New Jersey man inspired to become terrorist after Oct 7 arrested in Kenya

A New Jersey man has been charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization after making plans to join the Somali terrorist group al Shabaab, motivated after the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel carried out by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

23-year-old Karrem Nasr, also known as "Ghareeb Al-Muhajir," was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya on December 14 and transported back to the United States on December 28.

According to the Department of Justice, Nasr, a US citizen, moved from New Jersey to Egypt around July 2023, and had repeatedly expressed his support for the Somali terrorist group and plans to join and wage jihad since at least November 2023.

In communications exchanged with an FBI confidential source posing as a facilitator for terrorist organizations, Nasr said that he had been thinking about engaging in jihad for a long time, but was particularly motivated by the October 7 Hamas attack, which lead to the deaths of at least 1,200 Israelis.

In one exchange with the source, Nasr said that the number one enemy was "evil America," which he called the "head of the snake."

In other communications with the source, Nasr expressed his intent to join the Somali terrorist group to engage in jihad and receive military training.

Nasr spoke of engaging in jihad on his since-deleted X account, going by the name "Egyptian Muslim," with one post from November 30 stating, "jihad on your home turf. Coming soon to a US location near you," accompanied by an airplane, bomb, and fire emoji.

Another set of posts showed Nasr asking "how deluded are you to think your military might can extinguish the light of Allah," adding in a threaded post, "you might have F35s and nuclear weapons, and we may only have IEDs and small arms. But we fight for god, you fight for your oppressive, materialistic, geopolitical agenda."

Nasr booked a flight to Kenya for December 14, 2023 from Egypt, where he planned to travel to Somalia and join and train with al Shabaab. Before the flight, Nasr told the source that he planned to delete his cellphone and laptop data so when investigators went searching, they wouldn’t find evidence that he wanted to join the organization.

The charge of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said, “As alleged, Karrem Nasr, motivated by the heinous terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, devoted himself to waging violent jihad against America and its allies. Nasr, a citizen of this country, traveled from Egypt to Kenya bent on joining and training with al Shabaab so that he could execute his jihadist mission of death and destruction. 

"Nasr was prepared to kill and be killed to support the jihadist cause, and in his own words, he described America as ‘evil’ and the ‘head of the snake.’ Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the career prosecutors in my Office and our law enforcement partners who led the investigation, Nasr’s plan to train with a terrorist organization and wage violent jihad has been disrupted," Williams added. "Make no mistake: My Office is committed to investigating, disrupting, and prosecuting anyone who is inspired by Hamas’s October 7 attack and seeks to harm Americans, whether here or abroad."