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What’s the deal with converts to Islam?

Last April, a teenager in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, named Alexander Scott Mercurio was caught plotting jihad massacres in local churches, “using weapons, including knives, firearms, and fire.” On New Year’s Eve in 2022, a 19-year-old named Trevor Bickford traveled from his home in Wells, Maine, to Times Square, where he attacked three NYPD officers with a machete. In April 2021, a Zion, Illinois, man named Edward Schimenti got thirteen and a half years in prison for aiding the Islamic State (ISIS).

These are just three men who are on a long and ever-lengthening list of converts to Islam who turn to terrorism, even in the United States, and are largely ignored by the establishment media. As everyone knows or should know by now, the media is interested only in shoring up its narrative, not in reporting actual facts. Now another young man has joined their ranks.

Las Vegas’ KLAS reported Thursday that Joshua Robles, 16, has been “accused of plotting an ISIS-inspired terror attack.” After Robles was arrested last November, prosecutors considered him to be so dangerous that they asked that his bail be set at a million dollars; Las Vegas Justice Court Pro Temp Judge Lauren Diefenbach, however, instead decided to set it at $10,000, “adding should Robles post bail, he would be placed on house arrest with electronic monitoring.” Oh. That’ll fix everything.

Ultimately, Robles was deemed to be so dangerous that bail was set at $1 million after all. That’s good, as he doesn’t appear to be a choirboy: “On Aug. 23, staff at the Clark County Detention Center found a handwritten note in Robles’ cell, which included an ISIS flag and phrases such as, ‘Welcome with death.’”

This was after a sheet of notebook paper was found in his bedroom at the time of his arrest; Robles had completed a faithful recreation of the Islamic State (ISIS) flag, which features in Arabic the Islamic profession of faith: “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.” Underneath that, the earnest young convert wrote in all caps: “DEATH TO JEWS.”

Around that time, Robles was proudly posting online about his enthusiasm for his newfound faith: “Peace by [sic] upon all brothers who see this,” he wrote. “I am here to announce that I will be starting lone wolf operations in Las Vegas against the enemies of Allah.” When police raided his home, they found “components they said could be used to make an explosive device.”

Authorities think that Robles was “building explosive devices similar to the ones that killed three and injured hundreds in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.” There is some indication that he planned to carry out an arson jihad attack on New Year’s Day 2024. He was also doing online searches for “information and floorplans for Chaparral High School in the east valley.” If he had managed to carry out a jihad attack there, police would still be saying that they didn’t know his motives.

Prosecutors explained that Robles’ “radicalization to violent extremist has developed over several years and continues despite his detention status.” That’s no surprise, since America’s prison system, like every other institution in the country, is committed to the proposition that Islam is entirely peaceful and benign. Nothing whatsoever is done to disabuse young men like Robles of their jihadist sentiments; instead, such inmates are given Qur’ans and allowed to pray regularly with other Muslim inmates. Authorities think this will help them discover the true, peaceful Islam. Instead, it all too often breeds more hardened jihadis.

Robles has been a bad actor for quite a while: “In 2020, while in junior high, defendant was threatened to shoot up the school. In March of 2023, defendant was created a list of ISIS leader and pledged allegiance to ISIS. He also announced the creation of a local terrorist cell. By May of 2023, Defendant was advising an unknown individual on how to obtain news on ISIS through email and was giving instructions on how to travel in the Middle East.” Yet while authorities know all about all this, none of them seem to care about where or how he converted to Islam, or about how he came to believe that his new religion required him to do violence to non-Muslims.

Until such issued are addressed, and addressed realistically, we will see many more young men like Joshua Robles.