Does a Saudi national count as a “white supremacist”? On Monday, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced that Bader Alzahrani, a Saudi national who is in the United States on a student visa, has been charged with stealing a school bus and transporting it across state lines. But this is more than just a vehicle theft: Alzahrani made a number of statements suggesting that he’s a jihad terrorist. But since Saudis are generally considered “white,” will the feds call this “white supremacist terrorism”? Don’t put it past them.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey last Thursday, Alzahrani “knowingly and intentionally received, possessed, concealed, stored, and disposed of a motor vehicle, namely a 2020 Chevrolet School Bus.” Alzahrani is accused of stealing the bus in Essex County, N.J., and driving it into Pennsylvania, where he lives.
Far more ominously, however, an unoccupied residential home across the street from the parking lot from which the bus was stolen was broken into. A backpack was found in the broken-into house, containing Alzahrani’s Saudi passport and a number of “other items that appeared to belong to Alzahrani.” Among these items were journals that contained entries in both English and Arabic. The entries were hair-raising.
Alzahrani wrote: “Why didn’t you slaughter the police officer who threw the Quran?” And: “This is a war, and there will be losses, and collateral losses. … It is a war and y’all started, feel the rage.” The war he had in mind would be extremely bloody: “Destruction of the new world and the earth will be destroyed from all sides.” It was a religious war: “God I am ready for your orders. I want to live the rest of my life to serve you and the religion.” Alzahrani also wrote: “Blood, blood, destruction, destruction. Allah.”
