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

Captured U.S. jihadi says joining the Islamic State was a “bad decision”

Mar 18, 2016 11:39 am By Robert Spencer

“A young American man accused of fighting for ISIS said it was a ‘bad decision’ to go to Iraq and that he was trying to get home when he was captured by Kurdish forces earlier this week.” Would he think it was a bad decision if he hadn’t been captured?

“Alleged American ISIS Member: I Made a ‘Bad Decision,'” by Jon Williams, Kirit Radia and Alexander Marquardt, Good Morning America, March 18, 2016:

A young American man accused of fighting for ISIS said it was a “bad decision” to go to Iraq and that he was trying to get home when he was captured by Kurdish forces earlier this week.

Speaking to the Kurdish news outlet K24, the man identified by Kurdish officials as 26-year-old Mohamad Jamal Khweis of Virginia, said he ended up in Mosul, a large ISIS-controlled city in Iraq, after meeting a woman.

“At the time I made the decision, I was not thinking straight. On the way there I regretted, and I wanted to go back home after things didn’t work out and saw myself living in such an environment,” he said. Khweis said conditions in Mosul are “very difficult.”

“I stayed there about a month, and I found it very, very hard to live there. I decided to return back home,” he said. According to Khweis, he regretted “going off with Daesh,” an alternate term for ISIS, and was trying to make contact with Kurdish forces when he was captured Monday.

Khweis said he attended a mosque in the U.S. “but not that frequently.” As for how he got to ISIS-controlled territory, Khweis said he left the U.S. in December and went to Europe. “I first went to the London. I stayed there not that long. From there, I moved to Amsterdam, where I stayed about a week.”

Later, Khweis went to Turkey and there he met an Iraqi girl. He stayed there for some time, he said. “We spent some time together, and she said that she is from Mosul, Iraq. I don’t know the exact places we passed by, but we arrived in Mosul on January 16,” he said.

At the end of the interview, Khweis addressed the American people directly and said, “Life in Mosul is really, very bad. The people who control Mosul don’t represent a religion.”…

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Filed Under: American jihadis, Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) Tagged With: Mohamad Jamal Khweis


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 11:55 am

    So…joining ISIS was a BAD THING with its horrible list of 1-No Golden Rule, 2-No free speech, 3-No democracy, 4-Jihad – holy war of supremacism, 5-Honour killings, 6-Taqiyya – sacred lying, 7-Taqlid – group think, 8- Misogyny – repression of women, 9- Rape of kafirs as jihad, 10- Genocide, 11- Ethnic cleansing, 12- Al-Walaa wal-Baraa – apartheid, 13- Torture, 14- Plundering, 15- Cruel and unusual punishments, 16- Backwardness, 17- Violence against women, 18- Slavery 19- Discriminatory Sharia law 20- Hatred of the arts 21- Pedophilia disguised as child marriage 22- Fifty generations of cousin marriage and genetic defects 23- Cruelty to animals 24- Extortion tax to humiliate disbelievers 25- No historic basis 26-Anti-intellectual obscurantism 27- FGM 28- Arab racism 29- Theocratic totalitarianism 30-Vigilantism.

    However, being a Muslims is a GOOD THING with its 1-No Golden Rule, 2-No free speech, 3-No democracy, 4-Jihad – holy war of supremacism, 5-Honour killings, 6-Taqiyya – sacred lying, 7-Taqlid – group think, 8- Misogyny – repression of women, 9- Rape of kafirs as jihad, 10- Genocide, 11- Ethnic cleansing, 12- Al-Walaa wal-Baraa – apartheid, 13- Torture, 14- Plundering, 15- Cruel and unusual punishments, 16- Backwardness, 17- Violence against women, 18- Slavery 19- Discriminatory Sharia law 20- Hatred of the arts 21- Pedophilia disguised as child marriage 22- Fifty generations of cousin marriage and genetic defects 23- Cruelty to animals 24- Extortion tax to humiliate disbelievers 25- No historic basis 26-Anti-intellectual obscurantism 27- FGM 28- Arab racism 29- Theocratic totalitarianism 30-Vigilantism.

    I’m so glad Mohamad Jamal Khweis of Virginia explained the difference between ISIS and ‘real’ Islam for us.

    Thanks again, Mo!

    • pdxnag says

      Mar 18, 2016 at 12:34 pm

      A Jihadi need only read JihadWatch to learn all he needs to learn about Islam. The only difference is the prompting that Islam is Bad versus Good.

      We could not ban Islam without also banning JihadWatch, so banning makes no sense at all.

    • Gail Griffin says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 5:28 am

      Send that to him.

    • elana says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 6:45 am

      Good post – may I use it on other sites?

  2. Jay Boo says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 12:05 pm

    Wearing white socks with black pants is a ‘bad decision”.
    Acting like a pious Muslim is disgraceful.

    If he were truly sincere he would tell Muslim converts that Islam all by itself is a bad decision.

    “Becoming a Muslim is the best decision you will ever make” said the imam.

  3. BW022 says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 12:18 pm

    I’m tired of “young” being put in stories as if it excuses his behaviour. The man is 26 years old. You put young in front of a young teen or child who is otherwise less responsible for their actions because they lack the knowledge, experience, and independence from their parents. It is one thing to point out someone pulling a puppies tail is a young child (as a reason or excuse for the behaviour, i.e. didn’t know any better)… it is another to say “young American” to a 26 year-old. Sorry… at that age you have reached a mental and physical age where your brain is fully-formed, you are out of your parents influence, you have experience of the world, and you have enough knowledge from school, parents, and life to be responsible for your actions.

    Just say “American”. Don’t quality it as if 26 year-olds are poor children.

    Finally… this family is sickening. Saying none of your family are terrorists when one of your sons has been caught in Iraq fighting for ISIS is obvious lying. If this was something you didn’t know of or approve of… then say it, “We lost touch with him years ago” or “We weren’t close after he started talking about X”, etc. Instead an outright denial in the face of irrefutable evidence.

    • Karen says

      Mar 18, 2016 at 12:42 pm

      Re, “young American”, agree, all the news reports seem to be using this soft language. And language matters, and helps form perceptions. One report even injected a bit of gentle humor calling Khweis the “wrong way Jihadi”. Funny if you’re talking about a football player, not so funny in this case.

      • Mark Swan says

        Mar 19, 2016 at 12:48 am

        BW022 and Karen…Absolutely Agree.

    • DFD says

      Mar 18, 2016 at 1:09 pm

      BW022 says; “I’m tired of “young” being put in stories as if it excuses his behaviour. The man is 26 years old…”

      You know in Sweden they’d probably refer to him as an infant. There the age limit for “unaccompanied children” refugees (Mujahiroun on Hijra) is 40 years. No kidding.

    • underbed cat says

      Mar 18, 2016 at 6:27 pm

      Unfortunately age does not always mean maturity or a mind free of cultural or family influence. So the more the truth gets out the less the immature get snagged by bad pious ideas, otherwise known as islamic doctrine.

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 12:39 am

      BW022 wrote:

      I’m tired of “young” being put in stories as if it excuses his behaviour. The man is 26 years old.
      ……………………

      Important point, BW022. Mohammedans in the West are considered “youth” until they are almost ready for their AARP cards…

      And here are the “children”:

      “Just how old do you think these migrant ‘children’ are? Alarming pictures of refugees – including ‘the fastest 14-year-old in Sweden’ – that shed light on a growing scandal amid Europe’s asylum crisis”

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3422000/Just-old-think-migrant-children-Alarming-pictures-shed-light-growing-scandal-amid-asylum-crisis.html

      The man–not boy–in the first picture looks old enough to be these Swedish children’s father–yet he has been accepted as an “unaccompanied minor”.

    • Manual Paleologos says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 10:18 am

      I’m tired of “young” being put in stories as if it excuses his behaviour. The man is 26 years old.

      Roger that I had had a Rifle Platoon and a Mortar Platoon by that age, Young my arse.

    • Gea says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 4:32 pm

      ALL MUSLIMS who still stick with Mohammedan teachings of Koran, Hadith and Sira are LIARS, just as B. Hussein Obama is a grand master of taqiyyta and kitman, which are also taught as a strategy to conquer kuffr (derogatory name Muslims use to denote non-Muslims, who are considered inferior to all Muslims).

      Islam ITSELF is the ROOT CAUSE of terrorism and violence nowadays and should not be allowed into USA. the number of Muslims had tripled since 9/11/2001 and so did numbers of mosques. US state department is grateful for Muslim contribution to population control, provided by 19 Saudis in plunging planes into WTO, and Pentagon ;-)! How great is Saudi King of Barack Hussein Obama, to whom he bowed ;-)!

  4. Karen says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 12:35 pm

    It was a bad decision? So if life in Mosul had been as pleasant as a Washington DC suburb, would he have stayed?

    “The people who control Mosul don’t represent a religion.” Oh, and yes, he didn’t attend mosque very frequently……hahhahahahahaha, right. I see he’s been given the script to read.

  5. Angemon says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 1:59 pm

    Speaking to the Kurdish news outlet K24, the man identified by Kurdish officials as 26-year-old Mohamad Jamal Khweis of Virginia, said he ended up in Mosul, a large ISIS-controlled city in Iraq, after meeting a woman.

    Many men meet many woman throughout history. How many ended up fighting for a terrorist organization as a result? Also, under Western feminist rules, that qualifies as misogyny. Well, it would, if it were a while, male Christian saying it.

    • Mark Swan says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 12:54 am

      Yep

  6. Mark A says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 2:16 pm

    I have my doubts about whether he would still think joining ISIS was a bad idea if he had not been captured by the Kurds.

    He says he went to Mosul with an Iraqi woman he met in Turkey. If this was some romantic encounter, why would the couple not stay in the relative safety of Turkey, instead of going to Mosul where it is no secret that ISIS is in charge? I’m not buying it. He would have had to make a deliberate decision to go to Mosul, which he had to have known to be ISIS territory.

    My first impression of his statements is that he is now trying to save himself from a lengthy jail sentence in the U.S.

    I hope the U.S. authorities throw the book at him. Let’s see what he has to say when he’s on trial.

    • Angry Aussie says

      Mar 18, 2016 at 7:22 pm

      He’s a Muslim. They all master victimhood. Taqiyya time (again).

  7. Tom W Harris says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 6:15 pm

    In an official statement, ISIS declared, “He phuqued up, he trusted us.”.

  8. linnte says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    I think it is a brilliant ploy by IS to sugar coat “moderate” Muslims in the USA and Europe by saying IS is not “religious” and are not following the Qur’an! He will be sent home, go to trial and proclaim how wonderful American Muslims are compared to IS. Leftists will say “See? This guy has been there. He knows and all you bigoted right-wing racist people are wrong”. His time in prison will allow him to encourage prisoners to become Muslim. Stealth Jihad perfected.

  9. Bezelel says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 7:02 pm

    Traitor, aiding the enemy. Not American, never was and never will be. And now isis can call him a deserter. He should be given back to isis just like bergdahl.

  10. Kepha says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 10:44 pm

    Sounds like some of those 1940’s vintage Communists who went to supposedly “independent” Yugoslavia and ended up regretting it. Sounds like some of those idealistic “kids” who went to Communist China in the late 1970’s and 1980’s and came home to write articles like, “China Stinks”.

    However, I suspect that all those here asking whether being captured by the Kurds made a difference in Kiwi’s thinking are probably right.

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 1:14 am

      Oh, it’s even worse than that, Kepha.

      While they had to be in a lot of denial, there actually were deluded Westerners who thought places like Yugoslavia and Mao’s China were idyllic places.

      But the *Islamic Stare*? Even foolish dhimmis who believe Islam is a “religion of peace” understand that the Islamic State is a very bad place, replete with beheadings and sex slavery and other horrors, even if they don’t understand why this is.

      The only type of person who would go off to the Islamic State expecting something good is a pious Muslim who actively condones this barbarism.

      • Kepha says

        Mar 19, 2016 at 9:55 pm

        It’ll probably get worse. I doubt whether either Cruz or Trump can break the Democrats coalition in 2016. I foresee eight years of Shrillary Shroooooooo as POTUS (and perhaps the successful theft of the White House china at the end), and the further stupefaction and self-degradation of my country.

  11. gravenimage says

    Mar 18, 2016 at 11:43 pm

    Captured U.S. jihadi says joining the Islamic State was a “bad decision”
    …………………..

    Right–just the same kind of “bad decisions” all young people are prone to make, like smoking weed or drinking too much beer or posting embarrassing pictures on Facebook–really, nothing worse…sarc/off

    • Mark Swan says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 1:10 am

      Yep…That all there is to it…mixed-up kid…hanging with the wrong croud…that kinda-thing.

      • gravenimage says

        Mar 19, 2016 at 1:15 am

        Yup.

  12. G P says

    Mar 19, 2016 at 12:22 am

    ‘Khweis said conditions in Mosul are “very difficult.”’

    D’ya think?

    You have bagged the comforts of Western society and sought to destroy others overseas. You have then regretted not having those comforts anymore by those who would use you as cannon fodder because they know how gullible you are.

    You should not be allowed back into civilized society, even in an orange jumpsuit. You’re a nasty, lying , vicious turncoat and neither Americans nor isis will trust you. You made your bed – now lie in it.
    ,

  13. Manual Paleologos says

    Mar 19, 2016 at 10:13 am

    He is an unlawful combatant. Quick General Court Martial followed by a noose.

  14. Kathy R Lyon says

    Mar 19, 2016 at 11:21 am

    I hope they keep him. Should not be allowed back in the US. This is TREASON! All would be jihadists should face the death penalty for acts like this. Look at how the COMMIES have gotten rid of the death penalty for TREASON. We used to execute TRAITORS for this.I would love to see all muslims expelled. The Kurds can keep him, and I SUPPORT the Kurdish people in their struggle. They are our allies, and sadly, Obama will not support them, as they are our natural allies…SAD!

  15. Andrea Clark says

    Mar 19, 2016 at 11:53 am

    Was it a bad decision before or after he was caught?

    • Peter Brock says

      Mar 19, 2016 at 2:43 pm

      Who cares? He’s a HERO in my estimation!

      Who among this list of know-it-all’s NEEDED to have been CAUGHT to learn a lesson? But, wasn’t and are now gold-plated HYPOCRITES?!

      What do you want to do, lynch him?

      Never mind. I know the answer…

      • Peter Brock says

        Mar 19, 2016 at 2:44 pm

        Go ahead! Get him on video, Robert?

        Is anyone there?????

  16. Bridget Ames says

    Mar 19, 2016 at 2:48 pm

    I buy the fact he believes it was a bad decision but not for the reasons he should. Being westernized he was raised with some common decency when it came to interacting with others, but I am sure he was exposed to all of Middle eastern culture over there meaning when he went into a tent with his own shoes and bags he as a westerner expected to be able to leave with his own shoes and bag un-searched but their customs are intrusive and there is no privacy or individualism which are all things I am sure this young man has had in the west. That would be a huge shock and something I could see someone young and immature relating to as a bad decision. However the very important fact is that I am sure that he has little to no remorse for other evils perpetrated over there that did not effect him personally, because if he did, he would call Islam out for what it is, a blood thirsty murderous cult that enslaves people. What ISIS is, is Islamic, but in his statement of it does not represent religion, I can agree to that if one distinguishes that Islam is an Ideology not a religion. If it were religion it would have faded and no longer be practiced, but because it is political it continues it’s violence.

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