RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — When someone in the Raleigh area needed a sheep or goat slaughtered according to Islamic law, Daniel Boyd was the man to see.”You find everything from halal meat and snacks to soft back prints of the Holy Quran in both English and Arabic,” read a notice on the Web for Boyd’s Blackstone Market in nearby Garner. There was even a place to worship in the back. Bosnian native Jasmin Smajic said he was drawn to the store by the halal goods. Instead he found a friend. “He would always ask people, his friends, if he can do a service for you,” says Smajic, 23, a student at North Carolina State University. “He would basically ask people if they needed any kind of help with anything … whether that be advice, whether you’re struggling with money, need your faucet fixed — whatever it is. He was always very helpful.” So, like many hereabouts, Smajic was shocked this week when federal officials accused Boyd of wanting to go abroad and slaughter in the name of Islam. A federal indictment unsealed this week says Boyd, 39, is a radicalized Muslim convert who went by the nickname Saifullah — “Sword of God” — and was putting together a team of extremists to wage “violent jihad” overseas. He was arrested Monday along with two of his sons — Zakariya, 20, and Dylan, 22 — and four other men. The indictment charges that Boyd and his sons traveled to Israel in July 2007 to meet with two of the other defendants but returned home “having failed in their attempt at violent jihad.” But the man described in the 14-page indictment is not the Daniel Patrick Boyd friends and neighbors in and around the Raleigh suburb of Willow Spring knew: the devoted Muslim who fasted during the holy month of Ramadan and prayed toward Mecca five times a day; the son of a Marine whose pickup was emblazoned with a “Support our Troops” bumper sticker; the friendly drywall contractor who waved at neighbors, and chatted about gardening and fishing.
Alleged ‘jihadist’ known as friendly store owner
July 28, 2009