Michigan is getting the most Syrian refugees this year and will be smothered in Muslims from all over the world. Hamtramck, Dearborn, Sterling Heights and many other areas in Michigan have been swamped with Muslims. Do Michiganders realize that this is the case? Do they want entire communities to be forever changed to majority Muslim?
Flushing — Federal agents are hunting for a suburban Flint medical school graduate who has fled to Syria and is believed to be working as a doctor for Islamic State extremists, The Detroit News has learned.
Sealed federal court records involving 24-year-old Flushing native Mohamed Maleeh Masha reveal an international search stretching from the battlefields of war-torn Syria to downtown Flint. The records, emerging while the city copes with fallout from a water crisis, offer a rare peek inside a federal terror investigation that could yield insight into Islamic State recruiting methods.
The manhunt was revealed in a sealed search warrant that was briefly posted on the federal court online case database. The records indicate the FBI is looking for evidence Masha is supporting Islamic State groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — known as ISIS.
The terror investigation is likely focused on determining if Masha is recruiting people in the Flint area and elsewhere to join ISIS, counterterrorism experts said.
“I imagine the FBI is trying to figure if he is a recruiter and having contacts with anyone back in Michigan,” said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
Until last year, Masha lived in an orange-brick, two-story colonial in a leafy subdivision in Flushing, eight miles northwest of downtown Flint. His driver’s license expires next month.
Masha’s mother and several siblings live there today. Weeds poked above the backyard deck during a recent visit and the swimming pool appeared damaged, the blue liner peeling and hanging like drapes.
A woman who answered a knock on the front door and identified herself as Masha’s mother declined comment.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit and the FBI declined comment.
The investigation dates to at least Oct. 2, when U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hluchaniuk in Flint gave the FBI permission to execute at least one search warrant involving Masha.
Agents were looking for evidence Masha or others were providing money, personnel and material support to terrorists or “designated foreign terrorist organizations,” according to a copy of the search warrant. It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, to provide material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.
Investigators specifically were hunting for evidence Masha was helping ISIS and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — known as ISIL.
Agents also were searching for evidence Masha helped al-Furqan, the Islamic State’s primary media operation.
The warrant indicates agents sought evidence Masha had traveled overseas to help jihadists or engage in terrorism.
The records reveal a shadowy FBI investigation that appears to have been triggered by Masha’s disappearance in early 2015.
Masha is believed to have been among the first of two waves of medical school students and graduates to travel to Turkey before entering Syria, according to news reports.
Read more: Detroit News
