All we kept hearing was “An 18-year-old man was arrested for threats against Jews that prompted the FBI to issue a warning to synagogues before the 2022 midterms.” But finally today, we learn that this 18 year old terrorist-wannabe is a devout Muslim, Omar Alkattoul.
NorthJersey.com Days after an FBI warning spread fear through New Jersey’s Jewish community, federal prosecutors on Thursday said they had charged an 18-year-old from Middlesex County for allegedly threatening to attack a synagogue and individual Jews in an online manifesto.
Omar Alkattoul, 18, of Sayreville, was arrested Thursday morning and charged with one count of transmitting a threat, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced. The high school student appeared in federal court in Newark in the afternoon and was ordered detained without bail.
In online postings and subsequent interviews with authorities, Alkattoul allegedly said he took inspiration from the ISIS and al-Qaeda terror groups, as well as Dylann Roof, the gunman who massacred nine people in a racist attack on a South Carolina church in 2015.
According to a federal criminal complaint, Alkattoul said online that he wanted to avenge the killings of Muslims and that his attack would “involve bombings, shootings and maybe beheadings.”
The FBI’s Newark office issued its initial alert on the afternoon of Nov. 3, saying it had “credible information” regarding a “broad threat” to temples in the state. The announcement prompted many in the Jewish community to beef up precautions at synagogues and other sites.
By the next day, however, the FBI announced that it had identified the source of the threat and that the person no longer posed a danger. Authorities offered no other details at the time.
According to the complaint, Alkattoul used a social media app to send an unnamed individual a link to “When Swords Collide,” which the teenager said he’d written. Alkattoul allegedly said the document was written “in the context of an attack on Jews.”
In it, he allegedly discusses plans to kill Jews as revenge for the death of Muslims. “I am the attacker and I would like to introduce myself…I am a Muslim with so many regrets but I can assure you this attack is not one of them,” he allegedly wrote, adding that he was motivated by his “hatred towards Jews and their heinous acts.”
“I will discuss my motives in a bit but I did target a synagogue,” he wrote, according to prosecutors.
According to the complaint, Alkattoul told law enforcement in a subsequent interview that he became radicalized after viewing ISIS propaganda online and communicating with others, who he believed to be part of al-Qaeda, who encouraged him to carry out an attack. It is not clear who those individuals were, or if they existed at all.
Alkattoul later told authorities that he was merely joking and didn’t want to serve time in prison, the complaint said.
Authorities said Alkattoul agreed to be taken to a hospital for a voluntary exam after his interview. During the trip, he allegedly told a hospital employee that he identified with the ideologies of ISIS and al-Qaeda and had plans to “blow up a synagogue but did not know if it was going to be in a day, a week, or year.”
The arrest comes amid an uptick in antisemitic rhetoric and assaults in America, which has seen record reports of anti-Jewish activity in recent years. More than 2,700 incidents were reported in 2021, a roughly 34% increase over the previous year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitism.
Most of the reported incidents occurred in New York, followed by New Jersey and California.
“There is nothing the U.S. Attorney’s Office takes more seriously than threats to our communities of faith and places of worship,” Sellinger, the U.S. Attorney in Newark, said in a statement. “Protection of these communities is core to this office’s mission, and this office will devote whatever resources are necessary to keep our Jewish community and all New Jersey residents safe.”
If convicted, Alkattoul could face a sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Sellinger’s office said.
Here is the criminal complaint against Omar Alkattoul:
Az gal says
New Jersey is full of them. (Musscum)
leoniepipe says
Omar Alkattoul, the “white supremacist”. Now I understand why the media never release the names of these muzzie parasites. If they did, everyone would know who the real Jew-haters are.
Reader says
In folk lore it says that blood-sucking vampires may not enter your home until you invite them in first.
Caroleigh says
Another worthless GD Muslim
gmcmi says
He is not American maybe born in America, but have muzz parent, so why not deport he and family? His family is in on it and raised this speciman.
BLR says
FBI always describe these radicalized muslims as loners bullshit there is no muslim in these united states that are loners there is a hive of them somewhere in the loop they travel nobody is digging deep enough to find them or seam to want to , all muslim loops contain a mosque start there end there
Anthony Gu says
How right you are. There should be no Muslims in the US as they are the antithesis of freedom and liberty and most importantly do not honor the Lord but only their Satanic “Allah”.
Classy Infidel says
There is no such thing as a loner. Family and friends know. If they pray five times a day and follow all the rules, there is a problem. He most surely shared the ISIS and Al Qaeda videos with people he knew.
Reader says
https://thefederalistpapers.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/imageedit_1047_8949794095.jpg
Reader says
https://www.wnd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/toon141216b.jpg