One Woman's Escape from Extremism

Today's podcast is brought to you by the Herzog Foundation. Our guest today was radicalized into extreme Islamism at 12 years old. She wanted to be a freedom warrior, which meant killing Americans and Jews as a suicide bomber. But after she came to the U.S., the word freedom took on a new meaning. Once she embraced Jesus as her savior, she experienced a kind of liberty that was unimaginable as a child. Stay with us. This is the Moms 4 America podcast. Each week, leaders and everyday champions tell personal stories, share advice, and tackle the issues most important to moms. Hi moms, I'm Debbie Kouroulidis, your host, and welcome to the Moms 4 America podcast. I'm so glad that you're here, moms. Every week we get together to inspire, encourage, and educate moms and their journey through motherhood. All right, well, let me tell you about today's guest. Isik Abla was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and was raised in a devout but not radicalized Muslim home. Her early life was marked by verbal and physical abuse. In fact, at 12 years old, she attended a three-month boot camp on the Quran, which made her want to become a suicide bomber for Allah. Well, today, both literally and figuratively, Isik is living in a world far apart from those days in Turkey. She lives here in America, and she leads Isik Abla Ministries, where she presents the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Muslim world. Well, welcome, Isik, to the Moms 4 America podcast. I'm so glad to have you on the show. Thank you so much for having me. I heard your story, bits of it, live in person at actually the Museum of the Bible. That's where we met, and it was so compelling. Your story, your testimony is amazing. So thank you for taking some time out to share a little bit about who you are and what God's done in your life, and you got a lot to share. Tell us a little bit about you, your family. Let us get to know you real quick before we get into some of the specifics. Sure, thank you. I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, in a devout Muslim home. As you know, Turkey has secular Muslims and also devout Muslims and radical Muslims. Right, which are all different, which are all different, by the way. They are. We all have them in our family. I grew up in a very dysfunctional, abusive, hostile environment, at home, outside, in the mosque, wherever you went. During the Civil War years, I saw arms and legs flying. People were killing each other in front of me when I was a little kid. I walked through a lake of blood and dead bodies during those civil years, and also being abused severely at home. My mother used to have nervous breakdowns because of my father's multiple mistresses, adulteries. It was quite a bit, very unhealthy, very tragic circumstances for a little girl. Yeah, so you're raised in Turkey. Yes. Your home life is sad, to say the least. Yes. And I know you had a broken relationship with your father and your mother was just having such a difficult time. What were you as a child? Did you feel broken? Were you insecure? You were kind of on a journey, I guess, and that's what we'll talk about, this boot camp. You were kind of trying to find love or acceptance or hope. We know that any child that's in that situation is just, is a very, very sad, a sad heart. Yes, absolutely. Well, when you are growing up in that kind of environment, it becomes your normal. So it was my normal at the time. I was only trying to breathe and survive and be invisible as a little girl because if I was visible, that meant abuse and trouble for me. And my mind was very fragmented. Of course, later on, I understood what was wrong with me because a lot of things could go wrong in your young adult years. You can imagine after a childhood like that. I was looking for acceptance and I found acceptance in the mosque. I found acceptance in a Koran course because I was trying to make the meaning, find the meaning and purpose in all this chaos and tragedies that we are seeing right now. Right. And that's true even of everyone that we see. And we know this, that children and teenagers, they're looking for acceptance. And that's why there's such a problem here in America. Whole different set of situations. But you were looking for acceptance. So how did you get to this, this camp, this boot camp? And what was it for? Did your parents send you there? Was this common? No, it wasn't common. Actually, probably 15 to 20 percent of Turkey is radical. The rest of it's not radical Muslims. But because when you are that level of going through fragmentation in the mind, you are looking for something to hold on to. And it has to be as radical as the abuse that you've been through to almost like balance it out. So I was looking for something really meaningful and radical. And here is this boot camp Koran course introducing me a heroic act of you're going to be a world changer. You are going to save the world from evil and which is America and Israel. So I was so brainwashed how evil they were and I had to do something about it. And I'm like, oh, OK, now everything makes sense. And I am living in hell here. But if I die for Allah, I'm going to go to paradise. So this is how they brainwash you when you go to boot camp like that and tell you something completely part of deception and part of Antichrist. Can I ask you was were your parents radical? Were they were they a part of this ideology? Were you was that a part of your growing up or was this kind of like on the outskirts and you kind of fell into this? No, my parents weren't part of that. They were like nominal Muslims. They were just mediocre Muslims. But my father was extremist in racism when it came to especially Armenians. His family burned 15 Armenians to stake and they got gold medal from Turkish government. And by the way, I am the first Turk going out on television, repenting on behalf of Turkish people. So and my father later on received Christ, Jesus Christ in an Armenian church. Imagine. Wow. Well, that's so hopeful to hear. Absolutely. But my family coming back to your question, my family weren't as radical. My great grandmother was radical. She was the one taking me to these mosques and these boot camps. And I felt like I found my niche. I found my place there. So you go. OK, so now we go to this boot camp. What happens when you leave there? So you changed and your whole perspective was now that indoctrinated. Well, three months is a lot of time. Three months. We know here they can change your gender and your mind in like a week. You know, all of a sudden children are so impressionable. Of course, that's why they're doing it. So you walked out of there with a new, I guess, dedication to Islam. Yes, absolutely. And it was so much like me, even in the religious spirit, you know, in even Christian circles can happen never to the extent, of course. But when you start being more religious and more religious, you start judging other people. So I was judging my parents and I was saying, oh, their problem is existing because they are not good Muslims. I am the one in this family. I'm going to carry the legacy of Mohammed. And what did that mean to you? If you're going to carry this legacy of Mohammed, what does that mean? It means killing and dying in the name of Allah. Can you imagine a child? This was their goal? Yes. Wow. And there are so many kids. Even when we talk about Gaza, children in Gaza, they are reading. We can understand with my team. We speak multiple languages. They are they are hailing. They are praising terrorists as national heroes. And this is in their school curriculum, in their books. And that was my normal to feel that way. Later on, even I joined a group, a Nazi group. Everybody was coming in their Nazi uniforms to get rid of all the Jews in the world. I was part of it as a visitor at that time. But I had friends. They were members of those groups and clubs in Turkey. Amazing. Wow. It's incredible. You hear about this and then when you see someone that's actually lived this, it's like so shocking. But you know that this is happening all over the world, not only in Turkey, obviously, the whole Middle East and even in America. Americans are hating America. You know? Yeah. So you were taught about what were you taught? You were taught to hate to. Yes. But I want to tell you something. We were we were taught to hate. But in under a very good camouflage and packaging, we were going to hate the devil. We were going to hate Satan. We were going to get rid of him. But Corrie Ten Boom said this, and I love it. I always quote, if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love. And that is my mission today for the Muslim world as a minister of the gospel. Amen. Well, OK, let's keep going. And I can't wait to hear how what God has done in your life. But let's just finish a little bit about this, because I do want to talk about people just don't understand the radical ideology that comes with it's far beyond a religion. It's a radical ideology. Can you explain this a little bit so we know exactly what we're talking about? We're not talking about the Muslim religion. And you actually touched on it in the beginning. There is a radical ideology that is a political, dangerous, extremely dangerous ideology. Can you break this down so people understand this isn't about religion? This is about basically an ideology. You explain it better. Thank you. First of all, we need to understand we are not talking about about against all Muslims here. I love Muslims. I have family members, Muslims. I have friends, Muslim friends. So we are not talking about Muslims that they are trying to gain spiritual favor with their own God and they are peaceful and trying to exercise their own faith. We are not talking about this. We are talking about Islam is an ideology. Islam is an ideology. It is still rooted in Koran, but a lot of Muslims don't know and don't study this. So it's good. But you can imagine that only a dozen people did what they did for September 11th. So it doesn't take a lot of people, all the Muslim world to destroy the Western world. Twenty five percent of the Muslim world is enough numbers of radicals to do all these terrorist acts that are horrible. So but Islam is an ideology says this. There will be no peace or there will be only peace if everyone submits to Islam. And at the end of the world, everyone, every household. So this is not only a Christian. We are Christians. We are worried about this. I'm talking about this. I'm talking to 80s. I'm talking to agnostics, Buddhists, Hindu. You are going to be under a sword, under a gunpoint, going to be a Muslim to have peace in this world. That is Islamic radical jihadist ideology. Right. It's not compatible with the Western civilization at all. At all. This is about our homeland security. This is about our children's future. This is about them believing this radically, that this is going to be the end of the world to cleanse the world from evil. Yeah. Thank you for clearing that up, because it's very important that we're all talking about. Like you said, we're not talking about the religion. We're talking about the radical ideology. I want to kind of come back a little bit to your personal story, because after that, after your teen years, you actually did marry someone who was had this radical ideology, and it even became more prevalent in your life, correct? Yes, that's correct. Because I was first believing in jihad as a physical jihad. You go and kill and I become a suicide bomber and that's it. But after I met him, there was a new group of radical Muslims. We're going to go and invade the Muslim Western world with our ideology. We are going to be like them. We are not going to cover our heads if we don't have to. We are going to go to their schools. We're going to send students, Muslim students to Ivy Leagues, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, and we are radically going to integrate ourselves, invade America, invade Europe, which already happened, you know, and we are going to populate these countries. We're going to be powerful in the politics. We are going to have congressmen. We are going to have mayors, senators in the United States of America until we have the political, economical, media power. So, right, you're saying that their thought is to look like they're assimilating with America, but they're not. They're infiltrating. So you just talked about it, educational jihad, economic jihad, political jihad and family jihad have lots of kids. That was kind of like the Trojan horse from the inside. You take it over from the from the inside. Exactly. And I like that idea better because we could do more harm in the long run. And I was part of it more than 30 years ago. Imagine. So we are just America is just waking up right now. And some Americans are very gullible, ignorant to this fact. They don't believe. But 30 years ago, it existed already 50 years. This ideology, we are talking about almost almost a century of a plan of the enemy. Generations to generations brainwashed. And what are you seeing now? Clearly, I mean, we do have this is playing out right in front of us here in America. What are you seeing that you were that was being projected earlier days? Yes, they were like and there are videos like this, like this. This is my life. I work for this. I work against this. But there are videos. Muslims are in America applying for a green card, burning American flags in front of the White House and saying this White House is going to be a Muslim house. Jihad and Sharia law will be in every house in America. This was a declaration more than 30 years ago when I was part of it. This is a declaration of the radical Muslims right now. Right after this break, we'll have more with Ishaq. Stay with us. Hi, moms. I'm excited to share some news about our new sponsor, the Herzog Foundation. We know you're passionate about raising patriots and empowering your children with the best education possible. And the Herzog Foundation shares that passion. They're dedicated to promoting liberty through education, freedom and helping parents like you choose the best educational path. They offer a powerhouse of resources designed to support families and schools alike. Whether you're ready to dive in headfirst to the world of education or simply looking for more ways to empower your child's learning. From free training events to their must read online publication, The Lion, they're committed to keeping you informed about what's happening in education. Also, if you've ever thought moms about starting your own Christian school or co-op, their school box online course will give you everything you need to get started on the right foot. Again, we are so proud to partner with the Herzog Foundation and we encourage you to explore all their amazing tools and the insights that they offer. So go ahead, visit HerzogFoundation.com to learn more. You won't want to miss these incredible resources. Again, find it all out at HerzogFoundation.com. All right, welcome back moms. Before we continue with our interview, I do want to remind everyone to please like, subscribe and share our podcast with your mom friends. Another great podcast that someone in your circle would be really encouraged to hear with Isik's story. Also, if you have an idea or a topic for the podcast, would you please email me at podcastatmomsforamerica.net. And lastly, I want to invite all of our moms listening to join the movement here at Moms for America. I so hope that you're a part of our sisterhood. It's moms like us all across the country, uniting to fight for faith, family, freedom and the constitution. Check us all out at momsforamerica.us. All of our incredible resources are there and available for you moms. All right, now back to the show. You brought up Sharia law, and this is something that no one has even entertained or talked about in days gone by. That was over there, not here. But now actually some people, which is crazy, it's kind of like the people that are, you have no idea what that is and how horrible it is. And the same thing with Sharia law. I mean, we've got some people that are somehow considering this. In fact, I have to get my notes here. But in Texas, they actually put this on the ballot calling for, you know, to prohibit any type of Sharia law. We would never see that on a ballot initiative in America ever. Is this something, first of all, I can't believe that any woman would ever want to even entertain this or any American. Is this something that you think is really creeping in here for consideration? It is absolutely creeping in here because what happened in England, I went to British Parliament and I spoke there with lords and the ladies of the Parliament 10 years ago, 12 years ago. And they were like, no, it's not here. You have Sharia courts. I was telling them back then, imagine they didn't even know. These are the Parliament members. They had no clue about they had Sharia courts in their country. This is what happens when you have a Sharia court. This woman, for example, brutally abused and beaten up, which was my testimony, part of my testimony, and goes to the court system and they look at her driver's license and they say, oh, where do you live? The community that you live, the village that you live goes by Sharia law. You need to go to your court. And she's all bruised, almost about to die. She cannot get her justice in American court. She needs to go to a Sharia court. So you're talking about the communities that are basically like their own cities within America and in there breeds this radical ideology. In fact, I've heard that the police, they just stay away from it. They let them rule their own community. They can crucify that woman. They can kill that woman. They can do whatever they want to do to victims and minorities or the children and women. And nobody in America say anything. This is what they want to do. And they can even kidnap and bring American citizens there. And police cannot enter in for justice. Who says they can't enter there? Once you pass the Sharia law, they are going to be immune. That is why we are putting this fight. Do people know this, do you think? A lot of people believe us, but a lot of people turn in this left and right political game and they don't understand. This is a danger for all of us. This is not about politically being on this side or not liking the president or not loving this guy or not. This is a danger for all American citizens. Right. Because we're talking about terrorists. Yes. And they don't they don't think they are terrorists. They believe they are freedom fighters. Yeah. What about Mandani? And I mean, we're seeing a lot of and I don't know, you know, I don't know where all this is going. I don't know what what's going to happen with America. What are you what's your fear? Well, I don't have fear because I good news is I see Muslims coming to Christ. Yes. Through our ministry, through dreams and visions. God is doing. God is God. You know, like I want to say this is happening, but God, I always say, but Jesus. That's right. I have no hope here. Right. But when we come to Mandani, you know, he gave speeches like Muhammad. I mean, there are secret secret codes in these speeches. I can understand a lot of Muslims understand what he's talking about. What do you mean, secret codes? I mean, he said we came to this country like just like Muhammad left Makkah and he went to other lands. Why did Muhammad went to other lands to inherit those lands and beheading Christians? These are part of his speeches. And he's like trying to sympathize with everybody like we are foreigners. We are immigrants. No, this is not about being just an innocent immigrant. You are talking about you are following Muhammad's example. Muhammad's example is beheading people, killing people and doing a holy war jihad to inherit those lands. So when you tell Muslims, any Muslim that knows Korea, they know what he's talking about and they are like, yeah, let's get united. So he's mobilizing them while Americans are sleeping. Yes. And some Muslims, they don't even know what he's talking about because they are very modernized in America and they are backstabbing Muslims, just like backstabbing Christians. They are like when I tell them this, they are like, no, you're going to be kidding me. He's not saying that. And I'm like, he's talking about Muhammad out in the open. What has the response been as you travel the country and you share this, this ministry? I mean, wow, this is a powerful ministry that you have uncovering and then sharing your testimony, which I want to get into now because God's done great things in your life. And I want to know how that happened. But is this being, are you being received or are you, what is it being like? Maybe even in the culture? Yes. Here is, I don't think America's biggest problem is invasion of Islam. America's biggest problem is ignorance. I'm sorry. And, you know, a lot of Americans are awake and believing, but a lot of Americans are like, if it doesn't exist, I'm not seeing it. You know, I'm not worried about it. So they are looking for the evidence. That is why the Muslim agenda is radical. Islamic agenda is to go very quietly until you grow like just like stage one to stage four cancer. You know, sometimes people go to the doctor and the doctor says you have three months to live, you know, and people don't understand how much this is spreading silently in our culture, in our societies. And that is the part of radical Islamist jihad agenda. When I go and speak with groups of people, I am seeing right now very, very hopeful, very encouraging responses. And they want to put me there. They want to, God is opening a lot of doors for our ministry, for me to go to churches, speak, not speaking hate speech, speaking wake up America speech. You know, if we need to pray, if we need to do outreach, if we need whatever as American citizens to protect this country from this evil, protect this, protect our children, grandchildren, our future, we got to do this. Yeah. I mean, they believe me. They do believe you. And the the privilege it is to be in America. Right. And the freedoms that we have here as women, I just I can't even imagine when you talk about what it was like for you. No rights for women at all. I mean, that was I can't even imagine what what when you look back at that, you must be just blown away by God's amazing saving grace being here in America. I am I am so grateful to America. I'm going to bring myself with your permission a little bit to why I came to America was freedom. Yeah. I was running for my life from that man who put a knife on my throat, told me to jump from a high building. Meeting your husband, your husband. Yes. Radical Muslim and kick me on the floor. I mean, I got a surgery on my nose and doctor told me here in America, I have never cleaned up this many broken bones from a nose because I was kicked severely on the face after and after and after. And then he put a knife. I decided to flee to America. I came here broken, broke, traumatized, didn't have any worth, no self-esteem, no identity. All the way brought me make the long story short to a place of suicide. And on the day I was going to commit suicide, I met Jesus Christ in a miraculous way. And he changed my life. Oh, Mike, what an incredible testimony. Tell us how you met Jesus, because I know a little bit of it. You were actually just at you were done. You were done with my life. I was high. I was by the way, I was highly educated. I was studying my second college here in America, computer network engineering. And but I was so little in my mind. My mother told me one thing that never left my mind. She said, educate yourself, get diplomas because they cannot control educated woman. This is what she told me. And I follow her advice. And I keep studying and studying. And finally, when I was I was at that place in America, I needed an income. And I started working at this company, Christian company. And my boss started witnessing to me about Jesus. And I didn't want to get into that. I look very modern, just like now. And he didn't even know my ideology. But I still believed in radical Islam at that time. I was a little bit excited. But still, in my heart, I was committed. But one day I woke up and I was a single mom with a two and a half year old. And I start hearing this voice. Life is not worth living. You fail. You fail your family. You fail your culture. You fail Allah. It's time for you to depart. And I went to the restroom at workplace and I cried and cried. And I had a closure with Allah or which God I didn't know at that time. I went to my seat. My boss called me to his office. And he told me that Jesus knew about my plans, my suicide plans. And he told me he was there by your side. And he started telling me when I was beaten up, when I was molested, none of those things I shared with anybody. And he started telling me everything that I've been through. And he said he wants me to ask you now. Do you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior? I knew no doctrine. I knew no scripture. You knew no Jesus. I knew no theology. I didn't understand how Jesus, a man could be son of God. Big blasphemy in Islam. But I knew Jesus Christ was real. He was in that room and he was the only way to heaven. And that was good enough for me. I'm speechless. I mean, isn't that just how God does it? He's just a God of absolute miracles. Thank God for your boss to follow the Holy Spirit, to act on that. And that was it. I was on the floor weeping and just saying yes to Jesus. And I changed like this right that moment. I became a soul winner. I had a ministry. I didn't know the definition of ministry. And I led people to Christ. I couldn't stop talking about Jesus. And it has been like that since then. Oh, wow. What a beautiful testimony. I mean, wow. I mean, I know you've got a book that people can buy and read and be inspired by this. But there's so many things that when I hear this story, one, there's always hope. Two, when God asks you to share your faith and to pray for someone, they could just be literally hanging on by a thread. And you were. And then for you to say yes and have a willing heart to go ahead and give your heart and mind to someone that actually was an enemy. Yes. To you. Absolutely. I mean, that is radical in a good way. Because I thought that guy was a lunatic. He was crazy about Jesus. And I never took him seriously. Until there was a revelation. A revelation of God is the presence of God. Amen. What a beautiful testimony. I'm not even sure now how to close out this podcast, except I want to know what your book is. And I want to know about your ministry, because there could be moms that are listening right now that maybe have someone in a similar situation. They're hopeless. It could be because of something radical in their life. It could be they're in something abusive. It could be that they're in an empty ideology because it comes in all different looks here in America. What is the name of your ministry? And tell us about your book, how they can get that. Thank you. My ministry name is, my name is Işık Abla. I-S-I-K-A-B-L-A. We are on all social media platforms. They can find me also on Google, our website. Name of the book is Heavenly Whispers. This is a 365-day devotional because our ministry primarily focuses in the Muslim world. We see so many Muslims coming to Christ, right and left, and especially from Iran too. Right now, God is doing miracles. And then they ask us, what is now? And I wanted, I pray for providing a daily devotional to get them start praying, giving scriptures. And also, of course, you can understand I overcame trauma. I got healed from my traumas, many of them. So this book is towards emotional healing, trauma healing, and also working against anxiety and depression and intense fear. So every day I want people to be empowered with the word of God. And that's why I wrote it. Unbelievable. What a powerful testimony that is so inspiring and it's so hopeful. Some closing words even maybe to our moms that are raising kids in this culture or maybe their kids are kind of, you know, on the college campuses, maybe they're getting sucked into maybe some kind of radical ideology. What would you tell our moms to, how to protect their kids or how to communicate with their kids? Because so much is coming at our children and especially on the college campuses or through social media. And they fall for these lies. Yes. One thing I want to tell, and I work with a lot of moms as well. And I thank you. And my mom came to Christ also three years ago, 77 years old. So first time in three years, I have a relationship with my own mother. So that is amazing. This is what I want to say. Our kids at home, Christian home, they grow up Christian and then they go to college and they backslide and they don't want to do anything with God. Unfortunately, not all of them, but it happens. Our kids don't need information of Jesus Christ. They need the revelation of Jesus Christ. And when we reveal Jesus through the fruit of the Holy Spirit, they cannot deny it. I think this is what we are missing in our Christian homes. We are missing the fruit of the Holy Spirit because he didn't say you're going to know them by their gifts. He said, you are going to know them by their fruit. And I would say, love, love, love your children, no matter what. Even if they are confused in their genders, if they are confused in their ideology, love them, love them so much with the love of Christ that they can feel like no way they can fail you. And you are not just involved, you are committed. And it is two different things. And I do believe there's so much hope for the young generation because they are hungry and thirsty. For love and acceptance and truth. Yeah. And they have to find it in the home. Yes. This is where it all happens. And in your broken home set you up for a life of desperation. But that's what we need to do. We don't do it perfect. But in our homes, we love our kids more than anything. And we need Jesus every step of the way, teaching, guiding them and building them up according to the plans that God has for them. So, wow. Again, thank you so much for joining us. And God bless you and what you're doing in your ministry. And I know a lot of our moms really will be contacting and getting your book. Thank you so much. I am so grateful to you and Moms for America. Thank you. What a powerful testimony. Thank you, Isik, for all that you're doing. We so appreciate you joining us here on the podcast. And for you moms, I want to thank you for joining us today. Again, please check us out at momsforamerica.us. All of our amazing programs, resources, seminars, webinars, everything we have that help you on your journey through motherhood. We call ourselves the ultimate support group for moms, and we surely are. So please go there, sign up for our newsletter, join our community, which is called Moms Town Square. We have a place where you can talk about what's happening in your community and network with other moms all across the country that are like-minded. No bullying, no censoring. All right. I say this every week from public policy to parental rights, from the kitchen table to Congress, we have it all. So again, please check us out. And moms, please like and share this podcast with your mama friends. And as always, I will see you next week. And let's keep changing our country one home at a time. Thank you. Talk to you soon. A special thank you to our sponsor, the Herzog Foundation. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Herzog Foundation.