The Muslim psychology graduate who allegedly drove an SUV into a crowd of students at UNC-Chapel Hill appeared in court today and said he intends to use his trial to tell people about Allah: UNC attacker appears in court.

HILLSBOROUGH — Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, the 22-year-old former UNC student charged with trying to run down other students at the University of North Carolina on Friday, thanked the judge Monday during his first appearance for the opportunity tell people about Allah.

“I’m thankful you’re here to give me this trial to learn more about the will of Allah, the creator and the merciful,” Taheri-azar said to the judge during the short hearing in Orange County District Criminal Court.

Taheri-Azar, wearing the typical orange jumpsuit of jail inmates, was escorted into the crowded courtroom under tight security by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and was immediately seated in the defendant’s chair.

Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall told Judge Pat DeVine that Taheri-Azar had been charged with nine counts of attempted murder and nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. He then read through each of the 18 warrants, naming each of the nine victims.

Taheri-Azar sat quietly, only glancing once to his right at the phalanx of deputies who stood nearby. He answered each of DeVine’s questions politely as she explained his rights and the procedures. Susan Seahorn, an assistant public defender, stood behind his chair.

When DeVine asked Taheri-Azar if he wanted to hire his own attorney or have one appointed for him, he answered, “I am representing myself.”

Taheri-Azar spoke softly and it was difficult to hear exactly what he said. Woodall, who was standing near him during the first appearance, later said Seahorn spoke to Taheri-azar as he was sitting in the defendant’s chair. “She whispered in his ear to stop talking, and he said he would decide when to stop talking,” Woodall said.

Although Taheri-Azar said he would represent himself, DeVine still appointed the Public Defender’s office to represent him “out of an abundance of caution,” she said.

DeVine told Taheri-Azar that his bond would remain at $5.5 million and that he would remain in custody under a safekeeping order at Central Prison in Raleigh.

After speaking briefly in a backroom with two representatives of the Public Defender’s office, deputies escorted Taheri-Azar to a sheriff’s car that was waiting to transport him back to the prison. As news reporters shouted questions at him about representing himself, Taheri-Azar replied, “Allah is my lawyer.”

Mohammad said he tried to rent the largest SUV he could, in order to kill as many people as possible. It’s a good thing Hertz doesn’t rent 747s.

Meanwhile, the University is urging students to understand the root causes so they can take constructive action, and not to jump to any conclusions about “terrorism,” even though Mohammad Taheri-azar attempted to commit mass murder in the name of Allah. In his own words.

Students To Protest UNC’s Reluctance To Label Pit Incident Terrorism.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Protests are planned for Monday in the same area of campus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where, authorities said, a former student plowed a sport utility vehicle into nine people Friday afternoon.

The College Republicans, Americans for an Informed Democracy and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies are sponsoring the event, scheduled for 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Monday in “The Pit,” a central area of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. The event is open to the public and free of charge.

Police said Mohammad Taheri-azar, a 2005 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, admits he acted to “avenge the death of Muslims around the world.” UNC police and local authorities, however, say they have not taken a stance on that interpretation, but are simply repeating what the suspect has told them.

UNC-Chapel Hill student leaders said that Monday’s protest is aimed at the reluctance of the university to label Friday’s incident as an act of terrorism. “This is innocent people being attacked by an SUV, driven by a man who was doing it for retaliation for treatment of Muslims around the world,” said Jillian Bandes, with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “To me, that spells terrorism.”

Taheri-azar, who is currently in Raleigh’s Central Prison under a $5.5 million bond, is charged with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder and nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill. ...

But were Taheri-azar’s alleged actions acts of terrorism?

“I think (what Taheri-azar did) is extreme,” said Dan VanAtta, a friend of the suspect. “But then again, I don’t know what was going through his head. ... Mohammed was a good guy.”

David Schanzer, the director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill, said it is fine for students to voice their dismay, but that they should be cautious. “(They should) understand the roots of it and understand the strategies for addressing it in a constructive way,” Schanzer said.

He takes the same position as officials at the Islamic Center of Raleigh...

... and why doesn’t that surprise me?