Magomyed was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, and throughout his teenage years and early twenties he grappled with a series of extreme ideologies. At different points, Magomyed found himself drawn to Islamist militancy, to the point that at 17 he nearly crossed the Saudi-Iraqi border to join the Syrian conflict. Not long after distancing himself from that path, he developed a fixation on Nazi ideology after watching WWII documentaries — an obsession that earned him the nickname “Hitler” among classmates in high school. The Nazi phase would eventually come to an end, not due to the brutality of the Nazi regime during the Holocaust, but because he despised them for losing. By 19, he had swung to the opposite ideological extreme and embraced Communism, even traveling to Russia at 25 to study the language and visit Lenin’s tomb.

Over time, through painful reflection and lived experience, Magomyed came to recognize the dangers of all forms of extremism. He now considers himself a moderate thinker and a committed ally of the West. Having witnessed firsthand how seductive and destructive radical ideologies can be, he understands deeply how dystopian a world ruled by modern Islamists, neo-Nazis, or authoritarian communists would be. The West is far from perfect, but in his experience it remains the closest model we have to genuine human benevolence and freedom, and now Magomyed strives to keep it that way.