The State We're In, 26 March 2011. A man fought jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan until he realised how extremists had hijacked the term. Now he’s fighting a war of ideas against the radical view of jihad. A Swedish man loses his family in the tsunami of 2004. But he was joyfully shocked by finding a new wife and starting a new family. A woman in Australia is traumatised by a mass murder, losing her musical abilities. But she regains them after she takes up... shooting lessons. Photo: Pigge Werkelin sitting on the coffin containing the body of his wife Ulrika.
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Taking back jihad
Noman Benotman spent five years as a jihadist fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Until he realised that the concept of jihad had been perverted – and he told Osama Bin Laden and his followers so - straight to their faces. Now he’s waging a war of ideas against the extremist version of jihad, and tells host Jonathan Groubert why he believes he’ll win.
Fighting words
Noman Benotman and other Muslim thinkers have created a 400-page text arguing against the extremist version of jihad. He hopes it may help change the course of history. To read more on "Corrective Studies in Understanding Jihad", visit the Quilliam Foundation website.
More on Noman Benotman from TSWI.
Tsumami family
Pigge Werkelin survived the tsunami that hit South East Asia in 2004. His wife and two young sons did not. Pigge returned to Sweden to an unbearably lonely life. He tells Jonathan how he managed to find a new wife and start a new family. Pigge Werkelin talks about his new wife and the new family life he now leads.
Shooting therapy
Penelope Bergen lived near Port Arthur, Australia where a gunman massacred 35 people in 1996. The trauma ruined her ability to play orchestral music and affected virtually every aspect of her life. But three years later, she did something surprising: she took up shooting lessons. And now, she feels the worst of the trauma is behind her.
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I am always amazed at the insightful, poignant way in which you interview subjects, such as Pigge Werkelin. Beautifully done.
I have faced grief and bereavement, moving to care for palliative parents 430 km away. I have not handled it as well as Mr. Werkelin, who lost immediate family.
Thanks, Jennifer. Your own comments are also poignant. All the best to you. Greg, Editor TSWI
Hi Eileen: thanks for your comments. In what part(s) of his conversation with Noman Benotman did you find Jonathan astonished/naive? Greg, Editor TSWI
I am astonished that Jonathan Groubert seemed so astonished at the articulate, reasonable presentation of Noman Benotman! Groubert acted as if this was a wholly novel concept -- a man who had been through a change in his own understanding of the meaning of Islam, with the courage to express his understanding to the world. I lived in North Africa and know that the majority of Muslim people are eminently reasonable, sensible, compassionate, educated, peaceful fellow human beings. This man's views would come as no surprise to any rational Middle Easterner. The American/Western press needs to do its homework, get out there and meet the Middle Eastern world, study it, learn it. We are fed a lot of false information.....by whom? And we buy into a lot of it. Why, Mr. Groubert, are you so naive?
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