# Is it a crime to want to live under the caliphate instituted by ISIS? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 3, 2017, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-under-the-caliphate-instituted-by-isis/783643 "2017-04-03T09:40:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-under-the-caliphate-instituted-by-isis/783643/41 "2017-04-05T06:53:28Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > In Spain, the exact wording is _apología del terrorismo_. There is nothing ambiguous about either the wording or the law: if you praise terrorists you are commiting a crime. In the US that would (rightly IMO) be protected speech. More concrete “material support” would be required for it to be a crime. Though, I believe, distributing material actually produced by a terrorist organisation would sail pretty close to the wind (though IANAL) ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-under-the-caliphate-instituted-by-isis/783643/42 "2017-04-05T10:05:06Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > In the US that would (rightly IMO) be protected speech. More concrete “material support” would be required for it to be a crime. Though, I believe, distributing material actually produced by a terrorist organisation would sail pretty close to the wind (though IANAL) That just proves that you are not really ‘at war’ with the terrorists. In the real wars supporters, or even those with a chance to sympathise with the enemy, were certainly targetted. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-under-the-caliphate-instituted-by-isis/783643/43 "2017-04-05T13:04:08Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > In the US that would (rightly IMO) be protected speech. More concrete “material support” would be required for it to be a crime. Though, I believe, distributing material actually produced by a terrorist organisation would sail pretty close to the wind (though IANAL) IANAL either … but I think it depends on what the distributed material says … if it’s directly soliciting cash donations to ISIS, then I believe we’d be over the line … however if the material was advocating removing ISIS from the list of terrorist organizations, then I think we’d be okay … ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-under-the-caliphate-instituted-by-isis/783643/44 "2017-04-05T18:49:37Z")
> [@Latro](#): > > That just proves that you are not really ‘at war’ with the terrorists. > In the real wars supporters, or even those with a chance to sympathise with the enemy, were certainly targetted. Nope it shows that a small number of well defined rights (like the US constitution) is a better than an bloated amorphous collection of them (like the EU human rights charter) Not that the Constitution is a perfect protection from the government doing awful things to its citizens, especially during war time. But it does a much better job than its more complicated alternatives in other countries. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-under-the-caliphate-instituted-by-isis/783643/45 "2017-04-06T06:14:39Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Though, I believe, distributing material actually produced by a terrorist organisation would sail pretty close to the wind (though IANAL) Clarion, an anti-extremist organization, puts \*Dabiq \*and \*Rumiyah \*on its website (ISIS recruitment magazines.) ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-under-the-caliphate-instituted-by-isis/783643/46 "2017-04-06T18:08:49Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Clarion, an anti-extremist organization, puts \*Dabiq \*and \*Rumiyah \*on its website (ISIS recruitment magazines.) That doesn’t mean it is legal to do so. I just means it is not in the interests of any DAs to prosecute them for doing it. Based on a Googling, it looks like it _could_ be illegal, but no one has actually been prosecuted for it, yet. The closest is the case of Tarek Mehanna in 2012 (bolding mine): > [@](#): > > In 2012, the United States won a conviction against Tarek Mehanna, a Massachusetts pharmacist who tried unsuccessfully to fight with al Qaeda in Iraq but also translated a number of jihadist tracts and videos into English so that they could be distributed online and encourage others to join the terror group. > > **The key issue in Mehanna’s case was whether his translations were an expression of sympathy for al Qaeda’s ideology—which would be protected—versus work that he undertook to support the terrorist group or assist its operations**. A jury convicted Mehanna under the material support statute, and he was sentenced to 17½ years in prison. > > But the courts didn’t fully settle the consitutional questions in the case, and it’s not clear how the material support law could similiarly be used against people who engage in or support ISIS’s social media campaigns. [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/23/justice-department-we-ll-go-after-isis-twitter-army.html?via=desktop&source=twitter](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/23/justice-department-we-ll-go-after-isis-twitter-army.html?via=desktop&source=twitter) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-under-the-caliphate-instituted-by-isis/783643.md?page=2)