IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE NINTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
IN AND FOR ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA

INVESTIGATION AND INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
IN SUPPORT OF PETITION FOR DEPENDENCY

COMES NOW the minor child Fathima Rifqa Bary by and through her undersigned counsel and files this "Investigation and Intelligence Memorandum" in support of the Petition for Dependency before this court.

Together with Rifqa Bary's Affidavit attached as "Exhibit A" the documents demonstrate that that Rifqa's parents are members of and their home is directly connected to the Noor Islamic Center in that they have held official youth meetings of the Noor Center inside the Bary home where the minor previously lived. The following memorandum presents extensive documentation showing the ties the Noor Center has with terrorist groups.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Noor Islamic Cultural Center (hereinafter the Noor Center) in the Columbus, Ohio area is wholly owned by the American Islamic Waqf, an Ohio corporation. It is controlled by a self-appointed board and operates an extensive facility in the Columbus suburbs. The mosque membership is quite diverse in ethnicity and background; however, it has been identified as one of the primary sources of Islamic extremism in Central Ohio. As this facility is the spiritual home and directly connected to the Bary family's daily and weekly life as set forth in Rifqa Bary's Affidavit, (Exhibit A) concerns about the mosque's leadership and ideology are critical to understanding the potential threat to Rifqa Bary and this Honorable Court's decision about whether she should be declared a dependent of the state and or whether or not she should she be returned to her family.

There are four primary concerns related to the Noor Center:

1. THE NOOR CENTER CEO AND THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD



The leader of the mosque, Dr. Hany Saqr, was previously an imam for another area mosque at the same time the largest known Al-Qaeda cell in the U.S. since 9/11 was operating out of the mosque. Additionally, Dr. Saqr was identified in exhibits submitted by the Department of Justice in a recent terrorism finance trial in Texas as being one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America - an international organization responsible for birthing virtually every Islamic terrorist organization in the world, including Al-Qaeda. One of his subordinates identified in those trial exhibits was identified in a FBI memorandum as providing $735,000 to Hamas while under Dr. Saqr's direction.

2. THE NOOR CENTER SCHOLAR AND TERRORIST LEADERS

A former Islamic scholar associated with The Noor Center is Dr. Salah Sultan, a cleric that has been photographed with terrorist leaders designated as such by the U.S. government. Dr. Sultan has recently appeared on television inciting violence against Jews, and he has previously appeared at events in support of designated terrorist organizations while an active part of the Noor Center community. Following his departure to Bahrain, unconfirmed reports indicate that his US citizenship application has been denied and that he has been banned from reentering the US.



3. THE NOOR CENTER AND EXTREMIST SPEAKERS

A number of extremist speakers have been featured at recent Noor Center events who are on record making statements in support of violence, terrorism and extremism. Evidence also indicates that some of these speakers have been directly involved in fundraising and supporting the mosque since its inception. One regular speaker and fundraiser for the Noor Center was listed by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial.



4. THE NOOR CENTER TIED TO NATIONWIDE FBI TERROR INVESTIGATION

The Noor Center has also been directly tied to the ongoing nationwide investigation into Somali-American youths who have left the U.S. to train in terror camps operated by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab terror organization. CNN has identified Columbus as one of the main centers of the FBI's investigation. This story was recently the subject of a lengthy front-page New York Times story. One Minneapolis mosque leader who has been named by others in the Somali community as allowing Al-Shabaab recruiters to operate in his mosque was a featured speaker at a Noor Center Somali youth conference just last November. And a Noor Center Somali youth has appeared repeatedly with another Minneapolis imam who has been questioned by the FBI regarding more than a dozen of mosque attendees who have left under such circumstances and been placed by the Department of Homeland Security on the no-fly list.

Additionally, there are also other extremist elements in the Central Ohio Muslim community that raise concerns about Rifqa's potential safety in light of the national media attention to this case. One example already mentioned is the Al-Qaeda cell that had been operating in the area. The nationwide FBI investigation into the missing Somali youths has focused on Columbus as one possible hotspot for terrorist recruitment, as the city with the second largest Somali population in the country.

FULL INVESTIGATION AND INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM

1. NOOR CENTER CEO AND THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

During the recent Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial in a federal court in Dallas, the self-identified founder, spiritual leader, administrator and chairman of the Noor Center Board of Directors, Dr. Hany Saqr, was identified in a phone directory recovered from the home of a Hamas operative.¹ This phone directory dated 1992 lists the Muslim Brotherhood leadership in North America. The home phone number listed for Dr. Saqr in this phone directory corresponds exactly to phone number registered to his address at that time based on contemporary phone listings and information in Dr. Saqr's personnel file at The Ohio State University (which was inspected under an Open Records Act request). Phone records indicate that Dr. Saqr maintained the phone number listed in the Muslim Brotherhood leadership directory for several years after its stated date, continuing up until the time the Saqr and his associates incorporated the American Islamic Waqf, the parent organization of the Noor Center.²





The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamic extremist organization in the world, with chapters in more than 70 countries worldwide. An exposé of the organization in the United States published in 2004 by the Chicago Tribune chronicled the history and growth of the group, noting that its ideology "champions martyrdom and jihad", and observing the secretive nature of the organization, such as instructing its adherents to intentionally obscure its true beliefs from outsiders.³ Al-Qaeda was founded by Muslim Brotherhood supporters, and the terrorist group Hamas is the Palestinian chapter of the group.⁴



Another document entered into evidence during the Holy Land Foundation trial by government prosecutors dated to this same time period is a secret strategy memo for the organization drafted and approved by the leadership outlining the goals and long-term plans of the Muslim Brotherhood (identified in the memo by its Arabic name, the Ikhwan). This memo states that the ultimate objective of the group is the eventual destruction of Western civilization:

The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all religions.⁵





The Muslim Brotherhood North American leadership phone directory naming Dr. Saqr identifies him in three separate sections:

• Board of Directors⁶

• Executive Office⁷

• "Masul" (leader) of the Eastern Region⁸

These entries demonstrate the high-ranking position that Dr. Saqr had or continues to have within the extremist Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.

One important element to Dr. Saqr's position as the "Masul" for the Eastern region is that one of his direct subordinates indicated in the directory, Ismail Elbarasse, was at that time one of the top Hamas operatives in the country.⁹ According to a November 2001 memorandum prepared by FBI Assistant Director for the Counterterrorism Division Dale Watson, at the time that Elbarasse was under Dr. Saqr's supervision (1992-1993) he conveyed at least $735,000 to another U.S.-based Hamas operative to provide directly to Hamas military leaders in Gaza and the West Bank. Assistant Director Watson states:

Ismail Elbarasse: During questioning by Israeli authorities, SDT [Specially Designated Terrorist] Mohammad Salah stated that he was directed by Marzook to receive funds from Elbarasse to be used for funding HAMAS military operations. (Exhibit 20). Salah's financial records document that Elbarasse wire transferred a total of $735,000.00 to Salah from December 1992 to January 1993. (Exhibit 21). A review of financial records reflect that in the 1990s, Elbarasse had a joint bank account with Marzook.¹⁰





Other court documents from the same trial note that Mousa Abu Marzook, who at the time was the operational head of the Hamas terrorist organization who operated out of the U.S., placed several phone calls to Dr. Saqr's home phone number.¹¹



Dr. Saqr's contact with Marzook are not his only connections to the international terrorist network. As mentioned previously, Central Ohio was the home to the largest known Al-Qaeda cell in the U.S. since 9/11. Three members of the cell - Iyman Faris, Nuradin Abdi, and Christopher Paul - are all currently serving lengthy prison sentences after having pled guilty to charges related to their terrorist activities. At least ten other individuals are known from indictments in the three other cases to have been involved.¹²



This Columbus Al-Qaeda cell operated out of Omar Ibn El-Khattab Mosque near the Ohio State University campus. One of the convicted members of the cell, Christopher Paul, taught martial arts at the mosque following his return from his Al-Qaeda training in Afghanistan.¹³ According to press reports, Dr. Saqr served as an imam at the Omar Mosque at the time that the Al-Qaeda cell was at its peak and prior to any arrests of the cell members.¹⁴ His tenure at the Omar Mosque continued after the incorporation of the American Islamic Waqf and while funds were being raised to construct the Noor Center facilities.

2. NOOR CENTER SCHOLAR AND TERRORIST LEADERS

Another extremist influence in recent years at the Noor Center is the Egyptian-born Islamic scholar, Dr. Salah Sultan, who maintains a home less than a mile from the mosque. Prior to his departure from the U.S., Dr. Sultan served as the de facto "scholar-in-residence" at the Noor Center, spoke regularly at Noor Center services and events, and was featured prominently on the mosque's website. He remains a leading ideological voice at The Noor Center, and several of his family members still attend services there. In his résumé he states that as his life goal is, "To live happily. To die as a martyr."¹⁵



Dr. Sultan is internationally-renowned for his positions with Islamic organizations, such as the Fiqh Council of North America, the Muslim American Society, European Council for Fatwa and Research and the Islamic Association for Muslim Scholars - the last two organizations headed up by his mentor, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who is recognized as one of the top Muslim Brotherhood thinkers and the spiritual leader for the terrorist group Hamas. When Sultan founded the Islamic American University in the Detroit area, he named Qaradawi as the honorary chairman of the board and appointed him head of the school's campus in Qatar, despite the fact that Qaradawi has been banned from the U.S. since 1999 for his Islamic rulings authorizing the use suicide bombing terrorist attacks. A dossier published by the Anti-Defamation League entitled "Yusuf Al-Qaradawi: Theologian of Terror" notes the close relationship between Qaradawi and Dr. Sultan.¹⁶

In recent years, and during the time he was directly associated with The Noor Center, Dr. Sultan has appeared at international events with individuals listed as designated terrorists by the U.S. Government. He is also a regular figure on television networks located in the Islamic world, where he has been recorded inciting violence against Jews, praising designated Al-Qaeda leaders, and advancing a wide range of anti-Jewish and anti-American conspiracy theories. While still a Central Ohio resident he participated in the issuance of Islamic fatwas (legal rulings) authorizing attacks against U.S. military troops in Iraq through organizations he holds leadership positions in, and he has personally taken positions on Islamic issues in defense of extreme Islamic punishments, including stoning and amputations, in accordance with Islamic law.

Prior to his departure from the U.S., Dr. Sultan was a regular feature at major Islamic conferences for U.S. Islamic organizations. His keynote speech at one Islamic conference was recorded in a book by an anti-terrorism researcher who infiltrated such events. The author records that during his speech, Dr. Sultan claimed that Jewish religious law authorized the killing of all non-Jews and encouraged acts of "martyrdom" against Israelis. ¹⁷

In November 2004, Sultan was in attendance at the Beirut Conference of the Islamic Association of Muslim Scholars, during which the conference approved a fatwa authorizing attacks against U.S. and Coalition military and civilian personnel. ¹⁸ According to Sultan's résumé, he has served as a member of the board of trustees of the organization since its inception. The IAMS fatwa was later published on the official Iraqi Resistance website.¹⁹



In 2005, when a prominent Western Islamic leader, Tariq Ramadan, called on Islamic countries to impose a moratorium on corporal punishments, stoning and the death penalty, Ramadan's chief public opponent in the debate was Dr. Sultan, who argued against such a moratorium, contending that such a move would undermine Islamic law and provide an opportunity for "secularists and anti-Islamists to attack Islam".²⁰



In a live television appearance in May 2006 on Al-Risala TV network, Sultan charged that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks with the intent to wage a war against Islam.²¹ He also praised Yemeni Al-Qaeda cleric and Osama bin Laden mentor Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who the U.S. government had listed as a specially designated global terrorist in 2004 for supporting and recruiting for Al-Qaeda terrorist training camps.²² Al-Zindani heads the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Yemen, the Al-Islah Party.²³



In July 2006, while he was still associated with THE NOOR CENTER, he appeared at a rally in Istanbul sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood-allied Saadet Party in support of Hamas, with media reports including pictures of him speaking at the event.²⁴ Another speaker along with Dr. Sultan that day was Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, another specially designated global terrorist.



That, however, was not the only appearance that Dr. Sultan has made with a designated terrorist. In July 2007, he was a featured speaker at a conference in Doha, Qatar honoring his mentor Yusuf Al-Qaradawi entitled, "Meeting of Imam Qaradawi with students and friends". During the main proceedings aired on Al-Jazeera he delivered a speech honoring Qaradawi and acknowledging the cleric's personal influence on his life. His speech was later posted to Qaradawi's personal website.²⁵ He was later followed by the top Hamas leader, Khaled Mishal, another designated terrorist, who honored Qaradawi for his fatwas authorizing suicide bombings by Hamas and Hezbollah.²⁶ In video footage of the event, Sultan can be seen sitting at the speaker's table beside Mishal and Qaradawi.



In his speech that day, Dr. Sultan acknowledged that his associations had prompted his application for U.S. citizenship to be denied. He then left the U.S. sometime in 2007 for Bahrain. But no sooner had he arrived than he was cited as a source of instigation of anti-Shiite sentiments. The Los Angeles Times identified Dr. Sultan by name among preachers and groups among "controversial Sunni clerics" and those "sharing the outlook of Al-Qaeda" closely aligned with the Bahrain royal family.²⁷





Even more recently, Dr. Sultan appeared, last December on the Egyptian Al-Nas TV network after having spent several weeks in the U.S. and just days after visiting THE NOOR CENTER. During his appearance he approvingly invoked an Islamic hadith that says that the Day of Judgment will not come until the Muslims slaughter the Jews. He predicted death and destruction for America, saying that such vengeance was "coming soon", and he cited in his support of his views the notorious anti-Semitic work, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.²⁸

Significance of THE NOOR CENTER's Relationship to Qaradawi



The connection between THE NOOR CENTER's de facto resident scholar Salah Sultan and the spiritual leader of Hamas, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is important to note respecting the Rifqa Bary case.



Both men share the same extremist Salafi and anti-Jewish sentiments, and both have been documented as openly defending extreme punishments in accordance with Islamic law. Counterterrorism expert and president of the Investigative Project on Terrorism Steven Emerson has stated that "Sultan is an acolyte of Qaradawi".²⁹ Sultan appointed Qaradawi as honorary chairman of the board of trustees of the Islamic American University when he founded that organization and continues to serve in that capacity today despite having been banned from the U.S. since 1999.³⁰ Sultan also serves on the boards of two organizations founded and chaired by Qaradawi, the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the Islamic Association of Muslim Scholars.

This makes Qaradawi's published statements in support of the death penalty for Islamic apostates in accordance with Islamic law all the more relevant. An official fatwa published on Qaradawi's own Islamonline website invokes Qaradawi in defending the position that most Islamic jurists agree that apostasy must be punished by death.

Detailing the issue and showing some of the evidence for the punishment of apostasy, the prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, states:

"All Muslim jurists agree that the apostate is to be punished. However, they differ regarding the punishment itself. The majority of them go for killing; meaning that an apostate is to be sentenced to death."³¹

In a later article by Qaradawi, he again emphasizes that the Islamic scholarly consensus upholding the death penalty for apostates:



That is why the Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.³²

Qaradawi adds in that same article that public apostasy, such as that exhibited by Rifqa Bary in the nationwide media coverage of this case, is especially grave and constitutes a criminal act and treason against the Muslim ummah.³³ Given THE NOOR CENTER's close ties to Qaradawi and the theological affinity between the two, the potential threat to Rifqa Bary is not limited to her family alone, but additionally from others from THE NOOR CENTER and the local Islamic community who have been influenced by the ideology. Such individuals may feel religiously justified in acting on the theological guidance that Qaradawi provides in cases of public apostasy, namely acts of violence directed at Rifqa Bary.



3. NOOR CENTER AND EXTREMIST SPEAKERS

Salah Sultan and Yusuf Al-Qaradawi are hardly the only Islamic influences on THE NOOR CENTER. In the past year, a long line of extremist speakers have been invited to the mosque recently - a trend that goes back to the founding of the organization itself. Several of these speakers have publicly declared their support for terrorist organizations, defended terrorists and terrorist acts, and have been closely tied to convicted terrorists themselves. This steady stream of extremist speakers provides definitive evidence of the ideological leanings of THE NOOR CENTER.

Siraj Wahhaj



A regular featured speaker at THE NOOR CENTER, Wahhaj was the keynote at the mosque's 2006 annual fundraiser, and led the December 2007 Eid al-Adha celebrations in December 2007.

Wahhaj was named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.³⁴



The main defendant in that case, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman ("the Blind Sheikh"), had preached at Wahhaj's Masjid Al-Taqwa, and the imam even testified as a character witness on the Blind Sheikh's behalf.³⁵

Two other men convicted in the New York Landmarks bombing plot, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali and Clement Rodney Hampton-El, were regular attendees at Wahhaj's mosque.³⁶

Wahhaj also testified as a defense witness in the trial of Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, who was charged in connection with the Al-Qaeda bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.³⁷

According to the Washington Post, just weeks before the 9/11 attacks Wahhaj helped lead a self-identified "jihad camp" for Muslim youth in Pennsylvania.³⁸

A 2003 Wall Street Journal profile on Wahhaj noted that "the imam takes great pains to remain neutral about Osama bin Laden."³⁹

That same report quoted Wahhaj expressing his support for strict adherence to punishments in accordance with Islamic law: "If Allah says 100 strikes, 100 strikes it is. If Allah says cut off their hand, you cut off their hand. If Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet Muhammad, you stone them to death, because it's the obedience of Allah and his messenger - nothing personal."⁴⁰

In 2007, a defense industry journal noted that some of the six suspects arrested and eventually convicted in the attempted terrorist plot at the Fort Dix Army base were "trained by, and in touch with Imam Siraj Wahhaj".⁴¹

Muzammil Siddiqi



Siddiqi was the sole speaker at THE NOOR CENTER's family conference held in April 2009.⁴²

In 1989, Siddiqi condemned Salman Rushdie for his book, "The Satanic Verses", calling it "obscene" and called for the book to be banned.⁴³

In December 1992, just months before the World Trade Center bombings, Siddiqi hosted the mastermind of the plot, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, and translated for him as he delivered a sermon exhorting Siddiqi's congregants to wage violent jihad. Siddiqi's mosque continued to sell copies of the videos of that sermon even after the Blind Sheikh had been tied to the bombings.⁴⁴

While speaking at a conference in Kansas City in 1995, Siddiqi defended a suicide terrorist attack that had just occurred in Tel Aviv, saying that those who conduct such bombings were assured the highest ranks in heaven.⁴⁵

In an article published in 1996, he urged readers for the eventual application of Islamic law in America, saying that "We must not forget that Allah's rules have to be established in all lands, and all our efforts should lead in that direction."⁴⁶

Serving as president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) from 1997-2000, Hamas leader and designated terrorist Mousa Abu Marzook published an open letter thanking ISNA and other Islamic organizations for their support during his incarceration and following his deportation from the U.S.⁴⁷ Marzook, who had commanded Hamas from the U.S. since 1991, had been listed by the U.S. government as a designated global terrorist since August 1995.⁴⁸

In June 2001, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that he "supported laws in countries where homosexuality is punishable by death".⁴⁹

Speaking at an anti-Israel rally in Washington D.C. in October 2000 held across the street from the White House, Siddiqi told the crowd that the wrath of Allah was coming for America because of its support for Israel, saying "If you continue doing injustice, and tolerating injustice, the wrath of God will come."⁵⁰ These statements would draw scrutiny by the national media after he appeared with President Bush after the 9/11 attacks. As one former Secret Service officer noted, "The intelligence community has known for sometime the association of Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi and Mr. [Abdurahman] Alamoudi, and their association with terrorist organizations."⁵¹



Salam Al-Marayati



Marayati spoke at the Noor Center on April 12, 2008 on the topic of "Forming a National and Religious Identity in an Age of Islamophobia".⁵²

As founder and executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, he oversaw the publication of a 1999 counterterrorism policy paper that defended the 1983 suicide bombing by Hezbollah of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 U.S. military servicemen, saying that " …this attack, for all the pain it cause, was not in the strict sense, a terrorist operation. It was a military operation, producing no civilian casualties - exactly the kind of attack that Americans might have lauded had it been directed against Washington's enemies."⁵³

When Marayati was appointed in 1999 by Congressional House Minority Leader Rep. Dick Gephardt to the National Commission on Terrorism, his appointment was severely criticized by those who noted his statements in support for terrorism. Because of the criticism, Rep. Gephardt was forced to withdraw his nomination.⁵⁴



In 2000, the former chief of the FBI's counterterrorism section Steven Pomerantz gave an interview to the Journal of Counterterrorism in support of congressional leaders who refused to meet with Marayati. Pomerantz noted that "Mr. Marayati has justified and defended the activities of terrorist organizations such as Hamas which, among other violent activities, has been involved in the murder of American citizens."⁵⁵

While delivering a speech at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, Marayati equated armed jihad with the American Revolution, saying that "the person who we think in America would epitomize jihad would be Patrick Henry, who said 'give me liberty or give me death.' That is the way of looking at the term jihad from an American perspective."⁵⁶

During that same speech, he defended Hezbollah saying that they should not be judged solely by the terrorist acts they commit and that one must examine "its claim of liberation and resistance."⁵⁷

On the day of the 9/11 attacks, Marayati was interviewed by a Los Angeles radio station, where he blamed the attacks on the Israeli government & "If we're going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents. I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what's happening in the Palestinian territories." This comment drew criticism from the Anti-Defamation League and prompted Jewish community leaders to withdraw from Jewish-Muslim dialogue sessions that Marayati was attending.⁵⁸

Edina Lekovic



One of Salam Al-Marayati's colleagues and spokesperson for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Lekovic spoke at the Noor Center in September 2007 at a youth workshop on the topic of "Islamophobia ",⁵⁹ and again in May 2008 at the Noor Center's Second Annual Youth Conference.⁶⁰

Just prior to Lekovic's first appearance at the Noor Center, she had appeared in May 2007 on CNBC's Kudlow & Co. program, where she was confronted about an editorial that had appeared in the newspaper published by the UCLA Muslim Student Association, Al-Talib, while she was managing editor of the paper in July 1999.⁶¹ That month's particular issue was entitled "The Spirit of Jihad " and the front cover bore a picture of Osama bin Laden and Ayatollah Khomeini. The editorial in that issue extolled bin Laden as a "philanthropist and freedom fighter", and stating that, "When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid (someone who struggles in Allah's cause) Osama bin Laden as a 'terrorist,' we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter, someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah's cause and speak out against oppressors. We take these stances only to please Allah."⁶²



This Al-Talib editorial was published more than a year after Al-Qaeda had taken credit for bombing the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and bin Laden's role in the plot widely reported. By this time bin Laden had already issued a fatwa urging his followers to "kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military."⁶³

On the program, Lekovic denied the allegation, claiming that she had only been the editor of the UCLA's student newspaper, The Bruin. However, when counterterrorism expert Steven Emerson produced a copy of the issue's masthead listing her as managing editor of Al-Talib,⁶⁴ she later admitted that she had previously been involved in the paper, but not at that time, claiming it was a "printing mistake". Emerson later produced evidence that Lekovic had been named in more than a dozen issues of Al-Talib from October 1997 to May 2002, including five issues in 1999 where she had been identified as managing editor, assistant editor and copy editor.⁶⁵ Emerson also produced Lekovic's speaker biography from a 2001 MPAC conference where she had promoted her tenure as managing editor of Al-Talib.⁶⁶

Raeed Tayeh



Tayeh joined Lekovic in speaking at the Noor Center Second Annual Youth Conference in 2008.⁶⁷

He had previously been a research fellow for the United Association for Studies and Research, which in 1993 the New York Times reported had been identified by a captured Hamas operative as the "political command for Hamas in the United States",⁶⁸ and as an executive board member for the Islamic Association for Palestine. Both organizations closed after they were found liable for a $156 million civil judgment in the Hamas murder of a Chicago teenager, David Boim.⁶⁹

In November 2001 while serving as an aide to Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Tayeh sent a letter to the editor to The Hill, a prominent Capitol Hill newspaper, questioning the loyalties of Jewish lawmakers, saying: "What is more disturbing to me is that many of these pro-Israeli lawmakers sit on the House International Relations Committee despite the obvious conflict of interest that their emotional attachments to Israel cause. The Israeli occupation of all territories must end, including Congress."⁷⁰

His letter was quickly condemned by Jewish organizations, and Rep. McKinney issued a statement the day the letter appeared that Tayeh was not speaking in any official capacity for her office. He was also forced to resign that same day.⁷¹

In June 2002, as spokesman for American Muslims for Global Peace, Tayeh was cited by Newsweek as the promoter of a boycott of Starbucks Coffee because CEO Howard Schultz provided "support for various Jewish charitable organizations and his warnings about the rising anti-Semitism around the world", which Tayeh denounced as "fueling an already tense situation by using inciteful [sic] language to 'legitimize' Israel's actions."⁷²

More recently, Tayeh has been conducting live dialogue sessions on Yusuf Al-Qaradawi's Islamonline.net website on such topics as "Obama on Gaza: Wise or lethal silence?"⁷³

Eric Erfan Vickers



Vickers spoke at a Noor Center political rally just days before the November 2008 elections.⁷⁴

Vickers incorporated the Islamic African Relief Agency in 1985, and continued to serve as the group's registered agent until the U.S. government shut down their Missouri offices and listed it as a designated terrorist organization. Vickers told the media that "I'm proud of my work for them".⁷⁵ In designating the group, Treasury Secretary John Snow had said that records showed that IARA had been providing funds directly to Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.⁷⁶

During a June 27, 2002 interview on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews program, guest host Mike Barnicle attempted to get Vickers to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah by name. When Vickers refused, he was asked if he would condemn Al-Qaeda, to which he responded, "They are involved in a resistance movement."⁷⁷

Vickers is a long-time supporter of the convicted North American leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Al-Arian. He testified as a character witness for Al-Arian in April 2003 during a bond hearing.⁷⁸ After Al-Arian had admitted his role in supporting the terrorist group and pled guilty, Vickers continued to defend him in an article published in April 2007 in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.⁷⁹

Vickers was forced to resign his position as executive director of the American Muslim Council in 2003 after he had sent a mass email stating that the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia was an act of divine retribution against America and Israel (the flight crew had included an Israeli scientist). Congressman Jerry Nadler sent Vickers a letter in response saying that "to presume that a divine purpose reflects one's own hateful feelings towards the Jewish People is insulting to all people of faith and good will."⁸⁰

Vickers has repeatedly lost his Missouri and Illinois law licenses for taking money from clients for civil rights cases and discrimination complaints and doing no work. In September 2002, the Missouri Supreme Court found him guilty on 26 counts of professional misconduct.⁸¹ He owed $159,452 in federal tax liens and faced judgments from previous law clients in the amount of $24,265.⁸² His Missouri law license was only reinstated in June 2008 at which time he was placed on probation for one year.⁸³

Shaker Elsayed



Elsayed was one of the earliest speakers for the Noor Center, speaking at a fundraiser in August 2002 with another prominent U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leader, Ahmed Saker.

In June 2001, Elsayed was speaking at press conference in front of the U.S. State Department where he openly defended Palestinian suicide bombings and claimed that Israeli settlers were not civilians, saying: "We also have to remind everybody here that the so-called Israeli settlers are not civilian population. They are military reserves; they are armed, trained and dangerous. They invade the Palestinian neighborhoods at night and they squander everything. They brutalize the people. They kill, maim, they destroy homes. And when they fail, they call the military to come for the support. What do we expect from anybody who wants to defend his family to do? If I were there, I would use every power in my hand to defend my family."⁸⁴

Just a few months after his appearance at the Noor Center, Elsayed was speaking at the Muslim American Society-Islamic Circle of North America joint conference, where he again defended suicide bombers, saying that it was improper for non-Muslims to criticize such actions because they were an "in-house business": "And about the subject unfairly named suicide bombers, homicide bombers, or murderers, or killers. Our answer to this issue is simple. To decide that this man is a martyr or not a martyr, it is a pure religious matter. Nobody who is not Muslim has any right to decide for us, we the Muslims, whose is a martyr or another. We as Muslims will decide that. It is in-house business."⁸⁵

Elsayed has served as the unofficial spokesman for the family of convicted Al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who had attended Elsayed's Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia.⁸⁶ Ali was arrested in Saudi Arabia, extradicted to the US, where he was convicted on charges of participating in an Al-Qaeda cell to assassinate President George W. Bush.

Elsayed has also publicly defended another convicted terrorist leader, Ali Al-Tamimi. Five days after the 9/11 attacks, Al-Tamimi had gathered a group of men from his mosque and encouraged them to join the Taliban and fight against the U.S. military. He later gave instructions to the men on traveling in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Elsayed told the Washington Post that such encouragements to terrorism and treason were "just talk".⁸⁷

In an interview with the Associated Press, Elsayed likened the terrorist group Hamas with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress, which he claimed was justified in their use of "violent resistance".⁸⁸

Wagdi Ghoneim



Another early Noor Center speaker was Wagdi Ghoneim, who spoke at an event on May 23, 2004.

A secret U.S. State Department cable from the American Consulate in Alexandria, Egypt, dated September 27, 1988, was recently declassified that identified Ghoneim as "an avowed Muslim Brother". The report continues, stating that "The message propagated by Ghoneim is bluntly anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, and anti-Western. Observant Muslims are admonished to avoid shaking hands with non-Muslims. Christian beliefs are mocked in a crude fashion …Ghoneim also charges that Copts are using monasteries and convents to hide arms that eventually will be used against Muslims."⁸⁹

Ghoneim agreed to leave the U.S. for Qatar in January 2005 rather than face deportation. He had been arrested in November 2004 and charged with visa violations for participating in fundraising activities in support of terrorist organizations. Commenting on his departure the ten-year ban imposed on him from returning to the U.S., Bill Odencrantz, the director of field operations for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, "Frankly, our task is not to sit around and wait for people to blow up buildings. Our task is to look at situations and circumstances and take action against people."⁹⁰

Speaking at a 1997 Muslim Arab Youth Association conference, Ghoneim was videotaped encouraging suicide bombings, saying, "Those young people who explode themselves to kill the Jews were not committing suicide but jihad. They are mujahedeen because there is no way to struggle and fight the Jews except that way. Allah bless those martyrs."⁹¹

Speaking at a May 24, 1998 Islamic Association for Palestine conference co-sponsored by the Council on America-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the Holy Land Foundation, Ghoneim was recorded speaking about the "infidelity," "stealth" and "deceit" of the Jews, before leading the crowd in singing, "No to the Jews, descendents of the apes, we vow to return, despite the obstacles."⁹²

Ghoneim and former Noor Center resident scholar Salah Sultan co-hosted a television program on Bahrain TV in 2007. The show was eventually cancelled after complaints from members of the Bahrain media about the sectarian divisions and extremist ideology promoted on the show.⁹³ Ghoneim was eventually deported from Bahrain in November 2007 after insulting neighboring Kuwaiti society as "gays and pederasts".⁹⁴

Prior to being deported from Bahrain, Ghoneim had previously been banned from entering Canada in 1999 because of his links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and Switzerland in 2005.⁹⁵ In 2008 he was arrested and deported from South Africa, and earlier this year he was added to the UK Home Office's list of banned hate speakers.⁹⁶

Zulfiqar Ali Shah



Shah delivered the opening khutbah at the Noor Center on September 3, 2004.

Speaking at a December 2001 conference held jointly by the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, Shah called for unity in the American Muslim community to oppose Israel, saying that Israel had designs to take over the Islamic holy land: "If we are unable to stop the Jews now, their next stop is Yathrib (The Prophet's city of Medina), where the Jews used to live until their expulsion by Prophet Muhammad (SAW). That's the pinnacle of their motives."⁹⁷ Shah was the acting president of ICNA at the time.

In 2003, Shah was CEO of the Orlando, Florida-based Universal Heritage Foundation, which was intended to be an Islamic-themed park near Disney World. Shah and UHF were widely criticized for inviting to the park's opening event Shaikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais, the senior imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The year before in April 2002, newspaper reports quoted Sudais calling Jews "the scum of humanity, the rats of the world, the killers of the prophets and the grandsons of monkeys and pigs."⁹⁸

The Orlando Sentinel identified several additional speakers at the event who had links to hate groups, specifically identifying Noor Center speakers and fundraisers Siraj Wahhaj and Muzammil Siddiqi.⁹⁹ Wagdi Ghoneim and the Noor Center's own Salah Sultan were both also listed as speakers at the event.¹⁰⁰



After the Anti Defamation League and other anti-hate groups condemned the inclusion of Sudais at the opening event, Shah was forced to disinvite Sudais.¹⁰¹

In October 2005, Shah became the director of the South Asian division of the Toledo, Ohio-based Islamic charity, Kindhearts.¹⁰² But less than six months later, Kindhearts was closed and had its assets frozen by the U.S. government for knowingly providing funds to foreign terrorist organizations.¹⁰³ The government alleged that Kindhearts was founded to replace two previous organizations that were funding terrorism, the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation, "which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the façade of charitable giving."

After Shah had been named religious director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee in 2006, he was questioned about his past statements and his involvement in attempting to bring Sudais to the Universal Heritage Foundation, and his participation with terror fundraiser Kindhearts. Shah defended his statements and associations to reporters from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, even claiming that his comments in 2001 about Jews attempting to take over the Islamic holy lands had been a joke. He also blamed the criticisms directed his way to "fundamentalist Christians and extremist Jews."¹⁰⁴

4. THE NOOR CENTER IS PART OF A NATIONWIDE FBI INVESTIGATION

The largest counterterrorism investigation since 9/11 is currently underway examining the recruitment efforts in the U.S. targeting young Somali men by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab terrorist group, with attention focused on Columbus - home to the second largest Somali community in the country behind Minneapolis.¹⁰⁵ Nearly two dozen Somali men have been reported missing and at least four of these men have been reported as killed in fighting in Somalia. One of those men, Shirwa Ahmed, died in October when he conducted a suicide bombing attack, which FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged was the first known instance of a U.S. citizen who had successfully carried out a suicide bombing attack.¹⁰⁶

Much of the national media attention on this issue has focused on two extremist imams in the Minneapolis area - Hassan Mohamud of the Islamic Dawah Center in St. Paul and Sheikh Abdirahman Sheikh Omar Ahmed of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis - who lead the respective mosques where the families of most of the missing Somali men say that they had been recruited. Both of these imams are directly related to the Noor Center: Hassan Mohamud was a featured speaker at the November 2008 Noor Somali Youth Conference; and the Noor Center Somali youth worker, Mohammad Diini, has been seen frequently speaking at events with Sheikh Ahmed and Hassan Mohamud. In May, Diini spoke with both men at an event opposed to the FBI's investigation.

Hassan Mohamud



Even prior to appearing at the November 2008 the Noor Center Somali Youth conference,¹⁰⁷ and before the national media scrutiny surrounding the Al-Shabaab recruiting efforts in his mosque, Hassan Mohamud had been in the news for a highly-controversial fatwa he and three other Islamic scholars from the Muslim American Society-Minnesota chapter had issued on June 6, 2006 and sent to the Minneapolis Airports Commission informing them that Somali Muslim taxi drivers were prohibited on the grounds of "Islamic jurisprudence" from picking up passengers carrying alcohol "because it involves cooperating in sin according to Islam."¹⁰⁸ Drivers were also denying transportation to passengers with seeing-eye dogs, asserting that Islamic law states that dogs are unclean. Nearly three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers who serviced the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are of Somali descent.

When each month more than 100 airport customers were being denied service because of Mohamud's fatwa, the airport commission was forced to act.¹⁰⁹ In a unanimous 11-0 decision, the commission voted to impose a 30-day suspension on any taxi driver who denied passengers service on the fatwa's grounds for the first offense and a two-year license revocation for the second offense.¹¹⁰ One Somali community leader, Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, accused Mohamud and his associates of "trying to hijack and radicalize the Somali community for their Middle East agenda."¹¹¹

And not long after appearing at the Noor Center, Hassan Mohamud was in the news again after a local news station reported on comments he had made in a fundraising video posted on Youtube claiming in reference to the mosque's youth programs that "this is a project that can save you from the hell of living in America."¹¹² During his television interview with his attorney sitting at his side (Mohamud is also an attorney), he labored to explain exactly what he meant by "the hell of living in America".



He was also asked about an interview he gave to 2007 to a Minnesota law magazine where he defends an Islamic justification for suicide bombings:

L&P: The Quran equates the taking of an innocent life with killing all of humanity, yet some Muslims say suicide bombings are justified. Can you explain this contradiction?

HM: There are scholars who say that there is one place where suicide is not prohibited. It's an exceptional case for them because they have no other means. It is Palestine. This is because it is the only means they have to free their country. Otherwise, any other places in the world, suicide means becomes prohibited.¹¹³



Mohamud had also praised the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in a March 2004 article where he compared Yassin to other Palestinian "true and brave warriors" who were part of "the Mujahedeen who fights in a jihad".¹¹⁴

Concerning the missing Somali men from Minneapolis, Mohamud denied having any involvement when asked by a reporter from USA Today.¹¹⁵ However that same article contained a report from a Minneapolis Somali writer, Yusuf Shaba, who had previously fought for a Somali terrorist group as a teenager and spoke about the radicalization and recruiting for jihad that is occurring in Minneapolis mosques. He specifically identified Mohamud's Dawah Institute as one of the major sources of radicalization in the community, in addition to the Abubakar As-Siddique mosque run by Sheikh Ahmed.¹¹⁶

The connections between the Noor Center and the Abubakar As-Siddique mosque are also a cause of concern. Shaba described the activities he had witnessed first-hand occurring in that mosque:

Shaba says he and his three teenage sons attended a program two months ago at Abubaker As-Saddique Islamic Center, where a former Somali warrior sat in a circle with other young people and delivered a passionate recitation of his experiences during the Somali civil war.

Some mosques also screen videos about the war in Afghanistan and about Muslim victims of perceived injustices in such places as Nigeria and the Palestinian territories. "They give them all the grievances that Osama Bin Laden has," Shaba says. "They talk about nothing but jihad and it's the best thing that can happen to a Muslim."

When the brainwashing is done and the teachers are confident students will do anything asked of them, the teachers give them tazkia, or clearance, to get more specialized training in the United States or abroad, Shaba says.

"The people who trained us encouraged us to not get married, to sever our ties with our families, so that when the mission comes we won't worry about family."

One Noor Center official who has regularly participated in events with Hassan Mohamud and Sheikh Ahmed is Mohammad Diini, who has been identified in media reports as a Noor Center Somali youth worker.¹¹⁷ Diini and Mohamud both spoke at the November 2008 Noor Somali youth conference.¹¹⁸ In June 2007, both men delivered a joint session at a conference in Minneapolis on "The Importance of Faith in the Lives of Muslim Youth".¹¹⁹ Sheikh Ahmed also spoke at the same conference.¹²⁰ Diini and Sheikh Ahmed have also been photographed together at other events.



On November 29, 2008, Sheikh Ahmed and another Abubakar As-Saddique youth worker were prevented by the Transportation Safety Administration from boarding a plane headed to Saudi Arabia.¹²¹ A January 2009 report in Newsweek indicates that Sheikh Ahmed has been placed on the Homeland Security no-fly list.¹²² And during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee in March, the uncle of one of the missing men, Osman Ahmed, testified that he believed that the mosque had been recruiting them to join Al-Shabaab.¹²³ Even more recently, a front page New York Times investigation found that one common trait for most of the missing men was their attendance at Abubakar As-Siddique.¹²⁴

Diini, Mohamud and Sheikh Ahmed all recently spoke together at a May 2009 conference entitled, "Voices from Somali Minnesotans: A Community Response to FBI Profiling," which was intended to respond to the criticisms surrounding the FBI investigation into the missing Somali men. A press release for the conference stated its purpose that, "Among other things, the conference will address raids on Somali businesses, the consequences of sensational news reports on 'the missing youth,' intimidation by law enforcement agents, and other issues impacting Somali Minnesotans."¹²⁵ Two of the event co-sponsors were Mohamud's Islamic Dawah Institue and Sheikh Ahmed's Abubakar As-Siddique mosque.



Diini's published biography provides important information about this the Noor Center Somali youth worker's own radicalized background.¹²⁶ According to his biography, he previously studied at the Institute for Arabic and Islamic Sciences in Fairfax, Virginia. That school, which was an arm of the al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was closed and raided by the FBI in July 2004 under a sealed search warrant.¹²⁷ That followed the State Department's decision to revoke the visas of 16 faculty members that January as what one senior U.S. law enforcement official described as part of ' an ongoing effort to protect the homeland' and an attempt to 'curb the spread of extremist Islamic rhetoric in this country'.¹²⁸ All of those faculty members held diplomatic credentials from the Saudi Embassy.



Other evidence indicates that prior to coming to Columbus, Diini was a regular speaker at the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, where two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf Al-Hazmi and Khalid Al-Mihdhar, attended. The former imam of the mosque, Anwar al-Aulaqi, is now believed by the FBI to have aided the hijackers and is currently living in Yemen.¹²⁹ Another former imam at the mosque, Mohammad Al-Hanooti, has been identified in FBI memos as a top U.S. fundraiser for Hamas.¹³⁰ The current imam, Shaker Elsayed, has spoken at the Noor Center fundraisers and openly supported suicide terror attacks (see above).



Considering Mohammad Diini's education at the extremist Institute for Arabic and Islamic Sciences; his spiritual leadership position at the extremist Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in the Washington D.C.-area; his current public support of the two imams at the center of the largest counterterrorism investigation since 9/11; and his current position as Somali youth leader at the Noor Center, adds to the present concern of returning Rifqa Bary to a religious atmosphere directly connected to her family that features so many elements of extremism and promotion of terrorism and violence.

With leadership directly tied to international extremist organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood; the direct and ongoing spiritual influence of well-documented extremists, such as Salah Sultan and Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who openly associate with designated international terrorists and have promoted violence in their teachings; that regular features speakers who aggressively promote radical Islamic interpretations; and with the Noor Center officials actively and openly supporting individuals who are the focus of the current nationwide FBI investigation into terrorist recruitment in the U.S., it is not only reasonable, but prudent to assume that the Noor Islamic Cultural Center represents a specific and identifiable threat to Rifqa Bary's safety if she were returned to her family in the Columbus area.

Regardless of the moderate sentiments and beliefs of the majority of Muslims in Central Ohio, the extensive evidence presented herein concerning the ideology promoted by this specific mosque and its direct connection and relationship to the Bary family should be given considerable weight to this court and to the State of Florida in its consideration of this case.







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