Two Americans indicted in the US today could not be more different. Craig Benedict Baxam, a former US soldier who grew up in Maryland, was arrested in Kenya after trying to travel to Somalia to join the terrorist group Al Shabaab. He converted to Islam in July 2011 while serving in the army. Sami Osmakac, who was born in the former Yugoslavia and lived in Pinellas Park, Florida, planned to go on a bombing and shooting rampage in Florida. Why would I write about these men together, then? For one simple reason: The Internet played a role in the progression from regular guy to alleged terrorist for both of these men.
Baxam first learned about Islam while surfing the web and reading an article about the Day of Judgement on an Islamic religious website, according to the criminal complaint. After learning about Islam online, he secretly converted to Islam, which he could only have learned how to do from the Internet. Prior to traveling abroad to join Al Shabaab, Baxam destroyed his computer so that law enforcement could not obtain any of his online history.
Osmakac, on the other hand, was not as careful to hide his online posts. He was very active on YouTube, where he recorded a number of videos about converting to Islam, the importance of pleasing Allah and the issues surrounding assimilating in America and enjoying American life.
Both Baxam and Osmakac followed very different paths of radicalization and mobilization, but in the end it was the Internet that facilitated much of this progression.
