The mujahid
The mainstream media constantly starts talking about “backlash” against innocent Muslims in the wake of every jihad attack and jihad plot. The Wichita imam insists that he didn’t know Loewen; but what is he doing to make sure that others don’t get the same view of Islam that Loewen has? After a jihad plot is uncovered, a local imam should be saying that he teaches against the view of jihad that the plotter espoused, redoubling his efforts to root jihad sympathizers out of his community, working with law enforcement, etc. Instead, we only and always get handwringing about “backlash” that never materializes.
“Terry Lee Loewen charged in planned suicide bombing at Wichita airport,” by Tim Potter and Roy Wenzl for The Wichita Eagle, December 13 (thanks to Darcy):
For months, authorities allege, a 58-year-old avionics technician named Terry Lee Loewen — driven by radical ideas and prepared to die in a suicide attack — moved forward with a plot to detonate explosives at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.
The planned attack was designed to inflict the maximum number of deaths at an airport in the nation’s midsection before Christmas, says a detailed criminal complaint filed Friday.
The plot got as far as a gate to the airport shortly before 6 a.m. Friday, when authorities arrested Loewen without incident. What he didn’t know until his arrest is that the people he had been conspiring with all along were FBI agents, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom announced Friday, stressing that the public and passengers were never in danger.
Loewen now faces three federal charges filed in Wichita: One count of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization that Loewen thought was al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen.
On the afternoon of the day he had allegedly arranged for himself to die, he appeared instead in U.S. District Court in Wichita to hear himself accused of terrorism charges.
When Magistrate Karen Humphreys asked Loewen, “Do you understand your rights?” he replied “yes, ma”am” in a steady voice.
Loewen is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail.
Loewen worked as an avionics technician at the Hawker Beechcraft Services facility at the airport. The company said it suspended his employment after learning of the arrest.
He is alleged to have spent months developing a plan to use his access card to airport grounds to drive a van loaded with explosives to the terminal.
Authorities said he planned to pull the trigger on the explosives himself and to die in the explosion.
Grissom and FBI Special Agent in Charge Mike Kaste stressed that there was no indication that Loewen was involved with or working with any religious community in Wichita and that his alleged actions in no way should reflect on any religious group.
Hussam Madi, spokesman for the Islamic Society of Wichita, said Friday: “We don’t even know who he is at all. We haven’t seen him here. This is the first time that we”ve heard of him.”
Madi said the society checked with mosques around the city and none of them knew of Loewen.
“We haven’t had any backlash,” as a result of Loewen’s alleged attempt at terrorism. “Hopefully, we don’t.”…
There is an Aug. 5 communication in which he told an FBI employee, “As time goes on I care less and less about what other people think of me, or my views on Islam. I have been studying subjects like jihad, martyrdom operations, and Sharia Law.” He was also quoted as saying “I believe the Muslim who is labeled “˜a radical fundamentalist” is closer to Allah “¦ than the ones labeled “˜moderates”. Just my opinion; if I”m off base, please set me straight.”…
I’d like to see that as well.