The man who drove a truck into a crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s Day posted audio recordings online in early 2024, expressing his religious beliefs and referring to music as the “voice of Satan.” He made no mention of violent plans or affiliations with extremist groups in the recordings.
Eleven months before the Bourbon Street attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who killed 14 people, posted three recordings on SoundCloud, including a Quran recitation and a separate message warning that music could lead to “forbidden” behaviors such as marijuana use, alcohol consumption, and violence.
Basharat Saleem, executive director of the Islamic Society of North America, a nonprofit organization, told CBS News that many of Jabbar’s statements in the recordings are misinterpretations of Islamic law.
“These are his personal, misguided conclusions,” Saleem said, emphasizing how Jabbar’s actions in New Orleans contradict Islamic teachings.
Jabbar’s younger brother, 24-year-old Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, told CBS News that in the year preceding the attack, his brother appeared to become more devout. He noticed changes in Jabbar’s lifestyle, such as him wearing more modest clothing, getting rid of his tattoos, and quitting drinking.
Abdur-Rahim said none of the changes were concerning, and he saw no signs that his brother was becoming radicalized.
Authorities are looking into the timeline and circumstances surrounding Jabbar’s radicalization. According to Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, Jabbar posted videos on Facebook in the hours leading up to the attack, claiming he had joined ISIS earlier that summer.
In the videos, Jabbar stated that he had intended to target friends and family but chose a larger attack to highlight the “war between the believers and the disbelievers.”
Muslim scholars and leaders have consistently condemned Islamic-inspired violence and rejected extremist ideologies such as those promoted by ISIS. Azhar Azeez, a board member at the Islamic Society of North America, told CBS News that “this extremism has no place in our community.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement condemning the attack, calling it the latest example of why extremist groups “have been rejected by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world.”