FBI Foiled Future Jihad Strike in NY

Today on AC360, Anderson Cooper interviewed a Repulican congressman from NY on the capture of alleged terrorists in NY. The congressman in his limited knowledge of the men kept on emphasizing several times that they are all MUSLIMS. He must have repeated the terrorists' religion at every third word. Obviously, one of the men being of Afghan descent and the other three being recent converts of Islam while in prison struck the nail on their coffins. Even after acknowledging that he had little information of the entire event, he kept on highlighting that they were MUSLIMS  and had supposedly planned on attacking a synagogue. 

The three men who converted into Islam in prison interests me the most. Which prison? Why were they there in the first place? Who are these men? What prompted them to convert? And how do newly converts automatically raise their arms in violence to protect their religion?