On Tuesday, in issue 13 of its online magazine Dabiq, ISIS confirmed the death of Mohammed Emwazi (a.k.a “Jihad John”), the group’s notorious British-accented, ninja-suited, knife-wielding executioner in HD—and poster boy of the jihadist jet set. This isn’t exactly news: Emwazi’s death was widely reported last November, after the Pentagon announced that it had targeted him in an air strike in Raqqa, Syria on November 12. “It’s still a little early, but we are reasonably certain we killed the target that we intended to kill, which is Jihadi John,” said Colonel Steve Warren.
In a section of the magazine titled, “The Best Shuhadā [martys]” Emwazi, who is referred to as Abū Muhārib al-Muhājir, is eulogized as an “honorable brother.” His exploits on the battlefield, his resourcefulness in escaping the attentions of the “much-overrated MI5 British intelligence agency” and making it to Shām (Syria), his generosity (apparently, after receiving a sabiyyah, or sex slave, as a gift, “he did not hesitate to give her away—likewise as a gift—to an unmarried injured brother”), his fierce piety (it’s reported that on one occasion, back in “the lands of Kufr,” he nearly decked a “pro-Saudi Salafi” scholar who had spoken ill of the sisters in Palestine), and his “harshness towards the kuffar [non-believers]” are all fulsomely praised.