We are all endlessly told that Islamic teachings do not contain any actual incitement to violence (just ignore all those “slay them wherever you find them” passages: 2:191, 4:89, 9:5), and so we know that somehow Abdulhakim Muhammad drastically misunderstood his new religion after he converted to it. But how? Why? What can we do to keep it from happening again? Such questions themselves are Islamophobic. “Man pleads guilty to recruiting center killing, gets life,” from CNN, July 25:
(CNN) — A man accused of shooting two soldiers at a military recruiting center in 2009 pleaded guilty Monday to the crime and received a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Abdulhakim Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, was charged with killing Pvt. William Long, 23, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18. The attack happened June 1, 2009, outside a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Muhammad faced 12 charges in total — capital murder, attempted capital murder and 10 counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle — according to Stephanie Harris, a spokeswoman with the state court system….
A Muslim convert from Memphis, Tennessee, Muhammad was 23 at the time of the fatal shooting. He was angry at the U.S. military because of “what they had done to Muslims in the past,” Little Rock homicide Detective Tommy Hudson has said.