Jose Pimentel’s Muslim name is Muhammad Yusuf. That is the name he uses since he converted to Islam. Why does the mainstream media persist in calling him by his slave name? The mainstream media would find it racist and disrespectful to call Muhammad Ali “Cassius Clay” or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar “Lew Alcindor,” right? Why isn’t it racist and disrespectful to continue to call Muhammad Yusuf “Jose Pimentel”? Is it because Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are revered, beloved figures, while Muhammad Yusuf reflects poorly upon his adopted religion, having plotter to commit mass murder in its “defense”?
Muhammad Yusuf’s mother said: “My son was a normal American guy. He did what young people do. Then he became a Muslim and he changed.” AP, however, here gives no hint whatsoever of the motive for his terrorism plot; it is standard journalistic practice to minimize discussion of motive when writing about an Islamic jihad plot, but this story gives no hint that Muhammad Yusuf was a Muslim at all, let alone a would-be jihad mass murderer.
“American pipe bomber gets 16 years behind bars,” from Reuters, March 26 (thanks to Lookmann):
New York: An American Muslim who pleaded guilty to a New York state terrorism charge for attempting to make a pipe bomb was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.
Jose Pimentel, a 29-year-old Dominican-born U.S. citizen, was arrested in 2011 after a police informant secretly recorded meetings with him as he bought bomb materials and read online instructions on how to assemble them, according to court documents.
Pimentel was accused of plotting to attack police stations, post offices and military personnel in and around New York City.
In a statement on Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said Pimentel had a personal website that advocated violence against U.S. citizens and government agencies and that had links to bomb-making instructions.
The components seized by the New York police department were detailed in a step-by-step bomb-making guide published by Al Qaeda’s Inspire Magazine, Vance said.
“As Pimentel’s guilty plea confirms, the threat of terrorism is increasingly coming from radicalized local actors living in our communities,” Vance said in the statement.
Pimentel’s case was brought under a New York state anti-terror law passed after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The New York City police conducted a year-long investigation leading to his arrest in November 2011.