Jan. 13--Moments after her teenage son pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with plotting to join the militant group Islamic State, Zarine Khan stood Tuesday in the lobby of Chicago's federal courthouse with a tearful message.
With her husband by her side and her hands shaking, Khan blasted the Islamic State and its self-proclaimed leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, for the "brainwashing and recruiting of children through the use of social media and the Internet."
"We have a message for ISIS, Mr. Baghdadi, and his fellow social media recruiters," said Khan, looking up at the television news cameras with tears in her eyes. "Leave our children alone!"
With their son's attorney beside them, Khan and her husband, Shafi, said they felt compelled to speak out on the "unspeakable acts of horror" that unfolded in Paris last week in the name of Islam. She said that as Muslims, they condemned the brutal tactics of the Islamic State "and groups like it."
"The venom spewed by these groups and the violence committed by them find no support in the Quran and are completely at odds with our Islamic faith," Khan told reporters.
Last week, a federal grand jury returned the one-count indictment charging Khan's son, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, with attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. The charge carries a maximum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted.
In a brief appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox, Khan's attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, entered a plea of not guilty. Khan appeared in an orange jail jumpsuit and spoke only to tell the judge, "Good morning." His parents watched from the front row of the gallery as their son was led back to the courtroom lockup.
Khan was arrested Oct. 4 at O'Hare International Airport as he and his 17-year-old sister and 16-year-old brother were trying to board a flight to Vienna with a connection to Istanbul, prosecutors have said.
Khan has been held without bond since his arrest. His siblings were questioned at the airport by the FBI but have not been charged.
A criminal complaint filed in October alleged that Khan planned to meet with a contact in Turkey who would take him to Islamic State locations in Iraq or Syria. Khan allegedly told agents he expected his position to be "some type of public service, a police force, humanitarian work or a combat role."
At a detention hearing in November, prosecutors alleged for the first time that Khan had enlisted his siblings in the plot. While they were being questioned at the airport, agents searched the family's modest home and found pro-Islamic State materials as well as letters the teens were believed to have written imploring their parents not to go to the authorities, according to prosecutors.
The handwritten letters expressed disdain for their American lives and explained why they felt compelled to join Islamic State, prosecutors said.
"My heart is crying with the thought I left you and I probably will never see you again in this (world)," the 17-year-old wrote to her mother.
Authorities said there was no evidence the parents knew about the plans.
Durkin has called the government's case "hopelessly weak" and "very close to a thought crime."
Durkin told reporters after the November hearing that there was "not one iota of evidence" that Khan planned to do anyone harm. He said Khan may have been swayed by "misinformation" about Islamic State spread on the Internet.
"He's a very devout, committed, thoughtful kid who bought into some very slick advertising," Durkin said.
jmeisner@tribune.com
Twitter @jmetr22b
