And so he went to wage jihad in Syria. He didn’t think his obligation to go to jihad was fulfilled by taking the kids to school or going to the gym. This looks like a job for Hamas-linked CAIR: to disabuse young Ali of his misunderstanding of Islam! No doubt Ahmed Rehab and Ibrahim “Honest Ibe” Hooper are on their way to the Pankisi Gorge right now to set this lad straight!
“We Kists Haven’t Executed Anyone, Says Syria Veteran From Pankisi,” by Joanna Paraszczuk, RFE/RL, April 29, 2015:
A resident of Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge who claims he fought alongside militants in Syria says that his fellow ethnic Chechen Kists who joined armed groups in that country have not taken part in execution-style killings, and that they went to the Middle East to help defend Muslims.
In a wide-ranging interview with Zviad Mchedlishvili of RFE/RL’s Echo of the Caucasus in Tbilisi last week, the militant — who gave his name only as “Ali” — spoke about why Pankisi residents go to Syria, who helps them and what they do when they get there….
Among the claims made by Ali is his assertion that no one is actively or openly giving money to fund young Pankisi residents to go to Syria, because of fears that if a recruit dies fighting in the Middle East, his family will start a blood feud with the recruiters….
Asked why young men from Pankisi had gone to fight in Syria, Ali explained that it was the duty of Muslims to protect their co-religionists. The fighting in Syria was not “terrorism,” he said.
“First of all, Muslims live in the Pankisi Gorge. When somewhere in the world — not just in Syria, Chechnya or Afghanistan, it doesn’t matter where — when women and children are being killed there, Muslims have to go to war. In Islam, it says that you’ve got to protect them. When an unbeliever, that’s what we call it, an unbeliever, goes at least 10 centimeters onto your land, then it’s already ‘fard’ [a duty] to go out on the path of jihad. Because all Muslims believe that they have to go to jihad. It’s not terrorism.
“Those who don’t know this and who don’t understand Islam and jihad, they see it differently. Like, they say, people go there [to Syria] to murder, they go for money, and so on. It’s not like that. If you ask any Muslim what’s jihad, he will reply that it is the highest level of Islam. Muslims don’t fight against women and children, they are fighting only against those who oppose them with weapons. People want to be martyrs. Martyrs are the highest level in paradise, this is the highest thing given by Allah. The Koran says [martyrs] are at the highest level in paradise,” Ali said.
RFE/RL: What would you say to the parents of those young people who are going to Syria? After all, many of them are opposed to their children taking part in fighting in the Middle East. What do you think of their opinion?
Ali: In any event, the parents who don’t know about Islam and what it is — those, of course, are opposed. They are opposed to their sons going to jihad, because in their opinion this is a foreign war. But those who know Islam very well, they are not against it, on the contrary, there are people [in Syria] who live there with their families, even with little children, who were born there. But that does not mean that everyone has to go. Whoever has the possibility and who thinks that this is fard, he definitely must go. But today it is fard for everyone, because it is evident throughout the world that everyone is coming out against Islam. And the most important thing, if they [the parents] aren’t controlling their children then no one is forcing them, they just have to control their own. That’s what I think….