The state of Kentucky is famous for its bluegrass and fried chicken, but in this age of diversity and multiculturalism, it may, before too long, become world-renowned for something more modern, and more in keeping with the diverse, multicultural America in which we all have the privilege of living: jihad terrorism. On Thursday, a man from Kentucky was sentenced to eight years and five months in prison for his terrorist activities, becoming in the process the most unnerving Kentucky resident since Charles Manson.
Bowling Green resident Mirsad Ramic has been given this time to sit in the slammer and think over his life choices because, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, he has been “convicted of providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS; conspiracy to support the organization; and receiving military training.” On top of his stretch in prison, Ramic will also have to fork over $25,000.
So this is how Mirsad Ramic repays the nation that welcomed him and his family when they arrived in the U.S. as refugees from jihad-torn Bosnia in 2001. Ramic was only eleven years old at that time, and so he has spent his formative years in the United States; yet he clearly never imbibed American values.
In 2014, when Ramic was 24, he and two of his old classmates from Western Kentucky University left the country and journeyed to Syria to join the new Islamic State (ISIS) caliphate. They were among the 40,000 Muslims from over 120 countries who found ISIS’ claims to represent true and pure Islam so compelling that they made their way to Iraq and Syria to join up.
Once safely among his jihadi comrades, Ramic “received training and took part in fighting for ISIS — including in an area where the U.S. military was supporting opposition forces — and bragged on social media about firing anti-aircraft weapons at airplanes, according to court records.” Not content with waging jihad, he also entered the cyberjihad arena, publishing social media posts that law enforcement officials labeled “incendiary,” calling upon his fellow Muslims to commit acts of violence in the service of Allah and generally “encouraging others to take part with ISIS in ‘violent jihad.’”
Despite all this, federal public defender Scott T. Wendelsdorf, acting as Ramic’s attorney, asked Chief U.S. District Judge Greg N. Stivers to let the poor boy off easy, sentencing him only to time served (he has been behind bars for three years and four months since he was charged) in light of the fact that he had a traumatic childhood as a refugee.
Ramic, says the Herald-Leader, “had a difficult transition to life in America, where he was bullied and schools didn’t offer sufficient support, he told a psychologist who interviewed him.” Oh, good grief. He was bullied, and so we’re supposed to ignore the fact that he was a bloodthirsty ISIS jihadi? A psychologist stated that “as he searched for a sense of identity in his later teens and early 20s,” Ramic “explored his Muslim heritage and got into his religion in an ‘impassioned’ way, attending a mosque, growing his hair and beard and learning Arabic.” Without a trace of irony, the Herald-Leader adds: “That made him an ideal target for ISIS propaganda, including the call to come fight in Syria to defend fellow Muslims and live in an ideal Muslim society, the sentencing memo argued.”
Related: Englishman Converts to Islam, and the Madcap Hijinks Begin
Now, wait a minute. We are all still supposed to believe that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, but which remains a force for good in our troubled world. That idea, as unsupported as it is in Islamic scripture, theology, or law, has entirely won the day, to the degree that any public figure who dares to suggest otherwise is immediately excoriated and vilified as a racist, bigoted “Islamophobe.” And now here is a sentencing memo in a terrorism trial matter-of-factly stating that Ramic became devout in his observance of Islam, and that made him vulnerable to ISIS recruitment.
If we all didn’t know better, this might be enough to lead us to suspect that maaaaybe Islam is not quite as cuddly and harmless as the establishment left would have us believe. (Spoiler: it isn’t.) Either way, however, Mirsad Ramic is going off to prison. The only thing we have to worry about now is what he might be inclined to do when he gets out.
