A radical Islamic cleric has been found guilty for inciting violence against the United States urging his followers to join the Taliban and fight. He faces life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors said the defendant — a native U.S. citizen who has an international following in some Muslim circles — wielded enormous influence among a group of young Muslim men in northern Virginia who played paintball games in 2000 and 2001 as a means of training for holy war around the globe.

Five days after Sept. 11, al-Timimi addressed a small group of his followers in a secret meeting and warned that the attacks were a harbinger of a final apocalyptic battle between Muslims and non-believers. He said they were required as Muslims to defend the Taliban from a looming U.S. invasion, according to the government.

While nobody ever joined the Taliban, four of the defendant’s followers subsequently traveled to Pakistan in late September 2001 and trained with a militant group called Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Three of them testified that their intention had been to use the training they received from the group to join the Taliban and fight in Afghanistan, and that it was al-Timimi’s speech that inspired them to do so.

While I’m not going to argue whether or not al-Timini should have been prosecuted in the first place, I do find it odd that the United States has chosen to go after al-Timini for inciting violence yet leaves several other Islamic clerics who urge much of the same unchecked. The seven men who were found guilty of belogning to a “Virginia Jihad” group have stated sermons and urgings from al-Timini played a major role in their decision to participate in Jihad against the United States.