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Reddit AMA: Jihadist/terrorist turned atheist
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:15 pm
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:15 pm
A former jihadist/terrorist posted an AMA on the Syrian Civil War subreddit today, and I think a lot of you will find it interesting. He talks about his life story--how he became a jihadist, what he did during that part of his life, and how he left jihadism, Islam, and became an atheist. Here's a sample:
He talks about all kinds of things, including his views on what motivates jihadists and inspires them to carry out acts of terrorism.
One question he was asked:
His answer:
Regarding a similar question, he replies:
His identity was confirmed by the Syrian Civil War moderators, who I trust. I've been reading that sub for years now, and the mods do a good job.
Link: LINK /
quote:
I'm an ex Jihadi/terrorist who was born into the Jihadi way of life. My family has extensive history since the soviet days. I first set foot in Afghanistan in the early 90s at 7 years old for weapons training. I've met OBL and use to work for their IT department when i was 15. i briefly spent time on the front lines against northern alliance and later integrated with Turkimani jihadists after 9/11 and spent time in the freezing mountains being bombed. I later spent 3 years on the run and later under house arrest in Iran which was managed by the Sepah.
Eventually i became disillusioned with the "cause" and spent time alone enough to start reflecting on my life and religion until one day i decided there was simply no proof that Allah or any other God existed.. I slowly distanced myself from all of it and have spent my time trying to pick up the pieces and make some sort of life out of it.
He talks about all kinds of things, including his views on what motivates jihadists and inspires them to carry out acts of terrorism.
One question he was asked:
quote:
An overwhelming majority of the worlds 1,6 billion muslims do not participate in jihad or express support for doing so. Relativly speaking almost no one of this population have these views. So how do the jihadis view the muslim masses?
His answer:
quote:
They view them as simpletons who don't know their religion. which is true i think.. most muslims have no idea how violent Mohammed was.
Regarding a similar question, he replies:
quote:
They simply don't know the Quran and Hadith well enough..One only has to pick up the Seerah of the prophet to realize he was hell bent on spreading islam by any means possible. Moderate muslims to me simply means cherry picking muslims. which is fine, better then extremist Muslims i guess.
His identity was confirmed by the Syrian Civil War moderators, who I trust. I've been reading that sub for years now, and the mods do a good job.
Link: LINK /
This post was edited on 6/6/17 at 10:17 pm
6
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:17 pm to Hog on the Hill
Yeah that sub is super good for all sorts of information. I get lost in it sometimes.
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:21 pm to Hog on the Hill
Just further confirms what I already think about muslims.
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:29 pm to crazy4lsu
You're? pretty well informed on the Middle East. Any suggestions for things for me to read? Pretty open on topics, can be about Islam, political history, etc. Most of my knowledge on the area comes from research conducted about US involvement in the creation of Israel
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:32 pm to Hog on the Hill
One undeniable fact: if we remove all muslims from western civilization, terrorism will drop significantly.
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:41 pm to Hog on the Hill
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:49 pm to Hog on the Hill
quote:
One only has to pick up the Seerah of the prophet to realize he was hell bent on spreading islam by any means possible. Moderate muslims to me simply means cherry picking muslims.
He is right
Posted on 6/6/17 at 10:58 pm to hendersonshands
So many books. If you are looking for the modern ME, All the Shah's Men. That's a decent enough start. For early Islam, you can start with W. Montgomery Watt. Finding recent college level textbooks on Islam is also a great way of covering a lot of topics quickly. They also will have an exhaustive citation section, which can help with finding new resources. If you have database access, reading papers on whatever subject you are interested in is a solid way to go.
For modern stuff Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS and The Way of Strangers is a good start of ISIS. I thought the Jeremy Scahill's book The World is a Battlefield was super interesting when you add in the Islamic historical context.
The best resource I can think of that isn't too heavy is literature. Snow by Pamuk is superb. Wild Thorns by Khalifeh. This British writer by the name of Hanif Kureishi wrote this amazing short story called My Son, the Fanatic, which is superb. He also wrote this book called The Black Album which is great. He also wrote the screenplay for the criminally underrated My Beautiful Launderette, which does portray racism in 80's Britain in an interesting, unique way, and is also a great film in its own right. It doesn't have much to do with Islam though. Reading Naguib Mahfouz is also a good place to start for Egypt, as well as Abdelrahman Munif and his lovely Cities of Salt for the Gulf region.
Everyone should read Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. This Pakistani-American wrote this lovely little book of short stories called In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. It's a very good book. It's much better than Mohsin Ahmed, who is supposedly a big star now; his book The Reluctant Fundamentalist is retarded and his new book Moth Smoke or something seems to ride on the fact it relates to refugees.
There is this amazing book of poetry called The Arab Apocalypse by this Lebanese author who I can't remember off the top of my head. She also wrote a bunch of novels, which are alright. Poetry is super important in Islamic culture too, and one of the most influential Islamists is Muhammad Iqbal. This book called Cracking India uses his "Complaint to God" as its epigraph, and its use is heartbreaking given the story, which is about the partition. Reading Darwish is good too, especially when you juxtapose it next to a Jewish writer like Yoel Hoffman and the amazing Yehuda Amichai.
A Season of Migration to the North is great for Sudan. There is a lot I'm forgetting. I really want to read The Return by Hisham Matar, which is about Libya.
I would suggest following this guy named Murtuza Hussein on twitter. He quotes sections of really provocative books, and I write them all down to read later. He's a better resource than me. I have to go through my library for more suggestions. I'm forgetting a lot of books. Mostly I learned through textbooks that covered large periods, then through literature, and then I'll use papers or academic texts to sharpen knowledge on a specific subject.
For modern stuff Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS and The Way of Strangers is a good start of ISIS. I thought the Jeremy Scahill's book The World is a Battlefield was super interesting when you add in the Islamic historical context.
The best resource I can think of that isn't too heavy is literature. Snow by Pamuk is superb. Wild Thorns by Khalifeh. This British writer by the name of Hanif Kureishi wrote this amazing short story called My Son, the Fanatic, which is superb. He also wrote this book called The Black Album which is great. He also wrote the screenplay for the criminally underrated My Beautiful Launderette, which does portray racism in 80's Britain in an interesting, unique way, and is also a great film in its own right. It doesn't have much to do with Islam though. Reading Naguib Mahfouz is also a good place to start for Egypt, as well as Abdelrahman Munif and his lovely Cities of Salt for the Gulf region.
Everyone should read Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. This Pakistani-American wrote this lovely little book of short stories called In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. It's a very good book. It's much better than Mohsin Ahmed, who is supposedly a big star now; his book The Reluctant Fundamentalist is retarded and his new book Moth Smoke or something seems to ride on the fact it relates to refugees.
There is this amazing book of poetry called The Arab Apocalypse by this Lebanese author who I can't remember off the top of my head. She also wrote a bunch of novels, which are alright. Poetry is super important in Islamic culture too, and one of the most influential Islamists is Muhammad Iqbal. This book called Cracking India uses his "Complaint to God" as its epigraph, and its use is heartbreaking given the story, which is about the partition. Reading Darwish is good too, especially when you juxtapose it next to a Jewish writer like Yoel Hoffman and the amazing Yehuda Amichai.
A Season of Migration to the North is great for Sudan. There is a lot I'm forgetting. I really want to read The Return by Hisham Matar, which is about Libya.
I would suggest following this guy named Murtuza Hussein on twitter. He quotes sections of really provocative books, and I write them all down to read later. He's a better resource than me. I have to go through my library for more suggestions. I'm forgetting a lot of books. Mostly I learned through textbooks that covered large periods, then through literature, and then I'll use papers or academic texts to sharpen knowledge on a specific subject.
This post was edited on 6/6/17 at 10:59 pm
Posted on 6/6/17 at 11:03 pm to hendersonshands
Also any book on any of the big modern leaders like Ataturk, Nasser, Khomeini, etc. will help understand more nuanced things. Also subscribing to something like Foreign Policy is a good thing. I read that every night before bed, and they always have provocative articles.
Posted on 6/6/17 at 11:06 pm to crazy4lsu
I'm overwhelmed
Posted on 6/6/17 at 11:11 pm to hendersonshands
Haha sorry. I got a little excited. Start with All the Shah's Men and a textbook on Islam, and that should get you going.
Posted on 6/7/17 at 1:40 am to crazy4lsu
Why do you love Islam so much
Posted on 6/7/17 at 1:59 am to Hog on the Hill
old testament God was a sadistic a-hole
Posted on 6/7/17 at 2:13 am to Byron Bojangles III
quote:
old testament God was a sadistic a-hole
Good thing Christianity is based on the New Testament then.
Posted on 6/7/17 at 3:00 am to SirWinston
quote:
Why do you love Islam so much
Because it pisses people like you off.
But seriously I love reading books. I'm far more well read in British literature, as I was super obsessed with Beckett, and American literature, especially post-war stuff, French and German philosophy, Russian literature, especially Lermontov, Dostoevsky and Revolution era Russian poets like Pasternak, Akhmatova, and Mayakovsky. I was also obsessed with Bolano, Borges, and Marquez for most the better part of the last ten years. I carry a copy of the essays of de Montaigne around with me. I've been trying to read everything written about Oppenheimer for the last year. I love reading and relying the random knowledge I happen to have. Seeing as the Islamic topic comes up and none of the various other interests I have is a function of the zeitgeist. I could talk about books and things I've read for days all day. Now that there is a book board I might post there too. Any other questions?
This post was edited on 6/7/17 at 3:02 am
Posted on 6/7/17 at 6:50 am to crazy4lsu
Here's a question I've always pondered and I'm hoping crazy4lsu can help me understand. The old jihadi or the extremist imam comes to the young jihadi and encourages him to strap a bomb to himself in the name of Allah. Why doesn't the young jihadi say, "why do I need to kill myself and some innocents for allah, but you don't?" Does the older imam or jihadi not want the 72 virgins? How does that work?
Posted on 6/7/17 at 6:53 am to Byron Bojangles III
quote:
old testament God was a sadistic a-hole
stories from 2000 years ago, not acted on today
vs. active Jihad today based on the other religion
solid comparison ace
Posted on 6/7/17 at 7:00 am to crazy4lsu
quote:Awesome post. Bookmarked.
crazy4lsu
Posted on 6/7/17 at 7:54 am to Byron Bojangles III
Nope
Posted on 6/7/17 at 8:23 am to TheFranchise
quote:
Why doesn't the young jihadi say, "why do I need to kill myself and some innocents for allah, but you don't?"
in pretty much all of these societies where Islam spread, they were already very authoritarian. these assholes use that fully
so, an (1) older (2) male who is (3) an alleged religious leader is someone a young person defers to
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