Two Sisters: Into the Syrian Jihad is not a “damning indictment of Western societies,” as is claimed in the title of the Express article below. It is a damning of those Westerners who are ignorant about how jihadists propagate their doctrine and operate. The blaming of Westerners for pushing Muslim youth into the jihadi camp because of racism and “Islamophobia” needs to be unequivocally challenged and rejected.
Every immigrant group in any society faces racism and even culture shock, but jihadists exploit this fact.
Adjusting to a new society is a difficult exercise. When Muslim immigrants are routinely being indoctrinated by Islamic supremacist spokesmen to believe that they are hated by “racist,” “intolerant,” “Islamophobic” white infidels, they begin to feel increasingly disenfranchised and angry.
With Muslim youth, who face belonging issues like all youth, the integration challenge is harder in the atmosphere of this propaganda. Online jihadist recruiters are exploiting already exploited youth by training them to become mujahideen, to hate and kill for heavenly rewards and martyr status. The Muslim community as a whole needs to bear responsibility and collectively speak out, which few are doing. As the article chronicles below:
the teenagers transformed from being moderate Muslims like their parents to hard-and-fast fundamentalists….The girls were radicalised by online material and…a sinister network of extremists in Oslo who set out to radicalise young people. It makes for terrifying reading
Leftists exacerbate the problem by accepting the twisted victimology narrative that is pushed even at the highest levels, including by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The “Islamophobia” canard is also a vital weapon in the jihadist propaganda war, used to divide and conquer and also used to feed young Muslims the idea that they are being victimized by Westerners.
“Two Sisters: Into the Syrian Jihad review: A damning indictment of Western societies,” by Elizabeth Archer, Express, March 16, 2018:
THE internationally bestselling author Åsne Seierstad shot to fame with The Bookseller Of Kabul, her account of living with a family in Afghanistan shortly after the Twin Towers fell.
Now the journalist-turned-author returns with Two Sisters, an investigation into the lives of two teenagers from Norway who went to Syria to join the so-called holy war or jihad.
The girls, Ayan, 19, and Leila Juma, 16, were from a Somali family but grew up on the outskirts of Oslo. And in 2013, they left their family home for Syria, making the Norwegian national news.
The book follows the girls’ father Sadiq who is desperate to reunite his family. Shortly after discovering his daughters have left, Sadiq travels to Syria in an effort to rescue them. In the process he makes friends with a smuggler who taxis people and goods across the Turkish-Syrian border and who vows to help him get the girls back.
But Sadiq soon discovers his daughters are in league with the terrorist group Islamic State. He knows that if he makes one wrong move, his own and his daughters’ lives could be in mortal danger.
As the book progresses, Seierstad tells not only of the family’s devastation but explores why two ordinary teenagers chose to leave their comfortable home to live in a war zone.
Her fascinating in-depth research shows how in the year before they left, the teenagers transformed from being moderate Muslims like their parents to hard-and-fast fundamentalists.
The girls were radicalised by online material and Seierstad exposes a sinister network of extremists in Oslo who set out to radicalise young people. It makes for terrifying reading.
Seierstad also shows how Ayan and Leila’s parents hadn’t integrated into Norwegian society and this, coupled with racism suffered by the Somali community, left the girls feeling isolated and made them an easy target for radicalisation….