: Criminal or Terrorist? LAX Assailant Becomes Political Pawn

It didn’t take long after the July 4th shootings by Egyptian immigrant Hesham Mohamed Hadayet at the Los Angeles International Airport for pundits to take the offensive, citing the return of al-Qaida-directed terrorism on US soil. Despite FBI statements that the gunman’s motives are still unclear, Israel immediately called the incident a terrorist attack and charged that Hedayat may have met with bin Laden deputy Ayman Al-Zawahri several years ago. The wife of the gunman, responding to the bad news from her vacation in Egypt, insisted that her husband is innocent and would never murder people. “He is a victim of injustice,” said Hala Mohammed Sadeq El-Awadly. “In America, they hate Islam and Arabs after Sept. 11.” Meanwhile, Muslim leaders in Los Angeles, at the request of the FBI, has been seeking information about the mysterious gunman from the 500,000-member Muslim community there. “We called on our network to provide information but basically came up with nothing,” said community leader Salam Al-Marayati. “He may have attended some Friday prayers but was not a core member of a mosque.” Evidence of conspiracy will likely sway the label one way or the other, but then again… so will the interests involved.

Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com.  He is based in London, England.