Police officers on patrol at Mall of America, MN
Police officers on patrol at Mall of America, MNReuters

Twenty-year-old Mahad Abdiaziz Adbiraham pleaded guilty Thursday to stabbing two brothers at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, reports KSTP.

On November 12th, 2017, Adbiraham stabbed two brothers in the mall in what was initially suspected to have been a botched attempt at theft.

At the plea hearing Thursday, Abdiraham’s attorney read a statement to the courtroom explaining why he attacked the two men.

In the statement, Abdiraham said he went to the Mall of America to answer the “call for jihad by the Chief of Believer, Abu-bakr Al-baghdadi, may Allah protect him, and by the Mujahiden of the Islamic State.”

The statement added, “I understand that the two men I stabbed know and have explained the reason for my attack, and I am here reaffirming that it was indeed an act of Jihad in the way of Allah.”

Abdiraham also said in the statement that Americans will not be safe as long as “your country is at war with Islam.”

The Jihad Watch organization responded to the incident saying: "This stabbing incident was initially reported as an 'interrupted theft,' with no indication that it was jihad. It took the perpetrator himself to explain that in stabbing these two non-Muslims, he was answering the 'call for jihad'.

"The only people who don’t know it, or refuse to accept it and ponder its implications, are in Minnesota law enforcement and media," said Jihad Watch.

Author of Fatwa: Hunted in America Pamela Geller said: "The de facto scrubbing, censorship, and whitewash of all things jihadic and Islamic (except of course dawah and propaganda) is now the way of things. Anyone who continues to fight for truth and freedom will work on the very outer margins, while the enemy is feted, exalted, and hailed as the victim."