Man and 2 teens planned ISIS-inspired killings at Chicago mosque

This is from NBC News  with photographs and additional material from the Daily Mail

A man from Maine and two teenagers planned an ISIS-inspired attack on a Shia Muslim mosque near Chicago, newly unsealed court documents revealed on Friday.

The FBI said Xavier Pelkey of Waterville, Maine, and the two teens — one from the Chicago area and one from Kentucky — communicated through Instagram and other chat platforms with plans to meet in Chicago during “spring break.” The teens were not named due to their age.

The teenager in Chicago allegedly told the FBI that the plan was to “enter the Shia mosque and separate the adults from the children, then murder the adults” all in the name of ISIS,

“If they had not encountered law enforcement at that point, they would continue on to another Shia

mosque or Jewish synagogue and execute the same plan. They did not have a plan to escape but rather their plan ended with them being shot by law enforcement,” the FBI said in its filing.

When agents searched Pelkey’s home in February they allegedly found several hand-painted ISIS flags and three homemade explosives that used fireworks and also allegedly had shrapnel. When an FBI

bomb technician broke apart the devices to inspect them “he found that staples, pins and thumb tacks had been inserted among the device components,” according to court papers.

Following his arrest, Pelkey, who went by the online alias ‘Abdullah’ in messages compiled by the FBI, was charged in federal court in Bangor, Maine, with one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device,

A judge ordered Pelkey held in custody pending trial.

He sounds like a convert; I wonder in what circumstances, and at which mosque.

There have been a few cases recently of attacks on mosques by other Muslims. The most widely reported is that at the Sunni Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre in Mississauga Canada. 

A man is facing several charges after police say worshippers at a mosque in Mississauga, Ont., were attacked with bear spray in what authorities believe was a “hate-motivated incident.”

Someone walked into the Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre, near McAdam Road and Matheson Boulevard East, early Saturday and discharged bear spray toward people while brandishing a hatchet, according to Peel Regional Police. Some members of the mosque tackled and subdued a suspect.

Mohammad Moiz Omar, 24, was charged with assault with a weapon, administering a noxious substance with intent to endanger life or cause bodily harm, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm, carrying a concealed weapon and mischief to religious property.

Although the police believe it to be a ‘hate crime’ (I love the comment of DCI Gene Hunt in the TV science fiction/police procedural drama Life on Mars, “what, you mean instead of those I really, really love you crimes?) nothing is reported on whether Mohammad Moiz Omar isa Shia Muslim or what other reason he has to hate the worshippers at a Sunni mosque.

Then yesterday in Florida, from CNN

Authorities are hailing the facilities manager at a Florida mosque as a hero who gave his life and potentially saved children at the center’s school and day care.