An "Innocent" Islamist's Journey to the Beast's Lair

Here is a new twist on a Breath of the Beast story. It’s an excerpt from a forthcoming book that is on in the Times Online website. I found it because the excerpt was excerpted on Little Green footballs. It is powerful not just because it is, like the other stories we have featured, a first hand encounter and journey from sleep to awakening; but is also a chilling view of the inside of the beast’s lair.
My foremost thought in reading and contemplating this excerpt is that if, in the book, the author can give us a glimpse of the state of mind that could have blinded him to the abundant evidence he must have been exposed to before his trip to Saudi Arabia, it might give us an idea of how to deprogram more of those who are in that same state of denial.

This is well written and takes us from:

During our first two months in Jeddah, Faye and I relished our new and luxurious lifestyle: a shiny jeep, two swimming pools, domestic help, and a tax-free salary. The luxury of living in a modern city with a developed infrastructure cocooned me from the frightful reality of life in Saudi Arabia.

My goatee beard and good Arabic ensured that I could pass for an Arab.

But looking like a young Saudi was not enough: I had to act Saudi, be Saudi. And here I failed.

to:

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.

This would have been the right place to stop. Unfortunately, the excerpt runs another two paragraphs that are undoubtably intended to soften the effect as much as possible. But, then, that is to be expected in a mainstream media site.

Still, it is brave enough to touch on the forbidden subjects of women, sex, child abuse, and pederasty which I have written about many times (notably here and here). It is a compelling tale, and true. Here's hoping that the book goes further than the superficial place where the excerpt ends.