Like most cults, Islamic converts are recruited from the ranks of broken people who are disoriented, uncertain, and have lost a sense of purpose in their lives.
In today’s article, “Three Muslim Knife Attacks on NYPD Officers in 8 Years”, I noted that two of those three attackers were converts to Islam.
The latest Times Square attacker was a white kid from Maine.
Trevor Bickford, 19, had taken the train down from Wells, Maine: a town of less than 10,000 souls.
How does a kid from Wells find Islam? That part is still open to question, but the origins, like that of a lot of school shooters, appear to lie with a broken family.
Bickford, of Wells, Maine, is believed to have “found religion” in recent years following the death of his father, Tom, from an overdose in 2018 at the age of 41.
The teen’s father played a “very active” role in the lives of his three sons, and “could often be found coaching them at football and wrestling,” the Portland Press Herald reported.
Bickford urged family members to join him and convert to Islam.
“To my family — specifically, mother — I’m sorry for not having been a good enough son,” the note read, according to a police source.
“I fear greatly that you will not repent to Allah,” it said. “And therefore I hold hope in my heart that a piece of you believes so that you may be taken out to the hellfire.
“To [my brother] Travis. Of anyone I’ve known who I have felt is closest to faith — it’s you,” he allegedly wrote. “Of anyone I’ve ever wanted to accept Islam with me — it’s you. Please repent to Allah and accept Islam. I fear for you.
Addressing his other brother — who sources said is in the Marines — the suspect allegedly wrote, “To Devon, there was a time when we were close, but that time has passed. You have joined the ranks of my enemy. And for that I can give you no kind words – return to Allah.”
Once Bickford converted to Islam, Americans became his enemy and the rest followed naturally.
Trevor could have gone a lot of ways. With his father dead of an overdose, he might have turned to drugs or alcohol. He could have decided to pursue transgenderism. Or he could convert to Islam. There are plenty of destructive behaviors out there waiting for vulnerable Americans. And our government, instead of reducing the potential for destructive and self-destructive behaviors, has been amplifying it instead.
These are the consequences.
Algorithmic Analyst says
“broken people who are disoriented, uncertain, and have lost a sense of purpose in their lives.”
And worse; delusional, psychotic, crazy, physically mentally and emotionally damaged by drugs, etc.
Daniel Greenfield says
not to mention medications used for treating depression, etc…
David Mu says
That’s a great ‘truth’ barely spoken about, and certainly by no one in the collective wisdom hub.
Una Salus says
Adam and Eve weren’t on medication and one must assume both were quite happy with all their needs met.
THX 1138 says
Sounds like SOCIALISM and the Nanny State doesn’t it? Christianity prepared the way for Marxism.
Una Salus says
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2022/12/peter-hitchens-why-do-we-stir-up-trouble-in-foreign-countries-but-cant-even-run-our-own-1.html
Peter Hitchens asks a legitimate question if you assume that running our countries into the ground is not running them. Kim Jong-un is running his country unless anybody there dares contradict him.
Peter Hitchens a Bolshevik in his youth but he soon discovered he didn’t have the courage to be a revolutionary. All that is left now is the intellectual snobbery. The problem is he isn’t as smart as his brother. And so even even Russel Brand can rubbish his ambushes. And so did Russell rubbish them with a cheap trick.
Una Salus says
You also have to accept the notion that we are the cause of trouble but Peter Hitchens obviously is more than happy to accept that for peace reasons so moving on we get to the next glitch.
One might also ask what Peter Hitchens is not prepared to accept for peace reasons but here you will not encounter Hitler. You will not even encounter some other things.
Algorithmic Analyst says
Thanks Daniel, one of my pet bugaboos. Those medications can have a rebound effect.
Noah Andeark says
Hilliarious*!!!! The people HAVE SPOKEN!!
That and the FBI would have been on the ball had the muslim been a Christian parent in a school board meeting.
* Hillary, liar, and hilarious – all-in-one.
rocco barbella says
“Like most cults, Islamic converts are recruited from the ranks of broken people who are disoriented, uncertain, and have lost a sense of purpose in their lives”
I say this all the time, and compare it to street gangs that recruit kids from broken families, outsiders, don’t fit in, etc, and offer them the family of a gang.
I read an article that related how Iman’s visit prisons across the country to recruit blacks specifically. They rely and focus on slavery, Jim Crow, racial discrimination to use as part of their recruitment process. The understand how disgruntled blacks are and how easily it is to manipulate them.
Apparently, you have many young white males being easily swayed, as well.
commonsense says
Absolutely right, Barbella. BTW, you mean “imam,” not “iman.” An imam is a Muslim religious leader, while “iman” means religious belief or faith. The related Arabic word “deen” (also transliterated as “din”) essentially means “religion” specifically.
rocco barbella says
Yes, my mistake. Thanks for the correction.
Daniel Greenfield says
Prison dawah was very effective. Still the best place to find broken people with no moral compass willing to do anything.
But these days you can find lots of them outside prisons too.
Kids from broken families, boys with no father figure, girls who grew up with no religion, easy prey for cults the way they were in the 70s, but now also for Islam.
Algorithmic Analyst says
Thanks Rocco. I was thinking about that. Young males want to join a group, often a street gang is their only option. Or a cult.
David Mu says
It won’t be shared, but your account tells enough to see an broken life (certainly), but more a mind quite unable/unwilling to think with logic about how the world really turns. This was a life ripe for the Islamic taking with its appearance of belonging. And naturally, with Islam, being top down feed with material to lead that life to violence. The worst is we all now live in society that blames itself, but only creates further the condition to deliver its members to the state of mind where the cult can recruit for its own purpose. And number of others are growing that can also be convert material for the warcraft of Islam.
alex says
Satan, i.e. Allah steps in to fill the void because Americans no longer have a spine – they do not go to church, they do not read the bible, and they live in sin. As such, it is easy for the devil to win them over to islam
THX 1138 says
“Like most cults, Islamic converts are recruited from the ranks of broken people who are disoriented, uncertain, and have lost a sense of purpose in their lives.”
The Cult of Mohammed is more aggressive at recruiting broken, disoriented, uncertain, purposeless, people than the Cult of Jesus or the Cult of Abraham, that’s all.
The Cult of Abraham doesn’t even prosletyze at all and makes it very difficult to join. The Cult of Jesus makes it a little, tiny, bit difficult to join. But the Cult of Mohammed is the easiest to join of all three and they are very agressive.
The Cult of Abraham and the Cult of Jesus need to be more agressive at recruiting these lost souls and make it easier to join.
Daniel Greenfield says
People do tend to believe in things. A good test of the validity of what they believe in is how they act.
Muslims go around imagining that berating other people and religions somehow makes them superior.
People who aren’t “broken, disoriented, uncertain, purposeless, people” don’t need to act like that.
Una Salus says
These people grow in the conviction that the truth rarely needs a defence. Certainly in there is no defence anymore in Saudi Arabia.
Barry Spinello says
“Hungry terrified men can be organized by simple models but not so a curious well-fed secure educated youth.
.“How to do so, and what it means to try and do so, involves deep issues. It involves building a causal model of brain function, for nothing less can resolve conflicting predictions or orient the verbal function to that degree needed to coordinate the organized curiosity of scientific research.” ”Putnam NS Model 1963 pg. 4
Tortoise Herder says
“The Cult of Mohammed is more aggressive at recruiting broken, disoriented, uncertain, purposeless, people than the Cult of Jesus or the Cult of Abraham, that’s all.”
This is rich coming from someone who idealizes the Cult of Rand, who actively and directly recruited broken, disoriented, purposefulness people and took steps to make that further.. To read biographical tracts about Frank O’Connor (speaking of which: ARE THERE any independent biographies of Frank O’Connor as there are of people like Einstein’s mistreated wives or Abigail Adams?) or the Brandens is to read of the warping effects of psychological exploitation and the abuse of hero worship on those caught in the pull, much as we can study the invisible that are black holes by witnessing the visible gravitational pull they have on objects near them. One that continues in several ways to this day, with the actions of people like Peikoff trying to insulate their idol from critical examination..
THX 1138 says
I don’t worship or follow Ayn Rand or Leonard Peikoff. An Objectivist follows the facts of reality by using reason to discover the facts of reality, the facts about a person’s character, and actions, and the facts of a situation. I don’t agree with or follow every last word, idea, or statement by Rand or Peikoff just because they said them. I use reason and think about what they claim and see if it’s true or not. Unlike Jews, Christians, and Muslims who take everything in the Bible and Koran ON FAITH.
Did Ayn Rand have an affair with Nathaniel Branden? All we have are his words and Barbara Branden’s words. If it happened, then it happened, if it didn’t, then it didn’t. In either case the affair does not invalidate or refute her philosophy of Objectivism. Just as Isaac Newton’s secret practice of Alchemy does not invalidate or refute the Calculus or the Law of Gravity. Just as Einstein’s abuse of his wives do not invalidate or refute the Theory of Relativity.
THX 1138 says
You’re basically claiming that if Ayn Rand betrayed the principles of Objectivism, if she betrayed reason, logic, rationality, if she betrayed the facts of reality, by having an an affair with Branden that means reason, rationality, logic, reality, and Objectivism have been refuted and invalidated.
Rationality is a CHOICE, facing the facts of reality is a CHOICE. At any point in a man or a woman’s life he or she can choose the irrational. Can choose to evade the facts of reality and the conclusions of reason. Objectivism fully accepts and teaches that fact of morality. Morality is a CHOICE and evil is a CHOICE.
Objectivism has not been refuted. And Nathaniel and Barbara Branden remained staunch advocates of Objectivism to their last dying breath. They’re criticisms always were about the psychological aspects contained in Rand’s novels and some of her statements, they’re criticisms always remained criticisms of flaws in Rand’s personality, but they always remained champions of her philosophy.
Tortoise Herder says
Secondly: there are PROFOUND differences between the Cult of Muhummad on one hand and the Cult of Abraham and the Cult of Jesus on the other. The fact that they have wildly divergent views on the basic “historical dogma” says a lot. As does the fact that Islam treats Muhummad as the “Perfect Man”, a phrase that not only does not exist in any meaningful doctrinal fashion in Christianity and Judaism but which would be literally blasphemy, with even King David sinning oh so very grievously and falling short of the Glory of God.
I could go on in great detail, but that would be rather pointless to someone who insists there was a “Thousand Year Christian Dark Age” but cannot actually establish when it occurred.
“The Cult of Abraham doesn’t even prosletyze at all and makes it very difficult to join. ”
Depends on the definition of prosletyze.
“The Cult of Abraham and the Cult of Jesus need to be more agressive at recruiting these lost souls and make it easier to join.”
Which raises the question of how that would be accomplished, and why. Much of what attracts people like this to the Cult of Muhummad is not that it is the “easiest” but that it promises the greatest worldly rewards, both in this life and the next one. Christ promises forgiveness for one’s sins and union with God, but Muhummad claimed he could do better and provide translucent slave girls and rivers of wine in paradise.
112 says
There was no cult of Abraham, he was extremely humble. Also basically everyone he converted didn’t teach their kids so it left. It was not about his personality. Judaism has many other leaders and there is no cult around any… till very recently.
It’s that serious that Ann Rand’s grade 2 women education on Judaism is enough for you to wipe every other religion off the table. But it should convince you that there is something there too.
rocco barbella says
Yes, sir. Good point.
Lightbringer says
Yes, there were a lot of ways he could go after his father died. And one of them was to follow his older brother into the Marines. What was stopping him?
FatherGuido says
And again my question is,
Why should i give a rats A.. about what the chinese are doing to muslims?
112 says
They want to take over the world also. If someone who hates you is busy with someone else who hates you, good. But you don’t want them stronger from it.
Noah Andeark says
The terrorists at the terror org CAIR agree. I’ve heard that their supersized comms director, Doug Hooper, was raped by his father repeatedly as a child. The funny thing about it is that rape is one of (p)islams “built-ins”. (P)islam IS a gutter-cult. Its adherents are gutter-cultists.
Steven Kardas says
“I’m a Muslim now and I hate you because your not so I’m going to kill you.” because Islam says you must die. for being a non believer”
My take is that troubled people look for an excuse to legitimize thier violence to lash out about thier deep troubles.
RAM says
Why does the FBI monitor these types if they’ll be left alone at key moments?
Spurwing Plover says
Those who convert to Islam and go on a violent rampage should be taken off the streets before they cause a terrible carnage
Michin David says
Thank you, Daniel, for the story the media won’t touch.