Jihad in the USA

Young men in Minnesota still being encouraged to join the jihad.

A college student from St. Paul, MN has been arrested on charges of making terroristic threats, according to his family.

As reported by TwinCities.com, “[t]he family of Sharmarke Duale, 20, told police he had done well in high school and college until he began attending a mosque on University Avenue, according to a criminal complaint.

The name of the mosque was not mentioned.

“Since that time, he has been very disrespectful toward the women in the house and has threatened his father to try to get his father to assist Duale in getting a passport,” according to the complaint filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.”

According to the report, Duale had become aggressive recently and threatened to injure or kill his mother and sister. Duale also allegedly demanded assistance from his father to obtain a passport so he could travel to fight jihad, though his father is denying that claim.

This is not an isolated incident.

The FBI has investigated the rising number of young men from Minnesota that are being radicalized and joining terror groups in recent years.

In 2008 and 2009, the FBI investigated 20 missing persons cases involving young men and boys, who were in some cases reportedly found in Somalia training with al-Shabaab, an Al Qaeda-linked terror group attempting to take over the Somali government.

The New York Times reported on the situation in 2009:

“An examination by The New York Times, based on interviews with close friends and relatives of the men, law enforcement officials and lawyers, as well as access to live phone calls and Facebook messages between the men and their friends in the United States, reveals how a far-flung jihadist movement found a foothold in America’s heartland.

The men appear to have been motivated by a complex mix of politics and faith, and their communications show how some are trying to recruit other young Americans to their cause.”

Noting the threat to young men of Somali decent in the Minneapolis area, Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed visited the Twin Cities in October 2009 to denounce the recruitment of young men by al Shabaab and its supporters. Ahmed vowed to work with U.S. officials, parents and imams to thwart future attempts to radicalize young people in the United States.

That message didn’t make it Sharmarke Duale.

Duale has no previous criminal record and was being held as of Friday in the the Ramsey County Jail.