Transcript [00:00] Can you tell me, like as you became more [00:02] radical, did you feel yourself becoming [00:04] more um hateful and extreme, or did or [00:07] did you actually feel that you were [00:09] becoming more, let's say, um [00:11] more moral, more righteous? [00:16] Yeah, that's a good question because [00:17] they there is that feeling of moral [00:20] superiority over others. [00:23] But it's taken to an extreme. So it is a [00:27] along with the ideas of I am [00:30] you know, the more correct Muslim, [00:33] it's also attached with [00:36] hostility to others who are not like [00:39] you. [00:40] And that includes Muslims even, right? I [00:43] mean, this is one of the, you know, the [00:46] the number one group that jihadists kill [00:48] more than anybody else are other [00:50] Muslims. [00:52] So there was this need [00:55] to demonize other people. So my my [00:59] activities escalated, and my activities, [01:02] I mean, I thank God that I don't have [01:04] blood on my hands. I didn't, you know, [01:06] take anybody's life. [01:09] Um but we were very hateful. We became [01:11] very hateful towards all the kuffar. [01:15] Anybody who was not Muslim, [01:17] of course Jews are at the top of the [01:19] list. [01:20] Jews and Christians, you know, there's [01:22] kind of a debate between the two. [01:24] Probably the Jews win that, um meaning [01:27] they're they tend to be the targets more [01:30] so than Christians. [01:31] >> [snorts] [01:32] >> And and of course Muslims who who we [01:35] felt were not religious enough. [01:38] And we started to look up upon the [01:40] society in which we were living and [01:43] benefiting from [01:45] as the enemy. [01:47] So there was a complete [01:50] out-grouping, [01:51] very black and white thinking, and all [01:54] of this was framed around hostility, [01:57] Hostility in every way. [01:59] I don't shake your hand. I don't admit [02:03] any goodness in you. [02:05] And that's how we proliferated. We [02:09] When I say we, what I ended up doing was [02:11] I start I joined a group of [02:14] Salafi Jihadists, as we call them. [02:18] >> And and [02:19] for our just for a second context here [02:21] for our viewers who might not [02:22] necessarily know all the terminology, [02:25] can you um clarify what that [02:27] specifically means, Salafi Jihadist? [02:30] >> Yes. [02:31] So, a Salafi Jihadist comes from the [02:34] word Salafi. [02:35] Salafist, Salafi or Salafist [02:39] is a movement that emerged in the 1800s [02:43] with the emergence of Muhammad ibn Abd [02:46] al-Wahhab [02:48] from a place called Najd in Saudi [02:50] Arabia. [02:52] Um [02:53] at that time, it was really If you think [02:55] about 1800s, [02:57] you're looking at uh you still have [02:59] colonial powers that are active in the [03:02] region. Um it was really because of the [03:05] context of the Ottoman Empire. The [03:08] Ottomans had [03:10] Later on, when the Ottomans, by around [03:12] the, you know, late 1800s, early 1900s, [03:15] so in the early 1900s, when the Ottomans [03:17] started to kind of [03:19] side with the Axis powers, uh the [03:22] British and the Allied powers were of [03:24] course trying to um push back [03:27] uh against the Axis powers. [03:31] And the [snorts] Ottomans became a [03:32] target of that. And the British kind of [03:35] uh supported these movements, these Arab [03:37] tribes to push back against the [03:40] Ottomans. And in from that context, you [03:43] get these [03:44] Sometimes they're called Wahhabis [03:46] uh trying to link it back to Muhammad [03:48] ibn Abd al-Wahhab. But what they do is [03:51] because they don't want to appear to be [03:53] followers of a guy, [03:55] they call themselves Salafis from the [03:58] term Salafiyyah, meaning pious [04:00] predecessors. [04:02] Their claim is they are the more [04:04] authentic followers of the prophet, [04:07] peace be upon him. [04:09] Um so So, by the 1800s, this movement [04:13] grows, [04:14] which basically was castigating the uh [04:18] Ottomans and the Muslims under them as [04:22] being not Muslim enough, [04:24] having left Islam in some way or [04:26] another. [04:27] Um they really hated the Sufism that was [04:31] present at the time. [04:34] Um and very quickly, as soon as they [04:36] emerged, the first group they started to [04:38] attack was, of course, Muslims. [04:41] Um but they have this very, again, [04:45] separationist worldview. [04:47] Um and then Jihadist is a term It's a [04:50] modern term, but it basically it's [04:53] the people who view everything through [04:56] the frame of Jihad, of militancy, of [04:59] fighting, [05:00] of trying to be superior through [05:02] violence. [05:03] It's really a fascist way of approaching [05:08] religious scriptures [05:10] and in their interpretations. [05:12] So, Salafi Jihadist are really fascists, [05:17] Islamofascists, [05:19] if you will, who believe that they are [05:21] following the earliest examples of [05:24] Islam.
