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Johan Leman, 29 September 2021

Under the pseudonym Etty Mansour, a young French author (lady) published “Convoyeur de la Mort” (Paris: Equateurs Littérature, August 2021, 569 p.) after 5 years of research. Relying on conversations, especially with Salah Abdeslam’s former fiancée and with a former teacher friend of his, Etty Mansour, a young woman, seeks to understand what prompted Salah Abdeslam to take part in the jihadist massacre in Paris in late 2015. From the book emerges an immature young man who was mainly influenced by Abdelhamid Abaaoud and by Salah’s brother, Brahim. The names of the witnesses used in the book, including the fiancée (in the book: Nour) and his former friend-teacher, are pseudonyms, which is understandable. In interpreting what one learns from the book, one is of course supposed to assume that the author is quoting all these people correctly.

Some facts:

Salah gets engaged to Nour in April 2010. (p. 87)

However, in 2011 he has to go to prison for a month. “Salah a été licencié de la STIB en 2011 pour absences injustifiées. Il était alors en prison suite au braquage d’un garage automobile avec Abdelhamid Abaaoud . » (p. 65) Unique mention to his judicial case relevée au jour des attentats.  There are 4 years between this “braquage” and the attacks in Paris. However, there is a short stay of 28 days in prison. Abaaoud was there longer.

Following that prison and Salah’s unemployment, Nour’s parents did not want Salah and Nour to get married. However, Nour and Salah remain in love with each other. But the resistance of Nour’s parents increases rather than decreases over the years.

After several chapters and conversations, Etty Mansour concludes in a chapter entitled “Dualité”: Who is Salah in real life?

“Terroriste islamiste et danseur le samedi soir au Carré, la boîte de Willebroek, avec sa piste de danse à étages. Terroriste et cambrioleur raté d’un garage automobile. (…) Terroriste empli de haine pour la France, ayant pourtant des ancêtres rifains d’Algérie considérés comme les suppôts des colons français. Terroriste habillé comme un collégien anglais. (…) Terroriste et chômeur à la suite de son passage en prison. ” At the same time, Salah realises that he will not be able to marry his beloved, “princesse qu’il admire pour sa beauté… et qu’il trompe régulièrement.” I am short. The book is more than 500 pages long. But at the end, one still asks the question: is it conceivable that Salah is so lucid and correct, that more than 5 years after the facts he will and even can give a correct version of what exactly moved him to commit the attacks? Can such a testimony be anything else than a stand that the IS-ideology creates for itself (via fellow-companions in prison) in order to broadcast its perverse ideology unambiguously via such an internally confused mind?

And I am really not writing this to plead for extenuating circumstances. The facts have been far too bad and far too unacceptable for that. But those who say that this will be a stand for IS ideology and not for understanding Salah, may well be right.

On October 25, we’ll bring you a podcast at the site of Museum MMM with the author of Convoyeur de la Mort, thus with Etty Mansour.

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