Boston Terror Suspect: Just Another ‘Typical American Kid’ with Terror Aspirations
An exclusive report on the recent arrest of American Tarek Mehanna and the author's online monitoring of his jihadist activities.
By all accounts, Tarek Mehanna seems an unlikely aspiring terrorist. He grew up in the Boston suburb of Sudbury, went to private schools, and, following in his father’s footsteps, earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology. Given all the advantages of wealth, education, and freedom afforded in America, Tarek Mehanna had a bright future.
But a federal complaint against Mehanna describes aspirations of killing former President George W. Bush, mowing down shoppers with automatic weapons at a mall, and failed efforts at joining the ranks of terrorists abroad.
A former religious teacher described him as a “fun-loving, ordinary, typical American kid.” Mehanna would bring comics to class and was a big fan of Superman. A friend laughed at the notion that Mehanna could ever be a terrorist. At his court appearance on Wednesday, Mehanna’s father claimed that the charges against his son were “a show.”
An online acquaintance of Mehanna argued with me, saying that the charges had no merit. Mehanna, he claimed, was a “moderate” Muslim who had always argued against the killing of innocents. His arrest, his acquaintance told me, was evidence that Muslims in America are guilty until proven innocent — inferring that Mehanna’s arrest was just another in a larger, anti-Muslim conspiracy.
The shock of Mehanna’s friends and family is typical. Those acquainted with terrorists often insist that the accused was shy, polite, helpful, or empathetic. It juxtaposes with our natural inclination to want to believe that people aspiring to evil deeds should somehow manifest the true nature of their characters in their day-to-day behavior. That such people aren’t typically raving lunatics, overtly sociopathic, or belligerent fanatics doesn’t dawn on most. It makes us feel safer to assume that a potential terrorist will give us some sort of warning sign.
But in Mehanna’s case there were warning signs. If his friends’ shock is real, then Tarek Mehanna was living a compartmentalized and double life. For the Tarek Mehanna I knew online was not the “moderate” that his apologists portray him as. He was a fanatical Islamist, devoted to the same ideas as al-Qaeda. He spent countless hours translating Arabic texts into English in order to inspire others to become violent jihadists.
Mehanna went by the handle “Abu Sayaba” online. In addition to frequently commenting at radical forums and online discussion groups, “Abu Sayaba” also ran his own blog. His Iskandari blog posted translations of Arabic texts. Typical of the writings he posted were calls for the establishment of an Islamic state and Islamic law. He also encouraged violent jihad as a means of attaining these two goals.
Tarek Mehanna may seem to have been an unlikely terrorist candidate to some, but given his online support for violent jihad revealed through his “Abu Sayaba” persona, should it really come as a surprise that he would aspire to become a violent jihadist himself?
Online, Mehanna reveals that the arrest of Aafia Siddiqui — a woman married to Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s nephew — caused him so much anger that he felt obligated to make the trip to New York City to attend one of her hearings.
Ironically, Mehanna went to her hearing because he claimed to believe that she was innocent — a victim of the perceived vast conspiracy against Muslims. She must be innocent, he claimed, because those who knew her described her as a “very small, quiet, polite, and shy woman.”
If Mehanna’s online activities as “Abu Sayaba” were unknown to friends and family — and therefore an excuse for their ignorance about his extremism — then unless he was living a very compartmentalized life, it is difficult to see how his real-world activities wouldn’t raise alarms.
Among the unsavory characters in Mehanna’s clique is another homegrown jihad aspirant, Daniel Maldonado. Maldonado, who changed his name to “Al-Jughaifi” upon his conversion to Islam, is serving a 10-year sentence in a federal penitentiary. Like Mehanna, Maldonado also had an active online life. He worked at an Islamic forum giving advice to young people. Some of them followed that advice and are now serving prison sentences here in the U.S. and Canada.
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46 Comments
1. Delia:The vile scum that are Jihadists need to be purged from our country before we become like Europe and we are subjugated to accepting their sickness.
Oct 23, 2009 - 12:22 pm 2. Sherab Zangpo:There are no jihadists, there are only FRIENDS of the commie subversives, we use two names for the same project: destroying America.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment
Oct 23, 2009 - 1:12 pm 3. Delia:2. Sherab Zangpo,
Exacting analogy.
SPOT ON.
Oct 23, 2009 - 1:41 pm 4. Samson:islam is a lie inside a lie. the duplicity that they embrace makes it impossible to hold what have been considered morals in western society.
Oct 23, 2009 - 1:48 pm 5. Blackwater:The vast network of online and offline jihadists here in America and in the rest of the Western world serve as a 5th column just waiting to strike when the ideal oppurtunity arises. Freedom of speech be damned. I’m sure the founding fathers didn’t intend to protect the right for islamofacists to preach the targeting of innocent civilians and the creation of a global islamic empire. It’s far past time that we pass a law making it a federal crime to espouse islamic terrorism online or in any other form. Have we learned nothing from 9/11? These people want to kill us and are prepared to do so. Several such attempts have been stopped in the last couple weeks alone. Enough is enough of this madness. Time to get serious about cracking down on the islamic terrorist supporters living amongst us.
Oct 23, 2009 - 1:57 pm 6. Blackwater:Also your description of the typical islamic jihadist is very true. I’ve “known” quite a few islamists from various websites. Often they love playing Street Fighter 4, wear Western clothes, talk like a Westerner using Western slang, listen to Western music, own a Blackberry, talk about enjoying activities usually considered “immoral”, etc. Nevertheless they’re all saving up money to make the trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan to join the taliban, al queda and other islamist groups. They often say that “right now I live a life of sin but soon I’ll drop it all and live like a proper muslim”. That usually means they’re heading off to play “jihad” in order to make up for all the “sinning” they’ve done. Because according to my understanding of islam and jihadist ideology, becoming a “martyr” by dying while fighting the “Crussader Zionists infidels and apostates” makes up for an entire life lived in sin and ensures them acceptance into paradise. So don’t be fooled by their moderate friendly persona. On the inside they want to kill you.
Oct 23, 2009 - 2:10 pm 7. biblio44:2. Sherab Zangpo: “There are no jihadists, there are only FRIENDS of the commie subversives….”
There’s craziness, and then there’s PJM craziness.
4. Samson: “islam is a lie inside a lie.”
There’s prejudice, and then there’s PJM prejudice.
Oct 23, 2009 - 2:28 pm 8. Real Deal:The issue is where does this fall under the First Amendment? Is Islam actually a religion and protected by the 1st?
Personally I think we need to end all immigration from Muslim countries for the time being and deport a good number of the ones already here that are pushing for Sharia and preaching hatred in Mosques. Saudi money will never let that happen though.
Oct 23, 2009 - 2:33 pm 9. Sherab Zangpo:#7
I am glad you found your way to insult someone today.
Oct 23, 2009 - 2:46 pm 10. The cake is a lie:Keep up with the good living like a rat.
There should be no immigration from muslim countries, period. And pro-jihadi leftists should be sent to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to see how they like it.
Oct 23, 2009 - 2:54 pm 11. spindok:Concerning the outwardly normal life of this would-be terrorist one is reminded again of the Hannah Arendt phrase “banality of evil”. I admit this is an internet platitude these days but it rings true.
Concerning the question(s) posed by Real Deal (8) above: “Is Islam actually a religion and protected by the 1st?”
Yes it is.
Remember where you live and the principles upon which this country was founded, and by whom.
Maybe too deep a subject for this thread.
Christians and Jews (my own religion) have no terrorists in our closet of course. Nobody whom has killed wrongly in the name of G-d to justify their own sick pathology.
Dont give anyone’s scripture to me. You are over your head.
Pushing for Shaira? What part of the US do you live in? I am heartland rustbelt America. No Shaira on the ballot here. The Muslims I know are too busy writing software, practicing cardiology, or running family retail business to worry about such things.
Spindok
Oct 23, 2009 - 3:22 pm 12. stevent12x:You claim that Mehanna’s online persona was a was as different from his social life as night is from day, yet you give no specific quotes or examples of how this is true. The only evidence you give for his “radical” leanings is a guilt by association accusation, which to me seems exactly like the stereotyping of Muslims in America. The only reason this article is even on the radar is because you are preaching to the choir – people who want to agree with you no matter what the intellectual validity of what you write. If you want to make a compelling argument, you must back up your accusations with facts, not fearful assumptions.
Oct 23, 2009 - 3:36 pm 13. Delia:11. spindok,
“89. Samuel:
Delia,
Unfortunately for you Muslims are well over a Billion and growing. Of course you only care about support for your little Zionist state. If the Muslims supported Zionism Pro-Zionists would be falling over themselves praising Islam.
Don’t worry soon enough the Israelis will share the same fate as their close friends the Afrikaners.”
This from a person who posts on PJM here.
I, for one, will never ‘burka’ myself. I’d rather walk around stark naked than to submit to ‘Sharia’.
Oct 23, 2009 - 3:44 pm 14. Leatherneck:What a shower of bloody arse holes!
Oct 23, 2009 - 4:03 pm 15. Layz:You cannot tell a man’s soul by looking in his eyes.
You cannot see the monster in your next door neighbor’s face.
You cannot see the terrorist in the polite, young man you think you know.
Get over it, people have these dark streaks in their souls and even a small tear in the thin veneer of civilization will let it run amok.
Oct 23, 2009 - 4:20 pm 16. David Thomson:“In their minds all nihilistic maniacs ought to give speeches like a frenzied Hitler at a Nuremberg rally.”
Adolph Hitler was also often relatively soft spoken while interacting with individuals and small groups of people. He was known to be quite warm and charming. This is what made him so dangerous. Many naive people like Neville Chamberlain were conned into believing the Fuhrer was a reasonable man. As matter of fact, virtually all of the top tyrants of the 20th Century, Stalin, Mao, and Castro, were famous for their ability to turn on the charm when it was deemed necessary.
Oct 23, 2009 - 4:24 pm 17. Delia:“Get over it, people have these dark streaks in their souls and even a small tear in the thin veneer of civilization will let it run amok.”
Is that a f*cking excuse????????????
Is it?
Really?
Are we all a bunch of rabid, murdering, raping, molesting assholes underneath it all?
NO.
YOU ARE WRONG, sir/madame!
WRONG-wrong-wrongggggggggggggggg.
Oct 23, 2009 - 5:30 pm 18. Rusty:#12. You say I provide no evidence, yet I link his blog. I suggest that if you disbelieve that he’s pro-jihad that you go read what he himself has been publicly peddling for years. Take special note of posts he wrote prior to his first arrest last year which are more openly pro jihad than his post arrest writings which are more circumscribed and more focused on personal devotion.
Oct 23, 2009 - 5:50 pm 19. Jan McDaniel:#5, #8:
We do not have to damage the freedom of speech to prosecute jihadists. The foundation of jihadism, Islamic law, is illegal because it is seditious. Search “Refah v. Turkey” and you will see that the European Court of Human Rights has already reached that conclusion.
Oct 23, 2009 - 6:26 pm 20. alex:The Error is in associating terror with a religious belief or movement.
Terror is criminal, regardless if a person is Christian, Jew or Muslim. If their actions intend to harm another, then its terror.
Wrapping the “war on terror” within religion context is why we are having so much trouble enforcing it. There is a natural tendency for people to defend what they believe in, right or wrong, the more they are attacked, the harder they will push back.
The Constitution of the USA will always defend the beliefs of an individual against the power of the state to prosecute that belief, so this approach is doomed to fail from the start.
The approach should be to eradicate terror cells without regard or comment about Islam, muslims, or if “Islam actually a religion”.
If someone is planning a criminal act, they are doing so regardless of their belief, It doesn’t matter if they believe darth vader is their lord and savior, they are terrorists and must be dealt with as a criminal, not a religious connotation.
Oct 23, 2009 - 7:40 pm 21. Pragmatist:The five Pillars of Islam are:-
1) LIES
2) HYPOCRISY
3) ANTISEMITISM
4) MISOGYNY
5) ARAB SUPREMACISM.
And the Obamanation obeys and panders to each one.
Oct 23, 2009 - 8:17 pm 22. ella:Islam is religion and ideology. Islam rules that Qu’ran and sunna trumps secular law. Sharia is judicial arm of Islam which rules how Muslims should live in private and how they should live in public. And it follows that in Islam there is no difference between secular and religious so in that way it is different from other monotheistic religions.
Oct 23, 2009 - 10:16 pm 23. Terry:If someone believes that rules of Qu’ran trumps secular law and the well-being of umma (Islamic community) trumps well-being of the country he or she lives in, it follows that such person can believe that terror can be sometimes excused. Even if such person do not excuse use of terror s/he may act on behalf of umma even if these actions are detrimental to the country s/he lives in. It may be something simple, like writing that the laws of country are bad. It could be just telling everyone that behavior of many people in his country are immoral, or that her country is arrogant. Just small things.
That kind of behavior is often present in converts, because new Muslims want to show that they are more catholic than the pope, so to say.
Alex, you are wrong. They do not see their action as criminal act. They see it as act which will help their community and as an act which is not prohibited by Qu’ran. But irregardless of how they see it, the state should prosecute them because whoever lives in USA should follow US law. No exceptions. None.
#20 Alex. How do you see the computer screen with your head so deeply buried in the sand? Just asking.
Oct 24, 2009 - 12:10 am 24. Zac D.:“moderate” Muslim who had always argued against the killing of innocents.”
Of course that depends on his definition of who is innocent. Given his online persona “Abu Sayaba’s” translations we can adequately say the “innocent” of he speaks of are the “Muslims”.
“A former religious teacher described him as a “fun-loving, ordinary, typical American kid.”
Besides this quote, there is a whole alot of “Taqqiya” in this article. This religious teacher and all his affiliates should be probed by the FBI.
Oct 24, 2009 - 2:41 am 25. alex:# 22Ella, #23 Terry, thank you for response;
Of course murderers and terrorists do not see their acts as criminal, NO criminal see’s their acts as wrong, criminals rationalize until it is the proper course of action. This is basic criminal psychology 101. Your not going to talk them out of it, so why even try. If possible, prevent it, if not, take them out. End of Story.
Since when does the United States live under any law than that of the Constitution..? Who cares about sharia, who cares what a terrorist thinks is right or wrong..we are going to debate religious dogma with someone that straps bombs to themselves and blows up people in a wholesale manner..? catch them, try them, fry them, WITHOUT ridiculous involvement of religious overtones.
If we find a terrorist in a restaurant, take them out with a silencer, and try not to stain the tablecloth, we should not burden the owner of the restaurant. until we are willing to do this, we fight a losing battle.
If someone commits terrorism, try them as terrorist and under criminal codes, without religious context. That was the error of President Bush’s war on terror, they tried to “Sell” the war on terror within religious context, it will never work. It becomes a political campaign, instead of a war against terrorism.
They are murderers and should be treated as such.
Terry, i expect more intelligence in a response…your not even trying…off day?
Oct 24, 2009 - 3:01 am 26. Zac D.:“Terror is criminal, regardless if a person is Christian, Jew or Muslim. If their actions intend to harm another, then its terror.”
Actually, Terrorism is a tactic. What is being discussed here is the ideological motivation for using such a tactic. An that ideological motivation is Jihad.
“If someone is planning a criminal act, they are doing so regardless of their belief, It doesn’t matter if they believe darth vader is their lord and savior, they are terrorists and must be dealt with as a criminal, not a religious connotation.”
I have no problem dealing with them as illegal combatants, but they are not mere criminals. What they are doing are not typical crimes. What they are doing is an “act of war” for a Jihadi cause. ie. Establish a Caliphate. Sorry, but if they have links to Al-qaeda they are part of the war. Would you call Osama bin laden and et al mere criminals?
8 years and you still have no idea who the enemy is.
Oct 24, 2009 - 3:19 am 27. Brian Macker:“Those acquainted with terrorists often insist that the accused was shy, polite, helpful, or empathetic.”
Why wouldn’t that be true. Does anyone think that Nazi’s weren’t polite to fellow Nazi’s at the dinner table? Not only were they polite in those situations they were also polite when talking with people like Neville Chamberlain. Why let the enemy in on how you feel about them.
Make no mistake, Islam considers holders of any other religious belief (or non-belief) to be the enemy. It’s just a matter of how seriously the Muslim takes his religion. Ones who take it very seriously will tend to sympathize with those who kill the infidel even if they don’t have the guts to pick up a weapon and pitch in. We see this in poll after poll in the Middle east.
Oct 24, 2009 - 6:00 am 28. Dave M.:Alex, Wrong, wrong, wrong. Islamic terror is not a crime, it is an act of war. It is part of Islam’s goal of world conquest. Read the Koran (start in Sura 9), the Hadith, the words of Muhammed, and even Mehanna’s blog. Why, when Islam is so clear about its objectives, do you continue to want to deny its religious context?
Allah akbar infidel!
Oct 24, 2009 - 6:25 am 29. JohnL:This is Massachusetts. He isn’t a “Jihadist”, he is “differently aspired”.
Oct 24, 2009 - 6:25 am 30. Omar:Alex:
Islam is a political doctrine and jihad is one arm of its officially sanctioned foreign policy. The objective of its foreign policy is the acquisition of land for the Ummah and full submission to islamic law by all peoples everywhere on earth – muslim and non-muslim alike. Specifically, it seeks submission to islamic blasphemy laws, laws forbidding proselytising for other religions, laws imposing gender aparteid, polygamy and forced veiling, and tolerance for islamic laws which sanction the physically abuse of females in the islamic home without interference from the state . . . all of which makes the President’s recent conduct at the UN in agreeing to OIC demands for a law forbidding the “defamation of religion” such a despicable act of appeasement -as well as a wholesale betrayal of the First Amendment to our Constitution.*
*And wouldn’t that would be the one he vowed to protect and defend?
Oct 24, 2009 - 6:29 am 31. Omar:Alex:
Islam is a political doctrine and jihad is one arm of its officially sanctioned foreign policy. The objective of its foreign policy is the acquisition of land for the Ummah and full submission to islamic law by all peoples everywhere on earth – muslim and non-muslim alike. Specifically, it seeks submission to islamic blasphemy laws, laws forbidding proselytising for other religions, laws imposing gender aparteid and forced veiling, and tolerance for islamic laws which sanction the physically abuse of females in the islamic home without interference from the state . . . all of which makes the President’s recent conduct at the UN in agreeing to OIC demands for a law forbidding the “defamation of religion” such a despicable act of appeasement -as well as a wholesale betrayal of the First Amendment to our Constitution (the one he vowed to protect and defend, btw)
Oct 24, 2009 - 6:57 am 32. Brian Macker:“That was the error of President Bush’s war on terror, they tried to “Sell” the war on terror within religious context, it will never work.”
WTF are you talking about. Bush did everything in his power to make it seem as if these people were not motivated by Islam. Problem is that they are and were.
Islam stinks from top to bottom. When it isn’t justifying murder it’s justifying the persecution of non-Muslims within all societies. That’s why Christians are murdered via “street justice” when having the temerity to use a public drinking fountain (and glass) meant only for Muslims.
We are dirty animals to them. They are supremacists.
Oct 24, 2009 - 7:08 am 33. Terry:#25 Alex. Terrorism is a tactic, among many other tactics. And, it is directly linked to a specific ideology, the underlying motivation. In this case, the ideology is Islam. Islam has a term for it’s war against unbelievers – JIHAD. People do not just get up one morning & say, ”Hey, nice day to commit a terrorist atrocity.” Terrorism is not just a law enforcement issue, these are not common criminals. De-linking the acts of terrorism from the specific ideological motivation obscures the nature of these acts & inhibits our ability to combat the ideology – and it is the ideology which is what we should be fighting against.
Oct 24, 2009 - 7:37 am 34. Margaret:Not an off day, it was very early in the morning & I was still drinking my litre of coffee to get my head working.
The co-consiprator Ahmed Aousamra comes off in the FBI affidavit as more radicalized than Tarek Mehanna. Abousamra himself fled to Syria in 2007 after being interviewed by the FBI. Abousamra’s father (an endocrinologist at MGH) was a major Muslim American Society figure in the Boston area. The good doctor moved to Dearborn after his son fled to Syria. How did this Islamic leader miss the radicalism of his own son? He didn’t realize his 20-something kid was trying to hook up with terrorist camps in Yemen and Pakistan?! The Americans for Peace and Tolerance website has a fact sheet on Abousamra here: http://www.peaceandtolerance.org/
Oct 24, 2009 - 7:56 am 35. tanstaafl:Oct. 20, 2009 – FBI petitions for a search warrant, noting a poem it attributes to Mehanna that is widely available on the Internet: “Make Martyrdom what you Seek.”
I read that poem.
These guys seeking the glory of martyrdom (or so them claim) are like those poor frustrated Saudi 13 YO boys who tried to become suicide bombers in Iraq.
Eager for for the milk, honey and 72 black eyed houris waiting on their every need.
So much of the attraction (exploited by the older advocates of violent jihad who enlist younger guys to blow themselves up) revolves around selling the notion of Paradise awaiting them.
(I think it’s far more of a motivator than all the grievance mongering regarding “the west” or the notion that it is a Muslim’s duty to spread the ummah and kill the unbeliever)
Somebody should do a PhD (piled higher and deeper) thesis on the relationship between violent jihad and sexual frustration and repression of young boys and unmarried men in Muslim culture.
(Mohammed Atta refused his family’s attempts at arranged marriage. He was downright weird in his attitudes towards earthly women, apparently preferring what awaited him after his mortal body had been blown to bits)
Oct 24, 2009 - 8:34 am 36. BettyBlue:There’s stupid and willfully blind, and then there’s bibilo44 stupid and willfully blind.
Congrats, biblio! You win the prize!
Oct 24, 2009 - 11:25 am 37. ella:tandstaafl
Paradise is motivator, but not much of a motivator. Much higher motivator is perception that you are wronged.
Oct 24, 2009 - 12:23 pm 38. the wolf:****
You are wronged awfully.
Because you do not have job in your country, but there is more work in the West. So your not having a job in your country is a fault of imperialist Amrika.
Because others, less religious, have money but you do not have it. And you do not have money for marriage, for mahr [gift to future wife, necessary component of islamic marriage].
Because everybody is saying that your government is supported by Amrika and the West. And your government is corrupted so only people with “wasta” [connections] have jobs but you do not have it.
Because Qu’ran is saying that Islam should rule but umma is not ruling. The West is richer and perhaps you got job in the West (or you live in the West) but, hey, non-believers are corrupted, and immoral. And they kill Palestinians, and other muslims and you see it every day on al Jazeera and CNN.
It is wrong. You are wronged. Umma is wronged. It is unbearable.
*****
See? It all connects.
“By all accounts, Tarek Mehanna seems an unlikely aspiring terrorist. He grew up in the Boston suburb of Sudbury, went to private schools, and, following in his father’s footsteps, earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology. Given all the advantages of wealth, education, and freedom afforded in America, Tarek Mehanna had a bright future.”
Well, poverty breeds terrorism!
Oct 24, 2009 - 1:55 pm 39. Vinny B.:There are many more like him thanks to Bush, only they haven’t been caught yet. Notice that he was out living the American dream until Bush came along. After he saw the the genocidial maniac Bush in action, how could he become anything else but radicalized? If your peoples were being systematically murdered, raped, and tortured just so Haliburton’s stock price could go up a few bucks, wouldn’t you lose your mind. His lawyer should tell the jury about how Bush caused everything and they will surely acquit him. Now that we have Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, America can get past the dark days of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Gonzales, and Rove, there is no reason to put an inncoent youth in jail because America is loved again because of Obama and he would have given up his thoughts of violence anyway.
Oct 24, 2009 - 5:47 pm 40. arelcao akleos:Spindok, you are well named.
First, for your “Concerning the question(s) posed by Real Deal (8) above: “Is Islam actually a religion and protected by the 1st?” Yes it is. ”
Yes, Islam is a religion. But what exactly about the 1st Amendment relates to whether or not Islam is a religion? The first amendment sets out our right to free speech, it does not limit, or specify, the topics about which we may have free speech. So, what the heck is your point? Or is your “point” to serve someone through the arts of spindokery?
Second, “Remember where you live and the principles upon which this country was founded”
We sure do, and far better than you [for a small example thereof, see First above]. It is those principles, and a life that can be lived according to them, which is directly targeted by Islam Militant. Targeted, yes, because the principles of Islam drive the Believer to be Militant, to absolutely reject the principles upon which this country was founded. Do you forget the point that ours are the principles of the Kufr? Or is your “point” to serve someone through the arts of spindokery?
Third “and by whom”.
By the founders of this nation, who ranged from committed christians to committed deists to closet atheists. Your point is? Or is the point that you are someone’s agent in making use of your spindokery?
Fourth: “Maybe too deep a subject for this thread”.
Not at all. It is too important a subject to leave it the spin of dok goebbels
Fifth: “Christians and Jews (my own religion) have no terrorists in our closet of course”
Or Buddhist, or Hindu, or Zoroastrian, or a variety of Pagan, or Bahai, or……In the name of the religion? Far far fewer, per capita or in absolute numbers, than Islam. And, very much unlike Islam, those few that exist are on the far fringes of these religions. How far on the fringe? That I can, as I have, go the churches, the temples, the monasteries, the houses of worship, of these and never ever hear or read or see anything or anyone who teaches of the possibility of violence as part of the religion–never mind advocating its use. But the mosques I have attended, both sunni and shia, over 20 years now, in Asia, Canada, and this country, are sick with it, and openly so. Yes, you can do your bit for the Ummah, in Massachusetts, by purchasing a video of Nick Berg’s decaptitation. Yes, the sweet language of “Apes and Pigs” fills mosques in Houston. Yes, a nice, gentle, Sufi speaker in Taipei can cheerfully look forward to when the Last Jew is betrayed to his death by the very Tree he would hide behind.
If spindok was capable of honesty, he would acknowledge the difference between a religion were the iron fist lies at the Mean and other religions where the iron fist is multiple deviations away from that mean. But if spindok was honest he would not be a good spindok, would he?
Finally: “Nobody whom has killed wrongly in the name of G-d to justify their own sick pathology.”
That would be God, or is their a sick pathology that leaves you to omit vowels?
Oct 24, 2009 - 6:39 pm 41. Groand:Let us not forget: Not every muslim is a terrorist but every terrorist is a muslim.
Oct 24, 2009 - 8:18 pm 42. tanstaafl:Because you do not have job in your country, but there is more work in the West. So your not having a job in your country is a fault of imperialist Amrika.
Mehanna grew up in a Boston suburb in well off family, PhD ? in pharmacology, like his father, so wasn’t looking, necessarily, at a bleak future. M. Atta was pursuing an advanced degree in city planning in Hamburg when he and other well off friends got together on planning 911. (Atta is said to have been very angry at effects of “modernity” in his native Cairo) Some of the guys who bombed the airport in Scotland and had placed the bomb filled cars outside the nightclubs in London were doctors.
A lot of the movers & shakers in radical jihad are not drawn in over the deprivation & poverty angle. Others, however, like the “muscle guys” (non leaders) on the 911 flights are.
Mehanna had, reportedly, traveled around for some time, Pakistan, Yemen, trying to be accepted into radical jihad, and had been unable to achieve that due to reasons like distrust of an American. Seems like a deeply dissatisfied guy who was desperate to be included in something larger than a life in America, pursuing pharmacology.
Although I would not, necessarily, argue the more educated proponents of violent jihad are personally motivated by ideas of Paradise, the poem attributed to/identified with Mehanna sings the praises of paradise, for what it’s worth.
I’ve read more than a few accounts of the young, the naive, the impressionable being drawn in (especially to suicide bombing) by older jihadists who constantly reinforce the joys and wonders of Paradise, recently in the Swat Valley in Pakistan where young men & boys were recruited for suicide missions. Peportedly (after the Pakistani army re-took the Swat) there is a program underway to “rehabilitate” the thinking of some of those children who were drawn in to believe in the joys awaiting them after their suicide mission.
I don’t think I’m too off base in maintaining that sexual repression in Muslim culture plays a role in attracting them.
(Imagine teaching a young man that blowing himself up is the highest form of service to his God and the wonders that await him after the deed. I wonder where “the UN” is in protesting these travesties foisted onto children, it seems like the worst form of exploitation.)
Oct 25, 2009 - 7:29 am 43. tanstaafl:Peportedly
Reportedly
Oct 25, 2009 - 7:50 am 44. Elliot:i There’s prejudice, and then there’s PJM prejudice.
Hmmm,no. The judgements being made here seem neither irrational nor uninformed.
Furthermore, most Americans have given this issue due diligence and are not speaking in haste.Westerners have had decades to review these acts,murderous terrorist acts on non-combatant civilians across the globe, for what they are. We have not been unfair, we have listened patiently and tempered our anger quite well in my estimation.
It is just the reverse-the prejudices are all theirs-the Muslims who plot and scheme against us on the flimsiest of excuses.
Oct 25, 2009 - 8:01 am 45. Stephen Rittenberg:The Religion of Peace is the same kind of religion as Nazism and Communism. It’s a totalist ideology. It is utopian, absolutist, and perverse–women’s sexuality is terribly threatening to Muslim men. The failure of utopia requires scapegoats–usually the Jews. Until we wake up to the basic fact that Islam wants to destroy democracy and force the infidels to submit to sharia, we will not win this war of civilization vs. barbarism. Both Bush and Obama share in the utopian fantasy that we can all hold hands and live happily together. Where are the leaders? the Churchills or Trumans who knew that wars must be won.
Oct 25, 2009 - 1:52 pm 46. Anon:Vinny B.:
Oct 26, 2009 - 10:04 amYou forgot to close your ’sarc’ tag. It’s bleeding out all over the place now.