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.