“A Pakistani doctor and former Mayo Clinic research coordinator who sought to join the Islamic State terrorist group to fight in Syria and expressed interest in carrying out attacks on U.S. soil was sentenced Friday [8/25/2023] to 18 years in prison.
Muhammad Masood, 31, pleaded guilty a year ago to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors said he attempted unsuccessfully to travel from the U.S. to Syria via Jordan in 2020, then agreed to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to meet up with someone he thought would help him travel by cargo ship to IS territory.
But FBI agents arrested him at the Minneapolis airport on March 19, 2020, after he checked in for his flight.”
– Steve Karnowski, “Pakistani Doctor Who Sought to Support Islamic State Terror Group Sentenced in Minnesota to 18 Years,” apnews.com, August 25, 2023
Editor’s Note: According to most historians of the Islamic State (also referred to as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh), “the group emerged out of al-Qaeda in Iraq as a response to the U.S. invasion in 2003.” See Hassan Hassan, “The True Origins of ISIS,” theatlantic.com, November 30, 2018, for more information.