By Mark Ellis, Special to ASSIST News Service
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - July 22, 2015)
-- A moderate imam who warned more than 10 years ago about a radical
change at two controversial Boston mosques says he was forced out of
leadership because of his concerns. His replacement is a man with links
to the Pakistani terror group that planned the 2008 Mumbai bombings,
according to a report by Fox News.
Imam Talal Eid said growing
extremism put him at odds with the board of the Islamic Center of New
England in the late ‘90s. He served there from 1982 until 2005.
But when Eid resisted the shift
toward extremism, he began to fear for his safety and eventually was
driven from his position by Dr. Abdul-badi Abousamra, at the time a
prominent endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, according
to Fox News.
“At times, I was fearful for my
safety,” Eid told Fox. Eid now runs a mosque in Toledo, Ohio. “When I
would stand up for what I believed in, and there was a clash, you see
how I could be scared.”
“I was pushing for one thing, and the board was pushing for something else, and I was alone facing them.”
Dr. Abousamra moved to Doha and
could not be reached for comment by Fox. He was one of the Boston
Muslim community’s most prominent figures in the late ‘90s. He was also
vice president of the Muslim American Society of Boston, which ran the
Islamic Society of Boston, a Cambridge mosque that shared many members
with those run by the Islamic Center of New England.
All three mosques have ties to
several known terrorists, including the Tsarnaev brothers, who planned
the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Aafia Siddiqui, aka “Lady Al Qaeda,”
the Pakistani woman and Usama bin Laden associate now in prison; and,
Usaama Rahim, the 26-year-old man killed by police last month after
wielding a knife and allegedly plotting to behead Boston cops, according
to Fox News.
Even as Dr. Abousamra exercised
a radical influence on the mosques he helped run, law enforcement
authorities say the doctor’s son was training in Middle Eastern terror
camps, aiding Al Qaeda and plotting attacks on U.S. soil.
About the writer: Mark Ellis is a senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com,
a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church
around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.
** You may republish this and any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
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