What prompts someone to convert to Islam and sign up for global 'holy war' in the name of Osama’s Al Qaeda? Security agencies search for answers...
PARIS/BERLIN: What prompts someone to convert to Islam and to sign up for global 'holy war' in the name of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda?
Security agencies are asking that question with increasing urgency as they confront a growing catalogue of actual or attempted attacks in which Muslim converts are suspected of playing prominent roles.
Richard Reid, the convicted British “shoebomber” who tried to set off explosives in his footwear on a 2001 trans-Atlantic flight, was a petty criminal who first turned to Islam during a spell in prison.
Christian Ganczarski, a German suspected of involvement in a 2002 bombing in Tunisia, converted at 20 before embarking on a jihadist career in which, investigators believe, he became a close associate of bin Laden’s.
Other converts include Jamaican-born Germaine Lindsay, one of four suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London in July, and Briton Andrew Rowe, jailed for 15 years last month for having terrorist materials. “It’s striking, the number of converts engaged in terrorist activities,” said Michael Taarnby, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
American Taliban
The phenomenon is not confined to Europe. John Walker Lindh, dubbed “the American Taliban”, was convicted and jailed in 2002 for fighting alongside the Afghan militia, and US citizen Jose Padilla has been held for more than three years as a suspected enemy combatant in connection with an alleged “dirty bomb” plot. European experts said the vast majority of those who converted to Islam did so for legitimate personal reasons. Some convert in order to marry Muslims.
Below the radar
The advantage for militant groups is that converts can often move more freely and attract less suspicion than people of obviously Middle Eastern appearance.
“Thanks to their physical appearance they can penetrate targets in Europe much more easily without being spotted,” said Roland Jacquard, head of the International Terrorism Observatory in Paris.
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