Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad is the Rodney Dangerfield of jihadism: He can’t get no respect. Accused of killing an Army soldier and wounding another at a Little Rock, Ark., recruiting station two years ago, Muhammad is being tried in Arkansas state court rather than in federal court. He feels slighted by this.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Muhammad, 24, was born Carlos Bledsoe in Memphis but converted to Islam at a Tennessee mosque. He traveled to Yemen, where he was arrested for overstaying his visa and “holding false Somali papers.” He became radicalized while in a Yemeni jail. Six months after returning to America he attacked the Little Rock recruiting station, killing Pvt. William Long, 24, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18. He was arrested hours later at a police roadblock.
In May, Muhammad wrote to the judge in his case:
The facility where the shooting took place was a federal building. The army recruiters outside that federal building were federal employees. I was under federal investigation at the time of the shooting by the FBI. Why then is this a state case in state court, which the state seeks my execution? Injustice!
Gosh, your honor, I’m stuck here with the road company out in flyover country while my fellow jihadis are playing Broadway. Can’t a guy catch a break in this business? Injustice!
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