The Trials of Jihadi John: Apologists Say the Islamic State Killer is Misunderstood.

Posted By on March 2nd, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trials-of-jihadi-john-1425250650

Why are tens of thousands of young Muslims leaving the safety of their homes to join Islamic State and wage jihad in Iraq and Syria? We’ve heard any number of excuses, including the view that it’s a result of poverty, a lack of educational opportunity and the absence of participatory government. But it’s hard to beat the explanations now offered for Mohammed Emwazi, better known as “Jihadi John” for his videotaped beheadings of Western captives.

The Kuwaiti-born Emwazi, now in his mid-20s, grew up in London and attended the University of Westminster. As early as 2009 British authorities suspected him of attempting to wage jihad abroad. In a 2009 email exchange with Cage, a U.K. advocacy outfit that campaigns against “state policies developed as part of the War on Terror,” Emwazi complained of rough treatment he allegedly received at the hand of interrogators from MI5, Britain’s domestic-security agency.

Asim Qureshi, a research director at Cage, describes Emwazi as “a beautiful young man,” driven to extremism by an overzealous MI5. It’s worth noting that Mr. Qureshi isn’t a traditional civil-rights activist, though most news outlets describe him as such. “When we see the example of our brothers and sisters fighting in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan, then we know where the example lies,” he said in a 2006 speech recorded on video. (See Rod Liddle nearby.)

Now Mr. Qureshi says that “suffocating domestic policies aimed at turning a person into an informant but which prevent a person from fulfilling their basic life needs would have left a lasting impression on Emwazi.” Jihadi John was “radicalized by Britain,” according to Mr. Qureshi.

The problem with that theory is that MI5 didn’t scrutinize Emwazi capriciously. If anything, he wasn’t scrutinized enough. His case shows the need for intelligence and security services throughout the West to be far more forward-leaning in investigating suspects they believe are on the road to jihad. A less tolerant attitude might have stopped U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan before his 2009 terrorist rampage at Fort Hood.

But the deeper error of the grievance theory of Islamic radicalization is that it denies Muslims the moral agency of their actions, as if they are incapable of knowing the rights and wrongs of taking human life or can be turned into killers from slights to their person or perceived insults to their beliefs. Such dehumanizing excuses are a greater insult to Muslims than anything a wary MI5 investigator has ever done.

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