Chattanooga Shooter’s Link to Al Qaeda Cleric Matters

The media is now reporting that the Chattanooga shooter who killed five U.S. service members outside of the recruiting stations where they worked, was inspired by influential Al Qaeda cleric, the late and unlamented Anwar Al-Awlaki. Muhammed Yusuf Abdulazeez watched the cleric’s videos beginning in 2013, years prior to the attack.  ABC News reports:

Video tapes of Anwar al-Awlaki, the high-profile American al Qaeda cleric and recruiter, have circulated on the internet and have been popular in jihadist circles long after al-Awlaki’s death by American drone strike in September 2011.

Monday U.S. officials told ABC News that in 2013 Abdulazeez did online research for militant Islamist “guidance” on committing violence. The Internet searches were discovered on electronic devices such as his smartphone analyzed over the weekend by the FBI Lab in Quantico, Virginia, several counter-terrorism officials confirmed to ABC News.

Prior to becoming famous as an Al Qaeda ideologue, Awlaki was the President of the Colorado State Muslim Students Association (MSA). The MSA is the oldest Muslim Brotherhood front organization in the United States, and a known incubator of “radicalization.” Awlaki was a major supporter of jihadist ideologue, and Al Qaeda and Hamas co-founder Abdullah Azzam.

Awlaki would go one to become the Imam of the Ribat Mosque, where he would meet, counsel and aid two of the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI would uncover evidence tying him to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Hamas fundraising group, the Holy Land Foundation, amid reports of meeting with associates of Bin Laden. He would become the Imam of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Dar al Hijrah Mosque.  He would serve as vice president for the Charitable Society For Social Welfare, run by Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood leading cleric and Al Qaeda linked Abdul Majid Al Zindani, who is also affiliated with the Union of the Good, the Hamas terror finance network run by Muslim Brotherhood jurist Yusuf Al Qaradawi, and of which the Holy Land Foundation was the U.S. representative.

Upon Awlaki leaving the United States, he would guest lecture for Muslim Brotherhood affiliate the Muslim Association of Britain, in the United Kingdom, before eventually traveling to Yemen to formally join Al Qaeda.

Al-Awlaki has provided the ideological guidance for more than a dozen terrorist plots, including most notably, the Fort Hood attack by Major Nidal Hassan. In that case, despite having intercepted Hassan’s communications prior to the attack, the FBI determined that numerous conversations with the known Al Qaeda leader, including one where Hassan referenced suicide bombings,  was “not pertinent” to their investigation.

The media now appears set to do the same thing, having apparently ruled Abdulazeez’s viewing of Awlaki’s jihadist indoctrination videos “not pertinent” in the Chattanooga shooting, as they remain fixated on stories of Abdulazeez’ depression and alcohol abuse being disseminated by family spokespeople.

The reality is that the introduction of Awlaki into Abdulazeez’s indoctrination process is extremely important, and shouldn’t be dismissed as “general jihad propaganda“, as Reuters reported.

As we have previously noted, Abdulazeez’s mosque, the Islamic Society of Greater  Chattanooga (ISGC) had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and openly advertised a connection to Qaradawi in a 2009 fundraising power-point which made obscure references to Jihad. If Abdulazeez was receiving the kind of Muslim Brotherhood style indoctrination and training, known as tarbiyah, at ISGC as has been seen at other MB-linked mosques, it would be logical that he would seek out jihadist ideologues like Awlaki to emulate.

To stop the spread of jihad, it’s vital to investigate and take on the Muslim Brotherhood-linked mosques and organizations which are indoctrinating young people, preparing them to act on the “general jihadist propaganda”.