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Colorado convert to Islam charged with conspiracy to aid Islamic State

Jul 26, 2014 1:19 pm By Robert Spencer

la-apphoto-denver-terrorism-charge-jpg-20140725At some point Shannon Maureen Conley converted to Islam, and at some point she got the idea that waging violent jihad against unbelievers was something she should engage in so as to please Allah. No one in the local Muslim community apparently succeeded in disabusing her of this notion, even though they ostensibly reject this understanding of Islam. Did anyone there even try?

“Colorado woman’s quest for jihad baffles neighbors,” by Jenny Deam, Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2014:

To those who knew her, Shannon Maureen Conley was a bright teenager lost in middle-class suburbia who went searching for love and purpose.

She thought she found it half a world away with a Tunisian man 13 years her senior who promised marriage and holy war. The plan went only as far as Denver International Airport, where Conley was arrested in April as she tried to board a plane to support Islamic fighters in Syria.

Conley told the FBI she was determined to be “defending Muslims on the Muslim homeland against people who are trying to kill them.” If that was illegal, she added, she “would rather be in prison than do nothing.”

The 19-year-old Colorado woman is now under federal indictment, charged with conspiracy to aid Islamic State, the extremist military force with ties to Al Qaeda that has been on the march across Iraq and Syria.

Her transformation from a smiling girl, often clad in shorts or jeans and a floppy hat, who chatted with friends, to a solemn, dreamy young woman wearing the long dresses and flowing head scarves of traditional Islam, is one that neighbors and school administrators said came relatively suddenly.

She had been “among the brightest kids” at Arvada West High School, said principal Rob Bishop, adding that she was the daughter of a professor at a Catholic university, was enrolled in honors courses and presented no discipline problems.

Sometime during her junior year, Bishop said, Conley had begun to wear traditional Muslim dress. Several girls complained that she was kneeling on the bathroom floor three times a day for her prayers.

“I talked to her about accommodating her to get her out of the bathroom and move her into an office in our school’s front offices,” Bishop said. Conley told him she was converting to Islam and seemed grateful for his support.

Neighbors, too, noticed the change in her appearance, and said she often seemed lonely and reflective. Many neighbors were not closely acquainted with Conley or her parents. Her mother, Ana Marie Conley, is an associate professor of economics at Regis College, while her father, John Conley, works in the computer field and teaches martial arts out of his garage on weekends, according to neighbors.

Robert Taylor, who lives nearby, said he would sometimes see Conley sitting alone in a neighborhood park, drifting silently on the playground swing.

“She just seemed kind of lost,” he said.

On Conley’s Facebook page, she began calling herself Halima, an Arabic name meaning “gentle and mild-mannered,” and described her work as a “slave to Allah.”

In fall 2013, Conley began showing up at Faith Bible Church, a Christian mega-church not far from her home known for its support of Israel. Pastor George Morrison said members became unnerved by the frequent sightings of the young woman in Muslim dress, carrying a large backpack and wandering in and out of classes and services.

The church has a history. In December 2007 a gunman opened fire at the dormitory of a missionary group that shares campus space at the church, killing two and wounding two others.

Morrison said staff repeatedly asked Conley if she had questions about the church or wanted to join.

She declined, saying she was a Muslim doing research. Morrison said he didn’t see her as a threat: “I felt like from the beginning she was a wannabe,” he said. Still, on Nov. 3, the church finally asked her not to come back, and four days later, the FBI conducted what was to be the first of many interviews with Conley.

According to an affidavit filed in court, Conley was asked why she had gone to the church. “I hate those people,” she replied, adding that once church leaders began to watch her, she decided to goad them by pretending to take notes. “If they think I’m a terrorist, I’ll give them something to think I am.”

She told FBI agents she had signed up for a weekend with the U.S. Army Explorers, a career program offered under the umbrella of the Boy Scouts of America, to be trained in military tactics and firearms. Her intention, she said, was “to use that training to go overseas to wage jihad.”

FBI agents initially interviewed Conley’s parents in February, asking them to engage their daughter in “candid conversation” about Islam.

Though they have declined to be interviewed by reporters, it is apparent from court documents that the Conleys’ alarm about their daughter was growing. On March 10, the FBI said, John Conley called the FBI and told agents he had not realized that his daughter had become so extreme. A few days later, he recounted walking in on a Skype conversation his daughter was having with a man she said she had met online.

The man, whose name is redacted in the complaint, asked Conley if he could marry his daughter and bring her to the Middle East.

Her father refused, but Conley said she was going anyway. On April 1, John Conley said, he found on his desk a one-way ticket to Turkey for his daughter and called the FBI.

In all, federal agents met with Conley eight times between Nov. 7 and April 8, and six times with her parents. Court documents describe agents trying to dissuade her from the notion of jihad, and suggesting the option of working for a humanitarian organization. But Conley’s determination only appeared to grow.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, as the group was called until recently, fighter she had met online was her “suitor,” she said, and she planned to travel to meet him. They would live near the border between Turkey and Syria. She would be “a housewife and the camp nurse,” and if necessary take up arms, she said. “I wouldn’t like it … but I would do it.”

She made it as far as Denver International Airport, where on April 8 she checked in for her flight to Frankfurt, with a connection to Turkey, and made it halfway down the jetway before she was confronted by the FBI and taken into custody.

The U.S. attorney and FBI have declined to comment on the case, as has Conley’s public defender.

Since her arrest, the initial complaint charging her with providing material support to a terrorist group has been reduced to a conspiracy charge that carries a maximum of five years in prison rather than 15.

Back in Arvada, neighbors along Taft Circle are more saddened than fearful. When Conley disappeared in April, they thought she had moved.

Once the news broke July 2 and TV trucks began arriving, Taylor slipped a note into the Conleys’ front door offering support. So far, they haven’t responded.

Recently at Faith Bible Church, Morrison offered a special prayer for the young woman sitting in a jail cell.

“I never thought she was dangerous, but you never know,” he said later. “She ignored every warning they gave her. She was crossing a line, stepping into an area that could’ve sucked her into something really bad. I think maybe getting arrested just might have saved her life.”

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Filed Under: converts to Islam, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. jewdog says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 1:27 pm

    I’m frustrated, lonely and nobody wants to behead me.

  2. Jay Boo says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 1:50 pm

    She can put away her black flag for a while

    “Orange is the new Black”

    • john spielman says

      Jul 26, 2014 at 2:43 pm

      Good one!
      I guess she never heard of the late Beverly Giesbrecht of Vancouver BC Canada who grew up as a nominal Christian, the turned to the darkness of Islam from the light of Christ and went to Pakistan to join and serve the “suffering ” Taliban, only to be taken captive by the same Taliban and threatened with beheading if a large ransom for her was not paid. Poor Beverly G, no one ever saw her again after a video surfaced with her pleading for a ransom to save her neck. Her grave has not been found but it is known that the Taliban certainly had their way with her! If you join Allah/Satan, you will die!

      • Jovial Joe says

        Jul 26, 2014 at 2:56 pm

        Here is a link on Beverly Geisbrecht. It is a fittingly cautionary tale for those who are foolish enough to join the cult. Look especially at the contrasting ‘before and after’ pictures. https://www.straight.com/news/canadian-beverly-giesbrecht-dead-pakistan-border-region-report

        • Jay Boo says

          Jul 26, 2014 at 3:00 pm

          What a mess

  3. Jovial Joe says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 1:50 pm

    She’ll complete her induction into the cult in jail then; finishing school for jihadis.

    • john spielman says

      Jul 26, 2014 at 2:45 pm

      well she will be a complete whore once she is out of prison, good only for becoming a suicide bomber

  4. Tradewinds says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 2:07 pm

    What a total and complete loser converting to the barbarism of Islam. Her parents must be so ashamed.

    • Orson says

      Jul 27, 2014 at 5:14 am

      IF only it was that simple! I bet they indulged her out of either ignorance or a wish to not be “judgemental.”

  5. Jay Boo says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    From an Iranian propaganda perspective
    at presstv

    http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/07/370210/cases-of-islamophobic-prosecution-in-us/

  6. Arjay says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    So a woman living in a nation where women have opportunities that most females can never hope to dream of… then joins a political death cult that has been de-humanizing women for 1400 years.

    Trying to comprehend this. Foolish Ms. Conley.

  7. BlueRaven says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    Islam definitely attracts criminal minds. Her mind was full of hate. That could be due to all kinds of events that she perhaps experienced during her growing up and she could not handle. Joining Islam gave her an opportunity to do what she always desired with some sort of impunity. She is an evil fool. She would have paid a high price of her life if she ended up in Syria. Like 99% Mussies, there are plenty of other people who crave for evil. They are your potential Jihad recruits.

  8. Mirren10 says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 3:47 pm

    What a nasty little cow.

    It’s a pity they intercepted her, really. She could have gone out there, and ‘died for allah’. One less to worry about. Such creatures deliberately welcome evil into their lives.

  9. RonaldB says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 5:06 pm

    Islam is like other cults

    Ten or twenty years ago, religious cults were more prominent, and churches began trying to “inoculate” their young people against the appeal of cult recruiters. In fact, the tactics of cults to bring people in and keep them were sophisticated and powerful. It was a mistake for anyone to shrug off the appeal of cults, or to assume they he was immune.

    It’s extremely important for potential cult members to recognize cult recruiting tactics, and to leave the situation as soon as they see any hint of cult tactics. This takes, at a minimum, an awareness of cults, their intellectual and emotional appeals, and the reality of the goals of cults.

    It is also necessary for the person to have enough character to say “no” and walk out from a group of people who are acting like they will take personal offense and disappoint if you don’t stay with them. Many of the anti-cult programs actually engaged in a philosophical discussion of the justifications cults gave for their existence.

    It’s obvious from this story that Shannon Crowley reacted to Islam like traditional cult victims reacted to the appeal of the cult in which they were captured. It also brings up the question of churches and other organizations, including atheist groups, specifically addressing and refuting the basis of Islam, and recognizing the appeals and dangers of coming into the community of Islam.

    Intellectually, refuting Islam is not difficult. But, getting up the character to stand up and be counted, to be publicly identified as speaking against Islam and trying to prepare young (and not so young) people to treat Islam as a vicious cult to be avoided: perhaps, more difficult.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Jul 27, 2014 at 6:42 am

      Good post.

      Key point – “It’s obvious from this story that Shannon Crowley reacted to Islam like traditional cult victims reacted to the appeal of the cult in which they were captured. ”

      And don’t forget the element of “marriage jihad” or what the Indians call “love jihad”.

      “John Conley called the FBI and told agents he had not realized that his daughter had become so extreme. A few days later, he recounted walking in on a Skype conversation his daughter was having with a man she said she had met online.”

      Here’s the question that the article doesn’t answer: WHEN and under what circumstances did this young woman meet – online – that oh-so-persuasive Muslim man?

      The article doesn’t tell us exactly when she converted to Islam, and whether she did so before or after having met that Mohammedan man online.

      Did she “seek out” Islam and Muslims? Or was there a dawa artist somewhere, either in person or online?

      I’d like to know.

  10. jp says

    Jul 26, 2014 at 6:30 pm

    I think I figured it out, Islam is the true face of nyarlathotep, the crawling madness from the Lovecraft stories.

  11. pumbar says

    Jul 27, 2014 at 1:12 am

    That’d make allah Azathoth; the demented thing at the centre of space ringed around by maddened creatures piping and dancing to the shrieking, insane music. Sounds like the ka’ba really.

  12. Rhonda says

    Jul 27, 2014 at 3:07 am

    Isn’t that what Obama is doing? Aiding the Islamist State? This girl had parents that were more interested in their degrees and jobs than they were about their daughter, whom they neglected. She was desperate for the love and purpose that they failed to give her. How have you raised your children? How did they turn out? I raised five children in church, and they are all responsible, God loving, God fearing family oriented adults.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Jul 27, 2014 at 6:50 am

      There’s not a thing in the article, really, to indicate that they neglected her.

      She was fine *until* she encountered Islam.

      Didn’t you read the article? – “Her *transformation* from a smiling girl, often clad in shorts or jeans and a floppy hat, who chatted with friends, to a solemn, dreamy young woman wearing the long dresses and flowing head scarves of traditional Islam, is one that neighbors and school administrators said came relatively suddenly.”

      She only became “solemn” and “dreamy”, “lost looking”, etc, *after* she turned to Islam.

      Neighbors, too, noticed the change in her appearance, and said she often seemed lonely and reflective….[note: this was a *change* in her behaviour; she had NOT behaved like this before – dda]

      “Robert Taylor, who lives nearby, said he would sometimes see Conley sitting alone in a neighborhood park, drifting silently on the playground swing. [Note: as I read it, this refers to her behaviour *after* conversion, and not before – dda]

      “She just seemed kind of lost,” he said.” [to repeat, as I read it, this “lostness” only manifested *after* the conversion – dda].

      How do you deduce parental neglect, etc, from the description of the “Before Islam” Conley? – “a smiling girl, often clad in shorts or jeans and a floppy hat, who chatted with friends”.

      She cut herself off from her friends and became a lost, drifting, loner, *AFTER she became Muslim*. (Which is a classic “marker” of someone who has been ensnared by a cult).

  13. bicky says

    Jul 27, 2014 at 5:31 am

    http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-saharanpur-clashes-uttar-pradesh-police-now-uses-drones-to-monitor-situation-2005655

    ROP activists again wreck havoc in India, pl check the above link

  14. Elisheva14 says

    Jul 27, 2014 at 12:50 pm

    I guess to some lost souls the glamour of jihad appeals. Something drew her strongly to take such a bold step and buy a ticket to hell. She was lucky to be stopped by the FBI and will probably be released on some appeal soon.

    The question I had is why she gets stopped while John Kerry and Obama are doing worse things. The initial complaint charging her with providing material support to a terrorist group has been reduced to a conspiracy charge that carries a maximum of five years in prison rather than 15. Wasn’t Kerry offering Hamas a big financial reward to produce a Cease Fire. Hamas is the aggressors and a designated Terrorist Organization that in their charter state they want to destroy Israel and kill all Jews. Kerry and Obama should be incarcerated for providing material support for Terrorist groups. There are many examples of this: in Egypt supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and Libya, Qtar and Syria. Are there different laws for our evil leaders and the small guys who are just plain stupid.
    Qtar, Iran and Turkey support Hamas. I just read this:
    http://www.independentsentinel.com/obamas-11-billion-arms-deal-with-terror-sponsoring-nation-of-qatar/

    Face it our government is the biggest sponsor of Terrorism. They are the true face of supporting Terror and should be in jail. There is no one after them. This is not new.

  15. Oliver says

    Jul 28, 2014 at 2:50 pm

    Bishop ( official of the school this bitch was attending) (paraphrasing) said that other students (females0 were protesting that she was using the bathroom floor to pray three times a day. (Personally, I think that a bathroom is the perfect place for a Muslim-they are shit and are near turds-albeit in the piping from the toilet to whereever). Bishop says that he offered to let her use an office, to accomodate her.

    My question: WHY? WHY IS EVERYONE SO WILLING TO ACCOMODATE MUSLIMS?

    If there are (or were) jewish students in the school, and they wanted to 9at the appropriate time) build a Succah ( thatched hut-used for about a week) on the school campus would he ahve allowed it? I doubt it.

    Or catholics (or Protestants) who wanted a life sized creche? (With or without a camel). Again, i doubt it.

    Why the ass kissing for Muslims?

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