Muslims Decry Move to Seize Houston Mosque

Yesterday the Feds went after 4 US Mosques and a Muslim owned skyscraper. As usual less than 24 hours later, Muslims are crying victim. Keep crying wolf, less and less people are falling for it.

Muslims decry move to seize Houston mosque
Houston spiritual center among U.S. buildings federal prosecutors link to Iran
By MOISES MENDOZA, MARY FLOOD and LINDSAY WISE

The U.S. government on Thursday moved to seize more than $500 million in assets from a New York-based foundation accused of being a front for the Iranian government, including a building that houses the Islamic Education Center of Houston.

The news provoked confusion and anger among Houston's Shia Muslims, many of whom worship at the center's mosque or send their children to an Islamic school that occupies the same large white building at 2313 S. Voss.

Faheem Kazimi, chairman of the board of directors, said IEC leases its building from the Alavi Foundation but no other connection exists.

“The Islamic Education Center is a nonprofit, independent organization, not affiliated with any other organization,” Kazimi said.

He refused to answer any other questions Thursday evening.

The 97-page civil forfeiture lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan alleges that the Alavi Foundation, which files federal taxes as a charitable foundation, is illegally funneling money to the government of Iran.

The U.S. government has accused Iran of financing terrorist organizations and trying to build nuclear weapons. There are no allegations of wrongdoing against those who work and worship at the Houston mosque.

"No action has been taken against any tenants or occupants of those properties," said Yusill Scribner, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. "There are no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants."

The foundation released a written statement through an attorney, saying the group was disappointed with the government's legal move.

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Citing U.S. policy under several presidents and the International Emergency Economic Power Act, the civil suit alleges that the foundation's property, which includes the Islamic Education Center, is forfeitable as proceeds of violations of laws including money laundering.

The indictment alleges how the Alavi Foundation has been providing services to Iran and the government-owned Bank Melli. The suit also alleges how shell corporations were used to dodge taxes and how a foundation official was arrested for allegedly destroying documents being sought in a grand jury investigation.

The U.S. Treasury has accused Bank Melli of providing support for Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The civil suit seeks forfeiture of a 36-story New York City office tower along with other property in New York, California, Virginia, Maryland and several bank accounts. This lawsuit replaces one prosecutors filed in 2008 seeking forfeiture of only a portion of the New York City office tower.

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‘Somewhat of a surprise'

Distraught worshippers milled around the center Thursday. Several guarded the gated entrance, shooing away reporters who tried to approach. A few women peeked out windows at the television satellite trucks and cameras and then looked away.

Farouk Abdulghani said he has three boys who attend the center's Islamic school.

“I know for a fact this center has not done anything wrong or suspicious,” Abdulghani said.

The allegations were “somewhat of a surprise,” he said, “but you're always expecting something like this. Muslims always feel they're on the defensive.”

Abdulghani added that he's worried about the consequences for his community and his children.

“It's really upsetting,” he said. “I don't want my kids to lose their school because of something like this.”

Hussein Abdi said he moved to the U.S. from Iran more than 30 years ago and he's been worshipping at IEC for two decades. He came Thursday to pray.

“It makes me furious,” Abdi said. “We're under attack.”

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Feds Move to Seize 4 US Mosques, Tower Linked to Iran

The war with Islam, on US soil goes on and on. Thankfully the Feds are starting to fight back!

Feds move to seize 4 mosques, tower linked to Iran
By ADAM GOLDMAN

NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered. Nor was a call to the Alavi Foundation.

It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.
The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.

The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.

"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques' leaders had no immediate comment.

Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Md. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.

The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, Calif.
The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.

The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.

Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI.

The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program and its arrest of three American hikers.

But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.

"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."

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Detroit:Muslim Shoot-out With FBI!

Once again we see the beauty that Islam has brought to Michigan.

Feds: Leader of radical Islam group killed in raid

DETROIT – Federal authorities say a leader of what they describe as a nationwide radical Sunni Islam group has been fatally shot during an FBI raid in the Detroit area.

The U.S. attorney's office in Detroit says Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah refused to surrender during an FBI raid Wednesday and was killed in an exchange of gunfire.

Abdullah and 10 others were charged in a complaint with conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including illegal possession and sale of firearms and theft from interstate shipments.

Authorities say an FBI dog also was killed during the raid.

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ACLU Scores one for Anti-FBI Muslim Organizations

This is a continuation of the "American Muslims:Our Mosques and Koran are off Limits!" story. The ACLU has teamed up with the American Muslim Taskforce to try and get the FBI to back off on the threat that Islam brings to this country. One leading Muslim said, "we are running out of patience".

Monday, April 20, 2009
Court asks FBI for Muslim surveillance files
Muslim organizations are angry over reports of spying in Southern California mosques.
By SEAN EMERY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – The widening rift between the FBI and the Islamic community has drawn the American Civil Liberties Union into the fray, with the organization's lawyers declaring victory in their efforts to force the release of government surveillance records on Southern California Muslims.

A federal district court judge Monday gave the FBI 30 days to make available for review 48 pages of surveillance memos pertaining to Southern California Muslim organizations that had previously been released only in heavily redacted form, 47 pages of previously withheld memos, and FBI files on the Council of American Islamic Relations and Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the group's Southern Californian Chapter, ACLU staff attorney Jennie Pasquarella said.

Ayloush and Shakeel Syed, the executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, joined Pasquarella in the courtyard of the federal courthouse in Santa Ana minutes after the judge's ruling, declaring the decision a victory for Muslim organizations.

"We are exercising our first amendment rights, and we are running out of patience," Syed said.

FBI representatives forwarded requests for comment to Department of Justice officials, who could not be immediately reached for comment. Federal officials have previously denied charges by several national Islamic organizations that the government has taken part in "fishing expeditions" by sending informants to ensnare Muslims at area Mosques.

A coalition of Islamic organizations known as the American Muslim Taskforce last month threatened to cut ties with the FBI, accusing the agency of using "McCarthy-era tactics."

The announcement came on the heels of Irvine resident Craig Monteilh's public admission that he spent more than a year pretending to embrace Islam at various local mosques as part of an FBI-backed effort to uncover terrorist threats.

Monteilh claimed his work played a key role in the arrest of Ahmadullah Niazi, a Tustin-resident and member of the Islamic Center of Irvine, on several immigration-fraud charges.

But Islamic leaders claim the FBI violated the sanctity of the Islamic religion by sending in Monteilh, a felon who previously served a prison term for conning two women out of more than $150,000.

"While we were led to believe we were partners, we learned we were also under surveillance," Syed said.

The FBI previously declined to comment on the specific allegations brought by the Islamic groups, but pledged to continue outreach efforts with the Muslim community and warned against "limiting honest dialogue, especially when complex issues are on the table."

Muslim leaders say the rift between the FBI and the larger Islamic community has also widened because of the agency's deteriorating relationship with the Council of American Islamic Relations.

In the months following the 911 attacks, the group's officials say they helped the FBI reach out to Muslims and with cultural sensitivity training.

But the group in 2007 came under fire when it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorist funding case against the Holy Land Foundation.

The FBI recently announced that it has ended its own formal partnership with the council, whose leaders have denied any terrorist links.

Ayloush said he hoped this week's court ruling could spark a "healing phase" between the Muslim community and the FBI.

"We're hoping this will begin the process of undoing this climate of fear," Ayloush said.

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American Muslims:Our Mosques and Koran are off Limits!

In a continued display of complete arrogance and acting like they call the shots here, American Muslims are lashing out at the FBI. This all started because it was revealed that the FBI had an informant in the Islamic Center of Irvine Califronia. Now Muslim leaders have stated that their Mosques and the Koran are off limits to the FBI and they are sorry that they ever spoke with the FBI in the first place. Do Muslims even begin to wonder why people speak out against them?

Some influential Muslim groups question FBI's actions
Revelations that the agency has been surveilling popular leaders and infiltrating mosques and schools has many organizations turning away from their post-9/11 cooperation.
By Paloma Esquivel
April 20, 2009
As they sipped tea and nibbled on dates, more than 100 men and women listened to a litany of speakers sounding the same message: The FBI is not your friend.

"We're here today to say our mosques are off limits," Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for Greater Los Angeles, told the crowd last month at an Anaheim mosque.

"Our Koran is off limits," Ayloush said. "Our youth, who they try to radicalize, are off limits. Now is the time to tell them, 'We're not going to let this happen anymore.' "

Such strong words from a man who once was a vocal advocate of ties with federal law enforcement was yet one more signal that the fragile relationship between Muslim American groups and the FBI is being tested.

In the months and years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, FBI officials met privately with Muslim leaders, assuring them that a spate of hate crimes would be vigorously investigated and at the same time asking for help in the campaign against terrorism. Local leaders promised to encourage cooperation.

But even as relations warmed, a series of revelations -- including allegations that the FBI sent an informant into a mosque in Orange County, surveilled community leaders and sent an agent to UC Irvine -- caused some to begin questioning the FBI's real intentions.

Now, the leaders of several Muslim organizations say they feel betrayed. Because Orange County has been at the center of many of the revelations, local leaders have taken a lead in challenging the FBI, but the issues are resonating nationwide.

On Sunday, a coalition of the nation's largest Muslim organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Islamic Society of North America, issued a statement demanding that the Obama administration address FBI actions, including what they describe as the "infiltration of mosques," the use of "agent provocateurs to trap unsuspecting Muslim youth" and the "deliberate vilification" of the council.

"It reached a level where we felt we had to do something," said Agha Saeed, chairman of the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections. "The FBI is doing things which are not healthy. They are creating divisions and conflict, creating a totally negative, Islamophobic image of Muslims in America."

Over the years, there's been a gradual erosion of trust between the groups and the FBI. Months ago, the agency told local leaders it was suspending relations with the council, one of the largest Muslim civil rights groups in the country.

Since then, things have unraveled rapidly. Like other Muslim communities in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, many in Orange County -- home to more than 100,000 Muslim Americans, dozens of mosques and several prominent Muslim community organizations -- worried about FBI investigations.

The FBI, in turn, believed terrorists were either trying to get to Southern California to carry out attacks or were already here. To gain intelligence and demystify the agency's operations, the FBI met with local leaders and formed a committee that met monthly.

"In the post-9/11 world, the Arab American and Muslim community became one of those places where we said, 'It's worth making the extra effort,' " said FBI spokesman John Miller, who is also in charge of the agency's national community outreach program.

Early on, Ayloush said the FBI was acting in good faith and working with the community as "partners rather than suspects."

But the delicate relationship soon began to fray.

In 2004, the FBI and immigration officials arrested the popular head of an Anaheim mosque; he was held on immigration-related charges for two years until a judge ordered his release pending deportation. In 2006, an FBI agent was quoted as telling a business group in Newport Beach that the agency was monitoring Muslims at local universities. A year later, UC Irvine students said an FBI agent conducting an investigation at the school assaulted a Muslim student with his car near the site of a demonstration.

On a national level, there was the disclosure that FBI agents had been secretly monitoring radiation levels at mosques in search of radioactive bombs. More troubling were news reports that Muslims had been asked to become informants or face deportation.

The breaking point came in February with the revelation that the FBI had sent an informant to an Irvine mosque to collect evidence of jihadist rhetoric and other allegedly extremist acts by a Tustin man who attended prayers there.

To some, the incidents added up to this conclusion: The government was targeting all Muslims. Miller strongly disputes that contention, saying that the agency does not go on "fishing expeditions."

"What we investigate is people," he said. "If we develop information on a person, that investigation may take us different places -- to their home, their place of business . . . and yes, if . . . they go to a mosque, the investigation may take us to the mosque. That is part of what we do."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations was named in 2007, along with hundreds of other organizations and individuals, as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case against the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, which the government accused of funneling money to terrorists.

As a result, the FBI suspended relations with the council this year.

"That is not to suggest that anyone or everyone associated with CAIR has any kind of taint," Miller said, adding that "there are some issues we would like to know more about from the leaders at CAIR's headquarters."

But at the recent meeting at the Anaheim mosque, the tone was one of frustration and anger.

Speakers suggested that ordinary Muslim Americans need to protect themselves from overzealous FBI agents.

"You don't get brownie points for speaking to them," said Ameena Qazi, a lawyer for the council. "They don't go back to the office and check off your civic engagement or your patriotism. . . . We are a very open and hospitable community, but we shouldn't be naive."

Attendees applauded Qazi's statement, but it was a mea culpa that most moved them.

"We goofed up, guys," said Shakeel Syed, head of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "We brought them here. We brought them to our mosques, to our meetings. . . . We have to hold ourselves responsible. That's why it's so important to dig our heels into the ground and say we're not going to take this lying down, we're going to fight."

He got the loudest applause of the night.

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Muslims Turn on FBI, ask Attorney General to Investigate

In a display of complete arrogance Muslim Organizations have followed through on their threat of not cooperating with the FBI. Not only are they not cooperating, they have complained to the Attorney General that they were even asked to help out in the first place. Hopefully our FBI will pay them back for this smack in the face.

Mich. Muslim group says FBI asking people to spy
By JEFF KAROUB, Associated Press Writer Jeff Karoub, Associated Press Writer
DETROIT – A Michigan Muslim organization said Thursday it has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate complaints alleging the FBI is asking followers of the faith to spy on Islamic leaders and congregations.

The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan sent a letter last week to Holder after mosques and other groups reported members of the community have been approached to monitor people coming to mosques and donations they make.

Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman in the FBI's Detroit office, had no immediate comment.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said such complaints aren't new, but concerns grew after a recent revelation the FBI planted a spy in a Southern California mosque.

An FBI agent testified in February at a detention hearing that an informant infiltrated several mosques in Orange County, Calif., and befriended Ahmadullah Niazi, brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard. Niazi was charged with lying about his ties to terrorist groups on his citizenship and passport applications.

Former FBI agents and federal prosecutors have said spying on mosques is one of the government's best weapons to thwart terrorists, but agents need to have credible and specific information before sending in a plant.

Walid said the complaints in Michigan amount to a "fishing expedition."

"If there was a specific imam who they felt was telling people to support Osama bin Laden, that's a different story — we wouldn't have a problem with that," he said. "Community members would be the first people to report to federal law enforcement if such things were being said."

Walid said the most common complaints have come from people with pending immigration issues being approached by agents to monitor mosques in exchange for help in resolving their citizenship cases.

He said the Detroit area's Muslim community — one the country's largest — has been supported by non-Muslim groups and individuals, and that a Catholic youth organization, a Baptist pastor and an interfaith group promoting peace and justice have all written letters calling for a federal investigation.

"The attorney general has not been in office for that long," Walid said. "He's in the process of revamping the Justice Department. It's extremely necessary for him to take a serious look at this issue."

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US:More Islamic Orgs Threaten to End Contact With FBI

This is a continuation of the "US:Muslim Orgs Threaten to end all Contact With FBI" story. Which all started because American Muslims do not like the fact that some of their Mosques were being targeted by the FBI. I guess that American Muslims do not like us going after Islamic terrorists.

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2009 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ ----More Islamic and civil liberties organizations have signed on to a statement by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections, a coalition of major national Islamic organizations, saying that it is considering suspending outreach relations with the FBI over recent incidents in which American mosques and Muslim groups have been targeted.

The new signatories include the Pakistan American National Alliance, the Peace and Justice Foundation, Muslim Voters of America, and the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO: undefined, undefined, undefined%) in the greater Washington, D.C., area. The CCMO represents more than 50 Washington-area mosques, Islamic schools and Muslim organizations.

"Constructive relations with any law enforcement agency must be based on mutual respect and trust," said CCMO Chair Asma Hanif. "We hope that the FBI addresses these crucial issues so that trust can be restored and relations maintained."

To date, 34 organizations and many community activists and scholars have endorsed AMT's statement.

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FBI Cuts off CAIR

Finally we get some good news, as the FBI has decided to cut off all ties with The Council on American Islamic Relations. This was due to ties between CAIR and Hamas. In the past CAIR was actually allowed to train our FBI agents in regards on how to deal with Muslim "sensitivities".

FBI Cuts Off CAIR Over Hamas Questions
by Mary Jacoby
IPT News
January 29, 2009

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) amid mounting concern about the Muslim advocacy group's roots in a Hamas-support network, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned.

The decision to end contacts with CAIR was made quietly last summer as federal prosecutors prepared for a second trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), an Islamic charity accused of providing money and political support to the terrorist group Hamas, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

CAIR and its chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad, were named un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. Both Ahmad and CAIR's current national executive director, Nihad Awad, were revealed on government wiretaps as having been active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization.

Hamas is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, and it's been illegal since 1995 to provide support to it within the United States.

The decision to end contacts with CAIR is a significant policy change for the FBI. For years, the FBI worked with the national organization and its state chapters to address Muslim community concerns about the potential for hate crimes and other civil liberty violations in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But critics said the FBI improperly conferred legitimacy on CAIR by meeting with its officials, even as its own investigative files contained evidence of CAIR leaders' ties to Hamas.

Last autumn, FBI field offices began notifying state CAIR chapters that bureau officials could no longer meet with them until CAIR's national leadership in Washington had addressed issues raised by the HLF trial, according to people with knowledge of the notifications.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper declined to comment Wednesday when the IPT called for comment. Before hanging up, Hooper said "We're more than happy to cooperate with legitimate media. But we don't cooperate with those who promote anti-Muslim bigotry."

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