{"id":22342,"date":"2015-05-07T18:34:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T18:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=22342"},"modified":"2015-05-08T13:37:38","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T13:37:38","slug":"the-zealotry-of-the-newly-converted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=22342","title":{"rendered":"The Zealotry Of The Newly-Converted"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>She also became part of a growing crisis in Europe, where a surging number of young people from non-Muslim homes are flocking to the Middle East to heed the call of violent jihad. It is happening, terror experts say, as converts emerge as some of the most dangerous and fanatical adherents to radical Islam \u2014 a fact driven home this week by Elton Simpson, a 30-year-old American convert who joined one other man in opening fire on a Garland, Tex., contest for cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/europe\/from-hip-hop-to-jihad-how-the-islamic-state-became-a-magnet-for-converts\/2015\/05\/06\/b1358758-d23f-11e4-8b1e-274d670aa9c9_story.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/converts0420-1v2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/europe\/from-hip-hop-to-jihad-how-the-islamic-state-became-a-magnet-for-converts\/2015\/05\/06\/b1358758-d23f-11e4-8b1e-274d670aa9c9_story.html\">The Washington Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>It's a phenomenon as old as humanity (so, nearly as old as the phrase \"as old as humanity\"): those people who are the most un-critical and zealous about a cause - any cause, really - are often those who have just taken up the cause. They're full of energy and enthusiasm. They want to spread the word. This new thing is changing their lives and want to devote themselves to it completely. They haven't yet figured out that elation is always temporary, and that they'll eventually be back to dealing with all the same crap that they were trying to get away from in the first place. And until they do, smart recruiters will make the most of the converts' enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, \"the zealotry of the newly-converted\" is a phrase I've always admired. If you don't already have a copy of it in your head, get one! You might be surprised how often you'll get good use out of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>She also became part of a growing crisis in Europe, where a surging number of young people from non-Muslim homes are flocking to the Middle East to heed the call of violent jihad. It is happening, terror experts say, as converts emerge as some of the most dangerous and fanatical adherents to radical Islam \u2014 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22342"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22352,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22342\/revisions\/22352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}