Omar Shafik Hammami is an American
citizen. He is from Daphne, Alabama. His Jihadist name is Abu
Mansoor al-Amriki. His father is from Syria and
his mother is from US. His father is a Muslim guy and his mother is a Christian
lady.
In his early childhood was the fact that his mother used
to take Omar and his sister to Church. So, actually, he grow as a Christian. In
his early age, he baptized in the Perdido Baptist Church. When he was child, he
would like to be a doctor so he could do missionary work all around the world
as a Christian.
During his elementary and secondary school period, he
was a talkative and naughty student. He was also a very successful student in
his classes. He had a happy childhood.
However, as seen in his autobiography, he is open to
new experiences like drugs etc…
But after the holidays in Syria, Omar's life began to
change. First he met with Islam in Syria. During this period, he began to pray
5 times a day. After his return to the United States, he continued to pray. However,
he was praying at school and he was having some problems with his friends. For
example, one day he was praying in his school and one African American guy was
laughing to him and Omar just walked over them after finishing his prayer and
told them that he is a Muslim and there is nothing strange about praying to
God. Actually, in his early age, because of these kind of reactions, Omar
started to radicalize a little bit.
During this period of radicalization, he began to enter
radical Islamic web sites on the internet. For example, he said that he used to
go to the websites of the Mujahidin of Sishan. Then Omar started to read
radical Jihadist books and articles. During this period, he would like to go to
Jihad but he understood that he need more knowledge before joining Jihad. Likewise,
he adopted Salafism in this period.
In 2003, he decided to join the Jihad with the US
invasion of Iraq. The news that he saw during the invasion and what he read on
the internet was very effective about his decision. Later, he married and moved
to Egypt.
In Egypt he began to enter more often Salafist sites on
the internet. One of these websites, he met with another American living in
Egypt.
Omar and his other American friend went to Somali, and
they joined Al-Shabab.
As seen in this case, internet and mass media play an
important role in radicalization of people or in the formation of radical
knowledge.
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