Posted on 11/17/2001 11:26:01 AM PST by Hillary 666
Pakistani Man Being Investigated By Utah Agents Has Sketchy Past
Saturday, November 17, 2001
BY KEVIN CANTERA and MICHAEL VIGH
(c) 2001, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
A Pakistani man under investigation by Utah federal agents for possible links to international terrorism posed as a Muslim cleric in England a decade ago and raped eight followers -- including a 15-year-old girl.
Last summer, Ghulam Rasool Chisthi also may have duped a group of religious leaders in Salt Lake City by claiming to be a holy man in Utah for a worldwide interfaith religious conference. Instead, authorities say, he was sniffing around Olympic venues, asking suspicious questions about Games security.
"There isn't anybody who can't be conned," acknowledged David Randle of Salt Lake City, Chisthi's most ardent supporter.
Chisthi, 58, was snagged by federal agents following a United Religions Initiative conference in Salt Lake City in June, during which he spent five days at the Olympic Village on the campus of the University of Utah.
Chisthi pleaded guilty in August to a federal charge that he failed to disclose his British rape convictions on a visa application. He claimed the omission was a paperwork error. Now, under investigation in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Chisthi remains in an Immigration and Naturalization Service jail cell in Denver on hold for deportation.
An investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune has uncovered Chisthi's criminal past as a bogus cleric in the Southall area of West London, where the population is nearly 80 percent Muslim.
Preying upon young female worshippers at the Jamia Mosque in Southall, Chisthi offered spiritual guidance but instead sexually assaulted the women, according to prosecutors at his 1991 trial.
Syed Ali, director of the West London branch of the Islamic Mission, recalled Thursday how Chisthi played the role of a religious benefactor to emotionally troubled women.
"He was a no-good fellow who preyed on illiterate people to get them to do what he wanted," Ali said. "He was a trickster."
Ali said Chisthi was never affiliated with any mosque, but used the facade of a religious leader to victimize members of the Islamic community in Southall.
Chisthi was exposed when the 15-year-old girl, fearing that Chisthi had impregnated her, reported the abuse to a school counselor. British police arrested Chisthi after a search of his home yielded homemade porn films of him and his victims.
Convicted in England's largest criminal court of eight rapes and three counts of indecent assault, Chisthi was sentenced to 11 years in prison and served about half the time.
Chisthi "was a nobody," Ghias Syed, trustee of the mosque, told London's Ealing Gazette at the time. "There are lots of people like him who claim to have an affiliation with some organization or another . . . pretending to represent the Muslim community."
At sentencing, British Judge Robert Lymbery scolded Chisthi, saying he "took advantage of [your victims'] implicit faith and through your trickery, deceit and power had your own way with them for your own gratification." Crown Prosecutor Victor Temple chided: "Such a man commands virtual complete obedience and respect by those who follow him."
Chisthi pleaded innocent, claiming he had consensual sex with only two women, but was found guilty by a jury.
Released from prison in 1997, Chisthi was immediately deported to Pakistan, where he claims to have founded a mosque in Islamabad. He has told Randle he is happily married there.
In 1999, Chisthi was invited by a Catholic priest working in Pakistan to attend a religious conference in Philadelphia, said Randle, head of the United Religions Initiative. During that visit, he had no problem entering or departing the United States, and URI later invited him to the Salt Lake City conference, held May 31 through June 4.
Chisthi had failed to disclose his convictions on his visa application, blaming the oversight on a simple clerical error. He later told his religious hosts in Utah that his criminal past consisted of a single statutory rape conviction tied to his polygamous beliefs, for his relationship with an underage bride.
Federal authorities are keeping Chisthi in solitary confinement to monitor his visitors and phone calls. Recruited by Randle, Denver attorney Zeke Williams has come to Chisthi's aid. Williams said Chisthi has been interrogated repeatedly by federal investigators -- at least once with a lie detector -- and has had his holy books confiscated. Williams has arranged for legal counsel to be present at future interviews, he said.
Randle also contacted Utah Rep. Jim Matheson to solicit the congressman's help. A staffer in Matheson's office investigated, and determined that Chisthi is being legally detained, one of over a thousand being held nationwide by investigators in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.
"This gentleman is being held on legitimate charges and is awaiting deportation," said Alyson Heyrend, Matheson's press secretary. "That was the end of the road for us."
Just this week, Randle learned the actual circumstances of Chisthi's convictions. He acknowledged he may have misjudged his friend. "I don't know anything independent of what [Chisthi] told me," Randle said.
But Randle, using a biblical reference, continues to support Chisthi.
"All we have to do is look at the apostle Paul to see that people can change," Randle said. "You're talking about a man who has a great reputation in his community. He has served his time and has lived a pretty exemplary life since."
Denied a recent request to speak with Chisthi, The Tribune has not interviewed him since the week of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when he said he has no links to Osama bin Laden.
"I have nothing to do with that," Chisthi said, "but I'm happy that my God is testing me."
kcantera@sltrib.com; mvigh@sltrib.com
Here's an interesting rewording:
Jackson was never affiliated with any church, but used the facade of a religious leader
to victimize members of the Black community in America.
"All we have to do is look at the apostle Paul to see that people can change," Randle said. "You're talking about a man who has a great reputation in his community. He has served his time and has lived a pretty exemplary life since."
What Randle doesn't reaslize, perhaps because he is a Mormon, is that the power for people to change comes from Christ within, and not from Mohammed or Joseph Smith III from without.
This guy may well be a legitimate Muslim cleric now, since the teaching of rape and murder by modern Muslim Clerics throughout the Middle East is difficult to tell from the teachings of murder and rape written by Mohammed and his puppet god, Allah, in the Koran. Whatever lust, be it murder or rape or hatred that Mohammed allowed to consume him, he had his parrot god Allah bless in the Koran. Since the Hadith (collected sayings of Mohammed) are given just as much weight as the "revealed" Koran, we can see just who is the god, and who is the puppet.
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