While certainly anything could have set off Russell’s bizarre, jihadist-fueled threat, it does seem oddly inconvenient timing for CAIR that the incident happened the same week the Hamas-linked group launched its #MyJihad ads. Perhaps Russell was merely trying to express what jihad means to him.
On Monday, TheBlaze provided an inside look at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) new public relations campaign dubbed “MyJihad” or, “#MyJihad.” The ad campaign launched via a series of San Francisco bus ads the first week in January and soon followed suit in Chicago. And now, a man identified as Caleb Russell ironically threatened to blow up a CTA bus in the name of “jihad against the white devil.” Apparently, that was “#hisjihad.”
CAIR, which was named an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial — the largest terror-funding trial in U.S. history — claims its rebranding efforts are meant to take back the word “jihad” from “anti-Muslims” and paint it in a positive light.
But Russell didn’t get the full memo, as The Chicago Tribune reported:
A man threatened to blow up a CTA bus and told police he was “jihad against the white devil” this week, causing evening rush hour passengers to flee in fear for their lives, authorities said. A judge set bail at $90,000 Tuesday for Caleb Russell, 23, of the 4700 block of South Woodlawn Avenue, who was charged with making a bomb threat, a felony, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office and police.
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