Last week 20-year-old Mahad Abdiaziz Abdirahaman submitted a statement to the Hennepin County Court in Minnesota saying that his stabbing attack at the Mall of America this past November was inspired by ISIS and was in response to the terror group’s calls to jihad.
But in the most recent case of “See No Jihad” syndrome, it seems that law enforcement and the local media don’t want to believe him,
And this is not the first time this has happened in Minnesota.
The stabbing incident occurred on Nov. 12 at Macy’s in the Mall of America in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington.
Two brothers, 19-year old Alexander Sanchez and 25-year old John Sanchez, received cuts to their face and upper body in the knife attack.
According to the local ABC affiliate, when Abdirahaman was pleading guilty in court last week his attorney read a statement from his client insisting that at the time of his arrest he told police that the attack was “an answer to the call of jihad.”
Abdirahaman said specifically that he was responding to the terror group’s “call for jihad by the Chief of Believer, Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, may Allah protect him, and by the Mujahideen of the Islamic State.”
He went further:
I want the reason for my attack to be clear to this court and to the public, so that you may understand that you will never be safe as long as your country is at war with Islam. And that the threat of death or imprisonment will never deter us from fighting for the sake of Allah.
Remarkably, despite Abdirahaman’s unmistakable confession, local authorities are still unsure whether to classify the attack as terrorism. The FBI said they were aware of the court statement but wouldn’t comment.
This is yet another episode of “See No Jihad” syndrome, where someone commits an act of violence and openly states that his motive is rooted in the ideology of radical Islam in response to calls for violence made by Islamic terror groups around the world — and authorities downplay the motive.
And this is not even the first instance of “See No Jihad” syndrome in Minnesota.
As I reported here at PJ Media several months ago, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune had trouble locating the motive for a nearly-identical terror attack to the one at the Mall of America last November.
In September 2016, Somali refugee Dahir Adan walked into the Crossroads Center shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and went into a stabbing attack shouting “Islam, Islam” and “Allah Akbhar.” According to eyewitnesses, Adan asked some of his 10 stabbing victims if they were Muslim before attacking them. Adan was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer.
The day after the St. Cloud stabbing incident, ISIS officially claimed the attack, declaring that Adan was one of their “soldiers.”
While there has never been any evidence made public that Adan had any contact with ISIS or any other foreign terrorist organization, there was clear evidence he was driven by radical Islamic ideology.
That’s what then-FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing.
FBI Director James Comey says that Dahir Adan appears to have been inspired by extremist ideology. | https://t.co/0336Rbhyiw pic.twitter.com/0dsJ4XHZY3
— WCCO – CBS Minnesota (@WCCO) September 28, 2016
FBI: in mnths bfore the stabbing Adan showed new "interest" in religion, w/drew from friends, went frm being excellent student 2 failing 2/3
— Abigail Hauslohner (@ahauslohner) October 6, 2016
And according to CBS News, Adan had taken a sudden new interest in Islam:
The stabbings at a central Minnesota mall last month that wounded 10 likely was premeditated by the attacker, who may have become radicalized recently, federal authorities said Thursday.
Dahir Ahmed Adan became interested in Islam in the last several months, withdrew from his friends and encouraged his sisters to be more religious, FBI Special Agent Rick Thornton said at a news conference.
Witnesses told investigators that 20-year-old Adan yelled “Islam, Islam” and “Allahu akbar,” as well as asking several people whether they were Muslim before stabbing them during the Sept. 17 attack, which started outside Crossroads Center mall before moving inside.
“We were told Adan had not previously shown an interest in religion. Adan also encouraged some female relatives to become more religiously observant,” Thornton said, adding that investigators continue to analyze Adan’s digital footprint, including his social media and online activity, and are trying to obtain permission to unlock his smartphone.
FBI Director James Comey said last week it appeared Adan was at least partly inspired by extremist ideology. Thornton also said that Adan went from being a high academic performer to failing out of college “almost overnight” after taking an increased interest in Islam.
But on the one-year anniversary of the St. Cloud attack this past September, the Star-Tribune published an article by Stephen Montemayor questioning whether we would ever know about Adan’s motives for the attack:
One year later, motive of St. Cloud mall attacker remains unclear https://t.co/uDmlDxhdTV
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) September 17, 2017
Montemayor interviewed local far-left organizations that claimed that any attempts to draw conclusions from the evidence already made public were conspiracy theories.
That’s how detached “See No Jihad” syndrome has become.
As I’ve reported here previously, there is now an entire genre of reporting emerging where the media and the families of the terrorists, sometimes even the FBI and DOJ, gaslight the motive after a terror attack:
Hey <i>New York Times</i>, Here's What We Know About Orlando Killer's Motive https://t.co/0VAhwXtUj3 #homelandsecurity
— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) June 16, 2016
It’s unclear if the Orlando mass killer was actually driven by religious or political ideology https://t.co/QZ8jbCpZqj
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 14, 2016
Some Helpful Clues For Tennessee Terror Attack Investigators and the Perplexed Media http://t.co/DDu02XjnEe #tcot
— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) July 19, 2015
In suburban Manchester, a search for what might have motivated the attacker https://t.co/vIWeeT7bqe
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 24, 2017
Family of Ohio State ISIS Jihadist 'Mystified' Over What Drove Him To Attack https://t.co/d2oZQSwYaA via @pjmedia_com
— Patrick Poole (@pspoole) July 30, 2017
One Year After #PulseNightclub Attack, @orlandosentinel Gaslights Omar Mateen's Motive https://t.co/pqWqJshLsH via @pjmedia_com pic.twitter.com/d444v7DOfE
— Patrick Poole (@pspoole) June 12, 2017
It is downright Orwellian that terrorists can clearly state their motive and have the media reflexively and systematically call into question whether their own testimony is valid. In the case of the Orlando attack at the Pulse nightclub, Omar Mateen actually called 911 and a local TV station to pledge his allegiance to ISIS, only to have the Obama Justice Department initially scrub any mention of his ISIS pledge from the published transcripts
And now we have once again in Minnesota authorities failing to take the court testimony of an admitted terrorist at his word. To describe the “See No Jihad” phenomenon as troubling would be an understatement.
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