Ryan Mauro: Ramadan Likely Motivated Chattanooga Terrorist

‘ISIS has been saying as Ramadan was beginning that during the month of Ramadan the obligation for jihad is ten times as great’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

CHILDERS: "Speculation mounting there may be a sinister connection between the shooting and the holy month of Ramadan which ends today. Ryan Mauro is a analyst for the Clarion Project a nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing the dangers of Islamic extremism. Thank you so much for joining us early this morning, Ryan. Appreciate it. I want to talk about the possible connection to ramadan and specifically it ending. We know the gunman posted a blog and amongst some of the things he said on the blog was this, brothers and sisters, don't be fooled by your desires. this life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to Allah may pass you by. What do you think is the connection with Ramadan and do you believe there is one?"

MAURO: "I suspect there is. you can see he was fixated ongoing to the greatest possible lengths in order to gain entry to what he would view to be paradise. That would include jihad. Those are two things he talked about. ISIS has been saying as Ramadan was beginning that during the month of Ramadan the obligation for jihad is ten times as great. If you die in jihad the reward from Allah is ten times greater than it normally would be. If you are a fanatical radical Muslim you want to cash in on the reward before Ramadan ends." 

CHILDERS: "We had the warning we know people are encouraged to participate in this at this time. we know they are targeting military bases. what do you do to fight it and keep it from happening?" 

MAURO: "You have to go after those underlying themes. Keep in mind in his blog he wasn't talking about ISIS specifically. There are specific themes, specific interpretation to Islam that we need to target not the religion at a whole. We can ally with most Muslims in discrediting those interpretations but you can eliminate ISIS and you'll still have another group take its place as long as you have doctors out there that say that building a caliphate is a good thing, that implementing Sharia governance is a good thing. You need a grand alliance in order to discredit the belief." 

CHILDERS: "This isn't a grand alliance when you talk about those individuals. There's some debate whether they should be called lone gunman it is not individuals targeting this specific location. How do you fight against that? How can we trace all of them and stop all of them from doing horrific acts like this?" 

MAURO: "Beliefs drive those actions. so if you want to get to the core of the problem, what causes the radicalization, it is those Islamist radical doctrines, but the fact of the matter is you are not going to be able to track all of them. It is important for the American people to report what they see on Facebook, on Twitter and other social media accounts that indicate violent intent. One of the frustrating patterns we see over and over again is they will have an on-line account, a Facebook account with friends and they express radicalism and few if any one takes the steps to report them. The American people do have a front line role here in stopping these types of attacks." 

CHILDERS: "It is a new era in the fight against terrorism. Thank you so much we appreciate you joining us and appreciate."

Video files
Full
Compact
Audio files
Full
Compact