A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter holds a a rocket-propelled grenade launcher as he takes up position in an area overlooking Baretle village (background), which is controlled by the Islamic State, in Khazir, on the edge of Mosul September 8, 2014. The Kurdish f
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter holds a a rocket-propelled grenade launcher as he takes up position in an area overlooking Baretle village (background), which is controlled by the Islamic State. Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah

Western media celebrated over the weekend the safe return of German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer who happened to be the first ever journalist allowed by the ISIS to enter its turf. Mingling with the radical terrorists for 10 days, Todenhöfer said there is more than meets the eye to this group that the west definitely has failed to fathom yet.

The 74-year old journalist, who had interviewed before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the al-Qaeda, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and some Taliban leaders, to name a few, said it is definite that the ISIS will grow and expand beyond its borders in the Middle East. The world regards the group as a bunch of crazy madmen out to overrule the world. But Todenhöfer said it has that capability, claiming "Isis is much stronger than we think," according to the website Der tz.

A proof could be the number of foreign fighters who have the crazy desire to join the Islamic State. "Each day, hundreds of willing fighters arrive from all over the world," he told tz. "For me it is incomprehensible." He noted the group is supported by "an almost ecstatic enthusiasm that I have never encountered in any other warzone."

To date, there are about 5,000 ISIS fighters in Mosul alone. Todenhöfer said they purposedly positioned themselves wide apart so that not a single airstrike could eradicate them all. Suffice to say, if the west wants to kill them all in a lone airstrike, "they would have to reduce the whole of Mosul to ruins."

#Journalist #Todenhöfer after 10 days visit: #IS has enormous popularity & will conquer the whole world if it can pic.twitter.com/3LNz3vo7mq

— AbdulElah Shyea (@AbdulEla) December 21, 2014

Todenhöfer also revealed a rather disturbing scenario - civilian casualties caused by airstrike further ignite the Islamic fighters. "With every bomb that is dropped and hits a civilian, the number of terrorists increases," he said.

In a TV interview with RTL's Nachtjournal programme two days after his return to Germany, Todenhöfer disclosed ISIS continues to work hard towards making itself a functioning state, complete with a "school system" as well as a "social welfare" system. He even added the ISIS has plans of providing its girls with education.

Another photo of Jurgen Todenhöfer, the journalist from #Germany who just got back from 10 day trip to #IS in #Syria. pic.twitter.com/PSWQJh4LxS

— Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) December 19, 2014

Among the teachings the Islamic state inculcates in the minds of its young and its fighters is that "all religions who agree with democracy have to die." In fact, as it sets out to "conquer the world," it will conduct a massive cleansing program that the only other religions to be left on the face of the earth were the Jews and Christians, described as the original "people of the book."

He said it is just a matter of time before the ISIS totally infiltrates the western world and ultimately battle out for co-existence, if not total supremacy. When this happens, he said it is not the west that will be able to bring them down. "The only ones who could stop this now are the moderate Iraqi Sunnis," he said. "If you want to defeat an opponent, you must know him."

Todenhöfer, on his Facebook page, said the group has impressive equipment such as German Heckler & Koch MG3 machine guns. "Someday this German MG could be directed to us," he said.