We need to go beyond the surface level of what terrorists want us to believe about themselves and delve instead, to the extent possible, into the deepest levels of their actual lived reality. Last week a federal grand jury indicted Army soldier Naser Jason Abdo, age 21, on three charges related to a plot to attack soldiers near Fort Hood, Texas. Much of the attention on this case so far has focused on Abdo’s religion- Islam. Any effort to make sense of this troubled young man will need to include an understanding of how he chose to approach and interpret his religion.
