Brooklyn judge sentences black Imam to life in prison for planned JFK terror plot

Ibrahim 'abandoned the true tenants of his religion' by participating in the plot, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

An Imam has been sentenced to life in prison for joining a failed plot to firebomb John F. Kennedy Airport in 2007 by blowing up jet fuel supplies with the help of a notorious al-Qaida explosives expert.

Sentenced to life: Kareem Ibrahim pictured
in 2007 leaving court in Trinidad

A federal judge in Brooklyn gave Kareem Ibrahim, the leader of the Shiite Muslim community in Trinidad and Tobago, the life term on Friday after a jury found him guilty last year of conspiracy.

Three other men were charged in the plot: Co-defendants Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese Shi'ite, former JFK cargo handler who spoke of punishing the United States with an attack that would "dwarf 9/11"- and Abdel Kadir, an engineer and former member of Guyana's parliament, both were sentenced to life in prison. Abdel Nur was sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

At a pair of trials, prosecutors accused the men of wanting to kill thousands of people and cripple the American economy and avenge U.S. mistreatment of Muslims worldwide by using explosives to blow up the fuel tanks and the underground pipelines that run through an adjacent Queens neighbourhood.  

Read more in the Daily Mail, 15 Jan 2012.

Arkansas recruitment shooter confesses motivation Pentagon report omits: killing U.S. servicemembers domestically is a 'Muslim obligation for Jihad'

The Pentagon's report about the motivations of Ft. Hood shooter, Palestinian-American Army Major Dr. Nidal Hasan, omit reference to  Islamic religious dogma for Muslims killing of American service-members. 

But Carlos Bledsoe, (pictured right) who attacked an Arkansas, Army-recruitment store, answered for the public what the Pentagon report refused to acknowledge.  His motivation for shooting to kill white 23-year old Army Private William Long and wounding an 18-year old African-American Army recruiter private wasn't racial. It wasn't political opposition to the war, it was his Islamic religious beliefs.  He confessed to the judge in his case that he is commanded, as an American Muslim, to fight those who wage war on Muslims.

(CNN - Jan 22)  A Tennessee man -- accused in a fatal attack at a military recruiting center in Arkansas in June -- wants to plead guilty and claims to have ties to al Qaeda in Yemen in a letter he wrote to the judge presiding over his case.


In the handwritten letter dated January 12, Abdul Hakim Muhammad said he did not want a trial and insisted the shooting was "justified" under jihad.

"This was a jihadi attack on infidel forces that didn't go as plan," he wrote. "Flat out truth."

Mr. Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe,(pictured left) is charged with killing Pvt. William Long, 23 (photos left, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18 (photo right). The attack happened on June 1 at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas.  In his letter to the judge, Muhammad claimed he had links to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, a group that has claimed responsibility for the attempting bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

"My lawyer has no defense," he wrote. "I wasn't insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this act. Which I believe and it is justified according to Islamic laws and the Islamic religion jihad -- to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims."

(End CNN article) (Photo right) Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula

To what degree do Muslims living in the West (especially as citizens) have dual-allegiance?  Where Islamic law contradicts Western law, how often will Muslims prioritize Islamic law (shariah)? And to what extent should Western society involve itself to insure allegiance to its laws among those with a propensity to subvert its laws, or with an allegiance to promoting a conflicting political system?

A report delivered to the French parliament recommends restrictions on the use of the full face veil for Muslim women in public. It suggests banning the veil in public facilities including hospitals, universities and mass transit. (AP, Jan 26)




Time Magazine publishes: "Face Veils: Bans in Europe Fail to Take Hold in U.S."

Politics Daily publishes this op-ed by Bonnie Erbe: "France's Proposed Burqa Ban: Why Americans Might Want to Consider It Too"