One might almost get the idea that Islam had something to do with jihad terror, if we didn’t have John Kerry and Theresa May and so many other learned imams to assure us otherwise.
“Russian suspect in Istanbul attack: a shy student who found religion,” by Maria Tsvetkova, Reuters, July 12, 2016 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
IKON-KHALK, Russia (Reuters) – When Rahim Bulgarov graduated from college in southern Russia with a diploma in tourism, his teacher expected him to go on to further study, or fulfill his dream of opening a car repair shop.
Instead, Bulgarov started going to the mosque with followers of a pious strain of Islam, and, according to a close relative and Egyptian security sources, went to Cairo last year to study Arabic.
Turkish state media have identified Bulgarov, 23, as one of the suspected suicide bombers who attacked Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on June 29, killing 45 people and wounding hundreds.
Several of the attackers were from Russia or ex-Soviet countries, making it the deadliest foreign attack by militants from that region since the Boston marathon bombing in 2013, carried out by two young ethnic Chechen brothers.
In the space of two years, Bulgarov changed from a shy young man who led a secular lifestyle to a suspected jihadist bomber, according to Reuters interviews with his teacher, an imam, a classmate and the close relative.
His case shows the challenges that Russian security agencies face identifying potential security threats out of the thousands of young people in Russia who are turning to ultra-conservative forms of Islam.
EGYPTIAN STAY
Three Egyptian security sources told Reuters Bulgarov spent 7 months and 12 days in Cairo, leaving in January this year, and that he signed up for Arabic classes at Al-Azhar University, an Islamic center of learning….
Bulgarov’s family home is in the village of Ikon-Khalk, a settlement of the Nogai people, a Turkic ethnic group.
His upbringing was comfortable. His father is a tractor driver. His grandmother owns a deli store in the village which, among other items, sells food cooked by his mother.
Putting Bulgarov through college to get his tourism diploma would have cost his family nearly $3,000, according to Mardjan Dagujieva, the director of the college, a substantial sum by local standards.
At the college, Bulgarov was shy.
“When he dared to say a word in class, that was already a shock for us,” said Yevgeny Romanenko, a classmate.
He said Bulgarov at that time smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol – both habits which are forbidden according to most interpretations of Islam.
His teacher at the college, Gor Kurginyan, said Bulgarov was one of his best students with a dream to start a small business.
“He planned to launch a car repair shop along a road in his neighborhood,” said Kurginyan.
Bulgarov graduated from the college in 2011, and his teacher expected him to either pursue the workshop plan or keep studying, maybe at university in the nearby city of Pyatigorsk.
But when Kurginyan met up with some of his ex-students about two years ago, he heard the unexpected news that Bulgarov had devoted his life to Islam.
“I asked the guys: ‘And how is Rahim?'” said Kurginyan. “They told me he had … turned to Islam.”
RECRUITS TO MOSQUE
After Bulgarov graduated from college, he had been working on a farm and in construction in his Ikon-Khalk, according to his close relative.
But the village was changing. In 2013 or 2014, young local men started visiting the mosque at the end of his street, drawn to practicing Islam for the first time in their lives, and in particular to a very strict interpretations of the faith.
This mirrors a trend throughout the North Caucasus. According to a report this year by the International Crisis Group, poverty, corruption and police crackdowns in the region have left many young people feeling angry and persecuted.
Some of them have been drawn to radical forms of Islam which they feel offers a way to address injustices.
“More people started going to mosque,” said the imam at the mosque in Bulgarov’s village, Abdulla Kumykov. “It had been very few, about 10 people at Friday prayer. And now it’s 40-50, (taking up) about half of the prayer room.”
When a Reuters reporter visited last week, several men in their 20s and 30s hung around the mosque. They refused to speak with the female reporter, and insisted she did not cross into the mosque’s courtyard, saying women were not allowed in.
The imam, who could not explain why there had been an influx of new worshippers, spoke to the reporter outside the perimeter of the mosque.
He said Bulgarov had first come to the mosque around 18 months ago, and had prayed there regularly until he left for Egypt….

Mong says
I’m from the UK and I think that there’s no problem here that a little compassion couldn’t put right. We all need warm feelings and most so called terrorists need warm feelings the most. We must learn to share our warm feelings otherwise the most in need of warm feelings won’t gat any warm feelings and might turn to darky warky feelings instead. Oh let’s share the warm feelings amongst our brothers and sisters who know not the feelings of warm. Peace out everyone xxx
gravenimage says
Sarcasm?
Pumbar says
Don’t forget the tea lights and little teddy bears.
Mirren10 says
I think Mong was being sarky.
Clue: ” We must learn to share our warm feelings otherwise the most in need of warm feelings won’t gat any warm feelings and might turn to darky warky feelings instead.” 🙂
Angemon says
I’ll help with that: it’s ALL of them.
Jay Boo says
The (True) Muslim — Facial Expression
Lock-eyed fanatics cannot long contain their furtive deeds beneath faces etched by months of pious indignation.
Islam’s ancient deadly desire for self-righteous lust is once again anointed with a layer of fresh bloodied dust.
abel & solomon says
Racism and Xenophobia (from The Undoing, for a free copy see below)
The Koran contains much racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic content, here’s a sample; (2:96) “you will find them (the Jews) the greediest of mankind”, (2:90) “evil is that for which they sell their souls”, (5:51) “Take not Jews and Christians as friends”, (5:58) “They are a folk that understand not”, (5:59) “…most are evil-livers,” (5:60) “…apes and swine”, (9:30) “How perverse they are”, (62:5) “…like asses carrying books.” Could this be why a survey undertaken by ICM in 2015 found that British Muslims are three times more likely to have anti-Semitic opinions than the general population?
Tactical Lying
Taqiyya is tactical lying to promote or protect Islam. The author Sami Makarem in his recent book “Dissimulation in Islam” concluded; “Taqiyya is of fundamental importance to Islam… every sect agrees to it and practices it… Taqiyya is mainstream in Islam… very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.” Indeed, Sharia Law manuals say that in some circumstances tactical lying is obligatory; “When it is possible to achieve an aim by lying… lying is obligatory if the goal is obligatory.” As Jihad is obligatory under Sharia Law then endeavouring to make Jihad succeed by employing tactical lying is obligatory too. The San Bernardino gunman is on record as having said “Islam is a religion of peace” not long before going on violent jihad himself.
Terrorism
So what does the Koran truly say about this barbarism? (3:151) “We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who do not believe”, (8:12) “instil terror into the hearts of the non-Muslims…”, (8:39) “Make war until… all religion is that of Allah”, (9:14) “Fight them, Allah will punish them at your hands”, (9:29) “Fight the non-Muslims…until they pay a (monetary) tribute with surrender”, (4:101) “The non-Muslims are an open enemy to you…”, (9:73) “Make war on the non-Muslims…”, (4:47) “The commands of Allah must be carried out!”. The Muslim Brotherhood logo includes, under the Koran and crossed swords symbols, the phrase “Make Ready” which refers to verse (8:60); “Make ready all you have of force… to terrorize the enemies of Allah (the non-Muslims)”.
Jihad and Qatala
Islamic historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) who greatly influenced the Ottoman Caliphate said this; “In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty… the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force… Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.”
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Alec Rawls says
Islam is a conspiracy to commit murder, fully prosecutable under existing laws against conspiracy to commit murder. The question is how to identify those who actually believe in this murder-cult religion. Many who are born into Islam would not choose it but they are under tremendous threat if they try to leave. Apostasy is a death penalty crime according to orthodox Islamic jurisprudence and the Sharia Law it gives rise to. Believing Muslims will try to enforce that punishment, making reluctant Muslims keep their heads down, so it’s hard to tell who is guilty of participating in this murder conspiracy, when so many innocents are forced into the same association. One exception is the converts. We know that they would choose to be Muslim because they have made this choice, and hence can all be thrown in jail without risk of wrongly incarcerating any innocents. (Ideally they should be placed in prisoner of war camps, since we are still in a declared war with “those who attacked us on 9/11.)
Mirren10 says
”His upbringing was comfortable. His father is a tractor driver. His grandmother owns a deli store in the village which, among other items, sells food cooked by his mother.
Putting Bulgarov through college to get his tourism diploma would have cost his family nearly $3,000, according to Mardjan Dagujieva, the director of the college, a substantial sum by local standards.”
Hang on, but now you’re telling us:
” According to a report this year by the International Crisis Group, poverty, corruption and police crackdowns in the region have left many young people feeling angry and persecuted.
Some of them have been drawn to radical forms of Islam which they feel offers a way to address injustices.”
Make up your bloody minds, will you ?
gravenimage says
Apologists for evil seldom feel the need to be consistent, or even coherent.
As long as they leave the reader with the general sense that it is all society’s fault, that is enough…
gravenimage says
Russian suspect in Istanbul attack: a shy student who found religion
………………………..
What comes to mind when you hear “a shy student who found religion”? A quiet person who finds comfort in prayer? An awkward person who finds friendship with fellow believers? An introverted person who finds meaning in charity? Or someone whose turning to religion leads then to slaughter dozens of innocent people?
It is only with Islam that you will find this…
underbed cat says
gravenimage, I like your comment. It is true this problem is attached to Islam….the doctrine, the commands…it is very clever, sometimes attacks, sometimes charitable, words like tolerance interpreted by the un- informed sounds wonderful until you learn it is only tolerance for Islam which is intolerant for any other faith…no matter what the soft spoken muslim says, they are trained to deceive to show a friendly face and retained a hard heart. Terrorism is a hard heart. Terrorism is subversive. Terrorism is the religion which sneaks in as the most unusual, it is the pious of the religion who have been indoctrinated that may choose their action, without this understanding it, it will and has spread, it is not radicalized…it should be declassified as a religion but a political violent movement. Europe was deceived since the leaders turn to the enemy to find answers.