Letter from accused jihadist: Muslims to conquer Washington

CHICAGO (WLS) -- From solitary confinement at the Metro Correctional Center in Chicago's Loop, accused terrorist Adel Daoud has sent a remarkable four page letter to a federal judge alleging that he is locked up only because he is a Muslim.

The letter states, "You can slaughter our people and blow up all of our troops but God will reward us with Paradise (sic) and replace us with people better than us. Just like God gave our nation the castles of Rome and Persia He will give us the White House. Just how God gave us Constantinople (modern Istanbul) He will give us Washington DC!"

CLICK HERE to read the entire letter.

The handprinted letter on yellow legal paper offers a litany of complaints by Daoud, 22, from "horror film" quality video on the TV screen used during visitor visits, to problems with his legal paperwork and allegations that anti-Islamic sentiments resulted in his arrest and incarceration.

Daoud's letter to Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, dated January 6, begins, "I have been in SHU for over 7 months." That is the Special Housing Unit at the MCC reserved for particularly dangerous or sensitive defendants, usually terror suspects. The SHU offers solitary confinement with limited privileges.

The west suburban Hillside man was just 18 when arrested in September 2012, outside a downtown Chicago bar after FBI agents said he pushed a button on what he believed to be a bomb detonator. The entire "plot" was part of an FBI sting. Daoud has pleaded not guilty.

"I know I'm in jail because I'm Muslim," Daoud writes. "There is no explicit proof that I was plotting a terrorist attack without the super-assistance from the FBI," he writes to Judge Johnson Coleman.

"You all wanted to arrest me and thendecided on doing all these investigations to gather things to incriminate me and possibly catch me in terrorist activity," he writes.

He claims that he wasn't attempting to construct a bomb at his family's suburban home. "All I did was pray, read books, hang out, play play station, and surf the web," Daoud writes. Law enforcement officials have said that he was recruited on the internet to join radical Islamist efforts.

In the letter, Mr. Daoud offers to sit down with authorities so they can explain to him why he is guilty. He says if he can be convinced, he will plead guilty...and that if he can "find something better" than Islam, he will abandon the faith and accept it.

His trial date was set for this week, but has now been put off and a new date is not on the books.

A thread running through the letter is the "Illuminati," a mysterious group that conspiracy theorists believe is trying to establish a "New World Order." It is said to be a secret society composed of politicians, religious leaders and entertainers. Daoud accuses the judge and those prosecuting him of being part of the Illuminati, motivating their pursuit of him.

"I want you (the judge) and every member of the Illuminati to know that you can't destroy Islam," he writes. "I wanted to pursue my studies, to be a scholar of truth, to spread pure Islamic teaching, but even if you lock me up God doesn't need me to spread Islam and can replace me with people better than me."

Then comes the pledge that Muslims will take over the White House and Washington, followed by the salutation, "You have my best regards. May Peace be upon those who follow guidance." Signed, Adel Daoud.