They are shocked, I tell you that Pimentel turned to jihad

As long-time reader who goes by the handle "A Christian woman who has lived under sharia" expressed in her comment about the original article on Pimentel, "This terrorist will be diagnosed as being mentally ill, psychologically immature, disturbed, sleep deprived, malnourished or the product of overly harsh toilet training."

So far, all we have is a statement from his mother, who said that after he converted to Islam, "He changed" Yes Mrs. Sosa, Islam changes a person in many ways, one of which is jihad and the murder of the infidel. Pimentel will be presented by his defense as one or all of the above ailments, each designed to hide the real reasons behind his actions, but to name what Pimentel followed in order to achieve mass casualties would be Islamophobic.

From The Uptowner November 21 by Lucy Pawle

Shock, Anguish Uptown as Neighborhood Reacts to Terrorism Arrest

Pimentel, speaks to the media outside her apartment on West 137th Street

(Photo by Lucy Pawle)

Fighting back tears, Carmen Sosa apologized today for her son’s alleged actions. “I didn’t raise him that way,” she said of Jose Pimentel, 27, arrested Saturday on terrorism charges. “He changed.”

Speaking in the hallway outside the apartment they shared on West 137^th Street, where he was arrested, Sosa said she was “very disappointed in my son.” Police said Pimentel, an unemployed U.S. citizen of Dominican origin and apparently influenced by the jihadi writings of Anwar al-Awlaki, was plotting to bomb U.S. military personnel, police cars and precinct houses and uptown post offices.

Sosa explained that Pimentel began reading the Koran in 2001 and said his increasing radicalization had prompted her, two years ago, to move him back to New York from Schenectady, N.Y., where he had been living at her other home. “I brought him here because I didn’t like the way he was acting,” she said.

Shock and disbelief were the primary uptown reactions to Saturday’s arrest.

Harlem and Washington Heights neighbors who knew Pimentel, reportedly under police surveillance since 2009, said he spent his days sitting alone outside the apartment building, smoking cigarettes.

“He seemed nice,” said Simon Islam, 36, who moved into the building five months ago with his wife and daughters. “He used to talk to everyone when they came in and out the building, but he was very quiet. He just used to smoke,” Islam said.

Juan Rey, whose mother lives in the building, described Pimentel as “a nice guy who used to open the door for people when they were carrying their groceries.”

David Rodriguez, who’d known Pimentel for a year, said he “never saw the look of terrorism in him.” Expressing astonishment at the arrest, he said Pimentel “could have blown the whole building up and no one would have known“ that he was the bomber. “His own grandmother wouldn’t know.” He described Pimentel as a regular guy in sweatpants and sweaters. “I never saw him praying; he wore regular clothes,” Rodriguez said. “I just can’t believe it.”

Pimentel sometimes welcomed Islam with “As-Salamu Alaykum” – a traditional Muslim greeting – and had explained to him how he’d converted to Islam from Catholicism. “He said he converted six or seven years ago,” Islam said. “Once I was drinking here with friends and cousins, and he pointed and said, ‘No, no. It’s not good.’”

But around the corner at Nadal1Deli, employee Mohammed “Alex” Alohdd pointed out that Pimentel didn’t fast during Ramadan. “He called himself a Muslim, but he wasn’t a proper Muslim,” Alohddi said. “I’ve known him for three years but I didn’t like him that much. I just didn’t feel good with him. He used to ask people outside for cigarettes.”

At the Islamic Cultural Center of New York on East 96th Street, where Pimentel visited, according to his mother, Imam Omar Abu Namous echoed Aloddi’s sentiments. “These circumstances, that he used to come to this mosque, are only coincidences, and have no relationship whatsoever with his activities,” the imam said. He hadn’t heard of the arrest and didn’t recognize Pimentel’s name, but said that if Pimentel had confided in a fellow parishioner, “they would have informed me and I would have informed the government.”

Emphasizing his opposition to fundamentalist ideology, the imam described the Islamic Cultural Center as fostering peace. He worried that Pimentel’s arrest would spark Islamophobia. “People have a deep misunderstanding about Islam,” (said) Abu Namous.

And why do people have a deep misunderstanding of Islam, Namous? Could it have anything to do with the fact that jihadists routinely quote the Qur'an and hadiths of Muhammad to justify their actions, or that the battle cry "Allahu Akbar" is heard just before the bomb goes off, or the gun begins to spit rounds? How would you challenge your coreligionists with sura and verse showing where they have got Islam all wrong? It's nice to hear you would contact the authorities if you heard talk of "terrorism," it would be great to see you actively engaging with law enforcement to root out the jihadists and Islamists in your midst.

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