Understanding Muslims: From Freedom to Guilt to Jihad

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On October 29, 2009, law enforcement sources reported that 37 year old Rabia Sarwar, a wife from New Brighton on Staten Island in New York, tried to slit her husband’s throat as he slept because he was not the devout Muslim she believed she married, and “pressured” her to eat pork and drink alcohol.

In a rambling, five-page handwritten confession, Sarwar laid out what “mental and emotional cruelty” led her to attempt murder against popular high school teacher, Sheikh Naseem, known to his friends as “Eddie”.

"I tried my best to cut his throat,” Sarwar admitted, according to court papers. Except Naseem woke up during the attempt and took the knife from her.

As the male-bashing western society demands, whenever a woman murders or attempts to murder her husband, the man must be blamed for precipitating the attack by abusing her, Ms. Sarwar’s attorney, Joseph Licitra, blamed Naseem for being “a cruel person, he preyed on her.”

Did Eddie beat Rabia? Did he threaten her? Did he force her to do anything against her will? No, no and no! How did he prey on her?

"She was trying to live the way I live, but on the same token, she tells her parents: 'I went out drinking with him,' and her mother started making derogatory statements about me, " Eddie told a news reporter. "There was no gun pointed to her head to do these things."

Eddie is a freethinker. He likes to live the American life and admires author Salman Rushdie, who is despised by Muslims for his novel, The Satanic Verses that they believe is disrespectful of their prophet.

One of Eddie’s ex-students commented, “This is absolutely insane. I've known Mr. Nassim, being a former student at Wagner High School. He was one of the coolest and most educated teachers, and there's no doubt in my mind that he would have been a faithful husband. Her attempt of murder is more than shocking.”

For those who do not understand Muslims, this episode is shocking. The way Rabia Sarwar was portrayed in the media as a “troubled woman” reveals how little westerners understand Muslims.

What Rabia Sarwar did is an example of a societal madness, but she, herself, is not insane. Rabia is a typical Muslim.

If you study the lives of Muslim terrorists, a common pattern emerges. They have had Islamic indoctrination. They believe Islam is the perfect way of life that leads one to heaven, but the western world is decadent and sinful. They become fascinated by this decadent world and give in to its “sins”. Then they become fearful and repentant, turning against what they consider to be the cause of their temptation and sin and try to destroy it.

Muslims may engage in all the “sins” the world offers, but guilt is brewing in the backs of their minds. The fear of hell is so prevailing that it invades them at a cellular level. When guilt overwhelms and fear gets hold of them, they rush to their religion for redemption.

This is common amongst people of all faiths. When people are weighed down by feelings of guilt, they often seek refuge in religion. They try to become pious. If they have had a Christian upbringing, for example, they may become evangelists, or volunteer for humanitarian causes, etcetera. The same is true for followers of Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and so on.

The road to piety in Islam takes a different turn. Muslims can become pious by leading an austere life, by worshiping, by giving alms, and by doing “good deeds”.

“Good deeds” in Islam does not always mean what it means in other religions. “Good deeds” for Muslims means to emulate Muhammad, to dress like him, shave like him, eat things he ate, clean oneself the way he did, and also to hate and kill infidels, as he did.

In Islam there is a fast lane to redemption that does not exist in other religions. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Muhammad Bin Humaid, ex-Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia explains:

“As regards the reward and blessing, there is one deed which is very great in comparison to all the acts of worship and all the good deeds-and that is Jihad!”

He clarifies that Jihad can be: 1. With the heart (intentions or feelings), 2. With the hand (weapons, etc.), 3. With the tongue (speeches, etc., in the Cause of Allah)

He then adds, “Allah has rewarded the one who performs it (jihad) with lofty dwellings in the Gardens (of Paradise).”

This explains what goes on in the mind of Muslim terrorists and why Rabia Sarwar tried to slash the throat of her unbelieving husband.  She experimented with freedom. Being raised as a Muslim, she felt guilty. When she revealed her “sins” to her parents they rebuked her and her cup of guilt overflowed. Fearful of hell, she then decided to take the fast lane to redemption and perform jihad on her husband, whom she blamed for introducing her to sin. Her handwritten confession stated, “I did not sleep. I started thinking to kill him," and then she went to the kitchen to get a knife.

Far from being a “troubled woman”, Rabia Sarwar exemplifies a typical Muslim terrorist.

1- They are indoctrinated in Islam, a religion that hinges entirely on the fear of hell.

2- They are mesmerized by the freedom available in the Non-muslim world, which they regard as sinful (taghoot).

3- This attraction induces in them guilt. They become fearful of Allah’s punishment and the dreadful consequence of their “waywardness”.

4- Accordingly, they turn against the cause of their temptation and try to destroy it. This aggression is regarded as jihad, which not only will wipe out their sins, but also guarantee them the highest reward.

Contrary to what some “experts” tell us, Islamic terrorism is not the result of deprivation, but rather because Muslims, terrorized by the fear of hell, are now experiencing freedoms prohibited in their religion. They are titillated by the tantalizing lure of these freedoms, while at the same time they are tormented by their guilt.

If we are serious about fighting Islamic terrorism, understanding Muslims must be a priority. Yet few politicians seem to have any clue or even inclination to learn the facts. The general misconception is that if you introduce Muslims to modernity, democracy, freedom and the good life that Sharia (Islamic law) denies them, they will cheerfully abandon their faith and will integrate into the non-Muslim world.

Nothing is further from truth. A Muslim who experiments with freedom is overwhelmed by guilt and a prime candidate to become a jihadi terrorist.

Muslims are obsessed with sex. For example, according to Google Trends, the top five countries that search the keyword phrase “anal sex,” are 1-Pakistan, 2- India (with160 million Muslims), 3- Algeria, 4- Morocco, and 5- Indonesia.

Not surprisingly, the index of terrorism in Islamic countries is proportionate to their interest in porn. Porn does not make people terrorists, but the guilt that the sexually repressed Muslims feel after consuming porn draws them further to Islam, which in its pure form involves jihad and terrorism. Jihad expiates their perceived sins. They blame the Non-muslim world for making them sin, and then join the jihad to destroy this world so as to stop the temptation.

Muslims live in a constant state of cognitive dissonance. Their Islamic mind is incapable of coping with the freedoms of the modern world. They are torn apart by two opposing forces. On one hand there is freedom, which they find irresistibly seductive and at the same time sinful and immoral. On the other hand there is the fear of hell. In this tug-of-war, fear always wins. Fear is a lot more powerful than the desire to be free, especially if that freedom is regarded as wicked and sinful. Freedom will never wean Muslims from Islam. They respond to fear. This makes them withdraw into their protective shell, and become more and more extremist.

They sin, they feel guilty, and to overcome their guilt they become jihadis. This, in a nutshell, is the reason for the revival of jihad. Muslims have suddenly come in contact with the modern western world and they are not equipped for it. They are fascinated by it, while at the same time they fear it, believe it leads them to hell, and they want to destroy it. It is under this light that we must understand Muslims. Only then can we understand what drives them to terrorism. Islamic terrorists are not troubled or insane. The only thing troubling about them is that they believe in a religion which holds them hostage to fear, controls their thoughts and actions, and glorifies murder as the highest form of devotion.

About the author: Ali Sina is the founder of the website FaithFreedom.org and the author of Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography (published by Felibri, 2008, and available as e-Book and in paperback).

About the author: Ali Sina is the founder of the website FaithFreedom.org and the author of Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography (published by Felibri, 2008, and available as e-Book and in paperback).