On January 24, 2011, an

Imperial Beach, California Imperial Beach is a residential beach city in San Diego County, California, with a population of 26,324 at the 2010 census. The city is the southernmost city in California and the West Coast of the United States. It is in the South Bay area ...

, man named Roger Stockham was arrested and charged with terrorism after attempting to blow up the

Islamic Center of America The Islamic Center of America (Arabic: ٱلْمَرْكَز ٱلْإِسْلَامِيّ فِي أَمْرِيكَا‎, ''al-Markaz al-ʾIslāmīy Fī ʾAmrīkā'') is a mosque located in Dearborn, Michigan. The Islamic Center of America, a 120 ...

in Dearborn, Michigan, which has large

Arab-American Arab Americans ( ar, عَرَبٌ أَمْرِيكِا or ) are Americans of Arab ancestry. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World. According to the Arab American Ins ...

and Muslim populations. The police made no comments as to his motive. Stockham later said he opposed the Iraq war and targeted the mosque to "grab people's attention." He was arrested in the parking lot outside the mosque with a car filled with high-end, class C fireworks including M-80s. Possession of such fireworks is a 15-year felony in Michigan; the terrorism charge can carry up to 20 years. Police chief Roger Haddad described Stockham and the threat he posed as "very dangerous" and "very serious"; at the time Stockham was arrested, there were 500 worshippers inside the mosque. According to Haddad, Stockham had a history of anti-government activity and run-ins with law enforcement agencies elsewhere. He was arrested after the police received a tip from a bar employee who had overheard Stockham making violent threats. Haddad said that Stockham was likely acting alone. Dearborn Mayor John O'Reilly commented on the incident, saying that the explosives Stockham had, "if used in a building could cause tremendous harm".

Suspect

Roger Stockham is a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

veteran who was based in

Pleiku Pleiku is a city in central Vietnam, located in the Central Highlands region. It is the capital of the Gia Lai Province. Many years ago, it was inhabited primarily by the Bahnar and Jarai ethnic groups, sometimes known as the Montagnards or De ...

. He had written on his Myspace page: "Proud of my kids. Happy with how much I've lived. Ready for it to be over, but have a policy I contend with often: So long as I am alive, I can't play dead." In 1977, Stockham armed himself with bombs and took his psychologist hostage, but he surrendered later after meeting with a reporter. On September 1, 1979, the ''

Merced Sun-Star The ''Merced Sun-Star'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper printed in Merced, California, in the United States. It has an estimated circulation of 20,000 copies. The newspaper is published every day except for Sundays. History The ''Merced Sun-Sta ...

'' in California reported that Stockham, whom it described as a 32-year-old, had taken his then-9-year-old son Kane out of foster care and brought Kane and a gun on board his rented

Cessna 150 The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation airplane that was designed for flight training, touring and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 22-23. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa Monica CA, 1977. In 19 ...

in attempt to land at Los Angeles International Airport and hijack an airliner to take him to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. At one point, he was also accused of threatening President Jimmy Carter. In 1985, Stockham was arrested at Reno-Cannon International Airport for planting a

pipe bomb A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device which uses a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively huge explos ...

and carrying an unregistered firearm, an incident covered in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. Aged 38 at the time, he was described as having mental and criminal problems. According to psychiatrists, he believed he was

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

and that

extraterrestrials Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...

had taken over his body. Stockham is a member of his local chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). In his profile on the VFW website, he is described as a "typical surfer" whose other hobbies include

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffic ...

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cou ...

, and go-cart racing. He was at one point a commercial bush pilot in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. In 2002, he pleaded Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity to threatening to blow up a Veterans Administration Center in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

and making threats against President George W. Bush.

Court proceedings and guilty plea

Stockham rejected his court-appointed attorney because he claimed the attorney was a Muslim. In April 2012, Stockham agreed to a "guilty but mentally ill" plea. He was held at the

Federal Medical Center, Devens The Federal Medical Center, Devens (FMC Devens) is a United States federal prison in Massachusetts for male inmates requiring specialized or long-term medical or mental health care. It is designated as an administrative facility, which means it ha ...

, in Massachusetts for psychiatric treatment. He was released from federal custody in November 2012. In May 2013, a Federal judge ruled that Stockham could be released to a community facility with orders to continue taking his psychiatric medication. The community facility is likely to be in Burlington, Vermont, although this is unconfirmed.

Reactions and aftermath

On January 28, 2011, Imam Sayyid Hassan al-Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America addressed the

Shi'ite Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

Muslim community regarding the plot. According to al-Qazwini, the police indicated to him that Stockham had said to the police that he regarded

Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third ...

as his role model. 7/28/2015, Roger Stockham/Hem Ahadin was released from prison in Vermont on 6/13/13 and has been residing in Burlington, VT, since, without incident. He is now a Zen Master. His autobiography is on Kindle: "NOWMENON - A Different Reality."

References

{{coord missing, Michigan 2011 in Michigan Explosions in 2011 2011 in Islam January 2011 crimes January 2011 events in the United States Arab and Islamic culture in Dearborn, Michigan Anti-Muslim violence in the United States Terrorist incidents in Michigan Terrorist incidents in the United States in 2011 Failed terrorist attempts in the United States Violence against Muslims Crimes in Michigan Attacks on Shiite mosques Reno–Tahoe International Airport