BERLIN (Web Desk) – Proclaimed caliph of Islamic State (ISIS) Abubakar al-Baghdadi, carrying a bounty of $10 million at his head, was turned down by Iraqi army when he went for an induction, German researchers.
The researcher also claimed that Baghdadi failed to get admission in Law College during his studies. He was less than outstanding in his youth, according to information gathered by researchers in Germany.
“The man who has declared himself caliph of a new Islamic State had to repeat a year at school because he was so bad at English,” London-based Independent newspaper said, citing new details emerged about the background of the Islamic State leader.
A German news channel showed new details on Thursday after interviewing residents of Samarra, Baghdadi’s home town in Iraq, where he went to school and played football in its narrow streets.
“He loved power and being influential,” said one former neighbor of Baghdadi, who was the third of four sons born to a devout Sunni Muslim family.
“He was turned down for the Iraqi army, despite being a member of the Sunni minority favored by the regime of the country’s dictator, Saddam Hussain, because he was too short-sighted,” the reports said.
Baghdadi was rated as “an average student at the town’s grammar school and his school matriculation marks were too low for Baghdad University to accept him on its law course,” the media reports said.
“Instead, he opted for Islamic theology, a subject whose study – perhaps combined with his earlier experiences – contributed to radicalising his views,” they said.
After eight years studying Islamic theology, he emerged with a PhD degree in 1999.
