From aspirations of owning a gas station to blowing up ten infidel-laden jets
Here’s an article about Rashid Rauf (just killed, see below) from over a year ago. Like many others Misunderstanders-of-Islam, he seems to have believed that jihad (of the militant variety, mind you) is “obligatory for every Muslim.” Also, like many other jihadists, he seems to have become “radicalized” in the West, citing the latter’s “un-Islamic” — synonymous with debauched and depraved — qualities. Interestingly, however, Rauf’s friend says the former was planning on becoming a simple gas-station owner, and yet, over a year later, we find him as a fugitive on-the-run living in an al-Qaeda stronghold. The obligation of jihad must have returned to haunt him — either that or he or his friend or both were just lying about the gas station bit.
“Jihad obligatory for every Muslim: Rashid Rauf,” from the Daily Times, April 17, 2007:
ISLAMABAD: The alleged mastermind of the London terror plot, British-born Pakistani Rashid Rauf, believes that jihad is obligatory for all Muslims, and after release he wants to live in Pakistan and set up a Compressed Natural Gas station in Jhelum, Mehboob Ilahi, Rauf’s fellow prisoner, told Daily Times after being released late Saturday night.
“Rashid wants to live in Pakistan because he is against the un-Islamic British society,” said Ilahi, who spent six months with Rauf in a sub-jail of Police Civil Lines in Rawalpindi. “An Islamic conference attracted Rauf towards Pakistan. He is a very pious Muslim,” said Ilahi.
“Rauf told me that he was arrested during a journey to Multan at Lodhran Phatak when a man sitting with him in the bus asked him [Rauf ] what his opinion was on jihad and he replied that he believed it was every Muslim’s obligation,” said Ilahi. He said Rauf had not been arrested in Rawalpindi as previously reported, but instead had been apprehended at Lodharan Pathak on August 8.
Ilahi, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal National Assembly member Maulana Abdul Aziz’s brother, was reportedly arrested on August 25, 16 days after the foiling of the London terror plot. The government had provided terror charges against him but he was released after the Supreme Court review board found him innocent. “Rauf and I were kept in a very small cell. The police did not even provide enough water for us to perform ablution,” said Ilahi. “Investigation personnel have badly beaten Rauf during interrogations and once he lost consciousness for three days following a beating,” Ilahi added.