Tex Mecca
Ever since a worshiper at Arlington’s Center Street mosque was linked to terrorist Osama bin Laden, its neighbors have cast a wary eye at the city’s growing Islamic community—and Muslims have wrestled with whether and how to embrace American culture.
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Federal prosecutors paint an entirely different picture. Members of the Dallas terrorism task force questioned el Hage when he moved to Arlington and again, after the embassy bombings. When the FBI summoned him to New York for further questioning, he denied knowing bin Laden’s inner circle and was charged with perjury. Days later he was also charged with conspiring to kill United States nationals. In a rare interview with Time, bin Laden subsequently appeared to take responsibility for the bombings. “Hostility toward America is a religious duty, and we hope to be rewarded for it by God,” he told the magazine. “I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America.” But the Saudi billionaire said el Hage was not involved in the attacks. Patrick Fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor, argued otherwise: In a New York federal court he suggested that bin Laden considered el Hage a particularly valuable aide. By coordinating the businessman’s legitimate operations, el Hage supposedly helped finance his illegitimate activities. “In short, Your Honor,” Fitzgerald told the judge, “Mr. el Hage has served as a front man for the bin Laden organization for years.”
Non-Muslim Arlington was stunned to learn that it had been harboring a figure now viewed as a terrorist. “It’s hard to believe that someone from here was involved in something of such magnitude halfway around the world,” marveled Tom Vandergriff. “It’s just another reminder that people from all over the world have seen fit to join us. We have to accept the fact that they have brought all kinds of philosophies and sentiments into the community. It’s impossible to categorize us as purely a little corner of Texas anymore.”
Among his fellow worshipers, el Hage’s arrest caused consternation of a different kind. Many worried he would not receive a fair trial. They also fretted about his family. (In a letter to Imam Al-Hallak, which the imam read aloud one Friday, el Hage told the congregation not to worry about him—that he would use the time to memorize the Qur’an. But he asked that the congregation pray for his wife and their seven children, who are all below the age of thirteen.) Other Muslims also feared they would be confused with el Hage—that the rest of Arlington might mistake them all for terrorists. Many have run into this type of blanket suspicion before. After the Oklahoma City bombing, when the immediate speculation was that Muslims were responsible, the Center Street mosque received so many threats of retaliatory violence that its leaders had to cancel all services over the weekend.
Confused, insulted, and afraid, Arlington’s Muslims sought cover from the frenzy of attention. Unfortunately, some outsiders assumed from this silence that the Muslim community condoned the bombings. In fact, I found the opposite to be true. When we met, Osama Al-Assad (the man who averted his eyes from me) pointed out that terrorist acts are forbidden by the Qur’an, which prohibits the killing of women, children, or the elderly under any circumstances, even in war. Many Muslims explained that the word “Islam” means “peace.” “We share the same stories,” Ambassador Ahsani had said. “We share the same Abrahamic tradition. Give this message to America: We are children of the same prophets. From 5:32 Qur’an: To kill one man, you kill all of mankind.”
Imam Al-Hallak also condemned acts of terrorism. “I am absolutely against all forms of violence, whether it is from Muslims or non-Muslims, from governments or individuals,” he told me. “I don’t think this is the answer to any of our problems. It is a matter of conviction for me; it is not a matter of opinion. Killing the innocent is prohibited in Islam.”
CENTER STREET WAS THE FIRST OF arlington’s mosques to be built, and from the beginning, its worshipers have been embroiled in arguments over how open to be, how engaged to be, and what defines a good Muslim. As the mosque’s congregation grew, Imam Al-Hallak started a small school beside the place of worship. He has ambitious plans to quadruple the size of the school and to start an institution that would teach Arabic, essential to the study of the Qur’an. As the rest of the Muslim community has become more mainstream, however, the Center Street mosque has become more isolated. Other Muslims talk about finding the mosque too extreme or too rigid in its interpretations of Islam. Ten years ago, Imam Al-Hallak also alienated some members of the Muslim community by his vocal support of the war in Afghanistan, where Islamic mujahedin were battling Soviet troops. Imam Al-Hallak deemed the conßict a jihad. Muslims use the Arabic word, which simply means “struggle,” in everyday conversations, usually in the sense of struggling to lead a moral life. But the word also means “holy war.”
Sometimes differences of opinion have caused worshipers to leave Center Street. Years ago, Hasan-Ali, the Palestinian activist, helped build Center Street, but after a while he started attending Dar El Salaam in north Arlington as well because that mosque is more tolerant of political activity. The two mosques maintain a friendly but wary relationship, like brothers who don’t see eye-to-eye on an essential family matter. Last November, however, Hasan-Ali was elected to an important committee of Center Street after a friend persuaded him to run. So were other rebels. Ambassador Ahsani, who had favored greater engagement with the rest of the world, sent me the following e-mail: “In the Executive Committee—which carries out day-to-day activities of the mosque—about half are ‘agents for change.’ It is hoped there will be more social, economic, and political activities around the first mosque in Arlington.”
Before Center Street could throw its doors open to the world, however, the world did something that appeared likely to drive the mosque’s members back into seclusion. In a February bail hearing el Hage complained of conditions at his Manhattan jail, where he is being held under a special law that prohibits contact with anyone to prevent future acts of terrorism. He asked to be allowed to call Imam Al-Hallak, but prosecutors opposed his request. “Moataz Al-Hallak has served as a contact between members of the bin Laden organization,” Fitzgerald told the court. The following week, the Morning News ran its front-page article about Imam Al-Hallak. A banner headline on the continuation page read, “Muslim leader linked to terrorist in FBI files.” The link to bin Laden: Imam Al-Hallak’s name and telephone number were on a computerized mailing list of the Alkifah Refugee Center. The imam chose not to talk to the paper, so the charge went unrebutted. It had been difficult enough for the Metroplex to accept criminal allegations against one member of the Center Street congregation; the idea that the mosque’s spiritual leader might also be involved was too much for many Muslims to accept. Other Muslim leaders immediately attempted to broker a meeting with the beleaguered imam. Seeking to preserve their good image, they wanted to issue a statement condemning or defending the orthodox cleric; Imam Al-Hallak felt under siege and refused to meet with them. The group issued no statement. In the uneasy calm that followed, leaders wondered: Were they sheltering a bad man? Or had they narrowly avoiding destroying one of their own?
Subsequently, Kavakci, the imam of the inßuential Richardson mosque, did talk to Imam Al-Hallak. He urged the troubled leader to seek legal counsel and then speak out publicly. By March the imam had found a lawyer, Stanley L. Cohen, who fired off a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office denouncing “ . . . a recent public attack upon my client’s reputation by various unnamed federal officials who, by smoke and mirrors, have attempted to connect him to the alleged misdeeds of Osama bin Laden.” Later Cohen arranged for me to meet the imam. I found him to be a proud man. He seemed insulted by all the scrutiny and inclined to think he should not have to explain himself; he was deigning to do so at the urgings of others. He denied abetting bin Laden in any way. “It is not true at all,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know this person, I have never met him, I have never spoke to him, I have never received any message from him through a third party.” As far as acting as a conduit between bin Laden operatives, Imam Al-Hallak said: “Never. The only person that I know is Wadih.”
Imam Al-Hallak conceded that he was familiar with the Alkifah Refugee Center but asserted that such familiarity was not unusual. “We used to receive the literature from them, as did every masjid in the United States,” he told me (using the Islamic word for “mosque”). “My understanding is that it was a legitimate charity organization. I don’t know anything, if this is true, about its being connected to Osama bin Laden. All charity organizations have mailing lists, so I don’t think this means anything at all.
“I’ve been living in this area for probably twelve, fifteen years,” he added, “and my message is very clear. Hundreds of people know this message. They know what kind of masjid I give the people. I say that our goal here is to set an example, to provide the American people with a model, so that they will know that every Muslim is an honest, straightforward, loving, caring person.”
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