We see this again and again: a young person converts to Islam and ends up joining the jihad. Non-Muslim authorities have completely ignored this phenomenon, as it raises questions that are uncomfortable for them about the nature of Islam and the Qur’an, the content of instruction in mosques for converts, and mosque teachings in general. The Christian churches should have programs to equip young people to deal with the appeal of Islamic proselytizing, but they wouldn’t dare, as that might harm the “dialogue.” And so the mosques will convert many, many more young non-Muslims in the West, while the churches and the secular society nod and smile and pat themselves on the back over their “diversity” and “multiculturalism,” and many, many young people like Oliver Bridgeman will destroy their own lives and the lives of the Infidels they target.
“Toowoomba teenager’s journey to Syrian war zone stuns community,” by Neil Doorley, Greg Stolz, Tom Snowdon, and Rose Brennan, The Courier-Mail, May 16, 2015 (thanks to Kenneth):
Oliver Bridgeman seemed like an ordinary everyday teenager to his peers.
OLIVER Bridgeman loved rugby league, the beach and dreamed of being a doctor or lawyer.
Then he found religion.
Stunned friends of the former school captain yesterday revealed the talented teen’s disturbing transformation from talented student to terrorist.
The Courier-Mail’s revelation that Bridgeman has fled to the Middle East to fight for al-Quaida [sic]-linked terrorist group the Al-Nusra Front, under the name Yusuf Oli, has shocked family and friends.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!’’ one stunned friend said yesterday.
“We knew he had gone a bit strange but never imagined he would do anything like this. He was just a kid who loved school, football and music.’’
Another friend said: “He’s a really good guy and smart too but obviously the wrong people have been in his ear and he’s been led down the wrong path.”
Bridgeman grew up on the Gold Coast and attended Coombabah State High, where he was named school captain last year. He was living with his aunt on the northern Coast.
But it is believed he was pulled out of the school last year by worried parents and moved back to his family’s home in Toowoomba, where he transferred to Harristown High.
Facebook pictures show him posing happily with classmates at the school graduation ceremony last November.
The Courier-Mail has been told Bridgeman converted to Islam after becoming friends with several Muslims at school. “They weren’t radical Muslims but he may have been influenced by older men,” a friend said.
“Everyone was becoming more and more worried about him but no-one thought he would do this (join the jihad).”
A woman whose son played junior club football on the Gold Coast with Bridgeman said the school became concerned at his growing interest in Islam and contacted her. “They were worried he could be groomed,” the woman, who did not want to be named, said.
The woman said she believed Bridgeman was worshipping at the local mosque at Arundel but Gold Coast Islamic Society president Hussin Goss said he did not know the teen.
The day we hear an imam say about a jihad terrorist, “Yes, I knew him well, he was a very active member here,” will be the day the skies open up and the trumpet sounds.
“He was a smart kid who liked to discuss politics,’’ the woman said.
“He’d stay at our place on weekends and when he wasn’t playing football, he’d be studying. If we went to the beach, he’d rather be at the library.”
Social media pictures from Bridgeman’s account, where he is connected to family members, shows he travelled to Asia two months ago, playing soccer with local children in Indonesia, and partying at a street parade.
But another Facebook page set up around June 2014 under the name Yusuf Oli shows Bridgeman socialising with young Muslims in Toowoomba and at prayer session at a hall that, he said, acts as a mosque.
On this account, he is pictured posing with other Harristown High students giving a one-finger salute used popular with Muslims, including terror groups, and a caption “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great). But he also condemned extremism on the Facebook page.
“Extremism is as a result of lying against Allah, for when the extremist fails to produce evidence and interpretation, he resorts to lying against Allah to fulfull his whims,’’ he posted. “Do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth.”…
Authorities piecing together his movements in the months leading up to his journey to jihadism believe he was brainwashed, possibly by extremists who targeted him online.
He radicalised – possibly in a matter of months, even weeks, authorities say – after being moved to Toowoomba by his parents, who grew alarmed after he converted to Islam while studying Year 12 on the Gold Coast.
In June 2014, the teenager is believed to have setup a Facebook page under the alias Yusuf Oli.
Photos published online show him socialising with young Muslims in Toowoomba and at prayer sessions in a hall. He is also pictured giving the one-finger salute popular with Muslims, including terror groups, and captioned “Allah Akbar (God is great)”.
Bridgeman was the school captain at Coombabah State High, and a promising rugby league player.
He completed Year 12 at Harristown State High in Toowoomba last year. That school had to be evacuated yesterday following an unrelated bomb threat.
After converting to Islam about 15 months ago, he attended the Garden City Mosque in Toowoomba where Islamic leaders say he “didn’t interact much with the community”.
“I don’t know much about him,” spokesman Professor Shahjahan Khan said….
If he had said anything else, I would have fainted dead away from the shock.
KrazyKafir says
I wonder what it was that attracted this nice you man to the Islamic State? Was it the never-ending head chopping, burning people alive , the none stop rape of Christian women? So many attractions for a nice normal boy.
spot on says
The boy was probably an msnbc viewer that switched to Al Jazeera.
bobm says
Weeds can grow in any garden.
lacey says
what a bunch of wallies ,they can stick their index finger up their ass.
sencit says
Which is probably where it has been!
Doc says
“…programs to equip young people to deal with the appeal of Islamic proselytizing, but they wouldn’t dare, as that might harm the “dialogue.””
We’d have such programs if we just had sane anti-terror policies. We’re on our own here.
PRCS says
“if we just had sane anti-terror policies”
IMO, the first step would be to call it jihad instead of terror.
“Terror” is a rather generic concept.
While working at a convenience store many years ago, I was robbed at the point of a rifle, and let me tell you, it was terrifying!
Calling it jihad, when it’s jihad, leaves little doubt as to the meaning.
Lilithwept says
Sayi g that we have a war on “terror” is like sayi g we have a war on bombs. Terror is a technique, a tool. We should be concentrating on the cause…..Islam, but of course, that isnt Politically Correct, and it isnt in the spitit of multiculturalism and saying that its Islam would affect cultural cohesion! There, did I use enough “Left Language” to make you believe me? (Sarcasm)
Doc says
“…Gold Coast Islamic Society president Hussin Goss said he did not know the teen.”
Of course he doesn’t. *sigh*
Westman says
You know, those really tall sandy-blonde kids with a name like Bridgerman just don’t stand out at the Mosque…
The guy next to him has no face – it must be Muhammad ! Well, there is a 1/3 probability that one of his names is some form of Muhammad.
voegelinian says
Also:
“…he attended the Garden City Mosque in Toowoomba where Islamic leaders say he “didn’t interact much with the community”.
“I don’t know much about him,” spokesman Professor Shahjahan Khan said….
PRCS says
“Extremism is as a result of lying against Allah, for when the extremist fails to produce evidence and interpretation, he resorts to lying against Allah to fulfull his whims,’’ he posted. “Do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth.”
What a load.
What is his personal definition of “committing excess” in Islam?
Is it literalism; attempting to comply with the Qur’an’s every unabrogated word? The Qur’an says what it says; amputations and all. Which of its passages does he think should be ignored to avoid this “extremism”?
Angemon says
Or, as Jeffrey Tayler wrote recently:
“violence is an emergent property deriving from Islam’s inherently intolerant precepts and dogma. The rising number of ethnic Europeans mesmerized by Islam who set off to enroll in the ranks of ISIS attests to this”
Huh, exactly what “extremism” is he condemning? The “extremism” of the islamic state or the “extremism” of muslims who condemn (even if only for the sake of appearances) what the islamic state is doing?
JeffS says
“The wrong people have been in his ear and he’s been led down the wrong path.” “He may have been influenced by older men,” ““They were worried he could be groomed.” “He was brainwashed, possibly by extremists who targeted him online.”
All these type of statements paint Oliver as a victim with no control over his own actions. Do any of these people even fathom the idea that he was a willing participant? That he chose this path himself? And as a convert, it is even more likely to have been his choice, since he wasn’t brought up in Islamic society. Somehow in this “progressive” age of ours, we must always think of perpetrators as victims.
voegelinian says
Yes exactly. The tendency to ignore positive factors in various aspects of the problem of Islam, and instead impute negative, external, passive factors. seems common throughout the Western mainstream (and even at times in the Counter-Jihad).
Jacksonl03 says
“Then he found religion.”
That sorta says it all.
Anna says
No different then than the ” smart” kids back in the seventies who flirted with communism. I remember them well. It was supposed to be ” cool” they were not the fun-loving teenagers I preferred to hang out with. I thought the commies were boring and so politicised they were like middle-aged people. I was into sport, dance and drama .
now Islam is the cool thing to get into ? Again, no fun ?! Uniform for identification : nightgowns over jeans, beards and burkhas when it used to be very long mostly unwashed hair , and Levi’s lee jeans (they had their brands I remember which I could not afford!) and slogan commie t-shirts sporting mass murderers Mao or Che etc.
What else is new ?
Westerners must get their kids off those darned computers. This is a major problem, not enough excercise which everyone needs to balance brain and body.
And it is worse today than it ever was.
voegelinian says
Yes, very much like the romanticization of Communism. Islam has become the new way for disaffected Westerners cut adrift psychologically & culturally from their connection with their civilization to find “meaning”, through the new meaning offered by Islam — which also happens to involve a sense of “justice”, helping the underdog, and providing ultimate truth about life.
However, what makes this supremely, bitterly ironic is that the process of being cut adrift from Western civilization is massively, industriously facilitated, in myriad often subtle ways, by Western culture itself, though its modern Self-Criticism-cum-Self-Flagellation — the flip side of its irrational fetishization of the non-Western Other. (And the Muslim in this process has become the Mother of all Others…)
voegelinian says
dumbledoresarmy is doing exactly what I was talking about — focusing on the negative empty vessel problem, and ignoring any positive (ideological) content & intent that may also be an important factor explaining someone like Master Oliver.
Angemon says
voegelinian posted:
“dumbledoresarmy is doing exactly what I was talking about — focusing on the negative empty vessel problem, and ignoring any positive (ideological) content & intent that may also be an important factor explaining someone like Master Oliver.”
Huh, voeg? I know I’ll never knock you off your hobby-horse, but what DDA wrote is true.
Anna says
Not really ironic. But expected as, what you describe was through leftist culture. And still going strong!
Their self-hating, West-hating, prosperity-hating , Judeo-Christian-hating tactics have borne fruit as they did back then. Get everyone discontented , destroy faith and the churches and get them searching indeed for a meaning. one they wont find at home.
Plenty of opportunists around to exploit them.
Anna says
Above comment in reply to Voeg
dumbledoresarmy says
But this kid *was* into fun stuff. did you even read the article? – “He was just a kid who loved school, football and music.’’
See that? “Football and music”.
What happened to him was that he was dawa’ised at school, by Muslim kids…and behind those kids are their parents, their extended family, and the mosque.
Let’s never forget how damn good at deception/ seduction Muslims are; how skilled at lying, how clver at detecting and exploiting physical and psychological weak points. And that kids reared in non-Muslim homes – and this probably applies more to those reared in good, “nice” homes rather than in rough homes on the wrong side of the tracks – are *not* primed to recognise that sort of manipulation and deceit. Here in the West, I think most of us take most of the people around us at face value. We *don’t* assume first up that whoever we’re dealing with might be lying their faces off. Islam is a Cult and they are *clever* at sucking people in, in those circumstances where they aren’t yet strong enough to simply *force* and terrorise them.
I’d like to know whether his parents knew that he had Muslim friends, and whether those “friends” ever visited his home, or vice versa. I’d like to know exactly how old he was when he converted. I’d like to know whether his family of origin was secular, or at least nominally Christian. The great tragedy here is that he wasn’t evangelised by Christians!
There have been other cases like this, of teenagers from non-Muslim homes – and not *criminal* homes, not *criminal* kids – being pulled into Islam by Muslims, at high school.
one billion down the drain says
Australia in the recent budget is spending over 1.1 billion in “de-radicalisation” programs against the “death cult”…see how politicians can’t speak the truth about this issue…dealing with euphemisms. Here’s a “radical” idea…how about stopping Islamic immigration to western countries?
Thereby idiots such as this Toowoomba boy aren’t exposed to evils of Islam and the 1 billion of tax payers money that is put into “de-radicalisation” can instead be utilised for schools, hospitals etc. Islam is a trojan horse eating our societies from within. The west has produced everything from phones, philosophers, to central heating to computers. Islam has produced nothing but death and violence for over 1000 years. It is about time someone in public life stands up for the truth before it is too late. .
Lilithwept says
You are SO right!!!! But get this….muslims are trying to re wright history to make it look muslims discovered all sorts of things, influenced just about everything. For those of us who know and love history some of their efforts are hysterically funny but extremely frightning at the e same time. Go to WWW. Lostislamichistory.com for a prime exa,ple of this.
And then there is the idea that muslims are trying to convince us non muslims that in Islamic Spain it was some sort of religious utopia. That all religions, Muslim, Christians and Jews all lived together equally and happy. Muslims are trying to say the ame to a lesser degree about parts of the Ottoman Empire. I believe this is first, another example of the Muslims percieving themselves as superior, that their religion, culture and countries all superior in every way to Western religions, cultures and countries. But secondly, i cant help but think that by portraying Christians and Jews all living hapily and equally under Islamic Rule, Islam is trying to sooth non muslims fears and convince us that life under Islamic Rule, now, in this time, would be a great thing, that it would solve many of society’s problems that the West has grappled with for a long time.
But of course we can look at the 2 countries completely under Islamic, Sharia laws, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and see what life is like for on muslims there. And then look at the other countries partially under Islamic,Sharia Law and see again, what life is like for on muslims. An example that has been in several news articles recently is how the Christian Copts are treated in Egypt.
Or we can look at the Ottoman Empire and The Conditions Of Omar. Google this to see an example of the Dhimmie contract non muslims must live under…
Islam doesnt discover or in ent anything because “innovation” of amy kind is viewed with suspicion for dear it would lead to something haram and Un Islamic. Islam most certainly doent solve any of society’s problems. In fact it causes all sorts of problems, both in Western countries and on Islamic majority countries.
Islam’s goal for 1400 years has been the Islamification of the entire world. ( with the possibility of a few hold out Christians and Jews on Shimmie contracts used for the huge Jizya tax they muct pay that is income for an Islamic state) . Nothing at all has changed, Islam still wants to infect the world, and it is being patient, waiting when it is weak and surging ahead when it is stronger. And Islam is carefully planning for the future, is carefully and stealithly creeping into every aspect of our lives. Islam plans to take over Europe and America without a military action. I read the prediction that at the current rate of growth Europe will be completely Islamic by 2050.
Islam is using the Wests laws, freedoms and tolerance against us.
Islam is an agressive political system with the thinnest veneer of religion, and it is that thin skin of Religion that is its main protection against the West banning it and declaring war on it.
The West, America at least, will not acknowledge that Islam is the problem because then it would have to acknowledge that it is at war with 1.57 Billion people, as of Jan. 2011….That is 23% of the world population. Google what happens in a country as the population of muslims inside it grows. the results are truely horrifying. But I dont think we need to be at war with all muslims, but I have no idea how to seperate the MINO ( muslim in name only) from those who support ISIS or terrorism with money, transportation, shelter or just their silence in not speaking up and denouncing them, and those muslims that are actively planning an act of violent terrorism against us. And there is overlap in all 3 groups. We also have to take into account the Islamic tenant of Taqqiiyah or lieing or doing whatever is necessary to futher the cause of Islam, the end justifies any means.
And if that werent enough then there is the Sunnah of Mohammed’s example in signing treaties. He says if he fears treachery he is justified in reaking the treaty, that treaties are for when muslims are weak and need time to build up strength, and finally if he signs an agreement then finds something better, he is justified in breaking that agreement and taking the better thing!
These are some of the things the current administration, media and muslims dont want you to know……
JamesonRocks says
As my Father was fond of saying, “You’re only as good a parent as your worse child.”
dumbledoresarmy says
That’s only a half truth and you know it.
Do you really imagine that all children are infinitely, permanently programmable? That the character of the parents totally determines how the kids turn out…lifelong? That all good parents will always have good kids who do the right thing, make the right choices, lifelong…and that if any one of their kids turns out wrong, does something evil or foolish, well, that *proves* they were actually bad parents? And conversely, that any kid born to and raised by bad parents is, well….a lost cause, totally incapable of rejecting their parents’ bad choices and making different choices??
Are you a parent yourself? And if you are, how old are your kids? Are you *sure* that you can permanently program your kids to turn out *exactly* the way you want them to, and to stay that way, for the next seventy years, and never, ever, ever put a foot wrong?
Nut job says
Let him go, there are many more like him. I hope he asked his recruiters, why are they not blowing themselves up as well, since it’s the path to paradise. Or is he satisfied he’s being used by his so called brothers, to die at their command, just like the other Aussie lad, who blew himself up without any casualties.
Such a waste, just don’t let him back in the country.
Baucent says
Sadly for him and his family, he will be of little use to ISIS except as a suicide bomber. That’s the fate of most Western converts that turn up all wide eyed in Syria; “cannon fodder”.
Marcus says
He is a good looking kid. He’ll probably end up in one of their chasmatic massacre videos slicing heads of Christians. It’ll be a hoot for ISIS getting someone born into a Christian heritage to slaughter Christians.
He comes across as fairly socially ept as well, so as long as he keeps his ISIS pals entertained they will probably let him hang around; once they bore of him he’ll be sent on a suicide mission….
rcourtemanche says
What’s at the root of such phenomenon? Searching for life in all the wrong places? However, we all know that our system of democracy is broken with poor economic and good life prospects for the future.
RG says
This kid is tragically a product of how deceitful and vile islam really is. The mosque where he was ‘radicalized’ is undoubtedly fast at work to recruit more just like him. Hey, why blow up potential jihadis from middle eastern countries when they can get the ‘infidel’ Westerners to it do themselves?!?
Mark says
The problem is simple! Any person no matter how much the seem normal will joing any of these cults like islam or christianity if the have the kind of personality that can be told what is true without thinking for themselves . Its exactly the same as people who believe in Ghosts, psychics or faith healers. Its a certsin type of person and althouggt i dont know all of the traits i believe one of them is that these kind of people dont really stop to question things enough and once they start to believe will never ever change their mind not matter how much its shown to then their is absolutely Zero evidence for their belief. I truly believe Robert Spencer is not this kind of person.
dumbledoresarmy says
You do know that Mr Spencer is a practising Christian, of the Greek Melkite Catholic tradition?
Mark says
Yes i am fully aware of what Robert Spebcer says he is . I believe its to keep Christians supporting him which unfortunately doesnt seem to be the case right now
Mirren10 says
”The problem is simple! Any person no matter how much the seem normal will joing any of these cults like islam or christianity … ”
Here we go again. Yet another atheist who makes atheism into a religion.
I’m agnostic myself, but I can see there is a vast chasm between islam and Christianity, in terms of teaching, tenets, and the behaviour of it’s adherents. Also in the behaviour, character, and deeds of Jesus Christ and mohammed.
There is no tenet in Christianity which mandates death for leaving it, or that teaches non-Christians should be murdered.
mohammed murdered, raped, tortured and stole. He urged his followers to spread islam by the sword.
Christ healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk. He never raped, tortured, or murdered anyone. He enjoined on his followers the Golden Rule, and never advocated the spreading of Christianity through violence.
” … if the have the kind of personality that can be told what is true without thinking for themselves.”
It is islam that enjoins its adherents to blind submission without thought; in fact **discourages** and **punishes** any form of critical or original thinking, not Christianity.
Christianity *encourages* critical thought, and doesn’t punish, threaten, or murder those who question it.
”Its exactly the same as people who believe in Ghosts, psychics or faith healers … these kind of people dont really stop to question things enough and once they start to believe will never ever change their mind not matter how much its shown to then their is absolutely Zero evidence for their belief.”
Psychic researchers, **scientists**, have been examining, empirically, psychic phenonema for **decades**. The existence of evidence for some types of psychic phenomena is fairly well documented, although reasonable minds may differ on the strength of the evidence.
It is **you** who appear to have a closed mind, my friend.
Mark says
RG Islam is definitely worse than Christianity but as far as deceitful to recruit believers , they ade both as bad.
You have a these preachers making millions ripping desperate people off and parents drumming some bullshit stories into their own childs mind telling them that god exists because they seem to think it does. How sick to do this to a little kid , it is very sad
dumbledoresarmy says
Nonsense.
Hypothetical.
Suppose this kid, at high school, instead of hanging round with those smiling, flattering, lying Muslim kids and going off to their mosque, had been befriended by some Christian kids and joined a Scripture Union bible study group, or gone off to a Christian camp, and decided to become a full-on evangelical Christian (I’m assuming he was either from a secular or a nominally Christian background; of course, I could be wrong; maybe his family were churchgoers …but the stupid reporters aren’t asking about this sort of thing, and we can’t know unless we’re told). Hey, what if he’d made friends with some Coptic Christian immigrants – they’re very upfront about their faith – and decided to go along to *their* church?
Would he still have gone haring off to Syria to join a jihad gang and chop off heads and rape little girls? NO.
Would you need to worry that he might come home and then slit someone’s throat in public a la the murderers of Lee Rigby? Would ASIO and the AFP have to worry about him hatching plots to kill people en masse in public places, by bombs or guns, if he’d become a redhot churchgoing Christian rather than a redhot jihad-waging Muslim? NO.
That’s what matters, from a grimly practical POV.
Mirren10 says
”RG Islam is definitely worse than Christianity but as far as deceitful to recruit believers , they ade both as bad.”
What rubbish.
I have Christian friends, who, because they’re fond of me, would like me to become a Christian. They and I have fascinating discussions about the Bible, Christ, the history of Christianity. Not **one** of them has ever tried to ‘deceive’ me as to the tenets of Christianity; in fact they have encouraged me to read the Bible for myself, to question and criticise it’s content, to read Christian writers, and differing points of view.
I remain agnostic, but my friends have never threatened me with death because I cannot believe in God.
”You have a these preachers making millions ripping desperate people off …”
Certainly, there are venal and hypocritical Christian ‘leaders’ who do this; people like Jimmy Swaggert come to mind. But they do this in direct **contravention** of the tenets of Christianity. Greedy and morally compromised people are capable of twisting anything to their advantage.
” … parents drumming some bullshit stories into their own childs mind telling them that god exists because they seem to think it does.”
Naturally parents try to guide their children towards what they believe is right.
Christianity teaches the Ten Commandments, the very foundations of civilised society. Do you think a child should be a tabula rasa, exposed to no ethics whatsoever, such as being taught it is wrong to lie, steal, cheat, murder ? What kind of human being would that produce ?
A Christian parent will bring up their children in the tenets of Christianity, but if the child/children reject, in adolescence and adulthood the tenets of the faith, the parents don’t then murder their children as apostates.
It doesn’t appear to me that you have given a great deal of thought to anything, but simply cling to your mantra that all religions are approximately the same, and equally bad.
Jerry says
Maybe he was just influenced by the utterings of the Pope?