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Muslim migrant to US ‘found religion’ and joined ISIS: ‘I wanted to live in an Islamic country’

Sep 20, 2020 8:00 am By Robert Spencer 7 Comments

The conventional wisdom, hawked by mainstream counterterror analysts such as the appalling Max Abrahms, is that the Islamic State has nothing to do with genuine Islam, which Islamic jihadis generally know little to nothing about. Yet again and again we see jihadis themselves explaining that they turned to jihad after becoming devout in their observance of Islam. Lirim Sylejmani “said he found religion,” and that this was the impetus for his joining the Islamic State (ISIS). “I wanted to live in an Islamic country,” he says. Doesn’t he know that all our moral superiors assure us that ISIS has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam? Pope Francis, call your office!

“United States Citizen Who Joined ISIS Charged With Material Support Violations,” Department of Justice, September 16, 2020 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

An indictment and arrest warrant were unsealed today in the federal court of the District of Columbia charging Lirim Sylejmani, a Kosovo-born naturalized U.S. citizen, with conspiring to provide, providing, and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and receiving training from ISIS, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2339B and 2339D.

Sylejmani was detained overseas by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and recently transferred into FBI custody. Sylejmani made his initial appearance before U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C….

“The defendant is a U.S. citizen who abandoned the country that welcomed him to join ISIS in Syria” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Sherwin. “He will now be held accountable for his actions in an American courtroom. Our national security prosecutors and law enforcement partners will continue to ensure that those who threaten our country are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”…

“Sylejmani allegedly traveled to Syria with the intent to join, train with, and fight on behalf of ISIS, said Matthew R. Alcoke, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Counterterrorism Division….

According to the allegations in the indictment, from November 2015 through February 2019, Sylejmani conspired to provide and provided material support and resources, including personnel and services, to ISIS in Syria and received military training from the terrorist organization. The defendant was captured by the SDF in 2019 and has spoken to a number of media outlets about his time with ISIS….

“US citizen ISIS member wants to know why he can’t go home,” by Jared Szuba, Defense Post, November 19, 2019 (thanks to Creeping Sharia:

HASAKAH, Syria – Lirim Sulejmani limped over a green steel threshold, his gnarled toes bare on the filthy concrete. An orange jumpsuit, inside-out, was draped over his emaciated shoulders.

When the Kosovo-native was 23, he found refuge in the United States after fleeing a genocidal regime. Sixteen years later, he decided to join one.

Sulejmani is one of hundreds of American citizens believed to have joined Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014. But as the Trump administration transfers dozens of high-priority ISIS suspects from makeshift prisons across northeast Syria as U.S. troops levels draw down, he is beginning to fear he may have been left behind….

“I asked to be deported to Kosovo, because it’s a small country,” he told The Defense Post in a prison holding room last week.

“If there’s a jail, from any point to the border in Kosovo – from one border to the other border is not more than 200 km.”

After a moment he added, “I thought that might make it easier for my wife to visit.”…

After coming to the U.S. in 1999, he said he met and married a woman in Chicago. But their first child died following the 2008 recession, as he recalls, so they moved to Canada – where Lirim said he found religion.

“I was not religious,” he said. “My wife was more religious than I was,” his eyes darting to the ski-masked guards….

His decision to traffick his wife and two infant children, Aisha and Muhammad, across three countries and into an active war zone was “very spontaneous,” he recalled. “I wanted to live in an Islamic country.”

The pseudo-caliphate was a natural choice. Asked why an established conservative Islamic country – like Saudi Arabia, for example – was not a better option, he said moving there would have been laden with bureaucracy.

Besides, Islamic State’s propaganda was alluring. Sulejmani recalled a calling upon doctors and engineers to make hijra, or to immigrate, to the self-proclaimed Islamic State from around the world.

“I watched this video, they said we’ll give you housing, free electricity,” he said. “It just sounded very nice.”

Sulejmani denied he ever watched videos of violence or beheadings. “I was too weak for that,” he said. But he was aware of them.

“They did not scare me. It’s a form of punishment under Sharia,” he said, “because of the crimes they commit.”…

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Filed Under: Featured, immigration, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Jihad in the U.S. Tagged With: Lirim Sylejmani


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Comments

  1. Michael Copeland says

    Sep 20, 2020 at 8:46 am

    Execution is a form of punishment in USA, because of crimes committed.

    Reply
  2. Michael Copeland says

    Sep 20, 2020 at 8:48 am

    The following observation also applies to North American leaders:

    “EU.. leaders .. believe they understand the Middle East and Islam better than we do. It is pure ignorance.”
    Emirates Minister
    https://barenakedislam.com/2020/09/20/words-of-wisdom-from-a-minister-of-the-uae/

    Reply
  3. wpm says

    Sep 20, 2020 at 9:03 am

    So he moved from Canada with his wife and children( welfare, housing, freedom to worship ect) to war torn civil war to fight with terrorist waging Jihad because of “I watched this video they said they will give you free housing free electricity “he said it sounded very nice”? Why do we find this hard to believe?
    Sulejmani denied he ever watched videos of violence and beheading “I was to weak for that “he said he was aware of them” what do you think he though he was going to do in the violent war of Jihad make sandwiches for the troops? If he wanted to live in an “Islamic country” after finding “god”, after living in America and Canada why travel to one in an active civil war with his wife and children for “free electricity and housing”??

    Reply
  4. mortimer says

    Sep 20, 2020 at 9:47 am

    Someone is paying the shill Max Abrams to deny the solid foundation of jihadism in the Islamic primary source texts and secondary, canonical commentaries of Islam and in the tertiary Sharia law comments on jihad.

    Max Abrams is paid by someone to lie about the firm grounding of jihadism in the canonical texts.

    Reply
  5. mortimer says

    Sep 20, 2020 at 9:56 am

    AUTHORITATIVE ISLAMIC TEXTS COMMANDING MUSLIMS TO CONDUCT JIHAD

    -“Jihad is holy fighting in Allah’s Cause with full force of numbers and weaponry. It is given the UTMOST IMPORTANCE in Islam and is one of its pillars. By Jihad Islam is established, Allah’s Word is made superior (which means only Allah has the right to be worshiped), and Islam is propagated. By abandoning Jihad Islam is destroyed and Muslims fall into an inferior position; their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an OBLIGATORY DUTY in Islam on every Muslim. He who tries to escape from this duty, or does not fulfill this duty, dies as a hypocrite.” – Footnote commentary on jihad from p580 of Sahih Al-Bukhari, publ. by Maktba Dar-us-Salam

    -Definition of Dictionary of Islam: Jihad is “a RELIGIOUS WAR with those who are unbelievers (kufaar) in the mission of Muhammad. It is an INCUMBENT RELIGIOUS DUTY, ESTABLISHED IN THE QURAN and in the TRADITIONS as a DIVINE INSTITUTION, enjoined specially for the purpose advancing Islam and repelling evils from Muslims.”

    Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, former Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Iran, in a collection of lectures titled, “JIHAD: The HOLY WAR OF ISLAM and Its LEGITIMACY IN THE QURAN,” published by the Islamic Propagation Organization, Tehran, Iran, and posted on the website of Al-Islam.org (accessed Apr. 26, 2007), wrote: “‘And FIGHT those who have not faith in God, nor in the Hereafter, and (who) forbid not what God and His Prophet have forbidden and (who ) are not committed to the religion of truth, of those who have been brought the Book, until they pay tribute by hand, and they are the low.’ (9:29) [chapter:verse of the Qur’an]

    Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), jurist, renowned philosopher, historian, and sociologist, summarized these consensus opinions from five centuries of prior Muslim jurisprudence with regard to the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad:
    “In the Muslim community, the HOLY WAR is a RELIGIOUS DUTY, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to] convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or BY FORCE … The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense… Islam is under OBLIGATION to gain power over other nations.”

    (Note: the above texts prove that MAX ABRAMS is a horrible liar (about jihad) who should be shunned by the academic community.)

    Reply
  6. gravenimage says

    Sep 20, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    Muslim migrant to US ‘found religion’ and joined ISIS: ‘I wanted to live in an Islamic country’
    …………………..

    How many times have we seen new Muslims rush off to join ISIS? Very telling.

    Reply
  7. Walter Sieruk says

    Sep 21, 2020 at 3:48 pm

    That Muslim migrant found religion, that is clear .The problem is the that religion of one of jihad violence and killing, As the “holy book”, the Qu ‘ran, of Islam instructs 2:191 , 5:33. 9:5, 111,123. 47:4.

    Furthermore, deadly disasters of ISIS jihad terrorism had ,for a time , appeared to have had subsided , much to the credit of the power and might the US armed forces which cause the Islamic “state” to lost much of the land it had obtained by its brutal ,cruel and murderous Islamic terrorism .

    Nevertheless, ISIS might have a comeback, just like resurgence of a plague of as deadly infectious disease.

    Therefore there some people who might stop and think and wonder then asked the question a very good question .Which is “Since ISIS had lost so much territory ,why haven’t the jihadist who make up ISIS just given up in their mad Islamic quest against the West and for the advancement of Islam ?

    The answer to that question was provided in a speech by the ISIS spokesman, Abu Muhammad al Adnani, now dead, in this speech he had declared “True defeat is a loss of willpower and desire to fight…” he further explained “We would be defeated and you victorious only if you are able to remove the Qu ‘ran from Muslim hearts.” All this leads to a very important question: “Is the Qu ‘ran the Word of God or is it a fabrication of a man. Thus, is the Quran the truth or a fiction and a hoax ?” The jihadists, as those of ISIS use many verses from the Qu ‘ran as the main source of justification for their violence, mayhem and murders.

    As found in For example, 2:191.. 4:47 5:33. 9:5,111,123. 47:4 The answer is clearly given on pages 145 through 157 in THE ISLAMIC INVASION by Robert Morey in which he wrote a section on the Qu ‘ran with its self-contradictions. Just two of the many he cited are the following “The Quran differs on whether a day is a thousand years or fifty thousand years in God’s sight’ and “Who was first to believe? Abraham or Moses [Sura 6:14 versus 7:143]? The above is inconsistent and illogical. Further, Morey wrote about “The fact that Judaism and Christianity broke up into different sects was used in the Qu‘ran to prove that they are not of God [Suras 30:20-32. 42:13, 14]. Yet Islam has broken up into many warring sects and therefore cannot be true if the Qu ‘ran is right.” Moreover, Morey in his book shows many more contradictions and absurdities in the Quran, there are and how Muhammad incorporated extra Biblical and Jewish folklore along with pre-Islamic Arabian myth and parts of Zoroastrian and Hindu stories into the Qu ‘ran.

    Moreover, the Muslims claim that “the Qu ‘ran is the direct, literal word of God unmodified in any way by the Prophet who uttered them at the bidding of God.” Nevertheless, in the book UNVEILING ISLAM by Ergun Mehmet and Eethi Caner has shown that the Qu’ran was modified in the following account on pages 45. “Muhammad felt the need to improve on the words of Allah, since he changed Allah’s wisdom for his own on several occasions. A hadith tells of the nonchalant emendations of Muhammad:’ On a number of occasions he [a scribe] had, with the Prophet’s consent changed the closing words of verses. For example, when the prophet had said ‘God is mighty and wise ‘ Adbollah b. Abi Sarh suggested writing down ‘Knowing and wise’ and the Prophet answered that there was no objection. Having observed a succession of changes of this type, Adbollah renounced Islam on the grounds that revelations, if from God could not be changed at the prompting of a scribe such as himself. After his apostasy he went to Mecca and joined the Qorayshites.’ Other writers reveal that later Muhammad and his people did go war with the Qorayshites and he personally killed Abdollah. Obviously Abdollah knew too much and Muhammad wanted Abdollah’s knowledge to die with him.”

    In conclusion, the Qu ‘ran, which is the foundation for ISIS, is not only a fiction, it’s also a hoax.

    It also should be added that since the Qu,ran has been proven to be a hoax ,as seen above ,this exposes the entire foundation of and for ISIS ,which is the Qu’ ran , then this means that the jihadists of ISIS have taken up a stand for a bad cause. To be more clear and specific a very bad cause.

    The Bible instructs “Do not stand up for a bad cause.” Ecclesiastes 8:3. [N.I.V.]

    Reply

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