last updated: Oct. 02, 2021

FREE

  • Full name: Jean-Louis Denis
  • Pseudonym: Jean-Louis le Soumis
  • Alternatives: N/a
  • Location: Belgium
  • Affiliation: Jean-Louis Denis Network [JLDN]

Jean-Louis Denis (°ca 1973) is a Belgian convert to Islam from Brussels. He quickly turned to radical Salafism.1 By 2008, Denis had begun to preach and started to attract a small following.2 He agitated against democracy and incited hatred against non-Muslims.3 His sermons were regularly posted on social media.4 Belgian police began surveying Denis in 2009.5

By the early 2010s, Denis had taken an interest in Islamist militancy. He developed close ties to Khalid Zerkani and his associates. Denis reportedly participated in meetings of Zerkani’s network in which jihadi operations were discussed.6 At the same time, he began to create enthusiasm for jihad among his followers.7 In 2012, Denis came into contact with the Antwerp-based Shari’a for Belgium Movement [Sh4B].8 In the spring of 2012, he and his followers reinforced Sh4B during protest by Islamists in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek.9

In September 2012, Denis and his wife founded the Resto du Tawhid charitable organization.10 The charity distributed food to needy Muslims in northern Brussels.11 At the distributions, Denis and his associates spread their rigorous Salafi worldview and encouraged taking up jihad.12 Between 2012 and 2013, a significant number of his supporters began traveling to Syria and link up with jihadis fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Denis was blamed for the recruitment of several high school students from the Brussels suburb of Anderlecht and the nearby town of Vilvoorde.13

By April 2013, Belgian authorities began considering Denis and his followers as a treat and banned the activities of his charity.14 Denis was arrested by police during a series of simultaneous raids across Brussels on Dec. 09, 2013.15 By the time of the clampdown on the network of Denis, dozens of his followers had already traveled to Syria.16 Many of these recruits ended up with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham]. Denis associate Sammy Djedou went on to become a member of the DaIISh external operations wing and was believed to have served as a liaison between the DaIISh and the terrorists who carried out the November 2015 attacks in Paris and March 2016 bombings in Brussels.17

In January 2016, a court sentenced Denis to ten years in prison for leading a terrorist organization and recruiting militants.18 His punishment was reduced to five years by an appeals court in November 2016.19 He was freed in December 2018.20 Upon his release, Denis defiantly refused to renounce his views to the press.

Denis settled in the town of Londerzeel but remained in touch with the Islamist community in Brussels.21 He actively propagated austere Salafism on social media and gathered thousands of online followers.22 In 2019, Denis also set up a new Islamist charity.23 In December 2019, local authorities in Molenbeek banned him from the municipality after he had repeatedly reached out to local Muslim youths.24 Denis has since kept a lower profile.​

References[+]