Defining the Narrative

ON Friday Dec 13 FBI Agents arrested 58 year old Terry Loewen, Avionics Technician, (and Muslim convert), for attempting to bomb the Wichita, KS Mid-Continent Airport.  FBI had been investigating Loewen for months, during which time he repeatedly expressed his desire to “please Allah” and to “be active in some kind of… jihad to feel I’m doing something proactive for the Ummah…”

KWCH Eyewitness 12 News released this older photo of Loewen

The FBI agents, who posed as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives in the sting, communicated for months with Loewen to clarify his intent.  When Loewen was ready and fully committed to a “martyrdom operation” (suicide bombing) in which he and one of the “brothers” (FBI posing as Al Qaeda) were to die in a truck laden with C4 on the tarmac of the Wichita airport early Friday morning when maximum number of “target” aircraft were present with passengers.

Loewen’s “self-radicalization” is not an isolated incident, and is only a portion of what US Government officials, and media alike, refer to as “Home-grown Terrorists”.  The term “home-grown” is somewhat misleading, and deflects attention away from the fundamentalist Islamic Jihad that is underway in many forms throughout the US and Europe.  In fact, initial reports played down or ignored Loewen’s Islamic ideology, one stating that he had no ties to any Wichita religious group.

Terry Loewen is a true fundamentalist as described in his own words,

“As time goes on I care less and less about what other people think of me,
or my views of lslam. I have been studying subjects like jihad, martyrdom
operations, and Sharia law.2 I don’t understand how you can read the
Qur’an and the sunnah3 of the Prophet (saw)a and not understand that
jihad and the implementation of Sharia is absolutely demanded of all the
Muslim Ummah“

This statement could not be more true, as I have written previously in “The Myth of Self Radicalization” and here in “Fundamentals“.  Loewen went on in later communication to express his satisfaction with his decision to become a “shaheed” (martyr) for the cause of Allah:

“All is good with me. lnshallah, this operation will be huge. Just to be a
part of any operation with these brothers is a great honor for me, but of
(sic) it can instill and great financial loss to the tagoot who run this
country, then I will truly feel blessed. I pray the peace of Allah(swt) will
be upon you and the other brothers. May this mission, inshalla h, be
fruitful for all of us.”

In a letter dated 12/11/13 to a family member, Loewen left these final remarks:

“By the time you read this I will – if everything went as planned- have
been martyred in the path of Allah. Therewill have been an event atthe
airport which I am responsible for. The operation was timed to cause
maximum carnage + death. [. . .] My only explanation is that I believe in
jihad for the sake of Allah + for the sake of my Muslim brothers + sisters.
[. . .] Fact is, most Muslims in this country will condemn what I have done.
[. . .] I expect to be called a terrorist (which I am), a psychopath, and a
homicidal maniac.”

Courtroom sketch of Terry Loewen arraigned Friday, Dec 13. Published by KAKE.com Wichita

Terry Loewen was arrested after his disabled ID badge failed to open the gate allowing the “explosive” laden truck access to the tarmac area.

I will be waiting to hear the voices of those Muslims in this country who condemn his action, but more specifically those who disavow Jihad as a fundamental and integral part of Islamic doctrine, and Islamic Sharia Law.

In spite of all the scandals in government in the last few years,  I tip my hat to the FBI agents who got to this guy before the real AQAP Brothers did.

[Terry Loewen quotes from official FBI Criminal Complaint document here.]