• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” “A mujahid.”

May 2, 2015 2:43 pm By Robert Spencer

They’re training the next generation of jihad terrorists at the Red Mosque. The Red Mosque enjoys wide support in Pakistan, and when the government moved against it, its “intervention only seemed to strengthen public support” for the Mosque. It enjoys such support because its teachings resonate with what all too many Pakistanis believe, but no one wants to discuss that fact or consider its implications.

“Meet the Next Generation of Terrorists Who Support ISIS,” by Marlow Stern, The Daily Beast, May 1, 2015:

Among the Believers, a chilling new documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, opens on a terribly cute 5-year-old boy. His father has just abandoned his mother, leaving him alone in the world, so he’s turned to Abdul Aziz Ghazi, known to his acolytes as Maulana Aziz.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” the cleric asks.

“A mujahid.”

“Do you remember those sermons we taught you?”

The little boy stands up, and unleashes a big smile.

“I seek Allah’s refuge from Satan. I begin with the name of Allah the most merciful. Look at the sacrifices of the martyrs of the Red Mosque.” His calm demeanor turns violent, as he begins yelling and shaking his miniature fist in the air. “We will destroy you if you attack us! You cannot enter here! You cannot conquer us! You cannot! And if you dare to enter here we will destroy you in the name of jihad!”

With that, the little one smiles, and turns to the cleric, seeking paternal approval.

“Well done.”

Directed by Hemal Trivedi, a Hindu from India, and Mohammed Ali Naqvi, a Pakistani Muslim, Among the Believers chronicles five years behind the walls of Lal Masjib (Red Mosque), a controversial madrassa in Islamabad, Pakistan, that prepares Muslim children as young as 5 for jihad. It’s the home base of the Red Mosque Madrassa Network, which comprises 30 schools and an army of 10,000 students spread across Pakistan.

Built by the government in 1965, and named for its red interiors, the Red Mosque made front-page headlines when, on July 3, 2007, a bloody standoff ensued between students barricaded inside the mosque and Pakistani police, who accused members of the mosque of everything from kidnapping and murder to terrorism. A shootout commenced, and 20 people were killed. Amid the carnage, Maulana Aziz was arrested by Pakistani authorities as he was trying to flee the scene in a burqa, and immediately after, in a truly surreal moment, was paraded in front of live news cameras and forced to remove the burqa in front of a nationally televised audience.

“He lost credibility, but he also gained credibility,” co-director Hemal says. “Looking at the way he was publicly humiliated, other people said, ‘Look at what happened to him! If we surrender, we’ll be humiliated, too.’”

On July 10, 164 troopers from the Pakistani Army stormed the Red Mosque, killing an estimated 50 jihadis But the government intervention only seemed to strengthen public support for their cause, with Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s former longtime No. 2—and the group’s leader since the death of Osama bin Laden—releasing a video message on the raids saying, “Your salvation is only through jihad.”

The Red Mosque also has named its central library after bin Laden and, on November 29, 2014, the extremist all-girl students of Jamia Hafsa, a madrassa in the Red Mosque Network, released a video in support of ISIS, urging all Pakistani jihadis to join forces with the terrorist organization. Maulana Aziz refused to condemn the video, instead remarking, “I don’t know why these boys are reluctant to say that we support the organization which wants to implement the Islamic system.”

Then, on December 16, 2014, seven Pakistani members of the Taliban attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, massacring 132 schoolchildren in what remains the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of Pakistan. Maulana Aziz also refused to condemn that attack, leading to massive protests against the Red Mosque.

“It was only until the Peshawar attack where the tide started to turn, and almost everyone in Pakistan condemned those terrible attacks, and the Red Mosque for not condemning them,” says Mohammed.

Inspired by the Mumbai terror attacks, carried out by militant Pakistani Muslims, which claimed the life of one of her closest friends, Hemal began shooting footage for Among the Believers in 2009. Since she’s an Indian woman, she went to the madrassa disguised as “Hanna Khan,” a Pakistani Muslim from Dubai. She said she got access to shoot there a few times, but was soon tipped off that she was “being watched.” She needed a Pakistani Muslim to gain access, so in stepped Mohammed, a mutual friend.

According to Mohammed, the crew got access to interview and shadow Maulana Aziz through the film’s co-producer, Syed Musharraf Shah, who comes from a conservative Pakistani Muslim background, and has loose ties to the Red Mosque. It took the filmmakers a while to build up trust with Maulana Aziz, so the bulk of the footage inside the mosque was shot in 2013 and 2014. They were not, however, allowed to film any female members of the Red Mosque.

“He’s pretty narcissistic,” Mohammed says of Maulana Aziz. “If you look at all his interviews they’re all the same sermons, but we wanted to know what it was really like at the mosque.”

The film spends the bulk of its time trailing two 12-year-olds. One, a girl named Zarina, escaped the Red Mosque by jumping over a stone wall, leaving her burqa behind. She said the girls were fed “one slice of bread a day” and were beaten if they set foot outside the mosque’s walls.

“I am scared. What if they come here? They don’t want peace. They just want to kill. They will never let anyone live in peace. They are not Muslims. They are infidels,” says Zarina.

After her escape, she moved back with her family in a destitute village on the outskirts of Islamabad, delighting in attending a progressive school funded by an American NGO consisting of Pakistani ex-pats. But unlike the palatial Red Mosque, the school faced numerous funding issues and was forced to close its doors. Left with no choice according to custom, Zarina’s parents forced her to marry at 14.

“Pakistan is a deeply divided country,” says Hemal. “There’s a fringe minority of extremists who are taking over the majority of moderate Pakistanis, and the Pakistanis’ way of life is under threat. The biggest battleground in Pakistan is in the area of education. It’s a battle for children’s minds.”

The other child is Talha, who is on the opposite end of the spectrum. He becomes very invested in the Red Mosque—to the horror of his parents, who desperately want him to leave, worried that he’s becoming too extreme and myopic in his beliefs. “I get to go home once a year,” says Talha. “They wake us up a half-hour before dawn. Then we memorize the Quran until we go to bed at 9 p.m. All this hard work will pay off when we die. We will go to heaven and wear a special crown.”

Despite the extremism of his teachings, the film provides as balanced a portrait as possible of Maulana Aziz, blaming larger systemic problems within the Pakistani government and economy, which has largely failed its people, for creating the vacuum the radical cleric occupies.

“We wanted to give him his fair due,” Mohammed says. “If you wanted to make a polemic on Islam and show a crazy, bearded dude who’s frothing at the mouth and declaring jihad everywhere, you can go to Fox News and go see that.”

Really? Where and when? And if a crazy, bearded dude is frothing at the mouth and declaring jihad everywhere, is there something wrong with reporting about it?

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, Pakistan Tagged With: Lal Masjid, Maulana Aziz, Red Mosque


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Daniel Triplett says

    May 2, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    Just a short matter of time before the maniacs overrun the ammo dump, or an apocalyptic PM bent on pleasing Allah unleashes Armageddon.

    The Pakistani nuke arsenal needs to be destroyed yesterday.

  2. Champ says

    May 2, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    “Your salvation is only through jihad.” — headline

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Question: “Is Jesus the only way to Heaven?”

    Answer: Yes, Jesus is the only way to heaven.

    More here:
    http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-only-way.html

    • Daniel Triplett says

      May 3, 2015 at 3:21 pm

      Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
      –John 14:6 New Living Translation

  3. Lynn says

    May 2, 2015 at 4:16 pm

    “It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose it’s law on all nations and to extend it’s power to the entire planet”. Hasan Al-Bana founder muslim brotherhood
    And he meant it then as they mean it now.

  4. Rob says

    May 2, 2015 at 5:43 pm

    ‘Well done – and now be a good boy and lift your shirt’

    • EYESOPEN says

      May 2, 2015 at 10:58 pm

      Exactly. This young boy, already contaminated with the evil of “jihad”, is very apt to become a plaything (use your imagination) in the hands of this puke imam.

  5. Peter Buckley says

    May 2, 2015 at 5:53 pm

    The demise of Islam has begun.

    Atheism growing in Pakistan:

    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/782/the_rise_of_atheism_in_pakistan

  6. nicu says

    May 2, 2015 at 11:26 pm

    This show how evil Islam is and always was – there won’t be Peace with them !

    Get them out of our countries ASAP !

  7. RICHTHOFEN says

    May 3, 2015 at 4:10 am

    That’s the trouble with muslim children, these days – they blow up so quickly!

  8. RG says

    May 3, 2015 at 9:03 pm

    Why, oh why, for all the world, do I find this scenario reminiscent of a rare video of Adolf Hitler toward the end of the war, when he is shown reviewing a company of teenage boys in full Nazi uniform, telling them how brave they are to fight for Nazi Germany? Truth is, Germany was drafting old men and little kids toward the end of the war – MONSTROUS! AND ISLAM IS NO DIFFERENT!!!!

  9. Joseph says

    May 3, 2015 at 9:15 pm

    What they didn’t tell him is:
    “You are NOT going to grow up, you will die a horrible death if you keep on the path of Alan”

  10. sidney penny says

    May 3, 2015 at 9:25 pm

    “Pakistan is a deeply divided country,” says Hemal. “There’s a fringe minority of extremists who are taking over the majority of moderate Pakistanis, and the Pakistanis’ way of life is under threat. The biggest battleground in Pakistan is in the area of education. It’s a battle for children’s minds.”

    I always thought that education was the key.Yes it is a battle for the child’s mind or the students’s mind which is why education at universities and high schools and what is taught there is so important and the west faces a losing battle here.

    That is why Robert Spencer is doing such a good job with this website and his excellent talks.

    Yes what you need is people who are factual,honest, informative, logical, do not practice hypocrisy or double standards.

    Robert Spencer fits the bill.

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on Erdogan: ‘Turks must defend the rights of Jerusalem, even with their lives’ for ‘the honor of the Islamic nation’
  • gravenimage on Erdogan: ‘Turks must defend the rights of Jerusalem, even with their lives’ for ‘the honor of the Islamic nation’
  • Walter Sieruk on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • gravenimage on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • James Lincoln on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.