The abandoned YouTube channel of cop-killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley contains a video showing him heading to pray at Brooklyn’s Masjid At Taqwa, a mosque that has been linked to terrorist and anti-police activity.
That is one of several new pieces of information gleaned from Brinsley’s old social media accounts which could shed more light on what made the 28-year-old tick.
Brinsley murdered two New York City police officers on Saturday as they were sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn, just hours after he had shot his girlfriend in Baltimore.
Before shooting the officers, Brinsley posted his intentions on Instagram, writing that he planned to murder cops. Brinsley referenced Michael Brown and Eric Garner — two black men whose police-related deaths have sparked mass protests — on his final social media posts.
Questions are swirling about what caused Brinsley to shoot the officers. The obvious answer is Brinsley’s thirst for revenge for the death of Brown and Garner. But others blamed Brinsley’s history of mental illness; and still more cited his initial act of domestic violence as a catalyst for the cold-blooded murder.
But Brinsley’s Islamic roots have so far received little attention.
Brinsley, who had been in and out of jail much of his adult life, mostly in Ohio and Georgia, left behind numerous social media accounts, including a Facebook account under the name “Bleau Barracuda.”
Both of those accounts have been shut down. But The Daily Caller discovered a new account of Brinsley’s, this one on YouTube which the killer operated under the name MincAndCompany.
Brinsley posted several videos on the account. Besides the visit to prayer at Masjid At Taqwa, Brinsley filmed himself getting searched for drugs on a bus; recorded a conversation about cocaine; and filmed a Muslim burial service.
An Internet search shows Brinsley went by the alias “Interstate Brinsley” on other social media sites. That alias is linked to Minc and Co., a company operated by Brinsley that, according to a Twitter account for the company, produced sexually-themed t-shirts.
The video Brinsley posted of Masjid At Taqwa on Feb. 28, 2013 is entitled “Time to pray in Brooklyn,” and it shows Brinsley walking down a Brooklyn street as a call to prayer is heard being broadcast from the Brooklyn-based mosque.
The video does not show Brinsley entering the mosque, though the implication of the video title is that he did. A phone call placed to Masjid At Taqwa was not returned.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley aka Ismaaiyl Abdullah-Muhammad, via Facebook
The mosque has an interesting history, including not only ties to known terrorists, but accusations that members and staff have operated illegal gun operations and conducted anti-police training.
A court document filed by the city of New York dated Sept. 10, 2013 lays out the evidence against Masjid At Taqwa affiliates. The document reads:
“The NYPD’s investigation of certain individuals associated with Plaintiff Masjid At Taqwa was based upon information about their lengthy history of suspected criminal activity, some of it terroristic in nature. This information includes but is not limited to: illegal weapons trafficking by members of the mosque’s security team and the mosque caretaker both within the mosque and at the store adjacent; illegal weapons trafficking by certain attendees of the mosque; allegations that the mosque ran a “gun club”; and allegations that the assistant Imam had earmarked portions of over $200,000 raised in the mosque to a number of US Government designated terrorist organizations.
“Certain individuals associated with Masjid At Taqwa have historical ties to terrorism. The mosque’s Imam, Siraj Wahhaj, was named by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York as an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to bomb a number of New York City landmarks in the mid-1990s (the “Landmarks Plot”). Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who is serving a life sentence in federal prison for his role in the Landmarks Plot, lectured at Masjid At Taqwa. Wahhaj testified as a character witness for Abdel Rahman during Abdel Rahman’s terrorism trial. Wahhaj also testified as a chancter witness for Clement Hampton El, a Masjid At Taqwa attendee who was convicted as one of the Blind Sheikh’s coconspirators in the Landmarks Plot.”
On Monday, the website Got News discovered an abandoned Facebook account Brinsley operated under the name Ismaaiyl Muhammad-Abdullah.
On that page, Brinsley — or Muhammad-Abdullah — claimed that he worked at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a Muslim civil rights group that has also been named an unindicted co-conspirator of the Holy Land Foundation, which was found guilty of operating as a front group for the terrorist group Hamas.
According to ISNA’s website, Wahhaj has served in various leadership roles with the organization.
“Members of the mosque’s security team have instructed individuals on how to disarm police officers and have led martial arts classes involving individuals convicted on terrorism charges. Since at least 2003, Masjid At Taqwa members have participated in and sponsored paintball exercises and survival training outside New York City, activities which have been carried out for training purposes by violent extremists in multiple terrorism cases in the United States and abroad-such as the “Virginia Jihad” case, the Fort Dix plot, the 717 attacks in London, and the UK fertilizer bomb plot (“Operation Awakening”). On one of these outings, the leader of Masjid At Taqwa’s security team instructed the members of his paintball team to “form up, jihad assassins” and called them his ‘Jihad warriors”. Farooque Ahmed, who is currently incarcerated after pleading guilty to terrorism charges in connection with a plot to bomb the Washington, DC metro, promoted and participated in at least one of these trips.”
Brinsley may have had other ties to a radical mosque. PJ Media reports that Brinsley made a reference to Masjid Al-Farooq, another Brooklyn mosque with terror ties.
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