The story of Islam Yaken , the Story of good middle class boys gone bad everywhere

And the Egyptian social media universe has nothing to speak about except Islam Yaken , Egypt's latest Social media star.

 Mr. Islam Yaken is 23 years young man who comes from a Middle Class family in Cairo and he is currently in Iraq after joining ISIS. He keeps us updated about his adventures in the neo-caliphate on twitter.

Islam Yaken joined the ISIS in Syria and now he is in Iraq taking photos with swords and chopped heads and posting them on Twitter and Instagram making him a Hipster ISIS fighter.

On twitter He tells us that the ISIS will come to Cairo. He says that he joined the ISIS from two years ago to fight in Syria and that he was not a member in the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Nour Party which he considered as infidel institutions. He says that he is doing what the Muslims were doing from 14 centuries.

He is not the first Egyptian to join radical Jihadist groups but his background makes so interesting in the eyes of many especially from his social class.

Islam was educated at Lycée la Liberté Héliopolis and studied law at Ain Shams University. I think he is the most famous graduate from Lycée la Liberté Héliopolis.

In his school "Facebook" 

He used to be an instructor at some gym where he used to post photos showing off his abs.

In his gym days 

Yaken closed his Facebook page or may be it was reported but those who dig info about him " I mean the word" said that this young voted in 2012 presidential elections for Khaled Ali "Extreme left" and then voted for Morsi in the runoffs then allegedly he joined Al Nour party.
Then In 2013 allegedly he left Egypt to Syria joining the ISIS where he took funky photos.

Nevertheless there are other traces of Yaken online showing the before and after changes. Here is his profile in the VK European social network where he showed off his abs and had European girls contact.
Taking graphic photographs of his abs and then with beheads persons or rather of heads and bragging about taking over a house online shows that we are not dealing with a stable personality in the first place.

Now what amazes me is not the transformation of Islam Yaken as much as the shock many Egyptians from the Middle and Upper class showed online on how a young man like Islam who had everything from their point of view went to the dark side. With my all due respect young men as well young women from the middle and upper classes go to the dark side all the time.

Aside from the horrifying stories of murderers from the Middle and Upper classes from Egypt and all over the world , can people just remember that the current leader of Al Qaeda is Dr. Ayman El-Zawahary who comes from a rich family , lived and was educated in the Upper class area of Maadi !?

For God’s sake the founder of Al Qaeda Osama Bin Laden used to spent summer in Europe every year when he was a young man !!

I feel that there is a stereotyping here that only the poor join those groups. Well poverty and ignorance play a role in recruiting and brainwashing young people in to radical groups but the rich and middle class good boys also fall from the tree and they join radical groups and cults committing crimes against humanity.

We saw many examples in the ISIS especially those Europeans joining them.In fact we saw many examples in radical groups and cults all over the globe. I do not know why I suddenly remember  Leslie Van Hounten in Manson's family.

Of course one must wonder on why a man like Yaken joined the ISIS but we should not act that it did not happen before or it won’t happen again.

When I look back to Islam besides of course seeing a trouble brainwashed person , I see social and political problems besides religious fanaticism. For decades we tried the security solution to combat religious radicalism and we failed.

The security solution is the easiest. We fear to tackle the social , cultural , political and economic aspects of that radicalism problem in general because we know it will be much harder than security solution. We fear to admit our failure as simple as that.