By Carlotta Mohamed
An Ozone Park man pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn federal court last month to helping the overseas terrorist organization ISIS, according to the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Ahmed Parveg, 22, entered a guilty plea before federal Judge Ann Donnelly June 20 to one count of attempting to provide material support or resources to ISIS, U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said.
According to court documents, Ahmed, a United States citizen, traveled to Saudi Arabia June 2017 to celebrate the Islamic religious holiday Ramadan, then attempted to travel to Syria to join ISIS. Ahmed was detained in a Middle Eastern country during his attempted travel to ISIS-controlled territory and was deported back to the United States in August 2017, where he was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
On July 17, 2017, the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force agents obtained a search warrant for Ahmed’s personal computer and learned, among other things, that he had viewed or listened to recordings of radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awalaki, the documents said. Al-Awlaki was a U.S. born cleric and prominent leader of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who was killed on or about Sept. 30, 2011.
One of the sermons by Al-Awlaki said: “Jihad must continue and fighting must go on until the Final Hour comes. Fighting is only increasing as prescribed by Allah — now it is time to carry the battle to further lands outside of Arab countries,” according to court documents.
Another cleric’s recordings Parveg listened to was Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born cleric, who was found guilty in the United Kingdom of — among other things — solicitation to commit murder, for preaching to followers to kill individuals, including Americans he deemed to be enemies of Islam.
The agents had also learned on the same day that Ahmed left the United States for the Middle East, he researched how to erase data on his computer.
The lecture bookmarked on the computer included numerous statements in support of ISIS, jihad, traveling from one’s home country to join ISIS, condemnation of Western countries as evil, and justification of violence against those who are deemed to be non-believers of Islam, according to court documents.
Ahmed is slated for sentencing in December and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Parveg’s attorney was unable to be reached to provide comment.
Reach reporter Carlotta Mohamed by e-mail at cmoha
