“Banned from smoking and made to study religion eight hours a day, Khweis said, he soon reached out for a friend to help facilitate his escape.” The Washington Post doesn’t want to tell you this, but the Islamic State didn’t make Khweis study Buddhism or Hinduism or the collected works of Mircea Eliade. Khweis was studying Islam, and only Islam. You might even get the idea that the Islamic State had something to do with Islam, if we didn’t have so many imams such as Obama, Kerry, Cameron and Pope Francis around to tell us otherwise.
Sometimes the mainstream media inadvertently reveals the truth: “The yearbook from his senior year lists him as having participated in no extracurricular activities. Friends have said he was a soft-spoken teenager who wore designer shoes and showed no signs of being a particularly devout Muslim.”
What’s that? Being a “devout Muslim” has something to do with wanting to join the Islamic State? Ordinarily the Washington Post would deny that the Islamic State had anything to do with Islam, and excoriate anyone who dared to say otherwise. Then, many paragraphs into a respectful profile of an Islamic State terrorist (a profile more respectful than the WaPo would ever publish about a foe of jihad terror), we discover that the Post actually knows the truth: that the Islamic State is very Islamic, gives its jihadis intensive instruction in Islam, and attracts Muslims who are devout. If Obama reads the WaPo this morning, he might get the vapors.
“American ISIS fighter who ‘found it hard’ returns to face criminal charges,” by Matt Zapotosky, Washington Post, June 9, 2016 (thanks to Patrick):
Mohamad Khweis never stood out in any particular way. The Alexandria man graduated from Fairfax County’s Edison High School, earned a degree from Northern Virginia Community College and worked as a teller at an area bank.
He racked up more than a dozen traffic and other petty charges, but in nearly every case, he quietly paid his fine or performed his court-ordered community service. He told a Kurdish broadcast outlet that he left the United States in December, as any American might, to travel to London.
Then, over the course of a few months, Khweis joined and then quickly fled the Islamic State terrorist organization, after which Kurdish peshmerga forces captured him. Early Thursday morning, he was flown back to the United States, where he will be charged in federal district court in Alexandria with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, according to U.S. officials familiar with the case.
It is unclear precisely what U.S. law enforcement thinks Khweis did during his time with the Islamic State; the charges are expected to be unsealed later Thursday. Before he left the United States, he was unknown to the FBI. But the 26-year-old son of a limo driver and cosmetologist described his time overseas himself in a video on Kurdish TV, saying that he ultimately decided it wasn’t to his liking.
“I found it very, very hard to live there,” Khweis told Kurdistan 24….
According to a recent congressional report, more than 250 Americans have tried or succeeded in getting to Syria and Iraq to fight with militant groups — though that figure includes even those who never left the United States. American officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, estimated recently that about two dozen have been killed in Syria and another two dozen are still fighting there.
Kurdish peshmerga forces said they first fired on Khweis when they encountered him near the border town of Sinjar, then took him into custody….
According to his own account on TV and to several people who knew him, Khweis was born and raised in Virginia, his Palestinian parents having come to this country more than two decades ago. He attended Fairfax County’s Mark Twain Middle School and Edison High School, graduating from the latter in 2007.
The yearbook from his senior year lists him as having participated in no extracurricular activities. Friends have said he was a soft-spoken teenager who wore designer shoes and showed no signs of being a particularly devout Muslim.…
It remains unclear what attracted Khweis to the Islamic State. In the video posted on Kurdistan 24, Khweis said he traveled to Turkey via London and Amsterdam, and there he met an “Iraqi girl” in Turkey who said she knew someone who could take them into Syria. He decided to follow her, he said, and after a circuitous journey, he soon found himself undergoing intensive religious and legal instruction in Mosul.
Khweis, who said in the video that he attended American mosques infrequently, claimed he immediately regretted his decision to go with the girl, and he particularly did not enjoy his time in Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq and the Islamic State’s main stronghold in the country.
Banned from smoking and made to study religion eight hours a day, Khweis said, he soon reached out for a friend to help facilitate his escape.
“My message to the American people is — the life in Mosul, it’s really, really bad,” Khweis said.

linnte says
Maybe he will find Jesus in prison. And I bet he was appalled at the real Islam.
OT: I watched the movie”World Trade Center” with Nicholas Cage and man it really got to me. It made me realise all these years since 9/11, I have not really grieved about it. I sure did shed tears last night. We are truly at war with Islam yet nearly every American I know has forgotten that gut wrenching day.
mortimer says
No! He did not denounce ‘REAL ISLAM’. He will probably be extremely religious in jail! He is still a jihadist, but he is too ‘soft’ to be a soldier.
linnte says
Ah, you are correct Mort! But let’s still pray he finds Jesus! ?
Jay Boo says
Maybe he will turn against Islam and its empty life of filth as so many others have done before him.
gravenimage says
I agree with Mortimer here–I see no reason to think this Jihadist is actually rejecting Islam; he just thought ISIS was making him work too hard.
gravenimage says
Linnte, another film I would recommend is Paul Greengrass’s fine “United 93”. This movie never got much attention–probably because too many people were not ready to deal with it–but it is quietly devastating.
Its portrait of those who fought the Jihadists and probably saved the Capitol Building (or possibly the White House, depending on targets) is moving and inspiring.
linnte says
I saw this one right after it came out. Those men on that plane were hero’s! It also made me cry, but I had no understanding of the reason for 9/11. Now that I know, it hits home much harder. It could have been prevented if US politicians had been informed about Islam and even today they aren’t. Thanks Graven! I appreciate you!
mortimer says
‘Kweis’ is not mad, not a psychotic and not on drugs. He is religiously motivated to ‘fight the people’ until they become Muslims…as Mohammed was commanded.
This is Islam’s ‘JIHAD’, rather than terrorism.
Note that ‘Kweis’ didn’t like the harshness of the experience of being in a war zone. HE DID NOT DENOUNCE THE JIHAD DOCTRINE! HE IS STILL DANGEROUS!
Jay Boo says
Islam is not complicated in the least.
I think he was lonely and searching for his Muslim identity through finding someone else to hate. That is all that Islam offers. Without an enemy the emptiness of Islam’s shallow theology of DUTY soon becomes a Feeding-Frenzy of bulging eyed Muslims turning on each other “For the sake of Allah”.
Islam is simple, real simple.
Pere LaChaise says
Good point, Boo. This Kweis fellow seems to have drifted into jihad out of sheer boredom. An unexexptional student, now working for minimum wage at a bank, parents low wage earners- he had no exciting future awaiting him back home in the States, so he hitches his inchoate dreams to the bloody star of Islamic jihad because… He’s got nothing else going on. I’m sure the Iraqi girl he met in Turkey had to pump him up for it a bit to make the final leg of the journey.
His unreflective response and lack of passionate reaction to the horror of it all, some of which he must have experienced, marks him as exceptionally passive and lacking affect. I suspect he’s been “radicalized” (sic) by exposure to online porn of violence and sexuality, his imagination strangled by digital information thrown at him through gadgets since early childhood.
He has nothing much to say about ISIS but then nothing else for that matter.
This portrait paints a bleak future of jihad becoming a cause for bored teens everywhere, just for the sheer hell of it. Instead of the fun of aesthetic rebellion that forming a punk rock band like teens in the 70s or 80s would, or even taking and selling drugs on the street, the promise of excitement and belonging that ISIS advertises is already captivating the dulled and foggy imaginations of losers of the Islamic stripe throughout the world. There is no cure for ennui like the promise of religious brotherhood in an army engaged in perpetual war.
greygandalf says
I totally agree – jihad can simply be a ” careere choice” for a young, bored, dissilusioned Muslim youth. What could be better than serving as a soldier for Allah, and the glorious triumph of helping to forge a new Caliphate?
These ancient ideals, plucked fully living from the pages of the Koran, have served the growth of Islam well, and fuelled the death of millions.
The reality is, war is a dirty business. There is no glory, just a reminder of how dangerous and stupid people can be, especially with such distorted ideals of looting, slavery, sex-slaves, supremacy and slaughtering.- totally selfish motives from the basest of human instincts.
gravenimage says
Pere LaChaise wrote:
Good point, Boo. This Kweis fellow seems to have drifted into jihad out of sheer boredom
………………………
Lots of people get bored–most of them don’t run off to join the bloody Islamic State.
Also, working as a teller is not some sort of degrading, dead-end job. It is at least semi-skilled, and is quite respectable. I had a friend who worked as a teller and was studying to get a degree in finance.
He had no desire to wage violent Jihad on slow days–but then, he was was not a ravening Mohammedan.
mortimer says
Khweis said, “My message to the American people is — the life in Mosul, it’s really, really bad”
Note the self-pity and victimology! He is telling Americans that life is bad in Mosul and IT IS THEIR FAULT!
Of course, Muslims always blame ‘others’, rather than themselves when they create a mess.
Jay Boo says
Mosul is a cesspit because it is full of other Muslims.
Two Muslims in a room equals a subtle chess game of one-upmanship.
Three Muslims in a room equals a BACK-STABBING contest.
DUTY SHAME
Muslims always end up turning upon each other when they have an opportunity to make another Muslim appear as though they are not as devout.
Angemon says
He should be facing charges of treason.
Keys says
Angemon: “He should be facing charges of treason.”
Exactly, Angemon. He’s 26 years old and joined an army of terrorists without uniforms. What if his 8 hours a day of “religious study” was really explosive training, and his mission is to kill infidels in America ?
Gary says
“My message to the American people is — the life in Mosul, it’s really, really bad,” Khweis said.
Bad as in…
ISIS placed 17 young girls who refused to be sex slaves in steal cages, soaked them in gasoline and burned them to death in front of a very large crowd.
…..allah. The (small) god of this world. Gaining “followers” by intimidation.
Jay Boo says
Allah is a Satanic goat
Tell the whole world that:
Muhammad is the Serpent of Satan.
John Marst says
“My message to the American people is — the life in Mosul, it’s really, really bad.”
Thanks for the tip, Khweis. But then, I wasn’t planning a trip to Mosul. Nor was I planning to enlist in the Islamic State. Just not an infidel thing, I guess.
gravenimage says
Notice this self-pitying Muslim did not denounce these girls being burned to death.
jihad3tracker says
Even the uber-lefty multicultural Washington Post writers and editors are finally permitting previously banned truth — in this case, “devout Islam”.
Let me suggest, as emphatically as possible, to all readers here: everytime we talk to, or write to clueless family, friends, clergy, and our national or state elected officials, use these descriptions —
DEVOUT ISLAM /// ORTHODOX ISLAM /// COMPLETE ISLAM /// FULLY FAITHFUL ISLAM.
That would be major pushback against the long propaganda war’s deceptive taqiyya, swallowed by oodles of our fellow citizens — AND THE PRIVILEGE-GUILT MORONS IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
David Wood’s short (4:56) video “The Jihad Triangle” would be an excellent verification of what this guy encountered in his 8 hour a day schooling. Please watch the video and send a link to as many persons as possible.
Have them pay close attention, viewing it when not distracted. At one point, David (in the voice of a jihad recruiter) says “Do you think you get to pick and choose which of Allah’s commands to obey — as if our religion is some sort of lunch buffet? Allah demands COMPLETE submission, and if you don’t obey you’re not a real Muslim — you’re going to Hell.
John A. Marre says
Being a devout Muslim means murdering, raping, burning things down, and cutting head off.
Ali Bey says
Mortmer: Jihad doctrines is the same than Koran Doctrine, Islam doctrine, Muslim doctrine Allah doctrine , Mohamed doctrine
Jay Boo says
That is an excellent point, Ali Bey.
Yes, there is no such thing as a Jihad doctrines — as a separate entity.
At first glance Mortimer’s phrasing of “Jihad doctrines ” seems harmless enough.
But, the repeated use of the word “doctrines” rather than “verses” implies a separate beast unto itself.
Technically there may be nothing wrong with occasionally using such an expression for convenience of summarizing certain verses but the way Mortimer frequently indulges in the expression seems as if he is suggesting it is separate from Islam.
linnte says
I almost always refer to Islamic Doctrine and Ideology when giving information about Islam, Qur’an, Hadith’s etc. Those terms encompass the WHOLE of Islam. So when I repeat Sura 9:29 and say Doctrine along with it, it means this verse IS part of the doctrine and Ideology. People naturally understand that there is more than just this one verse that represents Islam when including “doctrine and ideology” in the sentence. IMO.
Jack Diamond says
The Islamic State is quintessential Islam, from a caliph with a PhD in Islamic studies to how it trains each and every recruit:
“The secret world of Isis training camps – ruled by sacred texts and the sword”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/inside-isis-training-camps
“Sharia training varies from one member to another, depending on the group’s assessment of his value or loyalty. New recruits join training that ranges from two weeks, one month, 45 days, six months up to one year. Inside the camps, students receive a mix of military, political and sharia orientation, usually given by around five instructors. During training, recruits can be dispatched to checkpoints but not to the frontlines. After they graduate, they will remain under supervision and can be expelled or punished in case of noncompliance – including being lashed if they express reservations. In some cases, new members who struggle with the brutality of the group’s acts will be sent back to receive more training to “strengthen” their faith.
“You first get the basics about religion,” said Abu Moussa, an Isis-affiliated religious cleric in eastern Syria but originally from Aleppo. “They cleanse you from religious innovations and Ba’athist ideas. Issuing fatwas is restricted to clerics and nobody can kill without a fatwa unless in the battlefield. You also study Arabic and learn how to speak in standard Arabic if you don’t know.”
Clerics in charge of religious training at Isis, known as sharii, are mostly academically qualified and have longstanding experience within the organisation’s ranks. Isis also relies on young clerics who have recently joined its ranks to compensate for the shortage of imams to cover the approximately 20 mosques in every town that falls under its control.
These imams are generally asked to preach about three key concepts that are shared by all Salafi and jihadist groups, but Isis has its own take on their functionalities, namely tawhid (strict monotheism), bida’a (deviation in religious matters) and wala wal baraa (loyalty to Islam and disloyalty to anything un-Islamic).”
linnte says
We should ALL share this article with everyone we know and ask THEM to share it. Proof that Islamic State is about Islam. Thanks for this Jack!
Jay Boo says
Just another Jerk-hard wanabe warrior rapist attracted by the lust of raping nine year old virgin girls and burning them alive them in cages if they resist. He was following Muhammad’s example.
Cecilia Ellis says
Why does it take eight hours a day to learn the word “kill”?
SBJ says
‘He didn’t find it to his liking’….lmao…Did he think it was Club Med?
Ciudadano says
He doesn’t condemns ISIS ideology or atrocities. He just doesn’t like the uncomfortable way of life in Mosul. I wonder how many more share the same attitude.
ploome says
send him back to Mosul….don’t spend one dime on this POS
Gene says
After having to study Islam for eight hours a day there was hardly any time left to rape and behead infidels. No wonder he got fed up.
One has to wonder what kind of atrocities this guy was evolved with? And why he doesn’t mention any of it as a reason for leaving.
Jake says
So he left ISIS because life was hard, not because they rape and kill non-Muslims. And this is the s**t we are letting back into our country? I don’t want him in jail here, I don’t want him here at all.
gravenimage says
So true.
Michael Johnson says
I say leave the traitor over there and let Isis get him he made his choice
Troybeam says
In prison he’ll be sought out by other Muslims and his life of hell will be much worse, he’ll either bend or be subject to beatings and whatnot mentions of behind the door actions. He will regret his acceptance of Islam. Islam in prison is a rapid growth movement.
Dieter says
This whole story suonds like a fairy tale designed to appease Western authorities.Of course he is anti ISIS to minute he gets captured, I doubt an ardent ISIS soldier would survive capture by the Peshmerga.
“He met an Iraqi girl in Turkey”. A good Muslim supporter of ISIS who was travelling alone in a foreign country without father, mother brother..Only a dumb American would believe that.
gravenimage says
In the Islamic State, US Muslim was made to study Islam 8 hours daily
…………………….
Studying is *hard*, especially when you can’t smoke…
Notice this Jihadist does not say that he had any problem with the Islamic State hanging or crucifying children or using Infidel women as sex slaves.
I hope he isn’t simply welcomed back into the US.
Jake says
This man should never see the light of day out side of a prison, and his immigrant parents should be deported if they are involved in a Wahhabist mosque.
joscefi says
“,,,Khweis said, he soon reached out for a friend to help facilitate his escape….”
Well that seems like an quick and easy escape. How is that Yazidis and Christians
who were born in the region don’t seem to be able to emulate this simple method.
I guess it’s all in who you know.
In other words, it doesn’t pass the sniff test.