Invisible Martyrs by Farhana Qazi

Author:Farhana Qazi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 2018-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

MISGUIDED

Arvada, Colorado

It all seemed innocent enough, until it wasn’t. On July 2, 2014, Shannon Maureen Conley was halfway down the runway at Denver International Airport when US federal agents put an end to her plans. Clothed in a hijab, the 19-year-old American girl was on a one-way trip to Turkey via Germany when she was discovered. The Muslim convert made no secret of the fact that she was heading to Syria to join ISIS. A simple-looking American girl, Conley had been radicalized within a short time period. In less than a year, she had converted to Islam, fallen in love with a Muslim man online, and pledged her loyalty to ISIS. She was one of many Western girls who had been misguided by male extremists, a victim of romantic fatalism.

Conley had grown up in Arvada, a quiet suburb of Denver, in a home with a statue of Saint Francis in the garden. Nothing seemed amiss. Her mother, Ana Maria, was a professor at Regis University. Her father, John, worked in the computer industry and taught martial arts on the side. The youngest of four girls, Conley wore shorts and jeans and hats. She was friendly and a bright student at Arvada West High School.

Raised Catholic, Conley converted to Islam. During her junior year of high school, she began wearing long dresses and flowing head scarves. She and a friend were even photographed in the niqab, or face veil, showing only their eyes. Conley peered through the conservative dress with wire-rimmed glasses. Her behavior unnerved some of her classmates, who would find her kneeling three times a day in the school bathroom to pray. Bob Taylor was her neighbor. “When she first moved in,” he said, “she seemed normal, wore clothes most kids wear; then she started wearing the long Islamic garb. She would go down the street here to a park and sit on the swing. Swing in the attire for maybe half an hour at a time. I don’t know if she was contemplating or meditating.”

Conley’s behavior grew more alarming. She came to the attention of authorities when she started to stake out a nearby Christian mega-church, Faith Bible Chapel, in the fall of 2013. Like many evangelical churches around the country, Faith Bible Chapel strongly supported the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. Each year, they held an Israel Awareness Day with food, dancing, and exhibits. The sight of a young woman in a Muslim conservative dress, dashing in and out of services and classes, made members uncomfortable. The church had reason to be on edge. In December 2007, a man had opened fire in a missionary group’s dormitory housing. Two members died and two others were injured in the senseless crime.

Soon enough, the pastor and the church congregation began to notice that something seemed wrong with Shannon Conley. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the Denver Post, Conley said to her religious community, “Why is this church worried about a terrorist attack?” Once, with

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