The U.S. says, freedom of religion, as long as that religion is not Islam.
NEW YORK (Nov. 12) —
Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and
a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long
suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.
In what could prove
to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history,
prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi
Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.
Skip over this content
The
Islamic Education Center, a grade school and mosque in Houston, Texas,
is among the properties federal prosecutors hope to seize.
The assets include
bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New
York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in
Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.
Confiscating the
properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused
by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a
nuclear bomb.
A telephone call and
e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately
answered. Nor was a call to the Alavi Foundation.
It is extremely rare
for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a
step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom
of religion.
The action against
the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S.
government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash
after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim
American major.
The mosques and the
skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way
through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them
if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government
typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the
proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.
Prosecutors said the
Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian
government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp.,
illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank
Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of
providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the
United States to do business with the bank.
The U.S. has long
suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a
97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several
top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and
ambassadors to the United Nations.
"For two decades,
the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian
officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in
violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
said in a statement.
There were no raids
Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply
required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.
As prosecutors
outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the
schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques' leaders
had no immediate comment.
Parents lined up in
their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic
Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in
Rockville, Md. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at
either place as of late Thursday.
At the Islamic
Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two U.S. marshals
came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a
forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on
the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and
took the document·
The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, Calif.
The skyscraper,
known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah
of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and
investment firms and other businesses.
The sleek, modern
building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has
served as an important source of income for the foundation over the
past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned
$4.5 million from rents in 2007.
Rents collected
from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as
sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The
foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country
and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.
If federal
prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have
almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house
schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite
communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role
in the investigation.
The forfeiture
action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two
sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program and its arrest of three
American hikers.
But Michael Rubin,
an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing
of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to
influence Iran on those issues.
"Suspicion about
the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said.
"It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation.
It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger
strategy."
Legal scholars said
they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which law enforcement
authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a
religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such
cases extremely rare.
The Alavi
Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a
nonprofit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests
in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of
the shah.
In 2007, the United
States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and
ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies
whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed sanctions against
various other Iranian businesses.
_______________________________________________
Do you think the U.S has a right to seize/close these Muslim places of worship?