A Modern Tale of Ali Baba - Yaga !

Sometimes Tales of Old bleed over into Modern Tales.....

My name is Ali Baba - Yaga.  I was born and raised in the United States of America.  I am a second generation Persian American.  I like describing myself as a Persian.  There is more Glory and Romanticism associated with the Ancient Persians.  Much more than telling anyone that I am a transplanted Seed from the Forever War territories of the Middle East.

I am a young man seeking a Purpose in Life.  A Purpose to my Life other than my Family, School, Soccer, Dating and going to the local Mosque with my Family all of the time.  If the Mosque doors are open, we are there with Prayer Rugs in hand.

After meeting a new Youth Group at the Mosque, I have been wondering what it means to be Westernized.  My new friends tell me that the West is filled with Devils.  Filled with Satan Worshippers and Evil Sinners.  I keep looking for these Devils everywhere I go now.  And sometimes, I think I see them lurking about here and there in the Actions of Others around me.  

These new feelings and doubts about the World of the West I am living in make me feel separate from people I never questioned the motives of before.

These new feelings of distrust about most of the people I know or meet now, make me feel Radical.  Some of my old Friends say I’m becoming Radicalized.  Good !  I want to be Radicalized.  It suits me, and how I am feeling about my Life and other things right now.

I understand why the Middle East is a roiling snake pit of Tribal Hatreds.  I have listened to all of my fathers and other relatives stories.

But I like the Idea of being an American.  Being a part of the Land of Opportunity where anyone can be what they want to be.  There are so many parts of the world where that is not so.

I have and uncle and aunt who want to get out of Syria with my cousins, but cannot find a way here yet.  They are afraid and must be careful.  They need money to grease the wheels, I heard one of my relatives say.

No one wants to be part of an Authoritarian Regime that pushes you around, oppresses you, or manipulates you into accepting less with your Life’s outcomes or becoming a part of the their Machine - a part of their use and abuse of Power and everyone else not a part of their Meat Grinder.  I know that I don’t.

I like being able to live in a country where I can more fully express my Free Will - my Opinion - my Hopes, Wishes and Desires.  I like being able to Think differently from everyone else if I Choose to do that.  And I do.

That’s why I fell a little nervous and uncertain about listening to my Friends who say that we need to join the ISIS Fighters.  They say that ISIS wants to confront and defeat the West, and all of our Muslim brothers and sisters wanting to become Westernized.  They say that ISIS is fighting for Allah (God) to create a Holy Caliphate.  That anyone who does not want to do this is a heretic.  A Sinner in the All Knowing and All Seeing Eyes of Allah (God).  A Betrayer of his or her Faith and People.

But my father says that most of the leaders of ISIS are old military leaders of Sadam Hussein’s fallen Regime.  That they have blended military force, tactics and strategies with Allah’s manipulated Will to Bully, Torture, Terrorize and Murder their way throughout the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and eventually the whole World, for Power and Money for their own aggrandizement And that are pushing and shoving their Will upon the Lands of the Middle East with a military force filled with mercenaries, the poor, the disenfranchised, the disappointed, the restless, the opportunists, the confused, those in search of a Life’s Purpose, those in search of adventure, those in search of religious ecstasy, the sociopaths and psychopaths of the world.  ISIS is using All of them to create a new Holy Caliphate guided by Sharia Law and old traditions.

My new friends say that the West is the Enemy and living blasphemy of everything the Holy Caliphate and its peoples stand for.

But my Father and my uncles say that what ISIS is doing is Religious Imperialism.  An Eastern Muslim Imperialism to overthrow the Western Christian Imperialism, and their false democratic Ideas of Free Will, Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities which will always be the antithesis to Autocratic Theocratic Imperialistic Regimes.

My new friends laugh at how the ISIS fighters have the Iraqi fighters on the run from Ramadi.  They say it is because they are Westernized and having to fight for the most part without the West right now, and that has made them weak.  Because the Muslims fighting for a corrupt military whose leaders and members are given government checks even when they do not show up for work, and who sell American weaponry on the black market to ISIS, Taliban, Al Quaeda and others for money they stuff into their own pockets.  They dishonor the military and men and women who fight for them.  They are corrupt.  They poison the waters and the military’s fighters Faith in what they are fighting for.  These doubts make it more difficult for them stand up for very long against the Zealotry - the Fiery Passions of the ISIS warriors who fight for Allah (God) and Caliphate !

And ISIS is very frustrated and upset that it cannot goad or trap the West into fighting in the Middle East right now.  Because they want to turn this into a Holy War - a jihad purely and soley against the West.  That the general Hatreds of the Forever Wars the Americans - the West have been a big part of for years in the Middle East would be the cohesive glue to hold all of the Middle East and eventually the Muslim Nations worldwide together for a redirected HolyWar against the West only.  Then they wouldn’t have to prove how really wicked and cruel they can be to other Muslims that they are having to bring to heal one town at a time to force them to join them.  That if they could get the West to fight them, their job of an effective jihad would be much easier and more successful.

My father and my relatives have a point.  Surely the Allah I have been brought up to Know and Love does not look with favor upon such dark sins of the Human Heart and Soul born of confusion, frustration, pain, loss, revenge, the Words and Actions of Old Hatreds creating Words and Actions and ReActions of new-old Hatreds carried by generation after generation seething with fiery Anger - a Fiery Jinn that drives them all to tornadic violence, further revenges, blood lust and destruction.

No, no.  I have been taught that Allah’s Love, Wisdom and Peace are what the World needs to Restore Balance to All.

I am exhausted.  I am not ready to give myself to ISIS yet, if ever.  I must think about what to do with my Life more, and try and be less upset with my father when he grounds me and takes my allowance away for bad grades.  Yes, ISIS is paying their fighters well with the hostage money and oil and gas money that they make on the black markets.  But if I finish school, I can get a job that perhaps pays better.  And not have to leave my family to become a suicide bomber or fighter who lays his Life on the line for an Autocratic, Theocratic, Imperialistic Holy Caliphate I’m not sure that I agree with or really want to be a part of.

I am so bummed out right now.  I think I’ll get out my old X-Box and focus my anger and frustration on my Game of Thrones program.  Now, that is a world of madness, bloodshed and mayhem I can have some control over.  Hmm, what weapon do I want to start with ?  Where’s that big sword ?  Off with their 

Heads, I say !  Ali Baba - Yaga will have his day !  Open Says-a-me !