The Boston bombers' 'radicalization' – myth vs. fact

By Walid Shoebat

I got tired of watching each expert and commentator on TV hunt for the "radicalization" of the Tsarnaev brothers. These began to sound more like a chihuahua's continual bark than an honest view of the problem at hand.

Americans are now being molded to believe a myth that the two brothers were changed from peace-loving Muslims to fanatical bomb-throwing radicals by some slow transformational process. So the hunt is on, not to find the real culprits behind terrorism but to find clues of a radicalization process.

But the truth is that this "radicalization process" is a myth coined by Americans who were gradually transformed by Muslim apologists to believe in it. Both Anwar Al-Awlaki and Feiz Muhammad – the latter was who inspired the Tsarnaevs – also stated that "Islam was hijacked by a few," to later support terrorism openly.

The key to understanding the whole Islamic terrorism phenomenon is to recognize that the Islamic-terrorist sympathizers for years have slowly transformed Americans to think that a radicalization process exists and that "Islam was hijacked by a few radical elements."

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Indeed, if our terrorism policymakers understand the radicalization phenomenon, then how can one explain the State Department and how none other than radicals infiltrated it? In order to "engage the moderate Muslim world," they commissioned Imam Sheikh Feisal Abdul Rauf, the "radical" behind the Ground Zero Mosque who got in because he was "nice" and only moderated his tone in English while he supported Hamas and Hezbollah in Arabic.

We, not the State Department, were the first to translate his doublespeak from popular Arab media. Rauf wrote an article in Jordan's Al-Ghad in which he clearly supported Hezbollah and Hamas adding that these were "the trend toward Islamic law and justice" because, according to Rauf, "secularism had failed to deliver what the Muslim wants, which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Then, regarding the U.S., he discussed how Muslims must lobby the West to make it non-secular "Shariah Compliant."

If indeed Westerners seek honest answers to "radicalization," they must first examine the process of Islamic Da'wa. It is here where one can rarely find the radical statements required to label the movement "radical." It's the process where the Da'wa proponent plays his role as "good cop" while the bad cop makes the sinister and quick transformation of Muslims into jihadists fanatics.

The Tsarnaevs prescribed to both – Muhammad Feiz, a fiery jihadist, and Mufti Ismail Menk, a so-called Da'wa proponent who condemned the bombings.

But until Americans understand the second element they will never see clearly the big picture: Menk is worse then Feiz since the one who introduces the drugs in preparing converts is much worse than the crack cocaine salesman on the street. We have many cases where converts became terrorists.

Like Menk, Rauf in 2008 toured the world for his "Da'wa (call to Islam)" mission and met with my first cousin, the mufti of Ramallah, Ibrahim Khalil Awadallah Shoebat, to discuss plans to Islamize the Americas. Two of the mufti's brothers, my other cousins, were known terrorists. One, Raed Khalil Awadallah Shoebat, like the elder Tsarnaev, was finally killed by the Israelis while attempting to bomb innocent civilians in Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. His "martyrdom" is listed in the official list of Martyrs of Bethlehem. His other brother, Mahmud, was released after a deal was brokered by the United Nations. Yet the top experts and politicians in America preferred to arrest the young Tsarnaev alive; by this they will spark further efforts by terrorists who could kidnap Americans and demand his release. Killing the terrorists should be the first and preferred option to solve the problem.

Now, does anyone believe that my cousin, the mufti, is moderate and that he believes his two brothers were "radicalized"? Mufti Ibrahim still regularly marches in "martyrs" precessions. Dare he denounce martyrdom and his head will be put on a platter.

Americans need to monitor Tsarnaev's funeral – whether or not he be washed and shrouded with white cloth, or if he is buried whole in the original clothes in which he died. This makes a big difference, since the second choice would mean that the family believes in his martyrdom.

But who in this naïve America even understand all this or are ready to monitor his funeral?

It's not that we do not have ample evidence to explain the jihad phenomenon, but most Americans refuse to comprehend the obvious; they wrongly think that a moderate Muslim first must undergo a process that takes time in which the subject first undergoes brainwashing seminars in a slow crock-pot like process that removes all aspects of niceness to transform "moderates" into fanatics who are void of any humanistic features.

Lesson No. 1: Terrorists, their supporters and sympathizers are some of the nicest people one can find. Americans' first mistake is that they evaluate people on the basis of niceness. Niceness at times is used as a cover. There are countless testimonies about how nice the Tsarnaevs were. Osama bin Laden also was very nice, and so are Anwar Al-Awlaki and Fesial Abdul Rauf. American naiveté needs to stop making evaluations based on Muslim nicety.

Western research into "radicalization" is all based on a myth; there is no slow-cooking crock-pot, and there is no process in which moderate Muslims are "radicalized." Fact is, "radicalization" – if indeed this term is the proper term – is not a process but rather a button that can be pushed in seconds and transform Muslims into terrorists.

Shimon Erem, a retired Israeli general came to meet me once with his family and began to ask the same questions. I was able to quickly show how they already have answered them. They told me countless stories of Jews who had hired Muslims in Israel whom they considered family, only to find out they killed their loved ones after listening to fiery Friday sermons at the local mosque. In these stories there was no slow pressure-cooker – just a button, and the blast was on.

The other problem with Americans is that they only examine successful terror attacks while they ignore all the thwarted attacks that were caught by the FBI. When we examine these we find a much bigger problem then the Tsarnaevs.

Take Khalid Aldawsari, [see full story] a Saudi national and, like the Tsarnaevs, a student and an al-Qaida terrorist who planned weapons of mass destruction attacks in the U.S., including an attempted assassination of President Bush, and who was caught by the FBI. How can anyone argue that he was "radicalized," especially that since Aldawsari was not a lone wolf; he was backed by an entire system – the wealthy and powerful Aldawsari clan including the powerful Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who wants him released. It was the powerful Saudi Sheik Saud Bin Mut'ab who hosted a support group for the terrorist defending him publicly while funding his legal team.

Yet we, under the Obama administration, imported seven-fold Saudi students in the last few years. Today we have between 70,000 to 100,000 Saudi students. Must we wait until a Saudi pushes a button to realize the problem at hand?

Islamic terrorism is not a lone-wolf operation like Ted Kaczynski, whose own brother turned him in. Just translate "We are all Khalid Dawsari" to Arabic and see just how much Muslim community support the terrorist gets. Where are all these supporters "radicalized"? The Aldawsari clan's main website keeps track of every comment in support of the terrorist, linking to other supporting groups.

What about Saudi Arabia itself, the fountain of Islam? Was the Saudi Kingdom simply "radicalized" by Wahhabism? Saudi Arabia has always been radical and was the main agent that transformed Chechnya, where the Tsarnaevs came from. Today they want to help transform Syria into Wahhabism, and they are getting the blessing and support from the United States.

So how can Americans stop Islamic terrorism?

This should be the million-dollar question. Yet answering it actually will save us billions, even trillions.

The answer is so simple: Stop the Muslim Minority Affairs program, stop the influx of immigration and student visas from countries where Islamism is flourishing, and start boycotting Saudi oil altogether.

That's it.

So who is the main obstacle to solving the problem?

It's all the Americans who fear the dreaded label of Islamophobia, a label invented by the terror supporters themselves.

Until Americans begin to change policies, the terrorists are the victors, and America is the loser. Isn't this what the terrorists always say?

See Walid Shoebat's books and DVDs on prophecy, end times and Islam at WND's Superstore.