CAIR - Lodi Connection

Apparently, CAIR's Sacramento Chapter director Dr. Hamza El-Nakhal has ties with Adil Khan. Adil Khan was arrested for immigration violations and is awaiting to be deported in the next couple of weeks.

Naheem "Nick" Qayyum, a mosque board member, said he and other mosque members had heard about Ahmed's earlier condemnation of the United States and praise for the Taliban well before the FBI's investigation went public.

Qayyum said he approached CAIR for some help with the mosque's imam situation. He said he believed CAIR leaders had some influence with Adil Khan, who in turn had a close relationship with Ahmed.

"I asked CAIR to help out in the community because he (Adil Khan) was causing a lot of problems," Qayyum said. "At that time, CAIR pretty much told me to go away."

It wasn't as if CAIR wasn't familiar with Adil Khan.

The president of the CAIR's Sacramento chapter, Dr. Hamza El-Nakhal, had actually worked with Adil Khan for several years prior to the FBI's investigation. In late June, about two weeks after the arrests in Lodi, El-Nakhal told the Davis City Council to consider the arrests in Lodi as a reason to reaffirm the city's opposition to the Patriot Act.

During a meeting reported on by the Davis Enterprise newspaper, El-Nakhal said he had known Adil Khan for more than 20 years and believed him to be a respected leader. The CAIR president also said that Lodi's Muslim community was under siege.

El-Nakhal was also quoted as saying if he learned of someone who wanted to harm the country, he would be the first to report that person to the authorities.

And at a reception in May 2004 to welcome Elkarra as the CAIR's executive director, Mohammed Adil Khan read a recitation from the Quran. Elkarra said Adil Khan is well-known in the Sacramento-area for his spiritual and community work, and that El-Nakhal got to know him through interfaith projects.

"No one's going to know their past back in Pakistan," he said.Lodi News

It has come to light that the other man arrested for immigration violations, Shabbir Ahmed, had closer ties to the Hayat's who have been arrested on terror related charges.

On Tuesday, the lead FBI agent on the investigation into Ahmed and Khan testified that the two were working to set up a school in Lodi to further spread extremist Islamic thought. The agent, Gary Schaaf, also said the agency believes Khan and Ahmed had been part of an al-Qaida chain of command and had received information that Ahmed may have been planning a terrorist attack.

Khan, who has connections to CAIR, is suspected of being in the Al-Qaeda chain of command.

On the allegations that Daniel Pipes and Andrew Whitehead made about CAIR's ties to terrorists, Elkarra had this to say:

Elkarra said a few members of CAIR may have been convicted for terrorist connections, but with more than 100,000 members, it's hardly fair or accurate to try and create terror links for the whole group based on just a few people.

"We can't take account for every single member," he said.

Of course, Elkarra fails to point out that those five who were convicted and/or named as co-conspirators were also some of the founding directors and a spokeperson, not exactly rank and file members.

Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum. He is a frequent commentator on the Muslim world and the author of 12 books, four of which examine radical Islamic thought. He's written more than three dozen articles on CAIR and said studying the organization is one of his top priorities.

He contends two of CAIR's founders had connections to the group Hamas through the Islamic Association of Palestine, a Muslim charity reportedly founded by a member of Hamas.

"The grandchild of Hamas, a terrorist organization, CAIR by its nature and charter apologizes for Islamist terrorism," he said. "One striking result of this soft spot is that no less than five persons associated with CAIR have been convicted, listed as an unindicted co-conspirator, or deported on terrorism-related charges."

Read the full Lodi News article.

CAIR is increasingly under fire for it's lack of an outright denunciation of terror and as more details emerge, for its ties to terror groups.

For further information about CAIR see: Daniel Pipes and Anti-CAIR. The Anti-CAIR has a very good who's who in regards to the founding members and those who have been arrested, indicted, or deported.