London, England—Slick and accessible, one of the latest offerings from Somalia’s Al Qaeda backed Al-Shabab looks more like a reality TV show than a recruitment tool for terrorists.

And then there’s the English—American English.

“Away from your family, away from our friends, away from ice, candy bars, all those things is because we’re waiting to meet the enemy.” says a man reported to be Abu Mansoor al-Amriki. Al Qaeda propaganda refers to him as ‘the American” and it is one of the first times he has ever shown his face. He is now apparently in Somalia training and counselling Somalis from North America and Europe.

And then there’s the jihad call to arms with a hip-hop vibe.

“Mortar by mortar, shell by shell, only going to stop when I send them to hell” raps the unidentified voice-over of the video.

“We’re seeing perhaps their most sophisticated attempt so far to really reach an audience of potential recruits in America and that’s one of the things that made that video very significant” says Ben Venzke of the IntelCenter, a Washington-based research group that tracks Al Qaeda’s development and messages.

“They’re casting it in a way that’s going to speak to the youth of today,” says Venzke who adds, “Most of the time what we’re seeing in their videos directly parallels what the groups are doing operationally, what they are targeting, where they’re recruiting.”

Sheik Ahmed Matan says he knows that firsthand. The respected member of Britain’s Somali community says he knows of hundreds of young Somali men who have returned to Somalia for terrorist training.

“A lot of young people from here, from America, from Canada, from everywhere from Europe they went there, ” he says adding these men are capable of being sent back home to conduct terrorist operations, even suicide bombings.

“It can be, they can train anytime and send them here, anytime,” says Sheik Matan.

Somalis from North American and Europe are beginning to come to terms with the problem of recruitment. The U.S. and British governments say Somalia is an emerging terror hot spot, which can pose a threat beyond its borders.

Sheik Matan says he often challenges ‘recruiters’ at mosques and elsewhere in Britain demanding they stop brainwashing younger Somalis about Islam. He says the government should play a greater role in monitoring what is said and done at these mosques but doing so has proved highly controversial in Britain and throughout Europe.

But there is evidence that Al Qaeda is successfully preying on some of those with Western backgrounds. One of them was a business student from London who suddenly left for Somalia and only surfaced about 18 months ago on this martyrdom video just before blowing himself up in Southern Somalia killing at least twenty people.

In an off-the-record briefing with CNN, U.S. Defence officials told CNN months ago that one of their worst nightmares would be Al Qaeda operating freely in Somalia. Now that nightmare continues, with Somalis in North America and Europe admitting Al Qaeda’s reach is spreading to their communities.