More on the Homosexual - Terror Nexus - Drew points out an unusual angle in today's Times scoop about our best Al Qaeda turncoat. Apparently, Shadi Abdullah -- a 26-year-old Jordanian arrested in Germany in connection with on-going terror plots in April 2002 -- is gay. While the article plays down the significance, Abdullah is quoted as saying he originally left Jordan for Germany "to start a new life" and "to live a freer life.... This involves my sexual tendencies toward men. I had expected problems and disadvantages in relation to this in Jordan."

Now, since his arrest, Abdullah has provided intelligence authorities with a wealth of information about Qaeda operations in Europe and elsewhere. Unlike many hard-core Al Qaeda, Abdullah "often portrayed himself as a reluctant and repentant warrior." Sullivan comments :

The Jordanian originally fled his own country because he was gay. Then he was caught up in the ex-patriate fundamentalist-terrorist world, trained in Afghanistan, and deployed in Europe to manufacture false passports in order to import more terrorists into the West. So a man who left tyranny for freedom ended up attempting to import it back to the West. And now, in a weird denouement, he has become a critical element in foiling new Qaeda operations. Just like the 9/11 murderers who seemed as much drawn to the West as repelled by it, we have a psychological profile that's highly conflicted and repressed, wreaking havoc on the world. And when you think of what Islamist culture does to the healthy psychological development of men and women, its sex-phobia and misogyny, it's no surprise that we have some characters this disturbed. Another reason why we will have no real peace until the fundamental culture of the Middle Eastern Islamic world is shifted.

Hmm, is he describing Islamo-fascism or the Catholic church? Maybe Ben has done some reading on the subject of homosexuality in Islamic societies and can shed some further light on this phenomenon.