This is with reference to the article “What turned Emwazi into a monster?” (March 8) by Rasheed Abou-Alsamh. Many people claim that it was due to the bad treatment he had received at the hands of the western intelligence agencies that changed his mind and he later transformed into a killing monster.

I beg to differ with all those people holding similar views. If one carefully reads about his life, it will become obvious that he was a person with no aim in life. This is not because of his stateless status. He received education from a British university and had been accepted as a British citizen. It is all about wrong choices in life. Secondly, nobody could fight the inherent evil within. He had been evil by nature, which never allowed him to lead a normal life. Had he not joined the terrorist organization, Islamic State (IS), he would have become a serial killer.

Another factor that needs to be considered is his lack of Islamic knowledge. The deviant ideology of IS might have had appealed him to compensate for his failures in life. I don’t sympathize with such people and also urge others not to get sentimental. These elements are a blot in the face of Muslim world. The people he had killed on the orders of his sick-minded bosses were either helping the people caught in the crossfire or were simply doing their duty of covering the unfolding events. They were far better than those who murdered them.

The writer has aptly used the word “monster.” These monsters have nothing to do with Islam. They only join terrorist outfits for selfish reasons and to get a feel of being powerful.

Fahad Wahid

Jeddah