NEW YORK (WABC) — A Long Island man was arrested Wednesday at JFK Airport as he tried to board a flight to Qatar, from where he intended to travel to Syria and join ISIS, federal prosecutors said.

Syed Aman, 28, expressed support for ISIS through social media posts on an online forum, sent money to an individual he believed was an Islamic State agent and made arrangements to travel to Syria, according to the criminal complaint.

For the past month, Aman has been speaking with an FBI source about his plan to join ISIS in Syria. Aman expressed that “jihad and hijrah,” referring to traveling to ISIS-controlled territory and waging war on behalf of ISIS, are “the most important thing, more than anything else right now,” according to the complaint.

The complaint quoted Haman expressing hatred toward nonbelievers: “If you don’t kill them, they will kill us and ruin the earth with decay.” Aman also posted on a social media platform his desire to “kill Americans” and wrote in a notebook his intention to study becoming a shaheed or martyr in the name of ISIS.

Aman allegedly intended to disembark from his flight in Qatar and purchase a flight from Qatar to Turkey, where he would attempt to cross into Syria to join ISIS. Aman also claimed that he would travel with a steel pen to defend himself if he were arrested and that he would attack law enforcement. A silver metal pen was found in Aman’s cross-body bag when he was arrested, prosecutors said.

“As alleged, Aman was steadfast in his attempts to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS and fortunately his evil plan to wage jihad was thwarted,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.

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