The 24-year-old man being held in last year’s firebombing of an Oregon mosque ranted about Muslims and referred to himself as a “Christian warrior” weeks after the arrest of a Muslim man accused of plotting to set off a car bomb in Portland, according to court documents.

Cody Crawford was arrested Wednesday night in the Nov. 28 firebombing in Corvallis. He was indicted on charges of damaging religious property for racial reasons, which is a hate crime, and using fire to commit a felony.

Court documents show that three weeks after the mosque firebombing, in unrelated encounters with police, Crawford ranted about Muslims, said Christians are capable of jihad and told an officer he resembled President Barack Obama. “You look like Obama. You are a Muslim like him. Jihad goes both ways. Christians can jihad too,” a court document quotes Crawford as telling a McMinnville officer Dec. 14.

The document says Crawford told officers “only Christians could understand him, that he was a Christian warrior that they were persecuting,” and that “you will never know the truth about the mosque.” Crawford also said he did not torch the mosque, according to the affidavit.

He had been arrested Dec. 14 after causing a disturbance at a gas station by shining a flashlight at a car, “talking about terrorists and Muslims,” and telling a witness he would “come back and kill you if you call the cops,” according to the document.

Associated Press, 26 August 2011

Can we take it that if Crawford is convicted Fox News etc will describe him as a “Christian terrorist”?

Update:  See Adam Serwer, “Alleged Oregon arsonist on ‘secret Muslims’ and ‘Christian warriors'”, American Prospect, 26 August 2011