Minn. Judge Says Four Men Accused of Trying to Join Islamic State May Be Held Until Trial

 A Minnesota judge has ordered that four Americans recently arrested for attempting to join the Islamic State in Syria face charges of conspiracy to support a foreign terrorist organization, arguing that they need to be held in custody until their trial begins. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Becky Thorson said this week that there is probable cause to charge four Minnesota men of Somali descent with conspiracy to support a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to join a forein terrorist organization.

The men are four of six recently arrested by U.S. officials for allegedly plotting to leave the U.S. and travel to Syria to join the Islamic State terrorism organization.

Two other men were arrested in San Diego, California on similar charges and are facing court hearings there.

Lawyers defending the four Minnesota men, who range in age from 19 to 21, argue that the prosecution has a slim case, suggesting that the men's verbal suggestions that they may join the Islamic State are protected under the U.S. Constitution. Defense lawyers have also questioned the use of an informant in stinging the four suspects.

Members of the local Somali community have reportedly spoken out against the recent arrests, suggesting that they are being wrongfully targeted for extremist tendencies.

"Some members of the community are looking at other members of the community (as) spying to each other and sending them, their kids, to jail," community Imam Hassan Mohamud told The Kansas City Star following this week's hearing in Minnesota. "That's why they are all angry. These four, all of them, are innocent until proven guilty."