Gunman Gets 30 Years for Attack on Pamela Geller Anti-Islam Event

Image by Getty Images

By Reuters February 8, 2017

An Arizona man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to support the Islamic State for his role in planning a May 2015 shooting in Garland, Texas, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, 45, conspired with Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, the two gunmen who carried out an Islamic State-inspired attack at an exhibit sponsored by Jewish anti-Islam ctivist Pamela Gelller featuring cartoon images of the Prophet Mohammed.

The case against Kareem, also known as Decarus Thomas, was the first Islamic State-related prosecution to reach trial of the dozens brought by the federal government across the nation and the second to result in a jury verdict.

Kareem maintained his innocence and denied involvement in the attacks when he took the stand for two days in his federal trial last year. An attorney for Kareem could not be immediately reached to comment on the sentence on Wednesday.

Kareem’s roommates, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, of Phoenix, were killed by Garland police after they opened fire with assault rifles outside the May 3 cartoon event. It was intended to satirize Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.

The shooting came months after gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what was said to be revenge for its cartoons depicting Mohammed.

Such portrayals are considered offensive by Muslims. None of the approximately 150 people attending the Garland event were hurt.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO