Omar's family must be so proud. /s
Posted on 09/12/2013 6:25:52 AM PDT by markomalley
A rapping jihadi from Alabama who ascended the ranks of Somalia's al-Qaida-linked militant group and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list with a $5 million reward for his capture was killed Thursday in an ambush ordered by the militant group's leader, militants said.
Omar Hammami, a native of Daphne, Alabama, who was known as Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki, or "the American," died in southern Somalia following several months on the run after a falling-out with al-Shabab's top leader, the militants said.
Reports of Hammami's death crop up every few months in Somalia, only for him to resurface a short while later. But a U.S. terrorism expert who closely follows the inner workings of al-Shabab says he thinks that the current reports of the death are accurate.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
> “the American,” died in southern Somalia following several months on the run
Slacking pikers. Chicago or Oakland can beat that on any Tuesday afternoon. In fact, urban jihadi training could be a cottage industry if the hoods could organize better.
So, I wonder if we now have to pay Jihadi’s the reward money.
I guess abu zubayr has a regional approach (self aggrandizement) while Hammami thought globally (world wide Jihad). How could brothers in faith differ so? I wonder how long it will take for abu zubayr to collect the $5 mil?
Black Hawk down does not bother me. Does your conscience bother you, tell me true. Sweet home, Mogadishu.
Eh...just doesn't have the same feel.
This is the first time I ever heard about those Somali goons doing anything good.
by whom?
Omar's family must be so proud. /s
LOL!!
Shafik Hammami opens the door to his Daphne home wearing a University of Alabama football t-shirt. He was born in Syria, but after more than 40 years in the United States, he’s as much a homegrown Alabama football fan as any other local resident. I ask him if he thinks ‘Bama’ will win the National Title again this year. He holds up his hands and proudly smiles: “Roll Tide.”
Born and raised in Daphne, a quintessential Southern town nestled along Mobile Bay, lined with strip malls, subdivisions, and churches, Omar now goes by the name of Abu Monsour Al-Amriki, or The American. Western and Somali authorities have named him as a leading member of Al Shabaab, a group known for its ruthlessness in the fight for an Islamic Caliphate in Somalia.
His mother Debra, a retired school teacher, had explained earlier by phone how hard it was for her husband to talk about their son. He has quit talking to the media, she says, because it hurts too much.
In Daphne, a community of roughly 22,000, everyone we meet seems to know Omar Hammami. Or if they don’t know him, they know of him as, “that terrorist from here.”
Debra Hammami, who comes across as bubbly and friendly, says she knows that some people judge the family because of the son’s choices.
“But, darlin’, I’m lucky to live in a community with such wonderful friends,” she says.
Just the other day, she says, a friend of hers met someone who said, “Just what kind of parents could raise a child like that? They must have been terrible parents for him to turn out that way.”
“You hush your mouth,” her friend said in response, Debra Hammami recounts. “I know that family. And his mother is a good Christian woman, so you be quiet about something you know nothing about.”
She says that even though she is a Christian and her husband is a Muslim...
“Omar was a very sweet, intelligent child, very bright and inquisitive about everything,” he says. “He excelled at education, sports, just about everything he attempted. I always had high hopes for him. I would have loved for him to be engineer or a doctor but that wasn’t in the cards.
“As a parent I would like for him to follow my instructions. But in life that doesn’t always happen, especially with a strong-willed child. And of course I tried my best, and so did my wife, to raise him the best we could. He chose the path he did, and I do not approve of it. But there is nothing I can do to change it.”
“But surely there were clues?” I ask him.
“No, not at all. There were no alarms or anything that I could see,” he recalls. “As a matter of fact, when he was in college, he was the President of the Muslim Student Association, and he had several media interviews, and he condemned the attacks of 9/11 and saw that those actions were un-Islamic, so there was nothing for me to worry about.”
But that would change and soon there would be a lot to worry about.
Despite his gifted intellect, Omar dropped out of college at the University of South Alabama and moved to Toronto, Canada, where he met and married a Somali woman. Soon after, the couple moved to Egypt, where Omar hoped to deepen his study of Islam.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/us-somalia-family-despair/index.html
That’s what I love about Free Republic. Almost every story has a Freeper with personal knowledge. Almost like my favorite all-time Jeopardy question. It asked about the inventor of a carnival ride introduced at the World’s Fair in 1893. The question was “Who is George Ferris, my great Grandfather?”
“But surely there were clues?” I ask him.
“No, not at all. There were no alarms or anything that I could see,” he recalls. “As a matter of fact, when he was in college, he was the President of the Muslim Student Association, and he had several media interviews, and he condemned the attacks of 9/11 and saw that those actions were un-Islamic, so there was nothing for me to worry about.”
But that would change and soon there would be a lot to worry about.
Despite his gifted intellect, Omar dropped out of college at the University of South Alabama and moved to Toronto, Canada, where he met and married a Somali woman. Soon after, the couple moved to Egypt, where Omar hoped to deepen his study of Islam.
Folks with kids in college or soon to be.. Beware!
THey are recruiting..
This is the story I read about him:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31Jihadist-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&;
This is more recent:
http://blog.al.com/live/2011/07/daphne-born_terrorist_placed_o.html
I didn’t re-read the first article closely because it is long. It gives explanation for the devotion. His father became leader of the Mosque in Mobile and son became more devout about junior in high school.
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