“Adam was discouraged with the politics and direction of the United States – citing the recent Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage,” a criminal complaint released by the FBI claims.
“He wanted to be in a country of people of similar mindset and religion as himself.”
Shafi – who was reported to the authorities by his parents – had planned to join Daesh last year during a trip to Turkey, but opted against the move because he felt the group killed too many Muslims.
However, he felt that Jabhat al Nusra – which also executes gay people and adulterers – was the right amount of violent for him.
“If the [Islamic State] kills them, I want to die with them,” he said in a recording seized by the authorities.
Despite this recording, Shafi’s legal team claim that because he had returned from Turkey without joining a terrorist group, he is being punished for a crime he never committed.
Daesh, which operates predominantly across Syria and Iraq, is notorious for filming videos in which captives – usually Westerners or opposing fighters, such as al Nusra – are brutally slaughtered.
It has also taken to executing men it claims are gay, by throwing them off of tall buildings and pelting them with rocks in IS-produced videos.
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