"ONE RACE TO YOUR CALIPHATE: THE RISE OF ISLAMIST EXTREMISM ''Islamic Disneyland'' Muneera told Leila that living in the ISIS caliphate would be like something she referred to as an ''Islamic Disneyland''.1 Leila, a Muslim woman in her thirties, had been assigned to be Muneera''s intervention provider under the UK Government''s counter-terrorism programme. Her role was to provide support to individuals at risk of joining ISIS and travelling to Syria. Her charge, Muneera (whose name we have changed), was just thirteen years old. The teenager was a third-generation British Muslim, born and raised in the UK. Her family was originally from Pakistan but had now settled in Birmingham, Britain''s second city. Her father was a mechanic in his forties, while her thirty-something mother stayed at home with the younger siblings. There was no adolescent rebelliousness with Muneera.

She was very close and loving to her parents. Leila describes Muneera''s home set-up as that of a regular British Asian family. Muneera was home-schooled but had friends in the neighbourhood and was not shy or introverted. In early 2015 her mother had become acutely ill during a sixth pregnancy and the teenager, left to her own devices, retreated to her bedroom to spend a growing amount of time online. One evening she had watched a TV news report on ISIS and logged on to her new mobile phone to find out more about this so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq. She began asking questions on Twitter and was excited when responses began to appear along the lines of ''saw your tweet, tell you more about it''. A support network of seemingly like-minded people from all over the world swarmed round her on social media, telling Muneera not to trust the official media and the lies they spread about ISIS. Other girls chatted about how they were thinking of going to Syria and the great life that awaited them.

Bit by bit, Muneera formed a very strong friendship triangle with a fifteen-year-old girl in Wembley and a fourteen-year-old boy in Blackburn. Leila notes that they became ''really weirdly close'': This was a fast-track radicalisation happening in just a matter of weeks. The fourteen-year-old in Blackburn turned out to be a remarkably hardened terrorist operator. From his suburban bedroom in north-west England he was already plotting a massacre of army veterans at the 2015 Anzac Day parade in Australia.2 When his case eventually went to court, the boy would be the youngest Briton to be found guilty of a terrorist offence. It was later revealed that he had displayed an early taste for ultra-violence. His own classmates dubbed him ''the terrorist'' because of his stated wish to behead his own teachers.3 Incredibly, across thousands of miles, this boy was already radicalising an eighteen-year-old in Melbourne through an encrypted Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

VOIP allows the user to send voice information over the internet instead of the telephone. His radicalisation target, Sevdet Besim, aged eighteen, was an ethnic Albanian teenager from Macedonia who had emigrated to Australia with his family. A seasoned Australian ISIS fighter called Abu Khalid al-Cambodi, given this name on account of his family''s Cambodian roots, had drawn Besim and his friends towards ISIS.4 Al-Cambodi''s former name was Neil Prakash; 5 he was one of the top international ISIS recruiters up until his death in a US military airstrike in early 2016.6 His online tactic was to work through various Twitter accounts, find people like Muneera or the Blackburn boy then direct them to his private messaging account for one-on-one discussions.7 In the Blackburn boy, he had found a very willing disciple. In court, the transcript of the youngster from Blackburn''s conversations was made public. They made for grim reading.

It became clear that he had transitioned with remarkable ease from experiencing raw grievance to embracing an ultra-violent Islamist ideology: Blackburn Boy: Ok now listen. Im going to tell you what you are. Mr Besim: Whats that Boy: You are a lone wolf, a wolf that begs Allah for forgiveness a wolf that doesn''t fear blame of the blamers. I''m I right? Mr Besim: Pretty much. Boy: Mashalla [what God wills]. Mr Besim: I''m ready to fight these dogs on there doorstep. The more equipment im provided with the better but ill still go with just a knife in my hand. I want to be among those that allah laughs at.

Boy: So listen akhi [my brother]. I want you to do this on your own. Just you no one else. Mr Besim: ok. Boy: Im here for any advice anything you may need to know that im here, I''ll plan something in sha allah [God willing]. Also you will have to make a video and snd it to abu kambozz to snd to al hayat [a media arm of Islamic State].8 The Blackburn youth had immersed himself in online extremist material, citing Osama bin Laden as a hero. The young terrorist became an ISIS celebrity ''fanboy'', gaining 24,000 followers within two weeks of setting up a Twitter account.

9 Not only was he sending thousands of online messages to Besim down in Melbourne but he was also tweeting and messaging Muneera in Birmingham and her new friend in Wembley. In no time both girls were desperate to leave for ISIS. When this precocious young jihadist was eventually put on trial, Mr Justice Saunders who sentenced him described how chilling it was that someone who was only fourteen years old at the time could have become ''so radicalised that he was prepared to carry out this role intending and wishing that people should die''.10 Muneera and the girl in Wembley were increasingly enthusiastic to pack their bags and go to Syria. Leila says that Muneera told her the Blackburn boy was much more hesitant about leaving the UK, saying they should wait or take their time. In contrast, the Wembley girl was ''100 per cent committed to ISIS'' and determined to get to Syria as quickly as possible.