ISMAIL AX

The weirdness commences. Seemingly Cho Seung-Hui died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on the inside of one of his arms. The scrabble to find a meaning is now spreading like an internet contagion. The following speculation comes from Prison Planet.

"In Islam, Ibrahim is known as the father of the prophets and, upset that people in his hometown still worshiped idols and not Allah, he smashed all but one statue in a local temple with an ax. Ibrahim's son is Ismail, who also became a prophet. Ibrahim is Arabic for Abraham, who plays a significant role in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Two theories come from literature, where Ismail is spelled Ishmael. In one, tied to James Fenimore Cooper's novel "The Prairie," Ishmael Bush is known as an outcast and outlawed warrior, according to an essay written in 1969 by William H. Goetzmann, a University of Texas History professor. In Cooper's book, "Bush carries the prime symbol of evil -- the spoiler's axe," the professor wrote. Also, the narrator from Moby Dick, Ishmael, is considered an enigma who is well educated yet considers his time on a whaling ship worthy of time at Yale or Harvard, according to education site Sparknotes.com."

The secret word is Disturbing