Boarding school jihadist from Texas: what went wrong?

Uh, nothing.  The call of jihad, and the requirement that good Muslims "...fight in the cause of Allah , so they kill and are killed ..." (9-111) means that every Muslim, if able is to take arms and kill the unbelievers, or those who have attacked Islam and Muslim lands must do so.  Now obviously only a small percentage of Muslims take this exhortation seriously, but the 5-10% of Muslims that do means that there are up to 160 million jihadists roaming the earth, looking to act on behalf of sura 9 verse 111.

And it looks like Moeed Abdul Salam, despite his money and prestige, listened to the call of jihad, probably through the Qur'an and hadiths of Muhammad.  Quick, call CAIR and have them explain to Salam how wrong he has Islam, and that it is not killing and being killed, that it is really a religion of peace and tolerance. 




From MSNBC January 18 by Chris Brummitt and Gene Johnson 

Why did boarding school graduate join al-Qaida?

Moeed Abdul Salam didn't descend into radical Islam for lack of other options. He grew up in a well-off Texas household, attended a pricey boarding school and graduated from one of the state's most respected universities.

But the most unlikely thing about his recruitment was his family: Two generations had spent years promoting interfaith harmony and combating Muslim stereotypes in their hometown and even on national television.

Salam rejected his relatives' moderate faith and comfortable life, choosing instead a path that led him to work for al-Qaida. His odyssey ended late last year in a middle-of-the-night explosion in Pakistan. The 37-year-old father of four was dead after paramilitary troops stormed his apartment.

His Nov. 19 death went largely unnoticed in the U.S. and rated only limited attention in Pakistan. But the circumstances threatened to overshadow the work of an American family devoted to religious understanding.

Mom: 'Have to let go' 

And his mysterious evolution presented a reminder of the attraction Pakistan still holds for Islamic militants, especially well-educated Westerners whose Internet and language skills make them useful converts for jihad.

"There are things that we don't want to happen but we have to accept, things that we don't want to know but we have to learn, and a loved one we can't live without but have to let go," Salam's mother, Hasna Shaheen Salam, wrote last month on her Facebook page.

The violence didn't stop after Salam died. Weeks after his death, fellow militants killed three soldiers with a roadside bomb to avenge the raid.

It is not clear to what extent Salam's family knew of his radicalism, but on his Facebook page the month before he died, he posted an image of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American al-Qaida leader who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, beside a burning American flag.

He had also recently linked to a document praising al-Awlaki martyrdom and to a message urging Muslims to rejoice "in this time when you see the mujahideen all over the world victorious."

After his death, the Global Islamic Media Forum, a propaganda group for al-Qaida and its allies, hailed Salam as a martyr, explaining in an online posting that he had overseen a unit that produced propaganda in Urdu and other South Asian languages.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said Salam's role had expanded over the years beyond propaganda to being an operative. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

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