NEFA Foundation "Target America" Report: "The Little Rock, Arkansas Recruiting Station Shooting"

By Evan Kohlmann

The NEFA Foundation has released the eighteenth installment in the “Target: America” series, which examines the June 1, 2009 shooting attack by Muslim convert Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammed, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, at a U.S. Army/Navy recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas. The attack killed Pvt. William Long, while Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula suffered non-life threatening injuries. Describing the attack as something that has "been on" his mind "for awhile" and that "was just...heat of the moment," Muhammed explained that "U.S.soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don't believe in turning the other cheek." For Muhammed, who was enraged by allegations that U.S. military personnel desecrated the Quran and raped and murdered Muslims, "the shooting was an act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military." According to the FBI, Muhammed also “conducted Google map searches related to Jewish entities, a Baptist church, a child care facility, a US post office and military recruiting centers in…Atlanta, Georgia; Little Rock, Arkansas; Louisville, Kentucky; New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee." The report provides information on Muhammed's background, from his time in Tennessee and Ohio to his journey to Yemen, and also describes other plots targeting military facilities in the U.S. after 9/11.

The report can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website.