Recordings by New Orleans attack suspect express extreme religious views
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Recordings by Shamsud-Din Jabbar contain diatribes against music, drugs, sex and other sensuous pleasures. Nearly a year before he allegedly killed 14 people and injured dozens more by driving a pickup truck flying an Islamic State (IS) flag through a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar expressed his beliefs that music, intoxicants, sex and other pleasures were evils deserving of destruction.
An account on the SoundCloud platform under the name of Jabbar posted three recordings totaling about 20 minutes each containing those and other expressions of extremist religious views. SoundCloud did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The voice on the recordings match that of Jabbar’s as heard on a video promoting a real estate business he was confirmed to have run before authorities say he aimed a deadly terrorist attack at one of the world’s most famous festive drags, killing or injuring a mix of local area residents as well as foreign visitors. He was then shot dead by police at the end of Wednesday’s attack on Bourbon Street, bringing the total number dead to 15, the local coroner said Thursday.
Muslim scholars have widely rejected the extremist positions IS or those who sympathize with the terrorist group have with respect to the religion, saying Islam teaches mercy and peace as well as the importance of justice. Alluding to reports that Jabbar had previously faced accusations of engaging in some of the behavior he condemns in the recordings, including drunk-driving and spousal abuse, a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Thursday said: “His crime is the latest example of why cruel, merciless, bottom-feeding extremist groups have been rejected by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world – from Islamic scholars, to mosques, to organizations and to individual Muslims.”.
