It was alarming when two U.S. Army soldiers were shot — one of them fatally — outside a recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark., last June. Authorities said the suspect, Abdulhakim Muhammad, from Memphis, was a convert to Islam and shot the young soldiers in response to supposed U.S. misdeeds against Muslims in foreign lands.
But now the case has taken on an even more serious tone. Muhammad, who is charged with murder, has told the judge presiding over the case that he is linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network in the Middle Eastern nation of Yemen and says he wants to plead guilty.
“I wasn’t insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this Act,” he wrote in a note to the judge, according to The New York Times. The attack was “justified according to Islamic Laws and the Islamic Religion. Jihad — to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims.”
A branch of al-Qaida in Yemen has been linked to the attempted bombing on Christmas Day of a U.S.-bound airliner. In addition, U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is accused of killing 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood, Texas, last November, was in contact with a radical Muslim religious leader in Yemen.
While it has not yet been determined that Muhammad really has ties to al-Qaida, news accounts note that he spent 16 months in Yemen starting in late 2007. He overstayed his visa there and was put in prison. But in late January 2009, the U.S. government pressured the Yemenis to send him back to the United States.
It was less than five months later that the shootings in Little Rock occurred. Pvt. William A. Long, 23, died, and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, was wounded. Neither soldier could have committed the alleged anti-Muslim acts that troubled Muhammad, because they had only recently completed basic training and had not seen combat.
There ought to be a concerted law enforcement effort to determine whether in fact Muhammad is linked to al-Qaida. If so, it is also vital to learn whether he is associated with anyone now in the United States who may have violent aims.
This case is a disturbing reminder of the serious threat that radical Islam poses to Americans, even on our own soil.