The childhood of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day bomber, was pious and privileged, but not without its problems. Growing up in Kaduna, in northern Nigeria, religious violence was a part of daily life. Young Muslims saw protests and clashes with their Christian neighbors. "Farouk Mutallab came from a society that has not embraced tolerance. He came from a society that has a history of violence, of extremism, and that is a fact,” a neighbor and author told NPR for a three-part series which began Wednesday. A reporter who visited Kaduna found stories about how Abdulmutallab resented living the life of a banker’s son—his father was one of the most powerful figures in Nigerian finance. Sent off to a co-ed boarding school in Togo, Abdulmutallab’s alienation grew. Young Abdulmutallab thought the solution was finding a wife.
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