Monday, July 2, 2007

A rare glimpse into the mind of a former extremist

By Ari Rutenberg

In this article from the UK's Daily Mail (not a paper I usually read, or agree with) a former member and recruiter for the 'British Jihadi Network' writes about his experiences and gives his perspective on the reasons for the war on terror. Not being a scholar of the Qu'ran I cannot comment intelligently on his theological anaylsis, but it is a very different argument then any I have heard before. Here is an excerpt:
When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network - a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology - I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.

By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.

More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

The attempts to cause mass destruction in London and Glasgow are so reminiscent of other recent British Islamic extremist plots that they are likely to have been carried out by my former peers.

And as with previous terror attacks, people are again saying that violence carried out by Muslims is all to do with foreign policy.

Read the full article here

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