How a British jihadi saw the light

An interesting article in Times Online: Ed Hussain, once a proponent of radical Islam in London, tells how his time as a teacher in Saudi Arabia led him to turn against extremism

He tells of the racism and sexual immorality in Saudi Arabia.

Why had the veil and segregation not prevented such behaviour? My Saudi acquaintances, many of them university graduates, argued strongly that, on the contrary, it was the veil and other social norms that were responsible for such widespread sexual frustration among Saudi youth.

At work the British Council introduced free internet access for educational purposes. Within days the students had downloaded the most obscene pornography from sites banned in Saudi Arabia, but easily accessed via the British Council's satellite connection. Segregation of the sexes, made worse by the veil, had spawned a culture of pent-up sexual frustration that expressed itself in the unhealthiest ways.

Using Bluetooth technology on mobile phones, strangers sent pornographic clips to one another. Many of the clips were recordings of homosexual acts between Saudis and many featured young Saudis in orgies in Lebanon and Egypt. The obsession with sex in Saudi Arabia had reached worrying levels: rape and abuse of both sexes occurred frequently, some cases even reaching the usually censored national press.

It might be the social norms, but I wouldn't blame the veil for sexual immorality. Men do not start thirsting for pornography and thinking in sexually dirty language just because they can't see a woman's face. They do so because it is the social norm.

Ultra-religious Jews have high moral sexual norms. The sexes are separated, almost completely, from a very young age. And yet, a woman could walk in a Jewish religious neighborhood without being accosted, without being jeered at and definitely without having men stare at her. At the most, there will be a demand that she follow the social norms and dress modestly.


Two weeks after the terrorist attacks in London another Saudi student raised his hand and asked: "Teacher, how can I go to London?"

"Much depends on your reason for going to Britain. Do you want to study or just be a tourist?"

"Teacher, I want to go London next month. I want bomb, big bomb in London, again. I want make jihad!"

"What?" I exclaimed. Another student raised both hands and shouted: "Me too! Me too!"

Other students applauded those who had just articulated what many of them were thinking. I was incandescent. In protest I walked out of the classroom to a chorus of jeering and catcalls.

Source: Times Online