You are a Danish foreign fighter. Your Muslim parents fled Sarajevo during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, before you were born. They did not encourage you to learn Bosnian, so your second language after Danish is English. Even so, your inability to assimilate left you bitter and resentful.
Graffiti has always provided an outlet, but increasingly violent Islamic radicalism
provided a place where you felt you belonged, and a source of meaning and structure. Social media introduced you to a world of righteous warriors fighting against genocide by the West.
You turned up in Mosul with no combat skills, and little understanding of the
conflicts in Syria and Iraq, but ISIL assigned you to Al-Hisbah, the religious police. This quickly made you feel that most foreign fighters are not trusted to do anything important. The Islamic State is just like your parents in that regard.

You are on today’s mission because you worked as a construction worker in Copenhagen and know how to handle the backhoe. You’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that you’d rather be in combat. Unfortunately, you have never seen combat. You secretly worry that you might be in for an eye-opening surprise, unless you get your eyes closed permanently first.
As resentful as you are about being placed on “hall monitor duty,” you are glad to
have met Timur Alimsultanov. Unlike other officials, Timur isn’t condescending. He fought in Bosnia and remembered your parents’ village, or at least its ruins. He has been taking the time to teach you how to make and use explosives. Timur treats you like an adult, and you worship him for it.

You are an ISIL foreign fighter, short on combat skills but long on being foreign. You have only recently arrived in ISIL. Your first duties were with Al-Hisbah, the religious police. You handed out fines for violations of ISIL’s massive list of proscribed acts, from smoking to inadequate beard length to allowing female family members out without escorts. You had to administer beatings to repeat offenders. Worse offenses were given the death penalty. That wasn’t on you, of course, but more experienced fighters.
You know enough to be wary of everyone around you. Anonymous denouncements can easily lead to imprisonment, torture, and execution without ever knowing the charge or your accusers.