In 2006, 21-year-old Fahim Ahmad was arrested and charged with leading a group of young men who planned to bomb power stations, take hostages and “behead politicians” in order to compel the Canadian government to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Ahmad was also accused of planning to travel abroad to join Islamist insurgents fighting in foreign conflicts.
While the group he led was described by authorities as “Al-Qaeda inspired,” it was not believed to have direct links to the group or any other designated terrorist organizations.
Born in Afghanistan, Ahmad moved with his family to Canada at the age of 10, and became a naturalized citizen. He lived in the working-class inner suburbs of Toronto, where he married and had two children. At the time of his arrest in 2006, he was unemployed.
After serving several years in pre-trial custody, Ahmad pleaded guilty to terror charges in 2010 and was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment, minus credit for time served. He is currently incarcerated at a facility outside Toronto, and is scheduled to be released in 2018.
Speaking to The Intercept from prison, Ahmad offered some insight into the process that led to his own radicalization.
What started you down this path of radicalism and advocating violence?
It didn’t come from a bad place, originally. It came from a place of concern. At the time I started coming to these views, I was a teenager. It was 2002, 2003, the invasion of Iraq; it made it seem like there was really a war going on. It forced an identity check on me. At the time, you think by doing something like this you’re doing something that’ll in the end make a positive difference.
What role did religion play in the process of your radicalization?
After the mosque services, some guys would get together and talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. People started saying that we need to do something about this. Older guys who I respected were telling me that this is wrong and we need to be doing something.
At the time, I didn’t even know how to read the Quran. In fact, I only ended up learning it later when I was in jail. When I was out I didn’t know anything about religion other than what these guys were telling me, and I ended up developing tunnel vision where everything revolved around things like jihad.
What were the influences that made you develop this worldview?
When I would talk to people about what was going on in the world, everything would be portrayed so simplistically, as though it was just black and white. And then what you would see on the news all the time would just make you feel disgusted.
That, combined with the things people were telling me about religion, made me feel like the right way to practice [Islam] was to do these things that I thought would be defending Muslims.
Did feelings of anger or social alienation in your upbringing contribute to radicalization?
They contributed to it. There would be things like people calling you “terrorist,” or mistreating you for how you were dressed or being racially profiled by the police. Those happened to me and people around me. You start to feel like you don’t fit in, and the only way you can fit in is by maybe going away somewhere else, like maybe the country your parents came from, or maybe an “Islamic State” somewhere.
What made you think that these problems would be solved through violence?
I wasn’t really thinking it through — it was mostly just talk — but then when people started showing up and talking it up more, it started to take on a life of its own. My own thinking was always mainly about going to Afghanistan or maybe Iraq or Somalia to fight over there.
Despite some of the stuff which was said, I never made any plans of doing violence here. My own thoughts were that I would be fighting to do something good, and it would stop some of the bad things I was seeing in the world.
You were arrested almost a decade ago. How has your thinking changed since then?
I have hindsight and a different perspective now. I’ve been learning about Islam with imams here who taught me the real context of what people had been telling me before, and I know what I had been learning before about how to behave was wrong. I don’t see things so simplistically as I did previously.
I also got a chance to meet lots of people in jail — Muslims and non-Muslims — and we find common ground and get along. I can see it’s not a black and white world, and anybody who thinks like that, regardless of who they are, really needs to check themselves. You can’t let that small percentage of racists or bad people make you angry at the whole world.
You were radicalized in part by your view of world events. What do you think about what’s happened in the world since your incarceration?
Well, I see things like this group, ISIS, and the types of things they are doing are just insane. I can’t understand how anyone could support this, and it’s obvious to me from their acts that they left Islam behind a long time ago. I also don’t think people should go and take part in other people’s conflicts, because from a distance you can’t really know what’s going on. Things are never so black and white, and if you go there, people are just going to end up using you.
Another thing is, when I saw the attacks that happened recently in Ottawa, I was really upset by that. When the news started, the whole time I was hoping it was not a Muslim. When we found out it was, I was thinking, ‘Man, this sucks because the perception of Muslims will be crazy because of this.’ I know the mistakes I made, and how I contributed to this myself in the past, but I’m not like that anymore and I don’t want it to get worse.
Photo: Steve Russell/Toronto Star
“We’d talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan..I didn’t even know how to read the Quran”
Clearly, this kid didn’t get the Sam Harris memo
A side-bar on religious radicalism and polarization. Bibi stuck his oar in after the Copenhagen attack, and it didn’t go over well.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11414029/Danish-rabbi-criticises-Benjamin-Netanyahus-Jewish-emigration-call.html
A little historical context in the case of Denmark: in October 1943 its people rescued its Jewish community, just about all of it, from a Nazi roundup, and they did it not out of kindness to strangers but because they regarded the Danish Jews as Danish, as countrymen, neighbors to be protected as integral parts of their community. Suggesting that they up and flee now is the ultimate, exquisite insult. (See, e.g., Bo Lidegaard, Countrymen, for a recent account of the rescue).
Bibi is being obtuse in the grand George W. Bush manner.
GREAT ARTICLE! This is honestly the first time I have read an interview like this before… I honestly see myself as having a very simplistic/ black and white mentality and I also get very angry at all the negativity around me, such as racism or the fact that my country is torturing… His words inspire me to try and break from this simplistic mentality that I have.
Sadly, these feelings of fear and hatred can drive anyone to radicalize… Not just muslims!!!; but also protestors, leaders, police or even average friends! It’s important to hear from people like the person interviewed in this article (Fahim Ahmad) to see how its important to now get lost in the will to join in on conflicts.
I really enjoyed reading the thoughts of a rehabilitated radicalized person and hope Fahim Ahmad continues to speak! All he had to say was both great. I feel that his advice is very important right now, since so many are becoming inspired to act on their fears and hatred, and each person who does causes great loss and pain for those all around.
Here is a young man whose life has been ruined. Teenagers have extremely black and white thinking that unfortunately follows them into adulthood. Why does it take a profound life changing paradigm to start the change to grey? Reading your column and comments reinforces the black and white nature of our world today. Here is a young man who was unemployed, profiled, and most likely bullied who found himself amount people where he thought that he could belong. Gang mentality then takes over. It is easy to anonymously comment on a website about our prison mentality society, and ponder how we are to get all those people to keep building prisons but what about getting out into the real work and start tearing down these buildings one person, one brick at a time. We the people are being herded like the sheep we are into complete surrender. Did you know that 99 is a much bigger number then 1, yet we sleep walk our way into the pens of feckless surrender under the tutelage of the soulless, corrupt, warmongering idiots that care absolutely nothing about the world, it’s people, or the reality of this planet.
It would be so easy to put this right if we just simply got some guts and said ‘ENOUGH’. What’s it going to take? I’m trying, what about you?
Hate crime = Terrorism
These two things are the same. Why do they have different names for different religions of perpetrator?
Why is it legal to be a member of white supremacy hate groups but not a member of Al Qaeda?
Very interesting article, thanks for publishing it. No one can doubt that the Iraq war and other American military actions have created blowback.
Very nice article. One part in particular underscores the abuse of imprisonment in lieu of speedy justice in order to elicit a confession:
“After serving several years in pre-trial custody…”
And this from the linked article on the arrest off the group regarding whether it was in fact still a “thought crime” or whether government agencies actually enabled people who otherwise would not have gone as far as they did.
“It was not clear whether the group ever had possession of the chemicals, or whether authorities may have had a role in arranging for the shipment or transporting the material.”
It’s one thing to think of doing something illegal, or even plan it. It something else altogether for the government to take an active role in making sure it comes to fruition.
“People’s behaviors are messages, not a diagnosis; because I can no longer discern the world’s version of insanity.” – Shannon L. Alder
This process of radicalization of the unemployed should be a primary government concern. The US solution to this problem – sending large portions of its population to prison – is certainly one possible approach. But as new apps increasingly render all humans redundant, the number of new prisons to be constructed is literally mind boggling. There simply aren’t enough workers to build them all. So the question becomes, where do we find enough workers to build the prisons to house the unemployed?
Traditionally, the answer would be: increase immigration – since immigrants are often willing to work for the wages that employers are willing to pay. However, today many people are uncomfortable sharing their country with foreigners. So we probably need to find a technological solution. Self replicating iPrisons is one possible approach. However, it is worth returning to first principles and asking the question: what is a prison? The answer is defined not so much by physical attributes, but by the existence of full time close surveillance so that the prisoners’ every movement can be observed and controlled. A prison is defined by patrolling guards looking into prisoners’ cells and surveillance cameras that monitor every square inch of the prison space. So why not conceive of society at large as a giant prison? By instituting a system of total surveillance, there will no longer be any need to build discrete physical prisons.
This uber prison can be as comfortable, or as harsh, as the wardens choose to make it. Some people will resist this idea, since humans at heart are socially conservative. But it presents such a splendid solution to our most pressing problems, that I believe its implementation is inevitable.
quote”Some people will resist this idea, since humans at heart are socially conservative. “unquote
I believe at least 30 million gun owners would agree with you, if not more should push come to shove. Unfortunately, under the 100 Heads Life and Casualty policy, you may not be around to see them succeed.
quote”But it presents such a splendid solution to our most pressing problems, that I believe its implementation is inevitable.”unquote
Only in your pathetic, sick, narcissistic mind.
“This uber prison can be as comfortable, or as harsh, as the wardens choose to make it. Some people will resist this idea, since humans at heart are socially conservative. But it presents such a splendid solution to our most pressing problems, that I believe its implementation is inevitable.”
you forgot to mention that we are already half the way there. especially near any of the US’ boarders.
You also forgot the other more humane approach that doesnt have all of us living like prisoners, a proper social system which covers a basic living wage (for everyone!), free healthcare (for everyone!) and Free Education (for everyone!)
Remember; a rising tide raises all ships.
Listen people to the real world.
not this shite that is put right before your unknowning eyes.
Muslims are being persecuted by the Americans.
it matteres not what thought beliefs you have.
America kills Muslims without mercy, without justice in its evil.
kill the Americans all you that hold truth to be the standard.
For America is condemned by its actions.
Muslims of the world rise up and kill americans.
It is Gods wish that you do so.
America is a Masonic false government.
It reaks of depravity.
I would all that i can to destroy America.
Sadly, what he’s saying about Islam and the Quran, about black and white, about religion and defending ones religion, applies equally to many Christians, especially in America, and to many of those who have the power to wreak havoc:
Practice Christianity and defending Christians can readily be substituted in that sentence.
Excellent point. It almost makes a person wonder why the intercept ran this piece. More and more the intercept is looking like a sham.
A point that is probably lost on a lot of people is that when you force young people to pretend conformity, as was done by imprisoning this young man, and then you glorify that artificial stance, as was done by whoever wrote this article, you are creating bigger problems downstream. America is led by idiots fighting morons. Who will win? The idiots or the morons?
Questions are asked about religion.
Questions are asked abot right.
Questions are asked about justice.
America is without justice.
America should be fought by all the people on earth that hold true to justice.
Death to America.
America holds that it is true but that is a lie.
America kills children, babies, women and innocent civiliallians in their millions and says it is the one that is true.
Lie .
America is the great satan.
Let all those that oppose evil fight to the death to destroy America.
I suspect that the most important thing he said in this interview was that many Muslims feel they must go to a Muslim country to live. A direct quote is “”You start to feel like you don’t fit in, and the only way you can fit in is by maybe going away somewhere else, like maybe the country your parents came from, or maybe an “Islamic State” somewhere””. I think Muslims either will not or cannot assimilate with us raised in the Judeo/Christian traditions in Western countries because the Islamic beliefs are too different, no democracy, no womens rights, no free speech, no music (in really strict interpretations), kill all gays, and so on.
Muslims can’t assimilate because Islam is a facist political system masquerading as a religion. Once there are enough of them in an area they demand to live by their laws (Sharia), not those of the greater society. Up to that point they will lie and pretend to get along with other beliefs. This is also part of their system/beliefs.
And yet, most Muslims in the Western world do manage to fit in if they’re not placed in circumstances whereby they’re made to feel alienated, such as poverty, unemployment, racial profiling, etc., all of which have nothing to do with their religious beliefs.
“I think Muslims either will not or cannot assimilate with us raised in the Judeo/Christian traditions in Western countries because the Islamic beliefs are too different, no democracy, no womens rights, no free speech, no music (in really strict interpretations), kill all gays, and so on.
You are obviously a total imbecile and have never known any Muslims, much less lived in Muslim countries, as I have. Other than that your comment isn’t worth the wear on my fingers to address.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4i8Qn5lGis
“At the time, you think by doing something like this you’re doing something that’ll in the end make a positive difference.”
i urge others to take up the cause. the cause of right against the evil of America and fight the cowards however you can.
Fuck America Death to America.
Give them a taste of their own depravity by all means possible.
May Isis destroy evil satanic America.
It’s comments like this that terrify people and allow mass surveillance to exist. Good job adding to the problem.
Fucking nutcase.
Someone clearly appropriated his name/handle to try to get him in trouble. Oddly my quasi-anonymous posts won’t get posted but people trying to get people blacklisted and worse can. What makes me sad is noone else has pointed this out. Am I really the only person to read comments, note certain posters’ styles and pick up on this? That is just sad.
Thanks for the interesting interview Mr. Hussain. It’s sad to see a clear-eyed young man fall in line so easily with the west’s hypocritical ideals so easily. With the blatant racism and bias against muslims inherent in the western system, there are going to be a lot more young men like this.
Good article, Mr Hussain
A point that applies on all sides of that war, and with more than one particular religion. Certainly the region is distant enough that most Americans wouldn’t find it on a map, and if you listen to FNC you certainly won’t know what’s going on. If Rome, the Crusaders, and Bonaparte couldn’t hold the Levant, we’re supposed to try it?
My God! I didn’t know that people still read Wilfred Owen. Thanks for the reference and I’m off to the library to get his works as I read him in high school but not since. I believe he was killed shortly before the armistice, too.
Yes. Died October 1918, IINM. You might also read Robert Service, whose WWI poetry is even stronger (e.g., “On The Wire”). Of renewed interest since (1) we’re in the centennial of the War to End All Wars and we’re also on the cusp of a major war in Eastern Europe.
crikey, just those verses alone sent shivers all down my back
If you want to experience first-hand the methods that NSA and GCHQ analysts employ to identify terrorists and WMD’s using satellite images and security cameras then you can test your spooky skills by clicking on this website.
Just don’t get addicted to it … ;-)
“Well, I see things like this group, ISIS, and the types of things they are doing are just insane. I can’t understand how anyone could support this”
Yes but why? Why are they BEHAVING this way? Obviously, they are not insane or psychotic- that would be too simplistic an answer. I’d say they are out to take advantage of the chaos that was created by the US in its failed war in Iraq. ISIS did not come into existence in a vacuum and those who commit terrorist attacks do so not so much out of their religious beliefs but as Karen Armstrong said, they attack because they are being invaded by a foreign power (I’m sure Fahim would agree to that). Since they don’t have high tech weapons which, by the way, kill far more people that terrorist do, strapping themselves with bombs is their only way to fight with some advantage. No doubt, it’s madness but so is using drones to kill innocent people. In all this madness, we forgot what the fight is all about. Fortunately Fahim woke up from his religious conditioning that only made things worse. But I’m sure he is still angry at the unrestrained US imperialist powers that continue bombing his country with impunity all in the name of fighting terrorism. Yet, as Andrew Bacevich said -which has already been proven- military might does not work. By good fortune Fahim’s imprisonment was -unbeknownst to himself, a means to reflect and free himself from his own madness. Maybe we should do the same to all our political leaders. Let’s put them all in prison for a few years and some solitary confinement. Maybe then they too will wakes up from their madness.
It is what happens when people are given no rational way to respond to overpowering force. Psychology dictates learned helplessness, embracing the attacker, or throwing the kitchen sink in search of any response that might garner a dent or reaction (nb as an attempt to not be/feel powerless against one’s abuser). The problem STARTS with the policy and the execution. To think otherwise is to blame the abused wife for getting beaten up and setting the bed on fire… is there culpability? Sure but would she have lit the bed on fire if she hadn’t essentially felt unable to stop the abuse?
This poor kid wasn’t radicalised. He was abused and then taken advantage of. He didn’t change his mind so much as get removed from a situation. Now if only people would learn that shouldn’t involve prison and loss of a quarter of his life.
I greatly appreciate Fahim’s words. In much of our media the “terrorist” has become a mythological monster, faceless, inhuman, unthinking and unfeeling. We as a society are being conditioned in black and white just as Fahim was. Division and willful ignorance of our fellow humans has driven this war of terror from the outset, and it is only by seeking to understand and empathise that we will ever emerge. Fahim’s few words carry great power, because he becomes someone we know, someone who is human, has fundamentally good intentions, and is not so different from us. Thank-you.
Thanks for this interview. While I can understand it intellectually, as a person I just don’t understand what drives someone to think that killing others is the right way to achieve their goals.
Truth about Islam is not so rosy.
Muhammad, founder of Islam and author of Koran, was mentally sick psychopath and pedophile, he had married a 6-year old girl and raped her when she was 9. Muhammad could not read and write. While in seizure, he uttered disjointed phrases, which his followers represented as Allah divine afflatus. This is the history of Islam that muslims and “honest and free” western media would not like you to know. These facts show that islam is not a religion, but a cult. Read: “History of Middle Ages” Professor Nikolay A. Osokin, Textbook (in Russian), Publishing house: Imperial University Printing Office, Kazan, 1888, 771 pp.)
In his Cairo speech, Obama accredited to arabs all fundamental inventions human race made over centuries. None of the Obama mentioned is true, as every person graduated from credible high school knows. However, it does not mean that Arabs, great nation with centuries of history, has no inventions critical for human life. They have and here they are:
1. Ethnic Cleansing – invented centuries ago, implemented over 2000 years ago in Israel when they occupied Israel and disseminated Jews around the world; from 1948 through 1953 arab countries expelled a million Jews and stole their properties; in 1974, Turkish armed forces invaded Cyprus, captured 36 percent of its territory, partitioned the island, implemented a policy of “ethnic cleansing” and sent close to 200,000 Greek Cypriots southward as refugees who lost their property, desecrated churches and cemeteries, and in 1983 declared the northern Turkish Republic of Cyprus; in 1999, Kosovo Liberation Army stormed homes of the last 15 Jews in Kosovo’s capital, who had to clear out, with just the clothes on their backs; recently, Jews in Yemen were under attack and have been relocated to Britain.
2. Genocide – invented by Turks and implemented (with help of palestinian arabs) in 1915-1917 in Armenia: over 1.5 mln. Armenians, including children, died. Currently, Turkey commits Kurdish Genocide: In 1937-1938, approximately 50,000-70,000 Alevi Kurds were killed. In 1990, Turkish military virtually wiped from the map 3,000 Kurdish villages in Turkey, representing the displacement of more than 378,000 people. Turkey denies Kurdish right for independence, self-determination and all human rights and continues killing Kurds on daily basis in Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
3. Holocaust – invented in 1920s by Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem and implemented in Israel in 1920s-30s. In 1941, Haj Amin al Husseini brought the Holocaust idea to Hitler and helped him to implement Holocaust in Europe in 1941-45; he organized and commanded two islamofascist brigades operated as SS units, had their own concentration camp, and killed tens of thousand of Europeans, including Jews.
Islam is based on three fundamental principles:
1. Stealing
2. Killing, and
3. Lying
Koran says:
“Slay them wherever you find them. Fight against them till idolatry is no more and God’s religion reigns supreme” (Sura 2:190),
“Seek out your enemies relentlessly” (Sura 4:103),
“Make war on them till idolatry shall cease and God’s religion shall reign supreme” (Sura 8:36),
“When the sacred months are over slay the unbelievers wherever you find them. Arrest them, beseige them and lie in ambush everywhere for them” (Sura 9:5),
“Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you” (Sura 9:121),
“When you meet the unbelievers on the battlefield strike off their heads” (Sura 47:3),
“Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal sternly with them. Hell shall be their home, evil their fate” (Sura 66:7).
Koran is Islamic Mein Kamf. Islam is fascist cult and must be eliminated from the earth.
An old story. Young people with more enthusiasm than knowledge being manipulated by older people who aren’t taking the risks but stand to enjoy the benefits.
Why Muslims Come to the West
Islam is incompatible with Western culture, history, judicial system and civilization. Remember, our judicial system based on Judeo-Christian values. Islam objects to these values and the Koran calls for the extermination of Christians and Jews. The Muslims’ objective is the creation of a global Caliphate and the establishment of Shariah law. All this eventually leads to civil war, unless we will take care and deport all Muslims from US and Europe. Look what is going on in Britain, France and other countries where Muslims clearly declare that their primary objective to overcome current social systems and replace it with Sharia law. Read below the confessions of leading Muslims around the world, including in America and watch the Fitna on:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2008/03/here-is-fitna.html
Omar Ahmad, co-founder of the Council of American-Islamic Relations:
“Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam … Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes clear Islam’s aggressive role in subordinating other worldly religions to it, claiming,
“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the believers our army.”
Algerian leader Houari Boumédienne said at the United Nations in 1974:
“One day, millions of men will leave the Southern Hemisphere to go to the Northern Hemisphere. And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it. And they will conquer it with their sons. The wombs of our women will give us victory.”
Dr. Ja`far Sheikh Idris in article “Separation Of Church And State”
http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=559 said:
“Secularism cannot be a solution for countries with a Muslim majority or even a sizeable minority, for it requires people to replace their God-given beliefs with an entirely different set of man-made beliefs. Separation of religion and state is not an option for Muslims because is requires us to abandon Allah’s decree for that of a man.”
Al-Jazeera’s Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi, who is widely hailed as a moderate reformer in the West, said:
“Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor,” and “the conquest this time will not be by the sword but by preaching and ideology.”
A Saudi Sheikh, Muhammad bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-‘Arifi, imam of the mosque of King Fahd Defense Academy, said:
Muslims “will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it….”
Also read the article “Arab-American author outlines secret 20-year strategy to undermine country” by FROM JOSEPH FARAH’S G2 BULLETIN.
Plus, remember, all Muslim organizations have close ties to global terrorist organizations, like Hamas, Hezbullah, Brotherhood.
Only the total deportation of Muslims will save western countries and civilization from collapse.
Because the dominant politico-economic system is naturalized, because it is presented as normal, because the violence of the ruling class is presented as legitimate and necessary for “order”, and because this ideology is itself an expression of the ruling class’ power, seldom is it asked, “How are children and adults radicalized to be chauvinists and America-firsters? What’s the process and stages through which human beings are stripped of their capacity for empathy, deformed and become callous, self-centered, paranoid, and alienated from their brothers and sisters abroad and even from their neighbors? How much effort does the ruling class have to expend to make humans in America feel superior and special, and to feel that the slaughter ‘of others’ is justified–and yet at the same time feel powerless, and disoriented about how power works, and paralyzed from the absence /underdevelopment of political clarity, overwhelmed by the apparent diffusion of responsibility, and ignorant about history and how change actually happens?”
In other words, we don’t hear much about how one is socialized to become an agent of Empire.
See “Engineering Empire: An Introduction to the Intellectuals and Institutions of American Imperialism”
http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/engineeringempire.html
An excellent essay, highly recommended.
Well, America’s – and the “West’s” – sense of superiority comes a material superiority. We have more shit, and more time, to do what we think we like. The answer to Mr. Ahmad and his ilk is found in their initial alienation. Trade Unions in the US and Europe (and I’m assuming Canada) have chosen no to incorporate into their ranks successive waves of immigrants, leading to both a quasi-segregation in Europe and the utter diminishment of unions is the U.S. Now, we have two imperialist battles to confront: diminished and, thus, parasitic Capitalism, and an Islamism that is facing defeat in modernity, and thus, like a cornered animal, seeing no choice but to be more ferocious.
Excellent comment. What we must realize is that the ruling class has all the power of government, the media, and most of the institutions of higher learning telling the same message. All of these institutions bow at the altar of the dollar where the sermon is written by the ruling class. It is only the “dangerous radicals” saying something at all different from the ruling class’ message and if one even listens to the other message, you could be a dangerous subversive and might merit “watching”. Such is the same in almost all totalitarian and/or fascist systems.
It’s very sad but it appears to this viewer that it will take a home-grown bloodbath of epic proportions to change the system. The ruling class will not retreat out of the goodness of their hearts and as long as their crumbs are adequate to maintain the masses, they’re relatively safe.
Really good point that cannot be emphasized enough.
The other half of this phenomenon is why so pitifully few Americans are able to dismiss this demented ideology and stop perpetuating it at their own expense.
Just as we have our think tanks the Muslims also have their own scheming think tanks. Ultimately, it all boils down to how you form the opinion of the supporting public and how you get them to do your bidding and fund your coffers.
You can have people write pages and pages of reports, and nothing is going to change. The end will only come with a process that will reset our economic activities to a new beginning, and that usually follows large-scale destruction of infrastructure and people. Fortunately, we are headed that way, but perhaps not fast enough.
sheeeezus..given the governments judgement that because of this mans recognition that his blood and faith related fellow human beings were being systematically reduced to the dust of the earth by the very entity that now judges him.. that entity now judges..he is a terrorist.
Under those same set of criteria… most of the planet are now the enemy of the real terrorists. And if you have any delusions that GOVERNMENTS are NOT the REAL terrorists..I suggest you write a letter to your great great grandchildren explaining why you failed to help kill those who would enslave them forever if not murder them. I did. I told them.. because I was born into a political reality that indoctrinates nationalism into children from the time of birth, I only discovered the truth by the time I was too old to join those elements who could physically change the coming abyss that Senator Frank Church so prophetically warned us about. Now..it is too late.. unless those young humans in America finally learn what their masters have in mind for their progeny. In that light..I suggest to those who visit here, they have two choices. Procure a weapon..or not.