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

Souad Mekhennet: Let’s Not Make This a “Religious Conflict” (Part One)

Jan 31, 2019 10:00 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

Souad Mekhennet is a German-born journalist, the daughter of Turkish “guest workers” (gastarbeiter), who is now an investigative journalist for the Washington Post, covering “militant Islamist networks.”

She was recently interviewed by Sabine Kieselbach of Deutsche Welle about her job’s dangers and why it is important to speak to jihadists.

SK: Ms. Mekhennet, the film “All the President’s Men” about the Watergate scandal in the 1970s inspired your career choice. Now here you are, working at the paper where the two investigative journalists who broke Watergate worked. How does that feel?

Souad Mekhennet: It feels almost surreal. I watched this film about the Watergate affair as a teenager. I found it unbelievable to see that two Washington Post journalists could, through their research, cause the downfall of a U.S. president. I thought that was incredible. These men, who did not come from influential or wealthy families, were able to wield such influence through their jobs and make such a difference. But, of course, it was a very long road for the daughter of guest workers in Germany to make it all the way to the Washington Post.

SK: In your reports, you examine the abysses of political situations, but also the abysses of the human soul.

Souad Mekhennet:  Before I go into any interviews, I tell people from the beginning that I am a journalist. Everyone knows I work for the Washington Post, I don’t hide that. We don’t do undercover stories. I say, ‘I’m going to come and listen to your side of the story. I will also ask you critical questions, but I will reflect your answers to these questions fairly in my article.’ This has worked very well so far, knock on wood.

I have encountered evil frequently throughout my life. When I was a teenager, I was chased by skinheads through the streets of Frankfurt with threats of being killed or gassed.

I believe that there are many people on many different levels in this world who deal in what we call evil. I once met a firefighter’s wife whose husband had been killed during the September 11 attacks. She told us journalists, ”I believe that the media and the politicians also share the blame for what happened on September 11, because no-one out there told us why these people hate us so much!”

The quote from the firefighter’s wife — “I believe that the media and the politicians also share the blame for what happened on September 11, because no-one out there told us why these people hate us so much!” — is strangely not discussed by Souad Mekhennet. I suspect that she would be deeply unhappy with those who maintain, with considerable supporting evidence from the Qur’an and Hadith, and from the recorded remarks of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda leaders, that “these people hate us” because we are non-Muslims, the “most vile of creatures,” against whom Muslims are commanded to wage Jihad and to “strike terror” in their hearts. See, e.g., Qur’an 2:191-193, 4:89, 8:12, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, 47:4, 98:6. Souad Mekhennet does not want Islam being seen as the explanation for Muslim terrorism. This is clear from  her last response in the interview: “It would be very problematic if we were to see it [IS] as relating to Islam and say that these people hate the West because they are Muslims. Thatʹs exactly what they want. They want a religious conflict to arise. We should not do them the favor.”

If it is not the texts and tenets of Islam, an idea she refuses to entertain, what explains 9/11 and over 33,000 Muslim terrorist attacks since then? That’s what she’s still trying to figure out from her meetings with Jihadis. Her refusal to consider the obvious is fascinating.

Souad Mekhennet: She [the fireman’s wife] was right: we only report on the attacks once they are over, but we do not deal with the people or their ideologies before they become mass murderers. I made it my task to explore this and subsequently began my journey into the so-called world of jihad.

And so far she’s still trying to figure out what oh what could it be. What are those “ideologies” she fails to identify? Could one of them be Islam?

I sometimes found myself sitting down with people who have told me that if I were from America or from this or that country, then they would immediately kidnap and kill me. In such a situation, you don’t know whether you will leave the interview alive. We have to learn how to live with this. But I believe it is important that we take on this assignment.

What did Souad make of that threat to kidnap and kill people from “America or from this or that country”? Did she recognize it as a threat against people from Infidel lands, that is  a threat against Infidels which could only mean a religious war? Or did she decide not to think too deeply about what such a statement meant?

SK: You say that you want to mediate, to build bridges. Your book is now being translated into Arabic. How does “the other side” react to your work?

Mekhennet: Before I go into any interviews, I tell people from the beginning that I am a journalist. Everyone knows I work for the Washington Post, I don’t hide that. We don’t do undercover stories. I say, “I’m going to come and listen to your side of the story. I will also ask you critical questions, but I will reflect your answers to these questions fairly in my article.” This has worked very well so far, knock on wood.

SK: Have you ever reached your limits when it comes to your work?

Mekhennet: There was a situation where I saw the son of a fighter in Lebanon playing a game with his friends called “kill the unbelievers.” He was a little boy, just five years old. That hit me hard. And sometimes there are situations where you really think that you won’t make it out. I was in prison in Egypt. I was threatened with all sorts of things, tied up, blindfolded and led into a room where a woman was screaming. I thought I was going to be raped. As a woman and a journalist, you reach certain limits; you have to find a method to overcome the fear and continue.

Souad recognized that the game called “kill the unbelievers” that she found so disturbing was merely children mimicking the Muslim adults making war on Unbelievers. Yet she wants us to believe, in her final response, that we must not call this Muslim war on Unbelievers a “religious conflict.”

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), journalistic bias, willful ignorance Tagged With: Souad Mekhennet


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Comments

  1. Bad Penguin says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 10:13 am

    This woman is an idiot. The sad thing is she is well aware of what her life would be like in an Islamic country yet she still pushes for the US to become one.

    • gravenimage says

      Jan 31, 2019 at 11:48 pm

      I don’t think she’s an idiot–I think she’s a Taqiyya artist.

      • Dave says

        Feb 1, 2019 at 12:32 pm

        Remember, you always take taqiyya with a pinch of salt! (Oh no! Wrong Tequila!)

        • gravenimage says

          Feb 1, 2019 at 8:23 pm

          🙂

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Feb 1, 2019 at 3:24 pm

      This woman is an idiot.

      An idiot (or taqiyya practitioner) working for the richest man in the world. Endowed with all the prestige the WaPo brings, she’s dangerous.

  2. mortimer says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 10:19 am

    NEWS FLASH: Souad Mekhennet sez ‘JIHAD IS NOT RELIGIOUS WARFARE’

    But what do Mohammed and the Koran and Sharia law say about JIHAD BEING ‘RELIGIOUS’ ??? Hmmm … let’s take a look at the AUTHENIC ISLAMIC TEXTS to find out, rather than discuss her OPINION !!!

    According to Mohammed, the original religion of Islam is JIHAD. Here’s the proof …

    Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar:
    I heard the Apostle of Allah say: When you enter into the inah transaction (become businessmen), hold the tails of oxen (become cattlemen), are pleased with agriculture (become farmers), and give up CONDUCTING JIHAD, Allah will make disgrace prevail over you, and will not withdraw it until you return to your ORIGINAL RELIGION. – Sunan Abu Dawud Book 23, Number 3455

    CONDUCTING JIHAD is the ‘original religion’ of Mohammed. Mohammed is the authority on Islam.

    Ok… now on to the Koran … – “They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and SLAY THEM wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks.” – K. 4: 88-89

    Ok… now on to Sharia law … from the footnotes on p.39, ‘The Noble Koran’, published by King Fahd Complex for Publication of the Quran, Madinah, KSA.

    “Jihad is holy fighting in Allah’s Cause with full force of numbers and weaponry.”

    Ok… so, Souad Mekhennet had better go back to the drawing board because AUTHENTIC TEXTS OF ISLAM prove her to be 100% wrong … JIHAD IS RELIGIOUS, because Islam is a POLITICAL and AGENDA-DRIVEN RELIGION.

  3. dan christensen says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 10:24 am

    “Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. Self-deception involves convincing oneself of a truth (or lack of truth) so that one does not reveal any self-knowledge of the deception.”
    This definition describes admirably the symptoms of Souad Mekhennets disease. She is however not alone. Millions of well-wishing good-thinking naive dreaming, mostly feminine, people all over the world refuse absolutely to face ugly facts; causing the present misery of unrestrained migration of sly, calculating, lazy dumps from Eastern backyards to rich Western fields.

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 1, 2019 at 12:05 am

      This *may* be self-deception, Dan–but given that she herself is Muslim, I think it more likely that she is out to deceive *us*.

      As for the idea that most of those taken in by the whitewash of Islam being female, I think you will see here that are also plenty of men who buy the idea that Islam is a “religion of peace”, from the Pope to leaders like Macron to lots of ordinary people.

      • dan christensen says

        Feb 1, 2019 at 10:28 am

        You may be right about gender balance with attitudes – but what strikes me, is that in Scandinavian TV, women become extremely emotional when debating migration and integration. You see grown women crying their eyes out on television, as soon as children are mentioned in a debate. Mature female politicians are seen gesticulating frantically and in a broken voice, sobbing and appealing: “But we are talking about CHILDREN who always must be protected and cared for, no matter the cost – CHILDREN may be hurt in armed conflicts and it is our fault”.
        So the dread furies are filled with guilt & shame, because they are unable to save the whole world.

        • gravenimage says

          Feb 1, 2019 at 8:26 pm

          You may be right about Swedish TV, Dan.

          I do know that you seen a lot of dhimmi tools of both sexes, though.

        • Paul J says

          Feb 2, 2019 at 7:56 pm

          Dan there is no point criticizing the role of Feminism in the spread of islam.. Some people rush to it’s defence Everytime with their Whataboutism. Never mind that a lot male dhimmis only agree with the “ladies” out of fear of the consequences if they don’t; loss of their careers, vilification, accusations of sexism etc. Attack or criticize LEFTIST feminists in any way and you are having a go at ALL women seems to be the case.

  4. mortimer says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 10:32 am

    Quote: “no-one out there told us why these people hate us so much!”

    Good question: WHY DO MUSLIMS HATE THE DIRTY KUFAAR ‘for the sake of Allah?’

    Let’s examine it …

    Islam has a CANONICAL and ‘ESSENTIAL’ DOCTRINE (‘essential’ means ‘essential for Islamic salvation’) called AL WALAA WAL BARAA.

    AL WALAA WAL BARAA means to love and work with Muslims and to hate and oppose and show hostility towards the dirty, disbelieving, non-Muslim KAFIRS. Such hatred is demanded by Allah.

    In Koran 60.4, Allah says that Abraham is an “EXCELLENT EXAMPLE” for the believers when he tells his family and other pagans that “there has arisen, between us and you, ENMITY and HATRED forever, unless ye believe in Allah and Him alone” (60:4).

    Leading Islamic authorities claim Muslims MUST practice AL WALAA WAL BARAA hatred … -“The doctrine of al Walaa wal Baraa is the REAL IMAGE for the actual practice of this faith.” – source “Al Walaa wal Baraa According to the Aqeedah of the Salaf”, by Sheikh Muhammad Saeed al Qatani, authoritative Saudi Sharia lawyer and imam at the Abu Bakr and Al Furqan Mosques in Mecca.

    I urge JW readers to thoroughly acquaint themselves with AL WALAA WAL BARAA or they will NEVER understand Islamic motivation.

    READ: “Is This the Ultimate Secret Key to Understanding Islam?”

    http://westindanger.com/wb/walaa-baraa.html

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 1, 2019 at 12:07 am

      +1

  5. Westman says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 11:03 am

    It’a amazing that Souad Mekhennet makes statements that paint Islam as a socially and militarily “neutral” force with the exception of “so-called”(her term) Jihadis – as if she has never read the Quran and thinks Jihad is an invention of the West.

    And she found it shocking that a Muslim child expressed hatred of unbelievers – shocked! Obviously, she doesn’t know of the apartheid of the Quran or is playing Tariq-Ramadan-style apologist games. Watching children’s programs in areas surrounding Israel should overwrite that ignorance.

    Inspired by journalists, who caused the downfall of a US President, to work her way to the WaPo? That does seem to be what the WaPo does best – destroying the cohesiveness that makes us a nation by undermining every institution. They destroy cohesiveness, she provides cover for “moderate” Islam. It’s a nice fit. When does she lunch with Linda Sarsour?

    • dan christensen says

      Jan 31, 2019 at 1:50 pm

      Westman: “…thinks Jihad is an invention of the West”.
      Violent Jihad is by ‘moderate’ muslims outwardly considered a pestilence, fostered by the decadent infidels in the West; only to give islam a bad reputation.
      Many muslims feel provoked of the fact that infidels refuse to convert; because religious freedom for islam is the freedom to recognize your characteristic as born into islam by default.
      Violent Jihad is only the executing power of islams total might, silently approved and encouraged by the ‘moderates”.
      Many moderates see Jihads murder rate as consistent with the quranic tenets – revert or face death.

  6. Michael Copeland says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 11:12 am

    “They want a religious conflict to arise.”
    No dear.
    The religious conflict was started nearly 1400 years ago. The jihadists want to CONTINUE it.
    “Kill them wherever you find them” (K.2:191)
    “Jihad means to war against non-Muslims”, and is a “communal obligation” (Manual of Islamic Law, “Reliance of the Traveller”, o9.0, o9.1).

  7. freedom says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 11:48 am

    In contrast to the usual head scratching syndrome that affects a whole range of “experts”, when it comes to pinning down the root causes of Islamic violence and terrorism, an Australian Judge, has, during the sentencing of two would be jihadists, called on the wider Islamic community and especially those of influence in that community to denounce the violent verses in the Koran that inspire jihadists to carry out such attacks.
    Gasp !
    The leftards are spin jockeys are mobilising their forces to inform the judge of his obvious error in linking Islam to any form of violence and kick-starting their usual campaign of labelling him an islamaphobe.

    It’s undeniable that while those verses of inducement to violence against non-believers in the Koran are instilled from birth, extoled in mosques and cherished by jihadists, …..Islam will only be seen for what it ALWAYS has been, the raised arm of malevolence clutching a sword.

    Link to story: http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/judge-calls-on-muslims-to-publicly-disavow-specific-verses-of-the-koran/ar-BBSZatD?ocid=ientp

  8. thebigW says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 1:13 pm

    Is she a Muslim? If she is, that’s all I need to know about her. I pity all my fellow Westerners who actually need to know more before they condemn her for doing taqiyya.

    • gravenimage says

      Jan 31, 2019 at 10:43 pm

      On Twitter she calls herself a Muslim in Germany.

  9. James Hilborn says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 1:30 pm

    Right. Party like it’s 750 AD.

  10. BegrensEuropa! says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 1:48 pm

    The lady is confused. How could it become a conflict if islam is peaceful. And why should it not become a (religious, philosophical, moral, political) conflict if it isn’t.

  11. Keys says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 2:38 pm

    She saw a little boy, Allah’s cubs, playing a game with his friends called “kill the unbelievers”, and that hit her hard.

    Did she see the video where the boys were laughing while playing soccer with the head of one of the infidels ? Did that hit her hard enough to knock some journalistic common sense in to her brain ?

  12. Indiana Tom says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 5:54 pm

    Let’s Not Make This a “Religious Conflict” Let’s not make World War 2 a Nazi Conflict.

  13. Wellington says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 7:04 pm

    I most definitely want to view this as a religious conflict since Islam from its inception has declared war on humanity “until all religion is with Allah.” {Sura 8:39} And even if all the world did become Islamic (ain’t gonna’ happen and perish the thought), Mohammedans would go after each other, killing one another in droves, because so many Mohammedans would be deemed not properly Muslim by other Buttlims.

    Islam is not only wretched and permanently violence-prone, it is also screwed up through and through. Anyone with half a brain and not infected by pc/mc should see this.

    All those who try to exculpate Islam are part of the problem and in no way part of any sane and good solution.

    Clearly.

  14. gravenimage says

    Jan 31, 2019 at 11:46 pm

    Souad Mekhennet: Let’s Not Make This a “Religious Conflict” (Part One)
    …………………………..

    Surely Mekhennet knows that *Muslims* consider this a religious conflict–that is why they are waging violent Jihad against us.

    More:

    She was recently interviewed by Sabine Kieselbach of Deutsche Welle about her job’s dangers and why it is important to speak to jihadists.

    I believe that there are many people on many different levels in this world who deal in what we call evil. I once met a firefighter’s wife whose husband had been killed during the September 11 attacks. She told us journalists, ”I believe that the media and the politicians also share the blame for what happened on September 11, because no-one out there told us why these people hate us so much!”
    …………………………..

    Note that Mekhennet doesn’t say why her coreligionists hate us so much, either…

    More:

    Mekhennet: There was a situation where I saw the son of a fighter in Lebanon playing a game with his friends called “kill the unbelievers.” He was a little boy, just five years old. That hit me hard…
    …………………………..

    And how is this different from what orthodox Islam teaches? Of course, Mekhennet will not say.

    Fine piece from Hugh Fitzgerald.

  15. Ronyvo says

    Feb 1, 2019 at 6:49 am

    I am at a loss to understand ‘what is the problem with the so called journalists’! In my opinion JOURNALISTS are the main problem for what is happening the world. Fame, ideology or political belong, ignorance, money or fear are the ingredients of foul journalism.
    If the reporters are honest in doing their job which is REPORTING things would have been much easier to resolve.
    (1) ISLAM IS THE PROBLEM

    (2) THE KORAN IS THE SOURCE OF THE EVIL CRIMES COMMITTED AROUNDD THE WORLD.

    The solution: read and study the Koran and REPORT all the crimes supported by surahs from the this horrible book. the point is: honesty.

  16. thebigW says

    Feb 1, 2019 at 1:17 pm

    “The quote from the firefighter’s wife — “I believe that the media and the politicians also share the blame for what happened on September 11, because no-one out there told us why these people hate us so much!” — is strangely not discussed by Souad Mekhennet. ”

    Well, DUH. She obviously don’t think it needs “discussion” because she’s implying “they hate us” because we been “meddling” in the Middle East, being our natural “racist” selves to Muslims, blowin’ up wedding parties et freaking cetera.

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 1, 2019 at 8:29 pm

      Grimly true, thebigW.

      I was disgusted after 9/11 when I saw so much anguished hand-wringing about “why do they hate us?”. You didn’t find this sort of stupidity after Pearl Harbor.

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