My Jihad: The True Story of an American Mujahid’s Amazing Journey

Aukai Collins has been described as a “beefylinebacker blue-eyed All-American mujahid holy warrior” who has led a life of faith, danger, and espionage in some of the most perilous war Zones on the face of the earth. His amazing journey started in 1993, when a fellow worshiper in his San Diego mosque suggested that he go to Bosnia to stop the Serb-sponsored genocide that was taking place there. This eventually led him to Usama Bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan, where he trained with the most aggressive and terrifying mujahideen in the world. But when Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh-the man accused of luring Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl to his death-asked him to raid a town in Kashmir that would include hostage taking and the killing of civilians, Collin’s life took another turn. Although he saw jihad as the highest level of faith, and would even lose a leg while fighting jihad in Chechnya, worldwide attacks by Islamic terrorists shocked him and he became disillusioned by the way some were using Islam to further their own ends or attack innocents. He was recruited by the US government as an undercover operative in the fight against terrorism. His callous treatment by inept members of the law enforcement and intelligence community provides insight into why the US government can’t fight against something it doesn’t understand. The FBI and CIA have now spent millions of dollars to understand the events that led up to September 11, even as the information was their for the taking. Collins not only became acquainted with one of the hijackers, he was also invited by Usama Bin Laden to return to Afghanistan. My Jihad is a personal story about the biggest threat to world peace and stability in our generation, as told by an insider on both sides of the conflict.