Introduction

Imagine a world where a boy's dreams dictate the behavior of warriors in battle ; where a young couple's only release from forbidden love is death; where a suicide bomber survives only to become fiercely pro-American. This is the world of Terrorists in Love.

A former federal prosecutor and congressional investigator, Ken Ballen spent five years as a pollster and a researcher with rare access—via local government officials, journalists, and clerics—interviewing more than a hundred Islamic radicals, asking them searching questions about their inner lives, deepest faith, and what it was that ultimately drove them to jihad. Intimate and enlightening, Terrorists in Love opens a fresh window into the realm of violent extremism as Ballen profiles six of these men—from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia—revealing a universe of militancy so strange that it seems suffused with magical realism.

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Amazon Exclusive: Ken Ballen on Terrorists in Love

Terrorists in Love defies conventional thinking. Even though I had studied radicals and criminals for most of my career, when I went behind the lines, and got to know some of today's terrorists closely, everything I thought I knew was shattered. That's why I decided to write this book.

I started out as a federal prosecutor, a job in which I convicted international terrorists and then I became a Congressional investigator. From nearly two decades in this line of work, I learned a simple truth: you can really only find out about people by talking to them?in depth and at length.

So I started a non-profit organization to learn what makes people support extremism and spent five years researching and interviewing more than a hundred extremists?-in Pakistan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and throughout the Muslim world.

And what I found surprised even me. From frustrated love to mystical visions, from envy of Americans to blind hatred, here is a world so different from our own, it begs for understanding?-and a different response than what our policy makers have given so far.

I got to know Taliban soldiers, Al Qaeda suicide bombers and extremist leaders, even though I'm American and Jewish. I learned what no amount of torture or confinement of terrorists could ever tell us: what lay within their hearts. These straightforward lessons will help give us all a clearer path to defeat terrorism in our times-?and build better understanding across religions and cultures. --Ken Ballen

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Excerpt

1

AHMAD’S TRIP TO HEAVEN AND BACK

CNN LED the news on Christmas Day 2004:

On the heels of a visit to Iraq by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a fuel truck driven by a suicide bomber exploded Friday in western Baghdad….

At least eight people were killed and 20 others wounded by the explosion…. Fifteen people, including women and children, were in critical condition, and many had suffered severe burns, hospital officials said…. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. The title of the book is Terrorists in Love. How does love—or the lack of love—play a role in each of these stories? Why do you think Ballen gave the book this title? Do you think it the best title to encompass the stories?

2. Dreams play an important role in Ballen’s accounts of these six very different individuals. Discuss the “true night dreams” that were most salient (whether Malik the seer’s, Kamal’s utopian future, or even Ballen’s own table-turning dream with Shaheed). How important are dreams and mystical jinn to the radical movement?

3. Compare the different upbringings of the people profiled. Consider Ahmad’s differing relationships with his father, mother, and grandfather; Abby’s fast love with Maryam, and Kamal’s privileged bloodline, in your response. What role does childhood play in forming these current and reformed terrorists? In your opinion, do formative moments of youth account for their commitment to jihad?

4. After reading these stories, how do you interpret radical jihad as it relates to orthodox Muslim practice? How are terrorist groups, like Al Qaeda and the Taliban, distorting the Quran’s message, or following it?

5. Zeddy cites his mission to die for God as rooted in a “logic of emotion” (p. 125). How does emotion affect the six radicals’ initial pledge to terror?

6. Of Malik, Mullah Omar’s personal seer, Ballen writes: “He just wanted to do God’s work. He had fought for jihad too but kept wondering who the real enemies of God were now” (p. 109). Why do you think his interactions with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers made him feel differently about his mission?

7. Discuss the various ways in which these radicals’ opinions about holy war and terror changed over time. Can you attribute their transformed attitudes to one specific incident or moment, like a new interpretation of the Quran or a realization of equality and compassion? Why or why not?

8. Some of the interviewees are murderers and terrorists. How do their accounts change your view of the Muslim radical? Did you feel any sympathy or compassion for any of the six individuals profiled? Can you “forgive” them, knowing what you now do about their struggles and paths? Why or why not?

9. Of Kamal, Ballen writes: “He now began to see that Al Qaeda’s jihad fell short. Despite bin Laden’s sacrifices, his jihad wasn’t about finding the difficult struggle to better himself and others before God. Instead, Al Qaeda offered too much of a quick-and-easy path, a simple shortcut with ready-made answers that can lure someone from the long and hard true jihad of God.” After reading Terrorists in Love, do you think Kamal’s view is correct? Why or why not?

10. How have these stories of ISI corruption influenced your view of Pakistan? Consider the statement made on page 79 in your response: “Besides Saudi Arabia, Pakistan is the most important country to the future of religious extremism in the Muslim world.” Do you feel, as Zeddy suggests, that America is funding both sides of the war on terror?

11. The author poses the following question in the Afterword: “Without U.S. troops in Iraq, would Ahmad ever gone off to fight? (p. 295).” Discuss the role of American policy in fomenting radicalism as it relates to the radicals Ballen profiles in Terrorists in Love.

12. “Hope is as real as the hateful ideology of the terrorists” (p. 297). Do you agree? Explain your answer.

Weblinks

»	Publisher's Book Info
»	Terrorists in Love web site

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