Michelle's interview of Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

I was just watching Michelle Malkin's interview of Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, which you can listen to at Hot Air,
Gartenstein-Ross: My Year Inside Radical Islam, part 1
part 2
and I was struck by a number of things:

The first one was how similar his experience was to that of people who have joined cults. I know someone who was ensnared by a cult and their description of how they put aside their prior ethics and gladly embraced what once would have been repugnant matches very closely Gartenstein-Ross's. Gartenstein-Ross says that "my moral conception of the universe, over time, was turned upside-down", which is the almost exact term that other person used to describe their mindset.

Another thing is that this is clearly a well-educated, lucid person who had lived a life of privilege right in the middle of our country even as he was involved in a radical Islam organization, and was exposed all his life to what we regard as the ideas of the Enlightment. One can only imagine how easily someone who has only known a madrassa would embrace radical barbarism.

As an apostate he would be sentenced to death in any of the 8 nations where leaving Islam is a capital offense.

Mind you, Gartenstein-Ross, when involved in a radical Islam organization was involved with the kind of people who defend this:

• The general said it was the first time he had seen a report of insurgents using children in suicide bombings. But he said Al-Qaeda in Iraq is changing tactics in response to the tighter controls around the city.
• Sudan women to be stoned for adultery: Amnesty

  KHARTOUM: Two Sudanese women have been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery after a trial in which they had no lawyer and which used Arabic, not their first language, the rights group Amnesty International said.

• French Morrocan Tears Out Wife's Eyes After She Refuses Sex Update, Friday 23 March William sent these two links News Australia's article on the case, and Dissect the left.
• Update and this: a four-year-old girl sings about the glories of her mother, the suicide bomber.

Then there are those who blind themselves in the name of multiculturalism: Via Town Commons, A German Judge Cites Koran in Divorce Case

In January, though, a letter arrived from the judge adjudicating the case. The judge rejected the application for a speedy divorce by referring to a passage in the Koran that some have controversially interpreted to mean that a husband can beat his wife. It's a supposed right which is the subject of intense debate among Muslim scholars and clerics alike."The exercise of the right to castigate does not fulfill the hardship criteria as defined by Paragraph 1565 (of German federal law)," the daily Frankfurter Rundschau quoted the judge's letter as saying. It must be taken into account, the judge argued, that both man and wife have Moroccan backgrounds.

"The husband can beat his wife"

"The right to castigate means for me: the husband can beat his wife," Becker-Rojczyk said, interpreting the judge's verdict.

In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Becker-Rojczyk said the judge indicated to her that it makes no sense to insist on an accelerated divorce. The judge's advice? Wait for the year-long waiting period to elapse.

Gartenstein-Ross also tells of what happened when he pointed out that infibulation predates Islam. One sign of hope: the book has been well received in the American Muslim community.

Go listen to the interview.

Update
On the topic of political cults, Jeremayakovka emailed these links,
Inside Out
A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis Political Cult
Janja Lalich, Ph.D. website on Cult Information and Recovery Resources
and his own experience, PART IV. A FORMER FOLLOWER OF NEWMAN AND FULANI SPEAKS OUT
Read every word. I do not exaggerate when I say this (i.e., radical Islam) is a cult of death.