"I loved my son, that smiling child will live forever in me. The terrorist who has become, instead, I hope will burn in hell for the crimes he has committed ". A harrowing documentary that will be broadcast next Thursday, on Channel 4, entitled "My son the jihadist", the story of a boy known as the "White Beast" for the atrocities committed in Kenya and Somalia in the name of Islamic fundamentalism.
The "White Beast" was killed last June during a raid by Kenyan troops (supported by British special forces).
"When he headed to Somalia, in the 2011, in my heart I knew something terrible was about to happen."
Thomas Evans known as Abdul Hakim, four years ago consecrated himself to the Al-Shabaab terrorist group (the "Youth", a word originating from the Arab al-Shabāb, The Youth), operating in Somalia.
The way in which the Al-Shabaab group is accessed is curious: future terrorists must first pass a basic six-week course before being sent for advanced training in guerrilla and explosive tactics in one of the many training camps (financed by pirates Somali) in Eritrea.
"I am grieving the loss of my son Thomas, but not for Hakim". According to the woman's story, a former teacher of 57 years, the young man's first steps towards fundamentalism began in a gymnasium in High Wycombe, in the county of Buckinghamshire. A charming town that would have become infamous for having become a recruiting center for al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants. Still tells the mother of the white beast.
"Thomas had a bad time right after he was left by his girlfriend. He came out devastated by that breakup. He started attending some Muslim sessions that took place in a gym near our house. This was probably the beginning of his conversion to the Islam".
The woman talks about the need of the then 19enne to look for something. "Maybe I gave him too much freedom, but I was just growing Thomas and his brother. I allowed him to smoke and drink in the garage, even to get interested in heavy metal. I thought it was a period of transition. In reality the transformation from a teenager into a fervent Muslim was rapid ".
The boy started throwing the food forbidden by Islam. "He always told me there was a smell of pork in the house. When at Christmas we made the tree at home, a moment that has always united us, he didn't come to sleep for days. He returned only after we removed the tree. When he began to be obsessed with prayer, we rarely saw him ”. The boy shared his day between the gym and the mosque. "I thought religion could help him and I encouraged him to believe in his fervor, wrongly."
Thomas also began attending the Muslim Education Center in the city, the same one that also hosted one of the British terrorists convicted of the failed 2006 bombing on airliners. In 2011 the former electrician Thomas, who had severed ties with most of his old friends, told his mother that he wanted to go to an Islamic country, claiming he wanted to marry a girl who lived in Kenya. In reality it was just an excuse to be reunited with the al-Shabaab group linked to al-Qaeda.
First stopped by British anti-terrorism, it reached Somalia in January of the 2012. Three years of hell begin for the woman, with very few details on her son's real life until one day, anti-terrorism knocked on his door with photos and videos.
"My son was walking in Kenya beheading the Christians, setting fire to their churches. They called him the White Beast. "
