His son, branded a terror suspect and the subject of a
worldwide FBI search, has disappeared. Now a respected Islamic holy man's
position at a Miramar mosque is gone, too.
"They fired me," Gulshair El'Shukri-Jumah said Tuesday. "I can't
sleep at night anymore."
Mosque leaders say they do not suspect El'Shukri-Jumah, 73, of terrorism. But
they say their community is nervous about publicity over federal investigators
accusing his 27-year-old son, Adnan El'Shukri-Jumah of possibly coordinating
al-Qaida's next attack against America.
"In light of what happened he was asked to step down," said board
member Abzal Hosein. "We want to let people know at no time we have any
affiliation with terrorists."
As Gulshair El'Shukri-Jumah nervously awaited a follow-up meeting with mosque
directors Tuesday, he retraced elements of his religious career, which included
20 years of missionary work for the Saudi government. In 1995 he retired after
10 years leading a Brooklyn mosque where at least one suspect from the first
World Trade Center bombing in 1993 prayed.
El'Shukri-Jumah said he testified in a trial in which Abdul Rasheed was
convicted of plotting to blow up the United Nations and the Holland Tunnel.
El'Shukri-Jumah said he understood that Rasheed, prosecuted under his legal
name of Clement Hampton-El, had fought in Afghanistan to "help his
brothers, the Muslims."
"He was prepared to give his life for that, and that does not mean he was
involved in any acts of terror," El'Shukri-Jumah said. "But I do not
know."
When he retired, El'Shukri-Jumah sent for his wife and six children in Saudi
Arabia and moved to Florida.
On Fridays, 50 to 100 people congregate at the small Al Hijrah mosque on SW
27th St. in Miramar, but the simple white building was empty most of Tuesday.
Mosque leaders said they would continue to extend a small stipend and charity
to the family.
The shaykh, as the elder El'Shukri-Jumah is addressed, said he did not resist
the request of two board members that he step down.
"I said my religion teaches peace and I would like to live in peace,"
he said.
Throughout South Florida, Muslims who have prayed with, studied with and
listened to the shaykh echoed the sentiment that the highly respected religious
scholar disseminates a peaceful message.
"He teaches peace. My kids were going to him as a religion teacher,"
said Bashir Ahmed, owner of Miami Tandoor Restaurant in Pembroke Pines.
"He talks about peace and brotherhood. He never talks about
politics."
But Ahmed and others said they could not be so certain about the shaykh's son.
The FBI has said that during a meeting at the Miramar mosque that a young
convicted terror plotter, Imran Mandhai, tried to recruit Adnan El'Shukri-Jumah
to a scheme to induce anarchy by blowing up a Florida power plant. Federal
authorities said El'Shukri-Jumah refused, guessing correctly that he was being
monitored by an FBI informant trailing Mandhai.
Gulshair El'Shukri-Jumah said he does not think the meeting took place at the
mosque, but Hosein said FBI investigators must know what they are talking
about.
Adnan El'Shukri-Jumah's family insists that the young man who left for Trinidad
to pursue the import-export business in May 2001 is not affiliated with
terrorists. They say that he wanted to help his financially strapped father and
that he would never want to harm a country where his family lives.
"America is a great country. People is very nice and open-minded. And you
got a lot of opportunity here," said Yemeni native Zuhrah Abdu Ahmed, the
young man's mother. "Only if you stupid and you don't appreciate it you
cannot know how to live a good life."
Since the FBI announced it was hunting for the younger El'Shukri-Jumah, the
family's Master Arabic Web site, where people can order material to learn the
language, has been flooded with e-mails. The Web site's address tacked to the
Miramar home's door was flashed on CNN and appeared in newspapers. It prompted
15 pages of hysterical messages, many threatening the family, mixed with a few
sympathetic messages.