Here are two Australian brothers who converted to Islam; one ended up in an Afghan military camp. Like John Walker Lindh, they seem to have no sooner accepted the Religion of Peace that they began to misunderstand it. How is it that those who converted them weren’t able to prevent this? How is it that they missed all the allegedly peaceful and tolerant passages of the Qur’an that we keep hearing so much about? What are allegedly peaceful and pluralist Muslim organizations doing to ensure that new Muslims are properly instructed about the supposedly peaceful true Islam?
“Forced end to Islamic studies,” from the Herald Sun, with thanks to Snowman:
THE brother of a Victorian accused of terrorism has returned to Australia after studying Islam in Pakistan.
Zaid Kent and his brother Shane grew up in a middle-class Australian family and both converted to Islam in the mid-1990s.
Shane, who adopted the Islamic name Yasin, trained in an Afghan military camp where he allegedly met al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2001.
He is now one of 10 Victorians facing charges of belonging to a terrorist group.
Zaid Kent returned to Victoria last month from a Pakistani Islamic school days before a deadline set by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf for all foreign Islamic students to leave the country.
There had been criticisms that foreigners were being indoctrinated into Islamist militancy.
No allegations have been made against Zaid Kent, but he has been spoken to periodically by Australian security authorities.
“He has been under scrutiny for years, like anyone else who has gone to study Islam in Pakistan,” a source said.