Stop, stop, you're killing me: Knoxville Muslim says he was joking about carrying out jihad terror attack at shopping mall

Ha ha! A real side splitter! Look out, Letterman!

"Store operator in trouble over jihad comments: Defense lawyer: Client 'was joking' about holy war," by Jamie Satterfield for the Knoxville News, December 15 (thanks to James):

Is a Northwest Knoxville convenience store operator a jihad jokester or a terrorist-in-waiting?
That was the question U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton faced Monday as federal prosecutors Jeff Theodore and Will Mackie pushed for the detention pending trial of Hazam Ali Ahmed.

The 35-year-old Ahmed was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms after authorities last week found two guns inside the Central Convenience Store on Keith Avenue that he operated.

However, testimony at Monday's hearing shows Ahmed has been on the radar screen of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force since at least January 2006.

FBI Agent Mark D. Murphy testified that an informant clandestinely recorded chats with Ahmed in early 2006 during which Ahmed allegedly tried to recruit the informant into the terrorist network al-Qaeda.

"He referred to jihad," Murphy said of Ahmed. "He asked the confidential source if he would be interested in joining jihad. He stated that he was connected to al- Qaeda, that he had worked for them for several years. He wanted the informant to join al-Qaeda. "

According to Murphy's testimony, Ahmed told the informant, with whom he was acquainted, that he planned to wait "until his son reached the age of seven" before putting into action a plan to carry out a terrorist attack at a shopping mall.

However, defense attorney Barbara Clark elicited testimony from Murphy that Ahmed told agents "he was joking." She also noted that although the FBI had been monitoring Ahmed for nearly four years now, they had not unearthed any proof that Ahmed had taken any steps to craft or carry out such a plot.

"You knew about these statements in 2006," Clark said to Murphy. "Why was there not any indictment then?"

"Unfortunately, we cannot indict based on statements alone," Murphy responded.

Clark said Ahmed is a U.S. citizen. He has a 1997 conviction in Pennsylvania for "interstate transportation of securities," Theodore said. Although he did not elaborate, court records indicate that conviction may be related to admissions Ahmed made to Knoxville FBI agents that he had been smuggling cigarettes to avoid taxes levied on those goods....

Cigarette smuggling, eh? How interesting.

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21 Comments

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gravenimage | December 14, 2009 10:36 PM | Reply

Cigarette smuggling, eh? How interesting.
.....................

Yeah—cigarette smuggling in and of itself may seem like a pretty penny-ante crime—but it has been used to finance Jihad before...

non-croyant | December 15, 2009 12:22 AM | Reply

Knoxville, not Nashville.

non-croyant | December 15, 2009 12:44 AM | Reply

Thanks for the fix from a native Knox-villain.

IronMan | December 15, 2009 1:41 AM | Reply

This is very timely. I have a neighbor who drives a moving truck for a national company. Just this past weekend he was working with FBI and authorities in Louisville, KY with the removal of up to $2million worth of stolen cigarettes from a warehouse.

Livingengine replied to comment from gravenimage | December 15, 2009 1:51 AM | Reply

Remember coupon fraud?

"In many ways, consumer coupons represent the Third currency in the United States. After U.S. currency and illicit drug money, Consumer Coupons generates more than 8 Billion dollars annually in transactions.

To terror organizations, hiding in our communities, the inserts mean financing, here and abroad. It represents more than $150 million diverted annually to the cause."
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1998_hr/s980224j.htm

". . . Radwan Ayoub,[was] the “Coupon King” of the 1980’s and 1990’s who helped finance the first bombing of the World Trade Center 1993, through more than $100 million dollars in coupon fraud in the New York Metropolitan area.

Ayoub and associates would solicit store owners for their coupon submission business. Take a small mini-mart, which normally submit $200-300 in coupons monthly, once Radwan Ayoub came on the scene, the submissions increased by the thousands.

It was Ayoub’s scheme that financed the World Trade center bombers, all whom have been convicted of the attack on the World Trade Center, and are serving more than 200 years in Federal Prison for their criminal attack.""
http://www.crimetalkamerica.com/labels/2007.html

the worlds greatest detective | December 15, 2009 1:52 AM | Reply

This is the first comment I ever left, but I have been a reader for a few years. I have studied a bit of criminology, and would like to ask every here somthing, and hopefully Robert himself would do a study on this. It is the Lonnie Athens report, the book is called is why they kill. Thank you Robert, also atlas I have been reading you too..and may god save us all.
http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/tchessay64.htm

Caped Crusader | December 15, 2009 1:56 AM | Reply

Knoxville Muslim says he was joking about carrying out jihad terror attack at shopping mall

...and who said Muslims don't have a sense of humour...!

SaleemSmith | December 15, 2009 2:30 AM | Reply

Ha ha! A real side splitter! Look out, Letterman!

"Store operator in trouble over jihad comments”

~~~~~

Ha! Love it!!

Oh-gosh-dang-it -- please spare the sensitivities of my Muslim Brothers at all costs! Hahhh!! 222FFFuuunnneee!!!

SaleemSmith | December 15, 2009 2:40 AM | Reply

Gosh Dang it! Muslims should be accommodated on all fronts..

No?

Kota | December 15, 2009 3:43 AM | Reply

Only comedy Islamists should be doing are blowing up prematurely in an unpopulated area. That's the only funny thing to come out of Islam.

Hugh | December 15, 2009 5:09 AM | Reply

The two links given by livingengine above (at 1.51 a.m.) to two articles about coupon fraud as a source of funds for Muslim terrorist groups, should not be overlooked.

I've started to read the first, and was struck at once by this bit of testimony before Congress:

"To begin my story, I'll start with a coupon fraud
investigation in Florida, during 1987-8. NCH and their agents hadbeen working with the U.S. Postal authorities, the Broward and Dade County, Florida, Sheriff s Offices to collect documentation and present a criminal case of fraudulent submission of coupons.

Little did NCH or its investigators, the Postal Inspections
Service or the Sheriffs Departments expect what they discovered. (go to the BAHOUR Tape) Postal Inspectors, operating in anundercover capacity, met with Adnand Bahour, a Palestinian operating several grocery stores with his family in the Hollywood, North Miami, Florida area. Bahour was more than a grocery store owner - he was a kingpin in the national terror network creating money laundering and financing for the PLO. By his own admission, Bahour was caught on video tape, detailing to
undercover operatives, that he is the nephew of George Habash, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front. During this investigation and the raid on the meeting hall of this network, more than 72 individuals from throughout the United States gathered in Hollywood, Florida, to further their fraudulent coupon distribution network. This national network was no different than the infrastructure which was exposed when New York State Troopers tripped on the Appalachian meeting of OrganizedCrime in 1959.

During the Hollywood raid, documents of PLO activities were
seized and records of money laundering were found. As a result, the Bahour network was disrupted, but unfortunately not broken.Some of the suspects in the Bahour case were prosecuted locally, other disappointingly released. After all, as I've heard all too often from Prosecutor's throughout America's ma or cities, "this
is not guns, it's not drugs- it's coupons and those rich
companies can afford to lose a little."

This has been going on for at least 20 years. And the Bahour meeting in Hollywood, Florida, in which 72 people from around the country had gathered who were all, as Bahour himself, engaged in coupon fraud (and I suspect all knew where the proceeds were going -- to support the PLO), should be more widely known.

There's more -- and read about Radwan Ayoub too.

A very informative posting provided by "travelengine."

darcy | December 15, 2009 5:38 AM | Reply

PEOPLE: "Indiana school removes "allah" from Holiday show after protests:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,580221,00.html

ebonystone replied to comment from Livingengine | December 15, 2009 5:42 AM | Reply

Islam does have its humorous side. I got a few good yuks out of the story earlier about the stoning in Somalia. Not the stoning itself -- that was Islam in all its gruesomeness -- but in the bit about the jihadists arguing among themselves whether to stone him now or later, the argument getting heated, and then gunfire being exchanged, and two or three jihadists ending up dead. Hilarious!

A side note to living engine: food stamps are easily the chief alternative currency in the U.S.; in the right places you can buy just about anything you want with food stamps. Food stamp fraud accounts for one quarter to one third of the whole food stamp cost.

darcy | December 15, 2009 5:48 AM | Reply

PEOPLE: You MUST read, and this should be a separate thread:

http://www.foxnewsradio.com/2009/12/14/public-schoo-kids-singing-to-allah/#axzz0ZgJnGmk0

Abscedere | December 15, 2009 6:19 AM | Reply

Slightly OT:

"Unfortunately, we cannot indict based on statements alone," Murphy responded."

Am I the only one who finds this item on the Agent's wish list chilling?

tanstaafl | December 15, 2009 6:28 AM | Reply

That's why Islamic comics are the toast of Broadway!

gravenimage replied to comment from Livingengine | December 15, 2009 6:41 AM | Reply

Livingengine wrote:

Remember coupon fraud?
...

It was Ayoub’s scheme that financed the World Trade center bombers...
................

Thank you for the link, Livingengine—I was completely unaware of this—but hardly surprised.

Ebonystone wrote:

A side note to living engine: food stamps are easily the chief alternative currency in the U.S.; in the right places you can buy just about anything you want with food stamps. Food stamp fraud accounts for one quarter to one third of the whole food stamp cost.
................

You're right, Ebonystone—I spent part of my childhood on welfare, and when we would pick up foodstamps on the first of the month, we would walk through a phalanx of shady characters outside the center offering pennies on the dollar cash for foodstamps. They always had some takers, too—sometimes, shockingly, families with children.

Later, states started mailing foodstamps directly, and have recently switched to debit cards—but I'm sure the scamming goes on.

duh_swami replied to comment from gravenimage | December 15, 2009 7:32 AM | Reply

I have personally known food stamp recipients, that trade them off for beer, cigarettes, and pot...

GrimReaperxxx | December 15, 2009 7:54 AM | Reply

Merry Christmas, err check that, err Happy Holidays...err..Praise Allah

You might enjoy this Christmas Pageant story about calls of Indiana Public School Islamophobia.

http://www.foxnewsradio.com/2009/12/14/public-schoo-kids-singing-to-allah/#axzz0ZgJnGmk0

A battle over religion is brewing in central Indiana after a public school wanted second graders to sing a song declaring, “Allah is God.” The phrase was removed just before the performance after a national conservative group launched a protest.

The principal of Lantern Road Elementary School in Fishers, IN, said they were trying to teach inclusiveness through their holiday production. It included references to Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Las Posadas and Kwanzaa. However, no other deity, other than Allah, was referenced in the show.

....

Here’s what the children were assigned to sing:

“Allah is God, we recall at dawn,
Praying ‘til night during Ramadan
At this joyful time we pray happiness for you,
Allah be with you all your life through.”

But when it came time to perform the “Christian” part of Christmas, children were assigned to say:

“I didn’t know there was a little boy at the manger. What child is this?
I’m not sure if there was a little boy or not.
Then why did you paint one on your nativity window?
I just thought if there was a little boy, I’d like to know exactly what he (sic) say.

Micah Clark, executive director of the Indiana AFA, launched an Internet protest once he heard about the allegations. “What surprised me here is that we’ve had a secular scrubbing of Christmas for so long and the school apparently didn’t see the problem with kids singing to Allah,” he told FOX News Radio. “You won’t even mention Jesus and you’re going to force my child to sing about Allah?

That drew the ire of the Muslim Alliance of Indiana. “It’s unfortunate if that was removed from the program just because of Islamophobic feelings,” Shariq Siddiqui told the Indianapolis Star. “Schools are a place where we should learn more about each other rather than exclude each other based on stereotypes and misconceptions.”

Merry whatever,
Celebrating the supposed birth of some little boy that may or may not have been born in a manger.
Praise Allah, have a politically correct, multicultural holiday season! Pass me the mashed potatoes and we will sing Santa songs about the Winter Solstice.

In case you forgot, the Muslim Alliance of Indiana had a letter writing campaign to stop Spencer from addressing the FBI. Here is a copy of the letter, maybe you can change some of the words in order to question calls of discrimination where children were to sing allah is god, yet make no mention of Jesus in a Christmas Pageant. Nice!

http://www.muslimalliancein.com/mai/enews_brief_april02.htm

Mark Herpel | December 15, 2009 9:05 AM | Reply

I say round them all up across America, those foreigners, convenient store operators, Muslims and potential terrorists. Any foreigner who would hurt innocent Americans---Lock them up, put them in camps, water board them and suspend their civil rights...we are at WAR damn-it.

Oh, sorry I was just kidding.

How does that feel when the shoe is on the other foot?

Mark

Livingengine replied to comment from Hugh | December 15, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply

Thank you, Hugh.

I have learned so much from Jihad Watch, I am very happy to be able to return the favor this time.

Nos mos lucror.

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