Muslim Mosques Seized In USA. By Adam Goldman. Edited By Uncle Monty.

Muslim Mosques Seized In USA.

By Adam Goldman, AP news writer.

Edited By Uncle Monty.

Caption Graphic By Alex Albion.
...
NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday

to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper

owned by a non-profit Muslim organization long suspected

of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

...
In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism

seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in

federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the

forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.
...
The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of

schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California

and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story

glass office tower in New York.
...
John D. Winter, the Alavi Foundation's lawyer, said it intends

to litigate the case and prevail. He said the foundation has been

cooperating with the government's investigation for the better

part of a year. "Obviously the foundation is disappointed that

the (U.S) government has decided to bring this action,"

Winter told The Associated Press.
...
It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize

a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First

Amendment right to freedom of religion. The action against the

Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the

U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fear-

ful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage,

blamed on a Muslim American major.

...
"Whatever the details of the government's case against the

owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are

concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could

have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all

faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims world-

wide," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on

American-Islamic Relations.

...
The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the

forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be

a long process. What will happen to them if the government

ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells

properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds

are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

...
"No action has been taken against any tenants or occupants of those

properties," U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Yusill Scribner said.

"The tenants and occupants remain free to use the properties as

they have before today's filing. There are no allegations of any

wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants."

...
Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office

tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a

front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions

in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli

has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support

for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States

to do business with the bank.
...
The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the

Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in

foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the

deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.
"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed

by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the

United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S.

Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. There were no raids

Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply

required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

...
As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic

centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity.

The mosques' leaders had no immediate comment. Parents

lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools

within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and

the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Md. No notices of

the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late

Thursday.

...

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school

in Queens, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the

bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the

window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After

they left a group of men came out of the building and took the

document. The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure

is in Carmichael, Calif.

The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the

1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The

tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.
The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650

million in 2007, has served as an important source of income

for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax

records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in

2007. Rents collected from the building help fund the centers

and other ventures, such as sending educational literature

to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The foundation has also

invested in dozens of mosques around the country and

supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

...
If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation

would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic

centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a

major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward

the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.

...
The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian

relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program

and its arrest of three American hikers. But Michael Rubin, an

expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the

timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an

effort to influence Iran on those issues. "Suspicion about the Alavi

Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's

taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's

not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."

...
Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in

which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship.

Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish

Congress, called such cases extremely rare.

...
The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi

Foundation, a non-profit group used by the shah to advance Iran's

charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda

changed after the fall of the shah. In 2007, the United States

accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and

ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of com-

panies whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed

sanctions against various other Iranian businesses.
___
Associated Press writers Samantha Gross in New York City,

Juan A. Lozano in Houston, investigative researcher Randy

Herschaft in New York City and AP photographer Jacquelyn

Martin in Maryland contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
http://www.alavifoundation.org/

...

Zionistgoldreport:

http://zionistgoldreport.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/zionist-war-rhetoric-usa-violates-separation-of-church-and-state-seize-and-banks-4-mosques-and/

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Previous stories on Iran By Uncle Monty:

Iran's Strange Foothold In UK

http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2009/10/irans-strange-foothold-in-uk-by-uncle.html

...

America's Iranophobia.

http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2008_04_27_archive.html

...
Islamic Jihad Fighter

{Click on any image to Enlarge}

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