You are a Dutch foreign fighter. Your native language is Dutch. Your life in the
Netherlands was mind-numbingly boring. Nothing important ever happened. Your own life promised to be as safe, bland, and irrelevant as those of your parents and older siblings. Their watered-down Islam may as well have been atheism.
Helping to build the Caliphate was the first thing to promise a life of real meaning. A chance to make a difference. A chance to make history. It would be a fight, and you would be surrounded by enemies, but you would stand with people who believed.
After a few weeks with Al-Hisbah, the religious police, the Caliphate put you to
work as a vehicle mechanic, since your inability to understand Arabic proved a far deeper liability than you expected. Luckily, you had some experience with computers and social media. You finally got assigned to work with Arshad and Gökhan making documentaries and recruitment videos for Dabiq, ISIL’s online magazine. That gig has been going on for about three months now.

You have begun to get a bit queasy about all the “inventive” public executions you have to document. You are beginning to worry that you are on the wrong side of the history that you are making. But you have no idea how you could get out. And the consequences of desertion? Well, you’ve seen those.

You help Arshad and Gökhan and say snide things behind Gökhan’s back.

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.