Prosecutors say West Philly teen tested bombs, researched LGBTQ parades

A West Philadelphia teenager was an aspiring bomb-maker who planned to travel to Syria to join a terrorist organization and considered attacking local LGBTQ parades and events, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Federal agents arrested Muhyyee-Ud-din Abdul-Rahman more than a year ago, when he was 17 years old. At the time, authorities provided few details about the investigation. The District Attorney’s Office provided an update this week after a judge agreed with prosecutors that the case should be moved to adult court.

“The defendant, who had a scholarship to attend college as a wrestler, decided that he wanted to become a bomb-maker,” First Assistant District Attorney Robert Listenbee said at a news conference.

Abdul-Rahman, now 18, in an interview shortly after his August 2023 arrest, told investigators that he had exploded between 12 and 20 explosives in wooded areas near his Wynnefield home, according to the DA’s Office.

He reported being days away from testing a pressure cooker bomb that would have required a few hundred yards of open space to detonate, prosecutors said. Abdul-Rahman had also acquired ingredients to construct an triacetone triperoxide, Listenbee said, a particularly powerful explosive that has been used in numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2005 London bombings that killed more than 50 people.

He told detectives that he had no intention of causing destruction in the United States, according to prosecutors; rather, he wanted to be prepared to build bombs once he arrived in Syria.

However, Abdul-Rahman’s phone history indicates that claim may not have been true, authorities said. Listenbee told reporters that he, with a span of minutes, searched for “Philadelphia gay parade,” “trash can bombs,” and “Philadelphia trash cans downtown,” along with other similar terms.

In the interview, Abdul-Rahman said he was “upset about homosexuality and how it was pressed upon children in the United States,” Listenbee said.

“It was concluded that he was at least considering targeting the LGBT community and the Pride parade,” he added.

Abdul-Rahman also researched nearby nuclear power stations, the Army-Navy football game, Valley Forge Military Academy and College, the Pentagon and dozens of military bases, according to the DA’s Office.

In addition to materials for explosives, Abdul-Rahman, in the year before he was apprehended, also purchased a trove of tactical gear, including camouflage uniforms and a chest rig to store assault rifle magazines.

In April 2023, he tried unsuccessfully to call a crossing on the Turkey-Syria border, and he received his U.S. passport a few weeks before his arrest, Listenbee said.

Prosecutors believe Abdul-Rahman wanted to travel to Syria’s Idlib Province to construct bombs for Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ) and Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS). The U.S. federal government has designated both groups as terrorist organizations.

Listenbee said Abdul-Rahman viewed Osama bin Laden as an “inspiration leader,” and he used a photograph of the late al-Qaeda founder as his WhatsApp profile picture.

He tried to recruit at least one other young man in the Philadelphia area, Listenbee said. He added that the teenager rebuffed Abdul-Rahman and that authorities investigated him – conducting a house search – before concluding that he was not involved.

Prosecutors are not sure how Abdul-Rahman became radicalized, according to Listenbee.

Law enforcement began monitoring Abdul-Rahman after intercepting communications between him and suspected terrorists in Syria, the District Attorney’s Office said. Shortly before his arrest, investigators searched the trash outside his family’s house and found evidence of an exploded bomb, Listenbee said.

Abdul-Rahman’s attorney could not be identified through court records.

He has been charged with manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, criminal conspiracy, arson, risking a catastrophe, attempted criminal mischief and other crimes. Abdul-Rahman could also face federal prosecution, according to the DA’s Office.

Listenbee said there are no plans to arrest his parents. “There was every effort to deceive his parents, family, friends and folks that he knew at school, so his deceptive skills are quite well developed,” he added.

Following the transfer of his case to adult court, Abdul-Rahman was jailed on $5 million bail, Listenbee said. He has been held at the Philadelphia Juvenile Justices Center – without access to electronic devices – since his arrest, officials added.

If convicted, Abdul-Rahman could be sentenced to a maximum of 24 to 48 years in state prison, according to the DA’s Office.