Midwood residents also reported that federal agents were noticeable throughout the community for several days moving about in unmarked cars. The provocative cop presence caused concern and became the center of a discussion at a December 29 Rahmaddan service of 2,500 at the Makki Mosque. Khokhar and other community leaders called on residents to be vigilant.

On December 30, FBI agents and New York police orchestrated a massive operation that raided an apartment building here and led to the arrest of Abdel Ghani. The raid followed the December 14 arrest of Ahmed Ressam at the Canadian border near Seattle for allegedly bringing bomb materials into the United States. A criminal complaint accused Ghani of having "knowledge of a terrorist network of Algerian nationals" and of having a connection to Ressam.

Three others have been arrested since then on immigration charges while authorities attempt to link them to Ressam. Lucia Garofalo and an Algerian man were arrested December 19 in Vermont as they tried to enter the United States. On December 24, Abdelhakim Tizegha, another Algerian, was arrested in Bellvue, Washington, for an alleged illegal border crossing a week earlier.

The most recent arrest here occurred on January 1, when Abdelwahib Hamdouche was picked up at Kennedy International Airport. He is being held by authorities without charges.

A January 3 hearing for Hamdouche before Federal Magistrate Judge Michael Dolinger to hear the complaint was held in secret. The judge refused a request by the New York Times to open the hearing and gave no explanation. Currently there are about 20 people in the United States, almost all Arab, who are being held in jail without charges on secret "evidence" stemming from arrests in previous years, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

A worker who is Muslim in Midwood told the Militant that the most recent arrests have had a chilling effect on the immigrant community.

"New Yorkers should condemn this injustice," Khokhar said. "This is straight harassment. There is no proof presented. The people in the community feel this is a fabrication."

"The issue here is not just an individual alone, but how they make the whole Muslim community the criminal," Khokhar explained. "It is the classic evil way of the media, how the media characterizes a whole community. I'm against this and I am protesting to the governor and the mayor not to destroy our personal character."

Khokhar reported that this assault on the Muslim community is not new and is part of an ongoing campaign by New York authorities against Muslims. The community activist recalled past attacks on the Muslim community including the 1995 frame-up of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and nine others for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center under the seditious conspiracy statute. Rahman and the defendants were not convicted of a criminal act, but of "conspiring" to overthrow the US government. The case rested on false testimony by an informer who was paid $1 million by the FBI. Rahman is in prison serving a life sentence.

Khokhar stressed that the American people need to know what the U.S. government is doing to Muslim people around the world. "The media doesn't let people know the truth. The truth will come out by our efforts," he said.  
 
 
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