Muhammad ِAbdullah Husein Ali al-Attar al-Obeidi

Muhammad ِAbdllah Husein Ali al-Attar al-Obeidi is a former university teaching fellow and holds a PhD in Islamic political jurisprudence. He currently runs a business selling perfume.

Muhammad refused to collaborate with ISIS before they took control of the city. When he refused a request to collaborate a second time, ISIS arrested him and transferred him to the Ahdath Prison. He was detained on June 10, 2014, in the month of Ramadan. As he puts it, ISIS members quietly took him, and he was treated well.

On the third day of his detention, he was summoned to the investigation room. He recognized the judge interrogating him by his voice — it was Bashar al-Sumeidai, the Salafist preacher of the Sayyida Aisha Mosque in the Wahda neighborhood. Muhammad elaborates that he had fallen out with al-Sumeidai over a book he had written on Islamic jurisprudence. 

Muhammad describes the group cell where he was held. Conditions were so cramped that at times up to 166 prisoners were detained there. He says the charges brought against these prisoners varied, but most often they concerned affiliations with the Iraqi security forces. The prisoners came from various backgrounds, yet their shared fate meant they got on well with each other.

Muhammad recounts that jailers would interrogate prisoners during the day and torture them in the evening. While some jailers were natives of Mosul, others originated from the Arabian Peninsula or Libya. The non-Iraqi jailers inflicted the cruelest treatment on prisoners.

The ‘Death Squad’ would come after midnight. Whoever was taken by this squad was executed at Khasfa, a mass grave located south of Mosul.

Muhammad says the prisoners received three meals a day. Breakfast was a piece of bread with either lentil soup, yogurt, or a boiled or fried egg. Lunch and dinner consisted of rice or bulgur, alongside a broth of potato, zucchini, chickpeas, or dried beans. 

Each inmate received a blanket and a mattress, but no pillow. Health care was minimal. A nurse would visit every other day, attend those who had requested medical attention, check on the elderly, and prescribe simple medication. There were four toilets available, where prisoners also washed in cold water. Muhammad says that cleaning products were available, and the prisoners cleaned the cell themselves.

Muhammad recounts how he was summoned five times for interrogation in June, 2014. ISIS requested his opinions about religious issues and about their rivals. His answers, Muhammad says, were always concise and plain. He knew that if he were to go into detail, the interrogators would use his words against him. He recalls how they summoned him for interrogation when he cried because they had bombed the shrine of the Prophet Yunus. He was placed in a solitary cell for 24 hours following that incident. 

Muhammad was physically tortured as well as psychologically tormented. He describes being fastened to a concrete chair before being given electric shocks on sensitive areas of his body. In the same room, he witnessed two people suspended on a wall, one upside down. Eventually, he lost consciousness. When he woke up, he found himself back in the group cell. He had severe pain throughout his body and was unable to move. The jailers prevented anyone from helping him.

Muhammad goes on to say that, three days later, he was summoned again for interrogation. This time, the judge sentenced him to be executed on June 16, 2014 and ordered him to be taken to a solitary cell. Muhammad was dressed in an orange execution suit. He devoted himself to prayer for two nights. On the third day, what he calls a miracle occurred: close to dawn, a war plane struck the prison. It hit and destroyed a group cell, killing 96 prisoners and six ISIS members. Muhammad’s solitary cell was filled with dust, but he emerged unharmed. And his execution was canceled by the events.

ISIS moved the surviving prisoners to the Qaimaqamiyaiya Prison, then ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi issued an amnesty for prisoners affected by the airstrikes. As a result, Muhammad was retried, transferred between several prisons, and then released after signing a pledge not to leave Mosul, and to regularly prove his presence in the city to ISIS.

Muhammad says that it took him six months to overcome the psychological effects of his experiences. He suffered from anxiety and memory loss. He adds that the physical effects of his detention are still with him, and that he is undergoing treatment to help repair his reproductive system.

Muhammad believes there were some positive results of his experience with ISIS. He says it led him to have more compassion for people. As a result, he now has a deeper understanding of his relationships with others – and with God.