By: Sharon Aron Baron
A small rally was held near the Coral Springs Marriott Hotel on Saturday to protest a religious leader in town who was connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — but was never charged.
Led by Joe Kaufman of the Security Initiative, Candidate for Congress Laura Loomer, and Deepak Ganju, Director of the Kashmir Hindu Foundation, charge that Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was set to be a keynote speaker at the ICNA Relief South Florida Banquet, had no business being in South Florida.
Hosted by the Islamic Circle of North America, or ICNA, ICNA Relief strives to uplift the underserved, such as refugees living in the United States, through a nationwide network of women and family shelters, Muslim family services, food pantries, health clinics, skill development programs, and disaster relief services.
Wahhaj, who leads Masjid At-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, was included on a list of alleged “co-conspirators” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press. He also testified as a character witness for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a cleric convicted of conspiring to carry out the bombing, as well as plotting other terror attacks in the United States. He has denied any involvement.
Born Jeffrey Kearse, Siraj Wahhaj is an African-American Imam of Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York, and the leader of The Muslim Alliance in North America. He was also the former vice president of the Islamic Society of North America.
Kaufman said Wihhaj had never been convicted, but in 1995, he was on the list of unindicted co-conspirators dealing with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center when, during this time, various mosques throughout New York were affiliated with Al Qaeda. Wahhaj’s mosques are one of them.
“So he became very close with the alleged bomb-maker of the attackā¦ and the spiritual leader of the attack.”
Author Profile
Related