Mall of America mention in terrorist video was plea for attention, professor says

Somali-based terror group al-Shabab was looking for a hook when it mentioned the Mall of America in their latest video, said Ken Menkhaus, a political science professor Davidson College in North Carolina.

Menkhaus, who specializes on the Horn of Africa, joined MPR News with Tom Weber and said the one-minute call for extremists in the west to attack shopping malls came at the end of a 75-minute video that focused on Kenya.

The video was "pretty unwatchable," Menkhaus said, and al-Shabab is trying to compete with ISIS for media coverage.

"This thing was just going to go out on the Internet and die unless they did something dramatic," he said. "By throwing in that threat at the very end, they ensured it would get the kind of media attention it has in fact gotten."

Menkhaus said he doesn't think the video will make a difference for the Mall of America because similar calls for a lone-wolf attack have been made already.

"Anyone who is pre-disposed to engage in a homegrown act of terrorism already has that appeal floating around on the Internet," he said. "That's why I don't think this one is really changing the threat level at all."

Americans need to practice vigilance when it comes to security, but not overreact, Menkhaus said.

"We have to go about our business and not allow a terrorist threat to fundamentally alter the way we live," he said.