Jihad and the World

Hello and welcome to Jihad and the World, a product of Kensington Security Consulting, where we bring education to national security. The author is Mark Silinsky. This episode is part of a series on Muslim-non-Muslim relations in Europe. This is a Polaroid of France, two years 50 years apart, namely 1968 and 2018. We selected these years because the 50-year difference offers a quick, though very incomplete, picture of France’s demographic and cultural transformation. Future Jihad and the West will feature podcasts that offer examples of friction between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe. So, now let’s turn to France in 1968.  
“Egalité! Liberté! Sexualité! A fun take on “1968” values
France erupted in protests in 1968. A general strike spread across factories and industries nationwide, shutting down businesses, airports, public transit, and newspapers. Revolutionary students temporarily seized the Paris Stock Exchange and raised a red flag atop the building. President de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and called for national elections. Nothing like this had occurred in recent history. The philosopher Jacques Derrida was developing a uniquely French school of Critical Theory. Michel Foucault, well into middle age, was enjoying his fame as a leading left-wing philosopher. He returned to Paris from Tunis, where he was teaching, and was warmly received by the left. His essays are still widely read in Europe and the United States.
At the Grenoble Olympics, French hero Jean-Claude Killy won the downhill skiing event. The 1968 Winter Olympics also marked the first time officials conducted gender and doping tests at the Winter Games. Popular movies that year included Roger Vadim’s “Barbarella,” Claude Chabrol’s Les Biches, and François Truffaut’s “The Bride Wore Black.” Patrick Modiano wrote his debut novel, “La Place de l'Etoile,” in 1968. In 2014, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for this work. French fashion was dominated by Christian Dior, Lanvin, Ungaro, and Yves Saint Laurent. However, American-style blue jeans became popular among young, more rebellious people, leading to the phasing out of school uniforms in 1968.
For decades, tourism has been a key source of national income. The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Orsay Museum, the Arc de Triomphe, the restaurants, nightclubs, and walking tours drew millions of visitors. Disneyland Paris would not open until 1992. “The happiest place on earth.” By 1968, Muslims, especially those from North Africa, had found new, though not necessarily comfortable, homes in the French "banlieues," or impoverished, government-funded suburbs. But as in Britain, many Muslims had prospered in France by 1968, even though many did not feel fully French. Others, meanwhile, were curious about the social and sexual freedoms in France that were unthinkable in the Islamic world.
2018
Paris, the “City of Love,” had changed over 50 years. Officials built a protective barrier around the Eiffel Tower. But that did not stop angry extremists from breaching the defenses and shouting “Allah akhbar” in an attempt to kill a soldier in 2017. Disneyland Paris hotels require body scanning for its guests. Outside the Louvre museum, a machete-wielding man shouting “Allahu Akbar” attacked Korean tourists.
All this gave Paris a new infamy as one of the world’s most dangerous capitals, hurting tourist revenue. Many tourists booked vacations elsewhere because of constant headlines about killings there. In summer 2016, families celebrating a national holiday near the French Riviera were run over by a Jihadist in a 20-ton truck. One year earlier, Islamists shot and gutted satirists like sheep for drawing cartoons of Mohammed. A trendy Parisian nightclub became a slaughterhouse when Islamists fired automatic rifle shots into the crowd. Ninety people were killed on the Bataclan floor. The decline in tourism was especially hard on France because tourism accounted for 9% of its gross domestic product in 2015. As a result, Paris lost 1.5 million tourists in 2016.
Fashion has changed over the past 50 years. French women's hairstyles, such as Brigitte Bardot's pompadours and Catherine Deneuve's looks, came in and went out of style. The bikini remained popular, but a new swimwear option was introduced for French Muslim women: the "burkini"—part burqa, part bikini. One enduring fashion became too risky for many men to wear: the leader of Marseille’s Jewish community urged male Jews to stop wearing the skullcap, or kippah, “until better days,” to avoid being beaten by Muslims.
By 2018, many parts of Paris felt Middle Eastern. In Paris bars and coffee shops, men played cards and bet on horse races—women were not welcome. “Au Jockey Club” is clearly a male-only space, but it serves alcohol and resembles a high-street bookmaker more than a place for Islamists. Licensed as a betting shop, it mainly drew French Arab patrons who watched intently on giant screens showing races from Deauville.
The banlieues remain a world apart. The public housing projects that surround French cities, known as the banlieues, led to the declaration of a state of emergency. Since then, as much as €35 billion ($48 billion) has been spent demolishing grim 1960s tower blocks and replacing them with lower-rise housing, complete with landscaped paths and trees. New glass office buildings have emerged in low-rent business districts. Gilles Kepel, an Arab specialist, and a team of researchers spent a year in two areas northeast of Paris. The French are sensitive to such empirical studies, not only because they may be exploited by the far-right—Marine Le Pen of the National Front criticizes the "occupation" of the streets by Muslims during Friday prayers—but also because cultural explanations of immigrant behavior often clash with the belief in the integration model. And today? How are relations in France today? Have things gotten better? We will see in future podcasts.
This concludes this episode of Jihad and the World. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe and consider giving a like. Also, our latest book, “Cauldron of Terror – Hamas, Israel, and the World,” will be available for purchase in summer 2026. This podcast does not reflect the official position of the United States government. Thank you for listening. Until our next podcast, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting.

Tariq Ramadan – The Search for Moderate Islam in the Ivy Halls of Europe
 
One scholar of Islam whose star has risen and fallen is Tarik Ramadan, who shot to movie-star fame among Europe’s burgeoning Islamic population, particularly its young. He garnered a large following among young Muslims and helped establish what has been called the European "Muslim Pride" movement, similar to Black Pride in the US during the 1960s. His rise in the European academy was as astonishing as his influence. So, who is this Tarik Ramadan?
Well, Ramadan was born in 1962 in Switzerland. His parents were native Egyptians, and his father, particularly his paternal grandfather, was heavily involved in the Muslim Brotherhood. So he grew up in an eclectic environment. In his words, he is “Swiss by nationality, Muslim by religion, Egyptian by memory.” And what is he “by politics”? Was he Muslim Brotherhood by politics? Perhaps he was a moderate Muslim whose political philosophy could be used to tame the more vocal elements of Europe’s Muslim population. Many Westerners found this very attractive. Ramadan stressed what he called “points of intersection” between Muslim and Western civilizations. But some observers of the Euro-Muslim scene were skeptical of his sincerity.
First, fairly or unfairly, they point to his bloodlines. He is Islamist royalty – his maternal grandfather, Hasan al-Banna, founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928. We at Kensington Security Consulting have spoken at length about the Muslim Brotherhood. For now, we argue that the Muslim Brotherhood is the fountainhead of political Islam in the 20th Century. Tarik’s father, Said Ramadan, was heavily involved with the Brotherhood. So, should this, in any way, sully the image of Tarik Ramadan? No. But his critics point to his hagiographic books, articles, and speeches about these men. Nobody can choose their father or grandfather, but we can distance ourselves from their actions and ideas.
In any case, Ramadan became a celebrity among the West’s intelligentsia some thirty years ago. He cast Islam as misunderstood and Muslims as victims of Islamophobia. As for the blood-curdling chants of death to the Jews and Americans, he assured his Western listeners that these were aberrations and extremist. But he cautioned that the few extremists were empowered by Western policies, particularly untethered bigotry against Muslims, the failure to curb insulting comments about Islam and its prophet, and support for Israel. Absent all three of these maladies, Muslims and Westerners would be free of much of the cultural friction that grinds away at relations. And what about Islamic views on women, non-believers, and gays? What about the prohibition of leaving Islam? What about stoning women for adultery? He suggested a "moratorium" on the stoning of adulterers. This concerned a few feminists. Why didn’t he simply state that women should not be stoned to death, period? Well, Ramadan assures the West that Islam is much more tolerant than is understood.
Well, the West’s smart set liked what it heard. Time magazine named him one of the world's top hundred intellectuals in 2004. And listed to what it wrote, “ Few observers deny the seductive brilliance of Swiss philosopher and Islamic theoretician Tariq Ramadan, but disagreement over his true agenda is ferocious.” Yes, many people would agree with that assessment. He did have a “seductive brilliance,” as proven by his large following. And the second part of the sentence is equally true. There is a ferocious disagreement over his true and one journalist who has thought about this carefully is Caroline Fourest.
Caroline Fourest, a French feminist writer and journalist, has written many books on topics such as the conservative right, the pro-life movement, and religion. Fourest examined Ramadan’s lectures, books, and public pronouncements to understand his true political philosophy. The task was difficult, and she found what she called a “double discourse.” One set of ideas was proffered to a French, Western audience, and another to Europe’s Muslims.
She cites a handbook titled “Comprehension, Terminology and Discourse,” edited and largely written by Ramadan. “For each word,” Mme. Fourest writes, “the book explains how the word could be understood by Westerners and proposes a ‘conceptual formulation.’” Other observers argue much the same thing in plainer language. Ramadan practices double-talk to deceive Western audiences. Fourest presents many examples with extensive citations. These detailed citations show that Ramadan advocates very fundamentalist principles.
            Other times, his thoughts sound like mistranslations. On British television, he responded to the question of whether it was acceptable to kill children. His answer, “I don't believe that an eight-year-old child is a soldier. These acts are condemnable; therefore, one has to condemn them in themselves. But I say to the international community that they are contextually explicable, and not justifiable.” What does he mean by “contextually explicable?” Many were confused.
Well, confused or not, Notre Dame offered him a prestigious, full-time professorship at the Kroc Institute. However, the Department of Homeland Security scotched the offer by revoking his visa on the grounds of his associations with extremist organizations. A Notre Dame spokesman responded, “We know of no reason why he shouldn’t be allowed in. If we did, we wouldn’t have hired him.” However, “The fact that it was revoked at the 11th hour seems like a calculated political move by his opponents.”
Well, Oxford University hired him for a position in which he later developed a large following. At the time, Daniel Pipes pointed out his praise for extremists and his proven associations with them. He noted that France banned him from entering in 1996 on suspicion of links to an Algerian Islamist who had recently launched a terrorist campaign in Paris. He also revealed some of the circumlocution and babble that Ramadan excels at. Along with nearly all Islamists, Mr. Ramadan has denied that there is "any certain proof" that Bin Laden was behind 9/11. He publicly refers to the Islamist atrocities of 9/11, Bali, and Madrid as "interventions.” Interventions? Why not a full-throated condemnation of the attacks? Why not call them terrorist attacks?
Over the past 20 years, he has moved between universities. In the United States, his visa revocation was lifted, and he spoke at Cooper Union in New York City in 2010. But then came charges of rape. A blizzard of charges began in 2017. A 45-year-old disabled French convert accused him of rape. Then came four Swiss women. In November 2017, Oxford asked him to leave. When he went to France, he was arrested on charges of rape. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 18 years in prison. To boot, he has multiple sclerosis, so his stay in a French prison will likely be agonizing. What to make of all this?
            Well, this was the worst possible timing for Ramanda. It coincided with the middle of the Me Too movement, when many women were very vocal in their accusations. He faced the same scrutiny and fate as Oscar Wilde. Wilde had an impressive, very literary following. But when the charges and scandal hit, they abandoned him, and Wilde died in genteel poverty in Paris, pathetically alone. Epstein, Maxwell, and others suffered the same fate. Years after his death, Wilde was rediscovered and rehabilitated. But his satire was timeless. It may be that someone will rediscover Ramanda’s writings and find gravitas among them. I doubt it. His message is today worn and unpersuasive. In any case, he will have years to philosophize and reflect on how he treated women who look to him for spiritual guidance. This concludes this episode of Jihad and the World.

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of the Western and Islamic worlds. This is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, and we begin a ten-part series called Islamo-fascism. This first episode is called, “What is Islamo-fascism?” It examines the intersection of Islam and fascism.
Of all the unanswered questions of our time, perhaps the most important is: ‘What is Fascism?’” George Orwell, “What is Fascism?” 1944
Without success, George Orwell struggled to define “fascism.” He served with communists during the Spanish Civil War, barely surviving a bullet that grazed his neck. During the fight, he and others referred to Francisco’s Franco soldiers as fascists. Over time and reflection, he found similarities between the core principles of fascism and Stalinism. He despaired of finding an adequate definition of fascism. Orwell explained, “I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers . . . corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting . . . astrology, women, dogs, and I do not know what else.”
Today, defining fascism remains challenging. According to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s grandson Caio Mussolini, “You can’t define it as good or bad . . . The era of Italian fascism was a complicated, nuanced period.” Other writers avoid classifying fascism as either right- or left-leaning on the standard political spectrum. Many commentators use the term fascist interchangeably with far-right politics. However, journalist Jonah Goldberg popularized the term “liberal fascism,” citing progressive President Woodrow Wilson’s Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 as serious attacks on U.S. civil liberties.
The political philosophy of fascism was first developed during World War I by Giovanni Gentile. His slogan was, “All within the state; none outside the state; none against the state.” The first fascist movement to come to power was Mussolini's Blackshirts in Italy in 1922. For George Orwell and other political analysts, it was not easy to categorize Germany, Japan, and Italy under the same political framework. During World War II, the Soviet Union labeled the German military and political systems as fascist enterprises. Hitler admired fascism but considered National Socialism a distinct, yet related, political ideology.
When fascism took root in Europe in the 1920s, Islamist groups, or those groups that emphasize political and legal elements of Islam, gained a foothold in the Middle East. While different from their European counterparts, Berman notes they "had similar mythology, paranoia -- a cult of hatred and a cult of death." In the 1920s, Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood aimed to unify Muslims, expel non-Muslims, establish a unified Islamic theocracy, and crush the Zionist movement. President Bush's use of the term "Islamic Fascists" to describe al-Qaida-influenced terrorists underscores points of similarity between European fascism and the political elements of al-Qaida.
Paul Berman and Orwell pointed out that fascism and communism share important traits. They highlighted the similarities between fascist and communist governments. Journalists from the influential London newspaper, The Times, referred to the Soviet Union as a fascist country. The state controls most aspects of politics and society and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether through force or coercion. All the essentials of society must align with a leader's dictates. Colombia University Professor Robert Paxton emphasizes fascism’s focus on group identity, superiority, and victimization. James Gregor argues that ideologically diverse regimes like the Stalinist Soviet Union, Maoist China, and Fascist Italy share fascist-like traits, especially political absolutism.
During its early phases, fascism was exclusively European. Italian fascist leaders did not actively seek followers from the Islamic world. However, Hitler’s foreign office reached out to Muslims who shared hostility toward Jews and the British and French empires. Some Muslim intellectuals were drawn to National Socialism, a German combination of fascist and racial doctrines. Muslims also fought in Himmler’s SS divisions.
As European empires dissolved in the 1950s and 1960s, many Muslims turned to the Soviet Union as a model. Fascist political parties were banned in Europe, and Moscow’s anti-imperialism message resonated on university campuses in the Middle East. However, some Muslim leaders, like Haj al Amin Husseini and Anwar Sadat, remember European fascists with a nostalgic warning.
A prolonged conflict arose between religious and secular Muslims, particularly in North Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. In Iran, Islamic revolutionaries formed a new government in the early 1980s, causing responses across the Shia world. Among Sunni Muslims, long-dormant fundamentalism was revitalized and heavily financed by rulers of oil-exporting countries. Some policymakers in Washington praised Afghan fundamentalist insurgents as freedom fighters, while others remained skeptical.
Many observers were unsure how to interpret the numerous killings carried out by Muslims. Westerners hesitated to link the term fascism with Islam out of fear of appearing hostile to the religion. Journalists, politicians, and public officials avoided being seen as opposed to Islam. Fifty years after World War II, large Muslim communities remained unassimilated in European countries, especially in Britain, France, and Germany.
“Fascism with an Islamic face”
“. . . we love Adolf Hitler . . . Adolf Hitler was an Arab . . . Eva Braun is also our cousin.” Shouts of young males at a rally in Germany, 2017.
British historian Malise Ruthven described authoritarian Muslim governments in the Middle East as Islamofascist. After the September 2001 attacks in the United States, some journalists, including Stephen Schwartz and Christopher Hitchens, used the term to characterize the extreme authoritarian aspects of Islam. The late conservative Catholic commentator Joseph Sobran dismissed Islamofascism as an “empty propaganda term.” Islamofascism refers to the use of Islam as a cover for totalitarian ideology. Today, this radical phenomenon is represented among Sunni Muslims by fundamentalists like the Saudi-funded Wahhabis, Pakistani jihadists known as Jama’atis, and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Shia Islamofascism is exemplified by Hezbollah in Lebanon and the group around the revolving leaders of Iran.
But the term entered mainstream media when President George W. Bush referred to a thwarted suicide attack on airplanes as “a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists.” President Bush used the term on October 6, 2001, when speaking to the National Endowment for Democracy. He described this "murderous ideology" of Islamic radicals as "the great challenge of our new century."
But the answer was anything but simple. Some academics favored the term "Islamism," but Bush's aides thought it sounded too much like America was fighting the entire religion. Another option was jihadism, which many Muslims see as a positive word that doesn't necessarily bring to mind bloodshed. Some preferred the conservative buzzword "Islamofascism," which was catchy and fit well with Bush's historical view of the struggle.
But when national-security adviser Steve Hadley called the CIA, the Pentagon, and the State Department, the experts rejected the idea of using a single phrase for such a complex war. "There was a conscious desire not to use just one definitive word, because there wasn't a perfect one," recalls Michael Gerson, Bush's chief speechwriter at the time. The result was a confusing mix of words. "Some call this evil Islamic radicalism," Bush explained, "others, militant jihadism; still others, Islamofascism. Whatever it's called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam."
Five years after 9/11 and more than three years after invading Iraq, President Bush is still searching for the perfect phrase to define the enemy in the war on terror—and to reassure Americans who will soon head to the polls. Other Republicans—including former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum adopted "Islamofascism" as shorthand for terrorists. The term gained currency in the early '90s in reference to radical Muslim clerics and was popularized after 9/11 by neocons.
In the same year that President Bush compared Islamism to fascism, the top U.S. military official in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, compared the rise of Islamist ideologies to the explosion of fascism in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. He stressed the importance of confronting it. ‘If we don’t have enough guts to confront this ideology today, we’ll go through World War Three tomorrow.’ Abizaid gave this speech at Harvard University.
Another military official, Colonel Dale C. Eikmeier from the U.S. Army War College, stated that Qutbism is a variant of ‘Islamic-Fascism,’ and the ‘War on Terrorism’ is also a war against ‘Islamic-Fascists’. Intellectuals such as Norman Podhoretz and Christopher Hitchens also used the term ‘Islamofascism’ to describe al-Qaida-and other jihadist groups. Podhoretz warned that the West will need to fight a ‘fourth world war’ against the ‘Islamofascists’, while Hitchens defended ‘Islamofascism’ as a valid term and more than merely propaganda for the Bush regime. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the USA, Hitchens argued that al-Qaida-represented a ‘fascism with an Islamic face’. In 2007, the neo-conservative activist David Horowitz launched a series of lectures and protests on college campuses in the USA under the banner of ‘Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week’, which led to accusations of Islamophobia by some Muslim students and anti-racist groups. Decades later, the debate still rages, which is the subject of the podcasts you will soon here.
Thank you for listening to this first, episode of Islamo-fascism. Our latest book, Cauldron of Terror – Hamas, Israel, and the World, will be available for purchase in July 2026. This podcast does not reflect the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting.

Hello and welcome to the podcast Empire of Terror. Its author is Mark Silinsky, president of Kensington Security Consulting. This episode is a follow-up to the reading of the book by that name. It is called A Tale of Two Persians. It drills into the story of a very fashionable, if emotionally unstable, Iranian woman who is being defenestrated by U.S. immigration officials. She and her daughter have clearly worn out their welcome in the United States. It also examines the confusing case of a cancer researcher linked by blood to the Laranjani clan in Iran. Both women hail from Iranian revolutionary royalty.
Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and her 25-year-old daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, have been in the news a lot lately. This scantily dressed pair is quite the fashion plates in Los Angeles. The two were issued deportation notices and are currently detained by ICE. So, what gives? In particular, who is Mom - Hamideh Soleimani Afshar? Why is she being deported? This is the answer offered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio:
“Until recently, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were green card holders living lavishly in the United States. Afshar is the niece of the deceased Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. She is also an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the "Great Satan." This week, I terminated both Afshar and her daughter's legal status, and they are now in ICE custody, pending removal from the United States. The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”
How did all this happen? Afshar entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in June 2015, was granted asylum in 2019, and obtained her green card in 2021. On the surface, she appeared to be a credible candidate. But when the surface was scratched, many problems emerged. In a 2025 naturalization application, Afshar disclosed that she had visited Iran four times since receiving her green card. “Her trips to Iran illustrate that her asylum claims were fraudulent,” a DHS official said. She also has an Iranian revolutionary pedigree. She is the niece of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's expeditionary force. Soleimani, known as “supermani,” was killed in a deadly 2020 U.S. airstrike. This was not necessarily disqualifying. But her shrill anti-American rhetoric seems to echo that of her uncle and the regime he fought for.
According to the State Department, Soleimani Afshar, a prolific social media user, referred to the US as the “Great Satan” and celebrated attacks on US soldiers in the Middle East. The New York Post reported that Soleimani Afshar published messages of support for the Iranian regime, including since the ongoing war that started in February, and welcomed the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader to take over from his father, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israel campaign.
Then there is her temper.
She is also hot-headed and prone to emotional outbursts. After she was incarcerated in a federal deportation center, she reached out to an old beau, who refused to take her call. He claimed she abused and kicked him. In his words, “I don’t want anything to do with her. She scares me. I was so afraid of her. She knows how to make herself seem like an angel, and you feel like the devil. I wanted someone to take her away – now it’s happened.” Perhaps her impulsivity stems from unresolved issues with her father, as this old boyfriend speculated. “She takes advantage of every man she knows. She was saying ‘I love you,’ but I was so afraid. She said I reminded her of her dad. All these years, I was suffering. I wanted to have my life back.”
And be careful with her hair. Her LA hairdresser obtained a five-year restraining order against her, claiming she became unhinged and stalked him at his home. “Thank God,” he said, exasperated, upon hearing of her ice arrest. “That’s good. She’s a stalker.”
Others who do not know her personally resent her perceived hypocrisy. She gives full-throated support to the Revolutionary regime, which would have little time for her shopping sprees on Rodeo Drive. Others, particularly Iranians who have built new homes in the United States, are part of Los Angeles’s thriving Iranian-American community, most of which views the Revolutionary regime as a toxic force. They cannot understand her cheerleading for a regime that might toss acid in her face if she wore the pink poodle dress she displays on her TikTok account. A neighbor said, “She also drove a black Tesla, which on Saturday was stuffed with luxury goods, including a Miss Dior bag, some Hermes cushions, a Sephora makeup bag, and another gray leather handbag in the front seat.”
What do others think about the deportation? The Persian princess did not receive much support online. One Internet observer cautions, “Enter kooky, leftist judge to put the kybosh on this endeavor.” Another observer, Infidel, says, “Well done, Sec Rubio, for revoking their Green Cards. Now that the template has been set, maybe his department can also revoke the Green Cards of every Islamic activist there in the UK. And also work w/ DHS to see whether Ilhan Omar’s fraudulent citizenship can be revoked?”
The move comes just days after Emory University fired Fatemeh Ardeshir Larijani. If the name sounds familiar, it is because she is the daughter of former Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and the wife of Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. As with the Soleimani clan, the Larijani offspring cannot be held responsible for their parents' behavior. But was it Fatemeh's behavior that earned her the door? A physician, Dr. Larijani, was an assistant professor at Emory’s prestigious Winship Cancer Institute. No longer. After 100,000 people signed a petition calling for her deportation, she was notified that she had to leave. How influential was this petition or other popular efforts in the decision to dismiss her? We at Kensington do not know. But we are concerned because, despite searching the Internet, we could not find much valuable material. The university released this memo: “Emory is committed to advancing patient care, research, and education. Our employees are hired in full compliance with state and federal laws and other applicable requirements.” OK, fair enough. This is standard bureaucratic piffle. But why did they fire her? Here we can only speculate.
Emory may have uncovered something serious about her that they disliked. Were her comments subversive or anti-American? Maybe, but where are they? Wouldn’t someone have posted them to support the demand to fire her? Also, universities are chockablock with America-hating and anti-Semitic professors whose rants are heard all over campuses. How often are they fired? Finally, this would be a cause to celebrate for civil libertarians of all political philosophies. It is highly likely that some civil rights lawyers investigated this case. It is also likely that they determined she had neither a strong legal nor an ethical basis. Wouldn’t you agree? But we at Kensington stress that this is rank speculation. Do you have thoughts or inside baseball on this? If so, contact us at Kensington Security Consulting, and we will post your ideas. Also, you may be interested in a book we published that profiles Qasem Soleimani. The book is Empire of Terror – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
This concludes an episode of Empire of Terror, which is a service of Kensington Security Consulting. Nothing in this episode or any episode on this podcast represents the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye and thank you for listening.

Hello and welcome to the podcast of Jihad and the World, which explores the intersection of Western and Islamic Civilizations. Its author is Mark Silinsky, president of Kensington Security Consulting. This episode is called A Tale of Two Persians. It drills into the story of a very fashionable, if emotionally unstable, Iranian woman who is being defenestrated by U.S. immigration officials. She and her daughter have clearly worn out their welcome in the United States. It also examines the confusing case of a cancer researcher linked by blood to the Laranjani clan in Iran. Both women hail from Iranian revolutionary royalty.
Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and her 25-year-old daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, have been in the news a lot lately. This scantily dressed pair is quite the fashion plates in Los Angeles. The two were issued deportation notices and are currently detained by ICE. So, what gives? In particular, who is Mom - Hamideh Soleimani Afshar? Why is she being deported? This is the answer offered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio:
“Until recently, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were green card holders living lavishly in the United States. Afshar is the niece of the deceased Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. She is also an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the "Great Satan." This week, I terminated both Afshar and her daughter's legal status, and they are now in ICE custody, pending removal from the United States. The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”
How did all this happen? Afshar entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in June 2015, was granted asylum in 2019, and obtained her green card in 2021. On the surface, she appeared to be a credible candidate. But when the surface was scratched, many problems emerged. In a 2025 naturalization application, Afshar disclosed that she had visited Iran four times since receiving her green card. “Her trips to Iran illustrate that her asylum claims were fraudulent,” a DHS official said. She also has an Iranian revolutionary pedigree. She is the niece of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's expeditionary force. Soleimani, known as “supermani,” was killed in a deadly 2020 U.S. airstrike. This was not necessarily disqualifying. But her shrill anti-American rhetoric seems to echo that of her uncle and the regime he fought for.
According to the State Department, Soleimani Afshar, a prolific social media user, referred to the US as the “Great Satan” and celebrated attacks on US soldiers in the Middle East. The New York Post reported that Soleimani Afshar published messages of support for the Iranian regime, including since the ongoing war that started in February, and welcomed the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader to take over from his father, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israel campaign.
Then there is her temper.
She is also hot-headed and prone to emotional outbursts. After she was incarcerated in a federal deportation center, she reached out to an old beau, who refused to take her call. He claimed she abused and kicked him. In his words, “I don’t want anything to do with her. She scares me. I was so afraid of her. She knows how to make herself seem like an angel, and you feel like the devil. I wanted someone to take her away – now it’s happened.” Perhaps her impulsivity stems from unresolved issues with her father, as this old boyfriend speculated. “She takes advantage of every man she knows. She was saying ‘I love you,’ but I was so afraid. She said I reminded her of her dad. All these years, I was suffering. I wanted to have my life back.”
And be careful with her hair. Her LA hairdresser obtained a five-year restraining order against her, claiming she became unhinged and stalked him at his home. “Thank God,” he said, exasperated, upon hearing of her ice arrest. “That’s good. She’s a stalker.”
Others who do not know her personally resent her perceived hypocrisy. She gives full-throated support to the Revolutionary regime, which would have little time for her shopping sprees on Rodeo Drive. Others, particularly Iranians who have built new homes in the United States, are part of Los Angeles’s thriving Iranian-American community, most of which views the Revolutionary regime as a toxic force. They cannot understand her cheerleading for a regime that might toss acid in her face if she wore the pink poodle dress she displays on her TikTok account. A neighbor said, “She also drove a black Tesla, which on Saturday was stuffed with luxury goods, including a Miss Dior bag, some Hermes cushions, a Sephora makeup bag, and another gray leather handbag in the front seat.”
What do others think about the deportation? The Persian princess did not receive much support online. One Internet observer cautions, “Enter kooky, leftist judge to put the kybosh on this endeavor.” Another observer, Infidel, says, “Well done, Sec Rubio, for revoking their Green Cards. Now that the template has been set, maybe his department can also revoke the Green Cards of every Islamic activist there in the UK. And also work w/ DHS to see whether Ilhan Omar’s fraudulent citizenship can be revoked?”
The move comes just days after Emory University fired Fatemeh Ardeshir Larijani. If the name sounds familiar, it is because she is the daughter of former Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and the wife of Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. As with the Soleimani clan, the Larijani offspring cannot be held responsible for their parents' behavior. But was it Fatemeh's behavior that earned her the door? A physician, Dr. Larijani, was an assistant professor at Emory’s prestigious Winship Cancer Institute. No longer. After 100,000 people signed a petition calling for her deportation, she was notified that she had to leave. How influential was this petition or other popular efforts in the decision to dismiss her? We at Kensington do not know. But we are concerned because, despite searching the Internet, we could not find much valuable material. The university released this memo: “Emory is committed to advancing patient care, research, and education. Our employees are hired in full compliance with state and federal laws and other applicable requirements.” OK, fair enough. This is standard bureaucratic piffle. But why did they fire her? Here we can only speculate.
Emory may have uncovered something serious about her that they disliked. Were her comments subversive or anti-American? Maybe, but where are they? Wouldn’t someone have posted them to support the demand to fire her? Also, universities are chockablock with America-hating and anti-Semitic professors whose rants are heard all over campuses. How often are they fired? Finally, this would be a cause to celebrate for civil libertarians of all political philosophies. It is highly likely that some civil rights lawyers investigated this case. It is also likely that they determined she had neither a strong legal nor an ethical basis. Wouldn’t you agree? But we at Kensington stress that this is rank speculation. Do you have thoughts or inside baseball on this? If so, contact us at Kensington Security Consulting, and we will post your ideas. Also, you may be interested in a book we published that profiles Qasem Soleimani. The book is Empire of Terror – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
This concludes an episode of Jihad and the World, which is a service of Kensington Security Consulting. Nothing in this episode or any episode on this podcast represents the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye and thank you for listening.

       Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, which provides education on national security. This is Episode Three in a ten-part series about a mass murder attack at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. In this episode, we look at Hasan’s early life and early career in the U.S. Army. The series is titled “Rampage – Mass Murder at Fort Hood.”
       Hasan was born on September 8, 1970, in Arlington, Virginia, to Jordanian parents of Palestinian descent. His mother, Hanan Ismail “Nora” Hasan, was born in Israel in 1952 to an Arab family and remained dedicated to her Palestinian identity. His father, Malik Awadallah Hassan, was born in Palestine. Malik Hasan immigrated to Virginia in 1962 at age 16, and “Nora” Hasan arrived around the same time. They owned Mount Olive Grill and Bar, as well as a grocery store in the Roanoke area. The family lives on Lancelot Lane in Northwest Roanoke. They also owned the Community Grocery Store on Elm Avenue in Roanoke.
            The Hasans operated the Capitol Restaurant in the Roanoke City Market from 1987 to 1995. A local newspaper described it as “a dive beer hall and diner with a bad reputation and many down-and-out regulars.” For the next eight years, customers enjoyed greasy blue-plate specials and sipped Old Milwaukee in the worn wooden booths, while a jukebox played Motown tunes. In a 1995 interview with The Roanoke Times, Malik Hasan, Nidal's father, admitted that "the reputation of the Capitol wasn't that good." Nora died in 2001. She managed the now-closed Capitol Restaurant in the Roanoke area. According to her obituary, she was “known for her ability to keep sometimes rowdy customers out of trouble and always had a warm meal for someone who otherwise would not have anything to eat that evening,” and she was highly valued for her kindness and dedication.
        The family opened an upscale restaurant, Mount of Olives Bar and Grill, on Jefferson Street, named after his father's olive grove in Jerusalem. The restaurant featured an elegant atmosphere and served imported beers, lamb kebabs, and stuffed grape leaves. The Hasan family also owned the Hot Dog Queen on Church Avenue, Parrish Grocery on Fourth Street, and Community Grocery on Elm Avenue. Malik Hasan died in 1998 at age 52 from a massive heart attack. His wife, Nora, passed away three years later at age 49. Both were very proud of their accomplished and promising son Nidal.
            Boyhood
            Nidal Hasan spent one year at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, as a freshman in 1986 before transferring to William Flemming in Roanoke, from which he graduated in 1988. He attended Virginia Western Community College from 1990 to 1992 and graduated summa cum laude with an associate degree in science. Afterward, he enrolled at Virginia Tech as a pre-med major. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, minoring in biology and chemistry. Before attending Virginia Tech, Hasan completed coursework at both Barstow Community College in California and Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke. Hasan was not affiliated with the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets or any ROTC program at Tech.
            Hasan obtained a concealed weapons permit in 1996, according to Roanoke County Circuit Court records. The Roanoke Times archives indicate he graduated from Virginia Tech in 1995. He later attended the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, where he completed his studies in 2003. He finished his residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., in 2007. He was also a fellow at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Bethesda military medical school, specializing in disaster and preventive care psychiatry.
          “He would tell us that the military was his life," Hasan's aunt recalled. “He did not make many friends.” He was unmarried and had no children. Colleagues at Walter Reed reported he avoided contact with women. He remained a devout Muslim, praying daily at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md., sometimes arriving in his Army fatigues. Since September 11, 2001, the aunt said, he had been harassed because of his Muslim faith and sought to be discharged from the military. He even hired a lawyer to see if he could get out of the Army before his contract expired. This was his aunt’s account. Others who knew him would dispute it.
            While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan faced some "difficulties" that needed counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time. He remembered Hasan as a "mostly very quiet" person who never spoke badly about the military or his country. Others described Hasan as blunt about his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This pent-up resentment, alienation, and anger toward the United States would surface in November 2009. Hasan’s difficulties will be discussed in the next episode of Rampage – Mass Murder at Fort Hood.
        Thanks for listening to this episode of Jihad and the World. Our upcoming book, Cauldron of Terror – Hamas, Israel, and the World, will be available in July 2026. This podcast does not represent the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting. 

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the connection between Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, where we bring education to national security. Today, we start a 10-part podcast series about the mass murder at Fort Hood, which was a killing in the name of Islam carried out by an American soldier in Texas. The series is called – Rampage – Mass Murder at Fort Hood.
On the afternoon of November 5, 2009, the balding, portly 39-year-old US Army Major Nidal Hasan strolled into Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center. He turned to the only civilian in the waiting area and calmly asked her to leave. Hidden in his clothing were an FN 5-7 pistol with green and red laser sights and a .357 revolver, which he carried as a backup weapon. Also concealed were nearly two dozen magazines, each holding 20 rounds, which he claimed would be enough to ‘accomplish his mission.”
Now inside the Base, he watched soldiers talking and filling out paperwork for their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. He shouted "Allahu akbar!" and opened fire on his fellow soldiers, who were completely caught off guard. At first, Private Second Class Alan Carroll chuckled at Hasan’s Arabic shouts. Later, he would say, “I thought he was just joking around.” Another soldier thought it was a paintball game. But soon, heads turned to the pop-pop-pop of firecrackers and then to screams of pain. Unarmed and unsuspecting, Hasan’s victims were defenseless against his brutal attack.
In the chaos, some soldiers realized that they had been struck by bullets only when they saw their own blood. Others recalled the rounds feeling like sledgehammers or baseball bats slamming into them. The shots tumbled through flesh, shattered bones, and ruptured organs. Many of the injured remain haunted by the cries of dying and the acrid smell of the blood.
The first to take a bullet at 21 years old was PFC Najee Hull, who was hit twice in the back and once in the knee. He shuffled into a nearby cubicle and hid. Reservist Dorothy "Dorrie" Carskadon was shot four times while completing paperwork. Both soldiers survived. Coukoulis saw from his hiding spot that Hasan looked at his victims, some of whom “. . . just stood their ground. They didn't flinch and they didn't whimper. They were looking at fate and they knew it."
PFC Kham Xiong, 23, continued his family’s military tradition. During the Vietnam War, his father fought communists in Laos. His younger brother served in the Marines. His 8th-grade teacher recalled, “his greatest attribute was his ability to make everybody smile." Xiong was among the first to be killed at Fort Hood while waiting in line for a flu shot. Soft-spoken and determined, SSGT Amy Sue Krueger had already served in Iraq and was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. Earlier, she explained to her family, “we need more people” to serve there. Hasan shot and killed her.
Trying to make sense of the chaos, soldiers realized that the attacker was wearing an Army uniform. "He's one of ours! He's one of ours!" a female lieutenant yelled as Hasan kept spraying rounds into soldiers. Many of the bullets hit their targets. Twenty-one-year-old PVT Francheska Velez was expecting a baby. “Cheka,” as she was affectionately known, became pregnant in Iraq. Hasan shot her as she pleaded for the life of her unborn child. "My baby! My baby!" were her last words. A generation older than Cheka, LTC Juanita Warman, who was shot in the abdomen, begged to be allowed to tell her family that she loved them. She never got the chance because she died at the scene.
The gunfire continued relentlessly. Witnesses described how Hasan sprayed bullets in a fan-shaped pattern before targeting individual soldiers. Psychiatric nurse CPT Russell Seager requested to be sent to Afghanistan to help emotionally distressed combat personnel. His front-line experience gave him insight into his emotionally traumatized comrades. Now at Fort Hood, CPT Seager tried to save lives by rushing at Hasan, who shot and killed him. Eyewitness SGT Michael Davis said: "The rate of fire was pretty much constant shooting . . . it sounded like an M16." Bright red and green beams from the shooter’s laser gunsight illuminated the dust particles.
Rounds tore through backs, arms, and necks as the wounded crawled for cover. Hasan changed magazines too quickly for anyone to stop him. He had practiced at the range. But some personnel in the Center confronted the shooter. Grizzled senior Michael Grant Cahill, armed with a folding chair, charged at him, and Hasan shot him dead. The 62-year-old took six shots. Posthumously, he was awarded the Army Medal for Valor.
As a boy, soft-spoken Spc. Frederick Greene of Mountain City, TN, was active at Baker’s Gap Baptist Church. A church superintendent said, “He was one of the finest boys you ever saw.” His fellow soldiers called him the Silent Soldier because he never complained and often volunteered to help. Hasan shot him 12 times, and he died. At 19 years old, Aaron Nemelka from West Jordan, Utah, was the youngest to die. Like Frederick Greene, Nemelka was also a man of faith. PFC Nemelka was shot three times while lying on the ground.
SSG Justin Michael DeCrow was the son of a Vietnam War veteran and father to a 13-year-old daughter. He wrestled and played football in high school. But this sturdily built soldier had no defense against the bullets that killed him. MAJ Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, the youngest of seven children from a poor Mexican family that immigrated to Texas when he was a boy, put himself through college and earned a doctorate from the University of Arizona. Deeply patriotic, he pledged, “If God helps me, then I am going to help people.' He died that day on the killing floor. Passionate guitarist PFC Michael Pearson, 21, of Bolingbrook, was shot three times—in the spine and the chest. Surgeons worked desperately to save Pearson, even bringing him back to life twice on the operating table, but he had lost too much blood and died. However, many of those shot survived. SGT Alonzo Lunsford saw the laser train on his face, and he instinctively closed his eyes. He was shot seven times, collapsed to the ground, and started to sing Amazing Grace but could not get past the first verse.
Hasan searched for those hiding. He trained his laser sight on Theodore Coukoulis, who was concealed under a desk. Coukoulis hoped Hasan would shoot him in the back of the head so he could die instantly. Instead, the major moved on, and Coukoulis survived. After Hasan left the building, Coukoulis emerged from his hiding spot and began assisting with triage. Later, he would Describe the wide grin Hasan wore as he gunned down soldiers.
Nurse Shemeka Hairston called 911 for help. She was crouched under a desk at the processing center where the shooting started. “Oh God, help me,” Hairston said as the operator kept asking her for the location of the shooting. She opened her eyes and saw a soldier stand up during a pause in the gunfire. “His eyes got big, and he fell.”
All active-duty soldiers at that time were preparing for deployments to either Iraq or Afghanistan. One of the victims, retired Lt. Col. Randy Lee Royer, was shot in the leg, breaking his femur a few inches above the knee. Royer needed a cane to walk to the stand. He described hiding in a cubicle during the shooting. Unable to walk, he stayed inside the processing center throughout the entire incident. When it was over, he said the building was “deathly quiet.”
Soldiers Down, Shooter Down
Michelle Harper had worked at the center for six years drawing blood. Startled by the gunshots, she turned and saw Michael Pearson fall as he took his last breaths. Along with several others, she dialed 911. Captured on tape, Hasan’s gunshots were heard, as were Pearson’s dying breaths and moans. "Oh, my God! There are a lot of people—15, probably more," cried nurse Kimberly "Regina" Huseman, who also called 911. "He's a soldier! . . . Oh, my God!" Calmly, Major Hasan exited 42003 and reassured surprised civilians that the chaos of screams and gunshots was just an exercise. But he, like many of his victims, would leave Fort Hood on a gurney, near death, and permanently crippled.
After Hasan left, survivors began shouting, "Mass casualty! Mass casualty!" and "Soldiers down! Soldiers down!" SSC Maria Guerra yelled, "You train for this, you train for this, let's go.” Medics and nurses quickly emerged from hiding to help their fallen comrades. A medic marked the foreheads of several dead with the letter D to indicate who needed aid. By coincidence, a documentary filmmaker was there filming a school graduation, but instead, he captured footage of the wounded, using their gowns as makeshift bandages.
PFC Amber Bahr, 19, applied a tourniquet to a soldier and carried him a short distance before realizing she had been shot. The bullet entered her abdomen and exited through her back. She survived. Nurses and medics entered the building and secured the doors to prevent Hasan from reentering. They then turned to the wounded and rushed to help them. Some later remembered that the floor was so soaked with blood it was too slippery to quickly reach the screaming and pleading victims.
Outside, Hasan searched for more soldiers to attack. The police had been compromised, and two officers sped to the scene. Ford Hood police officer SGT Kimberly Munley and her partner started their shift that day by washing their squad car. Responding to urgent calls for help, she arrived at the center to see soldiers shouting, “He’s that way! He’s that way!” She saw Hasan, who aimed his weapon at her. “Then I saw a red flash of a laser cross my eyes. I pulled the hammer back on my weapon to get an accurate shot,” Munley said. “We began to blindly exchange fire.” Hasan was faster to draw, and Munley’s gun jammed. Hasan’s rounds hit her in the hand, thigh, and knee. As she lay wounded on the ground, Hasan kicked away her weapon. But before he could fire a killing shot, Munley’s partner, Mark Todd, shot at Hasan.
Later, Todd recalled, "... he turned and fired a couple of rounds at me. I didn't hear him say a word; he just turned and fired." The two exchanged gunfire, and Hasan was hit by five rounds from Todd, who kicked the pistol out of his hand and placed handcuffs on him as he fell unconscious. Someone yelled, “Shooter down!" Hasan was rushed to a hospital, received treatment, and was later incarcerated. By the end of the shooting, he had fired 146 rounds inside the facility and 68 outside. Blood donation centers in Waco, Killeen, and Scott and White Hospital in Temple became overwhelmed with people donating blood. The list of those murdered and wounded at Fort Hood includes individuals of many different ethnicities, different religions, genders, national origins, and races. Some were soldiers, and some were civilians. All were members of the U.S. Army who were murdered during an Islamist rampage at Fort Hood.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Jihad and the World. If you enjoyed it, please consider subscribing. Next week, we will cover Fort Hood and Killeen, Texas, the last home of Nidal Hasan and those he murdered. If you have firsthand knowledge of the Fort Hood attack, please reach out to us. Our latest book, Cauldron of Terror – Hamas, Israel, and the World, will be available in July 2026. This podcast does not represent the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting.

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the connection between Western and Islamic cultures. This is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, where we bring education to national security. Today’s podcast revisits topics discussed in Jihad and the West – Black Flag over Babylon, released ten years ago. Here, we provide brief biographies of two men who were in the news several years ago. Both were Americans who answered the call of Jihad and traveled abroad to fight against the West.
 
Anwar al Awlaki was born in New Mexico in 1971 to Yemeni parents and moved to Yemen when he was seven. He lived there until he enrolled at Colorado State University, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. His true calling was Islam, and he served as an imam at mosques in California and Virginia, though he was not formally trained in Islamic jurisprudence or qualified as a sheikh. In 1994, he married a cousin from Yemen and worked part-time as an imam at the Denver Islamic Society. He was charismatic and persuasive. He preached on college campuses and aimed to present a positive view of Islam to the world. He ran into trouble after engaging with prostitutes in San Diego. When the FBI started tracking him, they found he visited prostitutes at least seven times and paid up to $400 for sex each time. He preached in mosques in San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia. During investigations into the December 2001 Islamic attacks in the United States, the FBI discovered that three of the hijackers had attended his mosques.
Awlaki left for Britain in September 2001, claiming he felt unsafe in America after the al-Qaeda attacks. He became radicalized and started preaching there. He moved to Yemen in 2004 but was imprisoned on charges of aiding terrorists. During his time in prison, he immersed himself in the writings of the Islamic Brotherhood and devoured the works of Sayyid Qutb, which intensified his fervor. After his release, he headed to Yemen's mountains, where he built his website and propaganda center. U.S. officials believe he shifted from simply inspiring to actively planning terrorism in the West. He definitely inspired Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber who failed to detonate explosives on a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day 2009. The group also ramped up its online recruitment efforts, issuing an English-language magazine featuring articles such as "Make a Bomb in Your Mother's Kitchen."
 Inspire features articles about how to harm non-Muslims. One example is from an American, Samir Khan, titled "I am Proud to be a Traitor to America." Khan grew up in North Carolina and New York City. Much of the propaganda was effective because its creators were native Americans who understood social idioms and nuances of American society. Awlaki used references to pop stars like Michael Jackson in his sermons. For other audiences, he quoted Dickens and upscale authors. His message resonated deeply, inspiring the Christmas Day airplane plot and the 2009 Fort Hood shooting by a U.S. Army psychiatrist. Unlike the reclusive and mild-mannered bin Laden, Awlaki was engaging and extroverted. He also had more credibility as a sheikh than bin Laden.
He was involved in planning attacks in Britain, Australia, and the U.S. before he was killed. Security officials believe that al-Qaeda aimed to target London's transportation system, the Sydney Opera House, and New York's Grand Central Station. In November 2009, he inspired U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, a radicalized soldier, to attack fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. Their correspondence was uncovered by federal law enforcement before the attack, but no action was taken. Some of the September 11 hijackers were inspired by Awlaki. Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, attended a mosque where he preached.
They include the July 7 bombers in London, who used to meet in a bookstore that sold lectures by Awlaki, and the Canadian terrorists known as the Toronto 18, who plotted to bomb the stock exchange. Court records from 2009 show that three of the five men convicted of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, two years earlier, had also been inspired by Awlaki's sermons. His contribution to terrorist strategy helped facilitate numerous, independent, lethal attacks.
Death in Yemen
At age forty, Awlaki was killed by a Predator drone in Yemen in September 2011. Jonathan Evans, head of MI5, labeled him as the West's Public Enemy Number One, noting that Awlaki's involvement with al-Qaeda "is of particular concern given his wide circle of followers in the West, including in the U.K." Attorney General Eric Holder approved Awlaki’s assassination. Other strikes also killed Awlaki’s sixteen-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who, like his father, was born in America. Jude Mohammed, from North Carolina, was killed in a drone attack in Pakistan.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich said that the White House “crossed a dangerous line” and set a troubling precedent for how the U.S. handles terrorism cases. "Mr. Awlaki’s allegedly violent rejection of America was not acceptable in any way. Neither is it acceptable to bypass the Constitution through extrajudicial killings."
Anwar al-Awlaki was a persuasive and influential media figure for militant Islam. The impact of his efforts cannot be mistaken for that of the less convincing Adam Gadahn. Awlaki set a deadly record by directing and inspiring attacks on Western targets. Though he is gone, his legacy persists through social media. His sermons still motivate Muslims willing to kill and sacrifice for their cause. Some continue to do so.
Meet the Beatle - Jihadi John
            This John of the Beatles had very little in common with John Lennon, who sang that the world should give peace a chance. No, this Beatle, whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi, shared only an everyday North English accent with this Jihadist and not much else. So, who was Jihadi John? This John was Mohammed Emwazi, born in Kuwait in 1988, who moved with his family to Kensington, London, when he was six. His father started a new life in London as a taxi driver. In Iraq, he belonged to an outcast tribe as a former Kuwaiti police officer. But he was clever and hardworking, and he became a successful taxi business owner. His son Mohammed was shy and studious. He was also athletic and dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player.
In late adolescence, he turned to religion and enrolled at the University of Westminster, where he studied computer programming and graduated with high marks. At the same time, his intense Islamic radicalism began to develop. Westminster University was filled with radical Islam, and he was part of The London Boys, a network of British and East African Islamist extremists. His younger brother Omar was also an extremist and was linked to what was called the Muslim Mafia.
Dead Man Walking
            Emwazi’s calm persona persisted into early adulthood. In 2009, he relocated to Kuwait and began working for an information technology company, where colleagues described him as conscientious and self-disciplined. However, he had a secret agenda, and MI5 was aware of him. They believe he and other London boys planned to travel to Somalia to join a terrorist group. British intelligence questioned him about his terrorist connections and plans. He told a reporter that he was afraid the British would try to kill him. In his words, "Sometimes I feel like a dead man walking.” He couldn’t go back to Kuwait, and he didn’t want to live in Britain. So, in 2013, he went to Syria.
            In his new home in Syria, he led the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham, also known as ISIS. It was there that he earned the nickname Jihadi John, as one of four Britons with English accents. They were also called the ISIS torture squad, and for good reason. One captive describes his imprisonment, “It was like being under the control of psychopaths and lunatics.” The prison cells were cramped and cold, and prisoners were often shackled. The guards sometimes slept in an adjacent room, and the prisoners’ screams could be heard from rooms away. To their amusement, the guards waterboarded and zapped captives with tasers. Guards enjoyed staging fights among the inmates. The losers were beaten. This was The Fight Club.
 
            Emwazi was known as a guard, torturer, and killer of Western hostages. He appeared in videos seeming to enjoy the terror and pain he caused his captives. Emwazi began his killing spree in August 2014 when he beheaded American photojournalist James Foley. He recorded this event along with other murders, including those of Steven Sotloff, another American journalist; Peter Kassig, an aid worker; and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning. He also killed others, mainly Syrian captives, and took pleasure in doing so. In his heavy London accent, he threatened President Obama with mass murder unless he stopped the airstrikes on ISIS targets. The president was not convinced, and he wanted him dead. Death came for the killer in November 2015. Emwazi had become careless in his murderous activities. Some of his routes were too predictable. His signature baseball cap gave him away and allowed British and American intelligence to track and kill him. A Predator missile ended his life. The other Beatles were tried in Western courts and received lengthy prison sentences.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Jihad and the World. Our latest book, Cauldron of Terror – Hamas, Israel, and the World, will be available for purchase in July 2026. This podcast does not reflect the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting. 
 
 
 
 
 

Welcome to Jihad and the World, a podcast by Mark Silinsky, presented by Kensington Security Consulting, offering education on national security. In this excerpt, we will focus on one incident from October 7 that shocked Israel and parts of the Western world. It was a celebration of violence where a young Hamas operative boasted to his mother, father, and the world about his murders of men, women, and children. This episode is titled, “The Jewish woman is dead.”
October 7, 2023, was a pivotal day in Israeli history. It was not a military operation; it was a massacre with 1,500 Hamas and Jihad terrorists infiltrating Israel to kill as many people as possible. Operatives went house-to-house, killing men, women, and children, sometimes burning entire families alive. In a gruesome ritual, they danced and sang over bodies. One participant in this slaughter was Mahmoud Afana, and one victim was Liraz Assulin.
Mahmoud Afana came to world attention when he called his parents to boast that he had murdered ten Jews. With uncontained joy, he gushed to Mom and Dad that he killed 10 Jews! These are direct words of the exchange.
“Dad… I killed [them] with my own hands. Your son killed Jews.”
The father replies ‘May God protect you.’ The terrorist repeats himself over and over again, then addresses his mother. ‘I swear… I killed 10 with my own hands.’
The terrorist’s mother can only finally muster, ‘May God bring you home safely.’ While the father adds, ‘I wish I was with you.’
Afana underscored, ‘Mum, your son is a hero,’ he insists. ‘Kill, kill, kill!… Open WhatsApp on your phone and see how I killed them.’
This exchange was one of many collected on that day from call recordings, security cameras, Hamas terrorists’ body cameras, victim dashboard cameras, Hamas and victims’ social media accounts, and cellphone videos taken by terrorists, victims, and first responders. Israeli authorities crafted a documentary mixed with these exchanges and showed it to journalists. Later, Israel showed it to the United Nations. The disturbing conversation in which Afana repeatedly boasted about his killings became public two and a half weeks after the massacre, when it was presented during a United Nations Security Council session.
And what about his victims? They did not capture the headlines worldwide. This author cannot verify whether Afana killed 10 Jews, 5, or 15. His claim might have been mostly bragging, but it is very likely that he killed some, including Liraz Assulin. The 38-year-old woman was dancing and enjoying the pulsating music at the Nova Festival when a Hamas operative shot and killed her. Then, Assulin acquired her cell phone. Did he kill her himself, or was she dead or dying when he took her phone? We will probably never know. We do know that he gleefully participated in the mass shooting at the festival. We also know that Liraz Assulin had a full life, mourned by those who knew her.
With her friends, she went to Nova and never came back. For several days, her fate was unknown. Was she alive and kidnapped or dead and unidentified? On 9 October, her body was found. Who was she? She was single, had no children, and had five siblings. She was a CPA and an MBA, served as head of accounting at the Neto Group, and, in addition, acted as a board member of Tamar Water Consortium. Liraz was known for saying “Always be smiling” and “Life is good.” On the day of her death, her sister called her to see if she was alive. She was not, and her probable killer had her phone. Afana answered her sister’s call by saying, “The Jewish woman is dead.” Her killer would die, too, by an Israeli airstrike, nearly two years later
Remembering her life and death, someone remarked, “She will always be remembered as a blessing, someone who cherished life. Mahmoud, meanwhile, has now joined the ranks of Goliath, Haman, Titus, Hitler, and Sinwar—all of whom sought to wipe out the Jewish people, and all of whom failed. Never forget how this ugly war began: with an attack on those who cherish life by those who worship death. This is a battle between good and evil, and good will prevail. Liraz, may you rest in the palm of God. May the angels carry to you the news: justice has been served.”
` This concludes a profile from "Cauldron of Terror Gaza, Hamas, Israel, and the World," by Mark Silinsky, published by Pen and Sword. If you enjoyed this, please consider subscribing to continue listening to this podcast. The book will be available for purchase in early spring 2026. This reading does not represent the official position of any agency or individual within the United States government. On behalf of Kensington Security Consulting, thank you for listening.

Who was Moshe Dayan? Yossi Argaman, an Israeli military historian, offered, "In all the years of Israel's history, there has not existed a military hero or dominant figure like him. Moshe Dayan symbolized the national and military rebirth and the revitalization of Jewish strength, the myth of the Jewish fighter. He climbed so high that he became a kind of god. His clerks at the Ministry of Defense even dressed like him. He would walk around in a brown suede coat, and everyone followed suit. He had a magical influence. I don't remember anyone, not even military heroes, who had such an influence and who were elevated to such heights on a national level".
High praise indeed, and this view was widely shared. But how does this esteemed legacy relate to the Hamas-Israel conflict? First, let’s look at the man and his enduring ideas. Born in 1915, he lived in the country’s first kibbutz and, in 1936, joined the Haganah. The British arrested and imprisoned him for a time. In June 1941, he lost his left eye in battle in Lebanon, after which he wore a distinctive eye patch.
He formulated a doctrine for both conventional and insurgent warfare. His ideas still influence Israel today. Long before becoming a legend, he worked under his military mentor, the controversial yet effective British officer, Orde Wingate, who developed an innovative tactic for hunting and eliminating Arab militants, especially those attacking civilians. Wingate taught and inspired Dayan to lead his men from the front and to strike the enemy where and when it’s least expected. He also advised Dayan to respect Arabs who avoided hostilities. Wingate valued intelligence, and both focused on action-oriented soldiers.
Dayan’s ambivalent attitude toward the Arab population developed during his service with the British. He took orders from Ode Wingate and was determined to understand Arab customs and ceremonies. While serving in the Wingate-led strike units, he learned to be tough yet respectful toward Arabs in Palestine. In the 1950s, he developed tactics against insurgents that reflected Wingate’s methods. He shaped the Israeli Defense Forces' culture first as chief of staff during the 1956 campaign and later as defense minister through both the 1967 and 1973 conventional wars. However, before, between, and during these major conflicts, the IDF carried out ‘Current Security Operations,’ small military actions against the Arab insurgency.
His crowning achievement was his performance in the 1967 war, which strengthened his reputation. After 1967, the IDF faced the challenge of managing the population in the West Bank and Gaza. Moshe Dayan developed policies for the population from the founding of the IDF through the critical period after 1967; his ideas and practices in counterinsurgency have become a tradition in themselves.
Dayan and Open Bridges
Dayan’s policy of ‘open bridges’ aimed to maximize economic and political freedom while minimizing interference in daily life. First, it emphasized cooperation and accommodation with the Arabs. He did not present a specific plan to resolve the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. He was openly opposed to annexation because that would either force Israel to make the Arabs full voting citizens or keep them in a quasi-Apartheid state of lesser citizenship. In hindsight, this policy seems to have been effective. There was stability for nearly 20 years despite Israel's expansion of housing in the occupied territories.
However, his governance faced criticism. First, many religious Jews were disappointed and resentful because they were denied full access to the Temple Mount, which also serves as a holy site for Muslims. In June 1967, Israeli paratroopers captured the Old City, the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount—the holiest site in Judaism—all of which are located within. As Defense Minister, Dayan, a secularist, blocked access to accommodate Arabs. A major complaint was that Jews could not pray at the Mount, and that the Arabs, whom Dayan sought to appease, were ungrateful. Some critics went further, arguing that this accommodation could be seen as a sign of weakness.
The second criticism of Dayan was related to the first: his approach to Arabs regarding the Temple Mount. This criticism was broader and questioned the perspective he used to view Arab-Israeli relations. After October 2023, his earlier policies were widely condemned as naive and harmful to Israel. Given his stature and legendary status, Dayan’s view of accommodation carried significant weight. His critics accused him of promoting a “peacenik” policy with those committed to wiping out Israel. To support their claims, critics pointed to Dayan’s policies and rhetoric. They sometimes misattributed his eulogy at Roi Rotberg’s 1956 funeral. Terrorists from Gaza murdered and mutilated a young Kibbutznik, and Dayan delivered a eulogy in which he urged his fellow Jews to show compassion toward Arabs rather than revenge. His critics interpreted his speech as weak and naive. However, the core message was far from spineless. He advised showing compassion while staying vigilant. He said, “Let us not be deterred from seeing the loathing that is inflaming and filling the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who live around us. Let us not avert our eyes lest our arms weaken. This is the fate of our generation. This is our life’s choice: To be prepared and armed, strong and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down.” Are these the words of a pacifist?
However, after the October 2023 attack, his speeches and conversations were carefully examined. In a speech Dayan gave in 1969, he also clarified that he did not blame Arab hostility on supposed “forcible dispossession.” He said, “We purchased the land from Arabs and set up Jewish villages where there had once been Arab villages.” In response, his critics contended that Muslim hostility was fueled by a deadly hatred of Jews and a desire to remove their presence from the area. Some claim that Dayan used his influence to promote his secular and naive “peacenik” policy, which they say jeopardized Israeli security and, in turn, led Hamas to launch its attacks in 2023. But what do you think? We value your opinion.