Minnesota, Twin Cities Show Unusually Active Rate of Terror Recruitment

24

An unusually large number of people from Minnesota have been tied to rising jihad recruitment, a new study shows.

Take care in Twin Cities — there are far too many ties to jihadists for the average comfort level.

Specifically, researchers at George Washington University discovered that those in Minnesota, particularly in the Twin Cities area, have been involved in a curiously large number of jihad recruitment efforts.

Jihad in America?

Story continues below advertisement

The data is alarming.

The Star Tribune has more:

An unprecedented “cluster” of Minnesotans aspiring to become jihadists overseas fueled the nation’s highest rate of terrorism recruitment, according to a new study that also found that attempts to travel to Syria or Iraq are on a steady decline since 2015.

The number of Americans to successfully join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is just a fraction of the several thousand Europeans who have made it into the group’s ranks. But researchers at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism found that Minnesota, particularly the Twin Cities, has seen an unusually active rate of jihadist mobilization with roots in an earlier wave of departures to join Somalia’s Al-Shabab militants in the late 2000s.

In a report released Monday called “The Travelers: American Jihadists in Syria and Iraq,” three terrorism scholars described a Twin Cities cluster more akin to terror conspiracy hubs in Belgian and French neighborhoods than the more common one- and two-off efforts more typically foiled by American law enforcement.

“The relatively high number of travelers is a reflection of the personal connections,” Seamus Hughes, one of the report’s authors, said Monday. “Brothers, roommates, and friends of individuals who traveled to join Al-Shabab in Somalia were part of the group that traveled to Syria. Personal connections still matter a great deal to successfully make it to conflict areas.”

The report — authored by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Hughes and Bennett Clifford — looked at seven Minnesota cases of successful travelers who were part of a group of 64 Americans who traveled to join jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq since 2011. They found at least another 50 Americans who were stopped from trying to travel overseas and added that both data sets “pale in comparison to recruitment” from some European cities.

But while the most popular form of “jihadist mobilization” has recently been traveling to join groups like ISIS abroad, the recent loss of territory and calls for a renewed focus on attacks in the West have contributed to a steady drop in traveler cases since 2015, the report found.

“The concern is that, absent a physical space to travel to, their focus will shift elsewhere to avenging the loss of the Islamic State,” Hughes said. “We’ve seen Islamic State propaganda romanticizing the lost caliphate and calling for those to commit attacks out of revenge.”

Though all but one of the publicly identified Minnesota travelers were male, the state’s travelers were much younger than the report’s average age of 27. The report cautioned that researchers have been unable to identify a single profile of would-be jihadists.

Minnesota’s successful travelers — like Hanad Mohallim and Abdi Nur — kept in touch with friends back home as they attempted to follow them to Syria in 2014 and 2015. The report cited a senior law enforcement official involved in the investigation as saying that had Abdullahi Yusuf not raised suspicions during his passport application interview, Yusuf might never have been stopped from boarding a May 2014 flight to Istanbul the day before Nur left on a similar flight undetected.

The tip triggered the nation’s largest terror recruitment probe, netting nine convictions and additional charges in absentia against those who made it overseas.

The researchers called the Minnesota case “the one known exception to the norm of American traveler networks” in that the group transcended several friend and family circles and included at least 15 people directly. Co-conspirators had connections to Al-Shabab members, like Mohamed Hassan, a Roosevelt High grad who has been under indictment since 2009 for allegedly joining the group in Somalia.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota has not charged anyone with trying to support terrorists since the 2016 case. Last year, the Star Tribune reported on a previously unidentified St. Louis Park college student who is believed to have left his family to join ISIS on a trip to their native Morocco in 2015. By all accounts thus far, Abdelhamid Al-Madioum had no clear connection to the larger traveler network, which was predominantly young Somali men.

Federal agents in Minnesota have more recently been looking for links to terrorism in violent cases like the 2016 stabbing at St. Cloud’s Crossroads Center mall for which ISIS claimed credit, and in a pair of Twin Cities cases still being assessed by law enforcement.

Mahad A. Abdirahman, 20, surprised federal authorities last month when he told a Hennepin County judge that he sought to answer the call of ISIS leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi when he stabbed two men at the Mall of America last fall. Original charging documents didn’t list a motive and suggested Abdirahman had psychological problems. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 16 and a plea deal calls for him to serve 15½ years — five years more than either of the six Minnesotans sentenced last year after pleading guilty to conspiring to support ISIS.

It is also unclear whether federal charges will be pursued against former St. Catherine University student Tnuza J. Hassan, who told police that she wanted to burn the school “to the ground” when she set a series of small fires on campus last month.

According to a criminal complaint charging her with first-degree arson, Hassan told investigators she would have used a bomb if she knew how to build one and that she had written a letter containing “radical ideas about supporting Muslims and bringing back the caliphate.”

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

Quick note: We cannot do this without your support. Fact. Our work is made possible by you and only you. We receive no grants, government handouts, or major funding. Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here.

Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s essential NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America's survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.

Follow Pamela Geller on Gettr. I am there. click here.

Follow Pamela Geller on
Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. It's open and free.

Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spammy or unhelpful, click the - symbol under the comment to let us know. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

If you would like to join the conversation, but don't have an account, you can sign up for one right here.

If you are having problems leaving a comment, it's likely because you are using an ad blocker, something that break ads, of course, but also breaks the comments section of our site. If you are using an ad blocker, and would like to share your thoughts, please disable your ad blocker. We look forward to seeing your comments below.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
24 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
ServosT
ServosT
6 years ago

Swedes and Norwegians.

Achmed Mohammedan
Achmed Mohammedan
6 years ago
Reply to  ServosT

Ten thousand svedes running through the veeds being chased by one soomawli.

Bradley Lexvold
Bradley Lexvold
6 years ago

Interesting variation on the original.

Achmed Mohammedan
Achmed Mohammedan
6 years ago

It’s been retitled. No longer the Battle of Copenhagen. It’s the Battle of Little Mogadishu.

delilahdriver
delilahdriver
6 years ago

This makes a person wonder, “How long before a Jihad murder spree in the Twin Cities?” The sad fact is that we live in a soft target society.

Suresh
Suresh
6 years ago

Like Left/liberal pro-jihadi loons the pope supports more such “immigrants” into christian lands while he has not voiced his outrage against atrocities by muslims in muslim lands https://tinyurl.com/ydy9xkxs

And this fraud hides behind 40 ft walls and criticises Trump for building a wall !
Worst Hypocrite ? or Leftists Anti-christian, pro-islam trojan horse ? you decide.

gfmucci
gfmucci
6 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

That is one excellent reason why I am not a Catholic.

R. Arandas
R. Arandas
6 years ago
Reply to  gfmucci

The Church sadly has done much more harm than good in the past century, at least.

gfmucci
gfmucci
6 years ago

Why is that so alarming with such a huge number of Muslims in the region? That area is a mini-Londonistan.

Achmed Mohammedan
Achmed Mohammedan
6 years ago
Reply to  gfmucci

It’s been called, “Little Mogadishu” for decades. Thanks to Bill Clownton.

jkarna
jkarna
6 years ago

They are not Minnesotans. They are Somali scum and where ever they end up, they is only one outcome.
They do not work and live of benefits.

David Glynn
David Glynn
6 years ago
Reply to  jkarna

Somalis! The lowest scum of the muzrat world!
PROSCRIBE ISLAM!

R. Arandas
R. Arandas
6 years ago

I hope that this country does NOT become Europe 2.0. If we fall, then all of Western civilization and democracy will truly have been lost. 🙁

Mahou Shoujo
Mahou Shoujo
6 years ago

This is a good thing. It is not possible for a somali muslim to get punished in minnesota, the killer cop being a prime example. However, in the middle east, no matter what they do, their life span is measurable in minutes. Send as many as possible, one way tickets are cheaper than welfare.

Achmed Mohammedan
Achmed Mohammedan
6 years ago
Reply to  Mahou Shoujo

Very well spoken. Well said. However, a rope is far less of a capital outlay than a one way ticket.

Achmed Mohammedan
Achmed Mohammedan
6 years ago

Rope can be used multiple times.

JGray1
JGray1
6 years ago

they’re not Americans. they’re somalis. stop the crap.

edD
ed
6 years ago

I’m sure that it is purely coincidental that Minnesota has a high Somali population…..

bill johnson
bill johnson
6 years ago
Reply to  ed

A high Islamic population.

Alleged-Comment
Alleged-Comment
6 years ago

These “people” are they Negroes? They seem to call them all kind of names nowadays; from bicyclist to youths to teens.

Just like the way we call communist “Demoncraps” in America. Amazing what a name change can do for the sheep.

Juan Cortez
Juan Cortez
6 years ago

Bingo, Alleged-Comment. Any time that I see “Teens,” I know what demographic to expect…

R. Arandas
R. Arandas
6 years ago
Reply to  Juan Cortez

It must be said that the African-American community does have a problem with youth violence and crime. Perhaps it is due to a lack of family stability or a father figure, but ignoring or downplaying this will not help anyone.

joanofark06
joanofark06
6 years ago

The Clarion Project, did an article on this, in June 2017.

Minnesota: Terror Recruiting Capital

https://clarionproject.org/minnesota-terror-recruiting-capital/

And I have quite a few articles, on the St.Cloud mall attacker, one that says “the attacker’s motive remains unclear one year later”.
And we all remember that Somali-American muslim “police officer” that killed that lady yoga instructor in cold blood..
But what’s really bad is that there is a “First”…the first Somali-American State Lawmaker that says, “the US is welcoming, despite Islamophobia”…..what is wrong with these Americans in this state!!!???
I say if THAT many people are voting people like this, in office, then they deserve everything they get!
I also have a article in that state, that says that a muslim that was convicted of terrorism was released from a halfway house…..incredibly sick news!
This state is DOOMED!!

dad1927
dad1927
6 years ago

when they join ISIS the welfare $$ follows themcomment image

Here is a pic of St Paul mayor while she made one a cop which killed a white woman.

Whites cannot be hired unless they speak arabic and fit the demographics for any level of govt there now.

Sponsored
Geller Report
Thanks for sharing!