Saturday, June 10, 2006

Teacher witnessed transformation of some bomb-plot suspects

CBC News reported A Muslim religious leader in Toronto who knows some of those charged in the suspected bomb plot says the young men underwent rapid transformations from normal Canadian teenagers to radicalized introverts.... Amiruddin says Khalid used to come to his mosque to pray, sometimes in the company of Zakaria Amara and Fahim Ahmad, two of the alleged ringleaders. "They would enter into the mosque to pray, and they would pray in a very aggressive manner, and they would come in military fatigues and military touques and stuff. It looked to me that they were watching a lot of those Chechnyan jihad videos online and stuff."

Moderate Muslims need to identify such people to the authorities.
Amiruddin is a teacher of Sufism, a traditional brand of Islam that rejects the ideology of jihad. Amiruddin says the group was seduced by hardline propaganda financed by the Saudi government and promoting a strict, Wahhabi brand of Islam. He says the Saudis have flooded Canada with free Qur'ans, laced with jihadist commentary.
Our "friends" the Saudis. Protecting their behinds by exporting radicalism, and encouraging the radicals in their country to go join the global jihad.
"In the back of these Qur'ans that are being published in Saudi Arabia, you have basically essays on the need for offensive jihad and the legitimacy of offensive jihad and things like that. Very alarming stuff," he said. Amiruddin said many mainstream Muslim organizations in Canada are really part of the problem, standing by as extremist propaganda spreads in the mosques.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
He cites the Al-Rahman centre in Mississauga, Ont., which he links to the Al-Maghrib Institute, which runs a popular educational website. It's nominally run out of Ottawa, but Amiruddin says it's really a Saudi operation. Amiruddin says Khalid underwent a rapid transition from a clean-cut Canadian teenager to a long-haired, radicalized introvert. He says the young men would pray by themselves, and try to recruit younger teens to the fundamentalist Wahhabi view.

Robert Spencer blogged What did Amiruddin do to try to stop that recruitment? Did he implement a comprehensive program to teach young Muslims the errors of the "Wahhabi view"? Or did he just stand by passively?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be fair, Sufism is widely considered to be a significantly peaceful variant of Islam, with a greater preoccupation with meditation and personal growth.

I don't think it's fair to brand this guy just because he is a Muslim. How do we know he wasn't instrumental in providing information to the authorities about these creeps?

Don Singleton said...

What did I do to brand him. All I said was Moderate Muslims need to identify such people to the authorities.

Robert Spencer asked What did Amiruddin do to try to stop that recruitment? Did he implement a comprehensive program to teach young Muslims the errors of the "Wahhabi view"? Or did he just stand by passively?, but that is a valid question