سيف

Daniel Haqiqatjou's personal story is really sad, but also an important warning about mental health and radicalism. He was born in Houston and raised in a typical Iranian household. He's ethnically Iranian, like me. In 2008, his little sister went missing. Her body was never recovered. She was last seen in the home of a convicted sex offender, who later told police she "overdosed on drugs he'd given her" and he "got rid of the body". Donna's body was never found, and the convicted sex offender only served 2 out of his 5 year sentence before being released. In 2017 he wrote in his blog (link in next comment): "I wanted to share this personal aspect of my life because I don’t want anyone to misunderstand where I am coming from. I know I write things that come across as controversial and even shocking to some. That’s because I am trying to wake us up to problems that we’re not used to hearing about and we may not be aware of. Problems that have, in fact, deeply affected my life and the lives of those I love: The lives of my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. I am struggling to do something to address those problems and I hope you will give me a chance." I don't know him personally, but I think his transformation from a regular Muslim guy to an extremist who writes/says controversial things was probably triggered by his sister's murder. You can see the clues in his 2017 blog post. He acknowledges that he writes controversial things. The dangerous part is that he's unfortunately spreading hate and creating Islamophobia. But because he appeals to the far right extremists, he has an audience. My heart breaks for him because I don't think he ever got over his sister's murder, and his extremist behaviour now seems like a coping mechanism.