Dingo, Per your post it eases my concerns, accepted. 

QuietThinker, That's basically what I said :P 

Swamp Fox, Yes it is better. But it's hard to believe ISIS would allow members to worship pagan gods or be mercenaries. You can seriously just make up some kind of arcane order of terrorists instead of using an actual organization. Also keep in mind that the US would probably be keeping an eye on him. I like the sand powers and you can honestly get much more traction of it besides transforming into sand. Perhaps change his regeneration to tie into his sand powers, instead of the bog-standard regeneration that I'm trying to cut down on. Also specify what these magic properties would be without making them too overpowered.