Christopher Havard som blev dræbt af en drone i Yemen november 2013.

Tre indfødte gutter konverterer til islam i Noor-moskeen i Christchurch. To af dem drager til Yemen, hvor de bliver dræbt af en amerikansk drone mens de befinder sig i en Al-Qaida-kolonne.

Historien om New Zealand og Christchurch minder om Norge efter 22. juli: For omverdenen er dette et land man forbinder med idyl. Men de, der bor der véd at der under overfladen rører sig helt andre ting.

Hvis man vil forstå, må man være villig til at konfrontere sig med virkeligheden. Den er blandt andet, at Noor-moskeen har været arnested for radikalisering.

Avisen Stuff.co.nz har en artikel fra 2014, lang og grundig, som fortæller om to brødre som konverterede til islam og blev radikaliseret. I Noor-moskéen. De mødte senere en tredje konvertit i Australien. Og to af dem blev pulveriseret af et Hellfire-missil i Yemen i 2103, her kom gravejournalistikken ind i deres og familiens liv.

De to gutter, Daryl og Nathan, kom fra et solidt kristent hjem. Det er over ti år siden de konverterede. Der skete altså ting i en søvnig by som Christchurch allerede dengang, som der også gjorde det i Norge for ti år siden. Men ikke alle er lige interesseret i at det kommer frem, eller klarer at forholde sig til det:

Det vakte opsigt, da to kække gutter valgte at konvertere fra kristendom til islam.

Suddenly Daryl and his younger brother Nathan, who grew up in a strong Christian house, were sporting beards, learning Arabic and wearing flowing robes. Carloads of Muslims, including immigrant women in veils, would turn up at the family’s home in a smart east Christchurch suburb, neighbours tut-tutting and muttering about terrorists.

Der er lidt Homeland over denne scene.

When Daryl was in his early 20s and still flirting with Islam, he surprised the family of a Christian friend he was visiting when he suddenly declared he had to go to the far end of the house to pray towards Mecca. “We thought it was weird,” said the friend’s mother.

Faren var politimand og moren arbejdede indenfor uddannelsessektoren.

All of this upset the boys’ parents – the father a former Australian police officer doing security for a government organisation, the mother employed by a Christchurch tertiary institution.

Daryl tog først skridtet fuldt ud efter at han var flyttet til Sydney i 2008, mens Nathan gjorde det hjemme. Noor var deres moské.

Daryl, 30 when he died, moved to Sydney around 2008 and converted to Islam soon after arriving. Nathan, still in Christchurch, converted soon after with the help of Saudi Arabian students he was friendly with.

Forældrene vidste ikke deres arme råd. De så sønnerne forandre sig og blive helt andre personer.

“The parents desperately wanted both the boys to leave Islam. They had seen their sons change dramatically in appearance – it’s scary for parents when that happens,” a source said.

Daryl søgte til en moské i Sydney som var kendt for radikalisering og han kom på myndighedernes overvågningsliste. Han giftede sig med en somalisk kvinde. I 2009 drog de til Yemen hvor Daryl ville arbejde som lærer. Men han blev arresteret, fordi han ikke havde de nødvendige tilladelser. Konen sad tilbage med ansvaret for parrets fire børn.

Tiden går og Daryls forældre tager ansvaret for svigerdatter og børnebørn og henter dem til Christchurch, hvor de fortsat bor.

I 2011 kom Christchurch i verdensnyhederne da der indtraf et kraftigt jordskælv.

Gutternes konvertering og radikalisering havde sat forældrenes ægteskab under et stort pres. De havde søgt hjælp hos en kirke og haft et møde med Nathan, som dog høfligt afslog “hjælp”.

Forældrene blev skilt og fru Jones flyttede ind i en campingpark, hvor det var tydeligt at hun mentalt ikke havde det godt. Hun havde et sindsoprivende opgør med sin svigerdatter.

Da hun i 2014 fik bekræftet at Daryl var død, brød hun helt sammen.

Daryl Anthony Jones var født i 1983 i Australien. Da han var seks-syv år flyttede de til New Zealand, morens hjemland.

Skæbnen havde overraskelser i vente.

“Nathan seemed a good kid too,” said a source. “I think the two boys would have been fairly easily led. I think they were just influenced by the wrong people.”

Daryl and Nathan attended Aranui High School and were involved in Christian youth groups, but became disillusioned and didn’t fit in. Sensitive and deep thinkers, they believed there was hypocrisy in the church.

“They felt that what was being taught about love and acceptance was not being practised,” a source said. “Daryl was looking for a belief system that worked for him. Muslim friends offered brotherhood if he converted to Islam.” One issue for Daryl was the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity. “Daryl accepted the [Islamic] view of one absolute God,” the source said.

Hvad er det, der får børn med kristen baggrund og opvækst til at konvertere? Det, de blev tilbudt var ikke nok til at fylde deres liv. De var på udkig efter noget mere intenst.

Problemet radikalisering

Omgivelserne havde ikke mærket noget på Brenton Tarrant, hvor han befandt sig mentalt, hans tanker.

Heller ikke venner af Daryl forstod, hvad der foregik med ham, eller kunne forestille sig at han ville blive jihadist. Han havde en ven som hed Kevin Fish fra Papaua.

They argued on occasion about religion, but Fish never sensed that his friend would join a terrorist group. “He didn’t seem like the kind of guy that would lay a finger on anyone.”

Fish said he heard Jones had moved to an Arab country where he was studying the Koran “or something like that.

“I heard through an old friend that he’d been missing for a while and then we saw the thing about a New Zealander being killed in a drone strike. “It just clicked – ‘oh, it was him’.”

Dette forhold – at man ikke mærker noget – hvad enten det er jihadister eller hvide hævnere – bør optage flere. Men det er ubehageligt at tænke på.

Tredjemand

Australieren Christopher Havard blev dræbt i Yemen sammen med Daryl. Også han konverterede i Noor-moskéen. Et eller andet må der have været der.

Jones was killed alongside Australian Christopher Havard, whose parents said he was introduced to radical Islam at the Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch.

Mosque leaders confirmed Havard stayed there and studied in 2011, but denied radical teaching took place. But a man who attended a converts’ weekend at the mosque 10 years ago said a visiting speaker from Indonesia talked about violent jihad and plenty shared his views. “Most of the men were angry with the moral weakness of New Zealand. I would say they were radical.”

En nabo til Daryl siger, at når han var så dum at drage til Yemen må han tage det som kom.

In Christchurch, the ex-judicial death of Jones elicits little sympathy from some. “If he was stupid enough to go [to Yemen],” one former neighbour spat, “then he deserves it.”

Havard og Daryl befandt sig i en kolonne med Al Qaida folk på Den arabiske Halvø, da dronerne slog ned. Han ligger begravet et sted i ørkenen.

Nathan bor fortsat i Christchurch og driver et salafistisk center for islam-nysgerrige. De hævder at de tager afstand fra vold.

On Friday afternoons, Muslim converts gather at a drop-in centre in suburban Christchurch to chat and teach anyone who’s interested about Islam.

They have taken names like Abu Hamzah and Abdul Hakeem. One has kept his old name – Nathan Jones. He is the younger brother of Daryl Jones, also known as Muslim bin John, killed by an American drone last year. Nathan Jones and his friends set up the centre to promote Salafism, a sect which follows strict Islam as practised in Mohammed’s time. Some Salafi followers in Western countries espouse jihad but Jones and his friends denounce violence. Flyers in the window proclaim that “terrorists kill Muslims and non-Muslims indiscriminately”.

Jones, married to an Iraqi woman, declined to comment about his brother or his religious beliefs but his friends said Daryl had followed a “deviant” ideology. “Orthodox Islam does not teach us to kill innocent people and to blow up trains and strap bombs to ourselves,” said Abu Hamzah. “[Daryl] was following . . . an extremist ideology in the ways of [Osama] bin Laden and we never agreed with that ideology. We speak against it.”

Man kan jo lure på hvorfor de vælger at tage navn efter kendte jihadister, som Abu Hamzah. Når de lægger sig så tæt op ad den yderliggående variant af islam, er der da ikke en fare for at nogen vil tippe over?

A Kiwi lad’s death by drone