While the D.C. snipers were on the loose, there was speculation about whether the murders were another instance of Islamic terrorism. (Not from the authorities, of course, who were fixated on finding a white man in a white van.) When the snipers were caught, and the adult turned out to be John Muhammad, a converted Muslim who, among other things, had shot up a synagogue, one might have expected such speculation to re-surface. But for the most part, it didn't, and reference to the snipers' Muslim faith has been studiously avoided in the mainstream press.
Now Lee Malvo is on trial, and his lawyers have introduced into evidence a number of drawings which he made while incarcerated. As a trial lawyer, I have to say that their motive in doing so is not clear; the newspapers say that they hope to show that Malvo was dominated or manipulated by Muhammad. Having reviewed most of them -- they are available here -- my assessment is that they lend little support to that theory. What they do indicate is that Malvo and Muhammad were Islamofascists who admired Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and hated Christians and Jews. Malvo wrote a "poem," available here, which included these lines:
"Fight in the cause of Allah those who believe,
Destroy the devil and infidels, fear them not
(Crusader & zionist alliance) for Allah choose the humble
And the despised, so fight ye with all your possessions
and persons, fight ye and remember Allah will repay
your loan of life and property 10 fold, give your life to Allah."
There is much more in the same vein. There are also tributes to Saddam Hussein, Moammar Qadaffi, and Osama bin Laden, along with the Star of David in the cross hairs of a gun scope, with the words "WANTED DEAD! True Terrorists. Fight to destroy oppression." And, of course, references to "jihad" everywhere.
There is no indication that Muhammad and Malvo were connected in any way to an organized terrorist group like al-Qaeda. It seems more likely that they were freelance Islamic terrorists, like Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, who killed two people at the El Al counter at the Los Angeles airport last year. Which highlights the difficulty of dealing with Islamofascist terrorism. It is not enough to identify a particular gang and bring them to justice. The potential for violence resides in an ideology that must be stamped out, world-wide, for security to be possible.
While Lee Malvo never met Osama bin Laden, there is no doubt as to where he and Muhammad got their inspiration:
This article originally appeared at PowerLineBlog.com.