This story has been updated.
DEARBORN, MI – A Dearborn Heights man is in custody after the FBI intercepted a credible threat to attack a Detroit Church in the name of ISIS, authorities said.
Jill Washburn, a spokeswoman for the Detroit field office of the FBI, told Patch that Kahlil Abu-Rayyan “had it in his mind he was going to shoot up a church and bought a weapon and ammunition.”
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Abu-Rayyan had been on an FBI watch list since May, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court (see below).
The FBI was investigating him on drug and firearms violations, but in the course of monitoring his social media accounts, found re-tweets of ISIS propaganda that included videos showing a Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive, the beheadings of Christians in Egypt and men being thrown from high-rise buildings as a means of execution.

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Abu-Rayyan reportedly told an undercover FBI agent in December that he had an AK-47 machine gun and “tried to shoot up a church” and that he “had it planned out,” but his father discovered the arsenal and confronted him, according to the affidavit.
“I bought a bunch of bullets,” Abu-Rayyan said, according to the affidavit. “I practiced a lot with it. I practiced reloading and unloading. ….”
The complaint also alleges that Abu-Rayyan said carrying out the attack would be “easy” and that “a lot of people go” to the church, which authorities didn’t name, but said would accommodate up to 6,000 people.
According to the affidavit, he went on to say:
“Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church. Plus it would make the news. Everybody would’ve heard. Honestly I regret not doing it. (If I) can’t go do jihad at the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here.”
Abu-Rayyan was arrested on the drug and firearms charges in October 2015. His trial on the concealed weapons charge is set for Feb. 16, and he previously pleaded guilty to marijuana possession.
The government alleges that while in custody, Abu-Rayyan allegedly threatened to kill the officer who had arrested him in a “martyrdom operation” and that he “would gladly behead people if I needed to.”
“It is my dream to behead someone,” he said, according to the affadavit.