Flagler Mosque, Miami
Lots of consternation among the members of the Flagler Mosque in Miami in the wake of a federal indictment and arrest Saturday of “poor, sickly” 76 year imam, Hafiz Muhammad Sher Ali Khan.
The Miami Herald report, “Imam’s arrest shocks mosque members,” provides the ‘shocking details.’
As dawn prayers were spoken just after 6 a.m. Saturday, FBI agents surrounded Miami’s oldest mosque, then banged on the door.
A man opened it. The agents were there with an arrest warrant.
The Muslim man explained that they were in prayer and could not be interrupted. He returned to praying. The agents, who had taken off their shoes before entering the mosque, waited quietly.
“No matter what kind of emergency, we do not break the prayer,’’ explained Shameem Akhtar, a mosque member who was there.
When the prayer was finished, agents arrested Hafiz Muhammad Sher Ali Khan, the 76-year-old imam of the Miami Mosque, more commonly known as Flagler Mosque. They charged that he and his family had funneled more than $50,000 to Pakistani terrorists over the past three years.
