Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Islamic Center of South Jersey trustee Badat changes story - Duka brothers showed "aggravation and frustration over Iraq and Afghanistan"
Islamic Center of South Jersey trustee Badat changes story - Duka brothers showed "aggravation and frustration over Iraq and Afghanistan"
May 30, 2007
"I never imagined in my wildest dreams these guys were capable of what they're alleged to be doing," said Ismail Badat, a trustee of The Islamic Center of South Jersey in Palmyra.
"I don't know what triggered this action. They were not the radical type at all"
ICSJ trustee Ismail Badat 5/14/07 Islam Online
The Badats[Ismail and Naseem] say the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq may well have been a trigger. 5/30/07 NPR
"All I can think of is their aggravation and frustration because of Iraq and Afghanistan," Badat, who is Indian, said. "It is the only reason I can think of. Otherwise, there is no reason whatsoever, no reason why they would be involved in such things."(articles and urls below)
MIM: What a difference two weeks makes!
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MIM: Articles in which Islamic Center of Southern Jersey trustee Ismail Badat is quoted feigning shock and claiming that he never heard the Duka brothers say anything which could be construed as extremist. (excerpted from articles below)
5/10/07
"I never imagined in my wildest dreams these guys were capable of what they're alleged to be doing," said Ismail Badat, Naseem's husband and a trustee at the mosque. "The way they behaved, the way they talked, the way they greeted people, very calm, very friendly and very courteous, too."
5/11/07
Ismail Badat, president of the Islamic Center in Palmyra, Burlington County, which the Duka brothers attended, said everyone there was dumbfounded.
"These were religious kids. They were hardworking boys. They were very friendly, well-behaved, well-mannered. There was nothing to indicate they were going off the path," he said.
"We don't talk about hatred at our mosque. We come to pray. Islam denounces terrorism."
5/16/07
Badat said he hopes "to clarify for our American friends and neighbors the fundamental beliefs, teachings and practices of Islam, and to make it clear that Muslims here -- who are also Americans -- do not in any way sanction the forms of violent and offensive behavior which have recently attained prominence in the media."
Undated recent sermon:
"Islam teaches gentleness and softness in everything,"Badat said from the lectern next to a large white-and-blue tile mosaic and between two minarets."There are some Muslims who do not know Islam."
5/18/07
But Ismail Badat, the chairman of the board of trustees for the mosque, maintains that if the young men were talking up extremist views, they weren't doing it at the Islamic Center.
"The people incarcerated prayed here. But they prayed here and nothing else," Badat told the Friday night gathering before explaining that his religious community was a peaceful one.
"We all know that Islam means peace," Badat said http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=5297142
5/18/07
At the Islamic Center, Badat is happy to talk about his faith. But he says the attention the alleged plot has brought to his congregation is much more of a burden than other problems he has had to deal with, such as disputes over parking near the mosque.
"Day in and day out, it keeps holding you all the time," he said. "You can't get rid of it."
MIM: Maybe one of the reasons that the plot keeps "holding you" so that "you can't get rid of it" is because the Islamic Center of South Jersey is distributing pamphlets and books which might just motivate people like the Duka brothers to wage jihad.
Excerpt from "Duka Brother's Mosque - Islamic Center Of South Jersey Promotes Jihad At Open House"
The books and pamphlets being distributed during this event were sending a contrary message one having more in common with Eljvir Duka's justification of he and his brother's planned attack on Fort Dix, "In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone attacks your religion, your way of life, you go jihad." http://ipcommunications.tmcnet.com/news/2007/05/09/286250.htm
One of the texts provided to event goers was "Towards Understanding Islam" by Jamaat-e-Islaami ideologue Abul A'la Mawdudi and produced by ICNA, was promoted as being "beneficial to Muslims and non Muslims alike" adding that "To Muslim youths and adults it serves as a reminder of their fundamental obligations..."
In the chapter headlined "Jihad" we read that:
"Jihad is part of the overall defense of Islam. Jihad means to struggle to the utmost of one's capacity. A man who exerts himself physically or mentally or spends his wealth in the cause of God is engaged in jihad. But in the language of Divine Law this word is used specifically for the war that is waged solely in the name of God against those who perpetrate oppression against the enemies of Islam. This supreme sacrifice is the responsibility of all Muslims. If however a section of the Muslims offers themselves for participating in jihad the whole community is absolved from responsibility. But if no one comes forward everyone is held guilty. This concession vanishes for the citizens of an Islamic state when it is attacked by a non-Muslim power. In that case everyone must come forward for jihad.
If the country that is attacked does not have enough strength to fight back then it is the duty of the neighboring Muslim countries to offer help. If even they fail then the Muslims of the whole world must fight the common enemy. In all these cases then jihad is just as much a primary duty as are daily prayers and fasting. One who avoids it is a sinner. His every claim to being a Muslim is doubtful…" [ICNA/Message Publications Towards an Understanding of Islam pg. 124]
Mawdudi's assertion that avoiding jihad makes one's "claim" to being Muslim "doubtful" is in stark contrast to the PR message being fed to the media by Ismail Badat, Zia Rahman and Farhjat Biviji - that the Duka brothers terrorist plot has nothing to do with Islam because they are only "claiming to be Muslims."
In addition to promoting the fundamentalist concept of jihad, ICNA promotes the extremist view that terrorism is a legitimate response to "oppression."
In a pamphlet entitled "What does Islam say about Terrorism?" The message is that there are many non-Muslim terrorists. The tract is a thinly veiled indictment of Western governments:
"The word terrorism came into wide usage only a few decades ago…It's perpetrators do not fit any stereotype…The frustrated employee who kills his colleagues or the oppressed citizen of an occupied land who vents his anger blowing up school buses are terrorists who provoke our anger and revulsion…Ironically however, the politician who uses age old ethnic animosities to consolidate his position, the head of state who orders carpet bombings of entire cities, the exalted councils that choke millions of civilians to death by wielding the insidious weapon of sanctions , are rarely punished for their crimes against humanity." (ICNA pamphlet)
In a recent article, "Helping Hand to Hamas" counter-terrorism expert Joe Kaufman explained"
"The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) was founded in 1971, via the Muslim Students Association (MSA), as an umbrella group for South Asian-oriented mosques and Islamic centers. It also contains a youth division called Young Muslims (YM), a multimedia division called Sound Vision, a web information center called Why Islam, a magazine called The Message International, and charities which go by the names ICNA Relief and Helping Hand.
When ICNA was created, it was to act as the American counterpart to the Muslim Brotherhood of Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28316
The Islamic Center of South Jersey's open house event was a transparent Islamist da'wa exercise, a smokescreen aimed at hiding their radical Islamist agenda. It was fashioned to preempt scrutiny by inviting the public into their mosque as a calculated method of damage control.
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2924 (complete article)
For more on ICNA see: "MAS & ICNA: 'Muslim American Subversives' and 'Islamist Conspirators of North America' aim for a United States of Allah" http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/216
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MIM: The wife of ICSJ trustee Ismail Badat is more troubled by what people are saying about the mosque than the plot itself, indicating herself and her husband are the real victims in this story.
It has been very difficult," "I go online and read all the blogs, and very few of them have anything positive to say about us. Almost everything is very negative. They are saying some really nasty things about us."http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070516/NEWS03/705160310/1007/NEWS06
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070510/NEWS01/705100401
Mosque Attendence Falls After Terrorism Arrests
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10529148
May 30, 2007 ·
Midday prayers at the South Jersey Islamic Center in Palmyra often have thin attendance, but since the arrest of a handful of its members, attendance has plummeted. The hundreds of congregants who used to show up for Friday evening prayers now number just dozens. People who had prayed there for years are now staying away. Ejlvir, Shain and Dritan Duka are among six New Jersey men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix. The FBI has said they were part of a homegrown terrorist cell intent on launching a jihad in New Jersey. Agents had been tracking the Duka brothers for more than 15 months before the arrests in early May; since then, Muslims around the mosque have been treading carefully.
"There may be a tendency to believe we are being watched," said Ismail Badat, who is one of the mosque's trustees. He and his wife are founding members of the center and helped buy the two-story former Catholic Church that now houses the mosque. "Frankly, it is possible we are being watched," he said. "The congregation is open to anybody — you can come and go as you like. We don't sanction anybody before they enter the doors. So people may feel they don't want to be involved."
Members aren't just worried about Muslim extremists infiltrating their ranks; they are worried about undercover FBI agents coming in as well. Badat and his wife, Naseem, were walking around the mosque with the three Albanian brothers days before their arrest. The couple were pointing out spots in the plaster and on the roof that needed fixing. The brothers were going to start the work the following week. When they were arrested, Badat was stunned. "They came, they prayed and they left," Badat said about the men. "The question always comes up: what they did outside these four walls, nobody knows."
Afsheen Shamsi is with the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. She said that after the arrests, Muslims in New Jersey were blamed. When Naseem Badat was a guest on a local radio station after the arrests, someone called in and threatened to blow up the mosque. A short time later, a Muslim woman in south Jersey was beaten by a white man who called her a terrorist. He was later arrested. Neighbors who live close to the Center asked the Badats to start screening visitors. That has put nerves on edge. "Every time a terrorist plot is averted, we breathe a sigh of relief because this is our home and this is our country, too, and we don't want to see it come to any harm," CAIR's Shamsi said. "But relief is immediately followed by fear — a fear that there is going to be a reaction against the Muslim community."
Concern about reprisals aside, what everyone really wants to know is what caused the six young men to want to attack soldiers at Fort Dix? The Badats say the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq may well have been a trigger. The men tended to be quiet and kept to themselves. But they did talk about their frustration over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "All I can think of is their aggravation and frustration because of Iraq and Afghanistan," Badat, who is Indian, said. "It is the only reason I can think of. Otherwise, there is no reason whatsoever, no reason why they would be involved in such things."
The Badats are certain that the motivation for the alleged plot didn't come from their mosque. They have a policy: They don't talk about politics. They stick to religion and have "straightforward" sermons, they said. Meantime, the Badats said they hope that once the Fort Dix arrests fade from the headlines, members will begin drifting back to the Center for their daily prayers. Ismail Badat said he hopes attendance will improve after the summer holidays.
Related NPR Stories
- May 11, 2007Fort Dix Suspects Skirted Law Enforcement
- May 11, 2007Judge Refuses Bail for Fort Dix Suspects
- May 10, 2007Fort Dix Arrests Followed 15-Month FBI Probe
- May 9, 2007Independent Cell Allegedly Hatched Fort Dix Plan
- May 10, 2007FBI Pins Fort Dix Plot on 'Homegrown' Terrorists
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Associated Press The Circuit City store, in Mount Laurel, N.J., where video clerk who tipped off authorities worked. » More images RELATED STORIESMIM: Articles in which Islamic Center of Southern Jersey trustee Ismail Badat is quoted feigning shock and claiming that he never heard the Duka brothers say anything which could be construed as extremist.
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- A FEW LESSONS ON HOMEGROWN TERROR
- Phil Goldsmith | On this Mother's Day, prayers for our 'babies' in harm's way
Long before 9/11, the mosque and Islamic school, on Germantown Avenue at Jefferson Street, had been in the forefront of interfaith efforts to stop hate crimes.
Its leaders regularly work with city police, the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies.
In fact, Marwan Kreidie, 47, acting spokesman for Al Aqsa, thinks nothing of calling the FBI to advise them of something suspicious, or of helping a Muslim having a problem with a federal agency.
In other words, Al Aqsa is not a radical, Islamic fundamentalist hate-spewing mosque breeding terrorists.
Yet, four of the six defendants arrested Monday for conspiring to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, briefly prayed at the North Philadelphia mosque and the three Duka brothers - Eljvir, Shain and Dritan - even began to repair its roof at no cost.
About two months ago, Ibrahim Shnewer, 53, the father of the fourth defendant, Mohammed Ibrahim Shnewer, 22, was worried about a delay with his citizenship papers and asked if Al Aqsa could intervene with the feds.
"That told me . . . he didn't have a clue," what his son allegedly was planning , said Kreidie.
The elder Shnewer prayed regularly at the mosque, his son less frequently and the Duka brothers once or twice, according to Al Aqsa.
This week, the 1,000-member Al Aqsa community was in such shock that Imam Mohammed Shehata issued a statement:
"We have constantly urged our community members to report, either to us, or to law enforcement, any suspicious incidents. Had we noticed anything about these individuals that would have aroused suspicions, I can assure you, it would have been reported."
The FBI and Philadelphia Police confirmed they have worked with Kreidie, who is also executive director of the Arab American Development Corp.
After praying at the mosque yesterday, Mohammed Elsheikh, 31, a taxi driver by day and Widener University math student by night, said the defendants "are just going to make us [Muslims] look worse."
"They need to learn Islam," he added. "You have to start with yourself. You learn to be truthful.
"Only ignorance lets you do this," he added.
The colorfully painted Islamic Center, rehabbed from a furniture warehouse in the early 1990s, features Sunni sermons in Arabic with translation services. Its K-12 school has an enrollment of 200 students. And it houses a mortuary; a food store specializing in halal foods, which are ritually fit according to Islamic law; and an Arabic library.
Members of Mishkan Shalom, a reconstructionist synagogue in Manayunk, have worked closely with the mosque for years.
For the past three years, the Interfaith Walk for Peace and Reconciliation started at Al Aqsa before stopping at a Catholic church and then a synagogue in Center City. The upcoming June 3 walk will be in Germantown.
Meanwhile, in Staten Island, Ferid Bedrolli, an imam at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center, said the Duka family had attended that mosque before moving to South Jersey.
Bedrolli said Dritan and his brothers belonged to an extended clan of 40 to 50 families, ethnic Albanians born in Debar, a remote town on Macedonia's rugged border with Serbia's Kosovo province.
Many had moved to the New York area, but some, like the Dukas, later relocated to Cherry Hill. The Duka brothers are illegal immigrants.
Dritan's wife, Jennifer Duka, 28, reportedly denied that her husband, a roofer, or his brothers, were involved in terrorist activities. "He prays. He never did anything violent. He gives money to charity," she told the New York Post.
Jennifer Duka couldn't be reached yesterday.
"Everybody knows them," Bedrolli said of the Dukas. "They lived in Brooklyn." But since moving to New Jersey, he said, he had seen them only infrequently.
"They are hard-working family," Bedrolli said. None of them ever gave any evidence that they were involved with Islamic radicals, he said.
"Even back home [in Albania and Macedonia]. I listen to the news [from overseas]. Every single person" is in disbelief, Bedrolli said.
"The U.S. is one of our best friends, the only country who really support us," during the ethnic-cleansing campaign of the Serbians during the 1990s.
"Fort Dix was a second home for the Kosovars."
Many families from Kosovo were brought to Fort Dix by the U.S. Agron Abdullahu, one of the six arrested in the terrorism plot, was among the Fort Dix refugees.
"We all have been supporters of America. We were always thankful to America for its support during the wars in Kosovo and Macedonia," a cousin, Elez Duka, 29, told the Associated Press in Debar. "These are simple, ordinary people, and they've got nothing to do with terrorism."
Ismail Badat, president of the Islamic Center in Palmyra, Burlington County, which the Duka brothers attended, said everyone there was dumbfounded.
"These were religious kids. They were hardworking boys. They were very friendly, well-behaved, well-mannered. There was nothing to indicate they were going off the path," he said.
"We don't talk about hatred at our mosque. We come to pray. Islam denounces terrorism." *
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20070511_TERROR_SHOCK.html\
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5/9/07
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20070509_N_J__Muslims_worry_about_backlash.html
N.J. Muslims worry about backlash
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Authorities' description of six men charged with plotting an attack on Fort Dix as "Islamic militants" is renewing worry among New Jersey's Muslims.Authorities rounded up and detained hundreds of Muslim men from New Jersey in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but none was connected to that plot. Now Muslims fear a resurgence of anti-Islamic sentiment and bias.
"If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who represented scores of detainees after the 2001 attacks. "But when the government says 'Islamic militants,' it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy are synonymous. Don't equate actions with religion."
On Sunday, Cherry Hill - home to four of the accused men - broke ground for its first mosque.
The Indian Muslim Dawoodi Bohra sect, which is building the Anjuman-E-Fakhri mosque near Perina Boulevard, was quick to distance itself from the suspects, who do not belong to its local community of 60.
"People who harbor the intentions of hurting other people should be condemned by Islam, at least in our view," Quresh Dahodwala, an official of the Dawoodi Bohra community, said yesterday. "Islam does not support such barbaric acts."
Dahodwala was also co-signer of a statement by the Jewish-Christian-Muslim Dialogue of Southern New Jersey, which said it strongly condemned the alleged plan for attacks.
"We, Christians, Muslims and Jews, believe that anyone who would seek to attack or kill innocents in the name of their faith violates the values and beliefs of that faith," the statement read.
At Sunday's groundbreaking, State Sen. John Adler (D., Camden) called Cherry Hill "a place of peace and tolerance."
Dahodwala defended the township and Islam yesterday, saying the alleged plot was not a reflection on either. "Bad people are everywhere," he said.
Yaser El-Menshawy, chairman of the Majlis Ash-Shura of New Jersey, the state's council of mosques, condemned the alleged plot and said he was glad nothing was carried out. But he said the motivation of people who plotted against the government "cannot be stopped simply by law enforcement or military means alone."
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http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070510/NEWS01/705100401/1006
Terror plot scares MuslimsBy JASON LAUGHLIN
Courier-Post Staff
PALMYRA
The Duka brothers just didn't get it.
So say leaders and members at the mosque here where three brothers accused of plotting to attack Fort Dix attended weekly services. The mosque teaches Islam as a religion of peace.
"It's troubling to me that Muslims anywhere are distorting this religion," Naseem Badat, a Voorhees social worker and member of the mosque, said. "They are not just tarnishing the reputation of one particular mosque, but they are tarnishing the reputation of a religion."
Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka, all of Cherry Hill, were regulars at The Islamic Center of South Jersey's Friday prayer sessions, members said.
"I never imagined in my wildest dreams these guys were capable of what they're alleged to be doing," said Ismail Badat, Naseem's husband and a trustee at the mosque. "The way they behaved, the way they talked, the way they greeted people, very calm, very friendly and very courteous, too."
Conversations with the three brothers were superficial, Ismail Badat said. They often came with a group of people and talked about the construction industry and their roofing business. They liked to play basketball and discussed soccer, members said. The men gave no indication of homicidal intentions, Badat said.
The alleged terror plot foiled Monday night succeeded in scaring mosque members.
"You don't feel comfortable when it happens," said Zahida Rahman, also of Voorhees. "Whenever someone does something like that, it's not right to do this type of thing."
Others worried non-Muslims would believe the mosque had promoted the plot.
"I am very fearful," Naseem Badat said. "Sooner or later people will put a blanket accusation on everybody who ever comes to this mosque."
The mosque has operated for 16 years out of a stone building on Garfield Avenue that was once a church. Members are predominantly Sunni but the mosque welcomes all Muslims, the Badats said. It's open to non-Muslims as well and is involved in interfaith outreach, members said. Mosques typically host prayer sessions five times daily, but the Islamic Center's imam, or prayer leader, left a year ago and since then organized prayer has been sporadic. Every Friday about 20 or 30 people gather in the large prayer room to hear a short sermon and spend about a half-hour kneeling in silent prayer.
Sermons focus on interpreting the Quran and leading a godly life, members said.
The mosque is one of four operating in the tri-county region, according to the Web site internetmuslim.com. There are 56 mosques listed on the Web site in New Jersey.
Published: May 10. 2007
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http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/05/11/11terrorplot.html
Entrapment defense could be possible in Fort Dix terror plot
Some observers wonder if FBI informant crossed the line.
By Geoff Mulvihill
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, May 11, 2007
CHERRY HILL, N.J. — He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Those were not the actions of a terrorist, but of a paid FBI informant who helped bring down what authorities say was a plot by six Muslim men to massacre soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix.
And those actions have raised questions of whether the government crossed the line and pushed the six men down a path they would not have otherwise followed.
It is an argument — entrapment — that has been made in other terrorism cases, and one that has failed miserably in the post-Sept. 11 era.
One defense attorney on the case, Troy Archie, said no decision has been made on whether to argue entrapment, but based on the FBI's own account, "the guys sort of led them on."
Rocco Cipparone, a lawyer for another one of the defendants, said he will take a hard look at "the role of paid informants and how aggressive they were in potentially prodding or moving things along."
The Fort Dix Six were arrested earlier this week after a 15-month FBI investigation that relied heavily on two paid informants who secretly recorded meetings and telephone conversations in which the suspects talked of killing "in the name of Allah," authorities said.
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie defended the government's handling of the case. He and the FBI portrayed the defendants as fanatics who were nearly ready to strike. They were arrested Monday night during what the FBI said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons.
Former FBI agent Kevin Barrows said prosecutors appeared to have done things right.
"They corroborated with surveillance, and they had a gun buy set up," Barrows said. "That further solidified the case, as opposed to it just being a tape of somebody saying, 'Yeah, I want to buy guns.' "
Prosecutors portrayed the six men — Serdar Tatar, 23; Agron Abdullahu, 24; Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 — as driven by hatred of America, a description disputed by relatives and acquaintances.
"I never in my wildest dreams imagined what they've been accused of," said Ismail Badat, a trustee of the Islamic Center of South Jersey in Palmyra, where the Duka brothers worshipped.
Entrapment occurs when law enforcement officials entice others into committing a crime they otherwise would not have committed. Under the law, people cannot be convicted if they were entrapped. But there is no entrapment if a person is willing to break the law and law officers offer to help.
"If the source talks them into committing a crime, that is entrapment," said retired FBI agent Craig Dotlo. But "if they are predisposed to commit a crime, and you give them the opportunity, that's fine."
Archie, the defense attorney, conceded it is difficult to win an entrapment defense. "It's just got to be obvious, obvious entrapment for it to fly," he said.
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By BILL DUHARTCourier-Post Staff
PALMYRA
March 12,2007
Standing outside the Islamic Center of South Jersey after midday prayer service on Friday, Majid Kureshi had something he wanted to get off his chest.
"I'm glad those guys are behind bars," said Kureshi, 26, talking about six men charged in a domestic terrorism plot, three of whom worshipped at the center. "How would you feel if you invited a guest into your home and they committed a crime against your neighbors? We don't want these types of people coming to our mosque. They have completely artificial beliefs about the religion that have nothing to do with the faith at all."
Kureshi, an Ivy League student and high school lacrosse coach from Moorestown, was among about 75 worshippers who attended midday service and heard mosque leaders condemn three former members, Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka, all of Cherry Hill, who were regulars at Friday prayer here. The Dukas, Mohamad Shnewer of Cherry Hill, Agron Abdullahu of Buena Vista and Serder Tatar of Philadelphia were charged Tuesday in a plot to attack Fort Dix military reserve to kill soldiers.
Kureshi said he doesn't get to attend as many prayer services as he has in the past but made a point of being here on Friday. He wanted to make sure the right message was delivered, he said, as he proudly wore a T-shirt with an American flag logo, and small flag pin.
"Some Muslims do not practice Islam right," Ismail Badat, a trustee and senior leader of the mosque said in a sermon before afternoon prayer. "We are all Americans. We come from different parts of the world but we are all part of the same society now. We condemn terrorism, no doubt about it."
Dozens of men sat crossed-legged on a fluffy carpet in front of Badat, who spoke from the pulpit. Women in the congregation attended the service in a balcony above the large, open floor. The archways in this former church were inlaid with a tile design. Sparkling chandeliers highlighted the air-conditioned room. All sat without shoes, according to religious decorum.
After the sermon and prayer calls, Noor Mohammad, another mosque leader, ended the services with this message: "We are peace loving people."
Afterward mosque members admitted that incidents like the thwarted Fort Dix plot and the 9/11 attacks make it difficult get through to some who think Islam fosters radicals.
"I think it would do long-term damage to us if this keeps happening," said Dr. Makbul Kureshi, Majid's father, who also attended the service. "This is a black mark. It gives us a black eye."
The Islamic Center has been here for 15 years, members proudly said, and enjoys good relations with neighbors here in this small bedroom community.
Mohammad Nasim, 18, a student at Cherry Hill High School West where four of the six suspects in the plot attended high school, said if he had a chance to speak to the accused now he would simply say, "Your actions were wrong and you distorted the name of our religion. You acted selfishly and didn't think about your family or community."
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070512/NEWS01/705120383/1006
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March11,2007
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20070511_TERROR_SHOCK.html
Terror Shock
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Terror suspects mosque planning townhall meeting
By WAYNE PARRY
The Associated Press
PALMYRA -- Feeling besieged by suspicion and hostility since three of its members were named in a plot to attack Fort Dix, a southern New Jersey mosque is throwing its doors open to the public Friday, inviting U.S. congressmen, the FBI -- anyone who wants to learn more about Islam.
The Islamic Center of South Jersey will hold what it calls an "emergency town hall meeting" Friday night to respond to negative publicity since the arrest of six Muslim men charged with plotting to kill soldiers at the military installation.
Dritan "Anthony" Duka, 28, and his brothers Shain, 26, and Eljvir, 23, all worshipped regularly at the mosque, according to Ismail Badat, a trustee at the Islamic Center. Another suspect, 22-year-old Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, prayed there a few times, Badat said.
The situation has been a source of worry for Muslims who attend the mosque, located in a former church building in this blue-collar Delaware River town.
"It has been very difficult," said Naseem Badat, Ismail Badat's wife. "I go online and read all the blogs, and very few of them have anything positive to say about us. Almost everything is very negative. They are saying some really nasty things about us."
The father of another suspect, 23-year-old Serdar Tatar, also reported an anti-Muslim backlash since the arrests. Muslim Tatar, who owns a pizzeria near Fort Dix, said he's received death threats and said media reports about his son's arrest has hurt his business.
The six suspects, all born outside the United States, are being held without bail. They were arrested May 7 during what the FBI said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons. They targeted Fort Dix, a post 25 miles east of Philadelphia that is used primarily to train reservists, intending to kill "as many American soldiers as possible," according to court documents.
The Palmyra mosque is looking to calm its neighbors with the Friday meeting. It has two main goals: to enable officials and members of the public to ask anything they want about the mosque or about Islam, and to publicize a ringing denunciation of terrorism and violence of any sort, Ismail Badat said.
Badat said he hopes "to clarify for our American friends and neighbors the fundamental beliefs, teachings and practices of Islam, and to make it clear that Muslims here -- who are also Americans -- do not in any way sanction the forms of violent and offensive behavior which have recently attained prominence in the media." http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070516/NEWS03/705160310/1007/NEWS06
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May 18, 2007 11:56 pm US
Area Muslims Hold Town Meeting Amidst Backlash
(AP) PALMYRA, N.J. Authorities say they planned to kill in the name of God. But the mosque where they worshipped maintains it only taught them about peace.
Now the Islamic Center of South Jersey, and many other Muslim institutions in the state, are trying to convince people that their religious teachings didn't play a role in an alleged plot to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix.
On Friday night, the mosque held a special meeting at which more than 100 people heard a message of peace and tolerance from the Islamic Center's leaders, as well as U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, an FBI agent from Philadelphia and local leaders.
Three of the six men charged -- Dritan "Anthony" Duka, 28, and his brothers Shain, 26, and Eljvir, 23 -- worshipped at the mosque regularly. Eljvir Duka's brother-in-law, 22-year-old Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, also prayed at the Palmyra mosque occasionally.
But Ismail Badat, the chairman of the board of trustees for the mosque, maintains that if the young men were talking up extremist views, they weren't doing it at the Islamic Center.
"The people incarcerated prayed here. But they prayed here and nothing else," Badat told the Friday night gathering before explaining that his religious community was a peaceful one.
Jim May, 70, a former Palmyra councilman, had walked a few blocks from his home with his wife to sit in the diverse group gathered in the mosque. "It really means a lot that people are able to talk to one another," May said.
It's a message that many in New Jersey are trying to convey as the terror plot case spawns further recriminations against Muslims.
The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations held a news conference Friday morning to publicize the case of a Muslim woman from Passaic County who was on her way to do laundry last weekend in Little Falls when a male motorist stuck in traffic started screaming anti-Muslim slurs at her.
In a separate incident, a man was charged Tuesday with punching a Muslim woman in the nose after yelling anti-Muslim comments at her in Fairview.
"We hope our fellow citizens won't equate Islam with terrorism based on the actions of the defendants," said Afsheen Shamsi, a spokeswoman for the group, adding it appears likely both incidents were related to publicity over the Fort Dix case.
She also called on federal authorities to open a civil rights investigation of the incidents.
The three Duka brothers, Shnewer, and Serdar Tatar face life in prison if they are convicted of conspiring to kill military personnel; the sixth man, Agron Abdullahu, faces a weapons charge.
At the Islamic Center, Badat is happy to talk about his faith. But he says the attention the alleged plot has brought to his congregation is much more of a burden than other problems he has had to deal with, such as disputes over parking near the mosque.
"Day in and day out, it keeps holding you all the time," he said. "You can't get rid of it."
The 65-year-old Badat considers his life as a Muslim far removed from the extremism that some of the members of his mosque have been accused of engaging in. "We all know that Islam means peace," Badat said.
Badat's ancestors are from India, but he was born in the African nation of Zambia and educated in England, where he was trained as a lawyer.
After law school, he moved back to Zambia and ended up working as a lawyer for the American embassy there -- a job that opened the door to move his family to the United States.
He applied to move to the U.S., but was told the country had enough lawyers. But because his wife was a pharmacist, they were allowed into the country in 1979.
Unable to practice law, Badat tried a different business: He bought an Econo Lodge motel in Cherry Hill.
Back then, there were no mosques in southern New Jersey. For services, area Muslims had to go to Philadelphia.
So when he and some others founded the Islamic Center, he hosted services at his motel.
In 1993, his congregation -- which comes from mostly affluent communities, such as Cherry Hill, Voorhees and Mount Laurel -- bought an old church-turned-senior center in the blue-collar community of Palmyra.
It was the first large mosque in southern New Jersey, though now there are several and even more planned.
For a family to join the mosque, it costs $300 per year. But everyone is allowed to pray there, member or not. These days, Badat said, Friday afternoon services attract 150 to 200 people.
Chris Jones, 40, an Air National Guard tech sergeant and area police officer recently returned from Kuwait, lives a few doors down from the Islamic Center. He wasn't at the Friday meeting, but standing in his front yard as the event emptied out, he said he thought those who worship at the mosque were decent people.
"When people here say 'Hi' to people walking over there, they say 'Hi' back," Jones said
http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_138183018.html
May 18, 2007 11:56 pm US/Eastern
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Mosque opens its doors in bid for understandingBy LAVINIA DECASTRO
Courier-Post Staff
PALMYRA
The mosque where half the men accused of plotting an attack on Fort Dix worshipped opened its doors to the public on Friday in an effort to foster greater understanding of Islam and its teachings.
A standing-room-only crowd was at the Islamic Center of South Jersey's emergency town hall meeting meant to reassure the people the center's teachings didn't play a role in the alleged terrorist plot.
"We are here so we can provide information about Islam, about Muslims and about us," said Rafey Habib, a trustee at the center and a literature professor at Rutgers University.
Six people -- Mohamed Shnewer of Pennsauken; Agron Abdullahu of Buena Vista Township; Serdar Tatar of Cherry Hill; and brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, all of Cherry Hill -- have been charged and are being held by federal authorities in connection with the plot. The Duka brothers all worshipped at the Palmyra mosque.
Habib was among the many speakers, including elected officials and law enforcement personnel, who addressed the public at the three-hour event.
"I'm very proud to be here and I'm very proud that this center is in our community," said U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-Haddon Heights. "We're here tonight because this is a place where peace is taught. We are united by a common desire that the peaceful practices that we heard tonight be truly a practice, not just an aspiration."
Center officials talked about the basic principles of Islam, South Jersey's Muslim community and the mosque itself, which has more than 100 members and has operated for 16 years out of a stone building that was once a church.
"There is nothing in Islam which condones terrorism," said Nassem Badat, the center's spokeswoman. "We want to achieve mutual understanding between the faiths. We are Muslim, but we are American."
Afsheen Shamshi of the New Jersey Council on American-Islamic Relations, said last week's arrest of six area men authorities described as "radical Islamists" led to a surge in instances of discrimination and harassment of Muslims, especially women.
A Passaic County woman was allegedly harassed on the street and a man was charged Tuesday with punching a Muslim woman in the face in Fairfield.
"I'm telling you about these stories because I want you to understand the fear that we live with every day," Shamshi said. Donald Simpson of Moorestown said he was there to learn.
"I know very little about the Quran and I know very little about Muslims," Simpsons said. "This is first chance I've had to learn."
Published: May 19. 2007 3:10AM
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070519/NEWS01/705190368/1006
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US Muslims Fear Arrest Backlash (By Farah A. Chowdhury) | |
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Source:US | |
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"These men thought that they were trying to help Muslims," she said. "But they don't understand that they are actually causing more problems for us in America," added the medical student. "They don't think of the consequences here." As the details still unfold, it is known that six men of Albanian, Jordanian and Turkish origin, all in their 20's, had planned to attack the Fort Dix army base in New Jersey. According to the complaint launched by the US District Court of New Jersey they conspired to "kill officers and employees of agencies in the Executive branch of the United States government, namely, members of the uniformed services." The arrests have already started aggravating anti-Muslim sentiments, on the rise since the 9/11 attacks. One message board on America Online that was created to capture the responses of readers has several hate-filled posts, one reading "Immigrant Ancestors Made This Nation, Not Illegal Immigrants or Muslims." Another one was titled, "Send all Muslims to Gitmo," in reference to the notorious detention center where the US has been holding hundreds of terror suspects for years without charges. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Muslims in the US were subjected to verbal and physical abuse. Six years later, many continue to be discriminated against on the basis of their religious background. Not the Type
Those who knew some of the suspects, particularly the three Albanian brothers, were filled with surprise. "There was nothing unusual about them, they were a good family," Dr. Tahir Kukigi, an imam of the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Staten Island, said of Eljvir, Shain and Dritan Duka. The three occasionally visited the mosque when they lived in New York City. "The last time I saw them was during Ramadan, three brothers and their father," he recalled. Dr. Kukigi remembers that the family seemed very polite and quiet, with no unusual behaviors. "To tell you the truth, they had smiling faces," said Ferid Bedrolli, another imam at the same center. He added that many of the brothers' family members were regulars at the mosque. He speculates that the men had an acute fixation with Islam that needed attention from the right people. "Every single believer has to go to the right people, the right source, to get information on Islam, not get it from the streets," stressed imam Bedrolli. "If I have a headache, I'll take a Tylenol," he says. "But if I am sicker, I will go to a specialist, someone who can help me. You cannot go to people who are not experts, they can make you sicker or destroy you more." The Dukas, ages 23, 26 and 28, were all born in Debar, Macedonia, and came to the US illegally more than a decade ago. They have worked in roofing, like many of their relatives and fellow Albanian immigrants, coming to own two companies in addition to a pizzeria. When Naseen Badat, Interfaith Dialogue coordinator of the Islamic Center of South Jersey, heard the news she was shocked. The Duka brothers lived in South Jersey for some years, attending high school in the town. "I said to my husband, ‘Are they the people really?'" Badat remembers the brothers accompanying their mother to the mosque and always being very low-key. She recalls that they were of a mild nature and always looked to the floor when there were women around. "I don't know what triggered this action. They were not the radical type at all." Unjustified
The entrance of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens, New York, was abuzz over the breaking news. Most of the worshippers interviewed, largely from Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, believed that American actions in the Middle East motivated the six men to think of such a heinous plan. "They probably did this in reaction to what's going on in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan," said Abdullah Mohammed, a 28-year-old African-American convert. "Maybe it had something to do with unfinished business in Iraq," Sarah agreed. But no matter what the source of their anger was, all Muslims interviewed were in agreement that what these suspects had planned was against the peaceful teachings of Islam. "If these allegations are true, their actions are incorrect according to Islam," insisted Abdullah. "We are not allowed to be the aggressors." Beg, the Imam of the Jamaica Muslim Center, emphasized the same message. "Those soldiers that are in Fort Dix, what did they do?" he asked a few minutes before the asur prayer began. "Even if they were in Iraq, we should not kill them. Our government may make wrong decisions, but we should not harm soldiers." Ali Hassan, a 25-year-old health care professional of Egyptian origin, believes in changing policies the peaceful way. "If these men were angry about something the government did, there are other ways of making change. Non-violence is the most effective way of making change," he insisted. "One of the benefits of living in this country is that you can affect policy by non-violent means." Dr. Kukigi, the imam of the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Staten Island, is extremely disheartened by the actions of these men, especially the Dukas brothers. "We are Albanians and we never betray anyone, but they have betrayed us and this country," he said angrily. "This country has done so much for Kosovo. It feels like we are under a shockwave." Imam Bedrolli had much stronger words. "If all the facts prove these men to be guilty, they do not deserve to live in this life." Individual According to the Muslim Communities in New York City Project done by Columbia University, there are 27 mosques in Queens alone and approximately 600,000 Muslims living across the five boroughs of New York. "The Muslims here are firmly entrenched," says Hassan, the 25-year-old health care professional who was born and raised in New York. "We need to be better Muslims. We need to become more involved in our community to prevent people from reaching this point," he maintained. "We came to this country to live here and prosper," agreed Imam Beg. "We are good people. We should tell people to do things to develop this county. Tell them to help the people, not to harm them. It is their foolishness." Muslims are wary of again being targeted as a violent religious group due to the actions of a few individuals. Some news outlets alleged that Serdar Tatar, 23, another suspect of Turkish origin, was recruited by the Dukas brothers at the mosque. "They are making it sound like this Center is a recruitment hub," Badat said. She maintains that the Islamic Center is extremely low profile and that only non-political sermons are given. "When someone commits a crime, we should not blame his son or his father who did not do anything," concurs imam Beg. "There are bad and good people everywhere. If someone harms or kills someone in the name of Islam, this is not Islam. We should blame the person only who is guilty." May 14,2007 |
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