Two Northern Virginia men charged with terrorist activities appeared in federal court on Jan. 19. Authorities say 28-year-old Joseph Hassan Farrokh attempted to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State, and 25-year-old Mahmoud Amin Mohamed Elhassan is charged with trying to help him. (WUSA 9)

Two Northern Virginia men charged with terrorist activities appeared in federal court on Jan. 19. Authorities say 28-year-old Joseph Hassan Farrokh attempted to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State, and 25-year-old Mahmoud Amin Mohamed Elhassan is charged with trying to help him. (WUSA 9)

An attorney for a Virginia man accused of helping an acquaintance try to join the Islamic State said his client was a victim of anti-Muslim hysteria and efforts by the government to manufacture — then stop — terror threats.

After a brief court hearing Tuesday, Ashraf Nubani, the attorney for 25-year-old Mahmoud Amin Mohamed Elhassan, said that his client is innocent and that the charges against him were based largely on the word of three government informants who were “looking for people they thought they could get in trouble.” He asserted that in Elhassan’s case and in others, federal agents have engineered a threat, then publicized their efforts to convince the American people that they are being protected.

“They create cases, and then they prevent them from happening,” Nubani said.

[Virginia man accused of planning to join the Islamic State in Syria]

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment on Nubani’s assertion.

Elhassan was one of two Woodbridge men arrested Friday and charged in connection with what authorities said was a plot to have one of them join the Islamic State in Syria. Another man, 28-year-old Joseph Hassan Farrokh, intended to fly to Syria, and Elhassan was aware of his plans and drove him to Richmond for the first leg of his journey, authorities alleged.

Authorities said Farrokh intended to fly out of Richmond as part of a trip that would take him overseas. He was taken into custody as he walked toward his departure gate; Elhassan was arrested later, authorities have said.

Tuesday, at both men’s first appearance in federal court in Alexandria, more than a dozen family members and others who know them packed the wooden benches to see what would unfold — some crying as the men appeared in court. The men said nothing, and the hearing was largely administrative.

Federal Magistrate Judge Theresa C. Buchanan ordered Farrokh held until his next court appearance, on Thursday, and Elhassan held until his next appearance, on Tuesday. As Elhassan was led away, he waved to those gathered and three women made heart shapes with their hands.

Notable in the crowd was Amani Ibrahim, the mother of the Northern Virginia teen who was sentenced to 11 years and four months in federal prison last year for running a prolific pro-Islamic State Twitter account and helping a young friend join the terrorist group in Syria. She said she did not know either of the men charged and came simply because she had heard about the case. Ashmeer Tahir said a large contingent had come from the Badr Community Center of Dumfries, where Farrokh and Elhassan prayed from time to time.

[Northern Virginia teen sentenced to 11 years for aiding Islamic State]

Tahir said that he, like Elhassan’s attorney, was concerned that the young men had been “entrapped.”

“I would say, why are they looking at our young people?” Tahir said.

Elhassan was studying at Northern Virginia Community College and has a license to work as a cabdriver, according to his brother. Farrokh is married and told family members that he had planned a visit to Saudi Arabia, court papers say, but little else could be learned about him.

Farrokh is charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Elhassan is accused of aiding and abetting Farrokh’s plot.

Affidavits in the case do not say how federal agents were tipped to the men’s plot, but they say the pair had been working with law enforcement informants for months. According to the affidavits, Farrokh believed one of the informants to be an Islamic State facilitator.

Standing in front of Elhassan’s brothers and sisters at an impromptu news conference, Nubani claimed the government has been using such tactics since Sept. 11, 2001, and urged reporters to look beyond the government’s allegations. He said that Elhassan came from a “regular family” and that “some people are Islamophobic, and they’re whipping up fear against Muslims.”

Nubani also criticized the timing and circumstances of Elhassan’s arrest, saying he was jailed over the weekend. An attorney for Farrokh did not make any comments immediately outside the courtroom and did not return email and phone messages seeking comment.