Page 252 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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230———Militant Islam

Though threatening letters continued to plague Nash, Jay Robert. Bloodletters and Badmen. New York:
Con Ed, police, and others, “F. P.” did not set another Evans, 1995.
bomb until March 29, 1950, when a third hoax bomb Zonderman, Jon. Beyond the Crime Lab: The New Science
was discovered in Grand Central Station. The follow- of Investigation. New York: John Wiley, 1999.
ing month, the first of the Mad Bomber’s bombs
exploded in a phone booth inside the New York pub-
lic library, followed by another bomb at Grand Central MHP. See GREY WOLVES.
Station. Over the next five years, nearly 30 more
bombs were planted throughout New York—at Grand
Central Station, Penn Station, the Port Authority Bus MIDDLE CORE FACTION. See
Terminal, the Brooklyn Paramount Theater, Radio CHUKAKU-HA.
City Music Hall, and phone booths throughout the
city—nearly half of which exploded, ultimately caus-
ing more than a dozen injuries, but no deaths.
Frustrated after 16 years of investigation, Inspector MILITANT ISLAM
Howard Finney of the New York City Crime Lab
turned to Dr. James A. Brussel, a private psychiatrist
who had performed counterintelligence profiling Out of the many modern branches and sects that
work during World War II and the Korean War. Using make up the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims emerged a
police evidence, including handwriting analysis, minority, virulent offshoot called militant Islam. A
Brussel developed an elaborate profile: he predicted fundamentalist, utopian ideology that often justifies
that the Mad Bomber was a foreign-born male of violence for what is seen as a higher cause, in some
Eastern European descent, 40 to 50 years old, an unmar- respects militant Islam is not unlike past ideological
ried loner living with female relatives, a clean-shaven, enemies of the West, including fascism and Marxism.
neatly dressed man with an athletic build, who would The movement, comprising perhaps 10 or 15 per-
also be a textbook paranoid. Most famously, Brussel cent of the Muslim world, harbors a deep hatred for
also predicted that the bomber would be wearing a that which the West stands for, including capitalism,
double-breasted suit, buttoned. individualism, and consumerism. Those who ascribe to
After local newspapers published summaries of the ideology seek instead to implement a strict inter-
the Mad Bomber’s profile, police were inundated with pretation of the Koran (Islam’s holy book) and shari’a
false leads. The bomber continued his activities, even (Islamic law) in all Muslim lands. They also seek a
calling Dr. Brussel to threaten him. Meanwhile, Con united Muslim polity, spearheaded by the leadership of
Ed expanded its search of personnel files of disgrun- a caliph. Jihad, commonly translated as “holy war,” is
tled employees to the years before its major mergers often seen as the means to achieve these goals.
in the 1930s, and found the file of George Metesky, of
Waterbury, Connecticut, who blamed his bout with THE DECLINE OF ISLAM
tuberculosis on his former employer, which later
became part of Con Ed. In the 17th century, the Muslim world was the planet’s
In January 1957, Metesky, who fit Brussel’s profile most vibrant culture and its strongest military force,
in every detail, confessed to planting 32 bombs, admit- with territory encompassing the Middle East and
ting that “F. P.” stood for “fair play.” Four months later, southeastern Europe. As a world power, Muslims
he was committed to the Matteawan Asylum for the viewed Western religious, cultural, and military devel-
Criminally Insane, where he remained until 1973. opments with disdain. Accordingly, when the West
Upon release, he moved home to Connecticut, where achieved military superiority, the Islamic world
he remained until he died, in 1994. was caught by surprise. By 1769, Russia’s Army had
soundly defeated the Ottoman Turks, handing the
See also BOMBINGS AND BOMB SCARES Islamic world its first military defeat.
A spate of Muslim military losses followed.
Further Reading Between 1798 and 1912, at least seven Muslim coun-

Brussel, James A. The Casebook of Crime Psychiatrist. tries, from Aden (modern Yemen) to Morocco, suc-
New York: Geis, 1968. cumbed to the advances of invading European armies.