A US federal court in Virginia has sent a second man to prison for online postings linked to Revolution Muslim. New York Islam convert Jesse Curtis Morton received an eleven-and-a-half-year sentence yesterday after his co-defendant was jailed in February.
Morton, 33, also known as Younus Abdullah Muhammed, wrote alongside fellow convert Zachary Chesser, 20, on a now-defunct website that promoted violence against perceived enemies of Islam. Targets included those behind depictions of the Prophet Muhammed, which are widely held to be offensive to Islamic beliefs.
Morton and Chesser threatened people including the writers of satirical TV show South Park, which had shown Muhammed in a bear suit, and an artist behind May 2010's Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. The duo posted addresses for South Park writers, urging readers to "pay them a visit". 
Virginia-based Chesser admitted his role in court in October 2010 and received a 25-year sentence, with the discrepancy between the pair's sentences attributed to two attempts by Chesser to head to Somalia and become an al-Shabbab member. Morton was arrested last year in Rabat, Morocco and extradited back to the US, pleading guilty in February.
The defence wanted Morton's sentence kept below five years, and he had apologised for having "contributed to a clash of civilizations" with his support of violence. The prosecutor contended Morton had abused his right to free speech by threatening murder to "chill" the expressions of others.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!
Share this: 






This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
US court jails second man for Revolution Muslim web postings