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Description

  Many people have said that opposites attract, and while the overall reliability of the statement is debatable, there’s definitely some truth to it. It’s also true that people who are extremely similar tend to gravitate towards each other, although again, that’s not always the case. However, interesting things, and not necessarily the good kind of interesting, can happen when two people meet who are almost the exact same in some regards, but wildly different in others.

  Monika Schlau was born and raised in suburban Ohio to German parents. Her mother was a mechanical engineer from East Germany, and her father was a businessman from West Germany who had ultimately decided to move the family to the U.S. for a higher corporate salary. While her mother was a gentle woman who tried to instill values of tolerance and kindness in her, her father was a dominating personality who carried some deeply problematic ideas left over from his own father, a committed Nazi. Ultimately, her father won out, and Monika grew up to be an avowed white nationalist, working as a tattoo artist and occasional journalist for alt-right publications.

  Amina al-Najjar was born and raised in New Jersey to Egyptian parents, who had emigrated to the U.S. simply for the better opportunities. Both of her parents were extremely religious, and they raised her to possess a great deal of religious fervor. Amina grew up highly conservative, but during her time in university, where she studied to be an accountant, she was exposed to a wide variety of ideas that resulted in her adopting an odd mix of views that mixed radical Islam with a potpourri of more progressive ideals, such as acceptance of gays and disagreement with certain fundamentalist views.

  The two of them met at a coffee shop in New York City. Amina had worked in New York since graduating college, while Monika had moved to the city in an effort to recruit sympathizers (Monika wasn’t unaware of the city’s vastly liberal lean, and saw it as an opportunity to exploit an underdeveloped area). The two of them first ran into each other after a mix-up involving Monika’s latte, which played out like a scene in a rom-com. The sparks between the two were instant, and the relationship between the two quickly developed from a casual friendship to a full-blown love affair. The two were an interesting visual comparison, with the reserved Amina always wearing a hijab in public while the extroverted Monika sported dreadlocks and tattoos everywhere on her body, including her face. Still, there was something about the two of them that just worked, and they moved in together after only a few months of knowing each other.

  As the two of them got to know each other better, the extremism that each woman possessed began to leak out. Though this would logically be detrimental to their relationship, given Monika’s thoughts on non-Christians and brown people and Amina’s thoughts on non-Muslims and the immodest, they managed to put those differences aside. Instead, they both focused on the commonalities: a deep-rooted resentment of most types of change, a genuine belief in traditional values, and fear of the two demons of globalism and multiculturalism. By and by, they developed a certain type of hybrid theory together that synthesized how they felt about the wrongs of the world.

  The two eventually married in a ceremony that somehow combined Protestantism and Islam, and lived together for a few years as a wife and wife team of accountant and tattoo artist, with Monika experiencing a great deal of success in finding white nationalist recruits and Amina making obscene amounts of money. As the years passed, though, they both began to feel a call to take actions into their own hands. In a dinner conversation one night, the topic of terrorism came up, and the two were surprised to find that neither one of them was especially opposed to it.

  As it turned out, Monika and Amina were natural terrorists, and their first plot, a plan to bomb a busy subway station, went off depressingly well, killing 63 people during rush hour and sparking a citywide manhunt that ended with them getting away completely free. It was a brilliantly orchestrated act of terror, and it had actually worked better than either one of them thought possible; both had been fully ready to give up their lives for the cause. Their success emboldened them to plot a new act of terror of an even greater scale: a bombing of Madison Square Garden to take place during a concert of an outspokenly left-leaning pop singer, who seemingly represented everything the two stood against.

  Monika greatly reduced her hours as a tattoo artist and worked on building the deadliest possible bomb, while Amina’s income supplied the necessary parts. Though Monika wasn’t the engineer her mother was, she learned quickly, relying on Amina’s assistance and emotional support. Unbeknownst to them, a friend of the couple who had known them for a long time had recently become uneasy around them, and tipped off the FBI that there was something wrong, even if they weren’t sure what. Undercover agents began scoping their every move, recording them scoping out Madison Square Garden and purchasing bomb-making materials while the feds reopened the investigation into the metro bombing. Finally, law enforcement burst into their apartment and arrested the pair while they were sleeping one night a month before the concert was scheduled to take place.

    A thorough search of their apartment provided all the evidence required to tie them to the metro bombing and to prove their plot to bomb MSG, which investigators concluded would have likely been a success. Monika and Amina were charged with 63 counts of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit terrorism. Their trial was an international fiasco over the questions it raised about their ideology, and it ultimately ended with them convicted and subsequently sentenced to death.

    After going to death row, however, their lives took a depressingly lucky turn. After 5 years of 23-hour days in their cells and the omnipresent threat of execution, they were bailed out. President Norm Venkman, a figure with his own ties to the far right and a history of erraticism, commuted the sentences of a number of seemingly random figures on federal death row in his final days in office, including Monika and Anna. As such, the two were moved to a maximum security block in a federal women’s prison where they spent all their time in solitary confinement. Once again, their luck came through: due to the changing of security regulations within the prison, the two were assigned as cellmates on a standard medium-security prison block, as it was surmised that any other cellmate would be too much of a threat to their lives.

    Though they are spending the rest of their lives in federal prison, reports from other inmates indicate that the spouses are happy living together. Monika works in the prison chapel and leads a Bible study group while Amina works as a clerk and is heavily involved in the Islamic community. Likewise, the inmates report that the two are treated with a manner of respect within the prison and that they both have surprisingly nice personalities. The only issue is that according to every inmate reached for comment, any discussion on politics with them can get “really toxic, really quickly.”

Description

  Many people have said that opposites attract, and while the overall reliability of the statement is debatable, there’s definitely some truth to it. It’s also true that people who are extremely similar tend to gravitate towards each other, although again, that’s not always the case. However, interesting things, and not necessarily the good kind of interesting, can happen when two people meet who are almost the exact same in some regards, but wildly different in others.

  Monika Schlau was born and raised in suburban Ohio to German parents. Her mother was a mechanical engineer from East Germany, and her father was a businessman from West Germany who had ultimately decided to move the family to the U.S. for a higher corporate salary. While her mother was a gentle woman who tried to instill values of tolerance and kindness in her, her father was a dominating personality who carried some deeply problematic ideas left over from his own father, a committed Nazi. Ultimately, her father won out, and Monika grew up to be an avowed white nationalist, working as a tattoo artist and occasional journalist for alt-right publications.

  Amina al-Najjar was born and raised in New Jersey to Egyptian parents, who had emigrated to the U.S. simply for the better opportunities. Both of her parents were extremely religious, and they raised her to possess a great deal of religious fervor. Amina grew up highly conservative, but during her time in university, where she studied to be an accountant, she was exposed to a wide variety of ideas that resulted in her adopting an odd mix of views that mixed radical Islam with a potpourri of more progressive ideals, such as acceptance of gays and disagreement with certain fundamentalist views.

  The two of them met at a coffee shop in New York City. Amina had worked in New York since graduating college, while Monika had moved to the city in an effort to recruit sympathizers (Monika wasn’t unaware of the city’s vastly liberal lean, and saw it as an opportunity to exploit an underdeveloped area). The two of them first ran into each other after a mix-up involving Monika’s latte, which played out like a scene in a rom-com. The sparks between the two were instant, and the relationship between the two quickly developed from a casual friendship to a full-blown love affair. The two were an interesting visual comparison, with the reserved Amina always wearing a hijab in public while the extroverted Monika sported dreadlocks and tattoos everywhere on her body, including her face. Still, there was something about the two of them that just worked, and they moved in together after only a few months of knowing each other.

  As the two of them got to know each other better, the extremism that each woman possessed began to leak out. Though this would logically be detrimental to their relationship, given Monika’s thoughts on non-Christians and brown people and Amina’s thoughts on non-Muslims and the immodest, they managed to put those differences aside. Instead, they both focused on the commonalities: a deep-rooted resentment of most types of change, a genuine belief in traditional values, and fear of the two demons of globalism and multiculturalism. By and by, they developed a certain type of hybrid theory together that synthesized how they felt about the wrongs of the world.

  The two eventually married in a ceremony that somehow combined Protestantism and Islam, and lived together for a few years as a wife and wife team of accountant and tattoo artist, with Monika experiencing a great deal of success in finding white nationalist recruits and Amina making obscene amounts of money. As the years passed, though, they both began to feel a call to take actions into their own hands. In a dinner conversation one night, the topic of terrorism came up, and the two were surprised to find that neither one of them was especially opposed to it.

  As it turned out, Monika and Amina were natural terrorists, and their first plot, a plan to bomb a busy subway station, went off depressingly well, killing 63 people during rush hour and sparking a citywide manhunt that ended with them getting away completely free. It was a brilliantly orchestrated act of terror, and it had actually worked better than either one of them thought possible; both had been fully ready to give up their lives for the cause. Their success emboldened them to plot a new act of terror of an even greater scale: a bombing of Madison Square Garden to take place during a concert of an outspokenly left-leaning pop singer, who seemingly represented everything the two stood against.

  Monika greatly reduced her hours as a tattoo artist and worked on building the deadliest possible bomb, while Amina’s income supplied the necessary parts. Though Monika wasn’t the engineer her mother was, she learned quickly, relying on Amina’s assistance and emotional support. Unbeknownst to them, a friend of the couple who had known them for a long time had recently become uneasy around them, and tipped off the FBI that there was something wrong, even if they weren’t sure what. Undercover agents began scoping their every move, recording them scoping out Madison Square Garden and purchasing bomb-making materials while the feds reopened the investigation into the metro bombing. Finally, law enforcement burst into their apartment and arrested the pair while they were sleeping one night a month before the concert was scheduled to take place.

    A thorough search of their apartment provided all the evidence required to tie them to the metro bombing and to prove their plot to bomb MSG, which investigators concluded would have likely been a success. Monika and Amina were charged with 63 counts of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit terrorism. Their trial was an international fiasco over the questions it raised about their ideology, and it ultimately ended with them convicted and subsequently sentenced to death.

    After going to death row, however, their lives took a depressingly lucky turn. After 5 years of 23-hour days in their cells and the omnipresent threat of execution, they were bailed out. President Norm Venkman, a figure with his own ties to the far right and a history of erraticism, commuted the sentences of a number of seemingly random figures on federal death row in his final days in office, including Monika and Anna. As such, the two were moved to a maximum security block in a federal women’s prison where they spent all their time in solitary confinement. Once again, their luck came through: due to the changing of security regulations within the prison, the two were assigned as cellmates on a standard medium-security prison block, as it was surmised that any other cellmate would be too much of a threat to their lives.

    Though they are spending the rest of their lives in federal prison, reports from other inmates indicate that the spouses are happy living together. Monika works in the prison chapel and leads a Bible study group while Amina works as a clerk and is heavily involved in the Islamic community. Likewise, the inmates report that the two are treated with a manner of respect within the prison and that they both have surprisingly nice personalities. The only issue is that according to every inmate reached for comment, any discussion on politics with them can get “really toxic, really quickly.”