Kid Jihad and the Indonesian connection

There’s a hell of a brouhaha going on in Germany at the moment because the German courts have ruled in favor of a German citizen of Egyptian descent who wants to name his son “Jihad”. 

A court in Berlin said that the man (Reda Seyam) could name the child Djehad because it was an "accepted Arabic first name term" (and not necessarily a term to promote violence). 

As a result, Jihad won’t join the list of banned names in Germany which includes, among others, Sputnik, McDonald (wtf?!), Woodstock, Satan (hahaha!), Grandma, Tom-Tom and Peppermint (and Hitler as well, one assumes). 

But just who exactly is this chap who’s named his son “Jihad”? 

Well, none other than one of the alleged foreign financiers of the first Bali bombings back in 2002! Nope I could hardly believe it either but that’s who he appears to be: 

IN FACT, SEYAM was already being held prisoner by Indonesian authorities at the time of the bombings. He had been arrested four weeks earlier, in mid-September, on suspicions of involvement in terrorist activity. A captured al Qaeda operative named Omar al-Faruq had told American interrogators of plans to launch a string of attacks against American embassies in Jakarta and other Southeast Asian capitals. Al-Faruq identified Seyam, alias “Abu Daud,” as the head of an Indonesian Qaeda cell. 

Read more here. 

But as for little baby Jihad, let’s just hope his name does not set him up for trouble in the years to come, and that if he ever does come to Indonesia then he comes in peace and not to maim and slaughter. 

And yeah he may have a strange name. But it could be worse. Moon Unit Zappa, anyone?!!!! As for wacky Indonesian names, there are many too!