Yet again we see the correlation between a turn to devout observance of Islam and involvement in jihad terror activity. Not all devout Muslims are jihad terrorists, but all jihad terrorists are devout Muslims. Yet back in 2011, the Obama administration removed a sudden immersion in Islam as a sign of a possible turn to terrorism. Authorities must discount such evidence. One day this willful ignorance is going to allow for a jihad terror attack in which people are going to get killed.
“Anthony Joshua’s amateur rival Tariq Abdul Haqq died for Islamic State after boxing career,” by Richard Damerell, Sky Sports, April 23, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Tariq Abdul Haqq wept at the presentation of his Commonwealth Games medal and walked away from boxing after fighting two world heavyweight champions.
As the last man to bring a boxing silver medal back to his home country in 2010, Haqq should be revered in Trinidad and Tobago, but a descent into religious extremism has tarnished his ring career. Haqq headed to Syria to fight for Islamic State four years later – and would be killed in 2015.
Trinidad and Tobago has since discovered a new super-heavyweight contender in the towering form of Nigel Paul, an expectant entrant in the Tokyo Games, but he is unlikely to match the exploits of Haqq, a former opponent for Britain’s Olympic 2012 star, Anthony Joshua….
Disillusioned with his nation’s regard for the sport, Haqq drifted away and would only reappear years later, in articles and a documentary about recruits for Islamic State.
Jürgen Todenhöfer, the first western journalist to be granted access to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq, was taken aback by his meeting with Haqq, who had arrived in December 2014.
“We saw people from all over the world, from Sweden, France, and the United States,” Todenhöfer said in his documentary ‘Inside IS’.
“There was a guy from the Caribbean. Very good looking. Very charming. Stylish, Ray-Ban glasses. And I said, ‘what are you doing here? What have you done before?’ He said, ‘I’m going to do whatever the caliph (Islamic State ruler) is asking’.”
Haqq was among an alarmingly high number of men who had travelled from Trinidad and Tobago, which had one of the highest recruitment rates for Islamic State.
He was accompanied by his wife and his sister, Aliya, who revealed how the death of their father in an accidental shooting had been the catalyst for Tariq to become immersed in religious extremism.
“My brother came home one day and he said he was going to Syria,” she told Simon Cottee for Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
Cottee has confirmed to Sky Sports that Haqq was killed in 2015, but months earlier he sustained severe injuries during a bombing in Syria, losing one of his hands, the source of his greatest talent….
elee says
I take issue with a statement in your intro paragraph: “Not all devout Muslims are jihadist terrorists.” As I have learned at this site and other places, devout Muslims themselves have debated through the years whether it is possible to be a devout Muslim and NOT be a jihadist terrorist.
mortimer says
Response to elee: there are many ways to be a jihadist. Not all are violent.
Muslims ALL participate in jihad of the tongue whenever they cloak and dissemble the MOTIVE OF JIHAD (hate) and the METHODS OF JIHAD (discrimination and violence).
All Muslims are concealing the essence of their supremacist jihad from the dirty kufaar … or they have left Islam.
Very few Muslims will report a violent jihadist to the authorities.
gravenimage says
Yes.
Jayell says
Would it be reasonable to say that, whilst not all devout muslims are ACTUALLY jihadist terrorists at any one time, they are without doubt all POTENTIAL jihadist terrorists, because ‘jihad’ (by whatever means) is;the prime duty of a ‘devout muslim’? And maybe you could even remove that word ‘devout’ because ‘jihad’ is the major aim of islam whether one is ‘devout’ or not? Furthermore, we are all aware of that other duty of muslims to lie and deceive, so some might conceal their ‘devotion’ in order to attack the Unbeliever without warning as happened with that ‘nice’ teaching assistant who created murder and mayhem in the 7/7 outrage in London, and everyone was ‘surprised’!
By the way, perhaps we shouldn’t be mystified by the decision of the hero of this piece to walk away from his success in the boxing ring in favour of a career in grubby criminality. He seems to have suffered a bit of a double-whammy here – .an occupational hazard of boxing is that it’s highly unlikely to improve ones intellectual faculties, and the same is true of islam.
gravenimage says
+1
mortimer says
Trinidad and Tobago (T & T) is the most bigoted place in the Americas. It’s a home of Wahhabist jihadism.
“Trinidad’s jihadis: how tiny nation became Isis recruiting ground
The Caribbean nation has one of the world’s highest Isis volunteer rates – and most don’t come back”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/02/trinidad-jihadis-isis-tobago-tariq-abdul-haqq
gravenimage says
Trinidad: Boxer becomes immersed in Islamic observance, joins the Islamic State
…………………….
This does not surprise.
Battle says
“I am going to do whatever the caliph (Islamic State ruler) is asking.”
No democracy here.
OLD GUY says
A boxer joins islam, probably hit in the head to many times, and definitely a person of violence.