Pattern of American Jihad

After conducting numerous case studies at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, New York, research has demonstrated a pattern for radicalization among Americans who embrace jihad, whether foreign or US-born.

The cases of the Lackawanna Six, the Portland Seven, and the Virginia Jihad Group
as well as John Walker Lindh, Adam Gadahn and others demonstrate the need to travel overseas to receive training.

• In all of the above cases, the individuals traveled, or attempted to travel, to Pakistan or Afghanistan.
• As the base of al-Qaeda's leadership and the site of the first jihad, the area continues to be one of the primary destinations for mujahideen seeking training.
• These individuals and others from the US may have arrived at LeT camps, rather than at the Farouq camp or others that have been under Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, because they enjoy far less scrutiny.

Founded shortly after 1986 as the military wing of the Center for Da'wa and Guidance, LeT initially helped Pakistani mujahideen enter the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union.

In the 1990s, they focused their efforts on Kashmir and have two of their training camps in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan-administered section of the disputed province. LeT also claims to have trained thousands of combatants to join the mujahideen in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya, Kosovo and the Philippines.

Clearly, among American Muslims radicalized by militant Salafi Islam, LeT camps in Pakistan became a center for incoming mujahideen, as did bin Laden's guesthouse in Peshawar two decades ago.

These cases all suggest that ideology, above anything else, is the common identity among group members. Their belief and commitment to the Salafi movement and its aims to purify Islam, which is the foundation on which bin Laden and other jihadist leaders have built their platforms, was the common factor that bound together these diverse individuals with various ethnic, national and linguistic backgrounds.

Even a cursory look at the Brent case reveals ties to members of Ali al-Timimi's northern Virginia jihadist group and, through them, a much larger world of official Saudi funding and militant Salafi influence.

For nearly all the terrorism cases involving radical Islam, the subjects began their journey with the Salafi Islam offered by the Saudi establishment, its leading scholars, and its prestigious institutions in Mecca and Medina.

Although they are clearly responsible for a portion of the radicalized Muslims now on a course for militancy, whether headed for a jihadist front in Iraq, Somalia or Lebanon or in the United States or the United Kingdom, those same individuals who have committed themselves to the cause cannot be effective without adequate training.

Such individuals are encouraged - by Ali al-Timimi and Abu Musab al-Suri alike - to seek training in a place such as Pakistan as an essential stage in their path to truly serving the jihad.

Chris Heffelfinger is an independent researcher affiliated with the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy, West Point, New York. Note

The Asia Times