Alleged Dallas-area ISIS Supporter Goes on Trial for Recruiting Jihadists to Kill Nonbelievers

"ISIS will chop your head off." That was how Taryn Meeks began her opening statement Tuesday to a federal jury in Dallas that's hearing the international terrorism trial of a Richardson man. Meeks, a trial attorney with the Justice Department's National Security Division, said those were among the words Said Azzam Mohamad Rahim uttered during his lengthy online campaign to recruit others to join ISIS and kill nonbelievers at home and abroad. "Smash his head on the wall," the government also quoted Rahim as saying on Zello, a social media platform. "Think of a way to kill the biggest number of people possible." Rahim, sporting a bald head and thick beard, is charged with lying to the FBI about his support for the Islamic State and with plotting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He has been locked up since his March 2017 arrest, when he was 40-years-old. The trial is expected to last about a week. Details from his indictment and two detention hearings revealed how Rahim allegedly used the internet to mobilize people to engage in jihad, or holy war. Rahim, a U.S. citizen who owns or used to own an Oak Cliff convenience store, told listeners on Zello to kill as many "infidels" as possible, court records say. He is charged with six counts of making a false statement to a federal agency, one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and one count of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The indictment says Rahim provided ISIS with "services and personnel" from October 2014 to March 2017. Prosecutors plan to detail those benefits during the trial.   Continue reading...

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