New York: Times Square bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad believed Muslims were under siege around the world and he was struggling to find a way to fight back, according to an e-mail disclosed on Monday by CNN.
In his message, Shahzad, who is in federal custody at an undisclosed location after his arrest on May 3, appears since 2006 to have become increasingly disaffected with life in the United States.
"Everyone knows the current situation of Muslim World," he stated in one e-mail dated February 2006 that CNN posted on its website. "Everybody knows the kind of Hypocrite government in Muslim world. Everybody knows how the Muslim country bows down to pressure from the west. Everyone knows the kind of humiliation we are faced with around the globe."
CNN said it received the e-mails from Dr. Saud Anwar of Connecticut, one of the co-founders of the American Muslim Peace Initiative. Anwar on Monday confirmed that he had sent two of Shahzad's e-mails, from 2006 and 2009, to the FBI and forwarded the 2006 message to CNN.
The April 2009 message was "a very disturbing e-mail," he said and characterized it as an indication that Shahzad was moving to take some action.
Dr. Omar Atiq, the other co-founder of the group, told Newsday on Monday that he had spoken with Anwar, who said he would continue to speak out.
"I was glad he did it," said Atiq, who is a physician in Pine Bluff, Ark.
Shahzad appears in the e-mail to have the reader search for answers in the Quran as a way of justifying violence.
"Have you every try to look at with Allah's prospective, do you try to read and understand Quran? Except for clinging to one excuse that Islam does not allow innocent killing?" wrote Shahzad. "Friends with peaceful protest! Can you tell me a way to save the oppressed? And a way to fight back when rockets are fired at us and Muslim blood flows?"
Atiq said when Shahzad used the Quran to justify violence, he was "looking for something that isn't there."
"Regardless of whom he quotes or what he is trying to do ... he is making the wrong connections," said Atiq. "I don't care how he justifies his violence, it is not justified, especially in a place that has given him nothing but comfort and education.
"What did any person in Times Square do to deserve attempted murder?" asked Atiq.
Shahzad was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport when he attempted to fly to his native Pakistan. Investigators said he told them he received bomb-making training in Pakistan from Taliban groups.
As a result of Shahzad's debriefings, federal officials last week arrested three men in New England. Monday, Pakistan's consul general in Boston told The Associated Press that one of the three denied any connection to Shahzad.
Consul General Barry Hoffman told the news agency that Aftab Khan, a gas station attendant who lives in Watertown, Mass., told him during a visit to his jail cell on Monday that he does not know Shahzad, had no contact with him and didn't understand why he was in custody.
Comments
0 comment