The case of Boyd, or why racial profiling won't work.

[frigidmagi]

BBC

A US man has pleaded guilty in a court in the state of North Carolina to plotting terrorist attacks.

Daniel Patrick Boyd filed a guilty plea at the New Bern court to charges of conspiring to provide support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap and injure people.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss several other counts against him.

Mr Boyd is alleged to have led a group of seven men, who were part of a home-grown terror cell in rural America.

The trial is expected to begin in September.

If convicted the suspect could now face a life sentence.
'I love jihad'

Mr Boyd, his two sons and four other men were arrested by US federal agents in 2009.

He was then indicted on charges of plotting terrorism and conspiring to support terrorism.

During an initial court hearing in 2009, the authorities played audio tapes of Mr Boyd talking about his disgust with the US military and the need to defend Muslims from oppression.

"I love jihad. I love to stand there and fight for the sake of Allah," he reportedly said on one of the tapes.

According to analysts, one of the most striking aspects of this case is that the alleged cell is apparently made up of mostly white converts to Islam.

Mr Boyd lived with his family in a two-storey house with a swimming pool in Willow Spring, a quiet suburb some 20 miles (32km) south of Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Muslim family lived quietly among the mainly Baptist and Presbyterian residents of the town. Mr Boyd was known as a devout Muslim, who would stop at noon to pray.

According to court papers, he took the name Saifullah - "sword of god" - when he converted to Islam.

Here's the thing guys, there are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today. Not even 1% of them (that would be 15 million) are involved in terrorist acts. But even given the small number, they can be any race, any ethnic group, any language group. Islam is not bound by racial or national lines, radical terrorist Islam even less so. Jihad Jane is another example.