Mark John Taylor, also known as Mohammad Daniel and Abu Abdul Rahman, is a New Zealand citizen who traveled to Syria in 2014 to join the Islamic State.
Following his arrest by Pakistani authorities while trying to reach an Al-Qaeda and Taliban stronghold on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, the New Zealand Government imposed travel restrictions on him.
In late 2014, Taylor deleted 45 Twitter posts after they reportedly exposed an Islamic State presence in the Kafar Roma area in Syria.
In October 2015, Taylor mistakenly exposed the location of Islamic State fighters on Twitter when he forgot to turn off a tracking function on his phone,[1] earning the nickname the "bumbling Jihadist".
His first wife was a Syrian woman from Deir ez-Zor named Umm Mohammed who wanted him to leave for Turkey.
On 4 March 2019, Taylor was interviewed while in custody by Australian Broadcasting Corporation Middle East correspondent Adam Harvey and Suzanne Dredge.
[1][11][12] During an interview with journalist Campell MacDiarmid of the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National, Taylor claimed that he had been in contact with New Zealand intelligence officers who had encouraged him to leave the Islamic State and had offered him assistance to return home.
[14] Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has described Taylor as a traitor to his country and Western civilization, opining that he had forfeited his right to return to New Zealand by joining the Islamic State.
[6][18] New Zealand radio and television broadcaster Mike Hosking has criticised Ardern's decision not to strip Taylor of his citizenship.
[19] By contrast, broadcaster Andrew Dickens has rejected calls to strip Taylor of his citizenship, describing it as a policy characteristic of totalitarian regimes.
[21] International security analyst Paul Buchanan has argued that Taylor is a prisoner of war who could provide valuable intelligence to the New Zealand authorities.