Asia Times recently interviewed a "failed jihadi" — a former jihad commander in Pakistan who now works as a "medical researcher for a Canadian company." (Thanks to nicolei.)
He left the struggle, he explains, because he realized that he was being used as a pawn by the Pakistani army in its conflict with India. Although he is not now actively fighting, he is still committed to the cause of jihad, explaining: "This is a matter of heart and soul, and cannot be given up. Do not get me wrong, I am committed to my cause, but cannot be cannon fodder for a simple 'military game' of two armies. Have you seen a horse and cart? The horse's owner puts leather blinkers close to its eyes so that it can only see what its master wants it to see, not look here or there. This is how the Pakistani army treats jihadi organizations. This is possible with animals, but not with a walking, talking and thinking human being."
About this man, the article says: "He was always considered extraordinary. He was an excellent pupil, a good cricketer, a natural student leader, and a popular teacher in the medical career that he chose to pursue. Then he decided on a radical change in direction. He would become a jihadi, undergo a six-month training program, and then die as a martyr in the Kashmir Valley." Why did he choose to do this? He himself explains that "I come from a Salafi [Wahhabi] family so I was a practicing Muslim to some extent. After completing my medical education I joined a college where I taught. I came close to a few Salafi scholars whose appeal for jihad inspired me. I prepared a program of six months under which I would go to Kashmir and sacrifice my life in the way of Allah."
This man was disillusioned by the cynicism of his commanders, whom he regarded as waging a struggle for power and territory in the name of jihad. Unfortunately, he left behind many others who had come to no such realization, and were soldiering on. This illustrates the potency of figures like Osama bin Laden, and why they take pains to present themselves as devout and wholly committed Muslims (which, of course, they are). In Onward Muslim Soldiers I discuss how jihadis insist on purity of intention. The flamboyant jihad commander Abu Abdel Aziz fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia in the 1980s and 1990s. In a 1994 interview he ruled out all mixed motives for jihad: "we have to make Jihad to make [Allah's] word supreme, not for a nationalistic cause, a tribal cause, a group feeling or any other cause. This matter is of great importance in this era, especially since many groups fight and want to see to it that their fighting is Jihad and their dead ones are martyrs. We have to investigate this matter and see under what banner one fights."
Abu Abdel Aziz (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)