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Violent Jihad

BREAKING: NYC Bomber Notes Reveal ISIS Inspiration

Rahami appears to have been following Islamic State orders to strike at home.

BY Paul Sperry · @paulsperry_ | September 21, 2016

It appears from notes written by captured New York bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami that he was motivated by ISIS orders to carry out attacks inside America.

A newly released FBI complaint reveals a passage from a journal Rahami kept that contains “a reference to the instructions of terrorist leaders that, if travel is infeasible, to attack nonbelievers where they live.”

While the terrorist leaders are not identified in the complaint, it quotes fragments of a related passage: “ … back to sham [Syria.] But [unintelligible] this incident show the risk are [unintelligible] of getting caught under [unintelligible].”

It’s not immediately known if Rahami attempted to travel to Syria and join ISIS and its jihad there. But for the past several months, ISIS has called on its supporters to strike in the West if they were prevented from traveling to the lands of the so-called caliphate, including Syria and Iraq.

In May, ISIS spokesman Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani advised followers that if American and other Western authorities “have shut the door of hijrah [migration] in your faces,” then “open the door of jihad in theirs.” In his notes, Rahami appears to comply with the plan, praying to Allah to help him carry out “jihad” at home without interference from “the F.B.I. & homeland security.” He started ordering bomb components in June.

“Make your deed a source of their regret,” said al-Adnani, who was killed earlier this month. “Truly, the smallest act you do in their lands is more beloved to us than the biggest act done here; it is more effective for us and more harmful to them.”

Added al-Adnani: “If one of you wishes and strives to reach the lands of the Islamic State, then each of us wishes to be in your place to make examples of the crusaders, day and night, scaring them and terrorizing them, until every neighbor fears his neighbor.”

Adnani told would-be jihadists they should “not make light of throwing a stone at a crusader in his land,” nor should they “underestimate any deed, as its consequences are great for the mujahidin and its effect is noxious to the disbelievers.”

In its latest issue of Dabiq magazine, “Break the Cross,” the Islamic State encourages Muslims in the West who are unable to migrate to “the Caliphate” to “serve a much greater purpose” by striking “behind enemy lines.”

“The blood of the disbelievers is obligatory to spill by default. The command is clear. Kill the disbelievers, as Allah said, ‘Then kill the polytheists wherever you find them,’” the magazine said.

“As they haphazardly kill Muslims in their war against the mujahidin,” it exhorted, “it becomes even more obligatory for you to attack the Crusader nations and their citizens in their homelands.”

“They are bombing your brothers and sisters day and night in the land where Allah’s law is supreme. It is an obligation upon you to act and force them to think thrice before bombing the Muslims. Therefore, terrorize the disbelievers and make them feel fear everywhere, even in their own bedrooms,” the magazine continued. “Attack the interests of the Crusader coalition near you, including their embassies, businesses, and ‘civilians.’ Burn down their government institutions just as they try to bomb our buildings where Allah’s law is upheld.”

Rahami, a naturalized citizen from Afghanistan, parrots ISIS propaganda in his notes, citing similar motivation for bloodshed: “You (USA Government) continue your [unintelligible] slaught[er] against the mujahidean be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Sham [Syria], Palestine … .”

The 13-page FBI complaint explains that key words on the page of the journal that appear to reference the Islamic State or ISIS were “illegible,” because the page was “damaged during the arrest of, and exchange of gunfire with, Rahami.”

In recent weeks, the Obama administration has maintained that ISIS is losing ground and on the run.

ISIS hasn’t taken responsibility for the bombing, which injured nearly 30 people in New York, but the terror group’s supporters have hailed it is a victory for their cause. “The lions of the Caliphate roar in New York, we cause you pain inside your house, the carrier of the Cross,” posted one Twitter user associated with ISIS.

On the same day as the bombing, a 20-year-old Somali-American stabbed 10 people in a mall in St. Cloud, Minn., while shouting “Allahu Akbar” and asking his victims if they were Muslim. ISIS claimed credit for the attack and called the suspected terrorist, Dahir Ahmed Adan, “a soldier of the Islamic State.”

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