Note that the pro-Taliban group has the court order. From the New York Times, :
Muslim factions at odds over involvement with the Taliban and terrorism squared off yesterday at a Queens mosque, where the issue divided the congregation after the Sept. 11 attacks.Armed with a court order and a phalanx of police officers, a group that had been ousted from the mosque in 2001 demanded entrance. The group, which recently won its case in State Supreme Court in Queens, said it was the true founder of the mosque, the Hazrat-I-Abubakr Sadiq in Flushing, and demanded the departure of the current imam, who charged after 9/11 that the group had been supporting the Taliban.
The group, the Afghan Turkistan Islamic Foundation in America, found neither the imam (who was sitting in a darkened kebab house a mile away) or entrance (the imam's supporters had locked the temple doors and offered no keys).
An uproar promptly broke out, as both factions crowded into the courtyard in front of the mosque, whose entrance bears the inscription, "Enter ye here in peace and security." Both sides shouted angrily at each other, and police officers stepped in to break up standoffs and physical struggles.
Supporters of the imam, Mohammed Sherzad, shouted that the incoming faction only wanted to use the temple, the largest Afghan mosque in the New York area, as an outpost for the Taliban to finance terrorist activities.
Foundation supporters responded that Imam Sherzad, whom they had originally hired as a spiritual leader, had abused his position and illegally seized ownership of the building, a smooth gray marble mosque on 33rd Avenue serving many of the roughly 20,000 Afghan immigrants in the New York area.
"Don't touch me, you bloody fool," shouted Syed Hassan, a supporter of the imam, as he engaged in a struggle with Kabir Yaqubie, a foundation board member.Several feet from the chaos, dozens of Afghans, from both factions, conducted their Friday prayers, kneeling on brown paper spread across the asphalt parking lot.
The acrimonious split has unsettled the thousands of Afghan immigrants who rely upon the mosque as their religious and social center.
The power struggle erupted when the imam accused the foundation of funneling money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan. In turn, foundation members accused Imam Sherzad of exceeding his role as a spiritual leader by supporting certain warlords fighting against the Taliban.
Maybe the Americans here, in our own yard, our country, not theirs, should make a road trip to this mosque, and throw a little back up to the anti-Taliban Muslims. It's apparent that they need the help.
Can one conclude that God's will is at work here?
Muslims that are anti-terrorist and anti-jihad? Can not be. Real question is, if some in the mosque knew others were supporting the taliban, why didn't the government know?
MILITANT MUSLIMS FIGHT TALIBAN IN AMERICA...WHAM,BAM, IT'S ISLAM...TALIBAN GETS SLAMMED BY AFGHANS...'Peaceful and tolerant religion,eh!'
The power struggle erupted when the imam accused the foundation of funneling money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan. In turn, foundation members accused Imam Sherzad of exceeding his role as a spiritual leader by supporting certain warlords fighting against the Taliban.
This isn't a good Muslim group thing against a Bad Muslim group..this is about controll of a mosque, who cares if the other Iman is peacefull it would still serve as some halfway house to smuggle, issue, and distribute harmul things to the US.
They cant be trusted.....period...the Police should have arrested them all and checked them out one by one and then deported the illegal ones...I'm sure there would have been many there.
Wow,it's a small world after all.
I grew up in the East end of Toronto Ontario Canada,it was at that time called East-York because of historical reference and name changes to YORK which became Toronto with surround Burroughs minus a South-York from Toronto being on
Lake Ontario.
During the time of the Taliban blowing up
religous objects that were un-Islamic,the Afghan
population in the new East-york had a small Pro-Taliban sect.They supported them based on the Quranic laws and Islamic morals,but also financially supported the regime(this while living in NorthAmerica) with a big smile.
Well guess what,9/11/01 comes along and then the
destruction of Terrorist camps in Afghanistan hit the news.Canadian soldier are heading for the war-zone and the Pro-Taliban shopkeepers in my old neighbourhood appear on the nightly news calling Canadians racists because their business has dropped and non-Muslims shop elsewhere.
Can you see the mindset were dealing with here,they don't get it.
For them to think Canadians will shop at a store
that sends money back to regimes that are trying to murder Canadian solders takes a really warpped
mind and moral bankruptcy.