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Virginia Muslima, Islamic State supporter, gets 4 1/2 years prison for lying to FBI

May 11, 2015 10:45 pm By Robert Spencer

Heather-Elizabeth-Coffman“The social media machine ensnared Ms. Coffman…” No. The Islamic State ensnared Ms. Coffman. The social media machine was just its instrument. But authorities are generally not interested in looking into what really motivates such people, as it would involve considering Islamic texts and teachings.

“Henrico woman, ex-ISIS supporter, sentenced for lying to FBI,” by Frank Green, Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 11, 2015 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A Glen Allen woman who lied to the FBI about her support for the Islamic State was sentenced Monday morning to four and a half years in prison.

Heather Elizabeth Coffman, 30, was arrested in November and with credit for time served she will spend roughly four years behind bars under the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr.

Federal sentencing guidelines called for a term of 46 to 57 months in prison and Michael R. Gill, an assistant U.S. attorney, sought the stiffest punishment called for.

“At the time of her arrest she was very dangerous,” argued Gill. Among other things, Coffman admitted to using social media to trying to help get a man she fell in love with over the Internet to join ISIS.

In arguing for a lesser prison term, Mary Maguire, one of Coffman’s lawyers, told Gibney, “I think she never understood the gravity of what she was doing until it was too late.”

“She clearly got involved with something that was way over her head,” added Maguire.

But Gill countered that Coffman admitted she had seen ISIS photos of battlefield dead and beheading videos.

“She went into this with her eyes wide open,” said Gill.

Asked by the judge if she had seen a beheading video, Coffman admitted she had.

In pleading guilty in February to making a false statement involving international terrorism, Coffman admitted that last year she used Facebook accounts under different names to show her support for ISIS.

The charge stemmed from an FBI investigation into illegal conduct by Coffman and others suspected of providing support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

She lied to agents last Nov. 14, when she told them she had no idea if an unidentified foreign national with whom she admitted having an online romantic relationship had talked to her or anyone else who supported the Islamic State.

Coffman previously had put the man in contact with Islamic State fighters, and he had communicated with them to facilitate his travel to Turkey to join the militant group and become a martyr.

In the end the relationship ended and the unidentified man did not join ISIS or become a martyr.

Coffman, the mother of a boy, 7, who now lives with his father, served briefly in the U.S. Army. At the time of her misconduct, she was living with her parents and sister in Henrico County.

In asking for leniency, Coffman’s lawyers wrote that she accepted full responsibility for her actions. They said her lying, in part, was an effort to protect an undercover FBI investigator who she thought was a friend.

They painted a portrait of a naive, lonely person who grew up in a protective household and was sheltered from the real world. Although she is 30, with the exception of her stint in the Army she never has lived anywhere but her parents’ home.

“The social media machine ensnared Ms. Coffman, and she came to believe that (Islamic State) fighters were soldiers for God,” her lawyers wrote.

Given a chance to speak before she was sentenced, Maguire gave Gibney a note Coffman had written, saying her client was too nervous to address him.

Gibney read the note which said she recognized the harm she had done and was sorry for the effect her conduct has had on others, particularly her son.

In sentencing her, Gibney made it clear she was not being punished for expressing a belief in the terrorist organization but for lying to the FBI, which has limited resources in attempting to combat “the people who are actively trying to destroy civilization as we know it.”

“Her lies were just as blatant and as two-faced as you can imagine,” said the judge. “Hopefully she has learned her lesson from this.”

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Filed Under: American jihadis, converts to Islam, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) Tagged With: Heather Elizabeth Coffman


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Comments

  1. JamesonRocks says

    May 11, 2015 at 11:01 pm

    The article refers to her as being an “ex-ISIS supporter.” I wouldn’t count on it. I’m betting she’s still a true believer…

    • mortimer says

      May 12, 2015 at 1:12 am

      Most women who join Islam are looking to feel safe, but they find out the Muslims are worse misogynists than all others and they leave Islam within two years.

      She’s swallowed the jihadist theory hook-line-and-sinker. It may take her longer to be deprogrammed.

      • Saleem Smith says

        May 12, 2015 at 1:33 am

        Islam being such a highly misogynistic creed it tends to breed highly misogynistic men dedicated to following its every dictate to the letter.

        We ex-Muslims know that both the core and fine details of Islamic theology make it an exceptionally misogynistic ideology/religion.

        >>>>>

        Should Women Respect Muhammad and His Islam?

        Muslims love to claim that Islam has granted women equal rights. Sadly, this is not true. The Qur’an states several times that women are to be granted less rights then those enjoyed by men.

        This article will examine the status of women and their rights according to Islam, as well as some of the many disgusting things that Muhammad said regarding women.

        The inherent oppression and degradation of women in Islam is abhorrent. For every good thing Muhammad’s Islam says about women, one can easily find a passage referring to women in the most unkindly of lights. Such is the reality of the fundamentally contradictory religion of Islam. One minute Islam is the perfect religion of peace and justice – the next it commands Muslims to maim, murder and subjugate others. Muslim women should learn the truth about Islam, and fast, if they truly care about their daughters and the future of women in general.

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        In controversial verse 4:34 of the Qur’an, men are told to beat their disobedient wives after first warning them and then sending them to sleep in separate beds. This horrendous verse approves of and even sanctions, domestic abuse. As we shall see momentarily, Islamic theology also permits slavery and rape. No person of sound mind and good heart could believe that this is the wish of god. Islam is nothing more than the cult of a long dead, selfish little mad man named Muhammad ibn Abdullah.

        Qur’an, 4:34

        Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme.

        Here is an examination of how other translators render this controversial passage:

        Pickthall: “and scourge them”
        Yusuf Ali: “(And last) beat them (lightly)”
        Al-Hilali/Khan: “(and last) beat them (lightly, if it is useful)”
        Shakir: “and beat them”
        Sher Ali: “and chastise them”
        Khalifa: “then you may (as a last alternative) beat them”
        Arberry: “and beat them”
        Rodwell: “and scourge them”
        Sale: “and chastise them”
        Asad: “then beat them”

        Hadith, Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 11, Number 2142:

        Narrated Umar ibn al-Khattab: The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife.

        The Qur’an permits men to marry up to four wives, and have sex with slave girls if they want to do so:

        004:003 “If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice”

        According to Muhammad and his Islam, a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man’s:

        002:282 “Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her”

        The Qur’an compares women to a field (tilth) that a man is free to use when, and as he chooses:

        002.223 Your wives are a tilth for you, so go into your tilth when you like, and do good beforehand for yourselves, and be careful (of your duty) to Allah, and know that you will meet Him, and give good news to the believers.

        Hadith, Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 1, Book 6, No. 301:

        Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:

        Once Allah’s Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) o ‘Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, “O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women).” They asked, “Why is it so, O Allah’s Apostle ?” He replied, “You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you.” The women asked, “O Allah’s Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?” He said, “Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?” They replied in the affirmative. He said, “This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn’t it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?” The women replied in the affirmative. He said, “This is the deficiency in her religion.”

        The Qur’an allows men to marry pre-pubescent girls, stipulating that Islamic divorce procedures shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated.

        065.004
        YUSUFALI: Such of your women as have passed the age of monthly courses, for them the prescribed period, if ye have any doubts, is three months, and for those who have no courses (it is the same): for those who carry (life within their wombs), their period is until they deliver their burdens: and for those who fear Allah, He will make their path easy.

        PICKTHAL: And for such of your women as despair of menstruation, if ye doubt, their period (of waiting) shall be three months, along with those who have it not. And for those with child, their period shall be till they bring forth their burden. And whosoever keepeth his duty to Allah, He maketh his course easy for him.

        SHAKIR: And (as for) those of your women who have despaired of menstruation, if you have a doubt, their prescribed time shall be three months, and of those too who have not had their courses; and (as for) the pregnant women, their prescribed time is that they lay down their burden; and whoever is careful of (his duty to) Allah He will make easy for him his affair.

        Muhammad probably never even existed, nevertheless he recorded in Islam’s canonical texts as being a deranged con man who has betrayed women. Muhammad has betrayed all of mankind, in fact. Here is some more of what Muhammad said and did:

        Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 460:

        Narrated Abu Huraira:
        Allah’s Apostle said, “If a husband calls his wife to his bed (i.e. to have sexual relation) and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning.”

        Hadith, Sahih Muslim, Book 008, Number 3371:

        Abu Sirma said to Abu Sa’id al Khadri (Allah he pleased with him): 0 Abu Sa’id, did you hear Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) mentioning al-‘azl? He said: Yes, and added: We went out with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to the Bi’l-Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing ‘azl (Withdrawing the male sexual organ before emission of semen to avoid-conception). But we said: We are doing an act whereas Allah’s Messenger is amongst us; why not ask him? So we asked Allah’s Mes- senger (may peace be upon him), and he said: It does not matter if you do not do it, for every soul that is to be born up to the Day of Resurrection will be born.

        “By him in Whose Hand lies my life, a woman can not carry out the right of her Lord, till she carries out the right of her husband. And if he asks her to surrender herself [to him for sexual intercourse] she should not refuse him even if she is on a camel’s saddle.” — Ibn Majah 1854

        http://www.faithfreedom.org/

      • The Doctor says

        May 12, 2015 at 4:29 pm

        Mortimer,

        can you provide a reference for that assertion? That is good news about how quickly they leave (though better would be that they never convert) Islam.

  2. mortimer says

    May 12, 2015 at 12:37 am

    Islamic Stockholm syndrome.

  3. mortimer says

    May 12, 2015 at 1:06 am

    An Anglo-Celtic jihadist, Death Cultist and would-be mass murderer excited by watching beheadings.

    What was the race of Islam again?

    • Lia Wissing says

      May 12, 2015 at 4:42 am

      Is she USA-born? Pity. She cannot be deported to whereever her on-line romantic interest is doing his beheadings.

  4. Ayatrollah says

    May 12, 2015 at 5:24 am

    Most of the western women who join Islam do it for a Muslim man. These unions have a high breakup rate. Once the Muslim in her life is gone, so it the Islam.

  5. John Mustart South Africa. says

    May 12, 2015 at 5:24 am

    I think the sentence is way over the top if it was given just for lying to the FBI. As much as I am anti political Islam I just think this is way too harsh.

    • Beagle says

      May 12, 2015 at 8:49 am

      The freedom of those sworn to “kill and be killed” for Allah is far down on my list of concerns. The only criminals as likely to offend or reoffend I can think of are child rapists.

  6. Angemon says

    May 12, 2015 at 6:36 am

    “The social media machine ensnared Ms. Coffman, and she came to believe that (Islamic State) fighters were soldiers for God,”

    Yeah, damn that Facebook, and Twitter, and Youtube!

    • Beagle says

      May 12, 2015 at 8:52 am

      One minute you are watching Honest Trailers or Danger Dolan on You Tube and the next thing you know you find yourself in Syria holding an RPK.

  7. G P says

    May 12, 2015 at 6:56 am

    She wan’t to naive to try to lure someone into isis.

  8. duh_swami says

    May 12, 2015 at 8:27 am

    Ten to one she didn’t learn anything other than she needs to learn lie better.

  9. Mark says

    May 12, 2015 at 9:10 am

    https://youtu.be/o_qYcJ-GSZc

  10. TheCountess says

    May 12, 2015 at 11:04 am

    It is bewildering that this government would make this decision to prosecute and sentence, when they are the very ones encouraging such things. It makes no sense in view of their track record other than vanity. Don’t lie to the FBI? Who otherwise is part of the plan to bring America down? What a contradiction in action.

  11. Veracious_one says

    May 12, 2015 at 1:42 pm

    Muslim clerics instruct Muslims not to Cooperate with the FBI

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