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Muhyyee-ud-din Abdul-Rahman, 18, was planning to move to Syria and join a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
A teenage boy arrested in Philadelphia last year in a terrorism investigation was planning to detonate bombs at a local LGBTQ+ Pride parade, authorities revealed Wednesday.
Muhyyee-ud-din Abdul-Rahman, 18, was arrested and charged in August, 2023, after an FBI raid of his home in West Philadelphia. First Assistant District Attorney Robert Listenbee revealed further details about the case at a conference Wednesday, also reported by NBC, including Abdul-Rahman's plans to detonate bombs at a Pride parade in the city.
The teen made bombs which he tested in the woods behind his home, according to Listenbee, and was planning to place the explosives in trashcans along the route of the Philadelphia Pride March. Phones seized at the time revealed Abdul-Rahman's "frightening searches," including some involving the parade.
"He was at least considering targeting the LGBT community and the pride parade,” Listenbee said. “That did not happen, but, at least, it was important as far as we were concerned that we acknowledge that that was one of the intense searches that occurred.”
Abdul-Rahman was reportedly upset about LGBTQ+ identities, and how they are supposedly “pressed upon children in the United States.”
The District Attorney also revealed that Abdul-Rahman had plans to move to Syria so that he could make bombs for Khatiba al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (KTJ) — a terrorist group affiliated with Al-Qaeda. He possessed a passport and several tactical military items he intended to bring with.
“The defendant, who had a scholarship to attend college as a wrestler, decided that he wanted to become a bomb-maker," Listenbee said. “He wanted to leave America and go to Syria an join a terrorist group. He developed bombs in his home and tested those bombs twelve to twenty times in his back yard and in the woods nearby. He was ready to leave his family, his friends, his school and his wrestling team. He had no intention of going to college in the United States."
Abdul-Rahman has been charged as an adult with weapons of mass destruction, criminal conspiracy, arson, and other related offenses. His bail has been set at $5 million, and he has not yet entered a plea.
