PrintFebruary 19, 2007
Do it yourself jihad
The mall massacre in Salt Lake City, Utah, by a Bosnian Muslim killed in the attack, is another reminder that solo practitioners of jihad are a threat anywhere, anytime. Listen to this video recorded at the Trolley Square Mall, at 1 minute 37 seconds into the podcast. You will hear "OPD.. OPD... Officer Hammond" which is off-duty Odgen Police Department officer Hammond identifying himself for the second time to arriving Salt Lake City PD officers. After this you can hear clearly what appears another voice, in an Arabic accent, say "allah-hu akhbar, allah-hu akhbar," and again at 1:47.
The media, of course, are not letting the public know, no doubt afraid of an anti-Muslim backlash, the perennial fear of elites who think of the mass of Americans as a lynch mob not yet organized. Robert Spencer, writing in Front Page Magazine, lists several other recent incidents in which solo Muslims have engaged in apparent attempts at mass slaughter of random people. To his list I would add the attack at the El Al ticket counter at LAX airport.
Usually, families and the authorities chalk-up these incidents to deranged individuals, and assure us no political motivations are in play. That's exactly what happened in 1997, when a Palestinian opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Yesterday, an article in the New York Daily News revealed that these explanations were a cover story crafted by the Palestinian Authority.
Nobody is suggesting that all individual Muslims suffer for the acts of a few. But we cannot blind ourselves to the fact that a political war is being carried on within our borders by both organized cells and individuals, intent on killing Americans in the name of jihad. Patriotic American Muslims must join in watching for signs of disturbed individuals acting out the violent rhetoric of Islamists, so freely available in the world's media and on the internet.Ali Abu Kamal's relatives say they are tired of lying about why the Palestinian opened fire on the observation deck of Empire State Building, killing a tourist and injuring six other people before committing suicide.Kamal's widow insisted after the shooting spree that the attack was not politically motivated. She said that her husband had become suicidal after losing $300,000 in a business venture.But in a stunning admission, Kamal's 48-year-old daughter Linda told the Daily News that her dad wanted to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel - and revealed her mom's 1997 account was a cover story crafted by the Palestinian Authority."A Palestinian Authority official advised us to say the attack was not for political reasons because that would harm the peace agreement with Israel," she told The News on Friday. "We didn't know that he was martyred for patriotic motivations, so we repeated what we were told to do."But three days after the shootings, Kamal's family got a copy of a letter that was found on his body, they said. The letter said he planned the violence as a political statement, his daughter said."When we wanted to clarify that to the media, nobody listened to us," she said. "His goal was patriotic. He wanted to take revenge from the Americans, the British, the French and the Israelis." [emphasis added]
Hat tip: Joe Myers
