Michigan Cleric Radicalized London Terrorist: Reports

DEARBORN, MI — A Muslim cleric already under intense U.S. government scrutiny due to his popularity among ISIS extremists helped radicalize terrorists who claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack on the London Bridge that killed seven people, according to media reports.

The Telegraph reported that one of the three terror suspects had told a friend that he was radicalized while watching videos on YouTube of Shiekh Ahmad Musa Jibril, a charismatic anti-American, pro-ISIS cheerleader identified in 2014 as keenly influential in using social media to radicalize Muslims.

The Telegraph reported Monday that the terror suspect’s friend, who was not identified at the request of police, said he had become increasingly concerned about the suspect's extremist views after watching Jibril’s videos and reported him to authorities. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Dearborn Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

“He used to listen to a lot of Musa Jibril. I have heard some of this stuff and it's very radical. I am surprised this stuff is still on YouTube and is easily accessible. I phoned the anti-terror hotline. I spoke to the gentleman. I told him about our conversation and why I think he was radicalised,” the friend said.

In an interview with BBC's Asian Network, the friend said they “spoke about a particular attack that had happened and, like most radicals, he had a justification for anything — everything and anything.”

He said he contacted authorities with his concerns. “I did my bit, I know a lot of other people did their bit, but the authorities didn’t do their bit,” the friend said, noting that his friend was never arrested and was allowed to keep his passport.

In 2014, a pioneering report by the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence offered telling anecdotes about Jibril’s prominence in radical Islam politics. At the time, he operated a website that “contained a library of fanatically anti-American sermons by militant Islamic clerics.”

The report also cited another Western cleric, noting that both Jibril and Musa Cerantonio are followed on Twitter by “60 percent and 23 percent of foreign fighters, respectively, and [are] particularly strong among groups like ISIS, whose members provide a majority of their likes and follows.”

The report emphasized that the findings should not suggest that “either individual is a member of ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusrah, nor should it be taken as indicating that they are involved in facilitating the recruitment of foreign fighters.”

Jibril began building his social media presence in 2012 within days of his release from federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he served seven years on multiple counts of bank fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and other charges. He and his father had been convicted of insuring 13 homes and two apartment buildings for more than they were worth and defrauding six local banks of $250,000, The Detroit News reported.

Days before his probation was scheduled to end In 2015, the federal government made filings in U.S. District Court in Detroit to get at the root of who is financing him. The government suspected he was being backed by terrorist groups, but Jibril declined to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Jibril had been shunned by Muslims in Dearborn, where about 40 percent of the population is Arab-American, and was dismissed from a mosque in 2003 because of his radical views. He transferred to a mosque in Brownstown, but within a month was also banned from prayers.

Image via YouTube