En amerikansk terrorist i Somalia

Missa inte den makalösa berättelsen i New York Times om pojken från Alabama som blev en av den islamistiska terrororganisationen Shabaabs ledande män. Den pulizerbelönade journalisten Andrea Elliott berättar i en lång text om hur Omar Hammami går från kristna bibelstudier till att bli salafist och sedan söka sig till krigets Somalia för att kämpa för en islamistisk stat.

En intressant del av berättelsen är när Omar Hammami tar kontakt med sin syster Dena i USA och förklarar varför han tagit de beslut som han har gjort.

Sometimes months would pass with no word from Hammami. When he reached out through Facebook in early September, he told Dena that he hoped his infamy would prompt people to ask, “How did this guy become that?”

“They can’t blame it on poverty or any of that stuff,” he continued. “They will have to realize that it’s an ideology and it’s a way of life that makes people change. They will also have to realize that their political agendas need to be fixed.”

Det senaste livstecknet kom i december 2009.

“I have become a Somali you could say,” he wrote in the December e-mail message. “I hear bullets, I dodge mortars, I hear nasheeds” — Islamic songs — “and play soccer. Sometimes I live in the bush with camels, sometimes I live the five-star life. Sometimes I walk for miles in the terrible heat with no water, sometimes I ride in extremely slick cars. Sometimes I’m chased by the enemy, sometimes I chase him!”

“I have hatred, I have love,” he went on. “It’s the best life on earth!”