My Journey into the Heart of Terror: Ten Days in the Islamic State

My Journey into the Heart of Terror: Ten Days in the Islamic State is a 2015 memoir by the German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer.

Todenhöfer was the first western journalist to travel to the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS), alternatively known as ISIL, to find out the cause of the fighting in Iraq and Syria. Todenhöfer describes the experience he and his son went through during the journey in his memoir. Ten Days in the Islamic State consists of 10 chapters on ISIS's ideology and lifestyle. Todenhöfer refutes the description 'Islamic terrorism' and considers the acts of ISIS fighters as non-Islamic.

Author
Jürgen Todenhöfer is a German journalist, and a former judge and politician. In past years he had met with leaders of the Mujahedeen in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the Taliban and al-Qaeda. He also visited Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, several times in 2012.

Journey to ISIS self-proclaimed caliphate
In the summer of 2014 Todenhӧfer sent a message on Facebook to more than 80 German ISIS soldiers asking whether he could visit the ISIS fighting cadre. His goal was to understand the motivations of ISIS. On September 9, Abu Qatadah, a 31-year-old German and an important person in ISIS media, answered the message. They had Skype discussions for several months. Finally, Todenhӧfer received a document from the Caliphate guaranteeing his safety. In October 2014, Todenhӧfer was the first western journalist to travel to ISIS-controlled territory. He was accompanied by his filmmaker son, Frederic.

Todenhöfer wrote that he stayed with an ISIS soldier who was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle. The soldier told him that he was sure to return home alive because ISIS wanted to be accepted as a state, so he had the guarantee of safety from their leadership. In other words violation of the guarantee would mean violation of this state. Todenhӧfer spent most of his time in Mosul, Iraq but he could have visited ISIS-controlled cities in Syria such as Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.

Context
The author wrote the adventures from before, during and end of his journey in detail. Todenhöfer has been known as an honest and straight-shooting journalist among Westerners and Muslims alike. His report was not written from the perspective of European countries that previously had colonial interests in this region of the Middle-East. My Journey into the Heart of Terror: Ten Days in the Islamic State consists of 10 chapters:


 * 1) Birth of the "Islamic State"
 * 2) How close can we get
 * 3) Conversation with jihadist
 * 4) Things get serious
 * 5) Planning a journey into the heart of terror
 * 6) Entering the nightmare
 * 7) Ten days inside the Islamic State
 * 8) A chilling thought
 * 9) An open letter to the Caliph of the "Islamic State" and his foreign fighters
 * 10) Warning to the West