12/26/2009
Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, apparently attempted to blow himself up on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He’s a Nigerian Muslim. Here are some sample headlines:
'London student in jet bomb bid'
The Sun — Caroline Grant — ?5 hours ago?
A LONDON student claiming to work for al-Qaeda tried to blow up a Christmas Day flight, FBI sources claimed today. …
Video: AP Sources: Passenger Tried to Blow Up Airliner The Associated Press
'London student' held over US plane bomb bid The Press Association
White House sees 'terrorism' in London student’s failed flight bombing bid Thaindian.com
This Daily News story has a better headline: Father of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, Nigerian terror suspect in Flight 253 attack, warned U.S.,By Samuel Goldsmith, New York Daily News, December 26, 2009. It breaks down somewhat on motive — "The terror suspect who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane is the son of a Nigerian banker who alerted U.S. authorities to his "extreme religious views" months ago, it was reported Saturday."
It’s only at the very end of the article that we learn what these views were:
"This Day reported that the suspect has been known for extremist religious views since high school at the British International School in Lome, Togo.
"At the secondary school, he was known for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates and he was popularly called 'Alfa,' a local coinage for Islamic scholar," This Day reported."
It happens that the suspect was studying at University College, London, John Derbyshire’s alma mater. Wikipedia says
"Founded in 1826, UCL was the first university institution to be founded in London, the first university institution in the United Kingdom to be established on an entirely secular basis and admit students regardless of their religion … "
Derbyshire put it this way
U.C.L. was founded in 1826, at a time when the Anglican church was felt to have too much of a stranglehold on higher education in England — which is to say, on Oxford and Cambridge, the only English universities then existing. The anti-Anglican spirit of the founding was captured in a phrase of the time: U.C.L., it was said, was an establishment for “Jews and Welshmen”.
(The Welsh are frequently Methodists.) I’m all for this — compulsory Anglican chapel services are very boring. But I think admitting self-detonating Nigerian jihadists is going a step farther than the founders of University College intended.
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