IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE:

Confessions of a White jihadist (Daveed Gartenstein-Ross , 28 November 2009, Times of India)

He was a Jew who converted to Islam while in college. He went from "holding liberal ideas about Islam to conservatism to militancy". He worked for the head of a Wahabi organisation that the US government has since named a 'specially designated global terrorist entity' with alleged links to al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the perpetrators of 26/11. As the FBI and the Indian investigative agencies work overtime to trace David Coleman Headley's deadly terror trail in India, and as America seeks answers to the recent killing rampage by a US army major of Palestinian origin, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross writes for TOI-Crest on why he became a radical Islamist - as well as his journey back, post 9/11. Today, he is one of America's foremost authorities on counter-terrorism and works with the FBI in its investigation of terror organisations, particularly on home-grown extremism. [...]

I had converted to Islam in college, following a period of intense illness that almost killed me. I found Islam, feeling it answered many of my spiritual questions , and practiced a moderate and progressive version of the faith. It was by chance that I ended up at Al Haramain; the charity had established its US headquarters in my hometown of Ashland, Oregon, and I was encouraged to apply for a job after I attended the Friday jummah prayers there in the summer of 1998.

During my time at Al Haramain, I progressed from holding liberal ideas about Islam to conservatism and ultimately to militancy. This by no means shows that militant Islam is the sole or best practice of the faith, but it is important to understand how militants are able to draw young Muslims into their orbit.

The peer pressure was not just related to the ideas that I held. There were also rules pertaining to virtually every aspect of our lives, many of which involved limbs. I could eat using only my right hand. I could never pet a dog or shake hands with a woman. Over time, I came to believe in all of this and more. I believed that listening to music was a transgression that believers should avoid.

Moreover, one frequently overlooked aspect of jihadist ideology is that it has considerable persuasive force. Often commentators assume that the jihadi movement is composed of the poorly educated, the broke, and the hopeless; many have stated that Osama bin Laden's interpretation of Islam is a transparent distortion.

The social science literature on radicalisation undermines these claims. The work of scholars such as Marc Sageman and Alan Krueger shows that terrorists are neither poorly educated nor economically deprived. Nor would peer pressure alone have been sufficient to make me embrace religious extremism.

Over time, I came to see religion as far deeper than that. If God exists, who is a better barometer of morality? If God believes it wrong to shake hands with a woman, who am I to argue?

It is in this context that a legalistic practice of religion makes sense. But if believers need religious guidance on eating and clothing, it is far more important that they understand God's will on issues like warfare and the proper relationship between religion and state.

For me, that framework for understanding the world opened the door to extremism. I remember reading an essay by Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid, 'The Call to Jihad in the Qur'an' , which was included as an appendix in many of the Qur'anic translations that Al Haramain distributed.

Tracing the Qur'an's view on "the fighting" chronologically, bin Humaid argues that it was forbidden during the early part of Muhammad's prophethood, then made permissible under certain circumstances (against those who fought the Muslims or unjustly expelled them from their homes).

I found this essay persuasive. It provided a logical framework for determining between conflicting Qur'anic verses, and concisely summarised the progression of the revelations that Muhammad received.

At the time, I didn't like that conclusion. It conflicted with my own moral inclinations, but what did that matter? If you have one view, and God has another, wouldn't you change your mind rather than expecting God to change His?

I once voted for a Democrat.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 28, 2009 6:22 AM