EXCLUSIVE: Adam Gadahn, The American goat farmer turned Islamic Extremist

It's amazing what you can find on the Internet.

I noticed one of the 7 people wanted by the FBI is American. I thought I'd Google the name and here's what I came up with.

There's a page on the USC website ("Islamic Server of MSA-USC") that purports to be from a Yahiye Adam Gadahn. The story matches the details supplied today by the Dept. of Justice (raised on a goat ranch, heavy metal etc...).

His father was Muslim but an atheist. His mother was Christian and homeschooled him. He had his doubts about Christianity (particularly the Trinity). Says Gadahn: "I gradually realized I could not be a Christian."

He goes on:

In the meantime, I had become obsessed with demonic Heavy Metal music, something the rest of my family (as I now realize, rightfully so) was not happy with. My entire life was focused on expanding my music collection. I eschewed personal cleanliness and let my room reach an unbelievable state of disarray. My relationship with my parents became strained, although only intermittently so. I am sorry even as I write this.

He started listening to extremist Chrisitan radio and eventually came to Islam.

I discovered that the beliefs and practices of this religion fit my personal theology and intellect as well as basic human logic... Having been around Muslims in my formative years, I knew well that they were not the bloodthirsty, barbaric terrorists that the news media and the televangelists paint them to be. Perhaps this knowledge led me to continue my personal research further than another person would have. I can't say when I actually decided that Islam was for me. It was really a natural progression. In any case, last week [November 1995 -ed.]I went to the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove and told the brother in charge of the library I wanted to be a Muslim...

It feels great to be a Muslim! Subhaana rabbiyal 'azeem!

I'm not sure why this is still up on the USC servers. I think we need to look closer at the MSA website. In fact there's this strange page on the site (linked at the top of the MSA page) with a transcript from March 2001, where a visiting member of the Taliban is touting the great progress in Afghanistan. Obviously this site hasn't been updated in a while.

Gadahn's conversion has been posted on several other websites verbatim. Most recently in April on this site.

The only other reference I can find is an Adam Gadahn mentioned in the credits of an online e-zine called Xenocide. Jon Konrath of Indiana is mentioned as the editor. The e-zine followed heavy metal bands out of Indiana U.

Turns out the e-zine was written in 1992. I tried calling a John Konrath in Indiana, Time magazine had already called him and he wasn't the same guy. I believed this is the Jon Konrath. So I sent him an email and called him in Astoria, NY.

Jon said he never actually met Adam; Gadahn would just email him excerpts for the e-zine, but it is likely the same guy. He saw an email address in 1995 on AOL for him, but hasn't heard from him since. Also, I found it interesting, I asked him if the FBI had called him. He said no.

It took me all of 30 minutes to do all this and the FBI hasn't followed up with the guy? Don't they have an Internet connection?

UPDATE: NY Times has an article about him as well, but most of the stuff here is exclusive.

UPDATE: Jon reponds in a comment:

Hey, that's me!

Yes, Adam emailed in some reviews and artwork (mostly just doodles) that I used, and we traded some emails. He seemed like a normal heavy metal dude, just someone that liked to write to zines and look up obscure bands on the internet.

I have to admit, the lyrics and artwork of Death Metal bands can be like a Faces of Death movie in music form, with a lot of token Satanism and evil imagery in it, but it's no more insipid than your average slasher movie. I used to see a lot of religious conversions out of the movement, but it was mostly people going to various forms of Christianity, usually more fundamental than normal. Most of these people convert because they get out of the teen rebellion phase. For someone to go from metal to fundamentalist Islam is pretty unusual.

Jon's a good sport to put up with all the media calls... buy his books! :)

UPDATE (10-27-04): I dropped a line into Jon Konrath if there was any news. He responds:

Hey Justin,

No news here. I'm just waiting to hear if ABC puts out that video mentioned on Drudge. I'm leaving town on Friday to see my family - looking forward to answering a lot of dumb questions while I'm there.

-Jon

Take it easy Jon, enjoy the weekend.