Smash hit

The latest trial of the “Virginia 11” led to a junior school teacher, Ali Asad Chandia, being convicted on June 6 for giving aid to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which is banned in both the US and Britain. A number of Scotland Yard officers and British intelligence agents gave evidence.

Like Khan, who worked as a teaching assistant in Leeds, Chandia, 29, was popular with parents and pupils, and his family deny he had any links with British extremists or trained at a camp in Pakistan.

Prosecutors described how Chandia had worked as a chauffeur for a London-based terrorism organiser, Mohammed Ajmal Khan, who was jailed for nine years in March in Britain after admitting shipping weapons to Pakistan.

Chandia was also described as the personal assistant to a charismatic young preacher in Falls Church, Ali al-Tamimi — a US-born biology graduate — who in January was sentenced to life plus 70 years, without parole, for encouraging his followers to go to Afghanistan to fight US-led coalition troops.

The National Security Agency is accused of bugging mosques and private homes where al-Tamimi preached, including the Dar al-Hijrah centre on the edge of Falls Church. This glass-fronted mosque acquired its notoriety in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when it was discovered that the imam, Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki, was the spiritual mentor to two of the hijackers.

The imam was never charged but moved to Yemen. His successor, Joharri Abdul Malik, says: “The community is disturbed by what previously happened here,” but believes many of the “Virginia 11” were jailed for “having big mouths”.

“They made inappropriate and irreponsible comments,” the imam said. “Some did go to training camps but none fired a shot in anger, and once they were in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan and saw what it was really like, they soon had a change of heart and came home. They are guilty of thought crimes.”

Imam Joharri is angered that the FBI did not approach community leaders to discuss concerns that extremists from Britain and elsewhere were trying to recruit youngsters from the area. “If the authorities knew this was going on, why weren’t we warned?” he asked.

He described how Ali al-Tamimi, frustrated at his failure to take control of the mosque, led a breakaway group of his followers to a trading estate on the opposite end of the city to set up the Dar alArqam Centre for Islamic Information. The building included the offices of two charities outlawed by the US as fronts for terrorism organisations.

After al-Tamimi’s conviction, what was left of his group abandoned the Dar al-Arqam centre, which no longer has any links with fundamentalist groups. FBI sources say they are unsure what has happened to some of his followers.

THE PROPOSALS

Among the measures suggested by the task force which have yet to be taken up:

• A public inquiry into 7/7 bombings
• Rapid rebuttal unit to combat Islamophobia
• National resource unit for development of curricula in mosques and madrassas, and guidelines for teachers
• Programmes to “upskill” current imams
• Muslim “beacon centres” to help small mosques and cultural centres
• Set up and fund network of Muslim safety forums to promote meaningful partnership between community and police
• Ministerial review of raids, stop and search and armed police activity
• Correct the “alien” image of Islam in the national curriculum

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