Florida Imams Fund Bombings and Beheadings

The two faces of Islam. These were pious and good imams ….. until they weren't. We see this over and over again. The bad guys are those of us who are pointing this out, the ahem "islamophobes."

The fact is that the Florida mosque should be closed immediately and every mosque supporting jihad through word or deed should be shuttered.

"Pakistani violence detailed in case of Florida imams charged with Taliban financial support" Washington Post, January 14

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MIAMI — A former
Pakistani politician and landowner described beheadings, bombings and
attacks on police stations by Taliban militants Monday at the trial of
two Muslim clerics accused of financially supporting the terrorist
group.

Saifullah Khan, 43, said his name was on a Taliban hit list of
officials targeted during the Islamic fundamentalist group’s attempt to
take control of Pakistan’s Swat Valley in 2007. The father of six, who
now lives in Philadelphia, was formerly an elected official who helped
oversee such things as road and water projects for about 15 villages in
the Swat Valley.

Testifying through an interpreter in Pashto, Khan said on one
occasion he saw his cousin’s beheaded body, “and the blood was still
there, fresh.” Another time he helped carry a mortally wounded police
officer out of a station attacked by Taliban fighters with assault
weapons and grenades. He knew people whose homes and businesses were
bombed, killing dozens more. His own home was struck by a rocket and
shot at, he said.

“The Taliban was harming people. They were
shooting at the army. The army would shoot at them. The people in the
middle would get hurt,” he testified. “I don’t have the number, but many
times they (Taliban fighters) attacked my house.”

The testimony
about Taliban violence came in the second week of the trial of Hafiz
Khan and one of his sons, Izhar. They are not related to Saifullah Khan
but, like Saifullah, have family origins in the Swat Valley, where the
surname is common. Hafiz and Izhar Khan are facing conspiracy and
terrorism support charges that each carry potential 15-year prison
sentences.

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Hafiz Khan, 77, is imam at a downtown Miami mosque. Izhar Khan, 26, held the same post at a mosque in suburban Margate.

Prosecutors
say they illegally funneled at least $50,000 to the Pakistani Taliban
between 2008 and 2010. The two men have pleaded not guilty and insist
any money they sent to Pakistan was for family members and other
innocent purposes.

Saifullah Khan’s testimony is aimed at helping
prosecutors establish the Taliban’s violent nature for the jury.
Prosecutors contend most of the money sent by Hafiz and Izhar Khan to
Pakistan was intended to help Taliban fighters battling Pakistan’s army
for control of the Swat Valley.

Saifullah Khan testified that as
the violence increased, he met with a top Taliban leader in the Swat
Valley at a local madrassa, or Islamic religious school. Saifullah Khan
said when he arrived, the leader, Maulana Fazullah, was surrounded by
about 60 armed men. Saifullah Khan said he urged Fazullah to stop the
shootings and bombings.

Fazullah replied that it wasn’t his fault
because “the government is not leaving me alone and I will knock down
this government,” according to Saifullah Khan.

“His appearance was similar to a religious figure, but he was not,” Saifullah Khan added.

He
also described Fazullah’s frequent radio speeches about other Taliban
goals, such as banning girls from attending school and urging that all
women wear the full-length burqa covering. Fazullah also opposed
vaccinating children against polio, arguing it was an un-Islamic
practice.

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Defense attorneys tried to get Saifullah Khan’s
testimony suppressed as mostly secondhand information and speculation,
but U.S. District Judge Robert Scola refused to block it.

The
Pakistani Taliban is linked to al-Qaida and has played roles in several
attacks against the U.S., including a December 2009 suicide bombing at a
U.S. military base in Afghanistan that killed seven U.S. citizens,
prosecutors said. The group also was connected to the attempt in May
2010 by Faisal Shahzad to detonate a bomb in New York’s Times Square.

In
addition, prosecutors say Hafiz Khan founded a madrassa in the Swat
Valley that was used by the Taliban to train and indoctrinate children
in fighting Americans. The madrassa was shut down in 2009 by the
Pakistani army.