And speaking of changers … meet Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
As part of yesterday’s roundup, I linked to this lengthy piece on Robert Malley, negotiator with Iran for Obama and then Biden. Afterwards, I noticed the name of the author of the Malley article: Hussein Aboubakr Mansour. I became curious what his story might be, and I found this:
[Mansour] was born in Cairo and raised in a traditional Arab Muslim family. But by the age of 11, Hussein Aboubakr Mansour became radicalized and aspired to jihadism. Hear the unusual story of one man’s journey from innocence to hate to political prisoner and ultimately, to life in America and steadfast support for Israel.
Now, that seemed to be a change story worth telling. And here it is. I found his tale absolutely riveting. The interview is at the site, and I strongly suggest you listen. An excerpt:
[The process of change] was slow and painful because everything I thought about reality was being uprooted, including my own identity structure … I realized that I knew nothing, which is a terrifying idea. What was even more terrifying was that I realized that the adults around me – they also knew nothing.
There’s something that was happening [to me] that I could not stop … It’s kind of discovering that … I don’t know anything; I have to find out.”
A really intelligent and fascinating man.
Mansour has also written a memoir, which you can find here.
I’d watch a movie that tells that story. Maybe the people who made “Sound of Freedom” will pick it up…
Too bad his book isn’t available as an e-book. Looks like a good read. (Due to thicker fonts available on e-books, I prefer e-books)
He’s an amazing writer. His writing makes me think of Joseph Conrad: Enormous talent writing in his non-native language. I followed him on Facebook for awhile but he left Facebook when he went to grad school. I haven’t read much by him in awhile.
Apparently, there is a film: https://www.standwithus.com/minority-of-one
Amazon says the book is out of print and unavailable (at least through any of their sellers).
[The process of change] was slow and painful because everything I thought about reality was being uprooted, including my own identity structure … I realized that I knew nothing, which is a terrifying idea. What was even more terrifying was that I realized that the adults around me – they also knew nothing.
–Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
________________________________
I’m quoting that and bolding it.
A gripe I have about conservatives….
From what I can tell most conservatives have never Gone To Zero and hoped there was a place they might emerge on the Other Side.
It’s not a walk in the park. It’s not necessarily a Happy Ending.
I’m persuaded conservatives have the superior belief system, but if that fell through, I don’t assume conservatives would handle the crisis any better than today’s Democrats.
You might find it here:
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/minority-of-one-the-unchaining-of-an-arab-mind
huxley,
I’m not sure your criticism of Conservatives is well founded. Your statement may be correct, but only because most people are unwilling to make that journey and Conservatives are a subset of “most people.”
Also, I, perhaps similar to you, am someone who needs to “go to zero” to figure things out, but I know some people as plugged in as I (and many who are more plugged in) that didn’t have to make that journey in that way to figure things out. I think you show prejudice to what worked for you but it may not be the only viable path.
However, I do agree that too many who are ignorant choose comfort over honesty.
@ huxley > “From what I can tell most conservatives have never Gone To Zero and hoped there was a place they might emerge on the Other Side.”
A lot of Christian conversion stories start that way.
This isn’t to say that all Christians are conservatives, or vice versa, but “I got so low there was no where to go but up — with the help of Christ” is a frequent testimony.
@ Rufus > “didn’t have to make that journey in that way to figure things out”
If I may propose a brief maxim: If you are already traveling the right path, you don’t have to go back to Square One to get on it.
Although, certainly, many people (me included) sometimes wander off the path from time to time and need help getting back on it, even if we don’t end up doing Chutes-and-Ladders all the way back to Start.
@ SueK > Great suggestion; however, it’s back-ordered there, new copy only.
I wonder if the publisher was leaned on to quash it, or if it’s selling so fast they can’t keep up with the orders?
They do have Harry Potter books in stock, and C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which I highly recommend.
I know what you’re saying, huxley. My experience wasn’t quite going to zero, but when I was recruiting Navy pilots at colleges in California, my first visit was like being thrown in a pool of mud. I was not expecting to be treated like a war criminal. Yet, there it was, students and faculty protesting our presence with hatred. I had never seen or experienced anything similar in my previous 33 years.
I was relatively apolitical at that time. Tended to vote R but was open to other ideas. It upended my world view in a way I hadn’t experienced. Over the next year and a half, I read everything I could get my hands on about the protestors and what they believed and why they hated their own countrymen. Always asking myself, “Are they right? Have I got it all wrong?”
At that point in history, the results of the competition between some Communist nations (Mao’s China, East Germany, and North Korea) and their neighbors (Taiwan, West Germany, and South Korea) as to which system provided the best life to the most people was not as clear as it is today. However, between West and East Germany it was becoming pretty clear that the Communist system didn’t work. That directed me to believing I was right.
Now, we all know that Communism failed in every instance. And that is what I hung my hat on. I was satisfied that these students were basically dupes. We were fighting to give the South Vietnamese the same opportunity for freedom as the people of South Korea got.
Our abandonment of the South Vietnamese was a tragedy that led to a lot of Communist induced human suffering in SE Asia. And that made me even more certain I was on the right side. (Of politics and history.)
Anyway, I was better off for having had to confront those issues.
Re: Huxley
One does not first have to “go to zero” to emerge on the “other” (or same?) side.
One need only to have an open mind and never stop asking questions.
Initially Mansour just believed; he questioned nothing. Just believing what you hear and see is easy; you don’t have to think. You can literally turn off your brain. How convenient, how easy.
I am convinced that many (most?) folks just do not want to bother thinking when it comes to any sort of political ideology.
Why?
Mansour said it best; “……because everything I thought about reality was being uprooted, including my own identity structure.”
Strongly held political views are part and parcel of one’s identity which is why trying to talk to, say, a liberal progressive is a hopeless task. Questioning their political beliefs , for them, is akin to questioning their vision of reality and that is ground that is not to be trod upon. No wonder they literally get angry when you question their political or socio-economic belief system.
Mansour’s experience also demonstrates the power of non-stop propaganda. If done properly, it will have folks believe anything at all; it’s like Sominex for the brain.
The allegory about whether or not to kick over the wall before wondering why it was built is not a “belief system”. There are no facts, no philosophies, no essays on the issue.
Whoever wrote it–Lewis?–was simply saying what most sensible people believed and did.
It is the next step, how and why, whether the original reason still holds, that sort of thing, is where belief systems, issues of fact, come in.
That was Chesterton, “Do not remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.”
There was also Donald Kingsbury: “Tradition is a set of solutions for which we have forgotten the problems.”
Neither implies we should just accept the status quo, only that we should be thoughtful about upending it. Edmund Burke expressed similar thoughts about the French Revolution.