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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

FBI: Muslims leaving Minnesota to wage jihad in Syria

Jun 8, 2014 5:55 pm By Robert Spencer

Terrorists-in-Syria“While the FBI works to determine how the recruits are being courted, sources tell Fox 9 News many of the recruits had no money and no job — and several of them did attend the same mosque.” The implication of that sentence is that poverty causes terrorism (which has been debunked again and again), and so these jihadis must have been enticed by financial rewards to go to Syria. Note also that the story blandly reports that “several of them did attend the same mosque.” Is anyone investigating what is being taught in that mosque, and what people are doing there? Or would that be “Islamophobic”?

An update on this story. “FBI: Somalis leaving Minnesota to fight in Syria,” KMSP, June 3, 2014:

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) – The FBI says more Somali travelers have left Minnesota, possibly to fight against the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria. Investigators believe those who left Minnesota were motivated by radical ideology, not nationalism.

The FBI has not specified how many people are believed to involved, but a leader in the Minnesota Somali community told Fox 9 News a dozen men have left. The FBI confirmed they have “indications” that some recently traveled overseas. Now, they are reaching out to the large Somali population in Minnesota to learn more.

One young man — a 20-year-old Somali college student — left the Twin Cities as recently as last Thursday. He sent a text message to his family from Istanbul, Turkey, to say he was heading to Syria to fight in the holy war.

If you know anyone who is planning to and/or has traveled to a foreign country for armed combat or who is being recruited for such activities, please contact www.fbi.gov/fttips or call (763) 569-8020. All information will be kept completely confidential.

The request for tips comes about a week after an American from Florida died in a suicide bombing attack on Syrian government troops in the city of Iblib.

Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, 22, is believed to be the first U.S. citizen involved in a suicide bombing in the civil war’s three-year history. His family thought he was in Jordan when he died.

Since 2007, at least 22 young men have left Minnesota to join al-Shabaab in Somalia. Some have died there, and some were even praised as “Minnesota Martyrs” in an elaborate video released last year.

Some of the so-called travelers were prosecuted for their role in what the FBI has described as one of the largest efforts to recruit U.S. fighters to a foreign terrorist organization, and community activist Abdi Bihi says his community is particularly vulnerable to such efforts due to a lack of jobs, programs and feeling like outsiders.

“The key of this is the vastness of the vulnerability,” he said.

According to Bihi, local Somalis have been talking about the Syrian conflict in recent days and he is worried that a radical element is trying to create a new pipeline of violence.

“We are very concerned about this summer,” Bihi told the Associated Press. “People are shocked. They used to talk about kids leaving from Europe (for Syria). Now, they started talking about here. … It’s insane.”

NEW RECRUITING PUSH

In a way, the new travelers could mark a sort of second wave of recruits. Six years ago, Fox 9 News broke the story of 22 young men who traveled to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Now, the FBI believes al-Nusra, which is also linked to al-Qaeda, could be coming to call too — but the former first secretary to the Somali mission to the UN says all of al-Qaeda’s branches have the same roots.

“They all have the same mission. They all have the same agenda. The name doesn’t make a heck of a difference,” Omar Jamal told Fox 9 News. “If I joined al-Shabaab, it’s like I joined al-Qaeda or al-Nusra.”

Just last month, a new al-Shabaab recruiting video was released — and it specifically mentioned Minnesota in a brazen pitch urging possible recruits to catch the next flight to Mogadishu.

“We have to team up with the FBI to help save our children from these crazy people,” Jamal insisted.

Although it’s unclear how individuals are being recruited in Minnesota, Jamal believes local recruiters could be calling the shots.

“It takes more than Internet access to convince someone to drop the books and go commit a suicide bombing,” he said.

However, investigators don’t believe Minneapolis is the only place where al-Nusra is fishing for fresh blood. Detectives believe young men are being recruited from parts of Europe and Canada as well, with most travelers making their way to Syria via Cairo or Istanbul.

While the FBI works to determine how the recruits are being courted, sources tell Fox 9 News many of the recruits had no money and no job — and several of them did attend the same mosque.

It’s estimated that there are as may as 12,000 foreign fighters in Syria now, and there is almost no U.S. intelligence on the ground there anymore. That means there’s almost no way of telling if the recruits plan to return to U.S. soil to continue their mission.

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Filed Under: American jihadis, mosques, Syria Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. RG says

    Jun 8, 2014 at 6:10 pm

    “Although it’s unclear how individuals are being recruited in Minnesota, Jamal believes local recruiters could be calling the shots.”

    If we think that local Minnesotan mosques and imams are NOT involved in this recruitment of terrorists then we ought to be committed to la la land!!!!

    The truth is that EVERY MOSQUE AND EVERY IMAM IN THE WHOLE WORLD IS RECRUITING ISLAMIST TERRORISTS EVERYWHERE THEY FIND IDIOTS WHO WILL LISTEN TO THEM!!!!!

    • dad says

      Jun 9, 2014 at 12:32 am

      Of course, no one looks at the mosque….. That would get you fired.

    • Shane says

      Jun 9, 2014 at 5:02 pm

      Probably, though Muslims can be radicalized by INternet videos. Who was the moron that decided it would be a good idea to allow Somali Muslims to immigrate into the USA? We should stop all Muslim immigration into our country, especially from countries where jihad is popular like Somalia and Pakistan.

  2. Mahendra Singh says

    Jun 8, 2014 at 6:25 pm

    No worry. It is all for the greater good. Just do not
    let them enter the USA on completion of their religious
    duty.

    • Robert Rockwell says

      Jun 8, 2014 at 9:33 pm

      Ha that will never happen. They will be permitted entry and you can be sure if they are not there will be a huge outcry from the mainstream media and other leftists. The ACLU will then file a lawsuit.

    • Shane says

      Jun 9, 2014 at 5:05 pm

      Hopefully they will all become Islamic martyrs and will all come back in coffins. If it can be proven that they participated in jihad, then do not let them back in the USA.

  3. dumbledoresarmy says

    Jun 8, 2014 at 7:06 pm

    They *cannot* be permitted to return.

    All over the lands of the non-Muslims, we *have* to write to our politicians and demand that if Muslims from the Ummah colonies currently present on our soil, are known to have departed and to be waging Jihad in Syria (or for that matter, in Yemen or anywhere else), then **they must never be permitted to return into our lands**.

    Let them go. Do nothing to stop them from going. But once they have gone…slam and lock the gates behind them.

    And at the same time we have got to *stop* importing more Muslims, from anywhere at all. Not as immigrants, not as “refugees”, not as “tourists” or “students” or “businessmen”, not anything. No, no, no, no, no.

    Got Muslims? – Got Jihad.

    • Dabigragu says

      Jun 8, 2014 at 10:12 pm

      Unfortunately they can use the open backdoor…Mexico.

    • harbidoll says

      Jun 9, 2014 at 3:04 am

      slam & lock-gotcha

  4. revparadigm says

    Jun 8, 2014 at 11:17 pm

    I’m sure I ran into some of them here in the Minneapolis-St.Paul metro before…and for me there is a instant creepiness factor that sets them apart from the usual run-of-the-mill Muslims. There is a dark arrogance radiating from them, like their own little personal storm cloud they bring with them. Like walking death.

  5. citycat says

    Jun 9, 2014 at 12:56 am

    No money, no job, attend the same mosque. Mosque is the key word there, punters become martyrs.

  6. Patriot says

    Jun 9, 2014 at 1:09 am

    Check out more Muslim “contributions” to multiculturalism here http://redmillennial.com/2014/06/05/islamists-looking-to-attempt-mainland-attack/

  7. Patriot says

    Jun 9, 2014 at 1:18 am

    http://redmillennial.com/2014/06/05/islamists-looking-to-attempt-mainland-attack/

  8. Attaron says

    Jun 9, 2014 at 3:15 am

    Good let them go, then take away their passports. This problem is a lot bigger than they are admitting. I’ve heard students at my university (both Sunni and Alawite) talk very openly about either they themselves or people they know going over there to fight. Everyone knows this, at least a dozen from this one university alone are over there fighting and this is not a very Islamized area. There is no doubt there are at least 100 people from places like Dearborn going over there and if anyone is prepared to say otherwise they are delusional.

  9. duh_swami says

    Jun 9, 2014 at 6:59 am

    Mahoundian lands are under attack and being invaded. That makes all Mahoundians obligated to jihad…So why is there not a huge exodus of battle age jihadists from all over the western countries, flocking to these troubled areas by the thousands? Are the majority just to ‘moderate’, for that? They may be able to explain that to kuffar, but it will be much harder to explain it to Allah.
    Only the blind, crippled or infirm are exempt…So I encourage all able bodied Mahoundians to please Allah by joining the fight, ‘over there’…Do it right away and don’t come back…Allah willing and he always is…

  10. onisac says

    Jun 9, 2014 at 7:40 am

    I live in Minnesota and I’m not surprised by any of this. In fact I have several
    DVD’s that tell us there are at least 27 training camps in the United States. That was like 7 years ago. I suspect there are near 50 such camps or mosques now. And why not the U.S. is perhaps their up coming jihad target.

    When it happens it will be too late to stop it. Because this administration wont believe any of this. Or perhaps they know something we do not know.

  11. Stephen Rohaty says

    Jun 9, 2014 at 8:16 am

    The implication of that sentence is also that that mosque is paying their fares. Is the fbi investigating who pays for their tickets? Poverty may not cause terrorism, but it certainly is a factor. Suicide bombers know their families will get a pension, for life. There’s almost no way of telling if the recruits plan to return to U.S. soil, UNLESS you remember that thousands of people from those countries are desperate to come here. The recruits KNOW how good we have it here, how good THEY had it here. AND, they’ll be able to sit at the mosque, ANY mosque, and bask in the limelight as they tell the youngsters war stories.

  12. Paleologos says

    Jun 9, 2014 at 10:16 am

    The trick to stopping all this is to force Syria to take AND KEEP moron Minnesota Senator Al Franken, as well.

    http://tvsnark.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/stuart-smalley-magnet-c12359389.jpg

    http://victorygirlsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Al-Franken-SNL.jpg

    http://www.examiner.com/article/video-al-franken-effectively-tells-joe-lieberman-to-shut-up-under-senate-rules

    R/

    Paleologos

  13. Di from Australia says

    Jun 10, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    Use face recognition technology..that’s how they spotted the Boston Bomber’s

    Take a photo when they first enter the USA and scan the departures at all International airports? We have the technology lets use it.
    And if they try to return scan the arrivals = arrest -detain-interrogate-jail or deport – problem solved, as for the opponents of this kind of surveillance show them photos of the dead and seriously injured and ask them if this were there brother, sister, etc. how would they feel?

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