Authorities have been trying to figure out what “radicalized” Shamsud-Din Jabbar, or what caused him to turn from an Army veteran who was apparently devoted to the United States, into a large criminal in the midst of the automotive terrorism attack in New Orleans in the first hours of New Year’s Day. This is a worthwhile area of investigation in order to stop further episodes of this kind, but as is so frequently the case, the authorities are barking up the wrong tree.
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Unknown “experts” have determined that Jabbar’s was a very common scenario, according to a report from NBC News on Saturday. They stated that” the details that have emerged about Jabbar coincide with the normal pattern of how a veteran may be radicalized to violence. It seems that it all comes from a downturn in Jabbar’s fortunes:” In the years leading up to Wednesday’s attack, Jabbar experienced his third divorce, accumulated significant debt and lost his corporate job. He was facing business losses and credit card debt totaling tens of thousands of dollars, as well as over$ 27 000 in overdue mortgage payments, according to court documents from January 2022. By August of that year, his bank accounts held just$ 2, 012, according to filings in the case”. Yeah, that may be it. However, there are significant ways that this doesn’t explain anything.
There are many people in America today who are thrice-divorced, in debt, and in worse circumstances than that, and it never comes to mind for them to drive a truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers. This is the most obvious issue with this. There are, moreover, aspects of Jabbar’s behavior that just don’t fit into the scenario of a man driven to despair by personal and professional downturns.
Jabbar told his family that he had originally planned to kill them in the event of his attack in a video he captured shortly before the attack. ” I wanted to record this message for my family”, the killer said. I just wanted to let you know that I joined ISIS earlier this year. He added with chilling directness:” I don’t want you to think I spared you willingly”. He explained that he had intended to hold a “celebration” for them in order for those present to witness the execution of the apostates. NBC does not bother to pause to explain the significance of his reference to “apostates,” but does in fact say that is” an apparent reference to killing them.”
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Jabbar allegedly said to his family that they were apostats of Islam, whether informally by declaring that they had abandoned the faith or informally by ceasing to practice it. Either way, leaving Islam carries the death penalty in Islamic law, in accord with the Qur’an:” If they turn renegade, then take them and kill them wherever you find them” ( 4: 89 ). Also, a hadith depicts Muhammad saying:” Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” ( Bukhari 9.84.57 ). According to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, the death penalty for apostasy is a part of Islamic law.
That’s why Jabbar makes sure to tell his family that he didn’t spare them willingly. Jabbar chose to carry out his vehicular attack rather than kill his family, according to FBI counterterrorism official Chris Raia, because he was worried that the media wouldn’t focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers” if he acted alone.
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That doesn’t sound like a man who has just given in to his life’s pressure and is crumbling. That evokes a Muslim believer who was determined to carry out his deeply held beliefs. In addition, at his home Jabbar had a large Qur’an open to this passage:” Indeed, Allah has bought from the believers their lives and their wealth, because the garden will be theirs, they will fight in the way of Allah and will kill and be killed”. In accordance with Allah’s promise in this verse, it may be that he decided to carry out his attack in order to take a place in the garden of paradise.
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Despite all this and more, Jabbar’s brother insisted:” What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion”. It is a safe bet that no law enforcement or intelligence personnel will dare to think that the Qur’an itself was the source of Jabbar’s “radicalization,” and they will almost certainly agree. It’s not that the evidence isn’t there. It’s that it’s too inconvenient for them to consider.
