CAIRO, Egypt The Yemeni-American imam who’s been under renewed scrutiny after the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, preaches against alcohol, birthday parties, black magic and extramarital sex.But he supports armed struggle against the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has encouraged extremist insurgents in Pakistan and Somalia.
None of that sets Anwar al-Awlaki, 38, apart from other militant Sunni Muslim clerics — and even many mainstream ones — in the Middle East. Al-Awlaki uses digital means to spread his views, however, through a blog, lectures on YouTube and Facebook pages with more than 1,000 fans.
American-born and popular with young Westernized Muslims, al-Awlaki preaches mainly in English and drops pop-culture references, invoking Michael Jackson in a sermon on death or the parable of a marijuana-smoking Muslim who turned his life around.
Al-Awlaki’s teachings, however, also reportedly have inspired suspects in a number of high-profile international cases: two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, alleged militants accused of planning to blow up targets in Toronto, several Somali-American youths who died while fighting in Mogadishu, and the Muslim Army major charged with killing 13 people in the Fort Hood rampage Nov. 5. Al-Awlaki was under FBI investigation after the Sept. 11 bombings, but concerns surrounding him today appear to be based, at least publicly, more on his incendiary sermons than on solid evidence establishing a link to militant groups. Despite several brushes with terrorism suspects — allegedly by phone, e-mail and in U.S. mosques — al-Awlaki has not been charged with a terrorism-related crime, and the only time he has apparently spent in jail was in Yemen in connection with a tribal dispute, according to news and court accounts.
Al-Awlaki’s militant message and wide audience made him a subject of interest for U.S. intelligence agencies nearly a decade before the Fort Hood shootings. Back then, al-Awlaki was not hard to find. He served as imam to 3,000 Muslims at a mosque in suburban Virginia, held an online chat on The Washington Post’s Web site in which he answered questions about the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and granted several news interviews. ..http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/1585317.html
One of Al-Awlaki’s other alias' prior to Sept 11 was Aimar Othman- He lived in Chico, Ca and taught Arabic at California State University Chico from 94-95
ReplyDeleteI knew he wasn't a true american when he said he had never watched Star Wars