Saudi TV: New weapon against extremism

Asharq Al-Awsat. ^ | 12/5/05

[Valin]

Saudi state-run Channel One TV broadcasted the first episode of a new series aimed at dissuading young Saudis from following in the footsteps of many of their contemporaries to join the jihad (holy war) earlier this week. “Jihad Experiences, the Deceit” is a five part series which will tell the stories of several young Saudis who left to Iraq to fight alongside Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

Zayd Asfan, Abdullah Khoja and Walid Khan narrated their journey from ordinary Saudi youth to mujahideen and discussed the recruitment and brainwashing techniques used by al Qaeda.

At the end of the program, Channel One also broadcast a talk show on the subject of terrorism and recruitment featuring experts in the studio.

Each former militant discussed the religious, social and psychological motives behind their transformation. The men examined their intellectual, social and psychological condition before embracing extreme ideologies, the impact of irrational emotions, the lack of knowledge of Islamic Shariaa (law) and the consequences of extremist ideologies on the individual, his family and society. They also spoke of the positive role the environment (family, peers and the public) can play in restricting the flow of extremist ideas and thoughts. In addition, the men discussed the role of social institutions in facing-off to militant ideologies and the plans to contain returning fighters as well as the particular personality traits and psychological mechanisms which are used to persuade young men.

Walid Khan spoke first and told the viewers how he was introduced to extremism, emphasizing that young men like him were driven by factors outside of religion such as psychological pressure and the desire to rebel. For example, Walid said he did not believe in the principle of takfir (judging other Muslims as infidel). Instead, he sought answers to the numerous questions that crowded his thoughts. He was told, “Embark on jihad and you will obtain all the answers.” The problem, as he put it was, “You never get any answers through jihad.”

For his part, Koja recounted how a meeting with an Islamist militant from Afghanistan changed his life. “I heard that an Uzbek mujahideen leader in Afghanistan, Taher Jan was in the city of Taif where I was working. I wanted to meet him very much and was lucky to be able to. I shared with him my desire to join the mujahideen in Afghanistan or any other part of the world where true jihad for the sake of Allah was being waged. He replied that I may not be able to tolerate the life of a mujahid in Afghanistan given the comfortable standard of living in Saudi Arabia. I assured him I will be patient.”

Walid also remembered how unfamiliar he was with ideological discussions on takfir before joining the extremists. “Afterwards, when I found myself in direct contact with people who believe in takfir and spoke constantly about it, I began listening to their arguments. When asked why takfir, they would answer with religious evidence we were unable to counter. This is how we complied.” In the beginning, Walid added, “I was motivated primarily by enthusiasm. My brother had told me of a friend who became a mujahid. I wondered how someone could leave everything behind. I thought his motives must have been very strong. I then read religious fatwas (edicts) and texts and rousing poems. My eagerness motivated me.”

The recruitment was not complete until the men received military training and learned how to handle explosives and a range of weapons. Ziad Asfan told the viewers of his return to Afghanistan after an initial visit. This time, “I joined a number of training camps. The first was al Siddiq camp where, for two weeks, I was taught how to use light weapons. As you probably know, the camp resembled other training grounds in that we listened to religious songs and fiery sermons that exposed Christian and Jewish conspiracies against the land of Islam and our biggest grievance, Palestine.”

For his part, Koja described how he crossed the border into Afghanistan on foot. “I was dressed as an Afghan since we were keen to conceal our Arab identity. I asked about the camp and what would happen next. I was told to remain in the camp and follow training. I was also told to be patient and not ask many questions.”

Khan provided additional detail on his illegal journey. “At night, we arrived at a small Iranian village called Sanandaj. We took a taxi to the village of Dezli on the Iran-Iraq border. We had an appointment at midnight with a man who was going to smuggle us into Iraq. Of course, this was a totally new experience to men. I was used to a peaceful and ordinary life that revolved around my family and university. I was afraid. We were received in Iraq by a member of Ansar al Islam. He took us to Khormana where we stayed for a long time in a totally alien environment.”

Discussing relations between new recruits, Khoja revealed, “Young mujahideen were constantly suspicious. I met a young man I felt very comfortable with. I asked which city he came from and who he knew. He was very reluctant to answer. I was always told not to ask too many questions and focus on my own affairs. The explanation given was that militants were afraid of spies.”

Patience, Asfan indicated, was necessary at every undertaking. “We were told to be patient. I heard this when climbing a mountain, walking in valleys and training. They told us your pure intentions will help prepare the men who will form the core of the Islamic state and the army which will march from Kabul to Palestine.”

Not all extremists were absorbed in ideology or focused on military training, according to Khan. “There are many simple people amongst the ranks. They know nothing about [Osama] bin Laden or the Taliban. Their sole task is to keep guard. These laymen have no vision or goal.”

Fighters loyal to al Qaeda came from around the world. Khoja told the viewers how he met “several Arab and non-Arab fighters, from Daghestan, France, Britain, Germany, and the U.S.A… all Muslims. I loved them all. I stayed with Pakistanis, Africans and Indonesians.”

The majority of Arab fighters “were Jordanian followers of [Abu Musab] al Zarqawi. Originally, all of them had sworn allegiance to Sheikh Mohammad al Maqdisi and followers of Bayat al Imam in Jordan. In 1995 they were sentenced for 15 years in prison but were released five years later under a general amnesty. After their release, they traveled to Afghanistan where their ideas took shape. Of course, they believed that all Arab governments, armies and police were infidels.”

Islamist militants however were not a monolithic bloc. “I understood that there were a number of disputes between them and bin Laden’s followers; they agreed on some issues and differed on others. We didn’t realize these intricate details until much later.”

“As soon as al Zarqawi and his followers arrived at the camp, the mood changed. Some mujahideen opposed al Zarqawi but they lacked funds and were willing to do anything for money. At that point, anyone with the required resources could have controlled the camp. Al Zarqawi joined us when the group was considering a truce with the Taliban. He appointed a close follower, Abu Mohammad to supervise us and sent half a million dollars five months later. The group now owed everything to al Zarqawi. He became the dominant figure and was able to impose his perspective. In order to control a group of mujahideen, all you need to do is become its main financier.”

Discussing extremist ideologies and recalling their indoctrination, the three men spoke in turn with Khoja explaining his unease at some of the notions he was being taught.

“One day, a Yemeni told me, “God willing, we will conquer Riyadh”. I asked him why he regarded Riyadh as an enemy city when our brothers and sisters lived there. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about. Another Algerian brother also expressed similar reckless views. I was very saddened by what I heard and shared my concerns with the camp leader who was from Eritrea. This was at [al Qaeda’s] Khalden camp in Afghanistan.”

“Egyptians, Algerians, Tunisians, Libyans, Moroccans, Saudis, Yemenis, Chechens all stayed in the same camp along side men from Daghestan and The Netherlands. I remember Abu Khaled who was French of African descent. He spoke in classical Arabic. They all disagreed with the majority of Saudi and Muslim scholars and insulted them”, he added.

Asfan was more analytical in his intervention. “They tried to convince us that the victory of Islam would not happen unless governments collapsed. They believed current regimes protected the Jews and Christians. They would always say that God had revealed a certain state was the most evil and dangerous.” Khan confirmed this religious and intellectual muddling and added, “Almost 90% of the men I met in training camps questioned the authority of the Grand Mufti and other Islamic scholars.”

Khoja concurs. “I used to tell others about Abu Bakr al Jezairi, a prominent sheikh from Medina. They attacked him as a scholar “sitting under the air-conditioning unit” and said he never cared much about the fate of the ummah (Islamic state). I was really shocked when I heard this and similar opinions when I quoted Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Baz and Sheikh Muhammad ibn Uthaymeen. To my utter dismay, I was told neither scholar had waged jihad and were unaware of the state of the ummah. At the time, my knowledge was weak and I was overwhelmed by their claims.”

Commenting on the military training they received in Afghanistan, Asfan indicated that other militants “always urged us to be patient. They always drew an analogy with how Arab armies prepare before going to war and force their soldiers to be patient. Because our cause was nobler, we had to be even more cautious!”

Khan interjected and revealed how militant groups recruited new gullible men. “You would come to them with many unanswered questions and they would respond to you and attract you to their ways. The problem lies in that their ideology is solely about rebelling against government.”

[Prime Choice]

If the Saudis really wanted to cut out the extremism, they'd destroy the Wahabi sects they keep pimping out to the rest of the world.

[LoudRepublicangirl]

What a far cry from having telethons for terrorists!!What a difference a few years and a few dead civilians make...

[Valin]

Under the new king this is (IMO,freely given and worth almost that much) what we're starting to see.

[aligncare]

So media can impact behavior?...Hmmm...

Hope this is a trend in that part of the world.

[weaver]

This makes it sound like a "kid" thing -- rebellious teenager seeks excitement in illegal activity, looks for answers to age-old question, "why am I here?". But then, this is only three guys. I bet others were fleeing a bad family life, had had a "dream" of being an important fighter someday, or were just tired of the dullness of their lives. In fact, I bet there are as many reasons for going off to fight the jihad as there are jihadists.

[ncountylee]

my desire to join the mujahideen in Afghanistan or any other part of the world where true jihad for the sake of Allah was being waged.

Mindless vermin following the pedophile prophet (pig fat be upon him).

[voletti]

I heard from somewhere that Oprah is the most watched english broadcast in Saudi. Of course, satellite dishes are banned but 90% of TV owning households allegedly have dishes kept...

[BunnySlippers]

Bump

[Valin]

In some ways that's one way of looking at it.

[Valin]

I heard from somewhere that Oprah is the most watched english broadcast in Saudi.


Now THAT'S scarry!

[DustyMoment]

Rather fascinating reading. The way I interpret it, Islamist terrorists are recruited through the underlying use of pedestrian marxist techniques, overlaid with selected religious indoctrination.

Based on what these young men have said, Saudi TV is going to need way more than five episodes to cool the jihadist fervor and idealism that resides among its yound men and women. Also, they will need regular broadcasts of Islamic history and Islamic scholars so that they better understand their own religion and the misconceptions and manipulations used by the terrorist recruiters.

[aligncare]

"This makes it sound like a "kid" thing..."

I think every avenue should be explored to counter hatred - as early as possible.

...For evil to triumph...

[Desron13]

Notice that at no point in this lovely little rendition does this model global citizen say that killing Jews or Christians is any big deal. It's only the killing of fellow muzzys that he gets a little squeamish about. WAKE UP FOLKS!! Islam, it's not a religion. It's an induced mental disorder!

[Allosaurs_r_us]

Saudi TV is going to need way more than five episodes to cool the jihadist fervor and idealism that resides among its young men and women.

 

The one thing that really sticks out to me is the lack of anything for these young men to do. Looks to me like these guys don't have anything to occupy their time. What is the unemployment rate in these countries?

 

If all they do is sit around and ask themselves: "Why am I here?" "What is my purpose?", we're never going to see an end to this behavior. Their religion prevents singular thought. Women are untouchable, everything under the sun meant to increase one's education and personal well being is outlawed by their religious leaders. The whole lifestyle is meant to suppress self esteem. You must be part of the whole and Allah forbid you take responsibility for your own actions or that of your neighbor.

 

Religious leaders in these countries are so afraid that their people will see how the rest of the world lives, they will not be able to control them. By denying these young men the fruits of technology they are creating a void that can never be filled. No wonder it is so easy for the jihadi's to convince these young men to give up their lives. If I did nothing but sit around with absolutely nothing to do, day in and day out, (except pray three times a day) I would more than likely go off the deep end too!

 

[Southack]

fyi

[Valin]

The one thing that really sticks out to me is the lack of anything for these young men to do. Looks to me like these guys don't have anything to occupy their time.

Anti-Terror Fight Has to Be a Marathon Run on Wilsonian Principle, Not Cheap Oil

Thomas L. Friedman
YaleGlobal, 8 February 2003
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=913

(snip)
Now I believe the hijackers fall into three categories, basically. The first category are the leaders and the conceptualizers of the event, and that is two people in particular: Osama Bin Laden, and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Ayman al-Zawahiri we haven't heard much about. He is the leader and founder of Islamic Jihad, and in many ways believed to be the real brains behind 9/11. Bin Laden and Zawahiri, I would call, Islamo-Leninists. Because they are truly, at heart, Leninists. They are two men who I believe in many ways despiritualized Islam, and really converted it, from their point of view, into a political ideology. In another age, in another place, had they been at Yale in the sixties, they would have been Trotskyites or Marxists. These are men given to Utopian solutions, to the building of the kingdom of God on earth. Only the kingdom that they wanted to construct was not one built on class, like Marx, not one built on race, like Hitler; it was one built on a religion. They are, in a very classic way, utopian cult leaders. You want to understand them, study David Koresh; study Charles Manson; study Aum Shinrikyo in Japan. And so at the very top of this pyramid, you have the guys with the utopian ideology. But to carry out and execute their utopianism they needed foot soldiers. And this brings us to the boys of 9/11.





Now the boys of 9/11 themselves fell into two groups. One group I call the Saudis, and one group I call the Europeans. And these are two very different groups. Now the Saudis were the muscle guys; they were the guys in the back of the plane. And they come from a vast pool of young men in Saudi Arabia whom I call the "Sitting Around Guys." The "Sitting Around Guys," because there are thousands upon thousands of these young men, sitting around in Saudi Arabia, and you can see them on any Thursday night, driving up and down the Corniche in Jeddah. Now the force, the cement mixer that produces these "Sitting Around Guys," is what I call the "Wheel of Bin Ladenism." "The Wheel of Bin Ladenism" is made up of three basic components. The first is autocratic, anti-democratic regimes. The Arab League has a summit coming up this year, March 25 in Bahrain. Twenty-two nations will be represented; not a single one will be represented by a leader elected in a free and fair election. There is no region in the world - not Sub-Saharan Africa, not Latin America, not Central Asia, not East Asia, not Eastern Europe, where you could have a regional summit, and not a single leader present would have been elected in a free and fair election. That's the top of the "Wheel of Bin Laden." Because these leaders are basically illegitimate, in order to, in effect, buy legitimacy, what they do is empower, fund, and anoint, what I call "Anti-Modernist" religious leaders and educators. These Anti-Modernists, then, basically produce young generations of people unprepared for the most part for modernity to really master the modern world. That produces poverty and backwardness. That reinforces the autocracy. The autocracy reinforces the Anti-Modernist religious education. The Anti-Modernism reinforces poverty and the Wheel of Bin Laden just goes around and around, like a big cement-mixer churning out "Sitting Around People."

When I was in Saudi Arabia last year doing the interview with Crown Prince Abdullah the Saudis had given me a driver and a "Minder," to protect me. But during the time we were together over nine days, we actually got to know each other. And one of them, the younger, Khaldoon, said to me one day apropos of nothing, "You know Mr. Tom the problem here in Saudi Arabia is not Islam. The problem here is that in every house there are two or three young people not working. They go to the Mosque; preachers fill their heads with crazy ideas, and that, Mr. Tom, is the problem." And that, I believe, really is a big part of the problem................

[Marine_Uncle]

They have a long path to go down before they are going to with affect modify the cultural value systems and particular Islamic form as practiced in a particular state. The very concept of governance is not defined in their Tawhid (central doctrine,e.g theology), and conversly is not integrated into their Sharia (body of laws). And also is not within the body of their Sunnah (the ways of the prophet, manners, obligations etc.).
The only reason Muslims live under governments or monarchies is do to who took over by force in essence and perpetrated it's will upon them. So it is difficult for anyone to point to any Quranic verses or interpretations and dialogs found in the Hadiths that say one should obey the ruling party whatever it's form may take.
In essence the Wahabist/Salafist teachers/scholars are in the right that a Muslim should not bow to any earthly form of rule. They are only to follow what the prophet and the books that where constructed by the scholars under the first group of Caliphs, we refere to as the Hadiths, delinate.
Of course a very abreviated definition of what partly is involved. I just returned from a wedding party and don't know how many marbles may be intact.

So they go along with things only because they where born into it much like anywhere else. But their teachings do no define government. So how can we expect them to fully defuse something that in essence is not part of their believe system, assuming we are talking about those that want to practice the forms that we call "pure", radical, fundelmental.
Their Iman can always ask.....so where is this government's authority derived from? And the answer most readily given will be, you are not under any obligation to follow the governemnt's body of laws, because it is not defined in our holy books.
This I see as a fundelmental underlining problem they/we are faced with.

[Fred Nerks]

thanks for posting, very interesting article, a keeper.

I see the same 'sitting around guys' where-ever there is islam. I see them even in Pakistan as they wait for food and tents to be delivered. Able bodied men, sitting around, not lifting a finger to provide even rudimentary shelter for the woman and children.

I guess that's the price of submission to allah. Suits the clerics to have a helpless, useless and intellectually stunted band of followers.

[USF]

“You would come to them with many unanswered questions and they would respond to you and attract you to their ways. The problem lies in that their ideology is solely about rebelling against government.”

Wowsers... after decades of pumping out indoctrinated youth raised on the joys of jihad and islamic theology from Imaam an-Nawawi to Sayyid Qutb and Abdullah Azzam, the House of Saud now finds the masses of wannabe mujahid who lack any skills to find a real job, get restless, and forced to face the fact their chickens have finally come home to roost.

Now they get poor Zayad, Abdullah, and Walid, who have come back from the jihad camps with little more than their "I went all the way to Jihad and never got to kill any lousy Jooos" T-shirts, and now find themselves on a watch list and their prospects of future employment in the KSA even dimmer, decide to make a happy deal for all concerned and turn them into saudi TV stars. Geez, can a Mecca Cola sponsorship be in the works next?

OK.. I'm tired and not engaging brain before I type.. It's no secret that the ummah is not monolithic.. or that muslim kill muslims better than anyome else, or that the House of Saud has woken up to the fact that its on the top of Al Qaedas hit list too. IMHO, what IS important is the terminology they use... for eg, they equate "extremism" to attacks on other muslims, and underminding the House of Saud. And this:

“I used to tell others about Abu Bakr al Jezairi, a prominent sheikh from Medina. They attacked him as a scholar “sitting under the air-conditioning unit” and said he never cared much about the fate of the ummah (Islamic state). I was really shocked when I heard this and similar opinions when I quoted Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Baz and Sheikh Muhammad ibn Uthaymeen. To my utter dismay, I was told neither scholar had waged jihad and were unaware of the state of the ummah. At the time, my knowledge was weak and I was overwhelmed by their claims.”

I've seen and instigated debates between "extreme" muslims and "seculars" both online and in real life and the outcome always seem to be the same. The imam who preaches peace (real peace, not the islamic "conquer the world, and then muslims can live in peace, "peace") goes up against a salafi or a scholar who pulls out Sura from the Quran, Sunna, and examples of Caliphs one after another leaving the so called "moderate(s)" silenced because they know, deep down, the opposition is right.

An "enlightened islam" is engaging in bidah. It's not real islam and not only does it invites it's proponents to be discredited and languish on the wrong end of the prophecy of the 72 sects, it's akin to putting filler in and painting over the cracks. The underlying structure is still unsafe, the long history of intolerance, and violent examples of Muhammed himself to wage wars of territorial conquest by the sword are still there to draw on to reignite the spirit of jihad in future generations.

Some basic freedoms for muslims to leave the cult of islam would go a long way, but of course their slavemasters know REAL islam is not compatible with these basic tenants of human rights and freedoms that we take for granted.