How do you go from a farm in Kansas to leading an Islamic State women’s battalion? The radicalization of the American Allison Fluke-Ekren, caught up by the justice of her country after years within the jihadist organization, remains largely unexplained.
This 42-year-old mother, recently transferred from Syria, appeared before a federal judge in Alexandria, near Washington, on Thursday, where she is accused of having provided “material support to a terrorist enterprise”.
Her hair covered with a black veil, she did not speak during this short hearing which, coincidentally, was held a few hours after the death of the leader of the IS, Abu Ibrahim al-Hachimi al- Qurachi, during an American raid in Syria.
Without going into the details of the case, the magistrate ordered his continued detention.
Concretely, American justice accuses this former teacher of having, between 2014 and 2017, fomented plans for attacks against the United States, led a unit of women trained in combat and provided various “services”, in particular translation to the IS.
Asked to place her on a scale of radicalization ranging from one to ten, a person who knew her at that time felt that she “stepped out of the grid” and deserved an “11 or 12”, according to documents released to the procedure.
Another saw him training children in the use of AK-47 assault rifles or explosive belts. His own son, aged 5 or 6, was seen with a submachine gun in his hand.
Nothing, however, seemed to destine her for such a course.
– Pyramids –
Born Allison Brooks, she grew up on a farm in Kansas, in the central United States. A good student, she developed a passion for science and photography. Married in a Methodist church in the late 1990s, she became Mrs. Fluke and had two children before divorcing.
She soon remarried to a man named Volkan Ekren, about whom little information exists.
In 2004, she testified in an article devoted to home schooling and posed with a Muslim headscarf. She explains that she took her son and daughter out of the school system because she was disappointed with their results and wanted to teach them Arabic.
In 2008, the family moved to Egypt. On her blog, Allison Fluke-Ekren chronicles her life as a teacher, their visits to the pyramids, the birth of a new boy… Her last publications date from 2010.
A former friend, identified only by her name Farouk, explained on the ABC channel that she had noticed her radicalization during this stay.
Disturbed by the impact of the Arab Spring and the refugee crisis, the American “was very supportive of the Islamic State which she said was doing good things to help women and children”.
– Cheffe de constitution –
In 2011, Allison Fluke-Ekren left for Libya with her husband and children. They joined Syria around 2012 because, according to a witness quoted in the indictment, “she wants to engage in jihad”.
From 2014, it completely changed.
Her husband became a sniper for IS. With a knowledge of weapons, acquired on her parents’ farm, she is responsible for training other wives of fighters in the basics of AK-47s and grenades.
To “revenge” children killed in a bombing, she proposes to organize an attack in an American university and boasts, in front of witnesses, of having obtained a promise of financing from the leaders of the IS. Pregnant, she gives up this project.
A little later, she foments a new plan: to attack a shopping center in the United States. This time, her husband dissuades her from taking action.
In 2016, he died in a bombing and, a few months later, she remarried another IS fighter, a Bangladeshi specialist in drone attacks. After his death, she married another member of the group, in charge of the defense of Raqa, according to the indictment.
At the same time, “Oum Mohammed el Amikiri” – her nom de guerre – took the lead of the “Katiba Nussaïba”, a battalion of women ready to support their husbands in the field.
His journey after the fall of the caliphate in 2017 is not known, nor the conditions of his arrest or the fate of his children.
On her return, the older, major, and her parents asked that she not contact them.