CORVALLIS, Ore. — Mohamed
Osman Mohamud had seemed to be a well-adjusted American teenager: a solid
student whose interests included basketball, girls and the night life at Oregon
State University, where he studied engineering.
But those
who know him say he changed in recent months. He dropped out of school and
stopped attending mosque. And, perhaps most telling, he began lying about his
plans for the future.
“He
seemed to be in a state of confusion,” said Yosof Wanly, the imam at the Salman
Al-Farisi Islamic Center in Corvallis, which Mr. Mohamud attended while at
college. “He would say things that weren’t true. ‘I’m going to go get married,’
for example. But he wasn’t getting married.”
A
possible explanation for his erratic behavior came as Mr. Mohamud, a
19-year-old naturalized American citizen from Somalia, was arrested Friday by
federal agents and charged with plotting to set off a bomb at a
Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony in downtown Portland.
The
device the authorities say Mr. Mohamud sought to detonate was a fake bomb
supplied by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who had
orchestrated a sting operation. But the effect of the planned attack was still
felt Sunday, including at the Islamic center here, which was the target of a
firebomb early in the day.
No one
was injured, but federal agents were here later in the day, investigating a
possible link to Mr. Mohamud’s arrest, even as Mr. Wanly tried to calm his
mosque members’ nerves.
Mr.
Mohamud is scheduled to appear in federal court in Portland on Monday on a
charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Many
questions remain about the extent of Mr. Mohamud’s connections to Islamic extremists,
whom investigators say he wrote to and plotted with, as well as about the
apparent contradictions in his personal life, as a studious, friendly teenager
and a young man seeking to wage jihad within his adopted country.
“When you
think of someone doing what he did, you think of some crazy kind of guy,” said
Mohamed Kassim, 21, a fellow Oregon State student who knew Mr. Mohamud from
around campus. “He wasn’t like that. He was just like everybody else.”
Many
Muslims in Oregon worried that they would face a backlash. And on Sunday, local
Muslim leaders emphasized that the case was an isolated incident.
“If this
kid’s being radicalized, it’s not from the locals,” said Jesse Day, a spokesman
for the Islamic Center of Portland and Masjed As-Saber, where Mr. Mohamud
sometimes worshiped.
The
president of the center, Imtiaz Khan, shared that concern, and said in an
interview that he worried that the mosque and Islam in general would be
portrayed unfairly because of the arrest. On Sunday morning, a Portland police
car was parked outside the mosque.
“We have
women and children here that we want to protect,” Mr. Khan said.
But a
sense of suspicion and worry prevailed.
Mr. Khan
and Mr. Day said several people who worship at the mosque said that F.B.I.
agents had knocked on their doors late at night on the day of Mr. Mohamud’s
arrest, but that none had agreed to speak to the agents.
“People
were finding cards in the doors that said F.B.I.,” Mr. Day said.
The
mosque, the largest in Portland, has been at the center of controversy before.
In 2002, the mosque’s imam, Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, also a naturalized
American citizen from Somalia, was arrested at Portland International Airport.
Prosecutors
said that trace elements of TNT were found in his luggage, though those tests
were later said to be inconclusive and he was not convicted of any crime.
Mr.
Kariye did not immediately respond to a request for comment made through Mr.
Day, but Mr. Khan repeated that Mr. Mohamud’s actions were his own.
“Whatever
this event is, it has nothing to do with the mosque,” Mr. Khan said.
Mr.
Mohamud, his younger sister and their parents had long lived in the Portland
area, including in Beaverton, a suburb that has a small Somali population.
Mr. Mohamud’s family fled
Somalia in the early 1990s, and his father, Osman Barre, a well-educated
engineer, worked to establish them in Oregon.
“Osman was very
sophisticated,” said Chris Oace, a former refugee worker for Ecumenical
Ministries of Oregon who helped the family resettle here in the early 1990s.
“Some refugees are afraid of having Christian churches help them. But it wasn’t
an issue with his family at all.”
Stephanie
Napier, a former neighbor, said that the family had been quiet but friendly and
that Mr. Mohamud’s mother was fiercely proud of her only son.
“He
seemed like a great kid,” she said. “His mother spoke very highly of him. He
always did what he was told and got great grades.”
At some
point over the last year or so, however, Mr. Mohamud’s parents separated, and
tensions grew in the family.
A friend
of the family said Mr. Barre, who eventually became an engineer for Intel,
could be temperamental.
Several
people who said they knew Mr. Mohamud’s family said they believed that his
parents had reported him to law enforcement authorities, citing concerns that
his views were becoming extreme. Those people refused to be quoted by name.
A law
enforcement official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss certain
aspects of the case, said investigators first became aware of Mr. Mohamud
because of what the official said were his efforts to connect with Islamic
extremists through e-mail.
Soon
after that they received information from Mr. Mohamud’s father, alerting them
to what the official described as increased radicalization. According to the
federal affidavit for his arrest, Mr. Mohamud at one point wrote in an e-mail
that he felt “betrayed” by his family.
Law enforcement
officials also confirmed that his parents had marital problems, but said they
were irrelevant to the investigation.
Family
members could not be reached for comment.
Cawo
Abdi, a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota who
studies Somali youth, said some young Somali men in the United States struggle
to find a sense of belonging.
“They are
trying to find somewhere they can fit in,” Ms. Abdi said. “This has led some to
join gangs, while others are lured by the Jihadist Web sites and YouTube videos
on the Internet.”
But for
those who knew Mr. Mohamud in Corvallis, a liberal college town whose
engineering program draws a sizable number of international students,
assimilation did not seem to be the problem.
Mr.
Kassim, the Oregon State student, said that Mr. Mohamud seemed to be a normal
student, playing basketball at the recreation center, talking about girls and
obsessing about the Portland Trailblazers, his favorite team.
On
Sunday, such trivial concerns had been replaced by more pressing issues.
Outside
the Corvallis mosque, a steady stream of well-wishers — both Muslim and
non-Muslim — arrived during the day. At the rear of the unmarked structure, a
charred and broken window was boarded up. Mosque members said there had been
extensive damage, including burned Korans, wedding and death certificates, and
other items.
Mohamed
Alyajouri, 31, who is married and has three children, said he was in shock when
he heard of Mr. Mohamud’s arrest and was concerned about the effect on Muslims
everywhere.
“This kid had friends here,
went to school here,” Mr. Alyajouri said. “It’s so stupid. Nobody I know thinks
that way. But we have to deal with this now.”
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