Revolution Muslim's Co-Founder Charged For South Park Threats

The Justice Department has issued an arrest warrant for Younus Abdullah Mohammed, aka Jesse Morton, the "emir" of the group formerly known as Revolution Muslim.

As of this morning, there were no indications the warrant had been executed. An item with a posting date of today appeared on IslamPolicy.com, RM's successor site, using a username that has in the past been associated with Mohammed.

An online resume ascribed to Mohammed listed his residence as Morocco. Morocco has no extradition treaty with the United States.

According to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint filed May 13, the move to arrest Mohammed has been in the works for a long time. The complaint was first reported by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Mohammed is charged with communicating threats in the form of publishing Zach Chesser's diatribes against the creators of South Park, which promised death to anyone who depicted or mocked the Prophet Mohammed (the subject of a meta-commentary on the show in April 2010).

According to the affidavit, Mohammed recruited Chesser to write for RevolutionMuslim.com in early 2010, after Chesser had littered the Internet with a variety of provocative postings in favor of terrorism and jihad against the West. Chesser was promoted to administrator on the site in April 2010.

After the initial posting, which was written by Chesser, both Mohammed and Chesser worked together to refine a written response in an effort to parse the language of the post and cast it as a "warning," rather than a "threat," which fooled no one.

Chesser wrote the first draft of the response, and Mohammed added a quote from bin Laden and a passage that read ""[t]hus our position remains that it is likely the creators of South Park will indeed end up [dead], and we pray Allah makes this a reality," according to the affidavit.

The "prayer" was deleted from the final version at Chesser's request. Chesser and Mohammed discussed the changes in a phone call -- which was being tapped by the FBI, the affidavit reveals. Mohammed told Chesser, the South Park controversy "was very, very, very strategic so far, but we have to be careful, I don't want to go to prison, to be honest with you."

For much more about Revolution Muslim and other American jihadists, buy J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, out now!.

Labels: Islam-Policy, Revolution-Muslim, South-Park, Younus-Abdullah-Mohammed, Zach-Chesser

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Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink