LA and Iraq united by gangsta craving for honour and respect

What does shooting of Suge Knight have to do with execution of James Foley? Possibly a great deal

Charles Laurence

The shooting in a West Hollywood night club of Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, the real-life gangster and godfather of ‘gangsta rap’, comes as an interesting pointer to the roots of the ‘Jihadi Johns’ of Britain fomenting horror and disgust in the Middle East turmoil.

These roots do not have much to do with Islam or the wily, intricate messages woven into the Koran.

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Charles Laurence is a US correspondent for The Week.co.uk. He is a former New York bureau chief for The Daily Telegraph. He divides his time between Manhattan and Woodstock, upstate New York.