A mind hijacked by radicalism
In this 2008 image made from video provided by WBTV in Charlotte, N.C., Samir Khan is shown in North Carolina. Credit: AP/WBTV
They tried.
It wasn't enough. Probably nothing would have been. But Zafar and Sarah Khan did everything they could think of to pull their son Samir back from the cliff of violent jihadist radicalism.
They talked and they pleaded. They had Islamic scholars talk to the boy.
None of it seemed to work at all.
The immigrant parents saw their beloved Samir go from Westbury high school student to troubled young adult to chief Internet propagandist for the al-Qaida terror network -- then, in a Hellfire burst from above, to unexpected casualty of a U.S. drone attack in Yemen.
No two cases are alike, of course. The fundamentalist madness that gripped Samir Khan is different from the drug addiction that captures some children and the religious cults that imprison others and the countless other ways in which children are yanked from their mothers' and fathers' loving grip.
But these cases are alike in one way: Whatever those parents may try, sometimes it is not enough.
The Khans' son is dead now, and that would be an unspeakable heartbreak for any parent. But the more we learn about this young man's disturbing descent, the more we can see how desperately his parents tried to avert it.
In the end, what else can any parent do?
His tragedy is now their tragedy. It is all of ours. The particulars are unique, as they always are. But it's a story as universal as parents and children.
These parents, like many parents before them, tried to save their child and failed.
OUT AND ABOUT
- 1. Christie's out.
- 2. Palin's out.
- 3. Trump, Pawlenty, Daniels and Barbour are out.
- 4. Perry, Bachman, Cain, Paul, Gingrich, Santorum, Johnson and Roemer could soon be out.
- 5. How come Mitt's still not in?
ASKED AND UNANSWERED: Why haven't the tea partyers joined Occupy Wall Street? Don't both sides hate bailouts? . . . 3.94 percent for a 30-year fixed? Be honest, did you ever think the vanilla mortgage would dip below 4?. . . Doesn't the sparkling new Bay Walk Waterfront Park in Port Washington North prove once and for all: People kinda like being near the water? Now why did it take 15 years to discover that? . . . Have the Connect Long Island transit advocates gotten the credit they deserve? At least they're asking: Can't we do a better job hauling people across this sprawling island? . . . What's the real lesson behind the Digital Travel Time Signs on the LIE? That anxiety can be as maddening as the actual delays?THE NEWS IN SONG: Sometimes, it IS the kid's fault: Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried": http://tinyurl.com/trymama
LONG ISLANDER OF THE WEEK
Bishop Peter Libasci
When word came from Rome four years ago that Pope Benedict XVI had named a new auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Father Peter Libasci, pastor of Montauk’s St. Therese of Lisieux, sounded almost surprised. “I was overwhelmed at the thought that anyone knew that I even existed,” he said. Well, now the 59-year-old Queen native and St. John’s grad, who spent 11 years at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Inwood, has been tapped again. He’s heading north to lead New Hampshire’s 1.3 million Catholics as bishop of the Diocese of Manchester. If you’re expecting hubris this time, you won’t find it here. “I have been called yet again,” Libasci said.
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Sarra Sounds Off Ep. 35: EI baseball, girls lacrosse and plays of the week On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," we look at East Islip baseball's inspirational comeback story, Jared Valluzzi has the plays of the week and Tess Ferguson breaks down the top defensive players in girls lacrosse.
