An ISIL Terrorist With No Ill Will Toward Anyone
"I experienced a situation that not many people have experienced, people who took a step back, who changed their minds.""You're there, in prison, you say to yourself, 'I should have triggered the thing'. That's what you think when you're in solitary confinement.""I wanted to say today that I did not kill anyone and I did not hurt anyone. Not even a scratch.""It's important for me to say this, because since the beginning of this case, people have not stopped slandering me.""Islamic State's fight is legitimate. I want to live under Shariah law. But why would that make me dangerous. If I am released, I won't hurt anyone."Salah Abdeslam, 32, accused Bataclan Islamic State terrorist, Paris
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| In this November 2015, photo, a person is evacuated after a shooting, outside the Bataclan theater in Paris. |
Slandered, absolutely outrageous. What exactly is it that these would-be jihadis who find the methodology of Islamic State in asserting itself as a champion of Islam so praise-worthy that they are willing to commit mass murder in solidarity with the ISIL mission, yet don't fathom the revulsion felt by normal people for whom psychotic acts of pure barbarity are unfathomable? That, as a result of committing to terrorism, other people decry the presence of such ideological psychopaths in their midst is seen to be gratuitously insulting to an aspiring jihadi.
Salah Abdeslam is a French national of Moroccan origins who pledged allegiance to Islamic State a mere two days before the onslaught in Paris that resulted in the deaths of 130 innocent people. It is the belief of French investigators that the sole surviving member of the Islamist conspiracy to slaughter innocent people in a synchronized gun and bomb attack on six restaurants and bars, the Bataclan concert hall, and the national soccer stadium fully intended to carry out his part in the mass attack.
He claims he had a change of mind, that he held back from detonating his suicide vest out of compassion for those who would be killed. Presumably, including himself. Making him, in his mind, totally innocent of any crime and puzzled by the charges laid against him since, after all, he contends, he harmed no one. Prosecutors were informed by investigators that the intention remained unfulfilled because his suicide vest malfunctioned, failing to explode.
He fled the carnage to Belgium, where he was later arrested. He was convicted in a Belgian court in 2018 of attempting to evade capture by shooting at the arresting officers. However, as he insisted in the Paris court, he had not harmed anyone. Simply not for lack for trying, on the other hand. His reasoning: because he was not responsible for any deaths, what's all the fuss about? Of 20 defendants Abdeslam is the only one directly accused of murder, attempted murder and hostage-taking.
The court heard him out, explaining that compassion for the plight of the Syrian people, and not religious views compelled him to join Islamic State. For us Muslims, it's humiliating", he said of the West imposing its rules and values on others. Compassion for Syrians, had he possessed an iota of reasoning, would have led him to excoriate the Alawite Baathist Shiite Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad which victimized and killed hundreds of thousands of Syrian Sunnis.
While never having travelled to Syria, he explained to the court, he admired the willingness of Islamic State terrorists to surrender their lives for the greater purpose of glorifying Islam through their personal martyrdom to the cause of jihad. As for the reason that his wish to live under Shariah law makes him dangerous to non-Muslims and moderate Muslims alike, his actions tell the story.
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| In this court sketch made Nov. 2, 2021, Salah Abdeslam, left, the prime suspect in the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks, attends the trial taking place in a temporary courtroom set up at the Palais de Justice of Paris. |
Labels: Atrocity, France, Islamic State, Terrorist Attack, Trial
posted by Pieface @ Friday, February 11, 2022
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