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when Shams al-Din JabbarA 42-year-old man plowed his white Ford F-150 pickup truck into New Year's Eve revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter and leaders at his neighborhood mosque, Bilal Mosque off Adel Road in Houston. Send the worshipers a message To direct FBI inquiries to a special interest group, namely Council on American-Islamic Relations (CARE), avoid talking to the media.
But they didn't have to tell me anything. I've seen this pattern before, as a former Wall Street Journal reporter who has investigated Islamic extremism for 23 years — since the brutal murder of my colleague and friend, Journalist Daniel Pearlby Muslim gunmen in Karachi, for committing the crime of being an American, a Jew, and a grandson of Israel.
The suspect in the truck attack in New Orleans at the behest of the Islamic State terrorist group
First, the extremist Muslim is killed in the name of Islam. Then, groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations deploy a strategy I call “three-pronged”: denying the crime has anything to do with Islam, distorting it with excuses, and then demonizing anyone who describes terrorism as “Islamophobic.”
Indeed, within 36 hours, Kerr Issued A statement, dismissing the problem of Islamic extremism by claiming that it is “rejected by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world.” She then moved away from the killer's religious extremism by describing him as “a man with a history of drink driving and spousal abuse.”
An exterior view of Shams Al-Din Jabbar's home in Houston, Texas, Thursday, January 2, 2024. Several people were killed and dozens injured after Jabbar plowed his car into crowds of New Year's Eve revelers on Bourbon Street on Wednesday. (Derek Schock for Fox News Digital)
East of Houston, in Beaumont, Texas, Fahmi Al-Oqdah, an imam in Jabbar's hometown, He said Local TV station KFDM/Fox 4 reported that Jabbar's family asked him to deliver the message that “the tragic incident was motivated by hatred and ignorance and that Jabbar's actions do not reflect the religion of Islam.” node Practices A branch of Islam created by a black American leader, Imam W. Dean Muhammad, son of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Nation of IslamToday, it is led by strong anti-Semitism Louis Farrakhan. It is not yet clear whether Jabbar was a member of the W.S. school. Muhammad's Islamic religion.
Finally, and likely in the coming days, CAIR officials will demonize anyone who focuses on Jabbar's religious extremism.
An interior view of Shams Al-Din Jabbar's home in Houston, Texas, Thursday, January 2, 2024. Several people were killed and dozens injured after Jabbar plowed his car into crowds of New Year's Eve revelers on Bourbon Street on Wednesday. (Derek Schock for Fox News Digital)
As a Muslim feminist and classical liberal born in India and raised in West Virginia, I co-founded the Muslim Reform Movement in 2015 with brave Muslims, like the authors. Zuhdi Jasser Reda's departure to face this three-dimensional strategy honestly. Later, in 2022, we co-founded the Clarity Coalition with former Muslims, like writer Yasmine Muhammad, and allies to challenge extremists and advocate for an Islam of women's rights, human rights, and grace.
“The nation…one body”
While officials at Bilal Mosque declined to confirm that Jabbar prayed there, it is located just a seven-minute walk from the trailer home in the 12000 block of Crescent Peak Drive where he lived before the attack. In addition to Jabbar's half-brother Abdul-Jabbar He told the New York Times His brother may have been radicalized recently.
Groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations deploy a strategy I call “three-pronged”: denying the crime has anything to do with Islam, making excuses and then demonizing anyone who describes terrorism as “Islamophobic.”
In fact, Jabbar left inside his house an open Qur’an to verse 111 of chapter 9, “Surat al-Tawbah,” which I call “the war verse,” because of its fatwas on war and its promises of heaven for Muslims who wage violent jihad. The open page stated, “They fight for his sake, and they kill, and they kill with a promise that is true,” according to his words. Preparing reports From The Times of London.
The sermons delivered at Bilal Mosque are emblematic of a broader, problematic, isolated and rigid interpretation of Islam that is preached in too many mosques. Reviewing dozens of sermons posted on the Bilal Mosque Facebook page, I found a picture of a stricter interpretation of Islam, hardly to be found. While it is unclear whether these sermons influenced Jabbar, they reflect a broader pattern that many avoid examining, leaving critical gaps in understanding.
Imams, or prayer leaders, have criticized the LGBTQ community, deemed adopted children not deserving of the same status as biological children, and relegated women to a separate balcony space and Scold “Doctors wear scrubs” for not dressing respectfully. Imams preach interpretations of Islam from the most stringent schools of jurisprudence, or Sect.
Most strikingly, the imams delivered sermons absent of sympathy for the Jews massacred by Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023. Instead, there was a relentless focus on the “oppressors” of the Palestinians.
On October 9, 2023, in the first video posted after the massacre, the imam sat with his hands folded on his lap and said seriously: “We pray for our brothers and sisters in Palestine… Give them help and victory, God willing.” “A strong will. There was not a word of sympathy for the Jews killed by Hamas.
Four days later, on October 13, the imam arrived frequent A manipulative belief among ideologues that the “Islamic nation,” or the community of so-called believers, is “one body,” he urged new prayers for “our brothers and sisters in Palestine” and called for “an end to their suffering.”
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On October 15, another imam was at the mosque urge Worshipers to raise their voices for “our brothers and sisters in Palestine” against “the plight of the Palestinians.” Not a single word was offered to the Jews who were slaughtered. This is where he also criticized the “LGBTQ” community.
October 7 Denial
On May 31, another imam spent Most of his speeches were attacks on Israel, saying: “Wherever I go, I cannot give a speech without mentioning Palestine, Gaza, and the West Bank,” using the Arabic word for Palestine.
“Every major media channel in this country puts the entire blame, the entire story, on that this only started on October 7,” he said. “Hamas (sic) attacked Israel. This is 100 percent not true. This genocide, this aggression has been going on for 75 years.” The root cause of the events of October 7 is the Israeli “occupation”, “colonialism” and “settlement”.
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“If you see an evil, begin with your hands…” Guide the group in repeating the hadith or saying of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam.
In fact, Christopher Raya, deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, said Jabbar joined ISIS this summer and raced down Bourbon Street, his hand on the wheel, believing he was in a “war between believers and infidels.”
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