Islamic Conversion and Radicalization

"A lot of the converts [to Islam] I've talked to said that before 9/11, people hadn't really heard of Islam or knew what Muslims believe, and it sent them on a quest for knowledge. Some of the people on that quest eventually convert[ed]."
"I wouldn't say it's necessarily causal, but certainly there's a relation between these big events [rush of converts to Islam after Ottawa and Quebec terrorist attacks] and increases in conversion. And we likely see that with the onset of ISIL on the world stage in the last 10 months."
Scott Flower, Australian researcher, University of Melbourne

Twitter    #ISIS Media account posts picture claiming to be Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, dead #OttawaShooting suspect. #Canada

So what is it that attracts greater numbers of people ostensibly seeking meaning in their lives, to Islam, in the wake of horrific atrocities committed by followers of Islam, motivated by one of the religion's primary obligations; the requirement that Muslims engage in jihad. Distinctions are always made by those that intercede on Islam's behalf, that jihad has two meanings; self-improvement of the mind on the one hand, and violent physical defense of Islam on the other.

With the greater non-Muslim public's attention drawn to Islam through news reports of vicious violence perpetrated by jihadists, people are motivated to learn something about the religion, and those that do and find themselves drawn in, feel compelled to convert, even when doing so might very well and often does, cause conflict between themselves and their immediate family.

Even knowing they may be ostracized and isolated, these people feel committed to Islam and convert.

Among them are those somehow predisposed to the pathology of psychopathy, attracted to the more unsavoury, yet very real portions of the religion that place obligations upon the observing to consider martyrdom a sacrifice they should be willing to commit to, as a sign of their pious belief and total surrender to the precepts of a totalitarian religion commanding believers' entire lives.

Some people respond to that stricture in their lives, favouring a faith that controls every aspect of their lives, demanding of them complete obedience. When those who feel compelled to convert do so even at the cost of alienating family and friends, their sacrifice is all the more notable. On the other hand, perhaps it isn't viewed by them as a sacrifice but a willing commitment demonstrating the extent of their individuality.

While the irony is that one cannot be an individual as a Muslim, but as a member of the ummah, conscripted into a way of life that inhibits individuality for the greater good of the whole. The greater good performed is seen as proselytizing and remaining separate and apart from non-Muslims, and the laws that regulate the lives of citizens living in countries to which Muslims tend to migrate, holding Sharia law superior to indigenous ones.

Muslim converts have been shown through various studies to be over-representative in violent action involved in western plots of terrorism. Converts make up 25 percent of Muslim Americans; in the United Kingdom they are just two or three percent. Yet despite the UK having so many fewer Muslim converts, those converts have been involved in 30 percent of attacks and plots.

In Canada, converts represent about one percent of the Muslim population. Yet almost 19 percent of Muslims convicted in three litigated Canadian terrorism cases were converts.

In Canada, the most active proselytizing groups for Islam are based on university campuses; Muslim students' associations. Their actions are geared to conversion to Islam, but not necessarily converts to fanatical Islam, though that may happen, as it most certainly does among prison populations.

'I WISH THIS PAPER WOULD GO ON FOREVER': THE EMOTIONAL MESSAGE ABDUL-RAHMAN KASSIG WROTE PARENTS FROM ISIS CELL

This is the letter that Paula and Ed Kassig received from their son in captivity on June 2, 2014. Before it was released the text was edited for length and sensitive information redacted: 

'The first thing I want to say is thank you. Both to you and mom for everything you have both done for me as parents; for everything you have taught me, shown me, and experienced with me.

'I cannot imagine the strength and commitment it has taken to raise a son like me but your love and patience are things I am so deeply grateful for.

'I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all.

'I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through.

'If I do die, I figure that at least you and I can seek refuge and comfort in knowing that I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need.

'In terms of my faith, I pray everyday and I am not angry about my situation in that sense. I am in a dogmatically complicated situation here, but I am at peace with my belief.

'I wish this paper would go on forever and never run out and I could just keep talking to you. Just know I’m with you.

'Every stream, every lake, every field and river. In the woods and in the hills, in all the places you showed me. I love you.' 

On Second Thought....

"The vast, vast majority of new converts, we have never seen them before and then we never see them again. They disappear and they never come again. This is a big concern. We are concerned about who they are getting information from."
"They never come back [to the mosque] again. And this is a big concern for us."
Samy Metwally, imam, Ottawa Mosque

Patrick Doyle/Ottawa Citizen    Samy Metwally, the imam at one of Ottawa's largest mosques, says that 15 to 20 men between the ages of 20 and 30 have come to him to convert since the attack on Parliament Hill on Oct. 22, 2014.

Young males, fascinated by the fact that one man loaded with religion-inspired hatred and a hunting  rifle was capable of having monumental attention focused on him as he murdered a Canadian reserves military officer, then launched an impromptu and explosive attack on Parliament, experienced an arousal in their sense of adventure. Those not averse to violence, those who simmer with resentment against the society they have grown up within, those who have inherited sociopathic tendencies are led to the belief that Islam may hold all the answers to life that have been eluding them.

And so, they gravitate to the capital city's largest mosque to speak with its religious leader. Islam stresses first and foremost among the faithful their responsibility as pious Muslims to grow the faith, to be instrumental through prosetylization, in bringing new converts to the religion whose values and sacred precepts surpass all others. Through the simple declaration before a witness that "There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is his Messenger", does the conversion take effect. Absolutely painless, no study, no complex rituals, no background checks and balances ... just ... submission.

But a responsible cleric like imam Metwally, with the understanding that among those so eager to convert, driven to the personal perceived need to do so to give value and purpose to their lives in the wake of a blood-curdling attack by an earlier convert to Islam who had absorbed the equally compulsive direction to commit as a faithful Muslim to jihad, would seek to downplay that aspect of Islam, when the raw recruit seeks justification in jihad demanded by Islam, in the violence that he is driven to take part in.

In his original interview, Imam Metwally stated he frequently questions the intentions of Islamic converts without spurning their desire to convert. He takes pains to spend time to explain Islam before conversion, he explained. But he is left nonetheless with the concern that many of those he sees come to the mosque for the conversation process; a witnessed declaration -- and then never return again, despite a cordial invitation to do so.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - RCMP  Michael Zehaf Bibeau is shown carrying a gun while running towards Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2014, in a still taken from video surveillance.

His imagination, fuelled by recent events such as the convert Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and planned to kill Members of Parliament as well, shutting down Parliament Hill and central Ottawa, visualized these new converts as being willing recruits to violent jihad, manipulated by those invested in terrorism. An admission that such recruiters commonly exist within Islamic society, and that the violent October events that horrified and transfixed a nation motivates disaffected psychopaths to join forces with jihadists.

Imam Metwally's interesting comments came in the wake of reports of battlefield deaths of a number of young Canadian men, both those who were born into Islam and those who converted and travelled to the Middle East to fight with Islamic State. What motivated them is evidently fodder as well for others who view their commitment to jihad, their experience fighting abroad, and their deaths as martyrs inspirational to fulfill their own destinies. What Imam Metwally should perhaps deeply ponder is why so many are drawn to Islam with that end in mind?

And then Imam Metwally appears to have suffered second thoughts in the anguish of perhaps not having said the 'right' things about converts to Islam, and he wrote, days later: "I spoke to the Ottawa Citizen this week to share my observation that more people than ever have come to the main Ottawa mosque to convert to Islam.
"It is true that 15 to 20 people have come to the mosque to convert to Islam since this past fall; however, they have included both men and women. It also must be said that most people who make the weighty decision of converting to a new faith do so after having researched the religion a great deal in advance Even if I do not see the vast majority of these converts again in the mosque, it does not mean that they are involved in any suspicious behaviour On the contrary, the vast majority of converts continue to live life as they always have -- as contributing members of society. They may simply attend a mosque closer to where they live.
"Muslim communities do have a responsibility in ensuring that enough supports exist to provide correct information about Islam, and assisting those who want seek understanding on how to live their lives as a Canadian Muslim. That is true for both converts and those who are born in the faith."

Interpret that as you will.