Christmas bombing suspect's writings show lonely youth

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Internet postings by the 23-year-old Nigerian suspected of trying to bomb a U.S. jetliner on Christmas Day show a lonely youth struggling between extreme Islamic views and liberalism, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper's review of 300 postings by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, between 2005 and 2007 on Facebook and Islamist chatrooms show the son of a wealthy banker sought counsel for loneliness, marriage and on matters of his Muslim faith.

"I feel depressed and lonely. I do not know what to do. And then I think this loneliness leads me to other problems," a January 2005 posting said.

Posting under the name Farouk1986, Abdulmutallab wrote of Arabic language studies in Yemen, plans to apply to Stanford and other leading U.S. universities and his "dilemma between liberalism and extremism" as a devout Muslim, the Post reported.

"How should one put the balance right?" he asked fellow Islamist website posters of his struggles to memorize the Koran and complete Islamic studies.

"I strive to life my daily live (sic) according to the quran and sunnah to the best of my ability. I do almost everything, sports, TV, books ..." Abdulmutallab wrote while a boarding school student in Togo.

Abdulmutallab is charged with smuggling explosives on board and attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on December 25 with almost 300 people on board.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert, editing by Alan Elsner)