Sadef Ali Kully
The day after two Queens members of his Jamaica mosque were arrested and charged with plotting a terror attack on U.S. soil, the women’s Imam addressed his shocked congregation at Friday prayers.
In an interview with the TimesLedger this week, Imam Charles Aziz Bilal reiterated what he had told his followers at Masjid Alhamdulillah on Sutphin Boulevard.
“We condemn these kinds of groups, they are not teaching our faith, they are hijacking it and to see some of our young people to be trapped like that is very unfortunate,” he said. . “These people have hijacked our religion for their own agenda.”
Asia Siddiqui, 31, and Noelle Velentzas, 28, were charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against persons or property in the United States April 5 in Brooklyn federal court and held without bail, federal officials said.
Siddiqui, Velentzas and her family regularly attended and participated in the Jamaica mosque’s activities.
Prosecutors contended Siddiqui and Velentzas repeatedly expressed their support for violent jihad against their enemies and possessed propane gas tanks with instructions from an online jihadist publication for transforming them into explosive devices, according to the complaint filed by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District.
Bilal, who was stunned and in complete disbelief at the allegations, described Siddiqui, Velentzas and her husband Abu Bakr as “devoted to the religion, deeply rooted in family values, and accessible to the community.”
Bakr, who has a home improvement business, according to the imam, helped the community with small home improvement projects.
“I met all three of them, Velentzas, her husband and Siddiqui, together at the mosque about five years ago,” said Bilal, who recently retired from the city Department of Corrections as an imam.
Velentzas, who has a 5-year old biological daughter and 11-year old adopted daughter, stood out from the trio. She was outspoken, but simultaneously “Islamically courteous, polite and certainly had her opinion like anyone else has their opinion about what has been going on in the world, but as far as I am concerned, all three of them were decent people,” Bilal said.
Siddiqui and Velentzas had been friends before they came to Bilal’s mosque, and Siddiqui was living with Velentzas and her family The Imam described Siddiqui’s circumstances as “destitute” and when she needed help, Velentzas and her family had taken her in, which can be allowed in Islam, according to the imam.
All three played active roles in the mosque, such as participating in the Muslim Day Parade held in Manhattan every year.
Since the arrests, Abu Bakr and his daughters have not been able to meet with Velentzas, Bilal said. Meanwhile Siddiqui, a part-time tutor at the 82nd Street Academics in Jackson Heights, was dismissed after the arrest, according to a Facebook post by the tutoring facility.
According to the criminal complaint, Siddiqui graduated from CUNY’s York College in Jamaica, but Timesledger discovered that Siddiqui never earned a degree from the four-year school.
Based on records obtained by the Timesledger, Siddiqui started at the university in 2006 and took classes sporadically until 2011. She never declared a major, had a cumulative GPA of 2.1 and had acquired 125 credits. Most of her classes were in liberal arts and her last class was in 2011. She did register for a chemistry class, but withdrew from the class, according to CUNY sources,
During her time in and out of York College, Siddiqui allegedly communicated online and wrote letters and poems to members of terrorist groups or those involved with terrorist attacks on American soil, the complaint said.
Neighbors said both women, who lived on the second floor of a two-family house on Inwood Street with Bakr, mostly kept to themselves and attended Bilal’s mosque nearby. The area is home to hardworking middle-class families but has been troubled by violent crime.
Their next court date is scheduled for May 4 and if convicted, both women face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
