Israeli teacher gets 4 year jail term for promoting ISIS ideology

"The accused acted intensively to spread the ideology of an extremist militant terrorist organization."

By YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA
Updated: JANUARY 8, 2016 03:36
ISIS (photo credit: ISLAMIC SOCIAL MEDIA)
ISIS
(photo credit: ISLAMIC SOCIAL MEDIA)
The Beersheba District Court on Thursday gave a four-year jail sentence to a Beduin teacher in the Negev for teaching youth to support Islamic State, an organization that has been outlawed in Israel.
The 28-year-old teacher Muhammad Abu al-Kian from the town of Hura, who is married and has five children, confessed to charges of activity in an outlawed organization and attempting to join the organization through plans of traveling to Syria via Saudi Arabia.
According to the indictment, aside from his role as a teacher, Kian was a speaker at a mosque and took part in secret meetings where he served as a “spiritual guide” on Islamic State ideology.
Kian established a secret cell that met in private and planned departures from Israel to Syria. In the summer of 2014, he met with two teenagers and taught them about Islamic State, leading to their expressing support for the radical Islamist group.
From the end of 2013 until his arrest last summer, Kian took part in ISIS supporter gatherings, along with Othman Abu al-Kian who was killed in Syria after joining the group.
“The accused acted intensively to spread the ideology of an extremist militant terrorist organization that presents a great risk to Israel,” Judge Yoel Eden said in his sentence.
The judge found that Kian “abused his position of respect in his community to deliver speeches in the mosque in order to persuade them join the organization.”