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More evidence of what most analysts still prefer to ignore: the power of religious appeals in recruiting and motivating terrorists. From Knight-Ridder, with thanks to Nicolei: "Iraqi teen tells how he joined Ansar al Islam."
Young, broke and living in a speck of a town where moss grows on the roofs of mud huts, Rebeen Ali decided to look for his way in the world.After a few nights of arguing, his father, a local schoolteacher, forbade him to leave the house. But the 14-year-old Ali, tired of his hometown of Halabja, where graveyards are filled with the victims of Saddam Hussein's 1988 chemical attack, started out for the Iranian border, with plans to get construction work in Tehran.
Ali was stopped in Biyara by a checkpoint set up by members of Ansar al Islam, a radical Islamic group that had taken hold in the high reaches of the mountains of northern Iraq. They told him he was in big trouble. Before long, he had joined the group.
Ali's story took place between the summer of 2001 and the winter of 2002, but it's consistent with descriptions of how Ansar recruits, indoctrinates and trains fighters. Indeed, the lack of work and poor living conditions in Iraq, the ready supply of disaffected youth and the seduction of religious fanaticism haven't changed at all.
The Ansar members accused Ali of being a spy, of being an infidel. They shouted at him. They beat him. They threatened to kill him. For two hours, the threats and screams continued.
Then an older man walked in the room and in a calm, kind voice began to speak about Islam.
Trembling and crying, Ali was so shaken that he could hardly make sense of what the imam, or spiritual leader, was saying.
But slowly, the words began to filter through.
"He told me about paradise, about virgins, about Islam," Ali said.
The imam told him that, as a Muslim, Ali was part of a brotherhood that stretched back hundreds of years. He had an important role to play in the world, one that would bring prestige and glory. There were 70 virgins waiting for him in a promised land, a paradise just for him.
The conversation lasted for hours. At the end, Ali was taken to a little room and given some food and a blanket. The next morning, an Ansar official came by and said that while Ali wasn't a prisoner, they wanted to keep him for a few days to make sure he wasn't a spy. Ali was invited to attend religion classes.
Ali spent 15 days going between his little cell and a bare classroom. For the first time in his life, Ali began praying the prescribed five times a day. He had long considered the restrictions of the Muslim world backward and once planned to move to France to study. But now he realized the imam was right - he was a Muslim and had a duty.
Ansar offered to send Ali to training, where he learned about weapons and tactics for two months. He learned how to break down an AK47 and that he should keep his mouth open when firing a rocket-propelled grenade to avoid eardrum damage. He learned how to unscrew the cap of an artillery shell, pack in plastic explosives with two wires attached and then spool the wire to a simple battery that would serve as a detonator.
Ali spent about 11 months as a grunt soldier for Ansar, shooting off mortars and firing with machine guns at positions of fighters for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Some months he was paid $20, others $100.
After a feud about politics - Ali was tired of the fighting and wanted to join a less radical group - he left Ansar in late 2002, a few months before U.S. Special Forces and Kurdish troops drove Ansar from Iraq.
Ali is 16 years old now. He has shaved his beard and grown out his hair. He lives in Halabja with his parents and has found only occasional work as a handyman.
He says he has no regrets about joining Ansar. Would he join again?
Maybe, he said, shrugging his shoulders.
Posted by Robert at February 15, 2004 6:31 AM
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I am paraphrasing-Give me a child until he is seven, and he is mine for life. We know that children, teens, and young adults are very vulnerable to propaganda. That is why Madison Avenue targets them so effectively. Of course, young, aggressive men, with raging hormones, and flowing testosterone are going go for the blood, gore, and sex. That is human nature. The crime here is to harness these traits for the purpose of putting forward a religious ideology in the name of righteousness and peace.
They waste all their human capital in tearing down and they don't create anything pain and misery. Of course, if you have been immersed in this misery for generations, it appears to be normal. I can understand why impressionable children could be hoodwinked, but the voluntary conversion of mature adults to such a repressive ideology is beyond belief.
What is significant is the abuse that preceded the interaction with the imam who came along and spoke softly to the boy. Think about the boy's psychological state. Did the boy not see the imam as a deliverer from his torment? Sure he did. The imam used the methods of the cult. How do Christians teach our young? We teach them of a hope of eternal life with Christ. We must teach them, and we must fight against the schools and society which indoctrinate them away from the teachings of our faith.
Posted by: helen at February 15, 2004 9:03 PMIt's sad. A while ago I had a discussion on line with a 20 y/o girl friend here in Mexico. She's all for Druidism (sort of magic nature cult) and all against Christianity, and like previous commentators it makes me wonder, where did we go wrong? (I'm 54, so I've seen this ugly process going on). Islam, for me, is the most successful cult in history, no wonder they are masters at brainwashing, using the "good cop-bad cop" strategy and the works. I'm very weary of them. And worried about Christianity. But God is our hope, so let's cling fast to Him, pray and do the best we can from our position in life.
Posted by: Miguel at February 16, 2004 4:17 AMIs anyone besides me wondering if Mohammed purposely set up a scam, then was surprized it took root?
jay
Posted by: Jay Stevens at February 17, 2004 8:26 AMPLEASE, PEOPLE--it is ethics, moral codes, that teach the difference between "good" and "not good," and not religion per se.
Ethics is one of the four major branches of philosophy. In pagan antiquity, ethics did not play a significant roll in religion. Worshippers had a much more "contractual" agreement with their gods: "You do this for me, and I'll do that for you."
For ethical guidance, the ancients of Greece, Rome, Arabia, etc. turned to philosophy, a secular discipline like mathematics, literature, etc.
With the advent of Christianity, ethics was incorporated into religion itself, as it was later into Islam.
There is no greater appeal for any religion than its ability to tell you that you are "moral." No living human being can tolerate being "immoral."
We must remember, that despite the differences (and they are substantial) among us, the morality that unites us is the fact that OUR moral code rests upon acknowledging LIFE as the fundamental value from which the rest of our moral code is derived. In a general sense, this is true of most major religions--Buddhism, Christianity, Confucionism, Judaism, etc.--but it is not in the case of Islam, which has chosen DEATH as the fundamental value from which it derives the rest of its moral code.
That's why they have declared war on us; their moral imperative is to make us like them or kill us. Threat, not persuasion, is their tool of choice when presenting their particular moral code.
People, this is not the time for us to compete over whose ritual best expresses morality, but to join together solidly in the recognition that we, who value LIFE, are engaged in the defense of our very existence against those who value DEATH.
Three cheers for the "Golden Rule," guys! We are ALL--Jews, Christians,agnostics, Buddhists, atheists, Hindus, etc.--facing the same threat, and ALL of us are fighting for survival in the face of the Death Mongers!
We either focus on what we have in common, or, as has happened in the past, our divisions will weaken us, and enable our enemy to conquer us.
Posted by: cubed at February 17, 2004 1:00 PM
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