In the 6/12 Miami Herald, we learn that Mohammed Javed, 49, a Pakistani immigrant who managed a Taco Bell where Padilla and his wife worked is the co-founder of the Broward School of Islamic Studies in Sunrise. In a 6/15 Sun-Sentinelstory about the arrest of Adham A. Hassoun, 40, a Sunrise man listed as the registered Florida agent for the Benevolence Foundation we learn:
Hassoun attended the Islamic Center of South Florida in Pompano Beach and the School of Islamic Studies of Broward in Sunrise. At the Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, he often led prayers when former imam Raed Awad was not available, Abdelaziz said.
Awad, who left Al-Iman about two years ago, was also the chief Florida fund-raiser for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which the government shut down in December, charging that the group was a major financial supporter of the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The organization and Awad deny the charges.
So we are asked to believe that Jawad, at Taco Bell, had nothing to do with Padilla’s Islamism, and isn’t just a coincidence that Jawad is linked to Hassoun through the Islamic school, and Hassoun filled in for Awad at the mosque that Padilla attended? Right.
As far as Padilla’s attending the Pembroke Pines mosque in 1995, as I posted on an earlier thread, this is deliberate misinformation. The leader of the that mosque suddenly produces a picture of Padilla, and remembers that he attended classes there, but he made the following statements to local papers immediately following Padilla’s arrest:
From the 6/12/02 Sun-Sentinel:
About a year ago, Stultz called the Pembroke Pines-based Darul Uloom Institute, religious leader Maulana Shafayat Mohamed said. He said he remembers she reminded him that her husband, Ibrahim, who wore an Arab-type head scarf, had gone to the institute before.
He said Stultz told him her husband had gone to Egypt to study.
Mohamed said he thinks she was calling for counseling or advice.
He wrote down the word “wedding,” but cannot remember ever following up, he said.
From the Miami Herald , 6/12/02:
From 1995 to 1996, Padilla occasionally attended Saturday morning Koran studies run by the Darul Uloom Islamic Institute in Pembroke Pines. Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, head of the Institute, said he always wore a kaffiyeh scarf over his head -- the multicolored headscarf typically worn by devout Muslim men in the Middle East.
His wife, who identified herself as Marwah, sought marital counseling after her divorce last year, Mohamed said.
''I don't know why she called me. Maybe because I'm a religious leader. She told me Ibrahim had divorced her and had moved to Egypt,'' he said. .
It would appear that the Islamic network is doing all it can to deflect attention away from the Fort Lauderdale mosque.