Douglas McAuthur McCain (January 29, 1981 – August 23/24, 2014) was an American

jihadist Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

who was killed in Syria in late August 2014 while fighting for the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

(ISIL). Originally from

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, McCain converted to Islam in 2004, and traveled to Syria by way of Turkey in early 2014. He was believed to be the first U.S. citizen to be killed while fighting for ISIL. At the time of McCain's death, there were reportedly dozens more Americans fighting in Syria for Islamic militant groups. Later it was established that the first U.S. citizen killed in the Syrian Civil War was Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha in May 2014. McCain attended the same high school as

Troy Kastigar Troy Matthew Kastigar (March 16, 1981 – September 2009) was an American jihadist who fought for the al-Shabaab militia in Somalia, and was killed there in 2009. Like Douglas McCain (another American jihadist, killed in Syria in 2014), he was bor ...

, who also died as an Islamic Jihadist, in 2009 in Somalia. The two may have been roommates.

Biography

McCain was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He moved from Chicago to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

before moving again to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

after high school. He attended

Robbinsdale Cooper High School Robbinsdale Cooper High School is a 4-year public high school in New Hope, Minnesota, a northwest suburb of Minneapolis, United States. Cooper, as it is informally known, became an IB World School in July 1998, and now offers the IB Middle Years ...

from 1997 to 1999 before transferring to nearby

Robbinsdale Armstrong High School Robbinsdale Armstrong High School (full name Robbinsdale Neil A. Armstrong Senior High School) (abbr. AHS) is located in Plymouth, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis. The school serves students from the cities of Robbinsdale, Crystal, New Hope ...

but never graduated. Robbinsdale Cooper was also the school

attended, and McCain may have lived in Kastigar's house for a while, in 2000 and 2001. He loved basketball, was a fan of the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...

, and was, at the time, an aspiring rapper. McCain had a criminal record with minor charges including traffic violations, disorderly conduct, and providing false names to police officers. He converted to Islam in 2004. He traveled to Europe, and by 2013 returned to San Diego where, according to one report, he worked at a mosque, while another report states he worked at a Somali restaurant and frequented a mosque. According to a former classmate he was eager to talk about Islam and his conversion, but remained respectful of others' beliefs and was not radical. He was active on social media, with the handle "Duale Khalid" on Twitter and "Duale ThaslaveofAllah" on Facebook. McCain was killed in fights with the

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...

in the weekend of August 23/24, 2014, and his body was found with $800 in cash and a US passport.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCain, Douglas McAuthur 1981 births 2014 deaths African-American Muslims American Sunni Muslims American Islamists American expatriates in Syria Deaths in Syria Assassinated ISIL members People from Minneapolis People from San Diego People from Chicago Converts to Islam People from New Hope, Minnesota