California Conservative

S.F. Chronicle reports: “Federal officials investigating possible terrorism links in a Lodi case involving five men are questioning members of a Northern California Islamic group, apparently with an eye to linking it with possible extremist activities.

Getting closer to home.

“FBI agents interviewed an official of the Farooqia Islamic Center in his East Palo Alto home this week and suggested that other leaders of the group had made inflammatory speeches about terrorism, the official said Thursday. In Lodi, agents went door to door conducting more interviews of Pakistani Americans in the investigation.

In San Francisco, FBI spokeswoman LaRae Quy acknowledged that agents from her office had been drawn into the investigation. She would not speculate about whether the Farooqia center was a front for extremists, but said, “Many legitimate organizations are hijacked for sinister reasons, for criminal activity.

FBI agents interviewed Mohammed Hakik on Tuesday at his house in East Palo Alto. Hakik, who is of Fijian descent, is listed in state records as president of the Farooqia Islamic Center.”

Politically-correct disclaimer: The E. Palo Alto Islamic center is under investigation; no arrests have been made.

“In an affidavit made available to reporters Tuesday, the FBI said Hayat had attended a training camp that was “operated by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.” The FBI deleted all references to Rehman in a revised affidavit released Wednesday but did not remove the reference to the camp.

Rehman is actually Fazlur Rahman Khalil, according to Haqqani.

In 1998, Khalil was one of the three signatories of Osama bin Laden’s “fatwa calling for a jihad (Muslim holy war) against Jews and crusaders and the United States,” Haqqani said. He has since operated within plain sight of Pakistan’s government, which periodically reins him in and lets him return to action months later, Haqqani said.”

A jihad against Jews and the United States; who are the “crusaders?” And why isn’t Pakistan doing something about this?

Troubling times in California.

UPDATE: But not everyone feels the same way.

LGF reports: “The Oakland Tribune has a soothing, go-back-to-sleep piece about the Lodi Islamic terrorist arrests, and amazingly, appallingly, they quote as an impartial, reliable source none other than UC Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian: Area Muslims say mosques should not engender fear”

“Hatem Bazian, is the same person who, on April 10, 2004, told an “anti-war” rally that we need An Intifada in This Country”

Here’s a question for the day: If Christian groups ever committed terrorist acts in the Middle East, publicly declared “jihad”-equivalent against these nations and desecrated their flags, what people and organizations residing therein do you think the Muslim authorities would “investigate?” (In quotes, because they would more likely throw them out of their countries, pronto, if not doing far worse)

Point being: It is entirely reasonable to investigate the breeding pools for religious extremists in the United States.

RELATED: Terrorists In California: al Qaeda’s “Camp Lodi”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 10th, 2005 at 7:41 am and is filed under California, Homeland Security, Immigration, San Francisco, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.