Daniel Patrick Boyd | |
---|---|
Born | 1970 USA |
Residence | Willow Spring, North Carolina |
Other names | Saifullah |
Occupation | drywall installation contractor |
Religion | Islam |
Spouse | Sabrina Boyd |
Children | Dylan "Mohammed" Boyd Zakariya Boyd Luqman Izzudeen Boyd (deceased)[1] Maryum Boyd Noah Boyd |
Daniel Patrick Boyd (born 1970, also known as Saifullah) is an American who in July 2009 was accused of leading a jihadist terrorist cell in North Carolina.
Boyd is the youngest of five children born to Thornton and Patricia Boyd. Thornton Boyd (died 2005) was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. The family frequently moved. His parents separated in 1974 (divorcing in 1977), and his mother and siblings lived at times in poverty. Patricia Boyd remarried William Saddler, an American Muslim and Washington, D.C.-area lawyer from whom Daniel Boyd developed his interest in Islam. Raised Episcopalian, Boyd converted to Islam at age 17. [2]
Boyd graduated from T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was a defensive lineman on the football team. He married his girlfriend, Sabrina, who converted to Islam hours before their wedding.[2]
Boyd worked in construction before moving to Peshawar, Pakistan, in October 1989. He was sponsored by a Muslim relief group to help refugees from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan by working as a mechanic.[2] He trained with the mujahideen and fought against the Soviet-backed forces in Afghanistan.[3] He took the Muslim name Saifullah ("Sword of God").
In June 1991, Boyd and his brother Charles (also a Muslim convert, working as an engineer in Pakistan) were accused of robbing a branch of United Bank in Hayatabad, a Peshawar suburb.[4] It was also alleged that they carried identification cards indicating membership in Hezb-e-Islami. In September 1991, a special Islamic court sentenced the brothers to have their right hands and left feet amputated, serve prison terms and pay fines. As the sentence was handed down, Daniel Boyd shouted, "This isn't an Islamic court. It's a court of infidels!" After their convictions, they worked in the jail factory, making carpets and chairs.
In October 1991, an appeals court tossed out the ruling.[5] The case made international headlines.[2] Boyd maintained his innocence at the time and asserted that it was all a malicious set up by a bank employee who had made inappropriate advances toward his wife and had tried to pilfer money from the family.
Returning to the US, Boyd raised his family of five children — sons Dylan, Zakariya, Luqman and Noah and daughter Maryam.[2] In July 2004, the Boyds formed Saxum Walls & Ceilings Inc; in April 2007, the family suffered the loss of Luqman "Luke" Izzudeen Boyd, then 16, in a car accident. Late in 2007, Boyd opened Blackstone Market in Garner with business partner Abdenasser Zouhri of Morrisville. A Mediterranean grocery, it offered halal meat and snacks, copies of the Qur'an in English and Arabic, and a place to worship in the back. The store closed in 2008, reportedly due to the recession.[2]
Boyd was arrested by Federal agents along with seven men in North Carolina on July 27, 2009. They were charged with plotting to wage “violent jihad” outside the United States. Boyd was accused of recruiting six men, including two of his sons, to take part in a conspiracy “to advance violent jihad, including supporting and participating in terrorist activities abroad and committing acts of murder, kidnapping or maiming persons abroad.” According to the indictment, members of the group practiced military tactics and the use of weapons in rural North Carolina, and traveled to Gaza, Israel, Jordan and Kosovo hoping “to engage in violent jihad.”[6]
Muslim community members and supporters in North Carolina have been active for him and his co-defendants, and some non-Muslim neighbors and acquaintances in particular have spoken in his defense.[7] A July 30, 2009 CBS news headline about Daniel Boyd is entitled "The Nicest Terrorist I Ever Met," with the subtitle: "Friends, Colleagues and Pakistani Jailers Describe N. Carolina Terror Suspect as Kind, Devoted Muslim."[8] Boyd's older brother Robert Boyd, a practicing Muslim, said the charges sound "like another attempt to associate Islam with terrorism" and the accusations "they're trying to pin on him is pure poppycock as far as I am concerned."[9] Boyd's wife, Sabrina Boyd, has given interviews and written statements professing the Boyds' innocence. Khalilah Sabra, of the Muslim American Society, read a statement from Sabrina Boyd at a press conference calling on the public not "to rush to judgment" and specifically addressing allegations of terrorist training in Afghanistan writing that "He was there fighting against the Soviets with the full backing of the United States government, [...] I think he thought it was part of his patriotic duty as a Muslim and an American to go there and fight."[10] At Boyd's August 5 detention hearing, at least 100 supporters (relatives, friends, and acquaintances) were in attendance at the federal courthouse in Raleigh; some expressed the belief that the defendants had not violated the law.[11]
On February 9, 2011 at the United States District Court in New Bern, North Carolina, Daniel Patrick Boyd pleaded guilty to two counts of the Second Superseding Indictment -- conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to commit murder, maiming and kidnaping overseas. The second count carries a potential life sentence. The Government agreed in a plea agreement to dismiss nine counts against him in exchange for his plea and cooperation against the remaining defendants.