El Shafee Elsheikh
El Shafee Elsheikh, who grew up in the United Kingdom, was part of the group referred to as 'The Beatles' in British tabloids by surviving captives because of their English accents. Elsheikh was captured in eastern Syria in January by the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
The group held more than 20 Western hostages - and beheaded several American, British and Japanese journalists and aid workers and a group of Syrian soldiers, boasting in brutal videos released online.
Elsheikh said he did not approve of the videos and should not be held accountable for what other members of his group did.
"Just because I was part of ISIS doesn't mean I know whether people had legal, fair trials or not, I am just as in the dark as you about that," he said about those who were executed on camera. "I personally don't like to watch them it is not something I enjoy... I didn't cut anybody's head off."
"I didn't burn anybody, nor did I give anybody a trial and nor did I chop anybody's head off so that's an accusation that needs to be proved," he said before abruptly ending the interview.
In the second part, he says life in Raqqa was "like life anywhere else in the world, you do normal stuff... Go to the gym, eat in restaurants, play in the park with your kids."
He said he left Britain and went to Syria because life in the West is degenerate and corrupt, adding: "Every environment has corruption, but nothing beats the West."
"I wasn't always a Muslim in the UK," he said. "I wasn't always a practicing Muslim, so when I started to practice Islam, you automatically realize there is an obligation upon you in light of other Muslims in the world. They don't have the privilege of growing up in the West, never needing as much. You feel an obligation to do something for people who are oppressed. And in 2009 - 2011 there was no place that needed more help than Syria."
"Syrians want to go to Europe because they don't know the realities of Europe. They don't understand that people who come from Europe to the countryside of Aleppo or Idlib, they are jealous of the life they live. They're self-sufficient, they keep close to their families, there is not as much evil and corruption in their societies. But they look at buildings and opportunities and money and they want to go over there, and they end up breaking ties with their families, learning corruption, moving in the opposite direction."
"People [in the middle east] want to go [to Europe] because they don't know the realities of living in that corrupt environment... I didn't contact anybody, I just knew some people who were already here, arranged with them, and I came."
Comment: Ok, so let's see if we've got this straight.
You went over there to save people who were being oppressed... Then when you got there you realized they had a better life than you have in Europe, where you were 'oppressed by corruption'... So your advice to Muslims in the Middle East is to not go to Europe or you'll be corrupted.
So why the heck did you stay there destabilizing a stable situation that led to millions more Muslims going to Europe where they'd become corrupted by the West??