Months before Ismail Hamed declared allegiance to ISIS, before he brandished a knife at a Fountain Hills deputy on January 7, prompting the cop to shoot him to the ground, before he racked up a pair of terrorism charges for which he faces decades in prison, the 18-year-old texted a friend: “Islam is the red pilled faith.”
Hamed’s message stands out for its blurring of two extremist ideologies, both of which he appears to have immersed himself in prior to his alleged attack on Maricopa County Deputy Sergeant Brandon Wells.
On one hand, Hamed frequently expressed support for Islamic fundamentalism. In text messages with friends, he praised the Orlando nightclub shooter, he bemoaned his mosque for allowing women inside without head scarves, and he endorsed a propaganda video from Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent Al-Qaeda cleric who was killed in a U.S. drone strike.
