UPDATE Legal jihad

From IndyStar.com: The ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging limits on group prayer on behalf of Randall Todd “Ismail” Royer, whom we’ve discussed on Northern Virginiastan, and another inmate, Enaam Arnaout. Both Royer and Arnaout are inmates at the Federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. They are being held in the Communications Management Unit (CMU), which seeks to monitor inmates’ outside contacts. Thirty of 40 inmates – that’s right, 75% - in the CMU are Muslims.


Randall Todd “Ismail” Royer has had contact with blogger Umar Lee since incarceration.

“The ACLU contends that [restricting group prayer] violates a federal law barring the government from restricting religious activities without showing a compelling need.”

The Federal government has it right this time: there is a “compelling need” to restrict religious activities, in this case, group prayer, as it would be a means of the prisoners to conspire among themselves.

Royer, a former communications specialist for CAIR, was part of the Virginia paintball gang. The mainstream media (MSM) portrayed the Virginia paintball gang as just a bunch of guys engaged in fun and games. The truth is more damning.

Counts 2-5 of the indictment against Royer and his comrades state that Royer and others had commenced an expedition against a friendly nation, namely India. Some Americans might consider these charges to be dubious: how do these charges impact the U.S.? Royer was recruiting for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group. LeT was behind the brazen terrorist attack last November in Mumbai, India, in which Americans were targeted and murdered.

UPDATE: Anti-terrorism activist Debra Burlingame, sister of pilot Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, whose jet was crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, has an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about conducting jihad from prison (hat tip: Atlas Shrugs). While Ms. Burlingame's article focuses on the lifting of security measures imposed on Richard Reid, the notorious "Shoe Bomber," she cites the case of Royer and Enaam Arnaout towards the end of the article.

Our Umar Lee moment

Today, both Jihad Watch and Little Green Footballs carried stories about Umar Lee, who defamed the people behind both sites as being members of a lynch party. Mr. Lee has described himself as a boxer, cab driver, and "Muslim in Jesusland." He is also a close friend of Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, the former CAIR official and member of the Virginia "paintball" gang, who was indicted on multiple counts, which could have put him away for a long, long time. Instead, Royer pled guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to 20 years. Mr. Lee receives Mr. Royer's communiques from prison and broadcasts them to the world.

We at Northern Virginiastan have had our Umar Lee moment - browse the comments to the post on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's article on the 9/11 mosque (that's the Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Mosque, er, Falls Church, for newbies to this site). We are honored to be in the same company as Jihad Watch and Little Green Footballs.