LOS ANGELES - The Islamic Center of Irvine in Southern California is a beige stucco building that blends seamlessly into the rows of office buildings surrounding it. But last week, it became the most publicized mosque in California with disclosures that the FBI sent an informant there to spy and collect evidence of jihadist rhetoric and other allegedly extremist acts by an Orange County man who attended prayers there.
The revelations dismayed mosque members, including Omar Turbi, 50, and his 27-year-old son who shares his name. After the Friday prayer service, while hundreds of others scurried back to work, the pair stood with their backs to a wall and mulled over the news. "It gives you a little bit of apprehension about who you trust," said the father. "Makes you think twice about what you say. What if people misunderstand you?"
Turbi's fears were echoed by other Muslims. Some say a climate of suspicion toward them, fueled by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and underscored by the latest disclosures of FBI surveillance, is inhibiting their free practice of speech and faith.
According to Muslim leaders, some people are avoiding mosques, preferring to pray at home. Others are reducing donations so as not to attract government attention or paying in cash to avoid leaving records. And some mosques have asked speakers to refrain from political messages in their sermons, such as criticism of U.S. foreign policy, according to Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Anaheim, Calif.
Some avoiding mosques
"Some average Muslims interested only in praying are avoiding mosques for fear of somehow being monitored or profiled," Ayloush said. "Everybody is afraid, and it is leading to an infringement of the free practice of our religion."
The latest anxiety wave was triggered by an FBI agent's testimony last week that the agency sent an informant into several Orange County mosques and helped collect evidence against naturalized U.S. citizen Ahmadullah Sais Niazi. The Afghanistan-born Niazi, 34, a brother-in-law of a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, is scheduled for arraignment today on charges of perjury, naturalization fraud and other acts related to lying about ties to Al-Qaida.
A man claiming to be that informant, Irvine resident Craig Monteilh, said in interviews and court documents that he served the FBI as a paid informant from July 2006 to October 2007 and used concealed audio and video equipment to record thousands of hours of conversations with Muslims in homes, restaurants and mosques throughout the county. Monteilh said Niazi talked about blowing up buildings and discussed sending Monteilh to a terrorist training camp in Yemen or Pakistan.
Monteilh said his tenure as an informant ended after Niazi and other members of the Islamic Center of Irvine reported him to authorities.
Despite the critical reaction of Muslims, former FBI agents and federal prosecutors said spying on houses of worship where there is specific information about criminal activity by a member or members is still one of the government's best weapons to thwart terrorists.
'What the American people want'
"What matters to the FBI is preventing a massive attack that might be planned by some people ... using the mosque or church as a shield because they believe they're safe there," said Robert Blitzer, the FBI's former counterterrorism chief.
"That is what the American people want the FBI to do," he said.
Ayloush and other Muslim leaders alleged that FBI scrutiny of the Muslim community -- and efforts to recruit informants -- began years ago.
And Ayloush and Shakeel Syed of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella organization of 68 area mosques, said numerous Muslims have reported to them attempts by the FBI to recruit them as informers. In virtually all cases, they said, the Muslims in question had immigration problems and other legal infractions or were applying for green cards. "We will make your problems vanish if you cooperate," Syed said the FBI told Muslims.
A spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles bureau, Lourdes Arocho, had no comment.
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