Former Leader of Jihadist Propaganda Group Faces Prison for Threatening Jews
The U.S.-born co-founder of a Muslim extremist group that once threatened the creators of 鈥淪outh Park鈥� over an is now facing up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to issuing online threats against Jewish leaders.
, who entered the plea on Nov. 1, is the third person associated with the group Revolution Muslim to be convicted in federal court in Alexandria, Va., the His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 7.
The Post reported that in court documents al-Khattab 鈥渁dmits encouraging readers to take unspecified action against Jewish leaders.鈥�
The threats on the Revolution Muslim website included a video encouraging viewers to find leaders of Jewish Federation chapters and 鈥渄eal with them directly at their homes鈥�; directions to Jewish facilities, along with bomb-making instructions; and a poem listing ways to hurt Jews, including throwing 鈥渓iquid drain cleaner in their faces,鈥� according to the
Al-Khattab would seem an unlikely jihadist. He was born and raised in Brooklyn as Joseph Leonard Cohen. He has written that he grew up in a secular Jewish family but attended a yeshiva, or Jewish religious school, and then moved to Israel after marrying a Moroccan Jew. He converted to Islam while in the Middle East and went on to advocate the destruction of Israel while cheering and encouraging acts of terror against the United States.
In 2007, he formed Revolution Muslim with fellow Muslim convert Younes Abdullah Muhammad for the purpose, according to an FBI affidavit, of 鈥渆stablishing Islamic law in the U.S., destroying Israel, and taking al-Qaeda鈥檚 message to the masses.鈥� Muhammad is currently serving a 12-year federal prison sentence against the 鈥淪outh Park鈥� creators. Another man linked to the group, , was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges related to the 鈥淪outh Park鈥� threats and for attempting to provide support for al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based terrorist group.
Revolution Muslim鈥檚 main activity was operating a website that served as a conduit for the messages of extremist clerics and propaganda supporting al Qaeda. The influential website often featured gory scenes, including the bodies of Palestinian children, and has been tied to a string of terrorist plotters, some of whom al-Khattab claimed to be in contact with.
Al-Khattab has lavished praise on Osama bin Laden and Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. On his blog, he once posted a puppet show depicting the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
But in 2009, Khattab left Revolution Muslim, saying the website was an 鈥渋diotic thing鈥� that served as a 鈥渂ug light for Muslim misfits.鈥� He told CNN that he regretted that 鈥渁nybody would hurt an American civilian.鈥� Even so, he continued to advocate the imposition of Shariah law in the United States, praise bin Laden and support the notion of a 鈥淢ushroom Cloud Over Israel,鈥� according to the ADL.
After he left Revolution Muslim, the group changed its name to Islam Policy, and it continues to operate its website.
Al-Khattab was one of 10 homegrown jihadists profiled in the Weeks later, two of them 鈥� Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan 鈥� were killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen. A third, Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, was killed in Somalia on Sept. 12 by the al-Shabaab militants with whom he was allied.
