Free Republic

An upstate graduate student was charged yesterday with stabbing a beloved anthropology professor to death. Saudi national Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, 46, was held without bail for the murder of Binghamton University professor Richard Antoun, 77, an expert on comparative religion, authorities said. Al-Zahrani, a cultural-anthropology grad student, allegedly pulled out a six-inch kitchen knife and stabbed Antoun four times in the chest in the professor's campus office Friday.

SNIPPET: "Sudden jihad syndrome or just the crazy? I'll remind my readers that the two are not mutually exclusive categories. In fact, Aaron over at SOFIR has a pretty interesting typology of the "terrorist continuum" in which he posits that the more rational the terrorist the more likely they will be to need organizational help. At the other end of the spectrum are "lone wolves" who are characterized by a high degree of "internal disquiet". I've no idea if the grad student/murderer named Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani was motivated by Islamic extremism. I throw it out there because it can't be discounted...