Daniel Maldonado - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

Maldonado started going out with Tamekia Cunningham in high school. She dropped out of school and worked retail jobs, but got her GED. About a year after their son was born, they married and continued to live with his parents. Her mother Yolanda Cunningham lived in nearby Salem, New Hampshire.

Tamekia also converted from Christianity to Islam and took to wearing full-length burqas to please her husband. Her mother said Tamekia wanted to share her husband's religion. They moved around New Hampshire and Massachusetts, where Maldonado had difficulty keeping work. Tamekia started a store for some Islamic goods.

By 2005 the couple were living with their two children in Houston, Texas, where Maldonado worked for a computer company. In November 2005, Maldonado moved with his family from Houston to Cairo, Egypt, at the request of his boss, who thought costs would be lower there. His father said that Maldonado and his wife were seeking a more congenial community for Muslims. They had a total of three children together, the youngest likely born in the summer of 2006 while they were living in Egypt.

There Maldonado met Omar Hammami, another American convert to Islam, through an online forum.