September 20, 2006

FBI Raids Home of Islamic Leader in Missouri

The FBI declined to give a reason for the raid of Muslim leader Shakir Abdul-Kaf Hamoodi's Columbia, MO home on Monday, but I'm sure it's a perfectly good one. Hamoodi also worked for a Southfield, Michigan Muslim charity organization called Life for Relief and Development, which was also raided by federal agents on Monday. That so-called charity has several radical Islamist links.

Also note that another Columbia, MO-based Islamic charity, the Islamic American Relief Agency, or IARA, was raided by federal officials in October 2004. Here's more on the Hamoodi raid, from Associated Press:

 FBI agents searched the home of a prominent Islamic community leader and Iraq war critic, a bureau spokesman said, declining to reveal any reasons for the search.

A dozen agents searched the home of Shakir Abdul-Kaf Hamoodi and his wife on Monday, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said. Agents removed boxes and computer equipment throughout the day, neighbors said.

The search warrant has been sealed, and Lanza would not comment on what the agents were looking for.

Federal agents on Monday also raided the offices of a Southfield, Mich., Muslim charity organization, Life for Relief and Development, where Hamoodi has worked.

In that raid, the warrants were based on a criminal assertion, but the affidavits were sealed, William Kowalski, an assistant special agent in the FBI's Detroit office, told the Detroit Free Press.

The Michigan charity's head of legal services, Ihsan Alkhatib, said the agents are investigating whether the charity conducted business in Iraq before the 2003 war in violation of legal sanctions against the country.

Alkhatib said the organization "did everything by the book."

Sure he did. You have to love how AP started the piece, making it clear in the very first sentence that Hamoodi is "a prominent Islamic community leader and Iraq war critic." By sharing the fact that Hamoodi is an "Iraq war critic," AP not so subtly implies that is the reason he was targeted.

Later in the the piece comes this doozy: Hamoodi, who grew up in Iraq but has lived in Columbia for 21 years, has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war and recently had his home defaced with graffiti.

Again, there’s mention of the Iraq war criticism. And the graffiti means he is obviously the target of an anti-Muslim plot, right AP? It must, because the article closes with this:

The search came three days after bureau officials met with Muslims at a local mosque to try to improve community relations.

How dare they! Doesn't the FBI know that raiding the homes of suspected Islamic radicals--perhaps preventing future terrorist attacks on U.S. soil--harms community relations? For more on AP's consistently skewed coverage of the war on radical Islam, see this excellent piece by Michelle Malkin.

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