Is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Gay?

Prospective terrorist bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the wealthy Nigerian youth charged with attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, may be gay and at odds with his sexual identity. From photos and newspaper accounts, he appears to have some of the characteristics of gay males of color... the wide eyes, the full luscious lips, head tilted, the softness, and the openness (and at the same time, the isolation). One head shot of him especially, surrounded by autumn leaves, is just too precious. And the photos of the underwear with the explosives looked like women's nylon panties.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a mechanical engineering student at University College London. By all accounts, he was not a firebrand radical and his classmates, instructors, and associates expressed surprise at the allegations against him. He was described as well-mannered, soft spoken, polite, non-aggressive, although he had become deeply religious and more of a loner.

Abdulmutallab didn't publicly express radical thoughts and did not rail against U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. He ate at Pizza Hut and KFC. His online postings mused openly about love. His writings demonstrate an acute awareness of western customs and worldliness. He had no known girlfriend. On Facebook, Abdulmutallab's profile shows a photo of him smiling and wearing a pink polo shirt and sunglasses.

So what are we to make of all this?

The fact that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allowed his al-Qaeda handlers to install the powerful explosive Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) in his drawers could be an indication that he wanted to blow away his male genitals (along with everything else) to resolve any sexual identity problems he may have had. If the bomb plot had been successful, Abdulmutallab would have died, sans male genitals, a martyr for the jihadists' cause.

If Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is in fact gay, this presents both a paradox and a dilemma at the same time... but it might make sense why al-Qaeda extremist in Yemen used him to blow up NWA Flight 253. It is a well know fact that parts of the Arab world have a low tolerance for gay males. There have been reports that gay men have had their anus' super-glued shut and had their testicles super-glued to their penises. By using Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a suicide bomber, his al-Qaeda handlers could satisfy their hatred for both gays and Americans (the infidels) in one act of terrorism.

This hypothesis, if true, could present a challenging situation for US security experts. Gay men of all nationalities do not typically fit the profile of a terrorist. If al-Qaeda uses other males of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's ilk to be suicide bombers, they could blend in unnoticed at airports around the world and present a problem in detection.

Sources:
The Washington Post