The term was coined by Jarret Brachman in his 2008 book "Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice". Brachman is the former director of research at the United States Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center. He explains in his introduction to the book that he coined the new term to describe people who, without the support of al-Qaeda or other jihadist organizations, come of their own accord to support the aims of those groups. Jihobbyists "are fans in the same way other people might follow football teams. But their sport is Al-Qaeda," he explained in an interview after the 2009 Fort Hood shooting by Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim American soldier who showed an interest in "jihadist" websites and views in the months prior to the shooting. In his book, Brachman says a jihobbyist "may be an enthusiast of the global Jihadist movement, someone who enjoys thinking about and watching the activities of the groups from the first and second tiers but generally they have no connection to al-Qaida or any other formal Jihadist groups."