This morning I asked Penn State Young Americans for Freedom President Sam Settle for his thoughts on Emerson Begolly’s arrest. This is what he had to say:

I think non-Muslims get involved in jihadism for the same basic reasons that people join any supremacist ideology–it provides a sense of purpose, a feeling of superiority, and a license to act in horrendous ways. Begolly was clearly attracted to supremacist beliefs (for example, he seems to have flirted with neo-Nazism). The step from Nazism to jihadism isn’t difficult; both ideologies are vehemently anti-semitic and anti-Zionst.

In fact, there have been a lot of connections between jihadists and Nazis over the years: there’s at least some indication that early modern jihadist leaders were inspired by Nazism, several prominent neo-Nazis have converted to Islam, at least one major American neo-Nazi has proposed an alliance with al-Qaeda, and Mein Kampf is widely circulated in the Islamic world.