From rap music fan to brutal killer

Two days before the shooting, Saif Rezgui was sitting having coffee with friends in his hometown, chatting about football teams, girls, and dancing.

Saif Rezgui. (Photo: BBC)

On June 25th, Saif met his uncle in Gaafour and confided in him about family matters. However, the next day, armed with a Kalashnikov, Saif calmly walked to the Imperial Marhaba hotel on the Tunisian beach, and 39 foreign tourists were successively killed by his gun.

Once again, Tunisia was shocked by the sudden shift of an ordinary young man to the violent, extremist ideology of Islamic jihad.

Saif Rezgui comes from a middle-class family. It seems that, in a short time, he became a target of extremists. They forced Saif away from a life of football and music to become an Islamic fighter.

In Gaafour, an isolated agricultural town on the arid plains southwest of Tunis, Saif's neighbors and family could hardly comprehend how he had become a murderer in this horrific terrorist attack.

Like the two attackers at the Bardo Museum in March, Saif kept his new extremist ideology a secret from family and friends. A fan of dance, rap music, and most African clubs, Saif worked part-time at the small Ben Hassan cafe in Gaafour.

"Who could have imagined he would do something so terrible?" Ali Rezgui, the killer's uncle, told Reuters. "Perhaps he changed while at school or learned something online. We haven't found the answer yet," he added.

Like many other rural towns in Tunisia, Gaafour offers few opportunities for development for its youth, where low-rise buildings are nestled amidst fields of wheat and scattered olive trees.

In the minds of his neighbors and friends, Rezgui was a cheerful young man who prayed frequently but never spoke about religion. Although he studied far from home, Saif often returned to his hometown.

"He never showed any signs of terrorism or anything like that. He never talked about religion," said Mohammed, a friend of Saif's. "It's shocking to see someone you've known for a long time become a murderer."

(According to Reuters/VNN)