“Such is God’s deep judgement that Christendom is scourged with her own breed, the whole power and force of the Grand Signior [Ottoman Sultan] resting and consisting in renegades, the children & offspring of Christians.” – Edward Barton, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1591 AD.
On August 29th, 1526 AD, the Ottoman empire scored a decisive victory against the Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Mohacs, marking the beginning of a period of decline for Hungarian power in Transylvania and followed by a new Ottoman assault on the Habsburg monarchy.
For Balasz Somlyai, it was the day he was captured and taken prisoner by the Ottomans, eventually leading to his conversion and adoption of the name “Murad Bey.”
Although it’s easy to dismiss his conversion as opportunistic, his post-conversion activity within the Ottoman empire suggests a deep sincerity. Not only that, but it was not at all unheard of for Europeans in the early-modern era to emigrate to Islamic lands and become known by their former peoples as “renegades.” The English word “Renegade” was itself originally used exclusively to refer to Muslim converts, borrowed from the Spanish “Renegado,” which was used in the same capacity.
Arriving in Constantinople in 1572, Adam Neuser had been an anti-trinitarian Christian scholar, receiving his doctorate from Heidelberg University and later becoming convinced that the trinity has absolutely no basis in either the Old or New Testaments. He was forced to flee the Holy Roman Empire after being charged with both heresy and treason, partially on account of his beliefs and partially on account of a letter found at his residence, purportedly addressed to the Ottoman emperor expressing Neuser’s desire to emigrate and convert to Islam.
Neuser and his associates were subsequently sentenced to death, although Neuser alone managed to escape with his life and traveled to Ottoman territory, along with a fellow prospective convert, Markus Pencker.
The diary of Stephan Gerlach, Christian chaplain of the British empires Ottoman embassy, describes a particular conversion he witnessed, which is especially important here. An unnamed Frenchman arrived in Constantinople and sought out Pencker, expressing his desire to convert and somehow having had prior knowledge of Pencker’s conversion. Pencker brought the Frenchman to his associate, Murad Bey (Balasz Somlyai), who then brought him before the proper authorities in order to officially convert to Islam.
When Neuser wrote to the anti-trinitarian scholar Jacob Palaeologus, he attached a treatise titled “The Guide for One’s Turning toward Truth” and encouraged Palaeologus to convert. The treatise was an instruction manual for new Muslim converts and its author was none other than Murad Bey, who was apparently the author of several Islamic works, including hymns written in parallel Turkish, Latin, and Hungarian.
These examples of early-modern conversion are especially pertinent for us, because although present-day “reverts” simply regard conversion to Islam as a change of daily rituals and dietary habits, this was not by any means the common understanding before the Western colonization of the Islamic world. The aforementioned converts fully understood that conversion to Islam was not just an internal change, but a changing of one’s location and a changing of one’s loyalties.
As opined by the British Ambassador above, the renegades were not only commonplace, but they formed a significant part of the Ottoman administrative-military elite. The widely feared English pirate, Jack “Sparrow” Ward, died of old age in Algeria with the name Yusuf Reis, having converted and served the Ottoman navy as a corsair. Thomas Keith, a former soldier in the British empires highland regiments, not only led the Ottoman charge against the Wahhabi seizure of Medina in the 19th century but became one of the Sacred City’s last Ottoman governors.
Gerlach’s diary claims that Neuser betrayed the Ottomans later in life, although most historians agree that Neuser was functioning as a double agent. Likewise, in 1575 Pencker prepared to infiltrate the Spanish royal-court; Although native-German speakers, he and Neuser were highly educated and Pencker was reportedly fluent in four European languages. A parallel network of mostly Italian renegades, many of whom served in the Ottoman navy, actively struggled against their former countrymen and co-religionists.
Not only did these renegades switch loyalties, but they very clearly formed networks of influence which were used to both facilitate conversion and advance Muslim power in the Mediterranean.
This historical background brings us to our post-modern renegade network. Now known among some US officials as “Wayward Storm,” Monica Witt was born in El Paso, Texas and joined the US air force in 1997.
By the time the US began it’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, Witt was a prominent counter-intelligence expert, fluent in Farsi, holding a “top secret” security clearance and she reportedly knew the true identities of overseas recruiters, informants, and undercover agents.
Witt left active duty in 2008, and by 2013 she had become extremely disillusioned with the US, referring to her actions in the military as evil and attending multiple intellectual and cultural conferences in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Witt later publicly converted to Islam, reportedly on Iranian national television, and eventually defected to the Islamic Republic, after a brief return to the US.
Currently wanted by the FBI, she hasn’t been seen in public since her defection, but according to the US State Department’s 2018 indictment of her, she’s been actively engaged in cyberwarfare against the US.
The indictment alleges that Witt’s defection was facilitated by a contact she had in Iran, identified as “Individual A” and reportedly a dual US-Iranian citizen. Since Witt had allegedly befriended Iranian-American journalist Marzieh Hashemi and was working on a documentary with her in 2013, outlets such as the NYT and WaPo have insinuated that Hashemi was the “Individual A” mentioned in the indictment.
This could help explain her unlawful detainment by the FBI in 2019, however the speculations of the Western press should always be taken with a massive grain of salt as this connection could have been spuriously made in order to justify the illegal kidnapping of Hashemi. Regardless, her story is not unlike Witt’s.
Originally named Melanie Franklin, she was born and raised in the United States — an Afro-American woman — and studied journalism at Louisiana State University. Inspired by the Iranian Islamic revolution while still in college, she converted to Islam and permanently emigrated to Iran, where she’s currently a news anchor for Press TV.
The similarities between the two converts is important here, because what this demonstrates is that even in the absence of a religious authority or a common understanding that would enforce emigration, renegades naturally migrate on their own volition and the West is feeling threatened by them.
Towards the beginning of Witt’s indictment, a table of definitions is offered to the reader, which seems worthy of mention. The word “defector” is defined first, as “a person who has abandoned his or her country or cause in favor of an opposing one,” i.e. Witt is a present-day example of a “renegade,” as opposed to the more commonly found “reverts.”
The early-modern renegades provide us with a window into the fundamental obligations of Islam, at a time when Muslims had not yet been poisoned by Western ideological hegemony. This understanding was lost in the melee of colonialism by the adherents of most Islamic schools of thought; although interestingly, it was never abandoned by the Zaydis of Yemen, who, unlike most of the Ummah, remained free from Western domination until the 1960s.
The understanding that Islam is not just daily rituals or a particular understanding of history; but rather a form of statecraft where location, group-loyalty, and material solidarity are essential, has slowly been rearticulated and rediscovered over the past 100+ years.
Scholars such as Sayyid Abu A’la Maududi, Sayyid Qutb, and Imam Khomeini have all built further and further upon this idea, but naturally, the implications for those who live in the West haven’t been fully elaborated on; Western Muslims are not just on the physical periphery of the Islamic world, but we also exist on its cultural and intellectual periphery, constituting a minute number within the global Muslim population.
Although we actively attempt to reinforce our own sense of self-importance, the Western Muslim community is almost completely irrelevant regarding the larger Islamic world and its future. Despite that lack of elaboration, we can now find somewhat prominent English-speaking scholars taking the position that emigration is an obligation.
Although it’s ill-received by many in their English-speaking audiences, both the Imami Shi’ite scholar, Dr. Farroukh Sekaleshfar and the Salafi scholar Abd al-Rahman Hassan have arrived at the same conclusion, despite the cavernous divide between their respective sects.
Difference in historical narratives aside, the discourse of both speakers is largely Quranic, rooted in basic logic, easily accessible for English speakers and clearly espousing an understanding of Islam akin to that of Maududi, Qutb, Khomeini etc. and the pre-colonial Muslims.
“Or do we see Muslims as an imaginary community, a community whose location in this world we don’t know? Muslims are the children of these villages, scattered in the foothills of the mountains; the children of cities scattered in various parts of the Islamic world.”
– al-Shahid Sayyid Husayn Badr al-Din al-Houthi, founder of the Qur’anic March (precursor to Ansarallah)
Regarding emigration, the 20th century Zaydi Imam Majd al-Din al-Muayyadi gives an extensive explanation for its obligatory nature. Among the references he makes, there’s one that’s very short and serves as an excellent example of the pre-colonial Muslim understanding of Islam, statehood and global confrontation, which I’ll end on. He cites a hadith from the Prophet(sawa):
“Emigration will not cease as long as the enemy is being fought.”
And further elaborates on this with the words of the 17th century Zaydi Imam, al-Qasim bin Muhammad:
“There is no doubt in the authenticity of this report, seeing that it is in tandem with the endeared book [The Quran], as per His saying, Exalted is He: {You have no obligations to them until they emigrate} [8:72].”
Imam Majd al-Din concludes by adding: “The meaning of enemy generally includes the people of disbelief, tyranny, transgression, and hypocrisy.”
