Muslim man sentenced for conspiring to commit ISIS-inspired attack

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(The Center Square) – Another Muslim man has been convicted and sentenced to years in prison on terrorism charges, including providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.  

Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 28, of Ontario, Canada, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for offenses related to a 2020 attack on correctional officers at U.S. Penitentiary Allenwood, a maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania. This sentence runs consecutive to the 40-year sentence he is currently serving for his role in plotting a mass-casualty terrorist attack in New York City on behalf of ISIS in 2016.

“We will prosecute those who aid, attempt to aid, or commit violence on behalf of the pernicious ISIS ideology wherever they may be found,” U.S. Attorney Brian Miller for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said. Bahnasawy’s second sentence reflects the federal government’s “unwavering commitment to fight those who perpetrate violence in the name of ISIS even behind prison walls,” he added.

According to court documents, Bahnasawy attacked two corrections officers while serving time at USP Allenwood on Dec. 7, 2020. Using a weapon he made from part of a steel desk in his cell, he stabbed one officer in the head and face. When a second responded to assist, he stabbed her in the hand. Both survived; the first officer eventually lost his right eye.

After Bahnasawy was restrained, officers found a note in his sock stating, “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State.” A pledge of allegiance to ISIS was also found taped to the inside of a locker door in his prison cell. 

He pleaded guilty last November to multiple counts of assault, assault with intent to commit murder, and possession of contraband inside a prison. He also pleaded guilty to providing material support to ISIS, a designated Foreign Terror Organization. This case was investigated by the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office and was prosecuted in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. 

The attack occurred while Bahnasawy was serving a 40-year sentence delivered in 2018 for his role in plotting a mass-casualty terrorist attack in New York City on behalf of ISIS in 2016. Then 20 and while living in Canada, he plotted with two other coconspirators, according to the charges. Authorities say the other coconspirators are Talha Haroon, a U.S. citizen living in Pakistan, and Russell Salic, a citizen and resident of the Philippines. The three were charged on multiple terrorism offenses for their alleged role in planning to bomb and shoot at civilians in heavily populated areas of New York City, according to the charges. 

Bahnasawy acquired bomb-making materials and helped secure a cabin within driving distance of New York City, where he planned to build the bombs and stage the attacks. Haroon made plans to travel from Pakistan to New York City to join him to carry out the attacks, authorities allege. Salic wired money from the Philippines to the U.S. to help fund the terrorist operation, authorities allege. 

An undercover FBI agent infiltrated the group posing as an ISIS supporter and thwarted their plan, authorities said. The FBI arrested Bahnasawy in May 2016 after he traveled from Canada to the New York City area to prepare for the attacks. In October 2016, he pleaded guilty to seven counts of terrorism offenses. 

Haroon was arrested in Pakistan in September 2016 and charged with multiple terrorism offenses by the DOJ. In 2019, the Islamabad High Court “reserved its judgement” in a case related to his extradition to the U.S., the Express Tribune reported.

Salic was arrested in the Philippines in April 2017. An orthopedic hospital surgeon, he was found to be “providing financial support to several extremists or suspicious terrorists in the Middle East, in the US, Malaysia," Philippine officials said at the time, The Asean Post reported. His attorney claimed he only sent money for humanitarian causes, Salic has been fighting extradition to the U.S. Haroon and Salic have yet to be convicted of the 2016 terrorism charges.

Bahnasawy's second sentencing comes as young Muslim men continue to be prosecuted and convicted on terrorism charges 25 years after 9/11.

Nearly every week, a U.S. Attorney’s Office is announcing a new terrorism-related prosecution or sentencing, The Center Square has reported. The most recent was an 18-year-old Muslim man accused of conspiring to commit a terrorist mass casualty event in Minnesota and a 29-year-old Muslim man in Connecticut sentenced on terrorism charges after attempting to travel overseas to join ISIS to fight against U.S. troops. 

Prior to that, the Eastern District of New York announced an ISIS-related prosecution of a Georgian national extradited to the U.S. who was wanted on multiple terrorism charges. Before that, in the Western District of Pennsylvania, a 21-year-old Muslim man was charged with planning to commit a major terrorist act on behalf of ISIS. 

Similar cases are being announced nationwide. In most of them, the charges are similar: a Muslim man who was either not alive on Sept. 11 or was born shortly after the Islamic terrorist attacks is arrested, charged and prosecuted for supporting an FTO or attempting to carry out a terrorist attack.