The man accused of trying to blow up the Fed yesterday struggled with the moral implications of the crime before allegedly deciding to go through with the attack.
Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested yesterday afternoon after the FBI suspected he was plotting to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
But, Nafis almost didn't carry out his attack, worrying that entering the U.S. on a student visa meant he couldn't carry out jihad here, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
Nafis used Facebook to ask an FBI informant as well as another person whether Islamic law would prohibit his plot, The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog reported Wednesday.
“The three discussed certain Islamic legal rulings that advise that it is unlawful for a person who enters a country with a visa to wage jihad there,” according to the complaint.
One of Nafis' unnamed confidants in Bangladesh told him those rules didn't apply, according to Law Blog.
University of Washington law professor Clark Lombardi, an Islamic law expert, told Law Blog he didn't know of any laws prohibiting jihad if the person had a visa.
Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
