By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-04 15:01:02 | Updated at 2025-01-06 16:04:17
2 days ago
The aftermath of the Bourbon Street rampage.
Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza likely propelled alleged homegrown terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar toward radicalization, two experts on domestic terrorism told The Post.
The experts are not involved in the investigation, but agreed the radicalization was recent.
By Jabbar’s own admission, his ISIS allegiance began before last summer.
While the ISIS-inspired terrorist served in Afghanistan, Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel who now works in the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic International Studies, told The Post it was more probable “a situation like Gaza” and Israel’s ongoing offensive started Jabbar down a dark path.
“His tour in Afghanistan” in 2019 “was too long ago,” Cancian said, adding there’s no evidence to suggest he was radicalized at his local mosque by an ISIS recruiter.
Federal investigators continue to look into what compelled the decorated US Army veteran to fatally mow down 14 people with a truck in New Orleans’ French Quarter on New Year’s Day.
They’re also interested in learning how the 42-year-old terrorist came to pledge his loyalty to ISIS just months ago.
Javad Ali, a former US government counter-terrorism official, agreed “the impact of Oct. 7, and I mean the effect on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” on Jabbar’s actions “is not yet clear and can’t be ruled out.”
Ali noting Jabbar’s radicalization appears to have been fast-tracked following a few divorces and a failed attempt at starting a business.
“The timeline is usually a lot longer for people to become radicalized,” Ali said.
“He was trying to inflict even more damage beyond the murders. He got out of that truck and started shooting, which shows the depth of his extremism. He was going to do as much as he could, up to the moment of his death. We’re lucky he didn’t kill more.”
Cancian explained radicalization typically begins online.
“There are many jihadi websites that individuals will visit and they get drawn into radical Islamic thinking,” he said.
“The process begins with some alienation from the surrounding culture and often expresses itself in extreme religiosity,” Cancian continued. “Individuals will then either link up online with radical sources or connect through a mosque.”
Investigators will learn more in the coming weeks, and Ali said he’s interested in learning when Jabbar started planning the attack.
“There’s no single pathway to radicalization, and people are still being radicalized here in the United States,” Ali said. “But then, things can escalate, and they cross over this imaginary threshold into what we call the ‘mobilization of violence.’ We’re still learning about Jabbar and what happened to him.”
