M’Barek Chaabi (Jihadi Militant, France)

• Full name: N/a
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: France
• Affiliation: Roubaix Jihadi Network [FJR], Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh]

M’Barek Chaabi (°1956) is a Moroccan national and jihadi activist based in the French city of Lille. He turned to radical Islam after having moved to France in the early 1980s.¹ Chaabi eventually opened a bookstore selling Islamic religious literature in the Wazemmes neighborhood of Lille. He traveled to Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria to collect books to sell at his shop.² Chaabi served as a spiritual leader for the local community of radicalized Muslim immigrants.

Chaabi and his associates were emboldened by the successes of the jihadi forces during the initial phase of the Syrian Civil War and wanted to actively support the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham]. Some of them even wanted to join its ranks. Before long, the so-called Roubaix Jihadi Network [FJR; Filière Jihadiste de Roubaix] emerged. Chaabi served as its spiritual leader.³ By the summer of 2013, he and his associates had begun recruiting fighters for the DaIISh. Chaabi helped facilitate their travel to Syria and transferred money to the recruits after they arrived in the Levant.⁴ He raised funds through scams.⁵ In early 2014, French authorities began investigating him after the father of one his recruits had filed a complaint with police.⁶

In January 2015, Chaabi attracted considerable controversy by brazenly draping his shop with jihadi flags and decorating it with symbols of the DaIISh.⁷ Police intervened and prosecutors charged him with advocating terrorism. On Feb. 10, 2015, a court gave him a one-year suspended prison sentence.⁸ His bookshop was closed.⁹

By the summer of 2015, French security services had gathered enough evidence to roll up Chaabi’s network. On Jun. 26, 2015, police swept premises linked to the FJR in Lille and Roubaix.¹⁰ Chaabi and four other operatives were apprehended. On Nov. 09, 2018, a French court sentenced him to six years in prison.¹¹