The imam says he doesn’t support the Islamic State, but “it might appear that way. I am an advocate of the United States and the West getting the hell out of the Middle East and the Muslim world.” As for the weapons accusations, he says: “It’s ridiculous. All I can say is it’s ridiculous. If this was the case, why haven’t they come to arrest me?”
In these days of the politically correct, willfully ignorant Obamoid FBI, who knows?
“It feels like McCarthyism,” the imam complains.
Do you really think law enforcement officials in September 2016 are persecuting innocent imams out of racism, bigotry, and “Islamophobia”?
“FBI probes Md. terror link in Detroit case,” by Robert Snell, The Detroit News, September 22, 2016:
Detroit — FBI agents are investigating an alleged conspiracy involving Detroit terror suspect Sebastian Gregerson and believe he was plotting violent jihad with a Maryland imam, The Detroit News has learned.
The conspiracy angle is revealed in more than 200 pages of sealed federal court records obtained by The News that offer new details about an FBI counterterrorism investigation spanning at least three states. The investigation emerged July 31 when Gregerson of Detroit was arrested in Monroe after allegedly buying fragmentation grenades from an undercover FBI agent and amassing an arsenal of weapons.
Maryland Imam Suleiman Bengharsa allegedly helped finance the arsenal, which included two AK-47s, handguns, seven rifles, a shotgun and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to the court records. It is unknown whether the imam was financing weapons purchases in other parts of the country.
“Based on the totality of the aforementioned information and evidence, there is reason to believe that Bengharsa and Gregerson are engaged in discussions and preparations for some violent act on behalf of (the Islamic State),” an FBI agent wrote in a Jan. 7 search warrant application.
The scope, targets and number of people involved in the investigation are unclear, but the case also involves Virginia.
Bengharsa, 59, of Clarksburg, Md., laughed away most of the FBI’s allegations, which he called “ridiculous,” and denied being an Islamic State supporter.
“No, no, no, that is absolutely untrue,” Bengharsa said during a phone interview with The News on Wednesday. “It might appear that way. I am an advocate of the United States and the West getting the hell out of the Middle East and the Muslim world.
“It’s ridiculous. All I can say is it’s ridiculous,” he added. “If this was the case, why haven’t they come to arrest me?”
Bengharsa, who also is known as Sheikh Suleiman Anwar, has not been charged with a crime during the ongoing investigation.
“It feels like McCarthyism,” Bengharsa said….