Act of Jihad in America? Radio Host Says Teen's Murder Was 'Domestic Terrorism'

9/13/2014

There’s growing outrage that a possible act of jihad in the United States is being ignored. 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin was shot to death in New Jersey in late June.

Authorities later charged Ali Muhammad Brown with murder.

After his arrest, Brown said his motive was revenge for U.S. actions in the Middle East. This led to New York-area radio host Todd Pettengill sounding off on what he sees as an act of domestic terrorism.

“If there was ever a reason to riot in the streets in the name of humanity, it would be for this case. But has that happened? No, and I’m not suggesting that it should. ...This should be talked about and written about and the American people should know. Why's Eric Holder not visiting the Tevlin family? Why is the president not going to mention Brendan Tevlin tonight?” Pettengill said Wednesday on WPLJ’s “The Todd Show.”

Martha MacCallum, who has highlighted the Tevlin case on America's Newsroom, spoke to Pettengill about what he thinks should happen as a result of Tevlin’s death.

Pettengill said he may not have heard about this story if his daughter hadn’t been friends with the Tevlin family.

“Where is the outrage for a young man, 19 years old, who was killed because he was an American? That's it. There's no two sides to this story,” he lamented.

MacCallum said initially, people wrongly assumed that Tevlin was killed buying drugs, but it turned out there was no drug-related element to the crime.

"Now we know that he was targeted because he was a white man alone in his car," she noted.

MacCallum pointed out that Brown is the suspect in three other targeted killings. She noted that it looks like a case of “serial terrorism.”

Pettengill said he reached out to the family to make sure they were OK that he speak on his show about his outrage over the killing.

"This kid was murdered because he was an American and that's where the story should begin. That's where the discussion should take place. Because domestic terrorism is here. It happened in New Jersey," said Pettengill.

Pettengill asked people to call attention to the murder on social media using #BrendanTevlin and visit the Facebook page dedicated to Tevlin's memory.

Watch the full segment above, and read more on the case below from The Star Ledger:

The man accused of gunning down a Livingston teenager in his car earlier this summer told investigators the murder was an act of retribution for U.S. military action against Muslims in the Middle East.

According to court documents filed Wednesday in Washington state, where he is accused of killing three other men, Ali Muhammad Brown said he considered it his mission to murder 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin as an act of “vengeance” for innocent lives lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran.

“All these lives are taken every single day by America, by this government. So a life for a life,” he told detectives, according to the documents.

Brown, 29, also confessed to killing the other men, all of whom, like Tevlin, were shot multiple times in isolated areas late at night. He described the murder as a “just kill” – carried out against an adult male who was not in the company of any women, children or elderly persons, court papers said.

Prosecutors say Brown is a devout Muslim who had become angered by U.S. military intervention in the Islamic world, which he referred to as “evil.” He also referred to drug use as inherently evil.

“During the interview Brown also stated that, as part of his beliefs, if a ‘man sees evil then he must take action against that evil’,” according to court papers.

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