How did this young convert to Islam get the idea that frightening non-Muslims and waging jihad warfare would be pleasing to Allah? Again it must be said that mosques in the U.S. have not a single program to teach converts to reject this understanding of Islam that they supposedly abhor as “extremist.” And authorities aren’t calling them on this — instead, they’re conducting “outreach” meetings to reassure them that their counter-terror efforts are not “Islamophobic.”
“Shock, sadness after teen’s arrest in terror case,” by P. Solomon Banda and Dan Elliott, Associated Press, July 3, 2014:
ARVADA, Colo. (AP) — She was a memorable figure in this western Denver suburb, a teenager wearing a traditional Muslim headscarf and dress, sitting alone on a park swing or walking into a Christian church with a backpack and notebook.
People who encountered 19-year-old Shannon Maureen Conley over the past few months said Thursday they were shocked, unnerved or simply sad to learn she had been arrested on charges of conspiring to help terrorists.
“I feel sorry for her,” said Mary Beth Brugler, a member of Faith Bible Chapel, where Conley visited several times last fall before concerned church officials asked her to leave.
“She needs a lot of prayer,” Brugler said.
The FBI says Conley was a convert to Islam who was planning to travel overseas and marry a man she believed was a Tunisian fighting with an al-Qaida splinter group in Syria. She told FBI agents she wanted to help wage holy war against forces attacking Islam, according to court documents.
Conley wanted to fight, the FBI said, but if she couldn’t, she would use her skills as a licensed nurse’s aide to help jihadi warriors.
The FBI said Conley was arrested at Denver International Airport in April while boarding a plane on the first leg of a trip to a town in Turkey three hours from the Syrian border. Authorities didn’t disclose her arrest until Wednesday, citing an active investigation.
Conley’s attorney didn’t return calls Wednesday and was out of the office Thursday. Her father declined to comment.
Conley’s family moved into an Arvada cul-de-sac in the past two years or so, neighbors said, and about a year ago she began wearing a headscarf.
On her Facebook page, she called herself a “slave of Allah,” and one of her posts – now removed – linked to a YouTube video about British women joining fighting in Syria.
Neighbor Bob Taylor recalls seeing her in a headscarf and long dress, sitting on swing in a nearby park for about a half hour at a time.
“I thought it was meditation or something. It just looked unusual,” Taylor said.
“I was shocked, and it’s a little unnerving, scary, you know,” he said of her arrest. “In here, you don’t expect that, you know, as neighbors.”
In October she began showing up at Faith Bible Chapel, sometimes with a backpack, said Jason King, an associate pastor. That caught the attention of security personnel at the church, where a gunman killed two missionary workers in 2007.
“We did ask her what she was doing here, because our first heart is to help and serve anyone,” King said. “So as she was walking around, she was acting a little different, so we just wanted to have a conversation with her.”
Brugler, who serves Sunday coffee and breakfast to worshippers at the church’s small cafe, said Conley ordered biscuits and gravy one morning.
“She asked me if it contained meat,” Brugler recalled. “I said, `Yes.’ She cursed and threw it in the trash.”
Church officials eventually asked her to leave.
“There was obviously some resistance, a little bit of hostility,” King said.
Conley later told FBI agents she thought church members were following her, the agency said.
“If they think I’m a terrorist, I’ll give them something to think I am,” she told the agents, according to a court document. She said she began keeping a notebook and acted as if she was diagramming the church “to alarm them,” according to the document.
Doug Newcomb, another associate pastor, said none of Conley’s conversations with church employees involved terrorism.
“All of our conversations with her were pastoral in nature, all related to explaining the Christian faith,” he said.
The FBI said when officers first asked Conley why she went to the church, she replied, “I hate those people.”
She told an FBI agent and an Arvada police detective she first went there to learn about other faiths, but that she disapproved of Faith Christian’s support of Israel.
Senior Pastor George Morrison said the investigation began when pastors expressed suspicions about Conley to security staff, which includes Arvada police officers. When officers learned the church asked her not to return, they started a probe on their own that eventually involved the FBI.
Court documents say FBI agents met with Conley eight times from November through April and that she freely described her plans – even though she knew she was speaking to government agents, and even though they told her what she wanted to do was illegal and tried to talk her out of it….
Jaladhi says
All mosques all over the world teach new converts to abhor other religions and harass their followers. This is the only truth and nothing but the truth. Or else how these converts are found on forefront of jihad to kill infidels. Muslims will lie and say the converts misunderstood their teachings but they do nothing correct the misunderstanding. The fact is Muslims lie, lie, lie to no end and call it taqiyya which is allowed by their religion. If there is any upside down religion, it is Islam!!
Shane says
Another disturbed American who was turned into a hater and a jihadist by the religion of peace. If I had a child who converted to Islam, he or she would not be welcome in my house.
Mary of Bethany says
The FBI said when officers first asked Conley why she went to the church, she replied, “I hate those people.”
while world’s countries are and against witnessing to muslims in some countries… why allow native muslims and muslim converts to harrass christians or buddhists alike? i don’t fathom.
it all boil down to a open secret.. world countries leaders are all afraid of Islam .. and UN is dominated by arab states and Musllim states.
Jay Boo says
“The FBI said when officers first asked Conley why she went to the church, she replied,
“I hate those people.””
————-
Is she suffering from NPR / Huff Post propaganda indoctrination or Muzzie mosque syndrome?
Joseph says
Good job, FBI. Instead of allowing her to blow herself up on on her own coin and free will, we arrest and will now spend tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money, defending her in court, housing and feeding her — probably for the rest of her life.
I wish the gubmint would let these fools go and die.
voegelinian says
Kick them out. Operation Bum’s Rush.
(And if someone pipes up with the silly question, “Kick them out to where…?” I would answer — to the only land they owe allegiance to: the Dar-al-Islam.)
Jay Boo says
She needs psychiatric care.
She may be more of an attention seeking mental case than an actual Muslim convert.
Ashley says
I tend to agree.
Reality Check says
No, she needs to be put down, just in case. I wouldn’t take any chances as some of the things she said about us, un-followers of Islam, are downright scary. Personally, I wouldn’t put it past her to kill someone just because they don’t worship what she worships.
What’s interesting is that she is a mediocre-looking girl who probably can’t get anyone to look her way. This jihad thing might be her last resort to make others stop and take notice.
Shane says
That psycho who killed all the people in the movie theater converted to Islam while in prison. I guess he figures that he can justify these killings by saying he was killing the infidel enemies of Islam.
voegelinian says
All Muslims need psychiatric care. But since innumerable ones among them pose deadly dangers to our societies, whom we cannot distinguish from those who may not, their psychiatric problems should not be our problem.
beyondculturewars says
The Daily Mail article told how desperate the family was to keep her from going to Turkey to marry an older man in the Jihadi movement. They cooperated fully with the Feds.
The antidote to this kind of intense jihad conversion is real moral education. Families must teach all chil the valuable differences of Islam and Sharia law versus Western tolerant religions and rule of law.
Perhaps now, she can get that education, while she is still young and still protected by her birthright as an American.
voegelinian says
“The antidote to this kind of intense jihad conversion is real moral education. ”
It’s certainly one small, important part of the management of this global problem; but it’s not, alas, the antidote.
beyondculturewars says
The Daily Mail article told how desperate the family was to keep her from going to Turkey to marry an older man in the Jihadi movement. They cooperated fully with the Feds.
The antidote to this kind of intense jihad conversion is real moral education. Families must teach all children the valuable differences of Islam and Sharia law versus Western tolerant religions and rule of law.
Perhaps now, she can get that education, while she is still young and still protected by her birthright as an American.
Jay Boo says
Reference to:
“Families must teach all children the valuable differences of Islam and Sharia law versus Western tolerant religions and rule of law.”
——————-
Hedonistic sardonic minded liberals saturate the TV sitcoms with gratuitous sexual innuendo and fill sadistic dramas with so many sick vengeance fantasies that to focus exclusively on families to provide real moral education is to give Hollywood a free pass.
john spielman says
it never ceases to amaze me how many women (and men) seem drawn to pure evil just like those women who fall in love with mass murderers in prison and propose marriage (like Ted Bundy). I guess that is the result of the human condition; “and this is the verdict, that the light has come into the world but people loved the darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil” John 3 :19
Ashley says
I may have missed it…
Has there been any mention that Shannon/Halima actually attended a mosque? I get the sense that her conversion was via internet, and her communications were via internet (Skype, social media, chat rooms, downloads, etc…).
If true, I AM heartened to learn her parents were concerned and alerted the authorities. Not an easy thing to do…
Why was Halima stalking a bible study group?
Svobodnik says
There was no mention in the report of her attending a mosque. It sounded as if she was sad – and alone – and a little disturbed. Why else walk into a church and waste time monkeying around there? For better or worse it sounded as if she did not have a gang of Muslims to hang out with.
mortimer says
Koran 8.60 “TERRORIZE THEM”. ( Arabic: Turhibunna)
Patriot says
These people feel comfortable here because especially now that Obama supports them see here http://redmillennial.com/2014/07/03/time-for-obama-to-stop-aiding-jihad/
Svobodnik says
There are a lot of (young) people lost in America. Once in awhile the facade drops and you find out that people are searching for meaning. They are not being fulfilled through Liberalism and the pursuit of material possessions. Too bad that Islam swims forward to become a possible choice for those avoiding the feeling of emptiness and lack of purpose.
onisac says
“Slave of Allah”? This is proof that Allah is no God at all, but in fact is a mythical being that Muhammad thought up, to began his new religion of peace, which is also a myth..
Ashley says
A deeper look into Shannon/Halima Conley: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2014/07/shannon_conley_arrest_isis_terror_group.php
Ashley says
More on Shannon (Halima) Conley:
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2014/07/shannon_conley_arrest_isis_terror_group.php
voegelinian says
I notice certain JWers have a need to think that Conley is not “really” a true believer Muslim. She must have “psychiatric” problems; she’s just young; etc. The full gravity of this unique cult hasn’t really hit these certain JWers, apparently.