Hugh Fitzgerald explained many times — see, for example, here — how Islam attracts the psychically marginal. In any case, it is noteworthy that the person responsible for this alleged attempted attack on a mosque was a Muslim himself — and yet Hamas-linked CAIR, which touted it as an anti-Muslim hate crime, has not apologized for or retracted the misinformation it spread.
More on this story. “Mich. mosque plot suspect’s criminal past examined,” from AP, February 19:
Since holding a psychiatrist hostage in 1977, Roger Stockham has kidnapped his young son, tried to hijack a plane, crashed a plane, set fire to buildings, planted a bomb at an airport and threatened to kill the president.
Despite this remarkable criminal resume, the 63-year-old Vietnam veteran has been freed repeatedly from psychiatric hospitals and prison only to lash out again and end up back in custody.
Last month, police say the California man was at it again: Officers arrested Stockham near a popular Michigan mosque they say he planned to attack. They say he was driving around wearing a ski mask, and they found more than two dozen powerful, illegal fireworks in his car. The arrest has brought renewed attention to Stockham’s bizarre criminal odyssey and to the challenges some mentally ill offenders pose to the legal system….
Joe Nahhas, a manager at Detroit bar, said Stockham sipped Scotch at the establishment and boasted about setting off a “big explosion” at a mosque, which he presumed to be the popular Islamic Center of America in nearby Dearborn. He said Stockham told him he had converted to Islam after the Vietnam War, and had joined a group of Indonesian mujahedeen, or Muslim holy warriors. Nahhas said he was so disturbed by Stockham’s ramblings that he called 911 and the FBI, who said a public tip led to Stockham’s arrest….
He said Stockham didn’t intend to attack the mosque with fireworks and felt no enmity toward its members, but was going to spray-paint the words “Crazy Horse 18” on it to protest the government’s investigation into the 2007 killing in Iraq of a Reuters photographer and his driver by a U.S. Apache helicopter. The helicopter crew can be heard using the term in leaked video footage of the attack that was posted online by the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks….
Before it was revealed that Stockham was a Muslim, Hamas-linked CAIR was running with this incident to claim a spurious victim status for Muslims and advance its spurious “Islamophobia” narrative:
“CAIR: Attack on Michigan Mosque Thwarted,” a CAIR press release, January 29:
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today said that a bias-motivated attack on a Dearborn, Mich., mosque was thwarted by local police.
Law enforcement authorities and officials with the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn reported to CAIR that a white male resident of California was arrested on Monday evening in the mosque’s parking lot while he was in possession of explosive materials. The man is currently being held on $500,000 bond.
“We thank law enforcement authorities for their quick and professional actions in this troubling incident,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR’s Michigan chapter. “The increased number of bias incidents targeting American Muslim institutions must be addressed by local, state and national authorities.”…