Sometimes-Hostile Scrutiny Difficult for San Diego’s Muslim Community

Diverse and well-dispersed, Muslims here have moved deliberately through the years to cement their place in the community, not only with bricks and mortar but with involvement in civic affairs.

Today, however, they are finding themselves, and their symbols of cultural and religious belonging, singled out for scrutiny as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a continent away.

San Diego’s Islamic community has became a focal point in the hunt for clues about the international conspiracy because key players operated seamlessly here possibly longer than anywhere else in the country.

Three of the suspected terrorists found cover among San Diego’s mosques and scattered Middle Eastern enclaves and may have lived here off and on for as long as two years.

Moreover, two of the hijackers and as many as four others being detained as material witnesses in the probe all resided at various times at the home of one of the key symbols of Islamic integration in the city--Abdussattar Shaikh. The retired college professor, who authorities have said is not a suspect, serves on the San Diego Citizens Review Board on Police Practices and co-founded the San Diego Islamic Center.

For weeks, hundreds of FBI agents from San Diego, Los Angeles and other offices have crisscrossed the Islamic community, seeking to retrace the movements of hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar and Hani Hanjour.

During that time, at least five Middle Eastern men have been taken into custody as material witnesses--including one picked up by FBI agents in his apartment in La Mesa.

The community also has become the target of random acts of rage. The Islamic Center has been vandalized at least twice, first with paint balls and later with a cherry bomb.

San Diego Councilwoman Donna Frye said the vandalism and heightened scrutiny have been difficult for many in the Muslim community because they are loyal Americans. “These are good families,” said Frye, whose district includes the Islamic Center.

Leading Muslims have taken heart in such expressions of support. Nonetheless, community leaders said they also are concerned about what they view as civil rights violations in the fast-moving investigation.

“Many Muslims come to America with big hopes, they came here for freedom,” said Imam Sharif M. Battikhi, president of the city’s Islamic Services Foundation. “But when you treat them like they are living in a police state, it reminds them of the countries they left for freedom in America.”

Fast-Growing Community

San Diego’s Muslim community is relatively new but has grown fast.

The first large wave from the Middle East began arriving from Iran in the early 1970s. Like others who have moved to the state’s second-largest city, they were attracted in part by the beaches, temperate climate and multiethnic mix of people.

Today, as many as 100,000 Muslims are estimated to live in San Diego County. They range from doctors and scientists from India and Saudi Arabia to recent arrivals from Yemen and Somalia who work in the service industry.

The county boasts 14 mosques. The biggest is the 27,000-square-foot whitewashed Islamic Center in the middle-class Clairemont neighborhood. Smaller mosques are located in towns such as Lakeside and on gritty 50th Street in San Diego, an urban neighborhood where many recently arrived Somalian refugees live.

A community that has sought to fit in, San Diego’s Muslims are concerned that they are now sticking out and viewed by many with suspicion. These perceptions have been heightened, community leaders said, as a result of FBI agents showing up at people’s workplaces.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Bill Gore, chief of the San Diego office, said his investigators face a difficult task balancing the concerns of the Muslim community with the need to move quickly to follow more than 3,000 leads.

“My agents have been instructed to act with sensitivity,” he said, “but we also have a job to do.”

Agents have visited mosques, homes and businesses across the county. They also have pored over student records of the San Diego Community College District and interviewed instructors at a flight school where Alhazmi and Almihdhar took introductory lessons.

As FBI agents fan out, they have been met with a mix of cooperation and confrontation.

One of those who clashed with investigators was Chula Vista resident Ibrahim Nasser, 35, a native of Lebanon.

He said agents visited his house several times when he was not there. So he voluntarily met agents twice without a lawyer. Nasser said he agreed to four polygraph tests and was accused of being a terrorist.

“They kept telling me over and over again that I was lying,” recalled Nasser, who said his temper finally got the best of him. “I told them, ‘How would you like it for someone to come to your house over and over.’ ”

The FBI’s Gore counters that Nasser, who was not arrested, crossed the line. “He made a remark insinuating he knew where the agent lived, which was taken as a threat and not well-received,” Gore said.

Among those most cooperative in the probe has been the man most publicly entangled--Shaikh. The retired English educator invited FBI agents to his home and has since been interviewed for more than 15 hours.

Shaikh rented a room at his two-story Lemon Grove residence to two of the alleged hijackers--Almihdhar and Alhazmi--in late 2000. Both men are suspected of forming the nucleus of a San Diego cell that crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

Since the attacks, Shaikh’s home, in a rural community east of San Diego, has become a hub of investigative activity and news media stakeouts.

Shaikh, born in India, has said he had no inkling of the hijackers’ plans and had “nothing to hide.” He said his mission in life has been to help Middle Easterners and other members of the Islamic community to assimilate.

For years, Shaikh’s residence has been a home away from home for young Middle Eastern men. Shaikh, whose shelves are filled with books and pamphlets on Islam, took a particular liking to Alhazmi. Shaikh bought his boarder a leather jacket, which Alhazmi exchanged for one he liked better.

Now that he knows what their plans were, Shaikh believes they made a mockery of the religion they claimed to follow.

“These people have done everything that goes against Islam’s teachings,” Shaikh said. “Islam values life and teaches that you cannot kill innocent persons or even commit suicide.”

Shaikh’s supporters see him as a secondary victim of the hijackers.

“He was giving to these men--much like the Christian sense of charity--who took advantage of his generosity,” said Ron Lanoue, executive director of the San Diego chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice, an ecumenical organization.

Four of the material witnesses taken into custody in Southern California lived at Shaikh’s house at various times in the past several years. One, Omer Bakarbashat, allegedly provided financial assistance to Alhazmi and Almihdhar and showed them how to use a computer, federal investigators said.

In a curious development last week, Shaikh and members of his family were added to an FBI list of people investigators want to prevent from leaving the country.

Gore declined comment on why the family was on the list. “We have been in contact with Dr. Shaikh, and at this time he is not a suspect,” Gore said.

Hijackers’ Movements

Given that Alhazmi and Almihdhar blended in so easily, authorities are trying to determine whether additional conspirators may be operating in San Diego. They also are investigating reports that other suspected hijackers were in the area before last month’s attacks.

For example, several witnesses have told the FBI they saw hijacker Mohamed Atta, who is suspected of traveling across the U.S. and overseas while coordinating preparations for the attacks, in San Diego last year.

Mystery also surrounds the San Diego movements of hijacker Hanjour, who investigators believe piloted the airliner into the Pentagon.

Earlier this year, a man believed to be Hanjour showed up at the San Diego Zoo with a briefcase containing cash and documents in Arabic. The case, apparently misplaced, was taken to the lost and found, according to officials at the zoo and FBI.

A document identifying the apparent owner was found inside and a zoo official used the public address system to reunite the owner with the case.

A zoo security officer later told the FBI that she thought the man’s name could have been Hani Hanjour. She identified a photo of Hanjour, shown to her by the FBI, as the man who picked up the case.

Was he meeting a courier?

The search for answers appears far from over, meaning the investigation in San Diego and the spotlight on the city’s Islamic community is not likely to let up soon.