The New Orleans Terrorist Attack and the Self-Radicalization Canard The FBI and media’s swift “self-radicalized” narrative for Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s New Orleans attack ignores substantial evidence of foreign terrorist involvement and radicalization by local Islamist cl By Fred Fleitz
Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, the FBI and the mainstream media quickly declared that New Orleans terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a Muslim American born in Texas, was “self-radicalized,” “inspired” by ISIS and acted alone.
This is an all-too-common response to acts of radical Islamist terrorism in the U.S. The FBI and the press almost always rule out the possibility that other persons or groups were involved. They also frequently claim that the motives of suspected terrorists who are killed may never be known, even though there may be clear signs that they were motivated by radical Islamist ideology.
The reason for these denials is a misguided belief that it is racist and politically incorrect ever to assess that foreign Islamist terrorist groups or American Muslim clerics and groups bear any responsibility for Islamist terrorist attacks in the United States.
Despite such denials concerning the New Year’s terrorist attack by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, there are compelling reasons to believe they played a role in radicalizing Jabbar and that foreign terrorist operatives facilitated his terrorist attack.
First, it is significant that Jabbar traveled to Cairo, Egypt for 11 days in mid-2023. Since Jabbar was in debt and almost broke, it is unlikely he took such a long, expensive, and exotic trip as a tourist. It is more likely that he visited Cairo to meet members of radical Islamist terrorist groups. Cairo is the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization and the progenitor of al Qaeda and ISIS.
Is it possible that Jabbar received terrorist training during his 11-day trip to Cairo? Terrorism expert Dr. Walid Phares thinks so, writing in a January 6 tweet:
There is another reason to strongly suspect the involvement of a foreign party—possibly a foreign Islamist terrorist organization—in the New Orleans terrorist attack. Jabbar reportedly carried two bombs in his truck that used a very rare explosive compound called R-salt, a derivative of the explosive RDX. This explosive reportedly has never before been used in terrorist bombings in the U.S. or Europe. R-salt is a powerful and difficult-to-detect explosive. However, homemade bombmakers don’t use explosives like R-salt because they require detonators, which are hard for them to obtain. Jabbar used a makeshift detonator in his R-salt bombs, which did not detonate.
Jabbar’s use of this rare explosive and the training he would have needed to produce it suggest the involvement of foreign parties, possibly terrorist operatives he may have met with in Cairo. Although the FBI continues to assert that Jabbar acted alone and was self-radicalized, it also reportedly is investigating whether Jabbar received assistance for the New Orleans attack during his visit to Cairo and another unexplained 2023 trip to Canada.
There also are troubling reports that Jabbar may have been radicalized by clerics at his local mosque in Houston. Jabbar reportedly was a member of a mosque associated with the Islamic Society of Greater Houston. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, as recently as August 2024, Mohammed ElFarooqui, an imam at the Houston mosque Jabbar is believed to have attended, promoted terrorist violence and spewed hatred of Jews. Referring to Jews as “plunderers” and “Zionists, the aggressor and enemies,” ElFarooqui called on Allah to “send down on [them]…some of your soldiers.”
Investigative reporter Paul Sperry wrote in a January 4, 2025, tweet that this mosque recently removed radical sermons from its website and told its members not to talk to the FBI:
An imam with the Islamic Society of Greater Houston strenuously condemned the New Orleans terrorist attack and said Jabbar was not a “formal member” of any of its 21 Houston mosques. The imam also blamed social media for radicalizing Jabbar with “unreliable sources of Islam.” But if what the imam said is true, why is Jabbar’s local mosque hiding videos of radical sermons given by its imams and telling its members not to talk to the FBI?
Jabbar’s alleged mosque also instructed its members to refer queries by the press and the FBI to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a controversial American Muslim advocacy group that has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Biden administration severed its ties with CAIR in December 2023 after its director, Nihad Awad, said on the day of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist massacre against Israel that he was “happy to see” Palestinians break out of Gaza. Awad also said Israel did not have the right to self-defense.
I believe mounting evidence on this case is enough to conclude that others probably were involved in Jabbar’s radicalization and he was not self-radicalized. Radical Islamist operatives in Cairo also may have indoctrinated Jabbar, trained him to make explosives, and helped him plan the New Orleans terrorist attack. But FBI and other government officials once again rolled out the “self-radicalized, acted alone” canard to mislead the American public about these likely conclusions.
The American public deserves the truth from its government about terrorist attacks in the United States and other dire security threats. Fixing this problem should be added to the list of priorities for President Trump’s FBI Director-nominee Kash Patel, Homeland Security Secretary-nominee Kristi Noem, and Attorney General-nominee Pam Bondi.
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Fred Fleitz previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member.
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