The Humanity of a Terrorist

"They make a girlfriend and a boyfriend. Why don't you marry?" 
Chiheb Esseghaier, Tunisian jihadi

"Why not, right?"
FBI undercover agent

"Marriage is obtainable." Esseghaier
"Of course, and it's halal [permitted]." Agent

"And it's halal. Why would you leave marriage and go get a girlfriend and a boyfriend. Why? Why this crookedness." Esseghaier

Chiheb Esseghaier, left, and Raed Jaser, centre, each face multiple terrorism-related charges in an alleged plot to derail a Via train. (Pam Davies/CBC)

Puzzling over Western values, over the relaxed attitude toward the genders in their pairing, both within and outside marriage. These values are obviously despicable in the mind of a man who has assigned to himself the role of avenger, as a pious Muslim, detesting the interference of Western governments and their military machines in the world of Islam. Setting out to punish Canadian soldiers for their government sending them to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban.

In the opinion of many Muslims, and certainly those dedicated to jihad, Westerners and their armies are slaughtering innocent Muslims, raping their women, making orphans of those Muslim children that they don't kill in their hatred of Islam. Conveniently overlooked is the fact that their Islamist counterparts do most of the killing, of Muslim men, women and children. That the Taliban oppress and degrade civil life, consigning women to a life of servitude.

"Keep it a secret. It's very confidential", Chiheb Esseghaier cautioned the undercover agent as they travelled by car toward Montreal from New York, confiding comfortably in his newfound friend of the urgent plans that he and his colleague, Raed Jaser -- each standing trial now on terrorism charges -- are contemplating as terrorist acts. Speaking in Arabic, laughing and feeling very collegial, Mr. Esseghaier revealed his plan to cut a five-metre hole in a railway bridge.

"He [the train] will go through the hole and it will be a big accident. I warned our brother from Palestine, [Raed Jaser, his co-accused] I told him to be careful, be very careful that the bridge should not be over water. Because if it falls in the water, they'll survive." The goal being, of necessity, to kill as many innocent people -- who really are not innocent since they're non-Muslims and their government conspires to kill Muslims -- as their plans might lead them to successfully slaughter.

"It's personal", he finally said to the agent, broaching another subject. He was recently introduced to an unmarried woman from Jordan. "Sometimes, I feel I love her. Sometimes, when she disobeys Allah, I hate her." He couldn't figure the woman out, did she care for him or was she leading him on as women are wont to do. "What do you think about this girl? Is it playing girl, or She's serious?", he appealed to the sympathetic FBI agent.

"They call it in English, she's playing hard to get" was the response. "Go in straight and tell her, look, I swear by Allah this is the story and I'll say it to you straight, do you want me or not?" came the response.

"But I am afraid, afraid that she would refuse and I would be turned back", responded the despondent Mr. Esseghaier, a lonely man in a foreign country he plans to commit a mass murder within.