This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2785
March 23, 2007
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27437 Brother of Terror
By Joe Kaufman
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 22, 2007
Nabil El-Shukrijumah lives with the dubious distinction of having a family associated with terrorism. His father was the spiritual leader of one of the most dangerous mosques in America and a character witness for an explosives expert convicted for his involvement in a plot to blow up New York's Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. His brother, a jihad camp trainee, is said to be the fugitive leader of a terror cell charged with carrying out the next wave of 9/11-style attacks on U.S. soil. Is Nabil's terrorist pedigree enough to push him towards the same? If his websites are any indication, then the answer is yes.
Gulshair El-Shukrijumah had been an imam at Masjid Nur Al-Islam, located in Brooklyn, New York. He was sent there as a missionary by the Saudi government, in 1986. One of his congregants, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, was a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War, an explosives expert, and possibly the one that taught the cell how to build the bomb used in the '93 World Trade Center attack. Gulshair, as well, was a translator for Omar Abdel-Rahman (a.k.a. The Blind Sheikh), who was the local spiritual leader of the group associated with the bombing conspiracy, Maktab Al-Khidmat. Prior to Hampton-El's and Abdel-Rahman's convictions in 1996, Gulshair had taken his wife and kids out of Brooklyn and brought them to Miramar, Florida, where he was to become the imam of the Al-Hijrah Mosque. Nabil, his son, was 13, at the time. Aside from the father, the family had only been in Brooklyn for a short stay. The wife, Zuhra Abdu Ahmed, and children had previously been residing in Saudi Arabia. Adnan El-Shukrijumah was the eldest of the children.
When he was born, in 1975, his mother was just 16 years old, a child herself. His father was 47. Shortly after arriving in Florida, Adnan enrolled in classes at Broward Community College, studying engineering. According to school records, he was a student there till 1999. Adnan was widely known throughout the South Florida Muslim community, having spent time in numerous area mosques and Islamic centers. He was a devout Muslim and was well versed in Quranic teachings, often imparting that knowledge to those younger than himself. In May of 2001, Adnan left Florida for Trinidad, where he had family – according to his father, to sell Islamic garments. Nabil, his brother, was 18, at the time. He would not return, as authorities gathered intelligence that Adnan was being groomed by Al-Qaeda to become the next Mohammed Atta, with whom it is believed he (Adnan) had dealings while in the States. That intelligence came, in part, from the operational commander of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Other terrorists Adnan has been associated with include: "Dirty Bomber" Jose Padilla, Hamas and Al-Qaeda fundraiser Adham Hassoun, and convicted terrorist Imran Mandhai. Padilla and Hassoun are currently awaiting trial in Miami.
Today, Adnan is alleged to be part of an Al-Qaeda nuclear bomb plot. When word got out about his terror ties, his father was released from his duties as imam of Al-Hijrah, in March of 2003. Gulshair didn't have to wait long to find a new job, as he soon became a director at the Shamsuddin Islamic Center, located in North Miami Beach. The mosque had recently moved across the street from its original location, at the same address as the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA). AMANA's director, Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, was previously the Vice President of the Health Resource Center for Palestine (HRCP), a "charity" that was shut down, after it had been exposed for having ties to Hamas. Besides his profession as an imam, Gulshair was also an Arabic language teacher. He even tutored Mandhai, before he (Mandhai) went to prison. Prior to his disappearance, Adnan had set his father up with a website that would be used to sell Gulshair's books and tapes on how to learn Arabic. The website was appropriately titled, "Master Arabic." On it, Adnan stated, "My father is the narrator of a system designed to take you from as basic as the alphabet to constructing words to conversation to Arabic [sic] grammer… Go ahead and click your way to mastering Arabic." The site contained a guestbook within it. The very first signatory in it was AMANA's Zakkout. Soon after him, an individual by the name of Bilal Philips signed. Years before, Philips had been placed on the U.S. Attorney's list of potential co-conspirators of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He wrote, "Salaam alaykum Ibn Shukri, Mabrook on the website and special salaams to your father and prayers for his good spiritual and physical health. He was one of my first teachers in Arabic and is a dear friend, though geography and world politics has separated us. Tell him that, as always, I love him for the sake of Allaah. Was salaam, Bilal."
Gulshair's site also contained a picture of another "unindicted co-conspirator" of the '93 bombing, Siraj Wahhaj. Adnan's tribute to his father would end in July of 2003, when the website would be taken down. [The internet address for the site is set to expire in June of 2008.] However, recently, Adnan's brother, Nabil, would honor Gulshair with his own tribute site – of the same title. Nabil, who runs a print company out of his parents' home, like his brother before him, has proficient web design skills. Within My Space, an online community that allows you to keep in contact with friends and family, Nabil created a new "Master Arabic" page for his father. On the page, he placed numerous pictures of Gulshair. One is of Gulshair teaching two young boys at his Brooklyn mosque. One of the lines on the blackboard reads, "The human being is under the oppression of the kuffar (unbelievers)." Gulshair's words were not the only disturbing message on this web page. In December of 2006, Nabil posted the following, with severe implications: "As Salaam Alaikum Dad, you're still living among all of us, will see you later but not that much later." In addition to his father's page, Nabil created his own personal My Space page.
He uses the name "El-Shukri." [Shukrijumah is the combination of Shukri and the last name of the family, Jumah or Juman.] On the site, one finds many examples of how he has sought to follow in his father's and brother's extremist footsteps. Numerous pictures that Nabil put on his page are of a jihadist nature. One of them can easily be construed as a threat to Israel's existence. It states, "Oh Jerusalem, we are coming" and shows a terrorist with rifle on horseback watching as the city burns in flames. Another picture depicts scenes of dead American soldiers. Under one of the scenes, it says, "These are the armaments of the enemy, who are disgraced." The picture, which contains a militant holding a rocket launcher, is from an Iraqi "resistance" group. Above the picture are large images of Saddam Hussein. Two pictures on the page are from a Muslim rap group called Soldiers of Allah. They both include the black Islamic flag of war, which has been made popular by the banned British Islamist organizations, Al-Muhajiroun and Hizb-ut-Tahrir. As well, when one opens Nabil's page, he/she is treated to Soldiers of Allah's song, ‘1924.' It contains the following quotes: "I am not going to give one inch of Palestine to the Jews… I would rather have my flesh be cut up than cut out Palestine from the Muslim land…" and "When the west was training Muslim scholars for hire, Jews were setting Al-Aqsa mosque on fire!" One other picture on Nabil's page is not worrisome for what it has on it, but for where it came from, www.arab3.com. The site is registered to Yousif Al-Olayyan, a former student at the University of Florida. Al-Olayyan is also the registered agent and the editor-in-chief for www.alsakher.com, a site that features in-depth discussions about Al-Qaeda, including from those that claim to be affiliated with the organization's leaders. One individual, who goes by the title ‘Al-Am' or ‘The Pains,' stated, "I was with Sheikh Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri to launch attacks in the Arab country…"
What's even more troubling is the fact that, in October of 2002, Al-Olayyan was an invitee to a Homeland Security program dealing with "corrosion in reactors and nuclear power systems." The event was co-organized by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which, according to its website, "helps to ensure the safety of the nuclear weapons stockpile and reduce the threat of terrorist attacks on our homeland." [PDF] Along with the many pictures, Nabil placed a video on his My Space about how America attacked itself on 9/11. This is outrageous, given the fact that his brother Adnan, who is nicknamed Jafar the Pilot, is suspected of flight training with the perpetrators of 9/11. My Space allows people to join others' My Space pages as "friends." Every "friend" needs to be approved by the owner of the site. As well, My Space allows you to place your favorite set of "friends" on your homepage, along with their pictures or logos
. On Nabil's site, there are numerous suspect individuals. His favorites include: a 23-year-old resident of Hollywood, Florida named Yusuf Abdullah, who calls the El-Shukrijumah family "a blessing in my life." Abdullah's page sports a background picture of a Quran and a Kalashnikov rifle alongside one another. Additionally, on his site, one finds audio and video of the song ‘Ghurabaa' by Saad al-Ghamdi. In the piece, it is repeated, "So let us make jihad, and battle, and fight from the start." Also featured in Nabil's favorites is a My Space page dedicated to the deceased Chechen terror warlord, Omar Ibn al Khattab. Khattab, who was closely aligned with Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network, was responsible for the murders of scores of Russian soldiers. The page is called "Hattab – The Lion of Islam," and it contains an abundance of footage from Chechen terror operations, as well as the Hamas logo and a poem stating, "It is Islam, [it has] returned. In the path of Allah, we have walked and announced Jihad. We have returned with a machine gun." Another "friend" of Nabil is Vegeta (a.k.a. Saiyan). On Vegeta's site, visitors can see photographs of Hamas and Hezbollah terror fighters, including children dressed in terrorist garb. Nabil posted a comment on the site, calling Vegeta "my Muslim Brother" and approvingly stated, concerning an anti-Israel video Vegeta had posted, "Very good, Masha' Allah." Nabil enjoys posting comments on other people's sites, including numerous statements containing the highly offensive term "nigga."
He has also posted religious material, such as a flyer for the Nur-Ul-Islam children's Academy. Nur-Ul-Islam was co-founded by Raed Awad, a former agent for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), a "charity" that raised millions of dollars for Hamas. In addition, it was Awad that is believed to be responsible for the conversion to Islam by Jose Padilla. Web design skills within the El-Shukrijumah family are not just limited to Adnan and Nabil. Aidah, their 22-year-old sister, has her own My Space page, as well. On it, she pays tribute to her lost brother with photographs. On one, she refers to him as "Big bro." In another, she and her siblings are sitting outdoors next to their father, holding a sketch of Adnan. The photo was taken outside the CBC Building in Toronto, one of Adnan's known stomping grounds. The picture is labeled "Memories."
Long forgotten, it seems, was the time, in 1997, when "Big bro" was arrested for biting Aidah. That was then. Today, Aidah has a new life with her husband, who from the looks of one of his shirts, hails from the windy city of Chicago. Relocated, she is, awaiting her soon-to-be born baby, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, thousands of miles from the family's Miramar home. Does she know where her brother, Adnan, is? Who can say? Does any of the family know? If they do, they've been careful not to slip up. The mother has admitted to telling him not to return, for fear of him being brought to justice. One thing is for certain, though. Whether Adnan comes back or not, the family has a new adult jihadi to keep the legacy alive – Nabil El-Shukrijumah. Given the trouble the United States has had in locating his brother, one would think that he would be watched with at least the same interest and intensity.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2785