Hammami, the son of a Christian mother and an Islamic father, grew up near Mobile and attended college at the University of South Alabama, where he was president of the Muslim student association. The complaint said Wilson first met Hammami in 2002 and lived with him in Mobile for seven months ending in December 2004.
Randy “Rasheed” Wilson
Two Alabama men who federal investigators say wanted to wage violent jihad overseas have been arrested in Georgia on terrorism charges, and one has close ties to another man previously identified as an Islamic terror leader, authorities said Tuesday.
Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair and Randy “Rasheed” Wilson, both 25 and from Mobile, were named in terrorism charges filed Monday, according to Kenyen R. Brown, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
Prosecutors said Abukhdair was arrested at a bus terminal in Augusta, Ga., and Wilson was stopped in Atlanta while attempting to board a flight for the first leg of a trip to Morocco.
A sworn statement from an FBI agent said Wilson is a close friend and former roommate of Alabama native Omar Hammami, who was recently added to the list of the FBI’s most-wanted terror suspects. CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reported that Hammami went on to be a leading propagandist and recruiter in Somalia for al-Shabaab.
“The law enforcement actions of today should send a clear warning to those who would consider engaging in violent jihad, either at home or abroad, that their future is bleak: they may end up in a U.S. prison cell or a casualty on a foreign battlefield,” Brown said in a statement.
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