Radicalized young American Muslims — including as many as 15 Somali-born Minnesotans — have flocked to a jihadist group in recent months, lured by rap videos and hip social-media propaganda.
Security experts are calling it the “Jihad Cool” rebranding of terrorism, and say it’s highly effective in pushing Americans like Abdirahmaan Muhumed, a Twin Cities father of nine, to high-tail it to Syria to help the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant topple President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“I give up this worldly life for Allah,” Muhumed said of joining the Islamic State in a Facebook message earlier this year. If people call him a terrorist, he’s “happy with it,” he added.
While not fighting, Muhumed has been busy posting images of himself online, showing himself smiling into the camera while holding an AK-47 and throwing the jihadi equivalent of a gang sign — pointing his index finger skyward. Another image appears to show the head of a deceased male.
The trend was first reported by Minnesota Public Radio.
The FBI would not name the 15 radicalized Minnesotans, except to confirm that Muhumed is among them, and that the agency is investigating how they were recruited.