A native-born, “homegrown” jihadist
Daniel B. writes:
In regards to your discussion on “The myth of ‘homegrown’ jihadists,” I would be interested to know your opinion concerning Daniel Patrick Boyd, a white American who converted to Islam in his youth. When he was first arrested in July my first thought was that the government was looking for a wholesome-country-boy jihad terrorist to get the general public used to associating the idea of “country boy” and “terrorist.” That way, if any home grown patriot groups at some point got uppity the media could unfavourably compare them to Boyd, a white country boy and a terrorist.
Daniel Patrick Boyd
LA replies:
Thanks for writing. I read the Wikipedia article about Boyd that you linked, which is very interesting, plus some news articles I looked up (including this article, titled, unsurprisingly, “Daniel Patrick Boyd: Homegrown jihadist?”). Assuming Boyd is guilty of plotting jihad murder against Americans abroad (though so far the charges seem to lack specificity), his story fits entirely with what I said in my “entry about “homegrown” jihadists who are American-born children of Muslim immigrants. Devout Muslims are formed by Islam, whatever their race and wherever they reside geographically. Boyd may be a red-haired, square-jawed, married father of five who is nice to his neighbors and seems like a regular American; but insofar as he is a jihadist, he is no more a “homegrown, apple-pie jihadist” than Muhammad Atta, he is no more a part or a product of America than Zacarias Moussaoui. He is a product of Islam.
As I always say, devout Muslims do not belong in significant numbers in any Western society, period. By stopping Muslim immigration, deporting sharia believers, encouraging and paying for the departure of other Muslims, and outlawing the religion of Islam in part or in whole via a constitutional amendment, we could reduce the number of Muslims in America to a small fraction of their current population. The tiny number of native white Americans who convert to Islam would not be a problem. As for the even smaller number of native whites who convert to Islam and become jihadists, they, just like native born Muslim jihadists, should be stripped of their citizenship and expelled, as I have been saying since 2004.
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Here is the full text of the Wikipedia article on Boyd, stripped of footnotes and links:
Daniel Patrick Boyd (born 1970, also known as Saifullah) is an American, who as a teenager waged USA-backed Jihad against the Soviets and Afghan communists, and in July 2009 was accused of leading a jihadist terrorist cell in North Carolina.
Biography
Boyd was the youngest of five children born to Thornton and Patricia Boyd. Thornton Boyd (died 2005) was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. The family frequently moved. His parents separated in 1974 (divorcing in 1977), and his mother and siblings lived at times in poverty. Patricia Boyd remarried William Saddler, an American Muslim, and Washington, D.C.-area lawyer from whom Daniel Boyd developed his interest in Islam. Raised Episcopalian, Boyd converted to Islam at age 17.
Boyd graduated from T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was a defensive lineman on the football team. He married his girlfriend, Sabrina, who converted to Islam hours before their wedding.
Boyd worked in construction before moving to Peshawar, Pakistan, in October 1989. He was sponsored by a Muslim relief group to help refugees from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan by working as a mechanic. He was trained with mujahideen and fought against the Soviet-backed forces in Afghanistan, . He took the Muslim name Saifullah (“Sword of God”).
In June 1991, Boyd and his brother Charles (also a Muslim convert, working as an engineer in Pakistan) were accused of robbing a branch of United Bank in Hayatabad, a Peshawar suburb. It was also alleged that they carried identification cards indicating membership in Hezb-e-Islami. In September 1991, a special Islamic court sentenced the brothers to have their right hands and left feet amputated, serve prison terms and pay fines. As the sentence was handed down, Daniel Boyd shouted, “This isn’t an Islamic court. It’s a court of infidels!” After their convictions, they worked in the jail factory, making carpets and chairs.
In October 1991, an appeals court tossed out the ruling. The case made international headlines. Boyd maintained his innocence at the time and asserted that it was all a malicious set up by a bank employee who had made inappropriate advances toward his wife and had tried to pilfer money from the family.
Returning to the US, Boyd raised his family of five children—sons Dylan, Zakariya, Luqman and Noah and daughter Maryam.
In July 2004, the Boyds formed Saxum Walls & Ceilings Inc.
In April 2007, Luqman “Luke” Izzudeen Boyd, 16, died in a car accident.
Late in 2007, Boyd opened Blackstone Market in Garner with business partner Abdenasser Zouhri of Morrisville. A Mediterranean grocery, it offered halal meat and snacks, copies of the Qur’an in English and Arabic, and a place to worship in the back. The store closed in 2008, reportedly due to the recession.
Boyd was arrested by Federal agents along with seven men in North Carolina on 27 July 2009. They were charged with plotting to wage “violent jihad” outside the United States. Boyd was accused of recruiting six men, including two of his sons, to take part in a conspiracy “to advance violent jihad, including supporting and participating in terrorist activities abroad and committing acts of murder, kidnapping or maiming persons abroad.”
According to the indictment, members of the group practiced military tactics and the use of weapons in rural North Carolina, and traveled to Gaza, Israel, Jordan and Kosovo hoping “to engage in violent jihad.”
Muslim community members and supporters in North Carolina have been active for him and his co-defendants, and some non-Muslim neighbors and acquaintances in particular have spoken in his defense. A 30 July 2009 CBS news headline about Daniel Boyd is entitled “The Nicest Terrorist I Ever Met,” with the subtitle: “Friends, Colleagues and Pakistani Jailers Describe N. Carolina Terror Suspect as Kind, Devoted Muslim.” Boyd’s older brother Robert Boyd, a practicing Muslim, said the charges sound “like another attempt to associate Islam with terrorism” and the accusations “they’re trying to pin on him is pure poppycock as far as I am concerned.” Boyd’s wife, Sabrina Boyd, has given interviews and written statements professing the Boyds’ innocence. Khalilah Sabra, of the Muslim American Society, read a statement from Sabrina Boyd at a press conference calling on the public not “to rush to judgment” and specifically addressing allegations of terrorist training in Afghanistan writing that “He was there fighting against the Soviets with the full backing of the United States government, [ … ] I think he thought it was part of his patriotic duty as a Muslim and an American to go there and fight.” At Boyd’s August 5 detention hearing, at least 100 supporters (relatives, friends, and acquaintances) were in attendance at the federal courthouse in Raleigh; some expressed the belief that the defendants had not violated the law.
[end of Wikipedia article]
Here is the
article from
The Week, where I got his photograph (there are comments following the article):
Daniel Patrick Boyd: Homegrown jihadist?
What the arrest of a suburban North Carolina dad says about the fight against terrorists
U.S. News & Opinion
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
“Daniel Patrick Boyd is an unlikely symbol of the homegrown terrorist threat,” said Carrie Johnson and Spencer S. Hsu in The Washington Post. The son of a Marine, he lived “a typical American childhood” in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and recently blended with his family into “a picturesque” neighborhood in Raleigh, N.C. But law-enforcement officials say Daniel P. Boyd, a Muslim convert, is “the latest example of a radicalized American who exported jihad.”
The arrest of Daniel Patrick Boyd, said Jim Kouri in Examiner.com, along with six other suspects, on charges of supporting terrorists and plotting to kill Americans overseas “reminds citizens of one simple fact: Most U.S. elected officials appear to be oblivious to the continuing terrorist threat.” As the Daniel Boyd case unfolds, maybe our leaders will start paying closer attention to the “deadly influence” of Islamic extremists.
Clearly, the “North Carolina Muslim gang is a PR nightmare” for American Muslims, said Brad A. Greenberg in GetReligion.org. The coverage of the arrests of Daniel Patrick Boyd, his sons Zakariya and Dylan, and four others has focused on their alleged plans to wage “violent jihad,” without explaining how Daniel P. Boyd’s teachings contradict “the values extolled in most American mosques.” No wonder so many Americans think Muslims are the enemy.
[End of This Week article]
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Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 18, 2009 02:35 AM | Send