Shoe bomber Richard Reid
Charles Colson writes about evidence that Western converts are playing an increasingly important role in Islamic terrorist efforts. (Thanks to EPG for the link.)
Anyone who has flown since September 11 has experienced the heightened security put into place as a result of the attacks. Most of us have adjusted to the new realities. And we’re not the only ones adjusting. The people responsible for the heightened security—al Qaeda—have also adjusted.After September 11 officials stepped up their scrutiny of people seeking to enter the United States bearing passports from Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. While civil libertarians and Muslim-American groups protested, al Qaeda adapted.
As Robert Leiken of the Nixon Center wrote in the New Republic, Osama bin Laden is replacing Muslim immigrants in his operations with Western converts to Islam. It’s easy to see why: “European nationals with European passports and faces” are less likely to arouse suspicions among American officials. What’s more, most Western Europeans aren’t required to obtain visas before traveling to the United States.
We saw a glimpse of this tactic in the case of British convert Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber.” More recently, a French Muslim convert is alleged to have ties to a suspect in the Madrid bombings. And, as Leiken tells us, there’s potentially a lot more where these two came from—that is, Europe.
That’s because Europe has seen the rise of what are called “protest converts” to Islam. As the French scholar Olivier Roy put it, these young people convert for the same reason that American kids get multiple tattoos and body piercings: “to stick it to their parents [or] to their principal.” Just as Europeans in the 1970s “went to Bolivia or Vietnam,” these kids convert. It’s a way “of identifying with a Third World cause.”
Al Qaeda targets these people. “They are full of rage, and they want to prove themselves.” They’re eager to “show other Muslims their worth.” And al Qaeda is only too happy to oblige them with radical imams publicly preaching violence and martyrdom, as articles in the New York Times this weekend underscored.
Remember, too, that this tactic isn’t limited to Europe. In prisons across America, thousands of inmates have converted to Islam. And, as I’ve said on previous broadcasts, the extremist form of Islam has found its way into our prisons as well. While the vast majority of converts have no interest in joining al Qaeda, September 11 teaches us that it takes only a few to pose a horrendous threat. Just take a look at the case of Jose Padilla, the American, who was converted in prison and accused of plotting to detonate a “dirty bomb.”
So, even if authorities find a way to cope with European converts, there’s still the problem of the home-grown variety.
These developments remind us that, whether we admit it or not, we are in a clash of civilizations with the Islamic world. That doesn’t mean that we are at war with every Muslim. What it means is that there’s something about Islam that poses a potential threat to our security and our way of life. If you doubt that, ask yourself whether you can imagine a graduate of Prison Fellowship’s full-time prison program setting off a dirty bomb.
We need to pray that our leaders can adapt to this frightening new reality. And we need to remind them that a religion where proving “your worth” consists of killing civilians shouldn’t be called a “religion of peace.”
Colson supplies some interesting links for further reading and information at the source site.
The economically marginal, alienated from The System (as they call it), who might once have become Communists, now find in Islam the obvious vehicle for expressing their hatred of the West, and especially of the United States.
The psychically marginal (you know the kind: the person who tries on now this religion or cult, and now that, or who leaves town in order to find herself, and when last you heard, she was still looking in California), of whom Western societies produce a good many, also find Islam a comfort, for it is above all a belief-system that is indifferent or even hostile to the individual (a scary thing, that thinking individual), and emphasizes in every way the collective, the group, the umma al-Islamiyya. There are those, as the Nazis knew, who find this dissolution of the self in the Collective most comforting. Then, too, Islam -- with its near-total regulation of life, with rules for everything from hairstyles, to the proper way of washing yourself, to instructions for what you must do with your four-footed lover -- a sheep, a ewe, a camel -- after you have had intercourse with her -- supplies a complete guide to life.
And finally, Islam offers a Total Explanation of the Universe, including a justification for passivity and fatalism (Allah wills it, Allah wills everything, Allah knows exactly when, and how, you will die), although that passivity and fatalism, alas, seem to be jettisoned when it comes to the Jihad, the main duty of the Muslim other than the five pillars of inidividual worship, and then all hell breaks loose in the attempt to attain to the Muslim Paradise, with its 72 virgins and boys like pearls.
There are many who long to be part of a collective, in which they will not have to think, and where the Infidel enemy is clearly identified, an enemy to whom all the ills of htis complicated world can easily be attributed. Imagine if one had to figure out, for example, just how to make life better and more interesting in the Arab Muslim world, rather than rely on the coming of the Mahdi, or the establishment of the Caliphate worldwide.
John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla, Richard Reid offer a rainbow coalition of craziness. Unfortunately, there are many psychically marginal people. They must have their distempers treated, and provided with alternative modes of consolation, in their bleak lost-in-the-universe condition, a religion or some other kind of belief (why, even a hobby, pursued fanaticaly, may do -- including the hobby of money-making, so important to our own system), alternatives that do not turn them into warriors for the Jihad, and thus a permanent threat to the wellbeing of Infidels everywhere, which is to say, to you and to me.
Hugh posts, "They must have their distempers treated, and provided with alternative modes of consolation..."
Sounds fine in theory, Hugh- got any concrete suggestions of how this might be accomplished? These marginal people who, as you note, in earlier times might have run off to an ashram, or rubbed patchouli over themselves in a yurt, have now embraced a cult that seeks actively, by force, to destroy Western society.
Pre-emptive incarceration? Targeted, extra-judicial assassinations? Mandatory de-programming sessions? Conscription?
For every John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla, John Mohammed or Richard Reid, there will be (are?) thousands of others floating just under public notice- until they are triggered. Speaking standard English. Looking typically middle class. Carrying clean First World passports. Representing manifest evil.
And, if the Padilla and Lahmi (sp?) cases currently before the USSC are any indication, being afforded every iota of state-subsidized due process and protection.
Hugh-Once again a insightful commentary.
I read every single links attached to this article and most of the links subsequent links. Some of them are very sobering. One piece of information stuck with me: prison conversions. The French have noted that prisons are the largest source of Muslim conversion, churning out dangerous and resentful fodder for Jihad. American taxpayers are housing thousands of similar convicts and that are presently being indoctrinated and are Islam's secret weapon. Take note of this.
I would suggest the book "My Jihad" by Collins. He was is an American who grew up without any real religious beliefs, converted to Islam then went on to fight in Chechnya. It really is a good account of this phenomena. It was published early in 2001 before the 9/11 attacks.
It's also been shown that there is an upside to this phenomenom for the US and western allies. Now that Al Qaeda is increasingly recruiting non-Arabs the organization is more easily infiltrated.
The US already had people working inside Al Qaeda
which is how some recent terrorist plots have been uncovered and stopped. This is the same technique that was used to destory home grown terrorists back in the 60s and 70s.
Chuck Colson certainly is familiar with prison, and has first hand insight that rest of us hopefully won't have. I met him at FBI HQ many years ago.
Back when I worked at the FBI, I remember seeing the "rap sheets" for Watergate criminals, and also handled processing some of them. One day when I was at FBI HQ cafeteria at breakfast, Chuck Colson was brought up with a former Black Panther leader to talk about how their faith in God turned their lives around. Now my first instincts were to say "who let you out of prison?", but instead I was respectful, polite, and minded my business. I didn't like it, and felt sort of violated there, listening to a convict speak at the FBI HQ Building, but I listened and was polite. I will admit I didn't each much breakfast that day though. Its sort of like trusting Quadaffi, with his change in views on terrorism. You're glad they have seen the light, but do you trust them?
I guess this is what it all comes down to: TRUST.
We all want to give them a second chance to redeem themselves, but in our hearts, do we trust them? The problem is that if we don't find a way to rebuild the bonds of trust, such individuals will ultimately be drawn to anti-social groups, such as gangs and terrorism.
When people or groups of people dramatically and aggressively shatter our trust in them and their ability to contribute to society, how we do we deal with them? In the case of terrorists, they flourish in prisons because that bond of trust is broken between the criminal and civilized society.
The world of "NO TRUST" is the fringe on which the terrorist cancer lives, develops, and grows.
But the key is having an avenue of reform, a way for the public to regain the trust of the former criminal, so that this bond can be re-established. That is the same avenue that (fairly or unfairly) Moderate Muslims must take to reform the public perception of Islam.
The trick I believe is defining and finding an avenue of reform and rebuilding bridges of trust in these circumstances.
Hugh - you should run your own blog - you've obviously got some really good insights on this topic.
It is, as you say, the desire to have everything regulated and to be part of a group. This is true of other cults like the Moonies, with the big difference that they harm only themselves.
Its unfortunate.
Islam is totally incompatible with any religion period or anyone who does not follow what they demand.
Islam has proven its from Satan by the fact that every time something bad happens to a muslim it must be a jewis or american plot.
I am tired of hearing the whinging of the islamic community.
Their only words are Death to jews and death to any non muslim. Never would they consider the fact that maybe its because with all of their oil wealth maybe becaused they have cursed the jews they themselves are cursed.
They have no concept of God for if they did they would realize that God created all men and women in his image, For Gods Glory: not a demon filled satan inspired mohammed.
Its a shame because i have now already begun to train my children for the comming war where muslims will hunt down anyone who does not submit and will torture and kill them.
I wonder what the liberals will say as they watch theirs wives and children Raped, tortured and then killed right in front of them. Suddenly realizing they were wrong but too late for us.
America is still trying to follow God (the Only true God of Abraham Issac and Jacob) the God of Israel. This is why i know islam is wrong the sheer hatred of anything else proves it.
Muslims repent lest you find yourselfs fighting against Israel and the Lord of Hosts.
And Yhwy is his name
The numbers of conversions to Islam in Europe are actually very low. In Britain even the most optimistic estimates are below 40,000 - that's 40,000 more than I'd like there to be, but still a very low number compared with British "converts" to Buddhism which number at over 180,000. The problem with Muslim converts in Europe is not their number but their fanaticism. Often they are people with a grudge against society (as the article says) or young men who think it's an adventure to play at jihad and get dragged in further by manipulative older Muslims.
Dick Reid needs to quit raising his eyebrows. He looks guilty all the time.
Al Q must be converting lots of them little old gray-haired grandmothers. I always see the airport screeners searching them thoroughly. Very scary.
Unfortunately for al-Qaeda, western converts are not a terrorist A team. They tend to be the dregs, petty criminals and losers. Reid was too stupid to blow himself up, Padilla didn't get out of the airport, etc. Lindh probably couldn't figure out how to fire a weapon. The evil braintrust may try to use these guys for cannon fodder, but they are so inept that they put other cell members at risk. We should worry more about the native arabic speakers.
Jeffrey:
I like your point on TRUST and on rehabilitation. There are some disaffected people that are 'playing' with islamic terrorism because of problems in their life, etc. But once someone crosses the line and acts as a terrorist or supports a terrorist then it is very difficult to bridge the gap. One proven method is for such an individual to actively work against his terrorist past by collaborating with the government on hunting them down. That would rebuild the Trust.
Mike
What amazes me is the number of WOMEN who convert to Islam in the UK.
it seems Jemima Goldsmith started a fashion on the rich middle classes and the attractiveness of Muslim men to many british women is astounding.
Jemima wrote about "finding the path to isalm" and rejecting her frivolus past life of a party socialite.
Living in a society in pakistan where some 5000 women are annually murdered in "honor killings" she could not raise one word of criticism.
And then of course there is Diana.
The ordered preprogrammed life must have seemed a welcome alternative to the chaos of western existence.
we are told that the islamic doctor was the man who appealed to her most.
perhaps life under a burkha is more attractive to some than the akward choices of freedom.
The numbers of women converts are also low, however, and most occur through marriage - some will be genuine conversions, but others will be a sop to the cultural traditions of the husband and merely nominal.
Diana was nowhere near converting to Islam. The "Islamic" doctor can't have been very devout if he was conducting an adulterous sexual affair with her. And as for Dodi Fayed - he was, by all accounts, a coke-snorting, champagne-quaffing, gambling playboy whose interest in religion appears to have been around the zero mark.
As in the US, the majority of conversions to Islam occur among disaffected ethnic minority groups (in Britain, many converts are of Caribbean background). Prison conversions are a marked phenomenon, as several people here have said, and a lot of these are low calibre, low IQ types like Richard Reid. But then it's not like you need to be smart to blow up yourself and others. Suicide bombing is one of the few careers in which stupidity is a plus.
Should we believe that all prisoners are as stupid as Richard Reid? I think not. Indeed they were stupid enough to get caught, but not all either mental or emotional rejects! That is a stereotype.
Prison has always been a school for improved criminals and now it is becoming a school for jihadists.
All prisoners do not convert to fundamentalist Islam, or any sort of Islam. Only a tiny minority do. Those recruited by the agents of terrorist organisations are likely to be gullible, desperate and none-too-bright.
A much bigger problem that the very small number of Western converts is simply the mass immigration of Muslims into Western countries. Why bother to use converts for terror attacks when it's so easy for anyone to get into our countries on a tourist or student visa, or to claim to be an asylum-seeker, or simply as an illegal who lays low? Pretty much all of the terror suspects arrested in the UK are foreign nationals, illegals, asylum seekers or second- or third- generation immigrants of Muslim background. Richard Reid is the exception, not the rule.
I asked a friend of mine who is a guard at the State Pen about Islamic converts and whether he thought they were potential jihadis. He said that, well, yes, there were some converts--and since 911 the prison has had to take special precautions to insure that the "patriotic American convicts" don't kill them. After all, he chuckled, the Islamists are advocating imposing a system of law that cuts off the hands of thieves--in a prison full of thieves, most of whom plan to resume their careers after release.
So if there are jailhouse jihadis, I'd say he laying very very low while in the clink.
Typho: Last line above should read, "So if there are jailhouse jihadis, I'd say they are laying very very low while in the clink."
I'm a British convert and I've been a Muslim since 1998. I've had quite a few encounters with the Carribean convert community in London. Most of them are not pro-jihadi by any means. A lot of the Carribeans belong to a somewhat pro-establishment branch of the Wahhabi sect which you can find at the spubs.com site. They say that suicide bombers are not martyrs and are in Hell, and they are against any rebellion against rulers on the grounds of them being corrupt or tyrannical (which is what most of the jihad efforts are about - removing corrupt regimes in the Muslim world and occupiers like Russia and China from the fringes of the Muslim lands). A few may be jihadis, and a few (particularly, I think, in west London) are Sufis. Not that many belong to Indian-based groups because of their Urdu-oriented culture.
In my experience not many white converts are jihadis either. A lot are wealthy middle-class people living in the suburbs or in small towns. They often keep their old name and it's possible that you won't notice he's a Muslim until you discover the Sufi books on his shelves, the decor of his house and his taste for Moroccan cooking.
I remember the pictures of Richard Reid when they took him off the plane..looks like he got the crap beat right out of him..oh what fun to be on that flight..I bet all the passengers got a swing at him...sometimes jihad just doesnt pay...lol
Princess Diana's usefulness was that she was in the process of being converted from benign charitable work...to being in a position of diverting her "fan club" into anti "landmine" protestors. The largest holders of landmines was especially the Israelis and the United States...whom Moslem Dodi and his Moslem father and uncle had a vested interest...
It is forgotten, that Dodi's "uncle" was at one time...Adnan Kashoggi the largest supplier of weapons to the PLO and the Hezbollah.
I do not think for one second, that Princess Diana's death was an accident. Her politics of anti-landmind legislation, would have left the United States, Israel and all other countries extremely politically vulnerable in the Moslem's propaganda war.
Judy
Ha ha! You think that the Fayeds and Khashoggi are/were remotely interested in any Islamic cause? No way. Just because people come from Muslim backgrounds doesn't automatically make them religious people advancing the cause of Islam. This is especially the case with multi-millionaire playboy types like the Fayeds and Khashoggi. All they are interested in is making money and spending it on yachts, private jets, magnums of Bolly and as many women as they can get their hands on. You're right to be worried about Islam, but these super-rich playboys are not Islam - these are people who bin Laden and his kind would have flogged and then stoned to death in an instant, if they could.