Yesterday Jihad Watch brought you a report about these two Muslim brothers from Texas who joined the Islamic State, and their parents who lied to the FBI about it. This story has much more detail, including this: “A Texas college friend who asked that his name be withheld because he didn’t want to be associated with Arman said he arrived at UT-Austin as a ‘pretty normal kid.’ But he became religious during his second year and gradually grew more orthodox. Arman was no longer playing soccer, basketball and video games with friends. He was spending more time at the mosque, he said.”
So once again we see a Muslim becoming more observant in Islam and then joining a jihad terror group. There are so very many examples of this; just today a Muslim in Canada who stabbed a woman in the throat explained that he did it because he started listening to the Qur’an. Yet authorities persist in claiming that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. We even see the claim that jihadis know little about Islam and care even less. Arman Ali’s trajectory tells a different story.
Also, which mosque in the Austin, Texas area was Arman Ali attending? Has it been investigated? Has the FBI tried to determine whether Arman Ali got the idea to join the Islamic State from what he was taught there? Almost certainly not: the FBI remains determinedly clueless regarding the jihad terror threat. If we had any investigators who were patriotic and worth their salt, that mosque would be thoroughly investigated, and agents would be closely monitoring its teachings and attendees.
Note also that Omar Ali was working in strict accord with the Qur’an: “He emailed her again in October 2014 to say, ‘Allah tells the Muslim to fight, kill and exile “those who wage war against Allah or His messenger,”‘ according to court records.”
“Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment” (Qur’an 5:33).
“FBI says men from Plano went to fight with ISIS and their parents lied about it,” by Kevin Krause, Dallas News, October 11, 2017 (thanks to Kamala):
They were raised in a two-story brick house on a quiet Plano residential street, across from a church and a park. They went to good schools and enjoyed video games and music like their friends.
But Arman, 27, and Omar Ali, 26, would not follow the path of most Plano kids leaving home to start a life.
After some college study, the brothers moved to Egypt and then traveled to Syria to fight alongside ISIS terrorists, according to federal court records.
Now, their parents are charged with lying to the FBI about their sons’ activities in the Middle East. Mohommad Hasnain Ali and Sumaiya Ali pleaded guilty in federal court in June to making a false statement regarding international terrorism. They were scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, but the hearing has been postponed. A new date has not been established.
It’s unclear whether the brothers are still alive. They were charged in a sealed federal complaint in March with providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations. No indictments have been publicly filed in the case.
The case illustrates what studies of leaked ISIS files have shown: Many Islamic State recruits from the U.S. are well-educated and come from middle-class families. Plano neighbors described the Ali family as quiet but friendly. The father played tennis with one neighbor and engaged in friendly discussions with him about religion. The whole family came over for dinner one night.
Mohommad Ali, 57, declined to comment when reached at his Plano home on Monday.
But when FBI agents interviewed him in May 2015, he told them his sons were in Cairo, Egypt.
“He advised that his sons were peaceful, liked to study, and never indicated they would be affiliated with any terrorist group,” plea documents in the case said.
But his emails tell a different story.
In October 2014, Arman emailed his father a link to a video of an ISIS military parade in Libya. In the email, Arman talked about others who had traveled from the U.S. to join ISIS, according to federal court records.
In November, Arman sent his mother an email with his travel itinerary. She shared it with her husband. Arman and Omar traveled from Egypt to Syria via Turkey to fight for ISIS in late 2014, court records show.
Arman sent his father an email from Syria in March 2015:
“Things are heating up here, and I can’t guarantee me or Omar will be there in 2 months… I’ve been to the hospital every day with brothers from my group. Close friends have died, too many injured. Me and Omar are perfectly fine right now, but soon we may not be.”
But Mohommad Ali continued to tell the FBI agents that “there was no way his sons were in Syria,” court records show.
Sumaiya Ali, 49, also denied her sons were fighting, telling agents they are “very reserved” and had not made friends in Egypt.
“The defendant insisted that her sons would never be involved with ISIS or any other group,” plea documents said.
It was a lie, according to federal authorities.
“Prior to her sons’ departure from Egypt, the defendant communicated regularly with them regarding their whereabouts and desire to fight for ISIS,” plea documents said.
In February 2014, for example, she told Omar, “Do what you need to do.”
Omar responded: “Ok then going to Syria it is.”
He emailed her again in October 2014 to say, “Allah tells the Muslim to fight, kill and exile ‘those who wage war against Allah or His messenger,’” according to court records.
In March 2015, Omar told his mother he was trying to transfer to an “English speaking battalion.”…
The house they grew up in near Coit Road and Hedgcoxe Road is valued at $423,959.
So much for the “poverty causes terrorism” claim.
Arman attended the University of Texas at Austin from fall 2008 to spring 2011 but did not earn a degree, a university spokesperson said. His LinkedIn page said he studied neurobiology and religion at the school.
It said he earned a bachelor’s degree in Arab and Islamic civilization from The American University in Cairo in 2014. Arman’s LinkedIn page also said he earned a master’s degree in Islamic studies from the school. The university declined to confirm that, saying its policy is not to release student information without their consent.
A Texas college friend who asked that his name be withheld because he didn’t want to be associated with Arman said he arrived at UT-Austin as a “pretty normal kid.”
But he became religious during his second year and gradually grew more orthodox.
Arman was no longer playing soccer, basketball and video games with friends. He was spending more time at the mosque, he said. He grew a beard and started listening to Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist who runs Infowars….