Yesterday, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Dan Rosen announced the FBI has arrested and charged 18-year-old Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud for planning a mass casualty attack in support of ISIS at the Mall of America.
Federal prosecutors say 18-year-old Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud pledged allegiance to ISIS and initially wanted to travel overseas to fight for the Somali terrorist group Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (the official East African branch of al-Qaeda) before allegedly turning his attention to Minnesota.
Court documents allege Mohamud planned to attack an Oct. 24 event at the mall, hoping to kill 30 to 60 people. The FBI arrested him after he allegedly bought an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition from an undercover agent.
Mohamud has been under investigation since December of 2024. The alleged terrorist’s parents are Somali nationals who arrived in New York in 2000. His mother became a U.S. citizen in 2010 and his father in 2017. Their initial immigration status remains unclear. Mohamud was born in the United States in 2008 and acquired citizenship at birth, before either parent was naturalized. According to the Justice Department, his parents refused to speak with FBI agents who attempted to contact the family last year after initial signs of potential radicalization emerged.
Investigators allege Mohamud switched targets citing the crowd and the mall’s Jewish ownership. He told a source a Hmong arts festival at the mall would draw “a lot of people” and that he wanted to kill 30 to 60 non-Muslims. He pledged allegiance to ISIS on video. He picked the mall, he said, because it is “owned by Jews.”
According to the FBI affidavit:
In March 2025, MOHAMUD messaged CHS1 (confidential human source 1) through Telegram and stated, “I wanna get martyred inshallah but if i get sent to jail and kill my neighbour with fire or knife then ill be sent to jail the police wont kill me ill get raped there man [crying emoji] if im gonna do it in america i better die in any way other than that . Thats why i wanna save up to go to another country or.. get a gun here and just start killing a bunch of white ppl (because a lot of white ppl are kuffar) but how do i know if theyre muslim or not . Ill just shoot a club or smthn but thsts not how i wanna go I wanna fight in Somalia support the isis in puntland.7 Thas my honest answer tbh.”
Kuffar is a derogatory term for non-Muslims.
The FBI affidavit further stated:
In July 2026, MOHAMUD messaged CHS1 through TikTok Account 1 stating he did not have enough money to travel to Somalia. He messaged CHS1 to indicate a change in plans: “so i will do attack here.” MOHAMUD continued, “if i don’t leave by next month akhi i will prepare here in america and and if i do an attack here im not doing it for any worldly matter im doing for the sake of Allah only.”
MOHAMUD continued, “i might buy two pist. ols13 online and go to malll [sic] of america or valley fair on Minnesota on christmas time.”
The FBI and their confidential informant did a great job of thwarting this attack, but they got (and continue to get) one thing wrong – attributing Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud’s desire to kill “kuffars” to “radicalization.”
The Quaran is quite clear in its direction to Muslims that their primary responsibility is to fight in the name of Allah, here are just a few examples:
Quran (9:111) – “Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Quran: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme.”
Quran (4:89) – “They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks.”
Quran (8:39) – “And fight with them until there is no more fitna (disorder, unbelief) and religion is all for Allah.”
Indeed, the Quran (depending on translation) includes some 191 exhortations to fight non-believers, the New Testament? Not one.
The FBI did a great job thwarting Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud’s intended attack on the Mall of America, but they, and the rest of our national security establishment, continue to work under the illusion that something other than the plain words of the Quran motivate Islam’s war against America and the West. To quote Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan, “There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. There is only one Islam” and Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was simply following its commandments when he planned to murder white people for Allah.
