From The Religion Of Peace

Michigan: Muslim migrant charged with conspiring to join ISIS claims entrapment due to racism and “Islamophobia”

JUN 26, 2020 2:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER12 COMMENTS

“Seeing as Mr. Haji is a Black Muslim man who is an immigrant, every precaution must be taken to prevent unconscious bias throughout the jury.”

Indeed. The way things are going, rather than receive a fair trial, he will be ushered to the state capital and made governor.

But as for entrapment, it’s bunk. The clueless and corrupt FBI is much more likely to entrap a “right-wing extremist” than an Islamic jihadi. And if you’re not already inclined to do what the people who is trying to entrap you wants you to do, you won’t fall for it.

“Lansing man charged with conspiring to support Islamic State arguing government entrapped him,” by Megan Banta, Lansing State Journal, June 9, 2020 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

GRAND RAPIDS – One of the three Lansing men accused of planning to join the Islamic State group is arguing federal investigators entrapped him.

Mohamed Salat Haji’s attorney is arguing a federal judge should dismiss the charges against him, using entrapment and government conduct as a defense.

The motions and exhibits, of which there are more than 50, are sealed because they contain classified information and online or actual names of undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation employees.

Mary Chartier, who is representing Haji, has previously said the men never reached out to ISIS “until the FBI puts a recruiter at their door.”

That created the crime, she said in a brief statement nearly an hour after a January 2019 hearing….

Haji was arrested by members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in January 2019 at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids.

He was arrested along with Mohamud Abdikadir Muse near the airport’s Transportation Security Administration checkpoint.

Officers had arrested Muse Abdikadir Muse shortly before Haji and Mohamud Muse, after he checked in for a flight that officials called “a series of destinations” on his way to Mogadishu, Somalia, where he intended to join and fight with an Islamic State group.

Both Mohamud Muse and Muse Muse have pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, specifically to the Islamic State.

The two men are brothers, and Haji is also a relative.

All three men were born in Kenya — Muse Muse in a Somali refugee camp, an FBI agent testified last year — and have lived in Lansing since at least late 2016.

As part of a plea agreement, the Muse brothers acknowledged they had recorded a video pledging loyalty to the Islamic State and planned to travel to Somalia at some point to join the terrorist organization. 

They face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervision once released. They also may lose their citizenship.

The government will dismiss other charges against the two men. Prosecutors also have agreed not to charge Mohamud Muse’s wife.

The two men have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and other investigators as they continue to proceed with charges against Haji.

The charges are based on a lengthy FBI investigation using Facebook and undercover agents during which all three defendants pledged allegiance to ISIS in self-recorded videos, FBI Special Agent Paul Dunham said while questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris O’Connor during the January 2019 hearing.

Unconscious bias

Chartier is asking to show prospective jurors a video about unconscious bias and give them instruction on the issue.

Studies have shown “implicit bias is widely held and large in magnitude,” the brief supporting her request reads.

Results are “troubling” for biases related to this case, the brief reads, because a majority of people show an automatic preference against black people and Arab-Muslims. Haji is both.

“Seeing as Mr. Haji is a Black Muslim man who is an immigrant, every precaution must be taken to prevent unconscious bias throughout the jury,” the brief reads.

Showing the video would help educate potential jurors on unconscious bias, the brief says, and research has shown education is key in making it less likely that biases will impact decision making. Playing the video also would open up jury selection questions to topics covered in the clip.

Prosecutors object to the request, saying the court “should not engage in what remains a social science research experiment on identifying and effectively addressing individual biases.”

They write Haji and his attorneys assume potential jurors will have “all manner of implicit biases towards him because of his race, religion, and nationality” and argue that is its own example of bias….