The former University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student who drove an SUV into a crowd, intending to kill as many people as possible, has written a letter to a local TV channel: Taheri-azar Writes to Eyewitness News. (Hat tip: SoCalJustice.)

Eyewitness News received the letter Monday, in response to our request for an interview. It was sent from Central Prison in Raleigh and dated Friday, March 10.

Addressed to ABC11 Eyewitness News anchor Amber Rupinta, the two-page letter includes Taheri-azar’s explanation of what he was trying to accomplish in the attack.

“Allah gives permission in the Koran for the followers of Allah to attack those who have waged war against them, with the expectation of eternal paradise in case of martyrdom and/or living one’s life in obedience of all of Allah’s commandments found throughout the Koran’s 114 chapters...”

“The U.S. government is responsible for the deaths of and the torture of countless followers of Allah, my brothers and sisters. My attack on Americans at UNC-CH on March 3rd was in retaliation for similar attacks orchestrated by the U.S. government on my fellow followers of Allah in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and other Islamic territories. I did not act out of hatred for Americans, but out of love for Allah instead. ”

Daniel Pipes’ latest piece is especially appropriate here: Sudden jihad syndrome?

Individual Islamists may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers.

I wrote those words days after 9/11 and have been criticized for them ever since. But an incident on March 3 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill suggests I did not go far enough.