The younger brother of New Orleans terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar is reportedly blaming “radicalization” for his kin’s rampage that killed 15 people and injured scores more.
Abdur Jabber told the New York Times Shamsud-Din was a practicing Christian in his early years in Beamont, Texas, but then turned to the Muslim faith, spending most of his life studying Islam.
But Abdur noted, “What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.”
Abdur said two weeks ago he had his final conversation with Shamsud-Din, who never brought up anything about a plot to attack Louisiana’s famous French Quarter.
He went to say Shamsud-Din enlisted in the Army because he didn’t know what to do with his life and needed discipline. Shamsud-Din was reportedly deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan at the height of those wars.
As we reported … Shamsud-Din rented a pickup truck and plowed through a large group of New Years Eve revelers along New Orleans’s Bourbon Street in the wee hours of Wednesday. Shamsud-Din then died during a gun battle with cops.
Police say fifteen people were fatally mowed down and at least 30 others were injured in what officials are calling a terrorist attack.
The FBI and local authorities found an Islamic State flag attached to the pickup truck — and a potential explosive device inside the vehicle. The Islamic State, better known as ISIS, is a brutal terrorist group operating out of the Middle East.