The few worshippers who were in the mosque suspiciously eyed the tall blond man, and when he asked in English to see Sheik Khalil he was ignored and no one responded. Ollie switched to Arabic and that only increased their distrust as they had all encountered ISA agents who spoke the language. So Ollie got down on his knees and prayed — an act they had also seen done by ISA agents posing as true believers. Ollie tried to restrain himself but under his breath he let out a scandalous curse in Iraqi accented Arabic and only then did one of people in the mosque get up and tell Ollie to follow him. The man led Ollie to a house that was right next to the mosque, told Ollie to wait outside and entered the house after knocking five times on the door. He reappeared after a couple of minutes and invited Ollie to enter. He escorted Ollie into the living room where a young man was sitting at a bare table sipping dark black coffee from a small decorative glass. The young man introduced himself as Sheik Khalil, the sheik of the Umm al-Fahm mosque and head of the radical (he used the word "true") Islamic movement in the north. Ollie stated that he brought a message from the brave brethren in Syria and clearly pronounced the code words "al Tahrir al Islami". Sheik Khalil asked Ollie's escort to leave the room, invited Ollie to sit down and offered him coffee which Ollie gratefully accepted.
Sheik Khalil asked about the holy warriors of ISIS and Ollie told him that despite the fact that many good brothers had been killed fighting for the cause of the new Caliphate many volunteers flocked to the organization to fill the place of those lost in battle. Ollie said that the new Supreme Commander Abu-Alli was especially pleased with the young men and women who came from Western European countries who had come to receive military training, ideological indoctrination and religious fervor and experience fighting for ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Those who survived and excelled in their work for Allah would then return to their home countries and either act on their own instilling terror in the hearts of the Kafirs or lay low until called upon to carry out special operations. He mentioned as examples the acts that were carried out by El Qaida trained fighters in Madrid, London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen and the United States and said that in the future each of these would be regarded as a promo for the real thing — the globally coordinated actions carried out on behalf of ISIS. Sheik Khalil was duly impressed but asked what ISIS was doing to forward the cause of the Palestinians and Ollie explained that the Palestinian were just the tip of the iceberg and there was a plan for an operation on such an immense scale that would free all Muslims, including the Palestinians, from the infidels forever. Those that accepted the true faith would be allowed to live and those who refused would be summarily eliminated.
Finally they got round to the matter at hand. Ollie told Sheik Khalil he needed his assistance in getting to Tulkarm and transporting a container to a safe place in which he could prepare the device lying in it for operation. When Khalil asked about the nature of the device Ollie told him that it was a device that will disperse deadly radiation among the Jews. He knew that if he told Sheik Khalil about its true intended target in Jerusalem and that the objective included total destruction the mosques on Temple Mount then the sheik would perhaps refuse to help. He also told Sheik Khalil that he would need a pick-up truck capable of travelling through narrow streets and of carrying a weight of several hundred kilograms. The sheik said that the second part was not a problem as trucks of this sort were available from Arab supporters. However, when Ollie said that the truck would probably be destroyed by the bomb the sheik said that they could easily steal a truck from a Jewish settlement. Sheik Khalil invited Ollie to stay at his house for the night while he made the necessary arrangements to fulfill Ollie's requests.
The ISA agents that had been following Ollie had no trouble locating the taxi driver as soon as he left Umm al-Fahm and bringing him to one of their safe houses for questioning. It didn't take long for the driver to admit that he had dropped Ollie off at the central mosque. The agents already knew this as the homing device led them there but as they were reluctant to wonder around the hostile village they did not approach the mosque itself. They asked the driver what Ollie had said about the purpose of his trip and what they talked about and the driver truthfully said that they had not talked at all and when they departed Ollie gave him a nice tip. The chief interrogator did not believe him but after deploying some more pressure and persuasive measures with no results he was finally convinced that the driver knew no more than he had already admitted.
The increasing number of terrorist attacks in major Europeans cities had become the focal point of all intelligence agencies and police forces. Although the violent acts did not seem to be coordinated by a central command they did have one thing in common: they were all carried out by Muslims. A closer scrutiny showed that the perpetrators were almost always young men or women who had returned to their home countries after fighting for ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Some of them came from Muslim families and were second or third generation residents in Europe while others were fresh converts to Islam. The attacks included planting bombs in crowded areas, especially in public transportation stations, buses and trains, suicide bombings by single or multiple young men and women, shooting of policemen, soldiers, innocent civilians and school kids and random acts of gang violence. They specially targeted newspapers that published derogatory cartoons, photos or articles about the prophet Mohammad or Islam in general. In addition, several acts were aimed at Jewish schools, stores, people and synagogues. These were the acts of a small minority of Muslims but reflected on the whole community. One of the cynical politicians said "Not all Muslims are terrorists but almost all terrorists are Muslims" and this was a good enough excuse for the nationalist movements in these countries to increase their harassment of Muslims and all other immigrants. Street riots broke out between the two groups, and as usual, the victims were mainly the innocent bystanders who were unfortunate enough to be in the area.
The authorities were helplessly trying to break up the riots, separating the gangs of violent European racists from the no-less violent Muslim youths. The police in the democratic countries had their hands tied by the courts and the frustrated law enforcement personnel often had an itchy trigger finger that resulted in the shooting of rioters from both sides. Very few police officers were ever prosecuted, even fewer were convicted, because witnesses seemed to disappear and the number of people who saw nothing, heard nothing and remembered nothing increased dramatically when they were summoned to testify. Such chaos in the streets was helping the racist parties, or using the euphemistic term "nationalist movements", thrive and prosper. Everyone knew that the next election in any country that had a sizable Muslim minority, such as France, Sweden, the UK, Germany, Holland or Belgium, would see a rise in the power of these extremists. There was a very real fear that all this could be the beginning of the end of democracy in Europe. The barrel of dynamite was ready, the fuse was inserted inside the dynamite and the match needed to ignite the fuse was already out of the box and ready to strike it. On this very day Ollie held the ultimate match in his hand and was within inches of striking it against a rough surface to ignite it.
Chapter 14