Mother Of Thwarted NY Jihad Bomb Plotter: "My Son Was A Normal American Guy....Then He Became A Muslim And He Changed."

The New York Daily News reports:

The mother of homegrown terror suspect Jose Pimentel says she loves the city — and her son.

“I want to apologize to the City of New York,” Carmen Sosa, 56, said Monday in the lobby of a Harlem apartment building.

“I love the city. I’ve been here since 1987 and I’m very disappointed with what my son was doing. I didn’t raise him that way.

“I feel very bad about the situation. I thank the police. They did what they’re supposed to do.”

Sosa said her son’s personality began to change after the then-teenager swapped salsa for Islam about five years ago.

“My son was a normal American guy,” she said. “He did what young people do. Then he became a Muslim and he changed.”...

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said there was nothing in Pimentel’s court file “speaking to anything about terrorism” — but the suspect’s mother was getting worried about his fascination with Islam.

When he started reading the Koran in 2001, Sosa wasn’t happy because she’s a Catholic, but she noted that “in beginning, he wasn’t a fanatic.”

“He prayed and went to the mosque,” she said.

Over time, he stopped writing and listening to salsa music and spent his days praying, reading and sleeping.