....Yesterday, new details emerged yesterday about al Muhajir's(Jose Pedilla) life in the United States, including his conversion from Roman Catholicism to Islam in the mid-1990s. The leader of the Darul Uloom Institute, a school in Pembroke Pines, Fla., where al Muhajir studied Islam in 1995, described him as an extremely observant Muslim who stood out at the relatively liberal facility.....Darul Uloom Institute was one of the places where he attended Saturday morning courses in 1995.... Al Muhajir used the name "Ibrahim" during the three to six months that he attended, Mohamed said; the name also appears on marriage records. "He used to come, but he just disappeared. I am so baffled," he said. "He was a very quiet, quiet guy."
More digging should be able to pin that 3-6 months down to the specific months involved.
Padilla didn't invent plot in Broward, mosque says
BY WANDA J. DeMARZO AND DANIEL de VISE
The leader of a Pembroke Pines mosque said Wednesday that the alleged ''dirty bomb'' plot wasn't hatched in Broward County -- an assertion backed up by federal agents, who said detainee Jose Padilla contacted al Qaeda operatives after leaving the United States in 1998.
''I want to make sure that there is nothing like that going on here,'' said Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, prayer leader at Darul Uloom Islamic Institute. ``I just like a clean operation and I don't even want to smell things like that around.''
Padilla is the third terrorism suspect linked to Darul Uloom. He studied the Koran there. Two other Broward men accused this year with plotting a bombing campaign in South Florida worshiped at Darul Uloom, one of about 20 Muslim mosques in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. But that, Mohamed said, is pure coincidence.
''We are the largest [Muslim] congregation in South Florida,'' Mohamed said. ``I think people may want to use us a scapegoat . . . We don't tolerate radicals. We are a peaceful group.''
The only common factor among the three is that ''they just passed through our mosque,'' Mohamed said.
MUSLIM COMMUNITY
Federal sources told The Herald on Wednesday that while Padilla was clearly involved with the South Florida Muslim community, it remains unclear when he turned from moderate Islamic beliefs to an extreme doctrine that led him to allegedly plot a bombing.
''The difficult part for us now is trying to determine which of the many people he came in contact with hold those views, let alone whether or not there are links to al Qaeda,'' one source said.
The FBI has found no connection between Padilla and the Sept. 11 hijackers, several of whom lived in Broward County.
''All the evidence that there were links to al Qaeda is from his trips abroad,'' one source said.
Padilla's interest in Islam was apparent when he worked at a Davie Taco Bell in 1992, following his release from the Broward County Jail where he served 10 months after a road rage incident.
His former boss was Mohammad Javed, co-founder of the School of Islamic Studies at Broward in Sunrise.
Javed said when Padilla told him he was thinking about converting, he advised Padilla
to look in the Yellow Pages for an Islamic center.
''He didn't tell me when he and his girlfriend [Cherie Maria Stultz] converted, but I learned they had accepted Islam into their life,'' Javed said. ``He seemed to be a joiner, and he was poor.''
In June 1994, Jose Padilla officially became known as Ibrahim, following a hearing before Broward Circuit Judge John A. Frusciante at the courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. Padilla prayed and studied at Darul Uloom from 1995 to 1997.
EARLIER DAYS
Mohamed remembers Padilla as Ibrahim, no longer the troublemaker of his earlier days, but a quiet young man who always wore the traditional Muslim scarf favored by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. A photograph released by the school shows Padilla posing with friends, a red scarf draped over his head.
''The head dress is the type you see in Palestine; you don't see it in the U.S.,'' Mohamed said.
Padilla attended Saturday morning study sessions for the recently converted, after a while just ''disappearing from the scene.'' Nine men and three women made up the group. Women are not uncommon for the Pembroke Pines institute because of its liberal bent, Mohamed said.
''Whoever did what, they never did it here,'' Mohamed said. ``People know that they can't do any foolishness here.''
Herald staff writers Hannah Sampson and Beth Reinhard contributed to this report.