Table of Contents for A Hindu Critiques Islam:

1. Chapters 1-3: Doctrinal Failings, Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta Critique, What “Islamophobia” Shields
2. Chapter 4: Social Status and Genocide Denial
3. Chapter 5:  Neoliberalism Empowers Islamism
4. Chapter 6: Did the British Partition of 1947 Gradually Decline the UK and Bolster India?
5. Chapter 7: Islamic Terrorism’s 1st-Generation was Al Qaeda, 2nd-Generation was ISIS, and a 3rd-Generation’s making a Digital Caliphate from “Islamophobia” Censorship
6. Chapter 8: The Partition of Free Speech
7. Chapters 9 and 10: Follies of Islam Repurposed and Islamism Always Creates Failed States

Extras: Islam’s 200-years of Mass Genocide of Iran, Islam’s 500-years of Mass Genocide of India, and judging from Wikipedia, Islamic Terrorism makes-up 58% of all Terror incidents in India between 1980 – 2024 and that’s lowballing it.

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“On questions of national security, I am now as wary of my fellow liberals as I am of the religious demagogues on the Christian right.

This may seem like frank acquiescence to the charge that “liberals are soft on terrorism.” It is, and they are.

A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world — for reasons that are perfectly explicable in terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad. The truth is that we are not fighting a “war on terror.” We are fighting a pestilential theology and a longing for paradise.

This is not to say that we are at war with all Muslims. But we are absolutely at war with those who believe that death in defense of the faith is the highest possible good, that cartoonists should be killed for caricaturing the prophet and that any Muslim who loses his faith should be butchered for apostasy.

Unfortunately, such religious extremism is not as fringe a phenomenon as we might hope. Numerous studies have found that the most radicalized Muslims tend to have better-than-average educations and economic opportunities.

Given the degree to which religious ideas are still sheltered from criticism in every society, it is actually possible for a person to have the economic and intellectual resources to build a nuclear bomb — and to believe that he will get 72 virgins in paradise. And yet, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, liberals continue to imagine that Muslim terrorism springs from economic despair, lack of education and American militarism.”[1]– Sam Harris, Atheist author and neuroscientist, from his September 18^th, 2006 article in the Los Angeles Times titled “It’s real, it’s scary, it’s a cult of death” where he explained the problems with how Liberals of the US were misconstruing the primary causes of Islamic violence.

[1] Harris, Sam. “It’s Real, It’s Scary, It’s a Cult of Death.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sept. 2006, http://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-18-oe-harris18-story.html.

These words by Sam Harris were condemned as phobic, racist, bigoted, and provincial by a slew of Liberal academics, journalists, and supposed experts back in 2006. When I was in college, I had wrongly assumed that they knew what they were talking about and that while Sam Harris was correct about freewill and religion in a more general sense, that he’d surely been too extreme and that Muslims across the world were more reasonable. One of the problems that made me believe this was that nobody actually explained what Sharia was in any clear explanation in the discussions around Islam for the early 2010s, not even Sam Harris himself. It wasn’t until I listened to Ex-Muslim Youtube videos in 2018, specifically the Ex-Muslims of North America organization’s college campus tours, that I began to fully understand the depth of the problems within Islam and then decided to research it based upon the explanations they had given. When I could finally understand what was true from what wasn’t true, I could finally begin to understand without worrying that I was falling into either bigotry or conspiracy theories.

The fact is that Sam Harris’s argument was proven correct with the rise of the Islamic State back in the mid-2010s. On April 14th, 2015, NY Times journalist Mary Anne Weaver published an article titled “Her Majesty’s Jihadists: More British Muslims have joined Islamist militant groups than serve in the country’s armed forces. How to understand the pull of jihad.” which had the following eye-opening portion:

Ifthekar’s story would become an iconic one of the foreign jihad in Syria. It was recounted to me by Shiraz Maher, a senior research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (I.C.S.R.), an innovative institute at King’s College London. Here, a handful of researchers have been charting, following and, in some cases, interacting directly with foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq — through text-messaging and smartphone apps — in hopes of understanding their motivations and their worldview. The center now monitors some 700 of the 20,000 foreign fighters from 90 countries around the world. (Foreigners make up half of ISIS’s total fighting force.) An estimated 4,000 are from Western nations, some 600 to 700 from Britain alone. More British Muslim men have joined ISIS and the Nusra Front than are serving in the British armed forces.

Many of the fighters from Britain — as well as those from Finland, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands — came from comfortable middle-class homes. Many were university students or graduates; a surprising number were women, too. But they didn’t appear to fit a typical profile, which confounded counterterrorism experts and Western governments. Some, like Ifthekar, seemed driven by romantic notions of jihad. Others, like Mohammed Emwazi, who later became known as Jihadi John, the ruthless executioner of Western journalists and aid workers in the ISIS videos, fully embraced the violence of the Islamic State. Emwazi was also a Briton, and also the son of a comfortable middle-class family, with a degree in computer programming. And then there were still other cases in which entire families made their way to Syria or Iraq: pregnant women; young children; even the family pets.

The I.C.S.R. forms part of the Department of War Studies at Kings College’s Strand Campus. Peter Neumann, a 40-year-old political scientist and a professor of security studies, established the center in January 2008 to study the roots of radicalization and political violence. Now, as its director, he supervises a surprisingly small staff, considering the depth and range of the research the center does. There are only nine full-time academics attached to it, supplemented by a dozen or so part-time interns or students who sit hunched over their laptops in shifts, tracking the militant Islamists in the center’s database.

Initially, researchers monitored jihadist websites and individual Twitter accounts. But it was not until 2013 that they established direct contact with the foreign fighters themselves. “It was exhilarating,” Maher said to me, “and we came about it only by chance.” Maher happened upon Ifthekar, who used his Twitter feed to recount his experiences in Syria and to urge all of his “brothers and sisters” to come and join the fight. Soon, I.C.S.R. researchers realized there were other Europeans in Syria: a Dane named Abu Fulan; then a former Dutch soldier called Yilmaz. They sent a flood of messages, hoping some of the fighters would respond. Ifthekar was the first; he invited Maher to talk on Skype. As the researchers gained the fighters’ trust, direct contact increased. Most of the jihadists preferred text-messaging, for both convenience and security. Some of them were effusive; others were guarded and skeptical; still others, over a period of time, actually began to seek, or offer, guidance and advice.

“Building these relationships with these guys, you get to know them,” Maher told me. “You build and develop rapport. You get to understand why they’re there; what they hope to do. One Eid, the first message I got was not from my parents, but from a member of Al Qaeda. It was surreal.”

Maher, a 33-year-old historian of medium height and medium build with a neatly trimmed beard, is an expert on Salafi jihadism. As I sat with him one February morning, he scrolled through dozens of images culled from Facebook and jihadist websites that he’d stored on his laptop: young men in battle gear, some posing with weapons, others manning roadblocks; still others lounging by swimming pools and extolling the virtues of what the foreign fighters have coined “the five-star jihad.”

As we looked at the images, Maher began recounting some of the fighters’ stories to me. Some of the jihadists were hardened radicals who would become suicide bombers in Syria or Iraq. Others, he discovered, were much more fanciful. There was, for example, the foreign fighter from Mexico who constantly complained that it was impossible to find good Mexican food in Syria. There was the blind man from the Netherlands, who told a recruiter that because he was blind he couldn’t fight; the recruiter told him to come anyhow: “We’re a state,” he said, “and we need people to build that state.” And then there was the young man from Britain, who was already packed but had one last question before he left: Was hair gel available in Syria?

I looked around at the various flags that festoon the I.C.S.R.’s walls. They told the story of the three generations of Western fighters who had embraced jihad — going back to the 1980s and the war in Afghanistan. There were banners of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Free Syrian Army and ISIS, interspersed with posters of angry young men, some holding Kalashnikovs, others staring sternly ahead. The black, white and green flag of the U.S.-trained Free Syrian Army, Maher told me, took forever to find; he finally came upon one in a Turkish border town on the Syrian frontier. The black-and-white banner of ISIS, conversely, was available everywhere.

Maher explained that Ifthekar’s experience with the Nusra Front was not atypical. “Al Nusra has a vigorous vetting process, especially for foreigners,” he said. “It’s called tazkiyah, and it means that you must be vouched for by someone already in the organization. The system has worked well for Arabs with links to the group, but it has made it much more difficult for Europeans to join.”

The group also expects recruits to speak Arabic. “Nusra is very big on being entrenched in local communities,” Neumann told me. “If they think you’re not going to be useful, they won’t take you in. ISIS is less discriminating. They say: ‘If you’re a Muslim, you’re already part of the Caliphate. So even if you’re too fat, or too old to be a fighter, we’ll find something else for you to do. You have a right to emigrate. We’ll find a place for you.”

Of the 600 to 700 British fighters now in Syria and Iraq, only 20 percent have gone to the Nusra Front, according to Neumann. “The remaining 80 percent,” he says, “have joined ISIS. Very, very few are joining other groups.”

Hours at the I.C.S.R. can be erratic: Exchanges always occur on the jihadists’ clock. Maher and the other academics often have to wait, sometimes seemingly endlessly, for the fighters to call. In conducting research into radicalization, its causes and effects, and how it might be reversed, the center has published scores of research papers, journal articles and monographs. In some cases, it has acted as a kind of news service for those on the battlefields. It was the first to announce the death of one young British man.

I asked Maher if, based on the center’s research, he could draw a typical jihadist profile. “The average British fighter is male, in his early 20s and of South Asian ethnic origin,” he began. “He usually has some university education and some association with activist groups. Over and over again, we have seen that radicalization is not necessarily driven by social deprivation or poverty.” He paused for a moment, and then went on. “Other than those who go for humanitarian reasons, some of the foreign fighters are students of martyrdom; they want to die as soon as possible and go directly to paradise. We’ve seen four British suicide bombers thus far among the 38 Britons who have been killed. Then there are the adventure seekers — those who think this will enhance their masculinity, the gang members and the petty criminals too; and then, of course, the die-hard radicals, who began by burning the American flag and who then advanced to wanting to kill Americans — or their partners — under any circumstance.”

One afternoon I was talking with Maher in his office, which is filled with books and files, when an intern came in and handed him a note. He immediately turned to his computer and began to navigate onto jihadist websites, until he found what he was looking for: a video clip showing First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, the Jordanian fighter pilot, as ISIS was about to burn him alive.

We both sat stunned as the video began to play. Lieutenant Kasasbeh had been a prisoner of ISIS since Dec. 24, when his F-16 fighter plane was supposedly shot down, not far from the ISIS capital of Raqaa in northern Syria. He was the first member of the U.S.-led coalition to be captured by the Islamic State. Now dressed in an orange uniform — to resemble the attire of prisoners in Guantánamo — he stood inside a locked cage in the middle of the desert. A dozen or so ISIS fighters, some wearing masks, others not, formed a semicircle at a safe distance from the cage. The footage began cutting back and forth, between the desert scene and images of the charred bodies of women and children, their flesh discolored and raw, who, according to a voice-over, had been the victims of the coalition bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria.

The camera zoomed in and out, focusing on tight head shots of Kasasbeh, his bright orange uniform in sharp contrast with the taupe of the desert and the black ISIS flags. Then, with a flourish of his hand, one fighter set a powder fuse alight. The flames raced across the sand to Kasasbeh’s cage. The fighters began swaying rhythmically back and forth to the background music of a prophetic lyric, or nasheed. Kasasbeh flailed his arms as the flames entered his cage, first setting the bottom of his uniform alight, then moving on until the 26-year-old pilot disappeared in a human fireball.

Later, I asked Maher if such an act would dissuade potential fighters from joining the Islamic State. He replied that it would not. “In their minds, this was qisas, the principle of equal retaliation under Islamic law. If someone is killed, you can kill the perpetrator. You can choose the means. And he was burned at one of the very sites that the coalition forces bombed. Something like this will not affect the average fighter I’m talking to. For them, they are in a state of war with us. The Caliphate must be protected at all costs.”

Whether or not the Caliphate that ISIS has declared proves viable, it has extraordinary appeal, a return to the grandeur of the seventh- century Islamic state.[1]

[1] Weaver, Mary Anne. “Her Majesty’s Jihadists: More British Muslims Have Joined Islamist Militant Groups than Serve in the Country’s Armed Forces. How to Understand the Pull of Jihad.” New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, 14 Apr. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/magazine/her-majestys-jihadists.html.

Sikhs versus Sam Harris

However, a major and inexcusable failing of Sam Harris’s throughout the years, which made it far more difficult to accept what he was saying about Islam in terms of ideas, is that he did peddle some of the most incompetent and laughably idiotic arguments when it comes to national security. This is firmly worth mentioning, because it was the main reason I was thoroughly skeptical of his views for so long and why I believed those who opposed his characterization of Islam until a gradual process in which I finally changed my mind. On April 28^th, 2012, Sam Harris published an essay on his blog, samharris.org, titled “In Defense of Profiling” he argued “We should profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim, and we should be honest about it.[1]” He went from arguing about ideas, which is respectable, to arguing in favor of racial profiling, which is both racist and an attempt to appeal to White Supremacist fearmongering. On May 1^st, 2012, he wrote an addendum adding the following:

1. When I speak of profiling “Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim,” I am not narrowly focused on people with dark skin. In fact, I included myself in the description of the type of person I think should be profiled (twice). To say that ethnicity, gender, age, nationality, dress, traveling companions, behavior in the terminal, and other outward appearances offer no indication of a person’s beliefs or terrorist potential is either quite crazy or totally dishonest. It is the charm of political correctness that it blends these sins against reasonableness so seamlessly. We are paying a very high price for this obscurantism—and the price could grow much higher in an instant. We have limited resources, and every moment spent searching a woman like the one pictured above, or the children seen in the linked videos, is a moment in which someone or something else goes unobserved.[1]

[1] Harris, Sam. “In Defense of Profiling.” Sam Harris, http://www.samharris.org, 28 Apr. 2012, www.samharris.org/blog/in-defense-of-profiling.

The manner in which he phrases the arguments and rebuttals in defense of racial profiling is teeming with White Supremacist fearmongering attempting to appear rational and logical by ignoring all the contrary evidence. On May 7^th, 2012, in a follow-up article on his blog, titled “On Knowing Your Enemy” he elucidated even further:

In trying to understand the reaction to my essay, I think I have uncovered most of the assumptions at work in the minds of my critics. I believe that every one of these assumptions is false. To my surprise, a few people who have a reputation for being very intelligent, such as the biologist-blogger PZ Myers, appear to believe all of them:

1. Terrorism is just terrorism—there is nothing special about jihadists as a group, or suicide bombing as a tactic. When thinking about airline security, therefore, it makes perfect sense to put forward Timothy McVeigh (a non-Muslim terrorist) as an example of why any focus on Muslims is wrongheaded.
2. Furthermore, there is no link between Islam and suicidal terrorism.
3. Thus, any focus on the Muslim community is a sign of prejudice against dark-skinned people, Arabs, foreigners, or some other beleaguered minority.
4. And, in any case, it is impossible to tell whether someone is likely to be Muslim in the first place—there is no such thing as “looking Muslim” or “not looking Muslim.”
5. Focusing on people who could conceivably be Muslim would require ugly infringements of civil liberties—separate lines for dark-skinned people at the airport, for instance.
6. It would also allow terrorists to find another path through security—such as recruiting 80-year-old women from Okinawa to do their suicidal dirty work (though #4 tells us that there is no such thing as “looking Muslim,” so 80-year-old women from Okinawa look no less Muslim than anyone else). Random searches are actually more prudent than targeted ones because terrorists cannot game a random system.
7. And focusing on Muslims would prove so offensive to the Muslim community worldwide that it could increase Muslim support for terrorism (though #2 assures us that nothing about Islam makes this more likely than it would otherwise be; any group could be expected to support suicidal terrorism in response to being profiled).
8. If we had the resources, we would follow the Israeli approach to airline security, wherein no one is profiled on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, or gender. Rather, the Israelis attend only to a person’s behavior at the airport. “Behavioral profiling” is logically and empirically distinct from other sorts of profiling, and we should practice it alone.

The only assumptions on this list that stand a chance of being true are #6 and #7. Bruce Schneier appears to be very fond of #6, and I trust we will hear more from him about how terrorists can successfully game any system that profiles. But I don’t buy this argument, at least not yet, for reasons that we will probably discuss.

Assumption #7 does strike me as possible, though not likely. But this is just a statement about how terrifying Muslims have become worldwide: Don’t draw cartoons of their Prophet, or they’ll kill you. Don’t write a novel that could be considered blasphemous, or they’ll kill you. Don’t criticize their treatment of women, or they’ll kill you. Don’t leave the religion and publicly disavow it, or they’ll kill you. Don’t burn a Qur’an, or they’ll kill you. And if their vicious intolerance of civil discourse causes you to profile them at the airport, well, some who would not have otherwise thought to kill you will grow more insular and radicalized and, in the end, they will kill you too. I agree that a concern about alienating the Muslim community isn’t absurd—we desperately need Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement (i.e., to help profile within their own community)—but I’m not worried about creating more jihadists by simply taking intelligent steps to keep them off airplanes.

The Israelis have had a spotless record of airline security since 1972. It is widely imagined that they would never be so stupid as to profile people on the basis of race, ethnicity, or nationality. But this is just a pious fantasy. The Israelis have well-trained screeners who use all the information they can possibly glean to mitigate the risk of terrorism. Racial and ethnic profiling appears to be central to their process. I agree with many of my critics that we should emulate the Israeli approach insofar as it is possible. That would require smart, well-trained screeners who are empowered to use their discretion (i.e., to profile).[1]

[1] Harris, Sam. “On Knowing Your Enemy.” Sam Harris, samharris.org, 7 May 2012, www.samharris.org/blog/on-knowing-your-enemy29.

His refusal to accept number six and his example of Israel’s airline security is suspect. He actually couldn’t have been more wrong. While Politifact has an obvious political bias, they provide historical and expert testimony in this counterargument to Sam Harris’s views on racial profiling. In their September 26^th, 2016 rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s argument “Says Israel profiles based on ethnicity and “does it very successfully.” by Linda Qiu, they stated the following:

Amotz Brandes is a former intelligence officer in the Israeli Defense Forces and a security agent and profiler at El Al Airlines, Israel’s flagship carrier. He is now a managing partner at the international security firm, Chameleon Associates.

Brandes told PolitiFact that Israeli security almost exclusively profiled Arabs and Muslims until the Lod Airport massacre of 1972. That year, a radical Palestinian group recruited gumen from the militant Japanese Red Army for the terrorist attack that killed 26 people at the airport in Tel Aviv.

Using non-Arab, non-Muslim gunmen exploited and exposed a weakness in exclusively focusing on someone’s race or ethnicity, Brandes said. Israeli security now consider a much more comprehensive and specific set of indicators to locate potential threats.

But Israel “never really stopped risk-based profiling. They just added threat-based profiling,” Brandes said, adding for a Jewish state located in a “very unsafe neighborhood,” it’s necessary. “They treat those with Arab ethnicity as higher risk. It’s not a secret. It’s done in many, many ways.”

For example, Ben Gurion International Airport (formerly Lod Airport) labels passengers with numbered stickers, one representing low risk and six very high risk. All fliers are questioned and searched, but those with higher numbers undergo more intensive security screening.

According to Israeli journalist Lia Tarachansky, one’s, two’s and three’s are reserved for Jewish Israelis, Jewish non-Israelis and friendly internationals. Arab Israelis and questionable internationals are given a four or higher. Palestinians and Muslims are typically classified as six.  The Arab American Institute has documented numerous cases of detentions of Arabs and Muslims lasting upward of 10 hours.[1]

[1] Qiu, Linda. “Trump Claim on Israel Profiling Misses Full Security Context.” @politifact, The Poynter Institute, 23 Sept. 2016, www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/sep/23/donald-trump/donald-trump-claim-israel-profiling-very-successfu/.

 

I was aware of this argument prior to 2016, but this Politifact article explains it best insofar as why Sam Harris was wrong. Also, since he insisted on an anecdote of using himself as an example, I’ll do the same with explicit candor: I don’t care if he’s comfortable with racial profiling, I’m tired of people automatically assuming my religion the moment they see my skin tone. I was subjected to that dumbassery when I was growing up in middle-school and high school after 9/11/2001 happened, I should not have to deal with any further ignorance and stupidity because TSA agents feel jumpy when looking at my skin tone. Furthermore, the idea that profiling anyone who “looks Muslim” falls apart when you look at the rise in hate crimes against Sikhs for the sheer stupidity of mistaking them for being Muslim because they wear turbans.

In the same year that Sam Harris was espousing these White Supremacist arguments and trying to rationalize his fearmongering, the HuffingtonPost published an article on August 7^th, 2012 titled “History of Hate: Crimes Against Sikhs Since 9/11.” which reads as follows:

The mass shooting of a gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Wisconsin on Sunday is merely the latest chapter in a history of violence. In the months following the attacks of 9/11, more than 300 incidences of hate crimes against Sikhs were reported, according to the Sikh Coalition (PDF).

Though their numbers make up the world’s fifth-largest religion, Sikhs are still misunderstood (No, they are not Muslims or Hindus). Below is a round up of notable hate crimes and bias incidents against Sikhs since 9/11. (H/t Buzz Feed.)

Sept. 15, 2001 — Mesa, Ariz.: Four days after the infamous attacks of 9/11, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a 49-year-old Sikh, is shot and killed outside the gas station he owned by Frank Silva Roque. When police approached to arrest him, Roque says, “I’m a patriot and an American. I’m American. I’m a damn American.” [More from HuffPost.]

Nov. 18, 2001 — Palermo, N.Y.: Three teens burn down Gobind Sadan, a gurdwara (Sikh temple) in New York, because they thought it was named for Osama bin Laden. [More from BeliefNet and Tribune of India.]

Dec. 12, 2001 — Los Angeles, Calif.: Surinder Singh Sidhi, a liquor store owner in Los Angeles who took to wearing an American flag turban after 9/11 out of fear of being attacked, is beaten in his store by two men who accuse of him of being Osama bin Laden. [More from Real Sikhism.]

Aug. 6, 2002 — Daly City, Calif.: Sukhpal Singh, brother of Balbir Singh Sodhi, who was the first Sikh murdered following 9/11, is shot while driving his cab. [More from HuffPost, Real Sikhism and Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund.]

May 20, 2003 — Phoenix, Ariz.: Fifty-two-year-old Sikh immigrant and truck driver Avtar Singh is shot in his 18-wheeler while waiting for his son to pick him up. As he is being shot, he hears someone say: “Go back to where you belong.” [More from Real Sikhism.]

Aug. 5, 2003 — Queens, N.Y.: Members of a Sikh family are beaten outside of their home by drunk individuals yelling, “Go back to your country, Bin Laden.” [More from NY Daily News.]

Sept. 25, 2003 — Tempe, Ariz.: Sukhvir Singh, a 33-year-old convenience store owner, is stabbed to death by Bruce Phillip Reed. It is not labeled as a hate crime. Representatives of the Phoenix Sikh community issue a statement that says, in part, “Together we can help others to evolve past hate and fear by continuing to organize to reach out to others with increased understanding, respect, and support. May our collective prayer be that God preserve and protect the honor of all people, our nation, and our world.” [More from the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund and SikhNet.]

March 13, 2004 — Fresno, Calif.: Gurdwara Sahib, a local Sikh temple, is vandalized with graffiti messages: “Rags Go Home” and “It’s Not Your Country. [More from SALDEF and Real Sikhism.]

July 12, 2004 — New York, N.Y.: Rajinder Singh Khalsa and Gurcharan Singh, cousins on their way to dinner at a restaurant, are beaten by two drunk white twentysomething men. The attackers describe Gurcharan’s turban as a “curtain.” When Rajinder tries to intervene, saying that Sikhs are peaceful, he is beaten unconscious and suffers a fractured eye socket, among other injuries. [More from Real Sikhism.]

May 24, 2007 — Queens, N.Y.: A 15-year-old student has his hair forcibly cut by an older student at his high school. The scissor-wielding 17-year-old showed the Sikh a ring inscribed with Arabic, saying, “This ring is Allah. If you don’t let me cut your hair, I will punch you with this ring.” Afterward, he cuts the younger boy’s hair. A main pillar of the Sikh faith compels followers to keep their hair uncut. [More from Real Sikhism and United Sikhs.]

May 30, 2007 — Joliet, Ill.: A decorated U.S. Navy veteran of the Gulf War, Kuldip Singh Nag is approached by a police officer outside of his home for an expired vehicle registration tag. The officer reportedly assaults Nag with pepper spray while hurling expletive-laced anti-immigrant statements. [More from SALDEF and ABC7 News. ]

Jan. 14, 2008 — New Hyde Park, N.Y.: A 63-year-old Sikh, Baljeet Singh, has his jaw and nose broken when attacked outside his temple by a man who lived next-door. David Wood, the attacker, had apparently disturbed members of the gurdwara in the past. [More from United Sikhs.]

Feb. 28, 2008 — Bryan, Texas: A Sikh man is assaulted in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Though the assailant called him a terrorist, punched him in the face and head and knocked his turban off, the Sikh man does not suffer major injuries. [More from SALDEF.]

June 5, 2008 — Queens, N.Y.: A ninth grade Sikh is attacked by another student, who tried to remove his patka, or under-turban, and had a history of bullying the boy. [More from Real Sikhism and United Sikhs.]

June 5, 2008 — Albuquerque, N.M.: A vehicle belonging to a Sikh family is defaced with the message “F*** Allah!” and a picture of male genitalia. [More from SALDEF.]

Aug. 4, 2008 — Phoenix, Ariz.: Inderjit Singh Jassal is shot and killed while working at a 7-Eleven. No clear motive is found. [More from SALDEF and The Arizona Republic.]

Oct. 29, 2008 — Carteret, N.J.: A Sikh man, Ajit Singh Chima, goes for a walk in his neighborhood. He is attacked by a man who casually leaves the scene afterward. Nothing is stolen. [More from SALDEF.]

Jan. 30, 2009 — Queens, N.Y.: Three men attack Jasmir Singh outside of a grocery store. Racial slurs are heard. A broken glass bottle is used. Singh loses vision in his left eye. [More from NY Daily News and United Sikhs.]

Nov. 29, 2010 — Sacramento, Calif.: Harbhajan Singh, a cab driver, is a attacked by passangers, who call him Osama bin Laden. Singh believes the attackers, who were later convicted, would have killed him. [More from SALDEF.]

March 6, 2011 — Elk Grove, Calif.: Two elderly Sikh men in traditional garb, out for a daily afternoon walk, are shot and killed. The perpetrator is not found. [More from Southern Poverty Law Center, SALDEF and The Sacramento Bee.]

May 30, 2011 — New York, N.Y.: Jiwan Singh, an MTA worker and the father of Jasmir Singh, who was assaulted in early 2009 in Queens, is attacked on the A train and accused of being related to Osama bin Laden. [More from the NY Daily News.]

Feb. 6, 2012 — Sterling Heights, Mich.: A gurdwara (Sikh temple) is defaced with graffiti that includes a gun and references to 9/11. [More from SALDEF.]

Aug. 5, 2012 — Oak Creek, Wis.: A gunman is shot dead by police after he opened fire in a gurdwara during Sikh prayer services, killing six. [More from HuffPost.]

Report hate crimes and bias incidents to the United Sikhs. Learn about hate crime laws from the Sikh Coalition.

Check out a collection of Sikh prayers for healing, hope and strength…[1]

[1] “History of Hate: Crimes Against Sikhs Since 9/11.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Aug. 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/07/history-of-hate-crimes-against-sikhs-since-911_n_1751841.html.

As these anecdotes aren’t conclusive proof and one of the best ways to learn the truth is simply taking the time to research and listen to what people have to say, the organization known as the Sikh Coalition provided research on the general experience of what Sikhs have gone through in both criminal reporting and the statistical surveys that they conducted. But first, who are The Sikh Coalition? Here is how they describe their history in the United States:

The Sikh Coalition was founded by volunteers on the night of September 11, 2001 in response to a torrent of violent attacks against Sikh Americans throughout the United States. In those early days, a group of 15 Sikhs decided to take a stand against the civil rights abuses our community faced. These volunteers had normal day jobs, but worked weekends and nights to do everything possible to ensure that our community was protected and our voices were heard.

Since then, the Sikh Coalition has transformed into the largest Sikh American advocacy and community development organization in the United States. In 2003, we hired a legal director as our first staff member. Today, we are a team of 20 full- and part-time staff who provide premier legal, policy, and community development support to more than 500,000 Sikh Americans. We work to create safer schools, prevent hate and discrimination, create equal employment opportunities, empower local Sikh communities, and educate the American public about the Sikh faith, community, and traditions.

Over the past 20 years, the Sikh Coalition legal team has won numerous workplace discrimination cases against Fortune 500 employers and government agencies, while championing the rights of clients in cases of school bullying, racial profiling, discrimination, and hate crimes. Our policy work has secured groundbreaking religious rights laws and dramatic policy improvements for how anti-Sikh hate crimes are tracked by the FBI and how the TSA screens Sikh passengers at airports. Our community empowerment and education work has trained hundreds of Sikh advocates across the country who now stand on the frontlines for defending civil rights. This work has also transformed Sikh school bullying into a national policy issue, and ensured that Sikh history is taught accurately in the curricula of California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, Michigan, North Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana, and most recently Kansas.

While the Sikh Coalition will continue to evolve to meet the changing needs and demands of the Sikh American community, we will always remain focused on defending civil liberties in the community, courtrooms, classrooms, and halls of Congress.[1]

[1] “History.” Sikh Coalition, 19 Oct. 2020, www.sikhcoalition.org/about-us/history/.

And, the Sikh Coalition’s “Fact Sheet” of the lived experiences of Sikhs in the Post-9/11 world including with statistical surveys, while Sam Harris was advocating for racial profiling of anyone who “looks Muslim” while violence against Sikhs was going on:

Fact Sheet on Post-9/11 Discrimination and Violence against Sikh Americans

Overview

• Since 9/11, the Sikh Coalition has received thousands of reports from the Sikh community about hate crimes, workplace discrimination, school bullying, and racial and religious profiling.

Hate Crimes

• In the first month after the 9/11 attacks, the Sikh Coalition documented over 300 cases of violence and discrimination against Sikh Americans throughout the United States.
• While the FBI recorded over 9000 hate crimes nationwide in 2008 (out of a population of 300 million in the US), 10 percent of Sikhs in the San Francisco Bay Area reported being the target of hate crimes during the same period according to Sikh Coalition survey of over 1,000 Sikhs in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Some of the most recent egregious hate attacks include: The murders of Gurmej Singh Atwal and Surinder Singh in Elk Grove, CA in March 2011; the desecration of the Sikh Gurdwara in Sterling Heights, MI in February 2012, the hate-motivated death threats mailed to a Sikh family in Sterling, VA in March 2012; and the fire-bombing of a Sikh-owned convenience story in September 2011.

School Bullying

• A 2010 Sikh Coalition survey revealed that 69% of turban-wearing Sikh students in the Bay Area of San Francisco have suffered bullying and harassment because of their religion and that 30% of them had been hit or involuntarily touched because of their turbans. These attacks occur because the Sikh articles of faith – in particular, the turban – are associated with terrorism and 9/11.
• Some of the most egregious attacks on Sikh children have included: Jaskirat Singh’s turban being set on fire by a fellow student in Hightstown, New Jersey in 2008, Harpal Singh Vacher’s hair being forcibly cut by a fellow student in New York City in 2007, and an assault on Gurwinder Singh by fellow students in New York City

Workplace Discrimination

• 12% of Sikhs in the San Francisco Bay Area have reported suffering employment discrimination, which makes clear that Sikhs are exponentially more likely to suffer employment discrimination than the general population.
• Most recently, Frank Singh was called a terrorist and fired by an AutoZone store because he refused to remove his turban in Boston. Gurpreet Singh was refused a job because he would not shave his religiously-mandated beard at a Lexus dealership in New Jersey. And the NYPD still refuses to hire turbaned Sikhs..
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been misinterpreted in ways that allow employers to segregate Sikhs from customers and the general public in the name of corporate image.

Racial and Religious Profiling

• At some airports in the United States, Sikhs are subjected to secondary screening 100 percent of the time by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel. TSA consistently refuses to audit its screening policies to determine whether Sikh travelers are being profiled.
• The problem of perceived profiling at airports has become so troubling to members of the Sikh community that the Sikh Coalition released a mobile application called FlyRights in April 2012. The application allows Sikhs and people of any community to easily file an official complaint with the TSA in real time, right after an incident occurs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.SIKHCOALITION.ORG[1]

[1] “Fact Sheet on Post-9/11 Discrimination and Violence against Sikh Americans .” http://www.Sikhcoalition.Org, The Sikh Coalition, https://www.sikhcoalition.org/images/documents/fact%20sheet%20on%20hate%20against%20sikhs%20in%20america%20post%209-11%201.pdf. Accessed 18 July 2025.

In my own anecdotal experience, when working with a very respected and professional doctor of Sikh background at a care center for Veterans for approximately six months, I once watched this well-respected doctor seek privacy to call what seemed to be her son to ask if he was okay and if anyone was trying to do anything suspicious around him, because she legitimately feared for his life due to the ignorance of violence against Sikhs around that time period. Prior to that, when my family heard of a Sikh Gurdwara shooting on August 5^th, 2012 which was on CNN news and is mentioned above, my sister tried to lighten the mood about how the White shooter probably couldn’t tell the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh because of skin tone, precisely because we were all scared because the hate crimes against Sikhs were rising and we all felt powerless back in the 2010s and early 2000s. Ignorant and violent White people were murdering descendants of people known for fighting against Islamic tyranny. Such is the stupidity of racial profiling anyone who “looks Muslim” – in short, profiling people based on their own primitive, racist stupidity. Other forms of primitive stupidity that Sam Harris seems to believe in is the laughably racist idea that Black people are intellectually inferior as he never challenged Charles Murray on it in his podcast when inviting him on and further refused Ezra Klien’s offer for actual scientific researchers who dispute Murray to be on his podcast over the topic of Black people’s IQs.[1][2] When Sam Harris was invited onto The Ezra Klein Show on April 9^th, 2018 to discuss the topic with Ezra about it; Sam Harris repeatedly kept avoiding Ezra Klein’s arguments to argue he and Murray are constantly maligned by bad faith actors instead of actually engaging in the content of the criticisms that Ezra pointed out and I do believe it was to deliberately avoid them. If that wasn’t a thoroughly provable case of Sam Harris trying to justify White fearmongering and White Supremacy by rationalizing it, then what is?[3][4] To give him credit, within the podcast with Klein released on The Ezra Klein Show, Sam Harris had two good points about the pursuit of questions near the end with the African Americans succeeding in sports as a counterexample of how we don’t assume there’s anything nefarious about the lack of representation of Jews in sports and pointing out Harvard’s discrimination against people of East Asian descent, but that was it insofar as good rebuttals in my view.[5] His point about Ayn Hirsi Ali and Maajid Nawaz being maligned is self-refuting, because they were being maligned for violating unspoken standards of religious tolerance in the US and not for their ethnic background. To be frank, I believe he only gets into these controversies and talks about how maligned he is to convince his viewers to stay subscribed to him and perhaps it is to convince them to pay for membership content in what amounts to a parasocial relationship. If he presents himself as an academic who is chronically smeared or taken out of context, then his supporters will likely be convinced to keep supporting him or support him even more strongly by paying for a membership.

When it came to the ideas and fundamentals of Islamism, Sam Harris was correct. Yet, when it came to the solutions for fighting against Islamism in terms of National Security, he failed and Sam Harris doesn’t seem to care about opposing views on it despite purportedly listening to them. We need real solutions to the seemingly endless danger of Islamic terrorism that seeks to harm all non-Muslims, perceived non-Muslims from intra-Islamic violence such as the Sunni-Shia split, and we must stop making excuses for it. When I was studying Foreign Policy for my Master’s degree in Political Science, Al Qaeda was popularly referred to as First-Generation Islamic Terrorism, ISIS as Second-Generation Islamic Terrorism, and now AI and Cryptocurrency are unknowingly abetting what seems to be an increasing form of Third-Generation Islamic Terrorism that may be rising in Canada, India, Russia, Iran, and Europe more generally. It may even be rising in the United States and the so-called experts have no solutions for it.

 

The US Failed in Afghanistan because American Policymakers were Incompetent and Self-Sabotaged Nationbuilding

            A broader and in-depth context is necessary for a better approximation of the real dangers of global Islamic terrorism. Even now after the United States’s stunning defeat in Afghanistan against the Taliban on August 2021, people still do not understand the utter insanity of pressuring businesses, lawmakers, and political groups to push for Islamophobia as some sort of civic good, when it’s just reinstituting blasphemy laws with incoherent racial terms. People don’t understand why Pakistan – as a nuclear-armed country – is such a unique risk to global safety and Great Britain is especially guilty of ignoring the fact that this truly is the direct consequences of British imperialism. Unfortunately, the United States’s special relationship with Great Britain clearly only sabotaged US interests and created the second-most abrupt decline of a global power in human history with the first being the USSR. The reason is surprisingly simple: Great Britain’s perspective on history was always calculated lies – not half-truths, but full-fledged lies – that tried to present itself as rational and balanced but was actually a means of keeping their own people intentionally ignorant so they would keep supporting British Foreign Policy. Due to the fact that they had conquered a third of the world and ruled as the strongest empire in human history for 400 years, their historians created a thoroughly self-serving middle-ground fallacy that the US absorbed as a perspective due to a false perception of a shared culture and history, and it led to the US’s abrupt collapse as a global power because the US essentially made itself ignorant of facts and logic by believing the British viewpoint was unbiased instead of irrational. The US never took advantage of being a melting pot and thus destroyed itself by simply being an abridged version of Britain’s mistakes; the British empire lasted approximately for four-hundred years and the US empire hasn’t even lasted for one-hundred years yet. It has become abundantly clear that only the perspective of the British and to a lesser extent, fellow perceived racial peers like other Europeans were respected as equals among the upper-political echelons of the United States and it completely destroyed the United States. We Americans are on borrowed time and soon to be finished because we treated Britain’s views as objective instead of deranged; likely because it probably fed into shared feelings of White Supremacy among the majority of Americans for most of the US’s history as a global power. It’s become quite clear that social justice was only seen in terms of appeasing non-Whites as a sanitized form of Otherness and not as anything of legitimate value based upon fact-finding criteria for the majority of the wealthy elites.

The British perspective, like the Islamic perspective, is just a self-perpetuating hoax that sees no value in either history or truth, because the main purpose was always to justify its brutality in terms of heroism and moral goodness to instill British people with pride in its overwhelming power over the world itself for approximately four-hundred years. In short, the British perspective that the US cosigned itself to was completely and thoroughly antagonistic to a third of the world on the basis of bigotry borne from colonial rule; the special relationship was just a means of the British monarchy to successfully hoodwink the gullible and idiotic American policymakers who pretended to know what they were doing. When it comes to global policies, the results are the only truth. What were America’s results for over twenty years now? The results show that American policymakers weren’t competent, American policymakers had no plans, and American policymakers knowingly and willfully sent US troops to their deaths for no reason and American policymakers will never apologize for their blatant stupidity despite their culpability. The fact is simply this: there’s no excuse for these results. Either we had the information necessary to overcome the failings of previous empires or we didn’t. Either the US had full capabilities to accomplish its US policy objectives as the strongest power in the world or we are too stupid, the people that we Americans constantly elected into power are too stupid, and they chose equally stupid people in Presidential cabinet positions. That’s it and that is how real competent management works according to the works of Austrian-American management theorist, Peter Drucker; no bullshit, no excuses – you failed those below you who trusted you to know what you were doing. No ifs, ands, or buts . . . that’s the end of it.

The fact is that our American policymakers were idiots and the negative repercussions are due to the fact they are genuinely stupid people but probably well-spoken enough at public speaking events to delude us. I recall reading an article years ago of how Bush’s plan for opening-up schools in Afghanistan was to open them up in conflict zones – i.e. where children would be shot to death and where suicide bombers could blow themselves up; they genuinely thought this was a good idea. The US did not support any Free Speech initiative because they didn’t understand anything about the culture and ignored how Afghan Muslim women were brutally murdered in public for false accusations of desecrating the Quran, the ignoramuses who led American policymaking were genuinely too stupid to know how to appeal to regular Afghans and treated such behavior as their “culture” even though it only comes from the theology of Islam[6], and no effort was made for grassroots policymaking for local areas as a starting place. That is, they could have put Afghan youths into fast-tracked college programs for public policy and have them build grassroots civil societies over time with better human rights laws including Free Speech.  What did they do instead? Under eight-years of the Obama administration, they let children get raped by Afghan warlords in US bases and fired any US military official who was disgusted and voiced concerns. After they were fired, the fired US military staff thankfully reported this to US news outlets back in 2015. The article titled “U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies” by Joseph Goldstein published on September 20^th, 2015 in the NY Times gives an in-depth look and its best to just read the entirety of it:

KABUL, Afghanistan — In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

The policy has endured as American forces have recruited and organized Afghan militias to help hold territory against the Taliban. But soldiers and Marines have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the American military was arming them in some cases and placing them as the commanders of villages — and doing little when they began abusing children.

“The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights,” said Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain who beat up an American-backed militia commander for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did — that was something village elders voiced to me.”

The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore child sexual abuse by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.

After the beating, the Army relieved Captain Quinn of his command and pulled him from Afghanistan. He has since left the military.

Four years later, the Army is also trying to forcibly retire Sgt. First Class Charles Martland, a Special Forces member who joined Captain Quinn in beating up the commander.

“The Army contends that Martland and others should have looked the other way (a contention that I believe is nonsense),” Representative Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who hopes to save Sergeant Martland’s career, wrote last week to the Pentagon’s inspector general.

In Sergeant Martland’s case, the Army said it could not comment because of the Privacy Act.

When asked about American military policy, the spokesman for the American command in Afghanistan, Col. Brian Tribus, wrote in an email: “Generally, allegations of child sexual abuse by Afghan military or police personnel would be a matter of domestic Afghan criminal law.” He added that “there would be no express requirement that U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan report it.” An exception, he said, is when rape is being used as a weapon of war.

The American policy of nonintervention is intended to maintain good relations with the Afghan police and militia units the United States has trained to fight the Taliban. It also reflects a reluctance to impose cultural values in a country where pederasty is rife, particularly among powerful men, for whom being surrounded by young teenagers can be a mark of social status.

Some soldiers believed that the policy made sense, even if they were personally distressed at the sexual predation they witnessed or heard about.

“The bigger picture was fighting the Taliban,” a former Marine lance corporal reflected. “It wasn’t to stop molestation.”

Still, the former lance corporal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending fellow Marines, recalled feeling sickened the day he entered a room on a base and saw three or four men lying on the floor with children between them. “I’m not a hundred percent sure what was happening under the sheet, but I have a pretty good idea of what was going on,” he said.

But the American policy of treating child sexual abuse as a cultural issue has often alienated the villages whose children are being preyed upon. The pitfalls of the policy emerged clearly as American Special Forces soldiers began to form Afghan Local Police militias to hold villages that American forces had retaken from the Taliban in 2010 and 2011.

By the summer of 2011, Captain Quinn and Sergeant Martland, both Green Berets on their second tour in northern Kunduz Province, began to receive dire complaints about the Afghan Local Police units they were training and supporting.

First, they were told, one of the militia commanders raped a 14- or 15-year-old girl whom he had spotted working in the fields. Captain Quinn informed the provincial police chief, who soon levied punishment. “He got one day in jail, and then she was forced to marry him,” Mr. Quinn said.

When he asked a superior officer what more he could do, he was told that he had done well to bring it up with local officials but that there was nothing else to be done. “We’re being praised for doing the right thing, and a guy just got away with raping a 14-year-old girl,” Mr. Quinn said.

Village elders grew more upset at the predatory behavior of American-backed commanders. After each case, Captain Quinn would gather the Afghan commanders and lecture them on human rights.

Soon another commander absconded with his men’s wages. Mr. Quinn said he later heard that the commander had spent the money on dancing boys. Another commander murdered his 12-year-old daughter in a so-called honor killing for having kissed a boy. “There were no repercussions,” Mr. Quinn recalled.

In September 2011, an Afghan woman, visibly bruised, showed up at an American base with her son, who was limping. One of the Afghan police commanders in the area, Abdul Rahman, had abducted the boy and forced him to become a sex slave, chained to his bed, the woman explained. When she sought her son’s return, she herself was beaten. Her son had eventually been released, but she was afraid it would happen again, she told the Americans on the base.

She explained that because “her son was such a good-looking kid, he was a status symbol” coveted by local commanders, recalled Mr. Quinn, who did not speak to the woman directly but was told about her visit when he returned to the base from a mission later that day.

So Captain Quinn summoned Abdul Rahman and confronted him about what he had done. The police commander acknowledged that it was true, but brushed it off. When the American officer began to lecture about “how you are held to a higher standard if you are working with U.S. forces, and people expect more of you,” the commander began to laugh.

“I picked him up and threw him onto the ground,” Mr. Quinn said. Sergeant Martland joined in, he said. “I did this to make sure the message was understood that if he went back to the boy, that it was not going to be tolerated,” Mr. Quinn recalled.

There is disagreement over the extent of the commander’s injuries. Mr. Quinn said they were not serious, which was corroborated by an Afghan official who saw the commander afterward.

(The commander, Abdul Rahman, was killed two years ago in a Taliban ambush. His brother said in an interview that his brother had never raped the boy, but was the victim of a false accusation engineered by his enemies.)

Sergeant Martland, who received a Bronze Star for valor for his actions during a Taliban ambush, wrote in a letter to the Army this year that he and Mr. Quinn “felt that morally we could no longer stand by and allow our A.L.P. to commit atrocities,” referring to the Afghan Local Police.

The father of Lance Corporal Buckley believes the policy of looking away from sexual abuse was a factor in his son’s death, and he has filed a lawsuit to press the Marine Corps for more information about it.

Lance Corporal Buckley and two other Marines were killed in 2012 by one of a large entourage of boys living at their base with an Afghan police commander named Sarwar Jan.

Mr. Jan had long had a bad reputation; in 2010, two Marine officers managed to persuade the Afghan authorities to arrest him following a litany of abuses, including corruption, support for the Taliban and child abduction. But just two years later, the police commander was back with a different unit, working at Lance Corporal Buckley’s post, Forward Operating Base Delhi, in Helmand Province.

Lance Corporal Buckley had noticed that a large entourage of “tea boys” — domestic servants who are sometimes pressed into sexual slavery — had arrived with Mr. Jan and moved into the same barracks, one floor below the Marines. He told his father about it during his final call home.

Word of Mr. Jan’s new position also reached the Marine officers who had gotten him arrested in 2010. One of them, Maj. Jason Brezler, dashed out an email to Marine officers at F.O.B. Delhi, warning them about Mr. Jan and attaching a dossier about him.

The warning was never heeded. About two weeks later, one of the older boys with Mr. Jan — around 17 years old — grabbed a rifle and killed Lance Corporal Buckley and the other Marines.

Lance Corporal Buckley’s father still agonizes about whether the killing occurred because of the sexual abuse by an American ally. “As far as the young boys are concerned, the Marines are allowing it to happen and so they’re guilty by association,” Mr. Buckley said. “They don’t know our Marines are sick to their stomachs.”

The one American service member who was punished in the investigation that followed was Major Brezler, who had sent the email warning about Mr. Jan, his lawyers said. In one of Major Brezler’s hearings, Marine Corps lawyers warned that information about the police commander’s penchant for abusing boys might be classified. The Marine Corps has initiated proceedings to discharge Major Brezler.

Mr. Jan appears to have moved on, to a higher-ranking police command in the same province. In an interview, he denied keeping boys as sex slaves or having any relationship with the boy who killed the three Marines. “No, it’s all untrue,” Mr. Jan said. But people who know him say he still suffers from “a toothache problem,” a euphemism here for child sexual abuse.[1]

[1] Goldstein, Joseph. “U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies.” The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, 20 Sept. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html.

The Taliban’s appeasement of Village Elders concerns in the latter years of US occupation were why they were quickly able to takeover Afghanistan and take US military weapons. In other words, it is entirely plausible that the Bush, Obama, and probably later Trump and Biden administrations ignoring the child abuse of Afghan children is why we lost the war in Afghanistan. The Bush administration produced pro-Islamic textbooks and had them distributed for their eight-years of Presidency[1], the Obama administration outright ignored child rape by Afghan warlords happening on US military bases despite peaceful reporting and protests by Afghan civilians hoping it would be stopped[2], the Obama administration did nothing about women being killed for insulting Islam for eight-years[3], the Trump Administration to my knowledge did not concern itself with any of this and kept most of its actions a secret, and the Biden administration is responsible for the worst withdrawal in US history with the Taliban acquiring approximately $83 billion in US weapons.[4] Pedophilia became conflated with Western freedoms and US policy almost certainly led to this conflation in the minds of local Afghans. When it came time for the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the European and American policymakers laughed that Afghanistan had thousands of years of women not having equal rights and that it was simply a return to tradition.

Shaharzad Akbar, an Afghan woman who served as former Chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, served as Deputy on the Afghan National Security Council for Peace and Civilian Protection, and served as Country Director for Open Society Afghanistan from 2014 to 2017 wrote for Foreign Affairs on August 30^th, 2022 in an article titled “Afghanistan’s Women Are On Their Own” mentioned the following on Western policymakers jubilant attitude at leaving women to be raped as spoils of war for Afghan fighters:

YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN

This is not the first time that the demands of Afghan women are falling on deaf ears. Throughout the U.S.-initiated talks with the Taliban, which began under the Trump administration and lasted from 2018 until February 2020, Afghan women campaigned, wrote, and organized mass gatherings to demand an inclusive peace process. But their appeals went unheeded. I attended a round of talks with the Taliban in Doha and heard firsthand their worryingly vague and general statements on women’s rights “within Islam.” Following this, in many interactions with U.S. officials, including Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy who negotiated the Doha deal, I raised concerns about the lack of participation of women and victims of war in the talks and the emptiness of the Taliban’s reassurances. None of these concerns or warnings were taken seriously. Instead, I and others in the women’s movement were constantly told that the Taliban have changed.

Additionally, a convenient counternarrative took hold, pushed by male diplomats and male commentators, who claimed that the demands of Afghan women’s rights activists were not representative of rural Afghan women, and instead represented a Western imposition and were therefore not legitimate. In the end, the Doha agreement excluded any references to women’s rights, human rights, or civilian protection, key areas of concern for all Afghan people. Even while the United States and its allies made proclamations committing to protect the women of Afghanistan, they let the Taliban set the conditions of the talks. They participated in a process that would decide the fate of millions of Afghan women but that included zero Afghan women at the negotiating table.

This has meant that in addition to standing up to the Taliban and battling patriarchy inside Afghanistan, advocates for the rights of Afghan women have also had to contend with condescension, gaslighting, and marginalization at the hands of Western officials and alleged experts on Afghanistan. Women activists who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took control last summer have had to endure this while also navigating the bureaucracies of various Western countries as they try to gain legal asylum. Although Western leaders have talked for the last two decades about supporting Afghan women, at critical junctures, where women’s rights activists’ rights and lives are on the line, Western countries have provided limited support for them or their cause, exposing a deep hypocrisy.

None of this is to say that the situation in Afghanistan is an easy challenge to solve. The Taliban won the war, and nobody wants to stand by and watch Afghans starve in a humanitarian crisis. So outside powers and organizations must deal with the Taliban regime in at least a limited way.

Yet Western officials have exercised poor judgment in picking their Taliban interlocutors and in setting the public tone of their engagement. Consider, for example, how Western governments and even the UN continue to deal with Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan’s acting interior minister and the leader of the Haqqani network, who remains on the FBI’s most wanted list because of his involvement in some of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in Afghanistan over the last 20 years. The world was reminded of his ties to al Qaeda earlier this summer when a U.S. drone strike killed al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was living in Kabul in a house owned by a top aide to Haqqani, according to U.S. intelligence.

Western officials may have to meet with Haqqani, but they should be mindful of how their interactions further normalize him and whitewash his deeply problematic background. In June, in a tweet noting a “farewell meeting” between Haqqani and Deborah Lyons, the outgoing Afghanistan representative for the UN Secretary-General, the UN used the honorific term “al hajj” in referring to Haqqani, which is typically reserved for people who have completed a pilgrimage to Mecca and connotes a level of respect. The tweet referred to discussions between him and Lyons on issues including counterterrorism, which infuriated Afghan human rights activists who have worked with victims of the Haqqani network’s terrorist attacks for years.

It is possible to deliver foreign aid through Afghan and international nongovernmental organizations without having to cozy up to some of the world’s most wanted terrorists. The EU is one of the biggest contributors of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, and EU Special Envoy Tomas Niklasson has continued to be outspoken about the human rights issues and violations by the Taliban. He also engages with Afghan women and men outside the Taliban’s leadership.[1]

[1] Akbar, Shaharzad. “Afghanistan’s Women Are on Their Own.” Foreign Affairs, 30 August 2022, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/afghanistan/afghanistans-women-are-their-own. Accessed 21 July 2025

The Western and US policymakers were genuinely too stupid at even a basic understanding of their jobs to know historic facts about Afghanistan and their own comments belie the fact they were too stupid for the positions they held. The Afghans are descendants of the Greco-Buddhist polities of Gandhara, Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and the Indo-Greek kingdoms and were ruthlessly converted into Islam by force. They could have easily replaced Islamic school teachings with Greek philosophy and could have argued historical roots as a basis for a shared culture or a return to Afghans true traditions, instead the Bush Administration continued spreading Islamic schoolbooks just like his father before him.[1] Oh wait! They think it doesn’t matter because it’s history; history is synonymous with irrelevant to these idiots. This was how intrinsically worthless the British perspective was and why the US failed completely; it’s all America’s fault for creating a special relationship that went so far as absorbing the perspectives of colonizers of a third of the world and believing such a farce was ever objective as a viewpoint. Please ask yourselves this: what has this special relationship with Britain ever advantaged or benefitted the US in a global context outside of Europe? British perspectives on Europe are surely valuable, but outside of such regional concerns; what was the value in their perspective on anything else? US policymakers clearly didn’t scrutinize Britain and didn’t understand that British history books and perspectives were largely just fabrications about the rest of the world. The US Federal government trusted British viewpoints more than the ethnic minorities in their own intelligence agencies, specifically because their junior staff weren’t White according to their own self-reports in the CIA.[2]

One of the worst parts is what most of that civilian spending for nationbuilding purposes went to. What exactly did US policymakers do with the money for the civilian sectors? In fairness, they did build schools and promote women’s education but abandoned it upon women’s rights becoming inconvenient. They had built infrastructure, but what else did they do? Allow corporate greed to run rampant in yet another lengthy chapter of US corporations ruling over the United States based upon profits and the US politicians being useless figureheads. Albert Fox Cahn made an article for The Daily Beast published on August 24^th 2021 titled “The Taliban Now Controls a U.S.-Made Super-Surveillance System” which read as follows:

In Kabul, checkpoints are now manned by Taliban fighters using biometric scanners paid for by the American people to hunt down civilians who worked and fought alongside us, in what should be a reckoning for everyone who sold biometric surveillance as a tool for good.

Over the last 20 years, Afghanistan became a technological training ground. It was the place America experimented with new weapons of war, like the Predator drone, often with horrific results. It’s also where we experimented with new forms of surveillance, both militarized and humanitarian. By going community to community, scanning Afghans’ biometric data indiscriminately, the U.S. hoped to create new counter-insurgency tools.

That effort failed to create anything that could stop the Taliban, but it did create things that are incredibly dangerous in the Taliban’s own hands.

Approximately 80 percent of the country, roughly 25 million people, were targeted for inclusion in the U.S. military’s biometric database. Now, the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment can scan Afghans’ fingerprints, faces, and irises to reveal biographical information. The Microsoft-powered device can also tap into a much larger national database of information on millions of Afghans collected by the United States over two decades of war.

With that technology, the Taliban will take control of one of the most sophisticated state surveillance systems on the planet.

It gets worse. While few expected the U.S. military to focus on promoting Afghans’ civil rights, many expected better from the United Nations, particularly the UN Refugee Agency. Instead, the UNHCR drove a nearly two-decade long campaign to require biometric data to receive aid, creating yet another dangerous database for the Taliban to control.

Since 2002, Afghanistan served as a de facto testing ground for new biometric technology, including one of the earliest iris scanning systems in the world. For aid agencies, this was a way to not only confirm the identities of employees, but to track who received food and other staples, blocking recipients from receiving too much food under multiple names. Privacy and civil rights complaints were dismissed as alarmist—as they so often are—but now Afghans will pay the price.

As in countless other low-income countries, biometric surveillance became a substitute for civil society and the rule of law. Yes, fraud and embezzlement are real problems. Yes, we must ensure that aid gets to those most in need. But when we respond to humanitarian crises with dystopian tools like facial recognition and iris scans, we’re undermining the very democratic principles we were supposedly fighting to support.

Every time biometric surveillance became more embedded in Afghan society, the risks for abuse grew, but the pushback was ignored. When facial recognition became the entry fee for casting a ballot, those on the ground and their supporters around the world pushed back, only to once again be ignored.

Today, the elaborate network of biometric surveillance that was largely bought and paid for with American taxpayer dollars is now one of the Taliban’s most terrifying tools. Aid workers, interpreters, and other American allies can get forged papers, they can wipe their phones, but they can’t change their faces. And for those risking their lives to get to the Kabul airport and the last fleeting hope of safety, every Taliban checkpoint brings the risk of a facial scan, and deadly repercussions.

Most countries don’t face the same risk of collapse that the Afghan government did, but the lessons still apply. Whenever we let any company or government capture our biometric data, we give them the one form of information that will haunt us for life. You can change your name but not your iris or DNA.

Even if we trust our own government with such tracking tools (and we should not), what about everyone else who can take the data? Nearly 200,000 Americans’ faces were taken in just one Department of Homeland Security hack in 2019, but that’s infinitesimal compared to the millions of federal employees whose data was stolen in the 2015 Office of Personnel Management hack.

It doesn’t take a governmental collapse to see our biometric data transformed from a tool used by police into one used by criminals and militants. And so far, there is only one surefire way to protect our biometric data and prevent it from being repurposed: not collecting it in the first place.[1]

[1] Cahn, Albert Fox. “The Taliban Now Controls a U.S.-Made Super-Surveillance System.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 19 Sept. 2024, www.thedailybeast.com/the-taliban-now-controls-a-us-made-super-surveillance-system/.

The US keeps bragging to the world about how it is the strongest military power in the world and has nothing to show for it in terms of the occupation of Afghanistan. With the Iraq war concluding in 2011, it kept the sale of oil on the US dollar. In Afghanistan, Islamism defeated the United States, NATO, women’s rights, and obtained $83 billion in US taxpayer weapons and Iraq is reverting back to Islamism with a return of Islamic personal laws allowing pedophilic marriages with 9-year old girls to much older men. Why did this happen? Despite the overwhelming amount of money and military power, what American policymakers lacked was any real commitment to ideals. They deceived themselves into believing ideals were meaningless and that they mustn’t criticize Islam at all. Sixteen years of the Bush and Obama administrations’ strategies merely consisted of fighting the Taliban, but not building any future based upon any sort of counter ideal for the Afghan people. This obviously would have been difficult to do; any insult to Islam could lead to riots and intra-Afghan killings and American policymakers wrongly thought it was “wise” to avoid that. In truth, this was the ultimate proof of their unfettered stupidity and it is the reason we lost. Islamism is opposed to basically any ideal that goes beyond 7^th century Arab fundamentalism and there was no dearth in what could have been used. Yet, on this crucial juncture for nationbuilding, despite what US armed forces fight for and what the US founded itself on, this basic fact about reforming a country to be better was missing. All that these corporations that seemed to have free reign really did was show off modernity without realizing that Islam sees that as a challenge to be disgusted by because it doesn’t conform to 7^th century social standards of the Middle East. The most tragic part is that any ideal would have been fine, but instead these incompetent American policymakers bowed to Islamism and their half-assed nationbuilding fell to Islamism. There is no such thing as extremist or moderate Islam; there is only Islam and that’s why we lost the war in Afghanistan after twenty years. Islamic Republics are not republics; they are theocracies ruled by dictators because they resemble the Prophet Mohammad’s 7^th century caliphate more than any modern democracies. They’re simply appropriating modern terms to delude themselves with the belief that following 7^th century social, political, and technological standards can lead to a modern democratic republic. The problem is, and will always be, Islam. American incompetence and refusal to challenge the idea of religious tolerance with Free Speech criticisms of Islam is why we lost.

 

The Long-Term Effects of British Imperialism: Pakistan’s Global Terror Risk

Despite the general unreliability of Great Britain’s historic views that were wrongly assumed by incompetent US policymakers to be objective, not all of Great Britain falls into this trap. While it is true for the general majority of the UK, that doesn’t mean every facet of UK society falls into such delusions so long as they maintain a commitment to honesty and truth. Even in Failing States like the United Kingdom, they can provide valuable work so long as it is based upon evidence-based research without biased sampling. In this specific case, Oxford University’s Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflicts (CRIC) and a Mumbai, India thinktank known as the Strategic Foresight Group, created a publication in late 2018 titled “Humanity At Risk: Global Terror Threat Indicant” which analyzed global terror threats. It might be a bit dated due to being published in 2018, but the work is well-researched and it goes through terror threat aspects from finance, to drug cartels, and the estimated military forces of each respective terrorist group.  However, it is perhaps necessary to first give more information on the Strategic Foresight Group as many would likely already find sufficient value in Oxford University:

About Strategic Foresight Group

Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) is a think – tank engaged in crafting new policy concepts that enable decision makers to prepare for a future in uncertain times. Founded in 2002 to create new forms of intellectual capital, our body of work today encompasses over 50 countries, across four continents.

SFG has published over 30 in-depth research reports in English with some translations in Arabic and Spanish. We currently work within three areas of focus: 1. Water Diplomacy 2. Peace, Conflict and Terrorism 3. Global Foresight

SFG analysis and recommendations have been discussed in the United Nations, UK House of Lords, House of Commons, Indian Parliament, European Parliament, Alliance of Civilization, World Economic Forum (Davos), and quoted in over 1500 newspapers and media sources. Several Heads of Government, Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament have participated in SFG activities.[1]

[1] “About Us – Strategic Foresight Group, Think Tank, Policy, Global Studies, Global Affairs Research, Global Water Cooperation.” Strategicforesight.Com, Strategic Foresight Group (SFG), www.strategicforesight.com/about-us.php. Accessed 24 July 2025.

And, CRIC and Strategic Foresight Group (SFG)’s research into the estimated military capabilities of Islamic terror groups across the world in their 2018 publication titled “Humanity At Risk: Global Terror Threat Indicant” in their Part III from pages 67 – 77 with a scale they’ve created so people better understand the risks. I’d like for you to think on two questions that have bothered me when I first looked at this in 2018: First, what happens to all of us non-Muslims the moment we no longer have powerful militaries protecting us from all this? In other words, what would be the result of their military forces being more powerful than ours? Second, please seriously consider the fact that all of this is coming from just the religion of Islam. In other words, all of these are Islamic terrorist groups across the world and we are reaching a point where these Islamic terrorist groups are perpetually resupplied with new manpower every successive generation. Finally, when looking at the case of Pakistan, please consider the fact that it is truly the longest lasting legacy of Great Britain’s imperialism:

Source: Futehally, Ilmas, et al. “Humanity at Risk: Global Terror Threat Indicant, 2018.” Strategicforesight.Com/Publication_pdf/Humanity%20at%20Risk.Pdf, Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) / Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict (CRIC) from the University of Oxford, 2018, www.strategicforesight.com/publication_pdf/Humanity%20at%20Risk.pdf.

 

The Islamic State’s Expanding Affiliate Groups in Africa

While Pakistan is a glorified terrorist factory, the Islamic State has expanded its military presence and territorial gains in Northern Africa and the Sahel (the region of Africa just below the northern countries of the continent) in the past decade. Among the Islamic State’s global affiliates, there is now the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWA), Islamic State – Sahel (IS–Sahel), Islamic State Central African Province (ISCAP), Islamic State Mozambique (ISM), the Islamic State Libya Province (IS–LP), Islamic State Somalia Province (ISS), and Islamic State Sinai Province (IS–SP).[1] Each with their own horrifying stories of brutality upon non-Muslim Africans. A Nigerian Bishop, Matthew Hasan Kukah of Soto, reported that nearly 200 Christians were slaughtered in one week back in April 2025 by various Islamic terror groups including ISWA.[2] Christian rights groups reported that around 1,300 Christians were slaughtered by Islamic terrorists between December 2023 – February 2024.[3] On June 13 – 14 in the Yelwata village of Benue State, Nigeria, it was reported by Christian rights groups that around 200 Christians were massacred by Fulani Muslim herdsmen with survivors describing it as a full-on genocidal invasion of a well-armed group to steal their land.[4] Additionally, it was reported that between April 1^st, 2025 – June 1^st, 2025 that 270 people were slaughtered in total.[5] A Benue NGOs Network estimates that since 2011 the full-scale death toll is likely 5,700 from terrorist violence with 150,000 displaced since that time and the attacks in just June 2025 displaced approximately 6,500 people.[6] This is just one State in Nigeria where Islamic terrorists have been amassing power and territory. The other Islamic State affiliates have conducted similar bloodbaths in other African countries and the main targets have been almost always been non-Muslims being slaughtered, especially Christians.

Why do we in the US and Western world largely treat this as an African-on-African problem when so many non-Muslim African civilians are suffering from Islamic terrorism and then get mocked for being “backwards” when they have to live in fear and suffering like this with so many of their loved ones being brutally slaughtered by Islamic terrorists? Imagine how many fans of Charles Murray and Sam Harris dismiss these issues in terms of racial inferiority as global Islamic State affiliates continue to amass more territory and power from slaughtering innocent Africans trying to live in peace. Sadly, it is simply a statement of fact to say that the US, China, Russia, and Western powers simply try to find ways into exploiting African people left powerless by Islamic terrorism. This is not to say that we Americans and others genuinely don’t try to help sometimes; President Obama sending medical and military personnel to help fight the Ebola outbreak within several countries in West Africa which reduced cases by 80 percent in 2014[7] and President George W. Bush’s “U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief” (PEPFAR) program to combat HIV / AIDS in South Africa and other parts of the world is estimated to have saved 25 million people by 2023 after all[8]; but when it comes to business interests in respective countries or the suffering of African civilians, then which do you think our governments will prioritize? The answer is obvious and that’s why African countries generally want to remain non-aligned despite all the hardships they go through and help they receive. I don’t have all the answers for what can be done, but I hope that this can help somewhat in highlighting the plight of Africans who just want to live in peace and who are constantly living in fear and pain from Islamic terror attacks, while certain smug US scholars and Westerners see fit to use every iota of their pain and suffering to label them as inferior like the Charles Murray and Sam Harris types while conveniently ignoring the Islamic terrorists causing these situations.

 

Cryptocurrency and AI Censorship Is Creating Third-Generation Islamic Terrorism

The painful truth of the matter is that we are continually losing the War on Terror because the majority of the world refuses to criticize Islam. These so-called Moderate Muslims have done nothing to curb Islamic Terrorism and Muslim Reformers like Maajid Nawaz don’t have the statistical evidence to show their path is viable in the long-term. Neither moderate or reformer groups can answer the problem of bid’ah in Islamic theology. The US, Europe, India, and other countries continue to compartmentalize and pretend that Islamic terrorism has no relation to Islamic theology knowing that Muslim lives are being prioritized over non-Muslim lives time after time, while idiotic US Corporations continue to censor “Islamophobia” and what has been the result? Islamic terrorist groups affiliated with the Islamic State have taken advantage of AI Censorship that “moderate” Muslims have demanded and Islamic State affiliates have additionally taken advantage of the general lack of global regulations for Cryptocurrency to create a Digital Caliphate that has already expanded into global appeal for Muslims living in democratic countries. Their main targets are Muslim youths who are instructed and encouraged to commit terrorism through bombmaking or mass shootings to kill as many civilians in non-Muslim majority countries as possible. However, other older Muslims – due to their strong Islamic faith and not social disaffection – are joining in and committing pre-planned terrorism practically anytime that dignitaries of various democratic countries visit each other for trade negotiations. Think of the banality of this; we’re living in a world where it’s wrong to criticize a theology that encourages people to kill as many innocent people as possible whenever foreign dignitaries visit each other to mutually benefit from trade negotiations. Yet, when any rational person criticizes this as coming from Islam, we’re accused of being bigots while everyone else turns a blind eye as Islam continues to kill innocent people. What are we doing here? How much more can any of us take from this double-standard where Muslims’ feelings are prioritized above the lives of everyone else?

The Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) publishes annual Global Terror Indexes and the Global Terror Index 2025 has explained exactly these problems that mostly democratic countries are facing right now. But first, who are the Institute of Economics and Peace? A summary of who they are from their website’s About Us page:

The Institute for Economics & Peace is creating a paradigm shift in the way the world thinks about peace. We are doing this by delivering research, consulting and training, unlocking the power of peace across all three.

Research remains central to our mission, driven by a dedicated team developing global and national indices, calculating the economic cost of violence, analysing country level risk and fragility, and understanding Positive Peace. Our research is relied upon by governments, academic institutions, think tanks, non‑governmental organisations and by intergovernmental institutions such as the OECD, The Commonwealth Secretariat, the World Bank and the United Nations.

Our suite of reports, including the Global Peace Index, Global Terrorism Index and Ecological Threat Report, remain critical for stakeholders everywhere. Central to our ethos is the understanding that peace extends beyond the mere absence of conflict. Our Pillars of Peace framework identifies eight critical factors for establishing enduring peace, based on extensive data analysis.

Established in 2007 by Steve Killelea AM, IEP has significantly influenced global narratives on matters of security, defence, terrorism and development. Headquartered in Sydney, since 2007 IEP has developed into a global operation, with regional offices in New York, Brussels, The Hague, Mexico City, and Nairobi, working on outreach, education and partnership development.

IEP research regularly features in leading international media publications including the New York Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Deutsche Welle, Washington Post, CNN, and the BBC. IEP works alongside a range of multilateral partners, from the United Nations and the World Bank, to the Lloyds foundation, the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT), and many others.[1]

[1] “About Institute for Economics and Peace.” Institute for Economics & Peace, Institute for Economics & Peace, 2025, www.economicsandpeace.org/about/.

Vision of Humanity, a subgroup of IEP’s peace initiatives, publishes the annual Global Terror Indexes and the most recent Global Terror Index 2025 has explained the formation of a digital caliphate ecosystem and the encouragement of jihadism to Muslim youths in democratic countries from the successful propaganda efforts of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISK / ISKP) that utilize AI technology and fund themselves through unregulated Cryptocurrency markets created from their successful jihadist blockchain initiatives. Page 70 of the Global Terror Index 2025 provides more information on ISK / ISKP including some of their stunning success in promoting Islamic terrorism across multiple countries through successful terrorist propaganda efforts:

ISLAMIC STATE KHORASAN PROVINCE

Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISK), also known as ISKP, is a regional affiliate of IS operating primarily in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and parts of Central Asia. Formed in 2015, ISK pledged allegiance to IS’s central leadership and aims to establish an Islamic caliphate in the historical region of Khorasan, which includes parts of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

ISK has become one of the most active jihadist groups internationally in recent years. Since its formation, it has carried out numerous attacks beyond its bases in Afghanistan. In 2024, the group was responsible for two of the year’s deadliest terrorist incidents: the January attack in Kerman, Iran, which killed at least 95 people, and the March attack in Moscow, Russia, which resulted in at least 144 deaths.70

 

Since its inception, ISK has been linked to 634 attacks and 3,212 deaths. Recent activity has targeted the Russia and Eurasia region, with incidents rising from 11 in 2023 to 18 in 2024. Although the number of attacks remains lower than in sub-Saharan Africa, deaths attributed to the group increased from four to 199 during the same period.

The threat of jihadism in Afghanistan and surrounding countries has been limited until recently. Since the various political and military upheavals that have impacted the region in the years since 2021, radical jihadism had persisted as a security concern until then but had remained a marginal issue, affecting only a small segment of the socio-political landscape.71

The departure of Bashar al-Assad from Syria in December 2024, coupled with the change of power in Afghanistan in 2021, has reshaped the regional security landscape. At the same time, a surge in international attacks and foiled plots linked to ISK has underscored the group’s growing transnational threat. This subsection examines ISK’s expanding influence and reassesses the broader jihadist threat both in the region and globally.[1]

[1] “Global Terrorism Index 2025.” Vision of Humanity: IEP’s Peace Research, Presentations and Resources, Institute of Economics and Peace, Mar. 2025, www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Global-Terrorism-Index-2025.pdf. For reference: Page 70.

Page 72 of the Global Terror Index 2025 explains the disturbing success of ISK / ISKP’s dark money blockchain initiatives with sustained financial backing through cryptocurrency from their efforts in international Muslim outreach to support Islamic terrorism and how this is financing their growing military force in the regions of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan:

ISK relies on financial networks to sustain its operations, with an estimated $2.5 million in funding accessed through blockchain transactions in 2023.105 In 2024, the group’s membership in the region was estimated to be between one and six thousand, with a strong presence near Tajikistan’s southern border provinces, including Badakhshan, Kunduz and Takhar.106 ISK continues to attract returning fighters from Syria and Iraq, with recruitment efforts bolstered by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. ISK‘s multilingual media strategy uses Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Uzbek, Tajik, English, and more recently, Russian and Turkish, to target youth and marginalised groups through platforms such as Telegram and Al-Azaim.107[1]

[1] “Global Terrorism Index 2025.” Vision of Humanity: IEP’s Peace Research, Presentations and Resources, Institute of Economics and Peace, Mar. 2025, www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Global-Terrorism-Index-2025.pdf. For reference: Page 72.

A subgroup of IEP’s Vision of Humanity known as Tech Against Terrorism provided an article titled “Islamic State Khurasan Province’s International Expansion and Growing Online Activities” on pages 77 – 80 of the Global Terror Index 2025 which can be read as follows alongside their credentials. Please seriously think about everything you read below:

Islamic State Khurasan Province’s International Expansion and Growing Online Activities

Tech Against Terrorism Analysis

Lucas Webber, Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst, Tech Against Terrorism

Cat Cadenhead, Junior Research and Project Officer, Tech Against Terrorism

 

The implications are clear: ISKP’s sophisticated online strategy directly enables its militant and external operations, resulting in more attacks across a wider geographical area. Given the group’s dispersed and highly covert nature, traditional military measures alone are insufficient to neutralise the threat. Consequently, it is paramount that governments, organisations, tech platforms, financial institutions, and other private industry entities develop and implement a coordinated approach to countering and degrading ISKP’s online infrastructure and operational capacity. Tech Against Terrorism urges tech platforms to increase efforts to monitor and remove terrorist content, with regulators needing stronger powers to enforce accountability.6 Action taken to remove and suppress ISKP’s online content is just as important as kinetic military action.

 

Use of the Internet to Project Power at a Regional Level

ISKP has leveraged the internet as a primary instrument for amplifying the projection of power beyond its territorial area of operations and shaping regional perceptions of its strength and influence.7 Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the group has increasingly relied on its online presence to maintain strategic relevance while facing intensified counterterrorism raids. Through sophisticated media operations and digital propaganda, ISKP has exaggerated its apparent operational capabilities and created a discrepancy between its perceived and actual strength. This digital strategy serves multiple purposes: it helps to attract potential recruits, maintains psychological pressure on adversaries, and advances the group’s broader goal of regional expansion. ISKP also uses dedicated propaganda channels, including magazines and encrypted messaging channels, to maintain active crowdfunding campaigns using Monero, a privacy-based cryptocurrency and money transfers via TRC20 tokens.8

Central to this outreach effort is the Al-Azaim Foundation for Media Production, which emerged from an ecosystem of competing but aligned pro-IS propaganda outlets to become the chief media organ used by ISKP. While initially focused narrowly on religious discourse, Al-Azaim has evolved in parallel with ISKP’s growing regional ambitions to become a sophisticated multimedia platform addressing religious, political, social, and military issues at both regional and global levels. ISKP’s outreach and propaganda campaigns exploit the dynamics of regional conflict and militant infrastructures by fusing local grievances with its global agenda. Al-Azaim’s linguistic reach is particularly notable, with content produced in a lengthening list of languages, including Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Uzbek, Tajik, English, and more recently, Russian and Turkish. This versatility enables ISKP to craft culturally resonant messages for diverse audiences across South Asia, Central Asia, and beyond.9 Tech Against Terrorism has observed that, in recent campaigns, Al-Azaim and aligned outlets have intensified regional outreach, producing content that ranges from high quality online magazines to AI generated video content. Notable examples include a pro-ISKP AI video news program in Pashto called “Khurasan TV” and the flagship English language Voice of Khurasan magazine. This high volume of propaganda output in local and regional languages, with customised messaging and narratives to appeal to specifically identified ethnolinguistic target audience segments, has resulted in a growth of influence and support throughout South and Central Asia.10 By maintaining consistent messaging across multiple platforms and languages, Al-Azaim has enabled ISKP to project an image of organisational strength and operational capability that often exceeds its true extent. These communication networks, which imply an extensive organisation thereafter, supply the infrastructure for achieving strategic objectives which typically require substantial territorial control or military capability.

The success of this strategy manifests most importantly in ISKP’s ability to inspire, coordinate, and conduct attacks against foreign nationals across the region. ISKP propaganda explicitly advocates targeted attacks against Chinese, Russian, and Central Asian nationals as retaliation for the perceived anti-Muslim policies enacted by such nationals’ home countries.11 Issues such as China’s treatment of Uyghurs and Russia’s actions in the Caucasus are frequently emphasised by way of justification. This selective but comprehensive targeting serves multiple strategic objectives. A primary objective of attacks on foreign nationals is to undermine the Taliban’s authority by demonstrating their inability to provide security for foreign investments and diplomatic personnel in Afghanistan. A second objective is to provoke international reactions that could destabilize diplomatic and economic relationships across the region. A third objective is to capitalise on existing regional tensions for the purpose of creating conditions of instability that ISKP believes could facilitate territorial expansion.

ISKP appears to have been successful in advancing these strategic objectives. Since the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan in July 2021, ISKP has steadily escalated its campaign of violence against foreign nationals. Significantly, in August 2021, a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate killed American soldiers and scores of other bystanders.12 The same day, two Pakistani nationals possessing an explosive device were detained in the vicinity of the Turkmenistan embassy. In September 2022, the Al-Azaim Foundation issued threats of further attacks on diplomatic targets in Afghanistan, specifically naming those from China, Iran, and India. On January 11, 2023, these threats materialsed with a suicide bombing targeting a Chinese diplomatic delegation at the Afghan Foreign Ministry in Kabul.13 Most recently, on January 22, 2025, ISKP fatally shot a Chinese national and mine worker in Afghanistan’s Takhar province, near the border with Tajikistan.14 These attacks have undermined the Taliban’s ability to attract foreign direct investment and economic development projects. The Chinese government, for instance, has increased pressure on the Taliban to better secure its citizens and interests in Afghanistan.15 The cumulative effect has been a deterioration of regional stability, with affected nations adopting increasingly aggressive security postures while reducing diplomatic and economic engagement with Afghanistan. This has created precisely the conditions of isolation and instability that ISKP seeks to exploit, while also serving to make the group appear successful and more dangerous.

 

Use of the Internet to Project Power at an International Level

In the past four years, ISKP has transformed from a militant group with a regional focus into an organisation with expansive international capabilities, largely driven by its sophisticated exploitation of digital platforms.16 A pivotal factor in this transformation is Al-Azaim’s multilingual propaganda campaign, which strategically targets the growing Afghan and Central Asian diasporas in Europe and North America. By extending its reach beyond Asia, ISKP strengthens its sphere of influence, widening its support base far beyond its regional origins.

A milestone in Al-Azaim’s expansion was the launch of its English-language magazine, Voice of Khurasan, in January 2022. This publication has attracted contributors from diverse backgrounds, including those from Canada, Australia, Italy, and Tajikistan, reflecting ISKP’s successful extraterritorial expansion of its ideological appeal. Al-Azaim has further strengthened its media presence through strategic partnerships with other pro-IS media entities. A significant development was its collaboration with Fursan al-Tarjuma, an umbrella organisation established in March 2023 that coordinates at least 14 pro-IS media groups. Additionally, Al-Azaim has partnered with the I’lam Foundation archive, which serves as a key source of translated official IS content for supporter networks both within and outside the EU, available on the surface and dark web. These strategic media partnerships significantly amplify ISKP’s reach by increasing the accessibility and visibility of its propaganda. By making content easier to find and available in multiple languages, Al-Azaim enhances ISKP’s potential to radicalise supporters across multiple continents, further solidifying its global influence.

ISKP has also considerably intensified the online incitement of its supporters to carry out violence abroad. The first escalation in this incitement campaign was prompted by events that took place in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 21, 2023, when Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the far-right Danish party “Hard Line”, stood in front of the Turkish embassy and burnt a copy of the Quran on video. By way of response, ISKP, in its Pashto language Khurasan Ghag magazine, devoted several pages to issuing threats and calling for attacks against targets in Sweden and, in general, against European citizens wherever they could be found.17 This campaign of incitement intensified further following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel: ISKP moved quickly and aggressively to capitalise on hostile sentiments stirred up throughout the Muslim world as a result of the ensuing protracted conflict in Gaza. ISKP created a high volume of propaganda criticising, threatening, and urging attacks against Israeli targets as well as against Western states that support Israel. In its Voice of Khurasan magazine, for instance, ISKP published an English translation of an editorial from IS’s official al-Naba newsletter that urged its supporters to participate in its post-October 7 propaganda campaign.18 In addition, it encouraged supporters to carry out attacks against Jewish neighbourhoods in America and Europe and on Israeli and Western embassies, synagogues, and Israeli economic interests globally. In the same issue, Al-Azaim included instructions in a full-page infographic titled “Practical Ways to Confront the Jews” which called upon supporters to kill Jews wherever they could be found, participate in IS’ anti-Jewish propaganda campaign and conduct cyberattacks on websites affiliated with Jews.19 ISKP suggested that supporters choose weapons such as Molotov cocktails, crossbows, guns acquired on the black market, pipe guns, nail guns, vehicles, and knives.

ISKP and aligned pro-IS outlets launched a similarly intense incitement campaign after the Crocus City Hall raid in Moscow, Russia on 22 March 2024. This campaign emphasised specific countries and targets which should be attacked and additionally provided tactical advice and options for relevant weaponry. In an issue of Voice of Khurasan magazine, it featured a full-page image of an ISKP jihadist wearing camouflage with a rifle and box of explosives on a train with a sign behind him saying “Welcome to Europe” accompanied by the text “Last call before exit.” The post-Moscow campaign mostly focused on large sporting events.20 This particular escalation in ISKP’s event-driven incitement campaign is marked by increasingly specific tactical guidance and target selection. Furthermore, it represents an evolution in the group’s approach to inspiring attacks abroad and demonstrates the increasing sophistication of its ability to exploit global events and mobilise violence against both traditional and emerging target sets.

ISKP has poured considerable resources into building up its external operations and guided plot capabilities. This increased resourcing is evident in the rise in international plots in 2024 when compared to the previous year. Notably, many of these plots were hybrid operations, whereby followers were not directly trained and deployed by ISKP but instead received remote instruction in tactics, target selection, and weapons procurement from official ISKP members by means of online platforms.21 This is a clear practical application of the system that the group has developed whereby selected “officials” of ISKP provide online advice and support to followers willing to carry out attacks abroad. This support involves the provision of DIY manuals on making IEDs, detonators, craft-made suppressors, and drone-use. ISKP instructors are readily available to answer the plotters’ questions and coach them on operational security practices and more.

These developments highlight how ISKP has effectively leveraged online platforms to transform its ability to project power internationally. The group’s sophisticated use of digital infrastructure has enabled it to spread its propaganda beyond Asia, radicalising and mobilising new communities across diverse geographical regions. This expansion has affected a striking collateral shift in ISKP’s operational methodology, as the group can now establish and coordinate operational cells across multiple continents simultaneously and remotely by providing online guidance. The shift to enhance digital operations serves as a significant force multiplier, enabling ISKP to reach previously inaccessible audiences with targeted messaging while providing operational guidance without physical presence.

A testament to the effectiveness of this approach is the marked diversification in the backgrounds of those implicated in ISKP-related activities abroad. Historically, international plots were primarily associated with Central Asians and predominantly Tajiks.22 This resulted from an intentional decision by ISKP to appeal to a wider Central Asian audience in order to expand its influence and recruitment within and beyond Afghanistan’s borders. However, in the latter half of 2023, this diversification accelerated, with the national and ethnic backgrounds of those involved in ISKP-related operations broadening noticeably. The group’s success in increasing their appeal to a broader range of Central Asian backgrounds was illustrated in July 2023, when coordinated law enforcement operations in Germany and the Netherlands resulted in the arrest of individuals from Tajik, Turkmen, and Kyrgyz backgrounds.23 Arrests which took place in early 2024 showed a yet wider range of nationalities involved in ISKP plots. In January 2024, Austrian authorities disrupted an ISKP cell in Vienna comprising individuals of Chechen and Bosnian descent, suggesting a successful expansion of the group’s influence into the Caucasus and Balkan regions.24 Similarly, February 2024 saw Turkish authorities dismantle a network comprising Russian, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Azerbaijani, and Sudanese nationals and in March 2024, German police arrested two ISKP-linked Afghan nationals accused of plotting an attack on the Swedish parliament.25,26 These arrests underscore the group’s expanding global appeal and the effectiveness of its growing propaganda efforts. The implications of this evolution are significant for counterterrorism efforts. ISKP’s sophisticated digital infrastructure enables it to provide detailed operational guidance while bypassing traditional counterterrorism measures focused on physical movement and training camps. The group’s demonstrated ability to recruit across diverse nationalities, incite violence, and establish operational networks from Central Asia to North America underscores how online platforms have fundamentally transformed the nature of the threat landscape.27

 

Conclusion

ISKP’s strategic exploitation of digital platforms, including social media, messaging, file-sharing platforms, and archiving sites, has enabled it to overcome traditional limitations of territorial control and physical presence, creating a dynamic, multi-vector threat with expanding international capabilities. The group’s distinctive multilingual propaganda strategy, spearheaded by the Al-Azaim Foundation, represents a form of “digital caliphate” that in some aspects rivals IS’s multilingual online presence during the height of the caliphate era and has enabled it to simultaneously pursue regional destabilisation and global operational reach in ways that set it apart from other IS branches. Tech Against Terrorism’s analysis shows this dual-track approach has yielded significant results. Regionally, ISKP has successfully executed high-profile attacks against foreign interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan while using targeted propaganda in local languages to exploit regional grievances. Globally, the group has demonstrated its expanded reach through devastating attacks in Iran, Türkiye, and Russia in 2024 while establishing operational networks extending into North America and Europe. Its propaganda now provides increasingly specific tactical guidance, transforming online platforms into operational planning tools. By remotely guiding operatives, ISKP can now coordinate attacks across multiple continents without physical training infrastructure. The group’s capacity is likely to increase as it grows its influence to reach a broader range of ethno-linguistic elements from Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and elsewhere situated in the West, providing ISKP with additional opportunities for recruitment and operational planning. This threat is increasingly difficult for intelligence and law enforcement agencies to detect, monitor, and disrupt. However, this also creates an opportunity to place greater focus on the online communications space where much of this activity is concentrated and planned. Given ISKP’s strategic de-emphasizing of territorial conquest, its sophisticated digital strategy, and demonstrated ability to inspire and coordinate attacks globally, traditional military measures alone are insufficient to counter its evolving threat. A more comprehensive approach is essential – one that prioritizes enhanced online counterterrorism efforts, disruption of ISKP’s digital ecosystem, and targeted counter-radicalisation messaging to undermine its ideological appeal.28 The mere existence of ISKP’s propaganda online represents a strategic victory given the digitalisation of militant warfare. Tech Against Terrorism continues to stress that information warfare is just as important as traditional military means in combating ISKP.29 Accordingly, it is paramount that governments, organizations, and the private sector work together to remove and suppress ISKP’s online content. Only through such a multifaceted strategy can the international community effectively mitigate ISKP’s growing influence and prevent future attacks.^[1]

[1] “Global Terrorism Index 2025.” Vision of Humanity: IEP’s Peace Research, Presentations and Resources, Institute of Economics and Peace, Mar. 2025, www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Global-Terrorism-Index-2025.pdf. For Reference: Pages 77 – 80 of the findings.

Unfortunately, Tech Against Terrorism’s solutions of banning Islamic terrorist propaganda as a form of censorship is absolutely never going to work. They seemingly missed the obvious: Banning the content only makes Youth Recruitment far more likely to happen as the Muslim youths will perceive themselves as an aggrieved minority and believe the people censoring Islamic terrorist content are trying to “hide the truth” of Islam. Moreover, Islamic propaganda on this scale is why the so-called moderate Muslims are actively harmful by shutting down any criticisms of Islam in democratic societies. The reason people living in democracies continue to allow this nonsense to go on is because other religious people don’t want to break the social taboo of Religious Tolerance so that their religious beliefs are not criticized too. Right-wing religious people misperceive the reason Left-leaning religious people shout Islamophobia; it’s actually borne from selfishness, because they know that if Islam is allowed to be criticized then all other religious beliefs become open to criticism in society. There won’t be a special exception for Islam as some right-leaning groups seem to believe, because that would constitute genuine discrimination and double-standards imposed upon Muslims. The problem, as I honestly see it, is that if we continue to ban any criticisms of Islam by conflating it with hatred of Muslims, then we are all genuinely going to die as the problems continually increase to the extent that we’ll never be able to stop them. We will forever have to live with Islamic terror bombings and mass shootings as if they’re seasonal weather patterns just like India suffers from it now. Abrahamic mythology from the 7^th century is treated with privilege, while the lives of people living here and now are treated as expendable.

If we continue refusing to criticize Islam, they are going to win. The US government has tried wiretapping, NSA mass surveillance, two occupational wars, off-shore torture prisons like GITMO, drone bombings of seven different countries, and financial backing of Islamist groups that aren’t chiefly anti-American. Where has it gotten us? What have we achieved? Islamic terrorism continues unabated like a hydra, because we’re not focusing on the real problem: it’s coming from Islamic theology itself. All of the information I shared in this chapter was part of the reason why I wrote my book, Machiavellian Ahimsa, earlier this year in 2025. That is my suggestion to end this problem. I propose a strategic means of using Free Speech offensively instead of defensively as a form of psychological warfare to eradicate Islamic terrorism borne from Islamism once and for all. We should not be privileging mythology over real human lives and that’s exactly what these so-called experts have been doing by pretending Islamic terrorism isn’t coming from Islam itself. Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Conscience, Freedom of Speech is intrinsically non-violent, and Free Speech is the only real solution to ending Islamic terrorism by de-converting Muslims away from the barbaric, violent faith of the warlord known as the Prophet Mohammad.

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Chapter 7

1. “About Institute for Economics and Peace.” Institute for Economics & Peace, Institute for Economics & Peace, 2025, economicsandpeace.org/about/.
2. “About Us – Strategic Foresight Group, Think Tank, Policy, Global Studies, Global Affairs Research, Global Water Cooperation.” Strategicforesight.Com, Strategic Foresight Group (SFG), strategicforesight.com/about-us.php. Accessed 24 July 2025.
3. Akbar, Noorjahan. “A Year Later, Still No Justice for Farkhunda.” Foreign Policy, 1 Apr. 2016, web.archive.org/web/20160406114242/https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/01/a-year-later-still-no-justice-for-farkhunda/.
4. Akbar, Shaharzad. “Afghanistan’s Women Are on Their Own.” Foreign Affairs, 30 August 2022, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/afghanistan/afghanistans-women-are-their-own. Accessed 21 July 2025
5. Burns, Robert. “Billions Spent on Afghan Army Ultimately Benefited Taliban.” AP News, AP News, 17 Aug. 2021, apnews.com/article/joe-biden-army-taliban-995b069a9008690582cb34f4cacd8515.
6. Cahn, Albert Fox. “The Taliban Now Controls a U.S.-Made Super-Surveillance System.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 19 Sept. 2024, thedailybeast.com/the-taliban-now-controls-a-us-made-super-surveillance-system/.
7. Dilanian, Ken. “CIA’s Failure to Hire and Promote Diverse Agents Erodes Spy Agency’s Mission, Study Finds.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 30 June 2015, pbs.org/newshour/nation/cias-failure-hire-promote-diverse-agents-erodes-spy-agencys-mission-study-finds.
8. “Fact Sheet on Post-9/11 Discrimination and Violence against Sikh Americans .” http://www.Sikhcoalition.Org, The Sikh Coalition, https://www.sikhcoalition.org/images/documents/fact%20sheet%20on%20hate%20against%20sikhs%20in%20america%20post%209-11%201.pdf.
9. Futehally, Ilmas, et al. “Humanity at Risk: Global Terror Threat Indicant, 2018.” Strategicforesight.Com/Publication_pdf/Humanity%20at%20Risk.Pdf, Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) / Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict (CRIC) from the University of Oxford, 2018, strategicforesight.com/publication_pdf/Humanity%20at%20Risk.pdf.
10. “Global Terrorism Index 2025.” Vision of Humanity: IEP’s Peace Research, Presentations and Resources, Institute of Economics and Peace, Mar. 2025, visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Global-Terrorism-Index-2025.pdf.
11. Goldstein, Joseph. “U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies.” The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, 20 Sept. 2015, nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html.
12. Harris, Sam. “In Defense of Profiling.” Sam Harris, http://www.samharris.org, 28 Apr. 2012, samharris.org/blog/in-defense-of-profiling. For Reference: Imagine how fatuous it would be to fight a war against the IRA and yet refuse to profile the Irish? And yet this is how we seem to be fighting our war against Islamic terrorism. Granted, I haven’t had to endure the experience of being continually profiled. No doubt it would be frustrating. But if someone who looked vaguely like Ben Stiller were wanted for crimes against humanity, I would understand if I turned a few heads at the airport. However, if I were forced to wait in line behind a sham search of everyone else, I would surely resent this additional theft of my time. We should profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim, and we should be honest about it. And, again, I wouldn’t put someone who looks like me entirely outside the bull’s-eye (after all, what would Adam Gadahn look like if he cleaned himself up?) But there are people who do not stand a chance of being jihadists, and TSA screeners can know this at a glance. Needless to say, a devout Muslim should be free to show up at the airport dressed like Osama bin Laden, and his wives should be free to wear burqas. But if their goal is simply to travel safely and efficiently, wouldn’t they, too, want a system that notices people like themselves? At a minimum, wouldn’t they want a system that anti-profiles—applying the minimum of attention to people who obviously pose no threat? Watch some of the TSA screening videos on YouTube—like this one—and then imagine how this infernal stupidity will appear if we ever suffer another terrorist incident involving an airplane. Addendum (5/1/12): Many readers found this blog post stunning for its lack of sensitivity. The article has been called “racist,” “dreadful,” “sickening,” “appalling,” “frighteningly ignorant,” etc. by (former) fans who profess to have loved everything I’ve written until this moment. I find this reaction difficult to understand. Of course, anyone who imagines that there is no link between Islam and suicidal terrorism might object to what I’ve written here, but I say far more offensive things about Islam in The End of Faith and in many of my essays and lectures. In any case, it is simply a fact that, in the year 2012, suicidal terrorism is overwhelmingly a Muslim phenomenon. If you grant this, it follows that applying equal scrutiny to Mennonites would be a dangerous waste of time. I suspect that it will surprise neither my fans nor my critics that I view the furor over this article to be symptomatic of the very political correctness that I decry in it. However, it seems that when one speaks candidly about the problem of Islam misunderstandings easily multiply. So I’d like to clarify a couple of points here: 1. When I speak of profiling “Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim,” I am not narrowly focused on people with dark skin. In fact, I included myself in the description of the type of person I think should be profiled (twice). To say that ethnicity, gender, age, nationality, dress, traveling companions, behavior in the terminal, and other outward appearances offer no indication of a person’s beliefs or terrorist potential is either quite crazy or totally dishonest. It is the charm of political correctness that it blends these sins against reasonableness so seamlessly. We are paying a very high price for this obscurantism—and the price could grow much higher in an instant. We have limited resources, and every moment spent searching a woman like the one pictured above, or the children seen in the linked videos, is a moment in which someone or something else goes unobserved.
13. Harris, Sam. “It’s Real, It’s Scary, It’s a Cult of Death.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sept. 2006, latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-18-oe-harris18-story.html.
14. Harris, Sam. “On Knowing Your Enemy.” Sam Harris, samharris.org, 7 May 2012, samharris.org/blog/on-knowing-your-enemy29.
15. “History of Hate: Crimes Against Sikhs Since 9/11.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Aug. 2012, huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/07/history-of-hate-crimes-against-sikhs-since-911_n_1751841.html.
16. “History.” Sikh Coalition, 19 Oct. 2020, sikhcoalition.org/about-us/history/.
17. Klein, Ezra, and Sam Harris. “The Sam Harris Debate: The Ezra Klein Show.” Smash Notes, The Ezra Klein Show, 9 Apr. 2018, https://smashnotes.com/p/the-ezra-klein-show/e/the-sam-harris-debate.
18. Klein, Ezra. “Sam Harris, Charles Murray, and The Allure of Race Science.” Vox, Vox, 27 Mar. 2018, web.archive.org/web/20201124051651/https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/27/15695060/sam-harris-charles-murray-race-iq-forbidden-knowledge-podcast-bell-curve.
19. “Massacre of over 100 Villagers in Christian Area of Nigeria Elicits Response from President.” MSN, The Christian Post, 23 June 2025, msn.com/en-us/news/world/massacre-of-over-100-villagers-in-christian-area-of-nigeria-elicits-response-from-president/ar-AA1HfeI4.
20. Preston, Heather. “Nigerian Bishop Demands Action after 200 Christians Murdered in Week of Violence – Premier Christian News: Headlines, Breaking News, Comment & Analysis.” Premier Christian News, Premier Christian News, 22 Apr. 2025, premierchristian.news/us/news/article/nigerian-bishop-demands-action-200-christians-murdered-week-of-violence.
21. Qiu, Linda. “Trump Claim on Israel Profiling Misses Full Security Context.” @politifact, The Poynter Institute, 23 Sept. 2016, politifact.com/factchecks/2016/sep/23/donald-trump/donald-trump-claim-israel-profiling-very-successfu/.
22. Schreiber, Melody. “George W. Bush’s Anti-HIV Program Is Hailed as ‘amazing’ – and Still Crucial at 20.” NPR, NPR, 28 Feb. 2023, npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/28/1159415936/george-w-bushs-anti-hiv-program-is-hailed-as-amazing-and-still-crucial-at-20.
23. Stephens, Joe, and David B. Ottaway. “From U.S., the ABC’s of Jihad.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 23 Mar. 2002, washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/03/23/from-us-the-abcs-of-jihad/d079075a-3ed3-4030-9a96-0d48f6355e54/?utm_term=.cbb9b6b8a59a.
24. “The Obama Administration’s Ebola Response.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, Oct. 2014, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/ebola-response.
25. Weaver, Mary Anne. “Her Majesty’s Jihadists: More British Muslims Have Joined Islamist Militant Groups than Serve in the Country’s Armed Forces. How to Understand the Pull of Jihad.” New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, 14 Apr. 2015, nytimes.com/2015/04/19/magazine/her-majestys-jihadists.html.

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Endnotes

[1] “Global Terrorism Index 2025.” Vision of Humanity: IEP’s Peace Research, Presentations and Resources, Institute of Economics and Peace, Mar. 2025, www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Global-Terrorism-Index-2025.pdf. For reference: Pages 67 – 70.

[2] Preston, Heather. “Nigerian Bishop Demands Action after 200 Christians Murdered in Week of Violence – Premier Christian News: Headlines, Breaking News, Comment & Analysis.” Premier Christian News, Premier Christian News, 22 Apr. 2025, premierchristian.news/us/news/article/nigerian-bishop-demands-action-200-christians-murdered-week-of-violence.

[3] Preston, Heather. “Nigerian Bishop Demands Action after 200 Christians Murdered in Week of Violence – Premier Christian News: Headlines, Breaking News, Comment & Analysis.” Premier Christian News, Premier Christian News, 22 Apr. 2025, premierchristian.news/us/news/article/nigerian-bishop-demands-action-200-christians-murdered-week-of-violence.

[4] “Massacre of over 100 Villagers in Christian Area of Nigeria Elicits Response from President.” MSN, The Christian Post, 23 June 2025, www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/massacre-of-over-100-villagers-in-christian-area-of-nigeria-elicits-response-from-president/ar-AA1HfeI4.

[5] “Massacre of over 100 Villagers in Christian Area of Nigeria Elicits Response from President.” MSN, The Christian Post, 23 June 2025, www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/massacre-of-over-100-villagers-in-christian-area-of-nigeria-elicits-response-from-president/ar-AA1HfeI4.

[6] “Massacre of over 100 Villagers in Christian Area of Nigeria Elicits Response from President.” MSN, The Christian Post, 23 June 2025, www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/massacre-of-over-100-villagers-in-christian-area-of-nigeria-elicits-response-from-president/ar-AA1HfeI4.

[7] “The Obama Administration’s Ebola Response.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, Oct. 2014, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/ebola-response.

[8] Schreiber, Melody. “George W. Bush’s Anti-HIV Program Is Hailed as ‘amazing’ – and Still Crucial at 20.” NPR, NPR, 28 Feb. 2023, www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/28/1159415936/george-w-bushs-anti-hiv-program-is-hailed-as-amazing-and-still-crucial-at-20.

[1] Stephens, Joe, and David B. Ottaway. “From U.S., the ABC’s of Jihad.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 23 Mar. 2002, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/03/23/from-us-the-abcs-of-jihad/d079075a-3ed3-4030-9a96-0d48f6355e54/?utm_term=.cbb9b6b8a59a.

[2] Dilanian, Ken. “CIA’s Failure to Hire and Promote Diverse Agents Erodes Spy Agency’s Mission, Study Finds.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 30 June 2015, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/cias-failure-hire-promote-diverse-agents-erodes-spy-agencys-mission-study-finds.

[1] Stephens, Joe, and David B. Ottaway. “From U.S., the ABC’s of Jihad.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 23 Mar. 2002, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/03/23/from-us-the-abcs-of-jihad/d079075a-3ed3-4030-9a96-0d48f6355e54/?utm_term=.cbb9b6b8a59a.

[2] Goldstein, Joseph. “U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies.” The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, 20 Sept. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html.

[3] Akbar, Noorjahan. “A Year Later, Still No Justice for Farkhunda.” Foreign Policy, 1 Apr. 2016, web.archive.org/web/20160406114242/https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/01/a-year-later-still-no-justice-for-farkhunda/.

[4] Burns, Robert. “Billions Spent on Afghan Army Ultimately Benefited Taliban.” AP News, AP News, 17 Aug. 2021, apnews.com/article/joe-biden-army-taliban-995b069a9008690582cb34f4cacd8515.

[1] Klein, Ezra, and Sam Harris. “The Sam Harris Debate: The Ezra Klein Show.” Smash Notes, The Ezra Klein Show, 9 Apr. 2018, https://smashnotes.com/p/the-ezra-klein-show/e/the-sam-harris-debate.

[2] Klein, Ezra. “Sam Harris, Charles Murray, and The Allure of Race Science.” Vox, Vox, 27 Mar. 2018, web.archive.org/web/20201124051651/https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/27/15695060/sam-harris-charles-murray-race-iq-forbidden-knowledge-podcast-bell-curve.

[3] Klein, Ezra, and Sam Harris. “The Sam Harris Debate: The Ezra Klein Show.” Smash Notes, The Ezra Klein Show, 9 Apr. 2018, https://smashnotes.com/p/the-ezra-klein-show/e/the-sam-harris-debate.

[4] Klein, Ezra. “Sam Harris, Charles Murray, and The Allure of Race Science.” Vox, Vox, 27 Mar. 2018, web.archive.org/web/20201124051651/https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/27/15695060/sam-harris-charles-murray-race-iq-forbidden-knowledge-podcast-bell-curve.

[5] Klein, Ezra, and Sam Harris. “The Sam Harris Debate: The Ezra Klein Show.” Smash Notes, The Ezra Klein Show, 9 Apr. 2018, https://smashnotes.com/p/the-ezra-klein-show/e/the-sam-harris-debate.

[6] Akbar, Noorjahan. “A Year Later, Still No Justice for Farkhunda.” Foreign Policy, 1 Apr. 2016, web.archive.org/web/20160406114242/https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/01/a-year-later-still-no-justice-for-farkhunda/.

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Correction

7/28/2025 Correction: Previous version mistakenly put the name of the British commentator “Douglas Murray” and not the American commentator “Charles Murray” the author of the Bell Curve. My sincerest apologies for the glaring typo.