The ISIS beheader most commonly known as ‘Jihadi John’ was not driven to Islamic terrorism by poverty or a lack of job opportunities. It’s been revealed that his name is Mohammed Emwazi. According to a Washington Post report, Emwazi comes from a wealthy family in the UK and has a college degree in computer programming. As such, it can be concluded that Emwazi didn’t turn to beheading people because he was uneducated or couldn’t get a job.

Do you remember the profile of ISIS terrorists conveyed by State Department spokesman Marie Harf last month?

With news that ‘Jihadi John’ is not poor but affluent and has professional job skills, Fox News Channel’s Martha MacCallum picked up on this disparity and sent out a tweet directed at Harf without mentioning her name:

Jihadi John/College grad. If only he could’ve found a job…he wouldn’t be chopping off the heads of innocent people.C’mon.

— martha maccallum (@marthamaccallum) February 26, 2015

Adding even more absurdity to the claim that Muslim youths join ISIS for lack of job prospects is the fact that Emwazi was already in a place (the UK) where those prospects were far better than in Syria; he also had money and an education. So, what did he do? He moved to Syria so he could lop off heads.

We’re also told constantly that ISIS does not represent true Islam. Yet, Emwazi reportedly attended a Greenwich mosque before traveling to Syria. What was being preached there?

Jihadi John’s home in UK (Photo via Andy Rain/EPA)

Another potentially interesting development is that the parents of the Kuwaiti-born Emwazi are not talking for legal reasons, although it’s not known what those reasons are. If they had no inkling that their son was planning to travel to Syria to join ISIS or that he had become radicalized, what harm would there be to speak publicly?

Sources
Washington Post