My Year Inside Radical Islam

by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

  On balance, I don’t have any regrets about my year inside radical Islam. I learned a lot about myself, and a lot about the seductive pull of an ideology that is today America’s deadliest foe.

  I hope this book will be useful to anyone who has been or knows someone who has been drawn into the orbit of radical Islam and is trying to find the way out. There is hope that it can be done.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank all of the sources who were willing to discuss the substance of this book with me. These include Suzi Aufderheide, John Foote, Mary Foster, Mike and Amy Hollister, al-Husein Madhany, Amy Powell, Liana Sebastian, Susan Thorngate, and my parents. The manuscript was also reviewed by several federal law-enforcement professionals, both currently active and retired from service, with firsthand knowledge of the Al Haramain investigation.

  In writing this book, I was blessed with two fantastic editors. I would like to thank Sara Carder at Jeremy P. Tarcher for her excellent work on the manuscript. I would also like to thank Richard Miniter, author of New York Times best sellers Losing bin Laden and Shadow War, and one of the handful of “found” friends whom I have known in my life. It would be difficult to overstate how much Rich taught me about writing and the art of storytelling during the editorial process. Rich: the book mentions that al-Husein was my first true mentor. You are my second.

  I would also like to thank the many people who reviewed all or part of the manuscript and gave me editorial or substantive feedback: Amy Beard (a very competent editor and a high school classmate of mine who was surprisingly unfazed upon learning my story), Jennifer L. Davis, Glen Feder, Jeff Panehal, Raphael Satter, and Maria Sliwa. I would also like to thank Mark Pezzo, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of South Florida and the man who first introduced me to self-perception theory; he graciously helped jog my memory while I was working on this book. Abdu Murray, a brilliant Michigan-based lawyer who is himself a former Muslim, provided valuable insight into framing my observations in chapter eleven.

  I would like to thank my agent, Gary Morris, for believing in the project from the very outset and for helping it take shape.

  I also appreciate the research provided by my assistant, Kyle Dabruzzi.

  Last but certainly not least, Amy Powell displayed the same kind of extraordinary patience and forbearance while I was working on this book that she has shown throughout the entirety of our relationship.

  GLOSSARY

  adhan • Call to prayer.

  ahadith • Plural form of hadith.

  alayhi salaatu was salaam • Arabic for “upon him be prayers and peace”; an honorific phrase said after Muslims speak the name of a prophet.

  alhamdulillah • Arabic for “all praises due to God.”

  Allah • The Arabic word for God.

  amu • Uncle.

  aqida • Creed.

  astaghfirullah • Arabic for “I ask Allah for forgiveness.”

  bida • Innovation in religion.

  dawah • The Arabic word for invitation to Islam; roughly equivalent to Christian missionary work.

  dhikr • Remembrance of Allah.

  du’a • Supplications.

  fatwa • Islamic legal ruling.

  fi sabil Allah • Arabic for “for the pleasure of Allah.”

  hadith • One of Prophet Muhammad’s sayings or traditions.

  hajj • The pilgrimage to Mecca.

  halal • Permissible under Islamic law.

  haram • Forbidden by Islamic law.

  hijab • Head scarf worn by Muslim women.

  hijra • Prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D.

  imam • Person who leads congregational prayers and/or delivers the Friday sermons.

  inshallah • Arabic for “God willing.”

  juma • Juma means Friday in Arabic; the juma congregational prayers, which occur on Fridays, are the most important prayers of the week for Muslims.

  kafir • An unbeliever or infidel.

  khutbah • Sermon.

  kufar • Plural version of kafir.

  kufi • Islamic skullcap.

  madrassa • Islamic religious school.

  masjid • Mosque.

  mufti • An Islamic scholar who interprets sharia law.

  mujahideen • Arabic for “those who strive”; a term used to refer to holy warriors engaged in battles throughout the world to advance their vision of Islam.

  Mushrik A polytheist or disbeliever in the Oneness of Allah.

  Naqshbandi A Sufi Muslim group that considers it vital to adhere to Prophet Muhammad’s example.

  nikah • Marriage.

  riba • Arabic for interest.

  sahih • The ahadith were evaluated based on the confidence that one can have in their authenticity; a sahih hadith is considered sound.

  Salafism A term derived from the Arabic word for predecessors or early generations, Salafism is an austere Islamic movement that claims to be returning to the pure Islam practiced by Prophet Muhammad and the first generation of Muslims.

  salat • The Islamic ritual prayer.

  shahadah • The declaration of faith; saying it publicly with two witnesses will make one a Muslim.

  sharia • Islamic law.

  shaytan • Satan.

  shirk • The association of partners with Allah.

  Sufism • Islamic mysticism.

  Sunna • Prophet Muhammad’s example.

  sura • A chapter of the Qur’an.

  tafsir • Explanation and interpretation of the Qur’an.

  tajweed • Pronunciation during recitation of the Qur’an.

  tariqa • Way or path.

  tawheed • Islamic monotheism; belief in the oneness of God.

  Ummah • The worldwide community of Muslims.

  Wahhabism • Saudi Arabia’s austere form of Islam, named after Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (1703-1792).

  wudu • Ablutions made before salat, the Islamic ritual prayer.

  yahood • Jew.

  yarhamukallah • Arabic for “May Allah bless you.”

  zakat • Charity.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Cohn, Norman. Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1967.

  Esposito, John L. The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

  Fadiman, James, and Robert Frager. Essential Sufism. Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 1997.

  Goldsmith, Joel S. The Infinite Way. Camarillo, Calif.: DeVorss & Company, 1979.

  Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. New York: Touchstone, 1996.

  Malcolm X and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1973.

  McDowell, Josh. Evidence That Demands a Verdict. San Bernadino, CA: Here’s Life Publishers, 1979.

  Nu’Man, Muhammad Armiya. What Every American Should Know About Islam & The Muslims. Jersey City, NJ: New Mind Productions, 1994.

  Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. Tafseer Soorah al-Hujuraat. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Publishing House, 1997.

  Smith, Huston. The World’s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions. New York: Harper-Collins, 1991.

  Zino, Muhammad bin Jamil. Islamic Guidelines for Individual and Social Reform. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, 1996.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan policy institute dedicated to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism. He consults for the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Policing Terrorism, the Christian Broadcasting Network, law enforcement agencies, and other clients who need to be at the forefront of understanding terrorism and Islamic extremism.

  Gartenstein-Ross has testified before the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, discussing religious radicaliz
ation in prisons. He writes about the global war on terror for such publications as Reader’s Digest, Middle East Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal Europe, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, and The Dallas Morning News. He also frequently appears on TV and talk radio to discuss these issues. Recent appearances include Hannity & Colmes (Fox News Channel), Your World with Neil Cavuto (Fox News Channel), Paula Zahn NOW (CNN), Glenn Beck (Headline News; CNN), The 700 Club (CBN), ABC News Now, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly, and The Michael Medved Show, and on Al Jazeera, NPR, and PBS.

  Previous positions that Gartenstein-Ross has held include commercial litigator at Boies, Schiller & Flexner and law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.

  1 Some writers—primarily the Salafis—transliterate the word Islam with two a’s rather than one to signify that it has a long vowel in the middle.

  2 “Ya” is literally the vocative for “O,” as in “O sheikh.” However, English speakers of Arabic use this as a term of endearment. Here, Pete’s use of the phrase was meant to refer to Sheikh Hassan as “dear sheikh.”

  3 I was able to obtain the exact text of this e-mail because Palmer mass distributed it, and it was posted on an Islamic Web site. As of this writing, the e-mail can still be seen at members.tripod.com/jummahcrew/fr.htm.

  4 The parenthetical “swt” stands for “subhana wa ta’ala,” which means “may He be glorified and exalted.” It is a statement of worship that often follows Allah’s name.

  5 The parenthetical “pbuh” stands for “peace be upon him.” Muslims generally use this phrase after saying the name of a prophet.

  6 This spelling of Kosovo was no error on our part. Some of the leading Islamic groups involved in assisting the ethnic Albanians insisted that Kosovo should be spelled with an a, since that is how the Kosovars spelled it.

  7 The hadith were evaluated based on the confidence that one can have in their authenticity. A sahih hadith is considered sound.

  8 “Crucifiction” is obviously a spelling error, but a somewhat telling one. For example, the Muslim polemicist Ahmed Deedat wrote a pamphlet entitled Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction that argues (in accord with standard Islamic teachings) that Jesus was never crucified.

  9 “(A)” is short for alayhi salaatu was salaam, or “upon him be prayers and peace.”