Most people are not self aware and are really bad at figuring out the true reasons why they do what they do. A lot of the time what they think (or say) is their motive is really little more than a cover for what else is going on in there.
Consider this before we all have a collective fit about what this person or that is doing in the name of their religion or ideology or race or whatever. Consider it again when you feel you need to dissect the religion or ideology or race to find the roots of criminality.
I know this is less cathartic than many wish, but then if something feels too readily cathartic it's quite often a trap.
Seventeen years ago when I got radicalized I actually thought I was defending Islam. Now it's just way too obvious that I had crises of identity, belonging and purpose and I was angry and afraid. To unpack my radicalization I had to dig into myself and my complexes, not "Islam".
In fact sometimes I wonder how I'd talk to my much younger self if I could go back in time and have a few long walks with him, knowing what I know about him. Keeping the conversation centered around ideology would be a certain way to keep him radicalized (or radicalize him more)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @iyad_elbaghdadi

16 Oct
I'm a Palestinian and I want my Iranian sisters & brothers to live in dignity with a government that centers them and represents them - not one that robs and beats them. I am disgusted whenever dictators use the Palestinian cause as a washcloth to wipe the blood off their hands
Dictators are very aware of their morality deficit and so grab onto anything and everything that could make them look more moral, and that includes instrumentalizing moral causes. Our job as Palestinians is to reject that instrumentalization. It does not benefit our cause.
How do you think I feel as a Palestinian when I know that a Syrian sister or brother were tortured at the "Palestine branch", or that some of my Syrian sisters and brothers lost their homes thanks to the Al Quds force? As Palestinians we need to stay no.
Read 4 tweets
16 Oct
This is literally the narrative being employed now - that Palestinians do not come from Palestine. How do we even begin to find common ground with an extremist movement that denies our very existence?
Note the essentialization (i.e. the racism) of it; the idea that all Arabic speaking people are interchangeable and if you're Arabic speaking you might as well be uprooted from Iraq and cast into the Algerian desert and you don't get to complain coz it's all Arabs anyway
This is like saying that someone from New Zealand can be uprooted and then sent to a refugee camp in Guyana and it's all fine and dandy because they're both English speaking countries where some of the population are of European descent so they're just the same people
Read 6 tweets
15 Oct
How many of you woke up this morning to find that a political foundation in a European country deems your very existence to be an act of hate? Good morning to you too
Yesterday I observed a special day - the day I met my son for the first time. It was in Kuala Lumpur airport in 2014 and he was 4 months old. I was arrested two months before he was born, and subsequently expelled into nowhere, because I was Palestinian
The authorities in the UAE said I have to "go back where I came from". I was Palestinian, so I ended up in prison and then living in an airport. Palestinian pain is real, Palestinian trauma is real, but somehow they say we don't exist except as an act of hate.
Read 4 tweets
14 Oct
Quick note: Everybody seems to hate MBS now, everyone is taking turns dumping on him. Meanwhile my team was working on this back in 2016/2017 when this work was frustrating and dangerous and when everybody wanted to believe MBS is the new "liberal reformer" who can civilize us
This isn't a statement about MBS but really about our work at @Kawaakibi. We do the hard work on the most frustrating subjects and we have a high tolerance for personal risk. We do this work so that in 2 or 4 or 10 years everyone can do it safely and even joyfully.
You can only imagine where we have our eyes set now. Again, it's on topics on which everybody wants to believe otherwise - it's the work that's frustrating and dangerous. We do this work today, and will be doing it for years, so that by 2025 what is niche today becomes mainstream
Read 5 tweets
13 Oct
Hi guys, I need some help with a Canadian visa application which would enable me to see my family, who I haven't seen for a while. They're refugees in Canada and I'm a refugee in Norway. Going through the official website, I'm despairing. Can someone help? DM me.
Canada gave asylum to my family after the direct threats against my life in 2019. It's kinda obscene that now I can't see them because of Canadian visa rules and how they apply to stateless refugees.
All members of my family have PTSD and my father is in poor mental health. I'm really despairing here.
Read 6 tweets
11 Oct
The lowest scum on earth are those who lecture the subjugated masses about how they need to be more tolerant and less hateful of their subjugators even as those subjugators are standing on their necks and sticking a bayonet in their back.
We will outlast you. If you think your lies will erase us, think again. You think this is the last chapter in the story? No, this is a new generation, you have never faced anything like us before, and we're only getting started.
My parents never once told me to "hate Israel". All they did was tell me where I'm from, where they're from, and what happened to us. Why we have no country, why we're refugees, and why we can't go back home.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!