The U.S. Justice Department announced on Monday that a New Jersey man pleaded guilty to terrorism charges over his attempt to join al-Shabaab.
Karrem Nasr, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen from Lawrenceville, N.J., told an FBI informant and wrote on social media that he was inspired to join the Somali Al-Qaeda affiliate after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“I would like to become a martyr in the sake of Allah,” Nasr told the informant. “I think in coming years, inshallah, we are going to see here big events in Egypt and the other Arab countries. Inshallah if this happens, I will come back to Egypt, inshallah, to help the Muslims in Egypt in their struggle to establish here in Egypt.”
Nasr moved to Egypt in July 2023 and wrote on social media in November of that year that “jihad on your home turf” was “coming soon to a U.S. location near you.”
In December 2023, he flew from Egypt to Kenya, intending to proceed to Somalia to join and train with al-Shabaab. Kenyan authorities arrested him upon arrival, and he was then extradited to the United States.
Danielle Sassoon, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, stated that the Oct. 7 attacks inspired Nasr to pursue “death and destruction.”
“Karrem Nasr devoted himself to waging violent jihad against America and its allies,” she stated. “Now, instead of perpetrating a deadly attack in the name of a foreign terrorist group, Nasr resides in federal prison.”
Nasr pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The U.S. State Department designated al-Shabaab as a terrorist group in 2008.
Nasr is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
