Publication Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Lodi investigation comes to East Palo Alto
Lodi investigation comes to East Palo Alto
(June 15, 2005) Director of center for Islamic education, formerly located in East Palo Alto, questioned by FBI in Lodi terrorism probe
by Bill D'Agostino
A 47-year-old East Palo Alto truck driver received a shock when three FBI agents knocked on his door last Tuesday.
"When they walked in, I said, 'Wow,'" said Mohammed Hakik, the president of the Lodi Farooqia Islamic Center, which is tangentially related to a federal investigation into some Lodi Islamic community members' connections to al-Qaida training camps.
Sitting on a couch in his modest home while wearing a white San Francisco 49ers hat, Hakik recalled denying that the center had any terrorist ties. During the interview, he was driven to Oakland to take a lie detector test. He said he was uncomfortable but cooperative.
"FBI has the right to investigate for the security of this country," he said in his faltering English. "Everything I know, I tell them."
Hakik, a native Fijian who moved to America in 1984, said the agents asked him about the history of the center and especially about his relationship with Mohammad Adil Khan, the center's primary fund raiser.
The Sunday prior, during an urgent phone call, Khan told Hakik that the FBI was interrogating him and promised to call back. He never did.
Khan, a Pakistani native, was detained the next day, Monday, June 6, for allegedly violating the terms of his visa. Khan's son, Muhammad Hassan Adil Khan, and another center administrator, Shabbir Ahmed, was detained on the same charge.
A day earlier, two other leaders in the Lodi Islamic community -- Hamid Hayat and Umer Hayat -- were arrested for lying to federal investigators. In an affidavit, FBI agents also reportedly accused them of training with al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan.
The connection between the various Lodi men is unclear.
On Monday, Khan's attorney, Saad Ahmad, released a statement denying any connection. He also criticized the FBI for creating that insinuation with the timing of the detentions, and then not denying it in press conferences.
"Mr. Khan, Mr. Hassan Khan, and Mr. Ahmed have not now, nor have they ever been, charged with any criminal violations, including any terrorist or conspiratorial activity," Ahmad pointed out.
Although becoming apart of the investigation rattled Hakik, he attributed the FBI's attention to a rift between his center and the Lodi mosque, saying local Pakistanis wanted the Fijians off the center's board. An FBI spokesperson has reportedly denied that tension is what sparked their interest.
The Farooqia Islamic Center was dreamed up in the 1990s as a way to educate children about Islam without having to send them to Pakistan, according to Hakik, himself the father of five kids. (He was divorced from his wife in 2003, according to San Mateo County court documents.)
The center began in East Palo Alto but moved to Lodi a few years ago due to the cheaper land prices, Hakik said. Its leaders purchased an 18-acre parcel for $420,0000 in 2002.
Khan is the main fund raiser for the center's proposed school and mosque, according to Gary Nelson, Khan's civil attorney. The Lodi Planning Commission had been scheduled to weigh approving that development this week, but that would likely to be delayed due to the FBI probe.
Nelson said he was surprised his client was being detained. "I was under the impression that he had a valid visa or at least an extension on it," he said.
The three agents asked Hakik if he heard any inflammatory speeches from Khan. Hakik denied it, saying Khan only quoted from the Quran and discussed the life of the prophet Mohammed when he spoke.
Hakik refused to be photographed by the media, although he did not mind getting videotaped for a TV news crew that also visited him last week. Photographs are forever, he said, but video "comes and goes."
"You're not a terrorist?" KRON reporter Rob Fladeboe asked as they stood outside Hakik's home.
"No, no way," Hakik responded, seeming to grow weary of the media attention.
An FBI spokesperson said she could not say why Hakik was interrogated, and would not say whether the center itself was under investigation or just Khan. "We're trying to make sure we do a very thorough investigation," media representative Marcie Soligo said.
Staff Writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com.
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