Hi Friend,

Going through the airport security check, I overheard an animated conversation between two security guards. A male was questioning the female guard about her decision to convert from Christianity to Islam. Unable to give a convincing answer, she threw up her hands and exclaimed, "It’s something you wouldn’t understand."

It is a paradox that may leave you as puzzled as I am that an American who has enjoyed a life of freedom chooses to adopt a religious system that oppresses women. This paradox becomes even more striking when we consider that the woman is a descendent of slave ancestors. It’s surprising to learn that a significant number of individuals in the Western Culture have embraced Islam, with a staggering 75 percent of these being women.

If the trend could be any worse, it is. Most of these women gravitate to the more misogynistic groups where women have no rights. Yet they insist all the while that they feel liberated and free.

Abigail Esman, an award-winning author, wrote a book titled Radical State: How Jihad is Winning Over Democracy in the West. Ms. Esman, with a deep sense of empathy, and a profound understanding of their struggles, has studied many such women, comprehending the factors that influence their values and behavior.

She writes that "most of these young women display little self-confidence or ability to define their own values and behavior—qualities that make them easily influenced by others, and susceptible especially to those who offer up a lifestyle option that relinquishes them from responsibility for their actions, that gives them a code of behavior and the ease of attributing what they do or wear or eat to God and not to self."

The systematic nature of radical Muslim recruitment is a cause for concern. The profiles of the converts are so similar that the process is almost automated, making it worryingly easy for extremists to recruit.

According to BBC reports, Muslim women are often targeted by extremist recruiters for jihad. Their vulnerability and willingness to follow the advice of more ‘knowledgeable’ Muslims and the commands and demands of Muslim men make them easy targets for recruitment.

Why are such women so valuable to Muslim extremists? The impact of such recruitment on families and society is significant. This was starkly illustrated by Zubeidat Tsarnaev, mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in a CNN interview. Her words, "If they are going to kill him, I don’t care. If my oldest son is killed, so I don’t care. I don’t care if my youngest son is going to be killed today. I want the world to hear this. And I don’t care if I am going to get killed, too. And I will say Allahu Akbar! (Allah is the greatest!)."

This illustrates the devastating effect of extremist recruitment.

Muslim extremists are looking for women so lacking in values and so easily influenced by others that they will sacrifice a child they raised on the altar of Muslim jihad. And today it is incredible that they find these women in Western Culture.

When the Apostle Paul preached to Gentiles in Galatia, many were converted to the rational faith of Christianity. Some of those who had been enslaved to pagan gods found freedom in Christianity. But freedom is hard to maintain. It requires taking responsibility for oneself. So, some of the new Christians sought out new masters to whom they could become enslaved again. Paul, in his role as guide and mentor, admonished them when he wrote, "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth…"

Paul was disturbed that people who had been set free by Jesus Christ would volunteer to be slaves again. Unless a charlatan had hypnotized him, no rational person would willingly imprison himself after knowing the joy of freedom.

We are as shocked in the 21st Century as Paul was in the 1st. These people have a human body but lack the spirit of man—the inherent desire for freedom. Mere shells of human beings, they seek bridles and chains to be led by unscrupulous and evil tyrants. They have gained a foothold; may they never gain dominance in the land of the free.

Until next time,

Jim O’Brien

Pastor, Church of God Cincinnati

September 20, 2024