Omar Khadr: A Freedom Fighter or Jihadist Garbage?

Omar Khadr is back in Canada and no longer has to tolerate the rats and other vermin at Guantanamo Bay--the other vermin being jihadists who are being kept there for the safety of the free world.  There are some in Canada, (liberals, people who merrily went-a-occupying, Muslims, college professors, students of Caribbean political science, and MSNBC lovers ) who believe Omar Khadr is a freedom fighter.  If that's true, then it is incumbent upon us to clearly define what is meant by freedom.

According to Dictionary.com, freedom is defined as:  1. the state of being free, or at liberty rather than inconfinement or under physical restraint. 2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc. 3. the power to determine action without restraint.  4. personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery.

When you ask whether or not Khadr is a freedom fighter, it is best to understand that he considers himself to be a devout Muslim and by being so is compelled to undertake jihad, which, according to the Dictionary of Islam, is defined as "A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.  Islamic scholar, Bernard Lewis, makes a case that in the hadith and classic Islamic manuals, jihad is mostly military in its meaning and "struggle."  Omar Khadr seems to exemplify a military jihadist and helps prove Lewis's notion.

In the second part of the definition of freedom, Islamic law is anything but freedom from external control.  Islam controls all of what a "true believer" does in life, from how he grows his beard, when and how he prays to Allah (who is really Muhammad in disguise), treats his wives, and treats others.  In fact, it is expected of a devout Muslim to hate Jews and not feel warm and fuzzy toward Christians too. There are more regulations, interference, and external controls in Islam than there are at an OCD convention.

Omar's Bar Mitzvah photo

The third part of the definition, the power to determine action without constraint, is an area that is easy to compare with Islamic law and jihad.  If, for example, a Muslim woman does not do what is required of her, like cover all exposed skin, only leave her home with a male chaperone (even her son might suffice) and never allow a man who is not a family member to enter her home, she will be punished, and if the deed is considered "un-Islamic enough, she will be buried up to her neck in the ground and stoned until dead by the good townspeople of her village.

Fourth definition--personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery--is exactly counterpoint to Muhammad's religion of peace.  In Islam there is no personal liberty, there is only bondage to the religion and slavery to it.  But worse, Muhammad himself took slaves when he conquered the tribes of the desert.  He had sex with his slaves and encouraged his men to do the same with their slaves.  In some cases Muhammad married the women he took from the tribes he slaughtered.  Imagine, killing a man then taking the man's wife as his own wife.  This was Muhammad; the man Muslims emulate.  This is Omar Khadr, the freedom fighter, the fifteen year old boy who, from birth to prison learned to be a good Muslim.  The boy who likely sat on his father's lap and heard the Islamic stories of how Jews are lower than animals, Christians are pigs, and women are inferior to men.  Imagine how deeply indoctrinated Omar Khadr is and how impossible it would be to change him, having learned these things on his father's lap.

Sure, people change, but monsters, well, I'm not so sure they can change all that much.  You can say Omar Khadr never had a chance to be anything but the monster he is.  Maybe some would say he is merely a victim in all this, having had no chance to learn another way of life as he was born into a family where father was a jihadist, killed in action while trying to kill unbelievers.  

But it is precisely because he is a victim from the cradle that he should never be let free because he will kill again.  It is his religious duty, just like Osma bin Laden knew the Koran to say that killing Americans, the Big Satan, was his religious duty.  There are millions upon millions of Muslims who believe that bin Laden is in Paradise for his jihadist deeds.  Many will not admit this, but many believe it and the number who do is staggering.

So let Omar Khadr, hero to the jihad, rot in jail.  We infidels will all be safer for now, but I don't know what will happen when he gets out.

My latest novel, Jihad Joe, is about Islamic terrorism and suspense.  In it I challenge the precepts of the religion through my protagonist, Zed Nill, a journalist, captured by terrorists and who is destined to be killed if the American President refuses to release three Gitmo prisoners.  Of course, American policy demands we never give in to terrorists, and for Zed, the clock is ticking.

Jihad Joe Soft Cover       

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