SARGODHA, Pakistan – One of five Americans detained in Pakistan said their aim was to go to Afghanistan to wage jihad against Western forces, defending their intention as justified under Islam.
But he denied any links to al-Qaida or plans to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan, as alleged by Pakistani authorities.
Monday was the first time the young Muslims from the Washington, D.C., area have addressed a court after being arrested in early December in the eastern Pakistani city of Sargodha. The case has spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to Pakistan to join militant groups. Pakistani police have said they plan to seek life sentences for the men under the country’s anti-terrorism law.
“We are not terrorists,” one of the men, Ramy Zamzam, told The Associated Press as he entered a courtroom in Sargodha on Monday.
“We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism,” he said.
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French and Belgian wannabe ‘jihadis’ complain that they were ripped off by their ‘brothers’ in Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.
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“I was groomed for jihad in Britain”, says this 15 (now 18) year old.
And it always funny to read the thoughts of British expats from Spain (or Australia, or New Zealand, or even Dubai) on these sorts of stories, especially when their complaint can essentially be reduced to talk of ‘foreigners taking over Britain’, such as this prat who currently lives in Alicante:
These “foreigners” should have reduced rights !
