I expressed some concern earlier that the high rate of conversion to Islam by violent criminals in prison is going to lead to an increase in the share of criminal acts by muslims by definition. These criminals’ conversion to Islam, while no doubt sincere, appears to have no moderating influence on their behavior whatsoever – it just lends them bad-ass cred.

Case in point, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (note the ostentatious pretension of the middle name):

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad — a 24-year-old Little Rock resident formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe — faces a first-degree murder charge and 15 counts of engaging in a terrorist act, Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas said. The terrorist counts stem from the shots fired at an occupied building.

While authorities continued to investigate a motive, Thomas said Muhammad is a Muslim convert and, based on preliminary interviews with him, investigators believe there were “political and religious motives” in the shooting.

Military officials initially believed the shooting was a random act, but Thomas said police believe the shooter acted alone “with the specific purpose of targeting military personnel.”

The soldier who was killed was identified as Pvt. William Long, 24, of Conway, and the wounded soldier is Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Thomas said.

Thomas said police recovered three guns from Muhammad’s black Ford SUV: an SKS semi-automatic rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a pistol.

May Allah receive Pvt Long and bestow blessing upon him in paradise. I also pray for a speedy recovery for Pvt. Ezeagwula.

Details about Bledsoe/Muhammad’s motives and background have yet to emerge, but I’m going to go out on a limb and speculate that he is an ex-convict, converted to Islam in prison, and judging by the ordinance in his pickup truck probably has some criminal gang history. This is the point I need to underscore – the muslim community needs to think about not just terrorists and fire-breathing jihadi imams, but also about more prosaic things like violence and criminal activity. The black community has struggled with the burden of violence by young black males for decades, and as long as race and economic class continue to be intertwined in the inner city as they are, the burden will not be easily lifted. But the non-black muslim community needs to be involved here as well – it’s not just a “black problem” anymore, it’s also something that affects even affluent desis in suburbia. The gulf between the black muslim and the non-black-muslim communities here only exists in our minds; the public draws no distinction and sees only headlines, “man named Muhammad kills a soldier” and you can expect the usual suspects to run with that ball accordingly.

Is this incident akin to the murder of George Tiller or the Unitarian church shootings last year, in terms of being an example of domestic terrorism? That’s a hard question to answer until we get more of an idea about Bledsoe/Muhammad’s motives.

UPDATE: more details on Bledsoe/Muhammad:

Muhammad already had been under investigation by the FBI at the time of the shootings.

An FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force reportedly had been tracking Muhammad after he traveled to Yemen and was arrested there for using a Somali passport. The probe had been in its early stages and based on Muhammad’s trip to Yemen, according to ABC News.

Interviews with police show Muhammad “probably had political and religious motives for the attack,” Police Chief Stuart Thomas said.

Muhammad was not part of any terrorist group, nor was his attack part of a larger conspiracy, according to Thomas.

“We believe that it’s associated with his disagreement over the military operations,” the police chief said.

Related: The real definition of terrorism.