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Swedish hostage kidnapped by al-Qaeda “pretended to be Muslim” to survive

Aug 11, 2017 2:51 pm By Robert Spencer

The standard dogma that Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, and that jihadis actually know little about Islam, founders on numerous facts, and would find the favorable treatment that Johan Gustafsson received after he proclaimed his conversion to Islam absolutely inexplicable.

“Swedish hostage kidnapped by al-Qaeda in Mali ‘pretended to be Muslim’ to survive,” by Isabelle Gerretsen, International Business Times, August 10, 2017:

A Swedish man who was held hostage by al-Qaeda in Mali for nearly six years said he “pretended to be Muslim” to survive.

Johan Gustafsson, who was freed in June, was held by Islamist militants for almost six years after he was seized in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2011. He was kidnapped along with two other men in Timbuktu, northern Mali, while they were on a motorcycle tour en route to South Africa.

His fellow hostage Dutchman Sjaak Rijke was freed during a raid by French troops in 2015. The third hostage, South African Stephen McGowan, was released last week.

Gustafsson, 43, has spoken publicly to Swedish media for the first time since his release. At a press conference on Thursday 10 August, he spoke about his six-year captivity and how he had convinced his captors that he was a Muslim.

“I told them I wanted to convert to Islam. That was the only thing I could think of that would buy me some time, even though I did not have much hope that it would work,” he said.

“I prayed with them and ate with them. I acted like they do. I acted like I’m an ordinary Muslim, not like a jihadist,” he explained. “During this time you get to know them. I felt inside of me that they are the enemy, but if there is anything I can do I do it.”

Gustafsson said that after he had proved his devotion to Islam, his captors allowed him to pray with them and walk around the hostage camp freely.

“I didn’t know anything about Islam, so I’m not sure how believable it was. But I think they saw it as their duty to accept it, even though I have a hard time believing that they actually believed me,” he said….

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Filed Under: Al-Qaeda, converts to Islam, Featured Tagged With: Johan Gustafsson


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Comments

  1. Lor says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 3:22 pm

    I think it is good he survived. Maybe he will be a spokesman against Islam and wake his fellow countrymen up!!!!

  2. gravenimage says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 3:30 pm

    Swedish hostage kidnapped by al-Qaeda “pretended to be Muslim” to survive
    ……………………..

    I’m glad Johan Gustafsson survived.

    When Muslims say there “is no compulsion in religion”, they mean that you have the ‘freedom’ to be murdered if you do not convert to Islam.

    • Benedict says

      Aug 12, 2017 at 6:03 am

      Survived as what?

      • gravenimage says

        Aug 13, 2017 at 12:21 am

        I glad he was not murdered, Benedict. I cannot agree that he is a worthless human being unless he let himself be slaughtered by his Jihad captors.

        • gravenimage says

          Aug 15, 2017 at 12:43 am

          I’m glad

  3. Lor says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 3:30 pm

    I think it is good he survived. Maybe he will be speak out against Islam and wake his sleepy countrymen up!!!

    My husband is Swedish (mother Finnish) and actually he would not renounce his faith in order to live. This was a different circumstance though.

    Lastly, who are you to assume Jesus would not show him compassion???

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 13, 2017 at 12:22 am

      Well, I could be wrong. I’m a bad dhimmi…

      • gravenimage says

        Aug 15, 2017 at 12:44 am

        Sorry–replying to a different comment.

  4. CogitoErgoSum says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 3:31 pm

    Taqiyya in reverse? The religion of the Father of Lies begets more lies wherever it is practiced.

    • manat bint allaha says

      Aug 11, 2017 at 7:03 pm

      i like your point of view!

  5. WorkingClassPost says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 4:06 pm

    Inveterate liars couldn’t spot another liar in their midst.

    But will the media grasp the point that they were muslims who gave him privileges for appearing to convert to islam?

    Of course not, that would prove they are fighting a religious war.

  6. mortimer says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 4:26 pm

    Robert Spencer’s point is WELL TAKEN and will be lost on uninformed Libtards. Gustafsson was apparently such an uninformed LIBTARD before his detainment. I wonder if he can do anything now to INFORM Swedes of the EXISTENTIAL DANGER that Islam poses to Sweden?

  7. John A. Marre says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 4:35 pm

    Publishing this information is going to make it more difficult for the next innocent human that Muslims take as a hostage.

    • WorkingClassPost says

      Aug 11, 2017 at 5:59 pm

      Yes, they will be on the look out for false converts for sure, but maybe they’ll delude themselves that he’s lying (takya) now, and that he really did convert…

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 11, 2017 at 8:17 pm

      Actually, Muslims don’t much care if converts are sincere or not–just so long as they are toeing the line and submitting to Islam. If he had not been rescued, this would still be the case.

  8. Anti-jihad says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 5:15 pm

    Somehow I don’t have a problem with this. Muslims lie to us, (i.e. taqiyya). Why can’t we lie to them?

  9. mortimer says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 6:40 pm

    Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the Spanish author of Don Quixote, endured five years as a slave in Algiers between the years 1575 and 1580. After four unsuccessful escape attempts, he was ransomed by his parents and the Trinitarians and returned to Spain. He was severely traumatized by the Turks and Arabs and wrote many times about their heartless cruelty towards disbelieving kafirs.

    Gustafsson will to a service if he can help Westerners to awaken to the sadomasochistic truth about Islam before it is irreversible.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 11, 2017 at 8:20 pm

      I *hope* Gustafsson has woken up to the threat of Islam.

  10. Schrödinger says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 6:58 pm

    One wonders how many people in this entire world are “Muslim” essentially to survive. How many people at the crazy time of that psychotic, delusional, megalomaniacal thug and warlord Muhammad himself, how many suffering souls throughout Islam’s miserable, tyrannical, entire 1400 year history have lived lives of desperate, quiet terror, either suppressing their doubts or outright pretending to be “Muslim” simply to stay alive?

    We’ll never know the full extent of this tragedy, this mother of all crimes against humanity.

    Islam represents a diametric opposite of the spirit of scepticism, curiosity and wonder that underpins the scientific outlook and intellectual honesty as well as being prerequisite for human freedom and decency in general. All are severely comprised or even entirely absent wherever it dominates. Its currency is force, falsehood and fear. There are NO legitimate Muslim countries, NO legitimate Muslim societies or sub-cultures — all are an occupation not only of these lands but the minds and lives of these people. However don’t just pity the Muslim. They’re the victimiser as well as the victim.

  11. Lydia says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    As a Christian, that is something I can never do. I must always confess and bear testimony of Christ, my identity is in His Namesake. I can’t shrink back from that association no matter what, I am not ashamed in front of anyone and not afraid of any threats of persecution or martyrdom. I am honored to suffer for my relationship to Jesus. We are here to be His witnesses if we are His at all.

    “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.” Matthew 10; 32-33

    Jesus does understand that we can’t deny Him because He said these words above, and already told us we would be persecuted and martyred for His Namesake. There is no ducking out when the going gets tough. It is easy to do of course when things are smooth sailing, but it counts when the going is tough. If you read the Bible you know these things, pretending to be of another faith is not an option for a Christian, even to save lives. Remember, they are the murderers, not you, and I will not allow them to manipulate me. Sometimes they tell you they will let you live if such and such, but then they don’t. And Christianity is not compatible with any other religion.

    • Phil says

      Aug 11, 2017 at 8:16 pm

      Amen. To summarize Paul, If I live, I will live for Christ. If I die, I will be with Christ. So whether I live or I die, I am Christ’s. 🙂

  12. David, Thailand says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    Nothing to do with Islam, for sure.

  13. simpleton1 says

    Aug 11, 2017 at 10:06 pm

    Was he ever a Christian? and that in Sweden is socialist zealotry justice warrior.
    All from the link above, International Business Times,

    ….. buy me some time …..
    “During this time you get to know them. I felt inside of me that they are the enemy, but if there is anything I can do, I do it.” ………

    ……The Swede said that he was continuously plotting his escape and that once he managed to leave the camp while his kidnappers were distracted. He walked through the desert for two days before they found him again and drove him back to the camp………

    …..The Swedish government does not pay ransoms for hostages. Gustafsson said he hoped that a ransom had not been paid in exchange for his release, adding that he still did not know why his captors agreed to hand him over to Sweden……….

    It looks like he made compromises to survive, and he did, while plotting escape.
    Out in that desert escape, he could be himself for 2 days.Life and death choices.
    He says he saw them as the enemy so I figure that he has now apostatized.
    The test will be what will be his sayings and actions be now.
    He has said “he believes that countries should not pay ransoms”

    The shame of it is Sweden, that imprisons free speech and batters thoughts.
    That is what he needs to be challenged and exposed. !

    • simpleton1 says

      Aug 11, 2017 at 10:14 pm

      edit remove “he”
      That is what he needs to be challenged and exposed. !

  14. Matthieu Baudin says

    Aug 12, 2017 at 12:24 am

    “…A Swedish man who was held hostage by al-Qaeda in Mali for nearly six years said he “pretended to be Muslim” to survive…”

    I take it that these comments are a renunciation of his conversion. If so then he’s to be congratulated on having the courage to tell the truth, even though this honesty will significantly reduce his personal security in today’s Sweden, awash with militant and aggressive Muslim immigrants.

  15. Allan Mandrowski says

    Aug 12, 2017 at 3:47 am

    One can better save oneself by lying to the enemy and come back to overwhelm and defeat it.
    Now, perhaps, this Swede can tell his tale to other Swedes and wake them up to the cold hearted threat of enslavement and domination under Islam.

  16. Baucent says

    Aug 12, 2017 at 5:24 am

    I see in other news reports the South African hostage Stephen McGowan also converted to Islam, after which he was treated better. He appears to be sticking with Islam though, saying he “sees many good things in Islam”. None of the Journalists at the news conference seem to have thought to ask him if he thought his kidnappers were “good muslims”. That would have been interesting.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 13, 2017 at 12:24 am

      Well, *that* is disgusting.

  17. Joe says

    Aug 13, 2017 at 12:05 am

    If muslims knew they all look like Santa Clause with their long beards, lol.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 13, 2017 at 5:28 pm

      They look like *bad* Santas…

      Actually, the red and white “santa hat” denotes a connection to Al Azhar.

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