There are some things associated with Islam that are very difficult to associate with other religions and belief systems. Chief among those seems to be the propensity for those originally outside Islam who choose this ideology, to kill or plot to kill non-Muslims. We rarely, if ever, in the modern world see new Christians, Jews, Buddhists or Hindus, suddenly decide to take it upon themselves to slaughter people in order to please their deity or fulfil the commandments of their religion. It is almost unheard of for this to happen. Yes there could be the occasional deranged person from these faiths who may do harm or want to do harm to others, but the idea that large numbers of those who would convert to one of these faiths and suddenly decide to go on or plan a killing spree is preposterous.
Unfortunately this is not the case with those who choose Islam. Whether it is violent deranged people choosing an Islamic path that affirms their internal desire for violence or whether they are turned violent by Islam’s theology or a combination of both, it cannot be denied now that there is a problem with Islamic converts and violence. There are a lot of converts to Islam who go ‘full Islam’ sometimes very quickly after conversion and this phenomenon should be recognised both by society as a whole and by governments.
The latest case of a convert deciding to go ‘full Islam’ and plot to kill people comes from the United States and relates to a story in the Los Angeles Times in which a former military veteran has been arrested for plotting to attack various targets including a pier, a synagogue, a right wing event and churches. According to the LA Times, Steven Domingo aged 26, was said to have recently converted to Islam and was attempting to contact like-minded individuals online with the intention of carrying out one or more terrorist attacks. Domingo’s online activities attracted the attention of US law enforcement agencies both local and Federal and he was apparently contacted by undercover officers who strung him along. It was only when Domingo accepted a fake pressure cooker bomb from his contact that he was arrested.
Following Domingo’s arrest he was charged with providing material support for terrorists and could face a sentence of up to 15 years if convicted. It is only by good fortune that Domingo came to the attention of the US security forces, if he hadn’t he might have got much further along with his plans than he did or may even have managed to carry out one of his planned atrocities. It is said that his reasoning for the proposed attacks was in revenge for attacks on Muslims in other parts of the world.
It is especially ominous that Domingo, who had served as an infantryman during military operations in Afghanistan, was said to have only ‘recently’ converted to Islam. Even if you take into account that Domingo was under surveillance for ‘weeks’, it seems an incredibly short amount of time from conversion to Islam to engaging in a terror plot. We do not see this with those who are new to other faiths. A new Christian or a new Jew is far more likely to engage in acts of charity than acts of violence but this is not what we see with those who choose Islam. Too many of those who choose this troubling ideology go from new Muslim to frothing violent jihadi in a short period of time. The reason for this man’s decision to embark on a putative terrorism career is not really that obscured, his motivation comes from Islam pure and simple.
Whilst I support the idea of religious freedom and the right of people to choose the faith that best suits them, I can’t help but wonder whether some exception to this rule should be made for those who choose Islam? A society that grants freedom of religion and freedom of the choice of religion when the religions chosen are mostly focused on doing good for others and for their own community, does not face any challenges by doing so. However, when this tolerance is extended to those who choose the violent and intolerant ideology of Islam then we do face a big challenge. It’s right that free societies extend religious freedom to those who just want to do their own thing according to their own consciences, it should be a basic tenet of a decent society. But, for the sake of security and to secure the safety and freedoms of others, this freedom should not be extended to those who choose death cults and let’s face it, as death cults go, Islam is the biggest one of all. I think that we should all, both government and the wider society, be wary about those who choose Islam because the path from saying the Shahada to violent jihad is a very short and well trodden path.
