Schenectady Gazette : View From Here

The View From Here

Carl Strock | November 7, 2006

Following the convictions last month of the two Albany Muslims, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, on charges of money-laundering in support of terrorism - convictions that in my opinion were an insult to justice - a number of you wrote or called to ask how you could help the families of the two, having in mind that Aref has a wife and four young children and Hossain a wife and six young children.

I can now report that a fund has been established for that purpose, thanks to the efforts of some 50 people who got together at the Friends Meeting House on Madison Avenue in Albany a couple of weeks ago. If you wish to contribute you can make a check payable to the Aref-Hossain Family Fund and send it to Steven Downs, 26 Dinmore Road, Selkirk, NY 12158.

Downs is former counsel to the Commission on Judicial Conduct who worked as a volunteer on the criminal case. The money will be deposited in a dedicated account at Trustco Bank.

I am assured there are no expenses associated with the fund and that all the money will go to the families.

Mohammed Hossain owned and operated the Little Italy pizza shop on Central Avenue, and his family still has that, though the federal government took the deeds to two dumpy rental properties that he also owned.

Yassin Aref was the prayer leader, or imam, at a storefront mosque a few blocks away on Central Avenue, which was his only source of income. Before that, having arrived in this country as a refugee, he worked as a janitor at Albany Medical Center. Efforts are under way to try to find lodging for his family.

Aref is Kurdish, from Iraq, and had refugee status in the United States, along with his wife. Three of their children were born in Syria, and the youngest was born here.

Aref is 37 years old, Hossain is 51. They face decades in prison when they are sentenced in February, though I have conflicting information as to the exact sentencing guidelines.

The people who established the support fund - Quakers, Unitarians and others who count themselves as progressives - also formed a group called the Muslim Defense Committee to work on building long-term relations between the Masjid As-Salam mosque and the surrounding non-Muslim community. "The big thing we're trying to do is organize events on a regular basis to bring the larger community in to meet and get to know the families at the mosque, so the mystique is kind of eradicated," said Cathy Callan, one of the people involved in the effort. "These are our neighbors."

You can contact the committee at callanca@gmail.com or jlombardo@nycap.rr.com. They have also started a Website: nepajac.org/aref&hossain.htm.

I do take heart from this compassionate coming-together of ordinary people in Albany, though to my mind there remains a huge imbalance between the good that can be done by 50 or even 100 concerned citizens and the evil that was perpetrated by our government in tricking two otherwise law-abiding men into a deal that could be construed as supporting terrorism, just as there remains a huge imbalance between the $1,000 or so that has so far been raised and the need. How far can $1,000 go in getting two immigrant families redirected without their husbands and fathers?

I should mention, by the way, that I received a letter from Aref, the more intellectual of the two victims, in response to a column I wrote in which I said I hung my head in shame, apologized on behalf of my country, wished the two of them luck, and mentioned in passing that I did not share their faith. The letter was written from the Rensselaer County Jail, where the two men are kept in isolation while they await sentencing.

I quote exactly, so please allow for Aref's imperfect English, which is his third language: "You wrote the faith you are not sharing it with me but you are! Speaking the truth and supporting it. Care about your family and had mercy on weak, sick and children. Hate unjust and tricky. Believe me that exactly my faith so I am going to share this faith with you. Only I will believe in God to it!"

That's the kind of guy he is. and that's the kind of guy our government is going to put in prison for much of the rest of his life, leaving his family in the lurch.

As opposed to say, Shahed Hussain, known as Malik, the Pakistini hustler who was running a scam at the Department of Motor Vehicles where he had a contract to do translating and instead was actually taking drivers-license exams for people, so they could pass them, and charging up to $1,000 for his crooked services.

He's the character the FBI recruited to deceive Aref and Hossain into exchanging cash for checks, by playing to their religion and coming onto them as a brother, and who for his duplicitous services won a recommendation from the U.S. attorney's office that he be allowed to stay in this country without going to jail.

Thanks a lot, U.S. attorney's office, I want to say. Thanks a lot, FBI. You did a swell job of making the United States a better, safer country.

Meanwhile, thanks sincerely to the people who came together to form the Muslim Defense Committee and establish the Aref-Hossain Family Support Fund. Keep your head high," Aref urged me in his letter, and I urge you the same.