How Are Jihadists Made? Tawfit Hamad has an Answer

What occupies the mind of a jihad-driven Muslim? How is such fervor planted in young and impressionable believers? Where does it originate? How did I - once an innocent child who grew up in a liberal, moderate and educated household - find myself a member of a radical Islamic group?

So begins Tawfit Hamad's essay on the creation of a jihadist that appears in the January 17, 2008 edition of The Jerusalem Post.

Mr. Hamad's story reminds me of the Rodgers and Hammerstein lyrics from "South Pacific," "You've got to be taught, to hate and fear; You've got to be taught, from year to year; It's got to be drummed, in your dear little ear; You've got to be carefully taught."

But Hamad is not singing from some fanciful isle; he's speaking about real life, and the threat that the world faces from an religious educational system that poisons Muslim youth from an early age.

It's a story well worth reading. Here's the link-- The Development of a Jihadist's Mind