came from the middle and upper classes. Bouzar estimates about a dozen females have made it to Syria from France, but French authorities are monitoring 90 families of girls in danger of leaving. About half of these girls are converts and even include Jewish girls among their number.

Also in the Le Figaro interview, Bouzar gave a detailed account of the radicalisation process Petalo probably underwent and what she likely experienced in Syria as a jihadist’s bride. Bouzar related the radicalisation of these girls, some as young as 14, is “like lightening hitting the house.” The majority are not of North African origin, France’s main source of Muslim immigration, and “have nothing to do with Islam.” But they are “passionate.”

“These are brilliant girls, who are getting ready to study medicine, political science or altruistic professions…,” Bouzar stated. “They had the misfortune of talking about this on Facebook. It’s as if the terrorists have psychological head-hunters who locate the personality profiles of those who wish to change the world and fight against injustice. One would say that they are specifically looking for the elite.”

The same holds true for girls of all classes. Even among working class or less privileged sectors of French society, the jihadist “head-hunters” search out only “very good students.” As for the boys, it is just the opposite. Bouzar says recruiters look for unemployed males who have adjustment difficulties in society.

After contact, Bouzar states the girls are then methodically manipulated mentally over a period of time by their recruiters to the point where, almost cult-like, they become the only ones, with whom they communicate. First, all confidence in adults, including parents, and society is removed. Then videos are received, telling the girls that they are being deceived and “secret societies are manoeuvering to kill people in order to hold on to their power.” Societies that only Islam can destroy.

“It’s the theory of conspiracy,” said Bouzar. “They ask them ‘Which side are you on? Are you going to let people be massacred? Wake up?’ They make them reject the real world.”

Next, photos are sent of brutally killed babies, claiming they were murdered by Assad, and the girls are told to leave school and come and rescue them. They are also told their parents are not the “elect of God” and not to watch television any more. Eventually, the girls targeted are cut off from all their former bases of reference and come under the control of the recruiters, or “bearded prince charmings,” as Bouzar calls them. The mothers, Bouzar says, describe their daughters as having been “robotised.”

“When one analyses their telephones, one sees they receive 100 messages a day,” Bouzar told Le Figaro. “This starts at five o’clock in the morning. Sometimes, they don’t sleep anymore.”

Like Petalo, the girls eventually don the niqab or jilbab. Bouzar says the girls call it “my security blanket, my best friend, or my comforter and use it like a cocoon, in a form of regression.” She adds that, when deprogramming girls prevented from leaving France, the most difficult part is getting them to shed the Muslim dress.

“I counsel parents to search under the beds, since these clothes are the first signs of danger,” Bouzar warns.

Also included in the radicalisation process, the French anthropologist says, are promises of marriage. And this promise, Bouzar states, is acted on almost as soon as the girls arrive in the Islamic State. With marriage, a girl becomes her husband’s “inheritance,” living with three or four of his other wives in a house, polygamy apparently the norm. Her only job now is to look after the children under the supervision of a “boss” or older woman who monitors her telephone calls home.

“It’s all an organization,” said Bouzar. “When they are not married, they are herded together. One knows of a house where 17 girls are waiting for ‘distribution’. For some time now, it is worse, since they get them pregnant as soon as possible. They say they will be less tempted to flee, if they have a baby”

But, according to Bouzar, this tactic of quickly impregnating the girls in order to ground them in the Islamic State may sometimes backfire. She told Le Figaro that becoming pregnant is one of the three things that sometimes serve to shake girls out of their cult-like mindset.

“One notices that the moment the baby starts to move, they (the girls) once again have a normal voice on the telephone,” Bouzar says.

The parents’ repeated evoking of childhood memories can also lead to their daughters “de-programming themselves,” and to feeling and thinking again. The third factor that can lead to an awakening from the brainwashing, Bouzar says, concerns the girls having personally witnessed, or heard talk of, “the slitting of a Syrian Muslim’s throat.”

“They begin to cry and want to return (home),” Bouzar says. “It is at this moment that they speak of terrorists and realize the difference between the talk and the reality. But here, it is too late. In truth, no girl has yet succeeded in returning.”

Until ‘Aicha’.

It is not yet known what made the Dutch teenager reach out to her mother and call for help. Like Albert Speer, Hitler’s armaments minister and originator of the following quote, Petalo did not recognise “the devil when he is putting his hand on your shoulder.” Hopefully, she will be allowed to tell her story soon. Petalo’s testimony would serve as a valuable aid to parents and a powerful warning to other suggestible and vulnerable young people, opening their eyes to that hand. But if she is ever permitted, and desires, to help prevent such evil from hijacking other innocent lives, Petalo should always emphasize in her story how love saved hers.

*

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  • Bamaguje

    Was it worth the risk of being captured and beheaded for Monique Verbert to go chasing after her Jihadi daughter?

    “These are brilliant girls, who are getting ready to study medicine, political science or altruistic professions” – Dounia Bouza.

    I seriously doubt that. The fact that a kid does well in school doesn’t make him/her ‘brilliant’. No truly brilliant thinking person would be deceived by internet Jihadi brainwashing.

    “…80 percent were atheists with many coming from atheistic homes” – Le Figaro.

    Again, I doubt that. That a kid comes from an irreligious home does not make him/her atheist. Atheism is a rational dogma by thinking people. It is highly unlikely that a true atheist would end up in the most irrational of all religions – Islam!

    • FactsRule

      Obviously, it was worth it since she succeeded. It seems she realized the error of her ways, so all that has to be done is to watch her for enough time to determine without doubt that she’s back to normal.
      It seems to me that you’re not a mother. Otherwise, you wouldn’t ask if it’s worth it.
      School may not make someone good, but it can to some degree determine certain aspects of intelligence. What I don’t get is how this person could possibly compare medicine with political science.
      I couldn’t disagree with you more about atheism being rational.
      I agree that Islam is the most irrational, but also unique in that it’s so deeply, deeply evil.

    • Malcolm Smith

      I would dispute the last paragraph. Atheism may well be a rational dogma for some thinking people, but for a lot of people it is simply an emotional reaction against religion because of some bad experience with religion,or simply a method of avoiding religious moral values. There are just as many irrational atheists as there are irrational theists.
      But to cut to the chase. If the girls were raised in an atheist home, it simply meant that they had no religious guidance. Human beings have a certain religious need. With some people it is stronger than with others, and when a child grows up with no religious guidance, it makes her vulnerable to various charlatans. (Some, of course, end up pursuing secular religions, which promise utopia. You all know which ones I mean.)

    • Wibbins

      Atheism is the outright denial of God or any deity, rational people would be more close to agnostic in that they need more proof of God.

      • PAthena

        The Buddha (Siddartha Gautama) was at most an agnostic. He thought that whether there were gods or not was irrelevant to living the good life.

    • kiwi41

      As a devout aethist, that I can confirm !
      If I was younger with a suitable background , I’d apply to the Mossad.

    • http://islesofmyst.webs.com Raibeart MacIlleathain

      Atheism is a rational dogma by thinking people.

      Just ask them.

  • 12banjo

    Sigh. What if this hysteric is still in hijab? Does anyone know?

  • iluvisrael

    Non moslem girls and women who chase after moslem men have little or no self esteem. Occasionally they are attractive. More often they are overweight and homely and can hide under under a black tent.

  • Rosasolis

    Dear Stephen, thank you for providing this very informative article about the incredible struggle Monique Verbert went through to get her daughter back.
    This heroic story was covered for several days on all our radio/TV networks and
    made headlines in all our newspapers, in Netherlands. I hope that all these reports
    will convince many other young teeners to seek help if they are approached by
    Islamic believers to join in with the Jihad, or if they are considering “marriage”
    to one of these terrorists. The Netherlands government is very active in trying
    to prevent the Mosques from attracting more unemployed Islamic teener school
    drop-outs from joining up with the Jihad. Most Islamic girls here are married-off
    at a very young age to an older man, and then begin their life as a legalized slave to produce many children. An Islamic girl who has been free and able to devote her will and intelligence in achieving a good education, is an exception!
    Most Islamic girls, right here today in Netherlands, are being forced to give up
    any hopes of completing their studies, receiving their diplomas, and finding a
    good job! So that any girl who joins up with a jihadist has not been a devoted
    student! Since our government has ruled Islamic Terrorism, or supporting it, as illegal, Monique’s daughter is now awaiting her court trial.
    Several years ago I read the book; Not Without My Daughter, written by
    Betty Mahmoody, about her struggle to leave Iran with her little girl.
    The film about this nightmare is still being sent out on one of our TV senders
    at least once per year. Perhaps there should be a new film about the struggle
    Monique Verbert had gone through to save her daughter!

  • Infidel4Ever

    “These are brilliant girls, who are getting ready to study medicine, political science or altruistic professions…,”
    Brilliant? I don’t think so. The proof is in the pudding. Dumb as a rock is more like it. My apologies to any rocks who might be offended by being compared to those idiots.

    • notislam

      They must be very ‘needy’ GIRLS. They must be very willing to believe the ‘LIES’ of the terrorist too. In the book WHY WE LEFT ISLAM one fellow tells how he lied to get to the infidel and what ones would believe certain lies. He “woke up” when he realized how bad it was. ( he also felt guilt—and apologized to the different women)

  • hrwolfe

    Suffice it to say it would be better for Religious Training to begin as a child in the home then the child, as an adult, can find their own path but at least there is a foundation. Europe has nearly de-Christianized itself and things like this are poping up, perhaps the jump to Atheism has not turned out as desired. I always wonder what great Civilization did Atheists create in history or their myriad of accomplishments. Yet faith is continually maligned as irrelevant or superstitious yet overall it has a fairly positive track record. Faith in something greater than “self”, it’s a good thing.

    • mmcfm

      When there is an absence of faith, something will enter and fill the void. It will not always be a faith that preaches love, charity, humility, and dispassion. The violent, oppressive, and dishonest will be predatory upon the lambs who are without a structure for their spiritual character. As the European and American populations have rejected faith as a symptom of the weak-mindedness and neediness to which some must “cling”, our civilizations are crumbling through the purposeful re-definition and government-abetted destruction of the roles of men, women and families. The more people who are raised without structure, and are traumatized by being force-fed ‘correctness’ that rejects virtuous character and behavior, the more social chaos will develop. And then, Islam suddenly is sold as virtuous, ordered, and appeals to the essential character of both genders (women as birth-givers and nurturers, and men as providers and defenders) instead of the opposite. And people wonder why their children convert and are radicalized. They’ve raised them to grow up and make their own decision about faith, and they have.

      • hrwolfe

        Well said, now everybody get a clue and shout it from the roof tops.

  • Rosasolis

    Our country is called Netherlands, not The Netherlands. Our government
    has issued very strong laws against Islamitic terrorists, and also very
    strong laws against their supporters. Monique’s daughter is now is
    police custody, and she will be soon taken to court to face charges of
    supporting the IS group of terroists. Our government and police will not
    tolerate terrorism in this country…What is America doing against
    Islamic terrorism?

    • http://raycaruso.com Ray Caruso

      “Our country is called Netherlands, not The Netherlands.”

      You apparently haven’t noticed I’m writing in English, not Dutch.

      That aside, I’m glad she is in police custody, although I suspect her penalty will be a slap on the wrist.

      You’re right about one thing: under Obama, America is largely on the side of the terrorists.

      • Rosasolis

        Thanks for replying. In case you are interested, the
        official name is “Nederland”, but most English speaking
        people just say simply Netherlands. I hope that your 2
        Republican governments will show their strength against
        Obama. They should never allow the Islamists to take
        hold of your cities in America. It is obvious that
        Obama doesn’t care about you Americans and your
        identity. He has become a very dangerous leader,
        also for Europe, who only cares about himself!

  • Dan Knight

    “brilliant girls” … i.e. super-stupid.
    Sterlina is extremely fortunate to have not only a brave mother, but one capable and willing to rescue her daughter. Having failed as a parent the first time, she placed her life at risk to correct her mistakes. God Bless her. It’s not everyone who can or will jump that chasm.

    Previously indoctrinated to hate their neighbors and their own culture and traditions, the super-stupid find it easy to believe blatant lies, even Big Lies, by virtue of a process of filtering out reality and only believing in nonsense supporting their delusion. Their intelligence works against them creating a fog of disinformation and sophistry to wall off reality.

    Boys will fall for this too: If they’re the ‘hero’ of the narrative. In this case, the recruiters aren’t targeting smart boys for recruitment b/c those are the fellows they intend to cleanse if they get the chance. But it could easily be the other way round. Girls are only susceptible due to the long anti-female wind blowing for the last few decades into believing the agit-prop designed to lull them to sleep.

  • Atikva

    In a 19th century British play (unfortunately I can’ remember its title) the scientific sphere is disputing the nature of a newly discovered wild creature looking not quite like a man but not quite like an ape either. And while these learned gentlemen are endlessly exchanging philosophical, genetic and other scientific arguments about the nature of the new creature, the wife of one of them innocently solves the matter very simply. This wild creature is found wearing an amulet, so of course, she says, it’s a man. Because man alone questions his existence and purpose, and the amulet is one of the answers.

    Well, in our century, all the answers on which our ancestors built their Greco-Roman civilization baptized in the Jordan River have disappeared. Our children have nothing any more to lean on, no religion to provide them with an explanation, a purpose, a hope; no steady family structure to give them a sense of stability, balance and pride in themselves; no real education to teach them how to think for themselves and form a learned opinion to be honed, or modified, through experience. All they have got is unformulated & unanswered questions, governmental indoctrination and the devastating experience of witnessing the crumbling of family structure through professional and self-fulfillment, divorce and dispersion.

    Of course they are looking to replace these vanishing values that they don’t even know existed. Of course they are engulfed in oriental ideologies, hippy communes, predatory sects and now sucked up by the muslim trap to fill the void. It’s not given to everyone to accept the universe as an accidental and
    meaningless accident and himself as anything – that is to say: nothing – in it.

    There is going to be many more Sterlina Petalo and her male counterparts in the years to come, and unfortunately, not all of them will have mothers worthy of the name.

    • Bash Brannigan

      Well said.

      • Atikva

        Thank you.

  • CowboyUp

    “Details concerning how this was accomplished, however, are unknown, since Dutch authorities are remaining silent.” – That’s smart. It leaves that method of escape open to other women.