By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News
The FBI alleges agents have been looking into the affairs of Mohammad Adil Khan -- an educator leading the fight to open a Muslim school in Lodi -- for years.
Mohammed Adil Khan
In federal court papers, agents link him to an associate of his father's in Pakistan who signed a holy order with Osama bin Laden calling for followers to kill Americans.
But none of these accusations matches up with the Khan friends across California say they have known for at least five years, since his arrival in the United States on a visitor's visa to launch the Farooqia Islamic Center on 18 acres in the Central Valley.
They say he's an open-minded man leading the effort to ensure that the future Islamic school is a model of tolerance, as opposed to some of the madrasahs in Pakistan that many Lodi parents worry would turn their children into extreme Islamists.
While the FBI continues to trace threads of a possible terrorist cell in Northern California, Khan, 47, is being held on a no-bond warrant in Santa Clara County's jail on an alleged immigration violation. He was swept up this week in a larger terror-related probe in which a Lodi father and son -- Umer Hayat, 47, and Hamid Hayat, 22, -- were arrested for allegedly lying to the FBI about the son's training to become a terrorist in Pakistan.
``I swear to God, he is such a good man,'' said Shujah Khan, a former vice president of the Lodi Muslim Mosque who helped bring Khan to the United States. ``He never, ever said anything that would create hatred toward anyone. He's the one who has linked us to the Christian and Jewish communities.''
Rabbi Jason Gwasdoff of Stockton's Temple Israel has met Khan at several interfaith sessions.
``My impression of Mohammad Adil is that he's a warm, kind, generous man,'' he said. ``He's the kind of person who greets outsiders with open arms. I'm hoping that it's not guilt by association. Think of how damaging this is to his reputation.''
Khan, though, has detractors.
The Lodi mosque filed a lawsuit this spring against Khan, alleging that he fraudulently transferred money raised in Lodi for the new school to an account in East Palo Alto. The suit also claims that Khan is in the United States on an expired temporary visa, and that his request for permanent residency was denied. Muhammad Shoaib, a trustee of the Lodi mosque, did not return a call Friday from the Mercury News seeking comment.
The FBI, though, paints a link between Khan's father -- Salimullah Khan -- the head of Farooqia Islamic University in Pakistan, and an associate, Fazlur Rehman Khalil. Khalil signed a 1998 fatwa of Osama bin Laden advocating the killing of Americans and their allies.
Ironically, supporters say, it was Khan's offer to help the FBI ferret out terror suspects in Lodi that landed him in trouble.
According to Shujah Khan, federal agents went to Mohammad Adil Khan's home last Saturday evening asking about the Hayats, who they said had a possible link to Al-Qaida. Khan and another member of the clergy, Shabbir Ahmed, 42, went with the FBI to Sacramento voluntarily.
``Then he never came home,'' Shujah Khan said. ``They held him on immigration violations.''