Still taken from CNN news footage of the Garland, Texas attack.
The two gunmen killed last week while attacking a ‘draw Mohammed’ competition in Texas attended the same Arizona Mosque where others have been involved with terrorism cases in the past.
Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson attended the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix for several years.
The mosque has long had an FBI presence with the knowledge and cooperation of the mosque’s Imam Usama Shami, who told reporters the FBI has his number.
He told the FBI “the mosque is the first line of defense, not the breeding ground or recruitment center.”
Yet in the past, the mosque has been connected to terrorism cases.
In 2008, an Islamic Community Center of Phoenix attendee, Hasan Abu Jihaad, was arrested for communicating with a London-based jihadist website. He was convicted of unlawfully communicating national defense information and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
Other cases have taken place in Phoenix. In 2008, one Akram Musa Abdullah was arrested for raising money for the Holy Land Foundation. He entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to 18 months.
The Holy Land Foundation was a Muslim charity, which was shut down after it was found to be a front for funding Hamas in the largest terrorism financing trial in American history.
