While this seemed painfully obvious the day of the attack, it now appears certain that Taimour Abdulwahab, the Stockholm man who attempted to detonate the car bomb and then a vest in the city, died from that most horrible affliction known to suicide bombers: premature detonation. And via The New York Times, we learn that he had been preparing to carry out mass murder in Stockholm for four years:
Then, with the sound of the turn of a page, he addressed his wife and children. The man confessed that trips he had made to the Middle East were not for business, but for “jihad.”
“I love you all. Please forgive me if I lied to you. It wasn’t very easy to live the last four years with the secret of being mujahid,” he said, using an Arabic word for holy warrior, “or, as you call it, terrorist.” After a pause, he continued. “Please do know one thing,” he said. “You and the children are the best of what happened to me in this life.”
The final words were directed at “all hidden mujahideen in Europe and especially in Sweden.” Now, the speaker said, is “the time to strike even if you only have a knife to strike with, and I do know that you have more than that.”
Abdulwahab’s final statement indicates he carried out the attack for the Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda’s front. “The Islamic State of Iraq has kept its promise,” according to statements released on several jihadist forums.
The Telegraph informs us that Abdulwahab was kicked out of a mosque in Luton three years ago for trying to recruit others to wage jihad against the West:
Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, 28, tried to recruit other Muslims to share his fanatical views when he was given a chance to preach at the Luton Islamic Centre.
Sources there said he then turned his attention to trying to recruit students by giving sermons at the Islamic Society of the University of Bedfordshire, of which he was a graduate….
Qadeer Baksh, chairman of the Luton Islamic Centre, also known as the Al Ghurabaa mosque, said the bomber believed Western governments had no right to involve themselves in Iraq or Afghanistan and urged others to “take matters into their own hands” because traditional mosques were not proactive enough.
Mr Baksh said: “He arrived at the mosque at the start of Ramadan [the Muslim holy month of fasting] in 2007.
“We hadn’t seen him before but he was very nice, a gentle, bubbly character. People liked him and he was very helpful to them.
“He was like that for a couple of weeks and he was given the opportunity to preach.
“Some of the members brought it to my attention that his views were extreme so I challenged him.
“It was all about Iraq and Afghanistan. He was saying that Western governments had no right to be there and how too many Muslims remained silent.
“He said we should be more proactive and take matters into our own hands but he never directly advocated violence.
“He said the leaders of Muslim nations had to take more action and said scholars here were working for the government.
“It was quite serious because some of the worshippers were starting to really listen to him.
“I talked to him and went through his arguments and countered all of them theologically and he accepted it. I thought that was the end of it but he carried on.
“So one day, before the end of Ramadan, when the mosque was full I directly challenged all his misinterpretations of Islam.
“He just stood up and stormed out. We never saw him again – but I heard he’d gone to the Islamic Society at the university and continued to preach his extremist views.
Yet somehow Abdulwahab wasn’t flagged as a threat back in 2007, and was able to leave the United Kingdom and travel to the Middle East, then Sweden? Or would identifying as a threat a Muslim who was preaching jihad in mosques brand any European intelligence agency or police association that did so “a Stasi organization”?
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5 Comments
Great commentary, Bill! I hope that you have a lot of opportunities to present this critique in various news forums.
So all of his jihad was for not because he is just another lying sinner, failing the test of righteousness. Sad tale that one… When he gets to hell he won’t even get to brag he killed people. ooops
So he had a bachelors degree in BOOM, and only managed to kill himself. Their ‘smart’ weapon indeed. It must be a huge technical challenge to develop a weapon precise enough to kill whoever happens to be walking by. It’s no wonder the Muslim street has turned against Al Queda so overwhelmingly. The base only of misery.
Bill, really good analysis, but in one point, I’m not sure about the information.
You are stating that “Abdulwahab’s final statement indicates he carried out the attack for the Islamic State of Iraq” and you argue with statement released on islamic-affiliated websites.
I have read statement translated by Nefa an there is just construction about “Islamic state” but with narrative on european (and potentially global as usual) muslims. Any sign of ISI.
Just for confirmation – are there any other signs about participation of ISI or any iraqi elements (beside of hypothesis based on his origin)? I mean, if there was ISI involved, it would be substantial shift in their activities. Not so much in case of al Shabaab. On the other hand, it also seems, that he was self-instructing man with other individuals, one group probably not affiliated with ISI or AS and even AQ.
What you think?
From Bill’s link: “He (Swedish prosecutor Thomas Lindstrand) also said Swedish security was not “a Stasi organization” engaged in analyzing people’s Facebook pages.”
Political correctness will be the demise of us all.