We have previously discussed the disconnect in some individuals, particularly ISIS recruits, who live relatively normal lives in the West only to become suddenly radicalized and violent as Islamic extremists. Chattanooga gunman Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez could be such a case, though police are still trying to confirm the motivation for the attacks. The attack has been labeled “domestic terrorism.” Abdulazeez, 24, murdered four Marines and wounded a police officer on Thursday in shootings at two military recruiting and training centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. What is now known is that he posted a couple posts shortly before the attack discussing how Muslims should act in this short life and how they had to resist the corrupting influence of life around them in proving their faith.
Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait and comes from a deeply religious Muslim family. However, he appeared well-integrated into society in high school and, judging from his DUI arrest, engaged in non-Muslim practices. Notably, his arrest of DUI occurred recently on April 21, 2015. He was not on any watch list though his father was investigated once for suspicious international ties.
Abdulazeez was in many respects a successful member of our society. He attended Red Bank High School in Tennessee and is described by a former coach as “an All American kid.” While he would stop practicing in sports to pray each day, he also was known to like beer and socialize. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, his high school yearbook quote contained a joke that now has a more menacing meaning: “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?”
He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga with a degree in electrical engineering. He worked from April 2009 to April 2010 as an intern with the Tennessee Valley Authority and had internships at Mohawk Industries and Global Trade Express.
While his fellow students describe his as deeply religious, they describe him as nice and funny in relations with other people. In high school, he was a wrestler and later trained as a mixed martial arts fighter. One such fight was videotaped.
He has been described as a “Jordanian citizen” who seemed to have a change in behavior after returning from a trip to the Middle East two years ago. There may have been multiple recent trips. We have seen other cases where relatively short exposure to radical Islamic centers or figures has pushed some young Muslims to extremism. He reportedly had become more devout in the last couple months. In this case, a relatively short period is being cited for the change of a person once described as the “All American kid” to a murderous fanatic.
Particular attention is likely to be given to two recent blog posts from July 13, 2015.
The first is entitled “A Prison Called Dunya” where he talks about how short life is and how it is “nothing more than a test of our faith and patience”:
I would imagine that any sane person would devote their time to mastering the information on the study guide and stay patient with their studies, only giving time for the other things around to keep themselves focused on passing the exam. They would do this because they know and have been told that they will be rewarded with pleasures that they have never seen.
. . .
It was designed to separate the inhabitants of Paradise from the inhabitants of Hellfire, and to rank amongst them the best of the best and worst of the worst. Don’t let the society we live in deviate you from the task at hand. Take your study guide, the Quran and Sunnah, with strength and faith, and be firm as you live your short life in this prison called Dunya. Allah (SWT) says live for this life and the hereafter according to their length. Rasulullah says the life on this world compared to the hereafter is like a drop compared to an ocean.
Brothers and sisters don’t be fooled by your desires, this life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to allah may pass you by. Take his word as your light and code and do not let other prisoners, whether they are so called “Scholars” or even your family members, divert you from the truth. If you make the intention to follow allahs way 100 % and put your desires to the side, allah will guide you to what is right.
The second post was entitled “Understanding Islam: The Story of the Three Blind Men” and he discussed how may of leading Islamic leaders were generals and political leaders who sought to convert the world as the Prophet’s Sahaba, or companions:
We often talk about the Sahaba (RA) and their Ibada. We talk about their worshiping at night, making thikr, reading quran, fasting, sala. But did you ever notice that in one certain period towards the end of the lives of the Sahaba (RA), almost every one of the Sahaba (RA) was a political leader or an army general? Every one of them fought Jihad for the sake of Allah.
So this picture that you have in your mind that the Sahaba (RA) were people being like priests living in monasteries is not true. All of them towards the end of the lives were either a mayor of a town, governor of a state, or leader of an army at the frontlines. The Sahaba (RA) were very involved in establishing Islam in the world. Their mission was to establish Islam and live it. …
We ask Allah to make us follow their path. To give us a complete understanding of the message of Islam, and the strength the live by this knowledge, and to know what role we need to play to establish Islam in the world.
What is currently known presents a chilling picture of a young man who appeared to have succeeded in society in going to college and pursuing his athletic and religious interests within a pluralistic environment. I expect many will be exploring what triggered this violent outburst with a particular interest in the trip back to the Middle East as well as the influences that he found in the United States. We have seen other cases of successful or seemingly well-adjusted individuals who turned into Islamic extremists and murderers. There remains a belief that exposure to the freedoms of the West is the greatest counter to extremism and for most it is. However, we have seen cases where exposure to Islamic extremism can also overwhelm some individuals and push them to violence.
Abdulazeez’s at a minimum show someone who appears torn between or at least a participant in two cultures. In the days to come, we will hopefully learn more about what specifically triggered this murderous rampage.
Lest we focus on Abdulazeez and his twisted view of morality, below are the Marines that he murdered in cold blood in Tennessee. They are Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan of Springfield, Mass.; Lance Cpl. Skip ‘Squire’ Wells, of Marietta, Ga.; Sgt. Carson Holmquist, of Grantsburg, Wisc.; and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, of Chattanooga:
“We can thank the policies, unwarranted invasion of a sovereign nation, torture of POWs, endless imprisonment, etc. of our own government under Bush and then Obama for following in his footsteps, for decreasing the safety of Americans on our own soil.”
This is unadulterated nonsense. Does anyone (other than rabid partisans) truly believe that ISIS, Islamic terrorists, etc. would have joined the Vienna Boys Choir but for the policies of our government? I’m sure if we had not invaded Iraq the psychopaths who burn people alive, murder gays and lesbians, and decapitate people would just be sitting at home peacefully reading the Koran.
Evil is evil, and we will always have it. I find Olly’s story very unsettling. We keep judging everyone else around the world, but in the meantime, what are we becoming?
Enjoy the crazy thread. I have other frauds to investigate.
Correction- *in civilian areas that house recruitment centers*
Well it’s early and we already have someone commenting on the level of sanity of the thread. How is such commentary helpful to a discussion of terrorism on our own soil? Should not the concern instead be that it was insane to think that we are safe on our own soil because we sent our troops to Iraq, which created a vacuum in which these terrorist grew like weeds in a well fertilized field? We can thank the policies, unwarranted invasion of a sovereign nation, torture of POWs, endless imprisonment, etc. of our own government under Bush and then Obama for following in his footsteps, for decreasing the safety of Americans on our own soil. Thank Bush Jr. for the fertile fields of Iraq and thank his daddy Bush Sr. for the policy of unarmed military in civilian in recruitment centers.
Well, it’s the morning and pretty sane, so I’ll weigh in. Like Darren said, there will be more of this. These murderous Islamic terrorists will move from military to civilian. They will target children. And remember, this is just “the Jayvee.”
At least Boston police captain Ciccolo knew his son was planning a jihad attack.
Daddy was monitoring son’s online jihad messages and ratted son out. Time to put points on score board.
In court papers, federal prosecutors said a “close acquaintance” told them Mr. Ciccolo “had a long history of mental illness and in the past 18 months had become obsessed with Islam.”
I don’t buy the mental illness card. Look at the plan, targets, guns, ammo and pressure cooker bombs. Junior had a brain between ears.
Any belief system that endorses the rejection of inalienable rights is a threat to humanity. A recent example of a belief system that demonstrates our growing selfie culture places no value on any life outside of their own happened on a DC Metro commuter train.
A young man discovered another passenger was trying to pickpocket him. When the young man stopped the act the pickpocket then pulled out a pocket knife and proceeded to stab the man 40 times and when on the ground stomped and kicked him. The man died. What did the people in this full, 4th of July train do? They backed away and did nothing. This is what we should expect from people that believe “that it’s this life that’s most important: because it’s likely the only chance we have to exist.” They have replaced the virtue of courage with that of convenience. THAT is what secularists have done to the American culture.
Btw, the murderer was 5’5” and 125 pounds.
“They might retaliate on you” if you try to intervene, she said. “You don’t really know what’s the right thing to do.”
http://www.timesunion.com/news/crime/article/Witnesses-to-fatal-stabbing-on-DC-Metro-watched-6378152.php
Really? You watch someone being killed and you are at a loss to know what the right thing to do is?
Wow!
Pick your poison. If the man chose to hate, he probably would have found some other emotional vehicle to ride to the conclusion of his heinous deed. Islam today, maybe a communistic revulsion to religion tomorrow. I also agree with Darren. With a nonsensical (except for the continued orders for the military-industrial complex) foreign policy, we can expect the crazy percentage of the country to ride this same thinking to similar results. Call evil what it is and move on.
@ Isaac: Catholicism DOES NOT advocate eradicating those who do not believe in God/Christ. That is their freedom of choice, and what follows in their own lives as a result of those choices is their responsibility. Do read and understand what Catholicism is about before making those remarks please.
Tofubamboo
Issac has had it in for Abrahamic religions ever since his dad took him mountain climbing.
How much you wanna bet the FBI manipulated and groom the kid for this false flag event. The timing of this incident screams of US government involvement.
I think that the mosques in this country need to do a better job in preparing young men in dealing with the mosques in the Middle East. His writing shows that someone feed him a line of propaganda which I am sure he did not get here.
I guess John Cougar needs to write a little ditty about Mohammed and Fatima. Two All American Kids shooting up the heartland.
By virtue of its very existence religion is an organization with the goal of uniting as many/every under their interpretation of answers to unanswerable questions and rules for living. The one thing mankind needs in order to survive are rules for living. The other aspect of religion, answering the unanswerable often includes rules for dying and killing.
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have in their writings the cause of either converting or eradicating all who don’t conform. Through centuries of trial and error and the evolution of secular society each of these religions have evolved to various degrees beyond their original intents. Islam, being rooted in one of the most backward areas of the world, a world of royalty, tribal laws, and ignorance is the least evolved.
The war against fanatics in the West will be going on for a long time. With over a billion followers, most of whom live in the desperation of a medieval world, there will be some nut cases. The Middle East must be contained, not invaded. The West is doing what it should be doing, assisting the least fanatical to wipe out the most fanatical. Unfortunately they are all fanatical. It is the formula of going with the lesser of the evils. Religion expressed as it is to this degree is evil regardless of what it’s called.
Dave,
Interesting that you are only willing to go as far as “Preaching the sinfulness of condoms” and that it leads to genocide. But you conveniently leave out the other preachings against non-marital sex, prostitution and adulterous behavior. I’m sure if these preachings were followed your genocide due to aids would go away. But keep your focus on latex.
Tofu:
The reason you don’t believe in Allah is the same reason rational people don’t believe in your version of an imaginary deity, whose demands just so happen to coincide with the way you view the world.
When a belief system mandates diet, sexual behavior, etc., based on the moral teachings of those who knew nothing of germs, earthquakes, or eclipses, let alone cosmic morality, absolutely it’s tyranny, today sadly often self-imposed.
Preaching the sinfulness of condoms in regions with high levels of HIV, for instance, amounts to genocide. Because that sort of faux authority influences behavior. And it’s tyranny in part because these preachments are stated with the threat of eternal torment. It’s totalitarian, blinding, and imposing.
I already suspect speaking with you on this will lead nowhere, as “it’s hard to free fools from the chains they revere.”
This cold blooded murderer enjoyed the freedoms that a “pluralist environment” provides but he did not represent it or appreciate it. “Torn between two cultures” suggests that he was “torn” or conflicted in some way, I don’t care about his conflict I care about his decision to murder humans and his ability to obtain a high powered riffle to do so. Belief systems do matter. If one is taught that those who disagree with your belief system deserve death, it has an impact. There is a desperate almost insane hope that everyone no matter what they believe wants the same thing and is looking for a place where everyone no matter their religion or other differences will live in peace. That is so obviously not true that no matter how painful it is to accept it we must in order to protect ourselves. Such a recognition should not change our desire for harmony but rather it should inform our policies and our willingness to excuse the murderous actions of fanatics. Grievance defenses which seem to be so popular simply encourage fanatics and the people who support them.
We have plenty of our own home grown fanatics as the murders in Charleston shows. We have no need to import more.
@ Dave: First, Christianity is not tyranny. And no Christian I know of goes around shooting and beheading people. Second, focus your anger on Islam. IT IS NOT A RELIGION OF PEACE. MUSLIMS HATE ALL WHO DO NOT AGREE WITH THEM. Read the Koran, which states all infidels should be killed. So one can only assume that this deranged twerp yesterday thought that was fine, and hoped for all his heavenly virgins. What he is likely to find are burning fires. So, as a Catholic, I do believe there is a hell where he has gone.
I suspect there will be more of these incidents in the next year or two.
“…the life on this world compared to the hereafter is like a drop compared to an ocean.”
This core indoctrination of today’s monotheisms is exactly what’s wrong.
Whereas we non-theists recognize that it’s this life that’s most important: because it’s likely the only chance we have to exist. And the only evidence showing otherwise are the petty, ignorant, clearly manmade myths, no shellfish!, which are a dime a dozen.
All religion is tyranny. Each belief system attempts to place a single filter over the eyes of each believer, so that a complicated world can be explained and therefore defined. Long overdue for us to shed this style of “thinking” and to see reality as it really is. And in leaving others alone, each of us may be free to live.
Regarding this pos, as Hitchens once said about Falwell, “It’s a pity there isn’t a hell for him to go to.”