‘WHEN SWORDS COLLIDE’

New Jersey Teen Admits Threatening to ‘Blow Up’ Synagogue

Omar Alkattoul, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce.

A New Jersey teen pleaded guilty on Wednesday to threatening to “blow up” a synagogue in a disturbing antisemitic manifesto, according to a Wednesday news release from the Department of Justice. Nineteen-year-old Omar Alkattoul’s arrest, first reported by The Daily Beast, took place last November after he said he was “radicalized” online. According to a criminal complaint, Alkattoul circulated a link to his manifesto, titled “When Swords Collide,” in which he outlined his plans for a synagogue attack and “many more attacks like these against the enemy of Allah and the pigs and monkeys.” Alkattoul initially told investigators that he said these things “in a joking manner,” and that he didn’t “have the balls” to commit such an atrocity, the complaint says. But his threats triggered an FBI warning to synagogues across New Jersey. Alkattoul pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce and could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.