Interview with Tommy Robinson

An interview of a personal favorite - a plain spoken, street savvy counter-jihadist, via GatesofVienna blog: Tommy Robinson: The Polish Interview

"...It’s an excellent interview, covering a wide range of topics from the founding of the English Defence League through Tommy’s imprisonment all the way to current events in the UK and Europe.What comes through most strongly is Tommy’s struggle to accept the likelihood that he will be killed for doing what he does. He reminds us that if we aren’t willing to die for what we consider important — especially our children’s future — then our lives are all but pointless.

Former ISIS Prisoner: “They Want Something Worse Than 9/11″

From Legal Insurrection:

A man named Ahmad Rashidi was interviewed on Meet the Press today and provided an alarming look into the goals of ISIS.  

He claims they want to be “better” than al-Qaeda and orchestrate an attack “more brutal” than the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. 

Andrew Johnson of National Review has more: Man Who Escaped ISIS: They Want to Plan an Attack ‘More Brutal’ than 9/11 

The Islamic State is “happy” about the air strikes by the United States because it validates their efforts in emerging as a global threat, says a man who escaped after a month with the group. 

Ahmad Rashidi was captured by the Islamic State when he went to Syria from London to retrieve the two daughters of a family friend; the teenage girls had fled England to marry Islamic State fighters. 

When Rashidi found one of the girls, her husband accused him of being a spy and he was taken prisoner and tortured. He later won the favor of his capturers by telling them he was a doctor; Rashidi is, in fact, a first-year medical student. 

While embedded with the Islamic State for a month, Rashidi gained access to their computers and communications. 

He told NBC News’s Richard Engel that the group communicates with its contacts “every day” and is not worried about the West’s response to its attacks. 

In fact, the Islamic State was “happy” about the American military’s response of air strikes because it proved to the group’s leaders that they were considered as important a threat as al-Qaeda. 

“They want to be more . . . better than al-Qaeda,” he told Engel. “This is why they need to do something more brutal than the World Trade Center.” 

Here’s the video:

A Test Interview: An Australian Cabin Crew

I have been wanting to interview people, regular people that are still only concerned with partying and having a good time and nothing else—just like a lot of the anti-Jihad bloggers were before 9/11—to see what their thoughts on Islam are and how they respond to questions about politics and whether they realize that the world is in a mess because of Islam or not.

In the interest of my crazy idea to interview random people, I thought I would first try to interview one of my colleagues. Now, some of you might be thinking, “How does that count? Your colleagues are not “random” people!” Well, the truth is, my colleagues are as random as meeting someone on the street that I have never met before. Whenever I fly, I fly with a different set of crew and rarely do I get to fly with the same people I have flown with before.

What I have in mind, of course, isn’t like your typical interview—I ask a question, the other person replies and then I put that down on paper in a question/answer layout. It is a very casual sort of interview (if you can call it that) and whenever I do something like this, it will accompany my commentary (sorry, no escaping my loathsome writing skills).

Anywho…onto the interview.

About The Interviewee:

This 20-something girl’s from Australia; she is tired of Dubai and wants to go back home. She misses Australia and is actually proud to be an Australian. She says she has a good life in Australia and she just came to Dubai to work for this airline because she wanted to see the world. Now that she has seen enough, there is nothing else left for her to do in Dubai. She will resign in a month or so and move back, not really knowing what lies ahead.

The Interview (39,000 ft above ground level):

In my hotel room before I left for the flight I had scribbled a set of questions to ask on a piece of paper. I safely put the paper in my suitcase and left for the flight…not realizing that I won’t be able to get a hold of those questions during the flight as they were put away in a very cold place called the “cargo hole”.

“Crap!” I thought to myself and then followed that by, “Oh well…” and proceeded to think of questions in my head. To begin with, I asked her if she knew anything about politics in general. Her very quick response was, “I know enough about politics.” The girl wasn’t rude but for some reason her reply sounded more like, “what the heck’s the matter with you?!” I prepared myself to run to the nearest exit in case she looked like she was about to blow up…she didn’t blow up and I mustered up enough courage to proceed with the interview.

Catch-22:

I wanted to know if there was anything about her government’s policies that she was specifically not happy with. That was a stupid question for me to ask; not because it was a bad question but because the girl was confused. At first she said she was fine with all the government policies, then she told me she wasn’t happy with the strict immigration laws of Australia, then she went ahead and said that she supports the immigration policy to some extent because it preserves their heritage and she is proud of that.

At this point, I started searching for my non-existent Magnum .44 to shoot my brains out but the fake journalist inside of me slapped me and brought me to my senses. I asked her to elaborate and she said, “The immigration policies are not good in the sense that a lot of poor people go through a lot of dangers to get to Australia to have a better life and when they do get to the borders alive, they are arrested and put in detention centers. However, what’s good about the strict immigration policies is that it keeps Australia safe and preserves the culture. So to me it’s sort of a catch-22 situation. I want these illegal immigrants to have a good life but I also want Australia to be safer.”

She started to make sense; I almost saw a light bulb go off above her head (but my sources cannot confirm that report just yet).

Islam:

I wanted to know what she thought about Islam (because I don’t give a rat’s butt whether she is proud of her heritage or not, I don’t even know what her heritage is…I bet she doesn’t even know). I asked her what she knew about Islam. She was honest and told me, “I have minimal knowledge of Islam; it’s mostly based on what I have heard and seen. Before I came to Dubai, I had a negative impression of Islam. There is a lot of stereotyping of Muslims in Australia.”

I asked her, “Has your perception of Islam changed since you have come to Dubai…do you see Islam in a more positive light now?” Her answer was a straight, “Yes.” I thought, “We’re onto something here.” So I asked her (in these exact words) to tell me specifically what she thought was negative about Islam that had now come and bitten her in the butt in a positive way. She thought for a moment and said, “I can’t tell you anything specifically, I can’t put my finger on anything.” And then followed the nervous laughter. It was awkward; mission accomplished.

I decided to move on. I asked her to tell me the first thing that comes to her mind when I say, “Shariah law.” She said, “terrorists!” I thought, “yay!” and asked her why she said what she said. She told me, “This perception of mine is only based on what I’ve seen around me and in the newspapers. It is not based on any research or any facts. That is just the first thing I think of. I have never had any personal problem with either the Shariah law or Islam. Even though there are a lot of Muslims in Australia, we live with them peacefully.” She wasn’t making me happy but then it was what she thought and how she thought was what I was after anyway.

What If:

I asked her, “Let’s take a hypothetical situation. Let’s say Australia imposes Shariah law on all its citizens. What would you do? 1. Convert to Islam 2. Accept it and live as a second class citizen 3. Not accept it and rebel quietly 4 Band up with other rebels and overthrow the government?” She said, “I will accept it…um, I will not accept it and rebel quietly. I will not overthrow the government. I might convert, I don’t know. I just don’t think it is ever going to happen. Australia has never done anything against Muslim countries so they will never bring Shariah to Australia.”

At this point, she had stopped making sense, the light bulb had burst! I gave her a huge lecture on Islam and Jihad after the interview but I won’t include that here because that’s not the point of all of this. I should mention, however, that she added, “I think the terrorists have hijacked Islam. Islam is a religion of peace. Terrorists just twist Quranic verses.” This was coming from a girl that had just told me less than half an hour ago that she knew next to nothing about Islam and had never read the Quran.

To finish the interview, I asked her if she would like to say something to her fellow Australians. She said, “Read up on Islam to form an informed opinion.” I loved her advice. I thanked her for the interview and we shook hands.

Conclusion:

What I wanted to get from this interview was the view of a lay person. A person that doesn’t constantly eat, breathe and drink anti-Jihad. The reason being, when the time comes and the world goes completely crazy, we are not only going to have to know Islam and Muslims like the back of our hands but we are going to have to know what to expect from our neighbors who never cared about all of this. These sort of interviews, I think, will also give us an idea about how surprised the regular populace will be when faced with another attack from Islam, what their first perception will be and how close they are to understanding the threat of Islam among other things.

I understand that interviewing a cabin crew is probably not the best thing and putting one person’s opinions up does not give a fair representation of the majority of the population but this was just a test interview. I am going to Australia in a couple of days and I will try to interview people on the streets if at all possible. So, I would really appreciate feedback on this. Just let me know what you thought about it. I could use a lot of constructive criticism because, in all honesty, I am not really a journalist. I don’t even know how to spell “journalist”. I know I am doing a lot of things wrong and if you can tell me what they are, I’d really appreciate it.

A Surprising Interview with Sherry Islam-Is-a-Religion of Peace Jones

ALTMUSLIM.COM: Back in April of this year, I received a phone call from University of Texas, Austin professor Denise Spellberg, an Islamic Studies expert in whose class I have guest lectured the past two years. She brought to my attention a book she had been sent to review entitled Jewel of Medina, a book she found offensive for its portrayal of Aisha, the youngest wife of the Prophet Muhammad. In a turn from most literary depictions of Aisha, this one was heavily fictionalized, with a dramatic story arc that, to Spellberg, represented a racy novel rather than an accurate depiction of her life. (Spellberg should know - her own scholarly work on Aisha is known as one of the most authoritative books on the subject.)

As I had not heard anything of the book, I sent an e-mail inquiry to a private listserv for graduate students in Islamic studies, describing the phone call I just received and asked if anyone could tell me more about it. After hearing no response for three weeks, I got an email out of the blue from the author of that book, Sherry Jones, who asked if we were interested in writing an advance review. What I didn't know at the time was that someone on the Islamic studies list passed my e-mail out of the listserv, where it ended up on the website of Husaini Youths, an overseas forum catering to young Shia Muslims. There, some offended readers voiced concern at the as-yet unpublished book, suggesting a seven point plan for pressuring Random House, the book's publisher, to cancel publication.

But they needn't have bothered. In June, Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Nomani told me she was writing an article on the reaction to the book, identifying me through her research on the issue and asking me to comment. It was then that I learned that Random House had indeed withdrawn the imminent publication of the book (set for August 12 of this year), despite having paid Jones a reported $100,000 advance. Cited in Random House's cancellation was a reference to unnamed "Islamic scholars" who advised them that the book could provoke extremist Muslims. And in some corners, I was identified as the catalyst for this chain of events.

The response to the story was explosive, with people around the world decrying perceived Muslim threats to the author and publisher - except for the fact that no Muslims were involved in the actual censorship. As the story played out, it has been revealed that there had been no violence or even threat of violence in response to the book. Hopefully, this means Muslims have learned a valuable lesson from the response to The Satanic Verses (which made Salman Rushdie a celebrity) and the Danish cartoon controversy (which did untold PR damage to Muslims worldwide). Because censoring the book - even self-censoring - was something that I abhorred, I wrote a response here supporting free speech in this case, which has incidentally been republished in Lebanon, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Yet, the entrenched notion that Muslims are antithetical to free speech continues.

And then there's Sherry Jones herself. Jones spoke out when asked about the issue, contesting the description given of her book as "pornography." But as she felt that she was being used as a wedge between Muslims and those that dislike them, she began to withdraw from commenting further. While acknowledging her book would be controversial, she maintained that she wrote the book not just with respect, but with admiration for Aisha, and felt her interpretation and dramatization of her life would accentuate her known qualities, qualities which drew her to the subject matter after 9/11.

Sherry's insistence that she intended a respectful treatment of the subject matter, in addition to her reaching out to us before the controversy grew, made us wonder - is there more to this story than some would have us believe? Below, Sherry Jones speaks to us in detail about what her book represented, how she and I have weathered the storm, and about the sequel that she's already written. ”I Did All This in the Service of a Truth” >>> By Shahed Amanullah | September 4, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>

Would you shake hands with a Jew?

A reporter in the Apartheid kingdom does ''man in the street'' TV interviews and asks the question ''Would you, as a human being, shake hands with a Jew?

Related Resources:

1. Then And Now -Similarities between past Nazi propaganda and current day Islamic anti-Semitic propaganda.

2. Our Friends the Saudis Explain 200 Lashes for a Rape Victim

3. Bush Declared Sunday Religious Freedom Day, 2008...From Saudi Arabia!.....

4. The Saudis have radicalized 80% of US mosques.
(The situation isn't any better in the U.K).

5. Speaking in the religious apartheid city of Riyadh, President Bush called on our friends the Saudis and OPEC to increase oil production in order to bring prices down. The Saudis smiled for the cameras, and said, “No.”

6. Jimmy Carter-- another politician bought and paid for by Saudi oil money?

7. Counterterrorist Blog: Surprise, Surprise: Yet More Evidence that the Majority of Foreign Fighters in Iraq Come from Saudi Arabia.

8. Congress is unlikely to block U.S. plans to sell $123 million worth of sophisticated precision-guided bomb technology to Saudi Arabia.



9. IBD editorial:

The Shame Of Groveling For $100 Oil

All the begging and bribing only proved Saudi Arabia still has us over a barrel of oil — and in the cross hairs of Islamic extremists, we might add.

Despite rhetoric about our so-called ally’s cooperation in the war on terror, it’s still teaching anti-Western hatred in its textbooks and schools, still spreading radical Wahhabism to our shores, still freeing terrorists, still giving immunity to al-Qaida financiers such as Yasin Kadi, and still allowing clerics to rally Saudi’s sons to join the al-Qaida insurgents in Iraq.

[...]

Not much has changed in Saudi Arabia over the past six years. Only now, it’s richer than ever, flush with petrodollars that are helping finance the jihad. Which means Americans are helping finance their own destruction every time they go to the pumps.

Given this chain of events — the bigger bankrolling of jihad, along with a looming recession — the mind boggles that our government’s only recourse is to genuflect before oil sheiks. (Read it all)

10. More about Saudi Arabia - Anti-Semitism - Women's rights - Islamic extremism - Videos.



(Cross-posted on A Deeper Look)