“There is nothing illegal about having a picture.” Indeed. But speaking strictly for myself, I don’t hang pictures of people I detest in my home. Is not the presence of the picture evidence of admiration for a man whose view of Islam — we are all supposed to believe — is repudiated and despised by the vast majority of Muslims in America?
“Homes tied to charity searched,” by Paul Egan in The Detroit News (thanks to Dave):
Federal agents searched the homes of two men connected with an Islamic charity that was raided in Dearborn last month, records filed in federal court in Detroit show.
Donation boxes and money accounted for much of what was seized in the July 24 raids on the Goodwill Charitable Organization and Al-Mabarrat — two charities with suspected ties to Hezbollah.
Other items seized in the raids include a portrait of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, taken from the Dearborn Heights home of Mike Safiedine, who is listed on some records as the president of the Goodwill Charitable Organization
Agents shut down the Goodwill Charitable Organization on West Warren Avenue after the U.S. Treasury Department declared the charity a Hezbollah front earlier that day. Treasury has made no such declaration about Al-Mabarrat, and it remains open despite the raid.
Nobody has been arrested or charged in connection with either investigation. While the FBI has said the two raids were not necessarily linked, both Goodwill, which has no connection with Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, and Al-Mabarrat are described as supporting orphans in southern Lebanon.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit said in a recent court filing that supporting orphans is sometimes a euphemism for supporting the families of suicide bombers.
The other home the FBI searched was the Dearborn residence of Ahmad Ali Ghosn, 42. His connection to the Goodwill Charitable Organization was not clear Friday, but FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge William Kowalski said July 24 the warrants executed, other than those on the charities themselves, related to the investigation of Goodwill rather than Al-Mabarrat….
It’s not uncommon for Shia Muslims to have portraits in their homes of religious leaders such as Khomeini or other imams, said Imam Muhammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights.
“There is nothing illegal about having a picture,” he said.