Members of the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, reacted with dismay to the news of Hafiz Khan's arrest on Saturday morning.
"We were all really shocked," said Asad Ba-Yunus, spokesman for the Muslim Communities Association of South Florida, the parent organization of the Flagler Mosque. "This was something completely out of the blue for us."
Mr. Ba-Yunus said the mosque has suspended Mr. Khan indefinitely and has been in regular contact with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI.
If the accusations against the imam are true, "we unconditionally condemn" his actions, said Mr. Ba-Yunus. But he emphasized that "these are the alleged acts of a few people and one family" and not representative of the broader Muslim community.
He added that Mr. Khan "did not conduct any of the alleged activity in the mosque itself," and if mosque leaders had known of it, "we would have alerted law enforcement ourselves."
Mr. Khan—a U.S. citizen originally from the northwest province of Pakistan—was a "very gentle 76-year-old man, like a typical grandfather," said Mr. Ba-Yunus. "Everybody respects him and treats him nicely because of his demeanor and because of his Islamic knowledge."...No doubt. And who knows? Maybe he wasn't plotting to avenge Osama's killing. Maybe he was just having one of those TLF-proposed "existential" crises. ;)
Update: I'll see your "shocked" and raise you a "backlash" (with a Da'wa chaser):
...On Saturday afternoon, local Muslim-American leaders held a press conference about the arrests of a Miami imam and his two sons. Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, and his sons, 24-year-old Izhar Khan and 37-year-old Irfan Khan, have been charged with providing thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taliban.
Leaders used the conference as an opportunity to spread the message that true Islam promotes peace. "And we unconditionally condemn all acts of terrorism and extremism," said Assad Ba-Yunus of the Coalition of South Florida Muslim Communities.
In the press conference, Muslim-American leaders expressed concern that there might be retaliation attacks against mosques and Islamic centers across South Florida within the next few days. "We do expect there to be a lot of backlash against our community and our members," Ba-Yunus said, "and we are working with law enforcement."
The community leaders said that the actions of a few people do not represent the entire Muslim-American community. Ba-Yunus said, "They do not represent Islam, they do not represent Muslims anywhere in the world frankly, let alone South Florida."
Some local Muslim-American leaders they knew at least one of the three men arrested and said they are surprised by the allegations. Nezar Hanze of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said, "I was very shocked. I was very shocked, just as other members of the community were shocked."Did they mention they were "shocked"?
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