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John Allen Muhammad became an infamous figure American culture as part of a sniper team that terrorized the Washington, D.C. area for several weeks in October 2002. He is raised by an aunt in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after his mother died when he is four.¹

State prosecutors in Montgomery County, Maryland, stated they would charge sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo with six counts of first-degree murder. Officials stated they would seek the death penalty against Muhammad.²

CNN downplayed Muhammad’s religious conversion?calling him by his old name, John Allen Williams, when his identity was first revealed. Malvo was cast as a clueless dupe with no true convictions.³

So let’s apply the Cosby blame game to the apparent Beltway sniper lead triggerman – John Allen Muhammad. What about John Allen Muhammad’s apparent mindset of anti-Americanism and religious intolerance?⁴

Washington-area sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad won the right to defend himself Monday in his trial on murder, terrorism, conspiracy and firearms charges. Muhammad faces the death penalty if convicted of the murder or terrorism charge.⁵

Muhammad, born John Allen Williams, changed his name after converting to Islam. In court papers, his ex-wife Mildred said that the couple, who married in 1988, were members of the Nation of Islam and attended a mosque in Seattle.⁶

After their capture, there was much confusion about the names of the two men. The older of the pair, born John Allen Williams (age 41 at the time of capture), had joined the Black nationalist organization the Nation of Islam some years earlier, and in October 2001 had changed his name to John Allen Muhammad.⁷