I have spoken many times of how moderate Muslims can be turned into jihadists by appeals to the Qur'an and Sunnah. This is most likely what happened to this man. From ArabNews, with thanks to Nicolei:
CAIRO, 25 March 2005 - Visibly distressed, Muhammad tossed his head in disbelief as he talked of how his friend's promising life ended in disaster. His friend was identified as the perpetrator of last Saturday's car bombing that killed a Briton outside a theater near a British school in Doha."This is unbelievable," Muhammad said. "He was an ordinary person and never sounded like an extremist or someone who has a different religious or political ideology."
Maybe that's because he really didn't have a "different" ideology.
Muhammad added that his 39-year old friend, Omar Ahmad Abdullah Ali, had only interests related to his computer studies and his work and always planned for having a potential career....Ali had worked in the information technology department of the energy firm since 1990, his mother said. "He had everything he wished for: A nice Palestinian wife born in Qatar, three cute kids and a job with a very good salary.
"He was also very happy when he got a baby last month and he was planning to visit Egypt this summer so that I will be able to see the baby," the mother told Arab News.
The mother said her son called last week to tell her he was fine and confirmed his summer visit. "My son sounded very normal in the phone call and was giving me details of his next trip," said the mother.
"If he had any intentions of carrying out the attack I would have noticed something and he would have tried to say goodbye indirectly. But it was just a normal call like all the calls he made during the past 18 years."
Ali's family, friends and neighbours in Cairo agreed on one thing. He was a decent man and a moderate pious Muslim who never talked about politics or even thought about having a beard.
The wife of the computer programmer, Umm Abdullah, in Doha was quoted by AFP as saying he was a devout Muslim and a man of integrity. "I am shocked," the mother of three said. "It is impossible that he could have done that because he had no motivations and his history is as clean as snow," said another friend....
Except for the fact that he undoubtedly read the Qur'an, and most likely came across the verse promising Paradise to those who "slay and are slain" for Allah (9:111).
I must say that Ali Sina's arguments that Islam should be understood as an irrational pathology explain a lot. Here it is one more time:
http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina50318.htm
Understanding Islam, absolute surrender to the teachings and examples of the prophet in the Qur'an, hadiths and sira, as the irrational embracing of cult-directives, explains cases like these and many other irrational forms of behavior. The Qur'an is a masterpiece of mind control; incessant waves of positive and negative reinforcement leading to unconditional submission. But the directives are bizaare (especially in the context of a non-Muslim societies), inconsistent, and induce a toxic mix of sublime anticipation of paradise and the obligation to alienate and control, with violence if necessary, all those who do not submit to the cult.
According to Ali Sina, the extent to which cult members exhibits irrational forms of behavior, including extreme violence, can be viewed as a function of the extent to which members follow the instructions in the cult-directives, which are irrational. This makes a great deal of sense.
Islam as mental illness deserves in depth psychological study.
I thought poverty and disenfranchisement caused people to become terrorists. This man didn't appear to have problems with either.
Another jihadi gets his raisins... Wonder if this concept of killing for raisins would hurt the 'California Raisins'. Would it be politically incorrect to state with specificity, that this jihadi's actions are an insult to all California Raisins and their culture and their beliefs. If I were a California Raisin, I'd Raise Hell with CAIR.
Fook em all.
The Raisin-American Association, headquartered in Sausalito, California, is indeed considering whether or not to sue certain groups for putting Raisins in a bad light by linking them, as the promised reward, to acts of terrorism.
As a proud Raisin-American, I support this effort.
On the contrary, raisins might be a fitting heavenly reward and earthly therapy.
Regularity is a precondition to a healthy body and spirit. Raisins might be a metaphor for what is required as a prelude to purgatory and a cleansing of the soul; and raisins are indeed a reward in comparison to a straight decent into hell fire.
Islam needs raisins, as well as prunes, plums, almonds, salad, and lots of water, or any substance or idea that brings 'relief'.
That is why Allah gives out so many of them!
The case is solv-ed.
He was a quiet man, you would never think he would do this sort of thing...
Ted Bundy, BTK killer, John Wayne Gacey, every serial killer known to man and every jihadist living among civilized people.
"He had everything he wished for: A nice Palestinian wife born in Qatar, three cute kids and a job with a very good salary."
"He was also very happy when he got a baby last month ..."
So he blows himself up? Maybe for those 72 virgins?
Sounds like a mid-life crisis gone real bad...
Allah giving him a handful of raisins and a couple of french fries would have been even more generous.
or maybe a few nuts to suit his mentality.
I'll have to add his history is as clean as snow to my random jihadist news story generator. I didn't expect them to use a snow metaphor. His history is as clean as camel urine, sure. His history is as clean as the virgins in paradise, absolutely.
You don't get any thanks from Allah or Holy warriors if you are unlucky enough to be a Moslem
woman. After having another baby, hubby decides it's time to explode himself and others...! Now would those dark eyed Houris, all virgins, waiting in Paradise have anything to do with it?
As a mere Western woman have a couple of questions for Iman.
1] Where does unending supply of virgins come from? Do they get pregnant??
2]Why are Mullahs & Imans not exploding THEMSELVES???
KC{England}
Thanks for your response
Your silence along with Timbo,s-ED,s and Nasseens speachs volumes
Good luck on you all
I guess it REALLY was a gun in his pocket, and he was NOT JUST HAPPY TO SEE THEM.
Don't they read the part of their own Koran about deceiving your enemies to win?
Clearly bomber boy did. Twice I bet.
Morgane-
1. The Islamic heavenly virgins have a characteristic that was unknowingly re-invented during WW II by allied aircraft designers who wondered how they could prevent Stukas and Messerschmidts and Foch Wulfs from shooting into the fuel tanks built into the wings of their own planes, thus causing the British and American (and Polish and Free French) airmen to run out of gas before they could fly back across the Channel.
The solution? The self-sealing gas tank! You puncture it, and a viscous liquid, in a separate layer, flowed into the bullet hole, and 'fixed' the problem.
The virgins of the Muslim Paradise have this same trait. Self-renewing hymens.
Imagine the mindset that had time -around some VERY lonely desert campsite circa 600 A.D.- to come up with that bit of theological brilliance?
The religion of 'piece' indeed.
2. Mullahs and imams (and ayatollahs) are needed to tie the suicide vests on the 'martyrs', which are as tricky as brassieres, -although a lot more unflattering.
See yet another high placed conservative critique of the 2-state policy for Israel-Arab "peace." That is 3 this week - including Norman Podhoretz in Commentary (April) - and this is escalating:
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=105601
Frankly, I don't want to see Islamofascists voting; I want to see them dying.