Immediately I began to talk to Ravinder about Islam along with discussing plans for escape. My own history in Christianity, and my study of comparative religion enabled me to help him understand the truth of Islam, and al-Hamdulillah, eventually, Allah Guided him to the Deen. He changed his name to Khalid, in honor of Khalid bin al-Waleed.
I was known for my somewhat staunch antipathy towards Kuffar, and, as I was monitored very closely by the police, we decided that Khalid should keep his Islam secret so that no one would ever suspect that we would work together to escape.
It is an interesting phenomenon to me that many guerrilla organizations train their members in the use of firearms and explosives, but pay very little attention to hand-to-hand combat. Khalid knew every type of hand grenade available, and had extensive experience with Kalashnikov rifles and hand guns, but he barely knew how to throw a punch.
I noted this shortcoming as well among former Mujahideen from Pakistan, Iraq, and jailed soldiers of the Taliban who were with me in prison. All of them thought hand-to-hand combat skills were unnecessary because, they assumed, they would only ever be in fighting situations where they had access to weapons.
This is really a betrayal by militant groups’ leadership, in my opinion. Not only is it likely that group members will face imprisonment at some point in their lives, where they will have to have the skills and physical confidence to fight their captors without weapons, but also, hand-to-hand fighting skills can be a very practical way to actually acquire weapons when you don’t already have them.
#دروس_المعتقل
#Prison_Lessons