Home >> Terrorism >> Osama & al-Qaida

     Email   Print 

My Date With Al-Qaida Member

Ghazal Omid - 11/26/2005

Near the end of Ramadan 2004, I was at my desk working on the net, sending drafts of my now published book, “ Living in Hell” to my publisher, when I received a peculiar instant message from a total stranger asking me if I am Muslim. I paused for a second. Then I noticed, on my instant message box, I had chosen an internationally known icon for Muslim, which anyone familiar with Islam or part of this faith can identify immediately. The icon is a moon and star almost hugging each other. This icon appears on the dome of every mosque in every corner of our world. I hesitantly answered, “Yes”, because, after 9/11, I received a number of instant messages from total strangers asking me if I am Muslim and why, they erroneously assumed, I want to kill Americans.

I was ready to hear someone insulting me or my faith when this person said, “Hello” in Arabic.

While I had no intention of dealing with what I then perceived as yet another online "Don Juan", I eventually decided to hear him out. The man said he is from India. “You got it all wrong," he said. "I am a Muslim.”

I felt that I had judged his character unfairly and, after days of e-mailing me and asking if I wanted to meet, I agreed to meet him in a public place. I didn’t have any idea what he looked like. But, true to his word, we met in a public parking in the city of Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, British Colombia. He had to drive from the city of Burnaby, but I told him that if he wanted to see me, he had to drive to this city and he did. When I met him, a very well built man about six feet tall, 300 pounds, with a shaved head and trimmed facial hair, walked toward me and said, “Hello.”

He was not accustomed to opening the door for me, which I knew most Indian men don’t do, and acted like most other Muslim men; not particularly showing any attraction or even carrying flowers. He wanted to meet. That was his treat and sufficient for him.

We drove. He introduced me to an Islamic restaurant located near a Muslim community in the city of Richmond. After the sun had set, we had a Muslim meal. I was surprised when he said he did not know Vancouver, but he knew most of the area better than I, who had lived in this city for nearly ten years.

Sitting in the Starbucks, we got to politics. In the entire evening, he had not asked me much and, basically, he was the center of attention. I was curious to know more about him, my gut feeling was telling me he is not just a guy, he is a guy with a big secret. before giving any information he did not pay much attention if I had a dialogue with him or not. Which, unfortunately, is very common among Muslim men and their treatment of women. So, I did not think much about it.

But, when he finally asked me questions, we got into a very heated argument about Bin Laden, who happened to be his former or Ex- Boss.

I was stunned when he said that he had worked with Bin Laden back when Russia occupied Afghanistan. And he was on defense, saying: “Bin Laden could not have had any part in 9/11. I asked him how do you know that? He jumped to Bin Laden’s offense and said: I know the guy because I met him, he is a very nice man. He gave up his own life to help others.”

At this point, every hair on my head stood up. I thought, “My dear Lord, I have just allowed myself to be manipulated enough to meet with an ex-Al Quida member.” When he was talking about Bin laden, his face turned red, defending him with a passion and his eyes turned angry. At one point, I turned around and looked to see if there was anyone in the coffee shop. But, thankfully, either he noticed or he just decided to respect me because his tone became calmer.

I finally unloaded myself by asking, “So what do you think of 9/11.” He said it was all CIA, trying to frame this wonderful poor man. I was just about to throw up, hearing about Bin Laden and his kindness. So, I rephrased my questioned and asked, “What would you do if he ordered you to kill Americans or Canadians?” He said with conviction and no hesitant at all that if Bin Laden ordered him to kill all the Canadians or Americans he would do it, like the first time, when he was 14 years old, and picked up a gun to defend “Islam”, he would do so with Bin Laden’s order of Jihad.

At this point, a whole lot frustrated and very angry, I was trying to keep my cool, not only to get information out of him but also to not show any fear. I asked him another question,” So what if Bin Laden is really guilty of killing all these innocent people?” He said that was impossible. He simply refused to accept the notion.

I quickly said goodbye to him right then and there. I told him I was too busy to meet again. I think he got the message that I don’t need to meet with an ex-Al-Quida and our meeting was over for good. Although he said he did not have any connection with him or his organization, I simply think, once a thief, always a thief. Thankfully, this meeting was over without shedding any blood.

On the way home, as I reflected on his answers, I still thought about this very bright engineer that lives among us. We meet him and many more like him every day and will never know how much Bin Ladens have been able to brainwash them. These are the kind of people that is very unlikely for us to know them prior for them to do a crime such as London Bombings. They are not only hard to find but are rather easy recruiting targets for terrorists and charlatans like Bin Laden.

I believe that if we want the terrorism to stop, we need to replace the idols of the children of Iraq, Afghanistan and every country in the Middle East and make sure they don’t experience the same brainwashing as the present generation we are dealing with.

Otherwise, no matter how many soldiers we send to these countries, the children will grow up and become suicide bombers.

To stop them we must hurry and use anything, including love for animals, to teach them about love and humanity. I say this with confidence because I myself at one time was at the point where I lost faith in everyone, including God. If it were not for my pets, I would never have known how to love and would never have become who I am today. I would much rather die for humanity and if my blood would save and serve humanity, so be it.

That is what early teachings of love can do.