If I'm not mistaken, MacDill Air Force Base is the headquarters of the Armed Forces Special Operations Command, which had just played a major role in the fighting in Afghanistan shortly before this boy went on his fatal flight. True. But maybe just a coincidence of the boy already being near there. "CharlesBishop" key word above brings up a few earlier stories.
I've never seen the slightest scrap of evidence the father was a Muslim, or that the boy was, or that either had ever even set foot in a mosque.
I don't know if he had any religious affiliation. However there is his note praising Osama.
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/01/10/TampaBay/Pilot_s_parents_had_t.shtml Yep, his GREAT-Grandfather was the one that emigrated from Syria in the early part of this century. And again, there basically was no Muslim immigration to the US at that time; it was almost universally Christian.
His GRANDFATHER, Robert Bishara, is the one that doesn't speak any Arabic (but one would presume his father, Charles Bishara, also doesn't either.)
A teenager writing a suicide note that praises Bin Laden doesn't make him a Muslim.
It sounds like someone inspired to get attention with his suicide; prior to 9/11, he likely would have committed suicide in a more mundane way with a more mundane note(parents, interestingly, both attempted suicide at a young age. Father was a small-time hood.)