I Lived In A Jihadist Camp In Afghanistan | Minutes With | @LADbible TV

so i saw people shot in the streets and running and seeking help but i think those those i don't know if i can visualize them those things had an effect on me [Music] when i was born in bangladesh a country at that time was called east pakistan in 1971 there was a war of independence so i was about 11 or 12 at that time but my upbringing in terms of education was highly disrupted because of that war my own brother my elder brother being killed whom i saw die in front of my own eyes and 22 other relatives were killed in that violence but at that young age 11 12 13 up to about 16 he was always fighting and killing and people dying around your death so i saw people shot in the streets and running and seeking help conflict on both sides nobody is to be blamed i think on looking back but i think those those uh i don't know if i can visualize them those things had an effect on me when did you leave and come to the uk yes so i went to college and i was 17 and by the time i was about 17 and a half my father had come to this country he was supported to come here as an asylum seeker refugee i mean i don't know the exact status but he fled so when i went to university that's where i was if i can use the word radicalized i don't if i was radicalized or not because i was always prone to such thinking or amenable to such thoughts and there were people from mainly the muslim brotherhood who had the influence on me in the political direction talking will get you nowhere so we are having to do two things one become more alert to your reality secondly this reality will not change by being part of the status quo you have to fight back as a young person i wanted to be meaningful i wanted to contribute in a way that made real change not just talk because politics is too long-winded and i don't understand and there's there is hypocrisy and double standard even at that age we understood this it wasn't all i'm a good muslim and you know i want to you know make the islam great it was more like well you are cowards i'm a brave person there's a fight in palestine and they're the underlings and i can fight so when islam was added to the equation of course it kind of had a very potent mix so i felt enthused i felt i was doing the right thing because it is after all in support of those who are victimized or the victims and that at that age i didn't understand that there's another another narrative there's another side to the story that the the reality is much more complicated if not confusing that others other people others i mean non-palestinians non-muslims in general people human beings have rights feelings you know there was an argument going back perhaps several thousand years about palestine so i worked for first 20 years in my organization from the age of 21 to about 40 years old without pay every weekend it's a lot of hard work to not only bring people to a political awareness but to infuse them to say politics is not the way the way is jihad to fight back where did your fight for jihad take you what sort of countries did you end up travelling to when i got involved in the physical fighting it wasn't as easy as today when you can just hop on a plane go off to say turkey and then across the border you have you had to go through a lot of loopholes rigmarole so for in my case i had a person come over from germany to vet me to make sure that i am not a fake or a dangerous person to them so i was vetted first then go to amsterdam and then i'm vetted again and this local imadu din bakri who was a veteran from the afghan jihad then gives me a letter of approval i take that letter then i fly off to peshawar in pakistan having the contact then i make my way to the camp in pakistan and then they check the letter then welcome me in and i'm a prized person because i'm british i speak english and it has always more kind of an all around your head for some reason you walk around with the halo because you speak english and you know you can bring more benefit in some ways i don't know how what was the camp like when you arrived camp was wonderful if i can really project my mind back i will never forget the brotherhood the sense of relief so warm welcoming and it's almost like a holiday camp but it's all men they're not a single female inside and and you feel with the people because they're all there for the one thing and they have no worldly motives um guns are around as well so the excitement and thrill i suppose in a boyish manner you know the guns and stuff they look after you give you food there's brotherhood meaning you're sitting together prayers are there eating sleeping rough but it's fun you go out local whatever shopping for camouflage gear whatever so i think the excitement the glamour those things were also there in those days in in its own ways they're much more glamorized today so that was my feeling so i came back really uplifted and i felt this is it i've found the true muslims they don't they're not running after the world and they're spending their lives working all the time and paying bills and all the headaches so was it a form of escapism for many people i never questioned it was for me a relief and who are you fighting against in afghanistan and my biggest mistake i think was to presume i was fighting against non-muslim enemies just because they're non-muslims that's not that's not the reason why they should be anybody should be fought i mean that's not islam teaches at all but i went there to fight against the communists because by definition to me on paper communists are godless people they don't believe in god or religion so as an outsider i shouldn't have gone even if it was so-called jihad but the point was this it was wrong because you ended up fighting muslims against muslims and both sides had something valid or intelligent to say about what they wanted in life basically they want food and land when did you realize you know what you were doing was wrong and when did your ideas shift burma my last experience when i left i looked at the commander and he was videotaping everything for propaganda purposes not only did i find out that that camp of the leader was actually going to have after i left a meeting with the fbi so i'm saying why am i serving these organizations raising funds in britain when they are part of the global politics what's the effect on the local people the local people want to just live ten thousand pounds even fifty thousand hundred thousand pounds we have given at one go ten thousand pounds is like the entire village can live for a whole month happily you know in their kind of rural environment i bring that amount of money give it to the leaders what are they doing so it's not that they are stealing the money but hey the leader's son is studying degree in malaysia being privately funded for the money we gave but what has it done to local people they are still in the poverty no improvement in their lifestyles there's discrimination meaning the upper echelons still have the um the lion's share of everything food housing bulletproof cars but then you find local boys from my group went out and killed three or two or three other local boys who was in another outfit both fighting for the same cause against the same enemy with the same islam with the same rallying calls but the local people they don't move you can't incite them to fight they don't want to fight they just want to have a common life why can't we give them a political solution uh you said earlier you didn't have the intention to kill innocent people so can you just clarify for me what the difference is between the kind of jihadism you were part of and the more modern day jihadism where we see terrorists going and blowing up music venues and killing innocent people today's kill people is driven by hatred blind hatred no discrimination between those who are in uniform fighting you those who are in uniform off duty and let alone those who are not in uniform at all you know in in no security apparatus and then again then you target innocent the most innocent of people from beslan school siege to the bali bombing and you name it the catalog will go on and on for a very long time you know and we can press into service all sorts of grievances and talk about how maybe they are so provoked they are so undermined they are become so desperate but what happened to the religion then then don't bring religion into it i beat myself up inside me and then i try to make up for the evil i have caused or to stop people going down that evil or wickedness or ignorance with the work that i do a young man comes up to me after friday prayers i did the sermon at wembley central mosque i do the sermon and he said several years back he walks up to me and said sheikh called me shakes this is a term of respect sheikh after the my friday sermon um i saw your film i've decided not to go to syria anymore whoa no no need to rede-radicalize refer you to prevent channel you just heard a talk on channel 4 itv or something and he felt i spoke the truth as an older man that's it if you could send a message to people considering becoming a jihadist what would that be on a serious note if i could uh if anybody cares to listen and at least explore what i'm trying to say i would say you know give up dogmatism try to find out how you know the truth try to understand the local politics the people the culture don't interfere sometimes without knowing what you are trying to do you interfere and cause more harm sincerity does not excuse the person and justify the person doing reckless irresponsible actions [Music] you know one thing you should know about espionage as well as bomb making the first mistake is your last mistake you're not going to live to make another mistake and therefore you have to be absolutely careful you know one wrong word you know and you are a head shorter and six feet under

Channel: LADbible TV

Views: 413,579

Rating: 4.8457236 out of 5

Keywords: the lad bible, lad bible, lad, bible, videos, viral videos, viral, funny, comedy, funny videos, documentaries, exclusives, interviews, islamic state, war on terror, jihad, jihadist, afghanistan, taliban, middle east, pakistan, terrorism, islam

Id: s4WWVQo-dAE

Length: 12min 16sec (736 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021