06-05-2006, 07:46 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)
June 5, 2006 Monday
HEADLINE: Suspects came from varied backgrounds
Quote:
Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43
By far the oldest of the alleged terrorists, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, is described as being angry about Canada's role in Afghanistan and supportive of Toronto's notorious Khadr family.
"I know for sure that, like me, he was very angry about how people treated the Khadr family," said Aly Hindy, a well-known imam at Scarborough's Saleheddin Islamic Centre, a mosque frequented by at least four members of the alleged homegrown terror cell.
Ahmed Said Khadr, the family patriarch, was an al-Qaida financier before he was killed in a gun battle in Pakistan in 2003, the FBI says.
Hindy said Jamal was upset about the Canadian army's deployment to Afghanistan. "He's an elder person and he speaks out," he said.
Jamal attends another Greater Toronto Area mosque where as many as six of the arrested men regularly prayed.
Mosque member Sam Lela told reporters that Jamal is a person always eager to help those in need.
Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19
Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19, reaffirmed his Islamic faith as a teenager, but the timing of his religious rebirth may help explain his alleged ties to terrorist plans, said a former schoolmate.
Durrani, of 10 Stonehill Court in Scarborough, Ont., was born into the Muslim faith, but did not fully embrace it until he was in high school, said Ali Khan, who attended Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in Scarborough with Durrani.
"When he converted to the full of Islam he was very vulnerable. What he knew about Islam, his ideas and everything, were still raw. They weren't formulated, they weren't refined," said Khan. "That's the time when people approach you the most -- once you've found that true calling and you go toward true Islam. That's when people attacked him in the sense that they called him in for little gatherings. That's when they started teaching him anti-American doctrines," he said.
Zakaria Amara, 20
Cardboard and staples now hold together the front door of the home where a 20-year-old Zakaria Amara was arrested Friday night in a terrorism investigation.
Amara had moved into the Mississauga, Ont., basement apartment last Monday, but was familiar to at least one neighbour who had seen the bearded young man in the neighbourhood last July.
A twenty-something man who answered the front door of the two-storey home refused to comment, but Mike Paaku, a next-door neighbour, said Amara appeared to be a "normal, nice guy."
Fahim Ahmad, 21
Residents on Robbinstone Drive, a sleepy Toronto-area street often filled with young children, could not believe when their neighbourhood was associated with a raid on alleged terrorists.
One of those charged, Fahim Ahmad, 21, is listed as living on Robbinstone Drive in Scarborough, Ont. But the man's young brother-in-law said that's not the case.
Zuhair Mohammad, 14, lives at 93 Robbinstone Dr. with his parents and six siblings, including his 17-year-old sister, Maria. She is married to Ahmad, but he does not live at the same residence. He lives in Mississauga with his parents, but usually spends two nights a week at the Robbinstone Drive residence, the brother-in-law said.
The young man has known Ahmad for about a year and described him as nice, outgoing and always willing to help with a problem.
Jahmaal James, 23
Jahmaal James travelled to Pakistan in the last year -- but those who know the Scarborough, Ont., man insist the trip had nothing to do with terrorist training.
James went there to get married, said Imam Aly Hindy, who helped arrange the union with a woman who still lives in Pakistan.
"He's a very nice guy, you know. He came to me to ask about getting married," said Hindy, who runs the Salaheddin Islamic Centre, a Scarborough, Ont., mosque frequented by James and at least three others swept up in Friday's crackdown on the alleged homegrown terror group.
Hindy said James flew to Pakistan approximately six months ago, stayed for about a month, then returned. He did not know where in Pakistan James's wife lives. Hindy also said Pakistani authorities briefly detained the 23-year-old at an airport during the trip and that he knew CSIS and RCMP investigators were watching him.
James's father wept into his lap Saturday as he contemplated what would happen to him and his family as word of the alleged terrorist plot spread.
Ahmad Ghany, 21
Ahmad Ghany, 21, recently graduated in health sciences from McMaster University in Hamilton. He was born in Canada to parents who emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago in 1955, said his lawyer, Rocco Galati.
Ghany recently was married to a woman who is the sister of the wife of one of his co-accused, Zakaria Amara.
A thin man with a slight dark beard and sombre-looking face, he hung his head throughout his court appearance, staring at the ground and declining to meet the gaze from his father, who sat in court.
Ghany's father, a soft-spoken medical doctor, declined to comment on the charges against his son, saying only he was disappointed he did not get a chance to speak with his son.
Asad Ansari, 21
Nothing seemed amiss on Rosehurst Drive in Mississauga, Ont., just west of Toronto, on Friday afternoon as Asad Ansari played basketball with neighbours. About two hours later, the 21-year-old was being led out of a home by police officers. Neighbours were ordered inside as police wearing helmets and bulletproof vests descended on the suburban street around 6:30 p.m.
A woman who lives behind the home said she had often seen an older man and woman as well as a younger man and woman of "college-going" age barbecuing in the backyard.
Steven Vikash Chand, 25
Steven Vikash Chand, 25, began using the name Abdul Shakur when he became a Muslim, leaving behind the Hindu faith under which he had been raised, say his landlord and the imam at the Scarborough, Ont., mosque he attended.
Chand's landlord, Mohammad Attique, said Chand moved into a room in his Treverton Drive basement in Scarborough between seven and eight months ago.
Attique said he and Chand attended the same mosque, the Salaheddin Islamic Centre.
At least four of the suspects picked up in Friday's terrorism bust attended the mosque, said its imam, Aly Hindy.
"He was a convert," Hindy said of Chand, adding he didn't know much about him except that he hung around at the mosque with other alleged cell members: Fahim Ahmad, 21, Jahmaal James, 23, and a young offender originally from Sri Lanka. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
June 5, 2006 Monday
HEADLINE: Suspects came from varied backgrounds
Quote:
Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43
By far the oldest of the alleged terrorists, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, is described as being angry about Canada's role in Afghanistan and supportive of Toronto's notorious Khadr family.
"I know for sure that, like me, he was very angry about how people treated the Khadr family," said Aly Hindy, a well-known imam at Scarborough's Saleheddin Islamic Centre, a mosque frequented by at least four members of the alleged homegrown terror cell.
Ahmed Said Khadr, the family patriarch, was an al-Qaida financier before he was killed in a gun battle in Pakistan in 2003, the FBI says.
Hindy said Jamal was upset about the Canadian army's deployment to Afghanistan. "He's an elder person and he speaks out," he said.
Jamal attends another Greater Toronto Area mosque where as many as six of the arrested men regularly prayed.
Mosque member Sam Lela told reporters that Jamal is a person always eager to help those in need.
Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19
Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19, reaffirmed his Islamic faith as a teenager, but the timing of his religious rebirth may help explain his alleged ties to terrorist plans, said a former schoolmate.
Durrani, of 10 Stonehill Court in Scarborough, Ont., was born into the Muslim faith, but did not fully embrace it until he was in high school, said Ali Khan, who attended Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in Scarborough with Durrani.
"When he converted to the full of Islam he was very vulnerable. What he knew about Islam, his ideas and everything, were still raw. They weren't formulated, they weren't refined," said Khan. "That's the time when people approach you the most -- once you've found that true calling and you go toward true Islam. That's when people attacked him in the sense that they called him in for little gatherings. That's when they started teaching him anti-American doctrines," he said.
Zakaria Amara, 20
Cardboard and staples now hold together the front door of the home where a 20-year-old Zakaria Amara was arrested Friday night in a terrorism investigation.
Amara had moved into the Mississauga, Ont., basement apartment last Monday, but was familiar to at least one neighbour who had seen the bearded young man in the neighbourhood last July.
A twenty-something man who answered the front door of the two-storey home refused to comment, but Mike Paaku, a next-door neighbour, said Amara appeared to be a "normal, nice guy."
Fahim Ahmad, 21
Residents on Robbinstone Drive, a sleepy Toronto-area street often filled with young children, could not believe when their neighbourhood was associated with a raid on alleged terrorists.
One of those charged, Fahim Ahmad, 21, is listed as living on Robbinstone Drive in Scarborough, Ont. But the man's young brother-in-law said that's not the case.
Zuhair Mohammad, 14, lives at 93 Robbinstone Dr. with his parents and six siblings, including his 17-year-old sister, Maria. She is married to Ahmad, but he does not live at the same residence. He lives in Mississauga with his parents, but usually spends two nights a week at the Robbinstone Drive residence, the brother-in-law said.
The young man has known Ahmad for about a year and described him as nice, outgoing and always willing to help with a problem.
Jahmaal James, 23
Jahmaal James travelled to Pakistan in the last year -- but those who know the Scarborough, Ont., man insist the trip had nothing to do with terrorist training.
James went there to get married, said Imam Aly Hindy, who helped arrange the union with a woman who still lives in Pakistan.
"He's a very nice guy, you know. He came to me to ask about getting married," said Hindy, who runs the Salaheddin Islamic Centre, a Scarborough, Ont., mosque frequented by James and at least three others swept up in Friday's crackdown on the alleged homegrown terror group.
Hindy said James flew to Pakistan approximately six months ago, stayed for about a month, then returned. He did not know where in Pakistan James's wife lives. Hindy also said Pakistani authorities briefly detained the 23-year-old at an airport during the trip and that he knew CSIS and RCMP investigators were watching him.
James's father wept into his lap Saturday as he contemplated what would happen to him and his family as word of the alleged terrorist plot spread.
Ahmad Ghany, 21
Ahmad Ghany, 21, recently graduated in health sciences from McMaster University in Hamilton. He was born in Canada to parents who emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago in 1955, said his lawyer, Rocco Galati.
Ghany recently was married to a woman who is the sister of the wife of one of his co-accused, Zakaria Amara.
A thin man with a slight dark beard and sombre-looking face, he hung his head throughout his court appearance, staring at the ground and declining to meet the gaze from his father, who sat in court.
Ghany's father, a soft-spoken medical doctor, declined to comment on the charges against his son, saying only he was disappointed he did not get a chance to speak with his son.
Asad Ansari, 21
Nothing seemed amiss on Rosehurst Drive in Mississauga, Ont., just west of Toronto, on Friday afternoon as Asad Ansari played basketball with neighbours. About two hours later, the 21-year-old was being led out of a home by police officers. Neighbours were ordered inside as police wearing helmets and bulletproof vests descended on the suburban street around 6:30 p.m.
A woman who lives behind the home said she had often seen an older man and woman as well as a younger man and woman of "college-going" age barbecuing in the backyard.
Steven Vikash Chand, 25
Steven Vikash Chand, 25, began using the name Abdul Shakur when he became a Muslim, leaving behind the Hindu faith under which he had been raised, say his landlord and the imam at the Scarborough, Ont., mosque he attended.
Chand's landlord, Mohammad Attique, said Chand moved into a room in his Treverton Drive basement in Scarborough between seven and eight months ago.
Attique said he and Chand attended the same mosque, the Salaheddin Islamic Centre.
At least four of the suspects picked up in Friday's terrorism bust attended the mosque, said its imam, Aly Hindy.
"He was a convert," Hindy said of Chand, adding he didn't know much about him except that he hung around at the mosque with other alleged cell members: Fahim Ahmad, 21, Jahmaal James, 23, and a young offender originally from Sri Lanka. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->