Suspect in New Mexico Abduction ‘Wanted to Perform Exorcism’

A man arrested on suspicion of child abduction at a makeshift compound in the New Mexico desert reportedly wanted to perform an exorcism on his son, who has been missing for weeks. The man, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was arrested along with four other adults after a raid by the Taos County Sheriff’s Office on Friday revealed that 11 children were being kept in “filthy” conditions and without food or water. Authorities had been led to the compound in their search for Wahhaj’s 4-year-old son, who was reported missing by his mother in Georgia. An arrest warrant affidavit filed Monday has now revealed that the boy’s mother told police Wahhaj believed his son was “possessed by the devil” and planned to perform an exorcism on him and deny him crucial medication. While the 11 children found at the site have been turned over to child protective services, the young boy has yet to be found. But Wahhaj’s father, Siraj Wahhaj, a prominent Brooklyn imam who was once reportedly implicated as a possible “co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, has been leading a social-media campaign for months calling for the safe return of the “12 grandchildren” of the “Wahhaj Family.”