Terror has struck the United States of America again. Again the name of the savage who carried out the latest atrocity tells us a good deal about we need to know about his background. It certainly doesn’t suggest that a man who killed 15 people and injured dozens of others, was a Methodist, more likely some other religion whose followers name begins with ‘M’.
Early on New Years Day in New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States a man driving a truck evaded security measures and drove his vehicle into crowds of people celebrating the New Year in the historic heart of the city. The attacker then got out of the truck and started shooting at people. At the time of writing at least 15 innocent people were killed and many more injured by the assailant who has been identified by US authorities as Shamsud-Din Jabbar a former military man from Texas. Jabbar was killed shortly after carrying out his heinous attack allegedly during a firefight with police officers. US Law Enforcement authorities have also found multiple viable improvised explosive devices at the scene.
Unlike some other similar attacks in the US and elsewhere it is increasingly certain that this attacker was motivated by Islam. There were initial reports that I saw that claimed that Jabbar had shouted the Islamic war cry of Allah hu Akbar at some point during the attack and the CNN news outlet is stating that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is putting forward an ISIS motivation for the terrorist Jabbar.
CNN is reporting the FBI as saying:
• The FBI has identified the suspect as a Texas man and Army veteran. The suspect, who was killed in a firefight with officers, had an ISIS flag in the vehicle at the time of the attack. He also made a series of videos before the attack in which he said he joined ISIS, multiple officials briefed on the investigation said.
Whilst there can sometimes be some doubt as to motivations in these sort of attacks there doesn’t seem to be much doubt here. This is an Islamic attack and just one of the tens of thousands of Islam inspired attacks that have marred this troubled world since the September 11th Attacks in the United States. This attack was not caused by ‘mental illness’ or because of some other failing in the attacker’s life but by Islam.
Of course more information will no doubt come out over time about the assailant, his background, his work and his family. But even at this stage it’s pretty clear that his primary motivation for killing and maiming so many people was his adherence to the ideology of Islam. As we’ve seen far too often over the last few decades this is yet another example of a follower of the woefully misnamed ‘religion of peace’ going out and doing something distinctly unpeaceful.
May the memory of those innocent people whom this savage has murdered be for a blessing and may US law enforcement officers find any accomplices that this latest violent Islamic savage may have had.