Over the past few years, Haris Qamar became fascinated with the Islamic State. But he found little support.
When he bought a plane ticket to Turkey in 2014, his parents would not give him his passport. When he instead focused on posting pro-Islamic State messages on Twitter, he was befriended not by a fellow true believer but by an undercover informant. His circle of friends had grown tired of debating Middle East politics; in the informant, Qamar found an eager confidant.
That informant helped federal authorities prosecute Qamar, 26, of Fairfax County, Virginia, who on Monday pleaded guilty in Alexandria federal court to attempting to help the Islamic State militant group.
According to court documents, Qamar told the informant that he had an “unlimited appetite” for violence against nonbelievers and that he watched videos of Islamic State executions many times. On another occasion, the court filing shows, he asked the informant whether he would like to behead someone using a table saw.
The informant encouraged Qamar to take video of landmarks around Washington that the Brooklyn native thought would be used in an Islamic State video.
In court Monday, Qamar said that “as far as I understand, it was a propaganda campaign” meant to inspire fear, not coordinate actual attacks. But prosecutors say he understood that the video would be used to explicitly encourage lone-wolf attacks in the country.
Qamar’s father, Qamar Abbas, said in an interview that his son has said since his arrest that “he was living in an imaginary world” fueled by what he read online.
A friend who asked not to be identified out of concern for his own privacy said Qamar had shown increasing interest in the Islamic State over the past two years. Qamar was motivated initially by a belief that the group was rebuilding homes and defending Muslim women from violence and sexual assault, the friend said, as well as anger over U.S. military involvement overseas. Qamar began reading news sites that painted a skewed picture of what was happening in Iraq and Syria, the friend said. The Islamic State controls territory in both those countries.
The informant exploited Qamar’s beliefs and desire to be helpful, Abbas said, telling the young man that his family had been killed.
Qamar “was a friendly-minded person,” Abbas said, “a very soft-hearted person” who had never before caused any kind of trouble.
The friend said Qamar’s parents, who are immigrants from Pakistan, were livid when they learned that their son was hoping to join the Islamic State and temporarily kicked him out of the house. Qamar likewise told the informant, according to the court documents, that his father might commit suicide if he succeeded in joining the Islamic State abroad.
Abbas said he has a “guilty conscience” for not being able to stop his son from going down this path but said “the boy is a grown-up.”
The friend doubted that Qamar would have lasted long in the Islamic State.
Abbas said that the informant had encouraged Qamar to try to go abroad again and that Qamar declined.
Other friends had no idea that Qamar harbored any terrorist sympathies, describing him as a laid-back and friendly gamer.
“His hobbies always changed, and he always had a hard time to decide his career, where he wanted to go,” said Yun Li, who went to high school and college with Qamar. “Haris was a great guy to be with when it comes to friendship . . . funny, and helpful to others who needed help.”
Qamar’s sentencing is set for Jan. 6. Judge Leonie Brinkema said the guidelines in the case call for a sentence of 151 to 188 months.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Rachel Weiner
