A second American teenager has been stopped by U.S. law enforcement as he was on his way to join the Islamic State (IS).
Resident of Chicago
Over the weekend, residents in the working-class Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, Illinois, reeled in shock when they realised that one of their neighbours, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, described as a “nice, polite young man,” was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, from where he was planning to fly to Vienna and then onward to Istanbul, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Last month, Shannon Conley (19) of Denver, Colorado, pleaded guilty to charges that she sought to aid IS, scarcely five months after U.S. authorities stopped her before she boarded a flight en route to Syria.
In her case authorities were tipped off by the woman’s parents, who feared that she had grown increasingly radicalised, and on September 9 she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
According to reports Khan however had explained his reasons for attempting the journey in a three-page letter he left for his family whom he invited to join him in his jihadist mission, although he “warned them not to tell anyone about his travel plans,” the criminal complaint said.
‘Obligation to migrate’
Arguing that there was an obligation to “migrate” to IS territory, Khan said, “We are all witness that the Western societies are getting more immoral day by day… I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this.”
He added that he could not bear the thought of his taxes in the U.S. being used to kill his “Muslim brothers and sisters,” a likely reference to increasingly intense bombing of IS targets in Iraq and Syria by the U.S. and allied forces.