The issue of young Muslims traveling from Europe to countries such as Syria and Somalia to fight with Islamic rebels is a highly topical one, making this story of a Danish-Somalian boy even more relevant. His back turned to the camera as he looks out over a nondescript housing development in Copenhagen, “The Shadow” describes how he fell victim to recruiters from the militant Somalian rebel group al-Shabaab. He outlines the conditions that make boys such as him susceptible to the lure of the “holy war,” explaining that, “Nothing in my life made any sense.” So eloquent is he in his account that one might think it was scripted, but what happened to him is as real as the scenes from a suicide attack by one of his former friends.

Warriors from the North

Mohammed was just three years old when he was sent away from Somalia without his parents to a better life in England. As a teenager in London he got involved in crime and ended up in prison where he became radicalised. As a 19-year-old he was extradited to Somalia, where he landed straight in the arms of the terrorist organisation Al-Shabab. But when Mohammed finds out that Al-Shabab is not a liberation movement, but kills innocent people, he decides to flee.