Shortly before ramming his vehicle into a group of students and then attacking them with a butcher knife, Ohio State University student Abdul Razak Ali Artan warned America to stay out of Muslim countries and to make peace with Muslims or else.
ChristianNews.net reports that the 18-yea-old Artan was originally from Somalia and was a transfer student to OSU from Columbus State. He claimed Muslim faith.
Artan carried out an attack on Ohio State’s campus on Monday morning. Eleven students were injured before Ohio State police officer Alan Horujko shot and killed Artan after he refused to comply with police orders.
Prior to the attack, Artan had posted:
“I can’t take it anymore. America! Stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah. We are not weak. We are not weak, remember that. If you want us Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace. We will not let you sleep unless you give peace to the Muslims.”
Artan had also expressed his frustration at how Muslims were treated earlier this year when he was interviewed for the Ohio State student newspaper.
“I just transferred from Columbus State. We had prayer rooms, like actual rooms where we could go pray because we Muslims have to pray five times a day. This is my first day. This place is huge, and I don’t even know where to pray.”
“I wanted to pray in the open, but I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media,” he continued. “I’m a Muslim; it’s not what the media portrays me to be. If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen. But I don’t blame them. It’s the media that put that picture in their heads, so they’re just going to have it, and it’s going to make them feel uncomfortable.”
No one died in the attack besides Artan himself, and those who were injured are said to be in stable condition.
There was also initial confusion over the attack, with many sources, including the University itself, saying that there was an active shooter situation, although Artan’s weapons consisted instead of his vehicle and a knife.
Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Publication date: November 29, 2016
