An Islamic scholar from Virginia was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges that in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks he urged a group of Muslim-American men to join a holy war against the United States by traveling to Afghanistan.
The charges against the scholar, Ali al-Timimi, 40, of Fairfax, Va., are a follow-up on the successful prosecution of the Washington-area men who identified him as their spiritual leader. These men became known as the "paintball terrorists" because they used paintball games in Virginia, prosecutors said, as training.
"While bodies were still being pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon," United States Attorney Paul J. McNulty said in a statement, "the defendant counseled young men to bear arms against the United States."
Mr. Timimi, who is known internationally for his lectures on Muslim religious topics, said in a telephone interview that the charges were unfounded and that in his lectures he had always urged nonviolence. His lawyer said he intended to turn himself in on Friday.