No one, of course, has bothered to check what is being taught in the local mosque. That just might provide a clue. “A Norway Town and Its Pipeline to Jihad in Syria,” by Andrew Higgins, New York Times, April 4, 2015:
FREDRIKSTAD, Norway — The real trouble started when they stopped causing trouble. Torleif Sanchez Hammer and his friends — all residents of the same small cluster of clapboard houses in southern Norway — had been having run-ins with the police for years but then suddenly halted their marijuana-fueled gatherings in the basement apartment of Mr. Hammer’s widowed mother.
Police officers in this placid Norwegian town had busted their marijuana parties so regularly that “we knew them all on a first-name basis,” recalled Ragnar Foss, head of a local police unit responsible for youth crime. But, two years ago, they cleaned up their act. “We wondered what had happened but were glad when they dropped off our radar,” Mr. Foss said.
One by one over the following months, Mr. Hammer and at least seven other young men who lived on or around just one street, Lislebyveien, made their way to Syria to wage jihad alongside the Islamic State and other militant groups.
As Europe tries to fathom such journeys by its young Muslims, politicians and scholars have variously blamed the influence of the Internet and radical mosques, or sources of despair like discrimination and unemployment.
But the subterranean currents that pushed so many young men to Syria from Lisleby, a Fredrikstad district of just 6,000, stand out as an example of a phenomenon none of those theories can explain: Why it is that certain towns, and even small areas within them, generate a disproportionate number of jihadists?
It “is a big puzzle,” said Jon Fitje Hoffman, director of strategic analysis at Norway’s domestic intelligence agency, the Police Security Service, known as PST. It is also one that has flummoxed security services from Denmark to Germany to France….
Those who did go, he added, had shown no previous interest in Islam. “None of them ever even mentioned religion when we knew them,” said Mr. Foss, sitting in an office piled with confiscated water pipes and other drug paraphernalia.
“The only thing they had in common is that they did not function in society,” he added. “But they wanted to be able to do something, to be good at something.” Radical Islam, he said, “offers a whole package.”
“It is ready and all you have to do is accept it,” Mr. Foss said.
Out of place and searching for purpose, Mr. Hammer and his friends did so with gusto. He converted to Islam — after being raised Roman Catholic — and changed his first name from Torleif to Abdul.
“He was reading, reading, reading all the time,” his mother, Rebecca, an immigrant from the Philippines, said, waving a copy of the Quran she found in her son’s bedroom, along with his prayer beads, a knitted skull cap and an electronic device that recites Islamic prayers.
“He said he wanted to fix himself after too much disco, too many girlfriends and too much smoking,” she said.
Mr. Hammer first popped up in police reports when he started stealing Mercedes-Benz hood ornaments as a young teenager. In his zeal to change course, he suddenly started spending hours each day at Lisleby’s only mosque, annoying worshipers, mostly immigrants from Somalia, with self-righteous lectures on how to pray properly.
The mosque leadership finally asked him to leave.
“He has only been a Muslim for two years and I have been a Muslim my whole life,” Warsame Mohamed Saleban, a director of the Lisleby mosque, said.
Did the Times make any effort to determine what is taught at this mosque, and distinguish what it teaches from what Hammer believes?
Also attracted by the certainties and a sense of superiority offered by radical Islam was Samiulla Khan, who lived just down the road from Mr. Hammer and often attended his basement parties. He also went to the school attended by the soccer star, Mr. Chaib, a mixed vocational and regular high school called Greaker.
The son of immigrants from Pakistan, Mr. Khan, according to people who knew the family, felt out of place not only among Norwegians but also among fellow Pakistanis. His father, a convicted murderer, brought further shame on the family after his release from jail by killing a woman while driving drunk. The father declined to comment.
Another schoolmate of Mr. Chaib’s was Abu Edelbijev, whose family had emigrated to Norway to escape the war in Chechnya in 2002.
A keen athlete and bodybuilder, Mr. Edelbijev complained a lot about Russian brutality in Chechnya and Israeli treatment of Palestinians. But he liked and felt loyal to Norway, whose military he wanted to serve but was unable to join because of a bad eye, according to family members.
He used to pray regularly at the local mosque but, after Mr. Chaib’s death, mostly avoided the mosque and began spending more and more time in Oslo, they said. Where he went in Oslo is not known, but the city has a number of mosques and meeting places frequented by activists from Prophet’s Umma and other radical groups.
After one of his visits there in 2013, his mother discovered three new iPhones stashed in his bedroom. She did not make much of this at the time but now thinks the phones were part of preparations for travel by himself and others to Syria. He also borrowed money to buy a Mercedes, the car he would later use to drive across Europe into Turkey and then to the border with Syria.
In August 2013, while his parents were on vacation in Tunisia, he sent them a text message: “Please don’t try to find me. I have made my choice.” He was on his way to Syria.
Before his departure, Mr. Edelbijev hectored Mr. Hammer, who lived a short walk away, and his friends about their marijuana habit and their failure to observe the teachings of Islam.
Mr. Foss, the police officer, said the lectures seemed to have an impact as Mr. Hammer stopped hosting drug parties. He said he picked up reports that Mr. Hammer and his dropout friends were suddenly showing a curious enthusiasm for religion and reported this to the PST, the security agency.
Their sudden fervor, he said, struck him as odd but did not stir great concern. “When they disappeared from our radar we thought: ‘Oh, that’s good.’ ”…
Of course. To have thought otherwise would have been “Islamophobic.”
Jay Airahs says
Clearly, if you let the fox live in the chicken coop, feathers will be ruffled before morning.
Georg says
“He was reading, reading, reading all the time,” his mother, Rebecca, an immigrant from the Philippines, said, waving a copy of the Quran she found in her son’s bedroom, along with his prayer beads, a knitted skull cap and an electronic device that recites Islamic prayers.”
Well, this is awkward. Is there a CNIR?
Duck says
Islam, koran, jihad…what could possibly be the connection and answer?
particolor says
They Might be looking in the wrong places ?? Have they tried the Christian Sunday Schools yet ?
Shane says
Most liberals will say that there is no connection. Are they really that clueless or are they just afraid of being called an Islamophobe?
Peggy says
Too afraid of being called an Islamophobe. They’ve gone in too far and cannot admit now that they were wrong the whole time.
Some are that stupid that they can’t see anything but many are now ashamed.
mortimer says
Here’s the clue for those geniuses: STUDY GROUPS.
When Muslims join STUDY GROUPS they learn the foundational texts that no one normally studies or learns about. The mosque-attenders do not study Islam, but merely bang their heads and go home. They don’t learn anything about Islam.
Muslims in STUDY GROUPS learn about the DUTY OF JIHAD.
Got it, people?
xxxchurch100 says
Dear Mortimer,
Do you think the saying ‘ It is like banging your head against a brick wall ‘ , may have originated from mosque prayer etiquette ?
.. it would make perfect sense …I note that woodpeckers have a similar head banging practice.
Regards
Lia Wissing says
From a retired teacher: what books did they study? Normally, it’s not only the qur’an, but the Saudi-exported textbooks as well.
Fatherjon says
I’m beginning to understand the mindset of Anders Breivik a bit more now, not that I could ever condone his killing of so many innocent kids. But the reasons for his paranoia are clearer.
Caroline says
The Saudis have seeded their vile strain of Islam throughout our western societies and our politicians are paid to look the other way. Not paranoia, fact. I don’t agree with Ander Breivik’s actions, but I share his concern.
Gea says
Ir is not PARANOIA when they are REALLY out to kill you! The Norwegians had lost their mind for allowing this scourge on Islam into its midst. Where they so bored and cold in their good society that they needed Muslims how rape their women (100% of all strangers rapes are done by Muslims) and craziness?
Shane says
Yes, if he had stuck to killing only the traitorous politicains who flooded his country with Islamic supremacists, he would have been hailed as a hero by many anti-jihadists around the world.
duh_swami says
Did any of these ‘pot heads’ have jobs? Who ever loaned the little savage money to buy a car, got stiffed…It’s too bad no one over there listen to Marie Harf like they do over here.
rcourtemanche says
It seems that the Mosques… Imams… are failing to deter their clients from the evils of Islam. They’re likely not trying hard enough.
Carlos Dangerc says
It was encouraging to see that so many of these soldiers of the Caliphate have been killed in action. I’d gladly contribute fifty dollars to fly more of these guys & gals (one way only) to serve the Caliph in the hope that they end up as a sack of bones bleaching in the desert.
Dazzle says
We should remember that thanks to equal opportunities policies there are committed Islamists in positions of power in the UK Civil Service and throughout Local Government, the BBC, other media and the voluntary sector.
There are also those who have converted to Islam but have kept their conversion quiet in order to better serve their new master.
There are many thousands of Muslim millionaires in the UK and much of the money they may donate to charities often finds its way to Madrassas in both Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The latest Pew Research report forecasts that the population of Muslims in the UK will increase by 260% by 2050 and that of the 6.6 million increase in the UK general population nearly 75% of that increase will be Muslims. In Norway an increase in Muslim numbers of 290% is forecast
In my experience many otherwise rational and well educated people either cannot bring themselves to accept that Islam is a huge threat to our democratic way of life or they are so afraid of what may happen they refuse to consider the possibilities.for themselves, their children and their grandchildren.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has given a commitment that the UK police will be obliged to monitor “Islamophobic crime” should the Conservatives be returned to power in the national elections in May.
There are various UK Islamic groups who, working together, think that they may be able to influence the UK general election outcome because of high concentrations of Muslim voters in between 20 and 30 parliamentary seats.
They hope to gain political capital and potentially be hidden kingmakers in a hung parliament. They may seek to persuade many more Muslims to vote and it would be the socialists (Labour, SNP, etc) who could benefit
Our troubles are just beginning.