Junud al-Sham (2013) Libya Syria Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert (18 October 1975 – 17 January 2018), also known by his stage name Deso Dogg and his nom de guerre Abu Talha al-Almani, was a German rapper who became a member of the Islamic State.

Following a near death experience after a car crash,[10] and affected by Pierre Vogel, a former professional boxer and converted Islamist, he ended his rap career in 2010,[13] declaring his own religious conversion to Islam.

Controversies ensued as he declared public support for Islamic "Mujahideen" forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Chechnya, describing Berlin as eine weitere Kuffar-Metropole ("yet another kuffar (infidel) metropolis").

In April 2011, the Berlin public prosecutor brought charges of illegal possession of weapons against him after Cuspert appeared as "Abou Maleeq" in a YouTube video brandishing arms.

German officials remained vigilant, however, claiming his videos and speeches contained inflammatory rhetoric that promoted violence.

[4] Guido Steinberg, an Islamic studies expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs think-tank stated that Dogg's music "support[s] a radicalisation process.

"[17] The public broadcaster Südwestrundfunk (SWR) said in a report that the "Islamist radical Denis C. (alias "Abu Maleeq") was being investigated for sedition".

The popular Report Mainz news magazine on German ARD TV highlighted his videos, including one publicly praising Osama bin Laden in one of his nasheeds.

Denis Cuspert became involved with the Egyptian Austrian-born al-Qaeda affiliate Mohamed Mahmoud (also known as Abu Usama Al-Gharib), who had founded the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) as well as the jihadist militant Salafist group Millatu Ibrahim, later banned by the German authorities.

[16] German broadcaster ZDF also received footage, apparently made by Cuspert, in which he threatened to wage Jihad in Germany and warned of attacks.

[3] In August 2013, he appeared in a video fighting alongside the militant group Junud al-Sham against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War.

[26] "In November 2014, a video was released by the activist group "Deir Ezzore Is Being Slaughtered Silently”, which showed IS members shooting and beheading a number of unarmed men, and Cuspert holding a severed head.

[34][35][36][37] In January 2018, the IS-linked Wafa' Media Foundation announced his death, accompanying its report with photos of Cuspert's bloodied cadaver.

[40] One of his wives, a German citizen of Tunisian descent named Omaima Abdi who was born in 1984 in Hamburg, went to Syria in 2015 with her three children and first husband Nader Hadra from Frankfurt, who was killed while fighting in Kobane.

[41][42] In October 2020, she was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, due to her enslavement of a Yazidi girl, violation of the "War Weapons Control Act" by temporarily disposing of a Kalashnikov rifle, and being a member of a terrorist organization abroad.