Joshua Van Haften (born 1981) was a United States citizen who attempted to join the Islamic State in 2015.
Biography[]
Joshua Van Haften was born in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States in 1981. Van Haften was a registered sex offender after second-degree sexual assault of a child in 2000, and he had a previous arrest in 1998, when he hit his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend in the ear with a pistol.
On 26 August 2014 Joshua Van Haften traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, hoping to join the Islamic State in the Syrian Civil War. However, he never made it to Syria, and he was arrested. He was taken back to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, and he was charged of attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist organization.