http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=569990 <http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=569990&category=FRONTPG&; BCCode=HOME&newsdate=3/8/2007> &category=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=3/8/2007 Terror case shakes mosque Convictions in FBI sting leave Albany Muslims without popular imam ALBANY -- Whatever you think about the terror trial that culminates with today's sentencing, consider for a minute its impact on the life of one 9-year-old boy. Ahmed Yasin once devoted weekends to studying Arabic and the Quran with Imam Yassin Aref. Now, with no regular teacher, he is forgetting skills that were the pride of his Sudanese family. The boy once prayed and read every day. Now, with his mentor in jail, he prays far less and hardly reads at all. These changes in one boy's life are a small example of the larger void that remains at the heart of Aref's Central Avenue mosque, three years after the raid that placed it under an international spotlight. Aref and another mosque member, Mohammed Hossain, will be sentenced in federal court today following an FBI sting that led to their conviction this summer of money laundering and conspiring to aid terrorism. Their mosque, Masjid As-Salam, has not replaced Aref. "We want to teach him, but I don't know what the imam did for him," said Ahmed's 34-year-old mother, Safa Hassan. "We don't know how to do the same things he did." The 36-year-old Kurdish imam moved to Albany in 1999 under a U.N. refugee program. The things he did for Masjid As-Salam gradually came to touch on every aspect of a storefront faith community with limited resources and a largely poor, immigrant population. He led prayers. Taught children and adults. Resolved disputes among mosque members. Fed them. Counseled them. Married them. Though it will be Aref and Hossain in court today, the investigation that ensnared them has spread fear throughout an Albany mosque whose attendance during Friday prayer climbs to as high as 300, with people from throughout the Middle East and countries like Ghana, Morocco and Mali. They fear the FBI is watching them, too. They shun vigils held to support Aref and Hossain for fear of attracting the government's attention. They fear somehow winding up in an FBI file could harm their chances of citizenship. "They are feeling depressed, demoralized and helpless," said Shamshad Ahmad, 58, a University at Albany physics professor who is president of the mosque. The mosque is not home to many elites. Professionals tend to attend the Islamic Center of the Capital District in Colonie, Ahmad said. At Masjid As-Salam, which means House of Peace, you're more likely to find cab drivers, shopkeepers, hotel workers, and restaurant employees. Their mosque is a former used appliance shop, tucked between a discount store and an ethnic market. It's an improvement over their previous mosque, a one-bedroom apartment across from the Albany Public Library. Founders bought the building for $40,000. Aref earned $1,500 a month and sometimes moonlighted delivering pizzas or driving an ambulette. Busted doors are the remaining physical scars of the raid. The main worship area, a low-ceilinged room carpeted in green, hasn't changed. The only person there one afternoon this week was a young man resting against the wall, just as Aref sometimes did. When they talk about Aref nowadays, it generally isn't about the arrest, or lack of a permanent prayer leader, or lack of classes. It's about little things they remember, like post-prayer meals of white bean soup and rice and a yogurt drink that tasted like buttermilk. Or the meal where Aref heaped food on everyone's plates but skimped when he came to a heavyset "brother," as Aref's friend Rashid Abdulhaqq Hamzah, 57, a writer and retired nurse, told the story. "Brother," Aref said, "You need to lose weight anyway." The mosque's president wants to hire a part-time replacement for the volunteers who have taken on some of Aref's duties. That isn't so easy. They don't have much money. There aren't many qualified people. It's tougher for qualified people from oversees to come here nowadays. And then there's the stigma. "Because of the sensation of this case," Ahmad said, "not many people will be interested to become imam of this mosque." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. 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