is the moderate islamic muslim a myth?

Question

hassan exposes the myth about moderate islamic muslims.

The Network
Hassan Butt Tells Bob Simon Killing In The Name Of Islam Is A "Cancer"
CBS) British police this week arrested three British Muslims in connection with the 2005 bombings on the London subway system in which 52 people were killed.

The world was shocked when the four suicide bombers blew themselves up that morning, especially when it turned out that they were British citizens. The four had been recruited to what is called the "Network," a web of radical Islamic organizations loosely affiliated to al Qaeda which has turned Britain into the western world’s richest breeding grounds for terrorists. How did this happen?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/23/60minutes/main2602308.shtml?source=RSSattr=60Minutes_2602308#ccmm

60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon met someone who knows. And for the first time he spoke about what it was like to be inside that network for ten years. His name is Hassan Butt. He’s only 26 years old, but some of the people he recruited were a lot younger than that.

Hassan Butt admits he sent a 17-year-old boy from England to Pakistan to be involved in terrorist training.

Butt was only 16 when he was recruited by the network. Like thousands of other young British Muslims, he became exposed to some of the most radical Imams in Britain – Imams who supported attacks on westerners all over the world and believed that they had a tacit agreement with the British authorities.

They could preach hatred, they could recruit followers, they could raise funds, and they could even call for Jihad – Holy war – as long as they didn’t call for attacks on British soil. London became such a safe haven for Muslim militants that it came to be known as "Londonistan."

"Do you think this was an unspoken deal with the establishment? That, do whatever you want here as long as you don't blow us up?" Simon asks Butt.

"Absolutely. I believe that sincerely," Butt tells Simon. "That was an unspoken deal. And as a result of that, what tended to happen is the British government lost count of how many people were going abroad getting trained and coming back and going into operational mode as sleeper cells."

If there was such a deal, it was shattered in July 2005, when the four suicide bombers blew themselves up on the London subway; three of the terrorists were born in Britain of Pakistani parents.

"The four men who blew themselves up all came from good families, good homes, good educations. How do you explain what they did?" Simon asks.

"I mean, for me, they did it simply because they were convinced that they were doing something in the name of God, in the name of Islam. And they honestly believed they would obtain paradise from doing the activities that they carried out, the terrorist attacks that they carried out," Butt explains.

Ringleader Mohammad Siddique Kahn made a video of his last will. Hassan Butt had met him but insists they never discussed specific operations. Khan told him he first became attracted to radical Islam because the tradition he grew up with was forcing him into an arranged marriage. The radical Imams were offering him a way out.

"A lot of guys I know, actually, have become radicalized, or initially took the first steps towards learning more about Islam and their way of life as a result of them being tried to being forced to marry someone they don't want to marry," Butt tells Simon.

And Butt says the radical preachers are in favor of men marrying whomever they went, as long as their wives are practicing Muslims.

"So this is a very effective and an important proselytizing technique?" Simon asks.

"Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely," Butt says.

But that’s just the start of the recruiting process – it’s bringing them into the tent. Hassan Butt would follow up with young men in his gym in Manchester, England, and in neighborhood pool halls. He says he personally recruited between 50 and 75 people to receive training in Pakistan; thousands more were being recruited elsewhere in Britain.

"We’d talk about the suffering of the Muslims all over the world," Butt tells Simon. "We were very well-versed in the Koran, in the verses of the Koran, in the sayings of the Prophet and show that how it was permissible for people to go around killing innocent men, women and children."

"You would explain to them why it's permissible to kill innocent men, women and children?" Simon asks.

"Well, a better way to put it is, we would take away the innocence from the person so they were no longer innocent men, women and children," Butt explains.

"So, men, women and children would become non-innocents?" Simon asks.

"Become non-innocent and hence, combatants and allowed to be targeted," Butt says.

Asked at what point he would say to a recruit it was time to head to Pakistan, Butt tells Simon, "Never. I would never say that, ever. It's not me forcing them. I mean, the network never, never pushes people in that way. We believe that if the person is convinced, has the conviction themself to come up to you and say they wanna go training, then they are the type of person who will most likely take that one step further and will be the reliable foot soldiers for you."

And a reliable foot soldier is all Hassan Butt wanted to be when he decided to move to Pakistan at age 20. Behind the scenes he was helping young British Muslims get to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.

British Muslims had flocked to Pakistan for military training. But as the Taliban retreated, many of them wanted to take the fight back home.

In 2002, Butt warned BBC Radio in an interview from Pakistan that British Muslims fighting in Afghanistan would return home and take military action within Britain and that he was in favor of this.

Asked if, at the time, he really believed that British Muslims would attack their own country, Butt says, "Yeah. Absolutely. These were people that I was meeting and these were people who decided to return back to Britain to become, you know, sleeper cells."

"Sleeper cells that stayed asleep for a little while?" Simon asks.

"Yeah," says Butt.

Butt told Simon that he began associating with militants who had been involved in terrorist attacks in Pakistan in which people had lost their lives. So when he was tipped off that the Pakistani authorities were about to arrest him, he flew back to Britain where he was arrested, questioned for five days and released without charge.

He became one of the network’s star fundraisers. Over the next couple of years, he says he raised $300,000.

His biggest contributors? "Doctors. People who were businessmen. Professional people basically who wanted to donate substantial amounts of money," Butt tells Simon.

Butt says he openly told them he was raising funds for Jihad.

And he says he didn’t just solicit from the professional classes: he also targeted criminals, drug dealers who were told that their activities would be cleansed for a percentage of their earnings.

What kind of percentage?

"Twenty percent," says Butt.

The drug dealers were told the 20 percent would legitimize them in Islamic eyes and that the rest of their income was, in Butt's words, "purified."

"As long as the drugs weren't being sold to other Muslims. They were being sold to non-Muslims. In fact, we saw it as a tactic of war to keep, you know, one of the people that I sat with said, 'Well, let's keep poisoning the non-Muslim community in the West. Let's feed their addiction,'" Butt adds.

This was a tactic Butt discussed with the drug dealers and he says it made them feel better for the work they were doing.

How did the funds get from the U.K. to Pakistan? Butt tells Simon they used the Hawala system.

Asked to explain how the trust-based system works, Butt explains, "We'd contact someone here, we'd give them the money. They'd make a phone call to Pakistan, saying this amount of money is being deposited with us. Someone by this name, by this name and this age will come and collect this amount of money from you in Pakistan. They, obviously, would take a fee, which would pay, no paperwork. No trail."

There is no paper trail and Butt says it always works.

Butt says affiliates of al Qaeda received the funds, and used them for terrorist activities. He adds he did not know the specific operations that were funded by the money.

Why is he revealing all this? Because, he told Simon, the London bombings changed him. He began asking questions of his handlers, theological questions. He wanted to know whether the bombings could ever be justified in Islam. He waited and waited for answers. Months later, he was summoned by his handlers to a meeting in the Middle East. But he wasn’t given answers, only new orders.

"They were trying to force me into Iraq to fight basically," Butt says.

"So, to summarize, you're asking, basically, why should we be killing innocent people?" Simon asks.

"That's correct," Butt replies.

"And the answer you eventually received is go to Iraq and perhaps carry out a suicide mission?" Simon asks.

"Go to Iraq to basically – the actual word that they used was that I needed 'reprogramming.' And Iraq would give me the opportunity to basically be reprogrammed for what I needed I mean. I was quite shocked at the analogy," Butt says. "To think that will, firstly, I'm neither a computer nor a robot. And I don't know on your say so, I do on God's say so. And if you can't justify to me or prove to me that this is what God wants, then I'm gonna have to go my separate ways."

Asked if he was frightened, Butt tells Simon, "Shocked more than frightened. But, yes, it definitely, I was intimidated at that point."

Butt says it was after that meeting that he began answering his questions, himself.

"What I've come to realize is that killing for the sake of killing, and killing in the name of Islam for the sake of killing, is completely and utterly prohibited. And there's a big disease, a big problem and a cancer in the Muslim world. And it's a very dangerous cancer, and it needs to be dealt with," he says.

How? "And I really believe, if Muslims can pluck up their courage to ask questions, regardless of the consequences, then I do see that there is still hope, you know, to solve, to cure this cancer," Butt says.

Hassan Butt made his about face public last January at Cambridge University, at the debating union. For the first time he revealed that he had left the network and announced his strategy to confront radical Muslims.

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"The position of moderate Muslims is that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Do you buy that?" Simon asks.

"No, absolutely not. By completely being in denial about it's like an alcoholic basically. Unless an alcoholic acknowledges that he has a problem with alcohol, he's never gonna be able to go forward," Butt argues. "And as long as we, as Muslims, do not acknowledge that there is a violent streak in Islam, unless we acknowledge that, then we are gonna always lose the battle to the militants, by being in complete denial about it."

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Butt’s private life is a shambles right now. His family has called him a traitor to Islam and his former friends from the network have threatened his life. He’s writing a book about his transformation and his challenge to Muslims.

He says he wants to make right what he calls the bad work he did before – bad work that may have included more direct involvement in terrorism than fund raising and recruitment.

Asked if he considered the work he used to do bad, Butt says, "Yeah, absolutely, not just bad work. I mean, bad is an understatement. It's evil, wicked work."

What's the most evil, wicked thing he did?

"It's not something that I want to talk about on camera," he tells Simon.

Asked if he loses sleep over his past deeds, Hassan says, "Yeah."

How does he atone for them?

"Well, hopefully, by the work that I intend to now start," Butt says. "Whatever it costs, I'm willing to make sure I see this through to the end."

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Hassan Butt may have left the Network, but if he did hear about the planning of any terrorist operations, he told us, he would inform the authorities. Barring that, he has no plans to turn in his former colleagues to the police. That, he says, would jeopardize his efforts to prevent young Muslims from being radicalized.

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"The position of moderate Muslims is that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Do you buy that?" Simon asks.

"No, absolutely not. By completely being in denial about it's like an alcoholic basically. Unless an alcoholic acknowledges that he has a problem with alcohol, he's never gonna be able to go forward," Butt argues. "And as long as we, as Muslims, do not acknowledge that there is a violent streak in Islam, unless we acknowledge that, then we are gonna always lose the battle to the militants, by being in complete denial about it."

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Answer 1

yes, they are all terrorist.

Answer 2

the problem on right it really is in case you attempt to describe how the media works, I presume interior the US as interior the united kingdom, the brainwashing has worked on them. I hate how an complete crew of human beings are vilified because of the acute minority. the clicking has surely little interest in publishing/exhibiting Muslims condemning the terrorists. The tabloid press in Britain is an absolute shame, a breeding floor for racism, homophobia and Islamaphobia. i'm an atheist and as such have surely no love for Islam nor Christianity or the different faith yet i'm taken aback on absolutely the hatred in this web site for Muslims. The Koran could probable have barbaric practices besides the indisputable fact that the Bible is only as undesirable and definite, some theocracies interior the middle East and the Taliban are a shame besides the indisputable fact that that's a lot extra to do with patriarchal and medieval wondering. I have Muslim acquaintances and Christian acquaintances. My Muslim acquaintances get easily scared at the same time as the tabloid press prints its nasty stuff and that i'm ashamed. And by the fashion, I lost a chum interior the international commerce middle on 9/11 with the purpose to be thumbed down for attempting to make a rational reality about Islam really depresses me. It depresses me extra when I see so-called (and that i really propose "so-called") Christians on R & S being so hateful and vindictive. As an atheist, I have extra compassion and a lot less hate in my heart than them.

Answer 3

I don't know about those countries in the Middle East, but in South East Asia, countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore seem rather safe.

The Muslims here get along well with the non-muslims. They just go to the mosque, pray 5 times a day and abstain from pork. That's about all. Nothing extreme.

I think the problem lies with culture, not religion. There are no forced-marriages here, so I guess the terrorists can't use this trick to recruit ppl.

Answer 4

In the last 200 years Islamic civilizations are in decline, so are the education system, health care, social welfare etc in those countries. Judeo-muslim or christian-muslim relations do not go merely back to 50 years ago. We did actually cohabit hundreds of years, under the rule of a multi-national state; the Ottoman State.
I should also say that some of the Jews persecuted in Spain were rescued by the Ottoman ruler. When Ottoman State expanded, it guaranteed its people freedom of religion wherever conquered. Look at Greeks, Bulgarians, Hungarians etc. Some did convert to Islam like Bosnians and Albenians.
Go back to the 2nd world war, yes a muslim country called Turkey not only accepted Jews during those horrible times ( Europe was not safe, nowhere in Europe even France, England) but also was engaged in heavy effort to rescue them in Germany by granting them Turkish Citizenship etc etc etc. Now if you cannot see the bigger picture out there for Islam, it is not Islam's problem but the problem of those who were enslaved by their prejudices.
Do not forget: muslims learned Anti-semitistic literature from the west, and 1500 years of Islam is pure and clean from it.
What caused those ridiculous doctrines to blossom in Islamic countries?
There are many reasons but the biggest is
the feeling of abondonment by the West. Had the West really not left them in despair, in ignorance (a healthy education is not possible where a fair society is not established) had it not been interested only in exploiting them and creating tyrants
Anti-west sensations would not find any grounds to flourish.
There is no moderate Islam, Islam is already that.

Answer 5

You put a lot of credence on one persons word that is rewritten by a news writer!

Whats your point? Americans kill more Americans than anyone else! And it is funny how they essentially kept to themselves until we started laundering money from Cocaine crops, stealing their oil ans resources, telling them what to do like we ran their countries. I don't blame them for being mad!

Radical Islam is not the major Islamic group, or groups in the middle east!

If you want to know how we are recruiting them, ask George Bush, their poster boy!

Answer 6

Not all of them, but it is the few that cause all the trouble for the many.

Answer 7

so basically ur saying all muslims are evil and terrorists? well fck u buddy

Answer 8

i am muslim, i am not a terrorist or evil, my kids aren't terrorists, my dog isn't a terrorist :)

terror is killing. period. whether it's for yahweh, jesus, allah, or democracy.
murder has no valuable excuse.

Answer 9

muslims....if u say that some of us is like normal..living normal that kind of sh1t.....arent you ashamed of being a muslim in the first place...????isnt those terrorist making u lose face in public???getting hated by the public???

Answer 10

someones got a whole lot of time on their hands.....