How did Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa come to misunderstand Islam so spectacularly? Didn’t his local mosque teach him that the Islamic State has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam?
“Va. man charged with sending money to ISIS women overseas,” by Salvador Rizzo, Washington Post, May 8, 2023:
A Fairfax County man who professed his support for violent jihad in online posts secretly wired thousands of dollars to Islamic State women overseas, hoping to smuggle them out of a Syrian refugee camp, the FBI alleged in a filing unsealed Friday.
Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa, 33, was charged with providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Chhipa was being held in jail after making an initial appearance in Alexandria federal court Friday, records show.
The FBI said financial records obtained with grand jury subpoenas show that from late 2019 to summer 2022, Chhipa purchased $172,000 in virtual currency and also collected $15,000 in digital funds from others. An FBI agent alleged in a court filing that more than $18,000 “went to wallets known to be used by ISIS women located in Syria,” but that the total funds Chhipa sent to smuggle Islamic State women out of the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria could be much higher. The agent said $60,000 remained unaccounted for as of Friday….
U.S. officials said Chhipa, who was born in India and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, began using social media to fundraise for “sisters” in the al-Hol camp beginning in 2019, claiming the money was for “shelter.” PayPal blocked an account he had been using to receive funds in March 2021, the FBI said.
In August 2021, Chhipa met with an undercover FBI employee, collected $300, and wired it to his female Islamic State contact in Syria, according to the FBI affidavit. He collected another $120 in October 2021, $260 in November 2021, and $160 in January 2022 from the same undercover FBI employee. On those three occasions, he remained in his vehicle while his mother retrieved the cash, and then he transmitted it to his female contact in Syria, the filing says.
An FBI search of Chhipa’s home in 2019 turned up “thousands of videos, pictures, essays, books, notes, and search histories about extremist ideology, jihad, ISIS, and violent propaganda on multiple devices,” including instructions on how to build explosive devices and “images depicting what appears to be a beheading of an ISIS prisoner,” the FBI said….
But the filing says that in March 2019, Chhipa stated online: “I’ve already planted the seeds and realized that I only have 3-4 destinations in life,” including “Hijrah/Jihaad”…
Linde B. says
Mohammed Chhipa’s only destination should be Antarctica with a down jacket,
wool cap and boots. He should not be in America.
Hrb says
Get this Islam scum out of the United States of America!