It is a recurring feature of jihad plots that the perpetrators have recently become more devout. Not every devout Muslim is a jihadi, but all jihadis are devout Muslims. The U.S. intelligence community used to consider a sudden turn to devout observance of Islam to be a possible indicator of jihad terror activity, making the person worth watching. All that was changed during the Obama administration; to consider such possibilities would be “Islamophobic.”

“Overbo bomb suspect: ‘Suddenly he grew an imam beard,'” translated from “Overbo til bombemistænkt: ‘Pludselig fik han imam-skæg,'” by Søren Kjellberg Ishøy, B.T., December 12, 2019 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The apartment in Herlev, which was searched on Wednesday by heavily armed police in the terror case, was occupied by a father and two sons of Afghan descent.

Anas Khader for many years was a friend of the family, whose oldest son – a 21-year-old man – is now charged with trying to make a homemade bomb with two co-conspirators.

“Overall, the brothers seemed well-integrated into Danish society, and they speak Danish,” said Anas Khader, adding that the father is divorced from the mother in the Afghan family.

Are they religious?

“They are more religious than you and my family are. But nothing more than just seeing them in coats on their way to the mosque on Friday. But it is not very unusual for Muslims to do this,” says Anas Khader, who moved out of the apartment building a year ago, but still visits the apartment where his father lives.

However, there was a difference between the two brothers, says Anas Khader, who went to Lindehøjskolen in Herlev with the brothers.

“The youngest was more Danish, while the oldest was more devout and suddenly grew a long imam beard. I also talked about it with a friend who knows them both. We agreed that over time, the older brother became more constricted,” he says….

This was not the first time police have visited the address, recalls Anas Khader.

“The police were also there in April this year. And there were many officers,” he said.

Back then, the same men – who sat at a constitutional court hearing in Copenhagen yesterday – were arrested for arson and charged with setting fire to a bus. Both were released in October and apparently used the newfound freedom to try to make bombs.

In the constitutional hearing on Thursday, it emerged that the two men and a hijab-clad woman are charged with manufacturing TATP bombs – also called “Satan’s mother.” A substance that is known to be unstable and therefore also dangerous to experiment with….