Sunday, April 7, was just another day in the fair city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. But if a teenager named Alexander Scott Mercurio had gotten his way, it would have gone down in history as another one of those infamous dates, akin to December 7, September 11, and October 7. Instead, Mercurio was arrested on Saturday. Nevertheless, there are numerous reasons why it would be unwise to let the case of this bloody-minded young man pass unnoticed.
CNN reported Tuesday that Mercurio “planned to attack churches in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Sunday ‘using weapons, including knives, firearms, and fire,’ according to court documents cited by the Justice Department.” He is accused of writing out his plan: “Stop close by the church, equip the weapon(s) and storm the temple, kill as many people as possible before they inevitably disperse/scatter, then burn the temple to the ground and flee the scene.” He planned improbably to repeat this scenario at all 21 churches in Coeur d’Alene; what he imagined the local police might be doing in all the time it would have taken to do this is unclear.
Mercurio wanted to commit this large-scale mass murder because of his Islamic faith and loyalty to the Islamic State (ISIS). “Alexander Scott Mercurio” is not a name that Muslim parents are likely to give to their children; young Mercurio is clearly a convert to Islam, and was anxious to demonstrate the fervor of his new faith by carrying out his massacre during the holy month of Ramadan.
Western analysts routinely tell us that Ramadan is a time when many Muslims try to intensify their devotion to Allah, and that’s true. A hadith has a Muslim asking Muhammad, “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).” Muhammad replied, “I do not find such a deed.” (Bukhari 4.52.44) So what better way to increase one’s devotion to Allah than by waging jihad? In April 2022, the Palestinian Authority’s Supreme Sharia Judge, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, declared that “Ramadan is not a month of laziness but rather a month of activity, of effort, and of hard work, and as it also was in the life of the Prophet, a month of jihad, conquest, and victory.” Every Ramadan, therefore, we see an increase in jihad attacks.
Mercurio also planned to “harm his father and acquire firearms.” The pious young man “stated he intended to incapacitate his father with a pipe, handcuff him, and use the firearms locked in the closet to attack the church.” He explained that he wanted to attack his father because his parents were not happy with his “deen,” that is, his religion. As the Qur’an says, “You will not find people who believe in Allah and the last day loving those who oppose Allah and his messenger, even though they be their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their tribe.” (58:22)
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To express his devotion to his “deen,” Mercurio made a video holding a knife and standing in front of an ISIS flag, pledging his allegiance to the jihad group. In his parents’ home, where he lived (of course), there were “items consistent with his planned attack,” including a “metal pipe, handcuffs, folding saw, head coverings, two cannisters of butane fuel, and machete,” as well as “multiple rifles and handguns.” Mercurio was frustrated that he had not yet had a chance to demonstrate his zeal: “I am a hypocrite who has not even spat in the face of a kafir [non-believer] or donated a single penny in the cause of Allah, let alone spilled their blood and induced terror into their hearts and minds.” This also is a statement inspired by the Qur’an, which instructs Muslims to “strike terror in the enemies of Allah” (8:60).
Authorities are warning that Mercurio is an example of the “dangers of self-radicalization,” but they have not and will not, of course, say a word about the material that radicalized him. The recurring pattern of converts to Islam somehow getting the idea that their new religion requires them to do violence to non-Muslims has never been of the slightest concern to intelligence or law enforcement officials in the U.S. or anywhere else. Mercurio, however, didn’t undergo his “self-radicalization” while reading Dr. Seuss. The fact that no officials want to face is that some reading material is more conducive to “self-radicalization” than others. Such considerations could lead to “Islamophobia,” and those who have the responsibility to protect American citizens have clearly decided that it is better that Americans be murdered in jihad attacks than that the root cause of these “self-radicalizations” be examined.
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