Queens, NY – Protest Target Denies al-Qaeda Link

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    Mordechai Levy of the Jewish Defense Organization protests outside Yousef al-Khattabs former home.Queens, NY – The Jewish Defense Organization is targeting a controversial American-born Muslim convert who had been living in Woodside and who they accuse of being an al-Qaeda operative.

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    The group organized outside of 54-11 Woodside Ave. Dec. 20 where Yousef al-Khattab was last known to be living. They handed out flyers to neighbors demanding the home’s landlord, Mamoon Iqbal of Dix Hills, evicts him and calling the home an “al- Qaeda headquarters,” warning that it has been used for meetings of al-Qaeda operatives who are planning another terrorist attack in New York City.

    Al-Khattab, who born Joseph Cohen and raised in a Orthodox Jewish family in New Jersey, operates a Web site called RevolutionMuslim.com, where he praised the actions of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the man suspected of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas on Nov. 5.

    “An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a pre-emptive attack,” al-Khattab wrote on the site. “Get well soon Major Nidal. We love you.”

    Al-Khattab, who was featured in a one-on-one interview in the Queens Tribune shortly after he made that comment, left the country earlier this month. JDO claims the apartment is currently being occupied by a man named Abdullah as-Sayf Jones, also an American-born convert to Islam.

    Jewish Defense Organization founder Mordechai Levy stood outside of the Woodside house Sunday, asking neighbors to call Iqbal and demanded the eviction of al-Khattab and Jones. Levy claimed that Jones was inside the apartment on Sunday and refused to come out during the protest. He said his own “intelligence unit” confirms Jones still resides in the apartment and that it is still being used as an “al-Qaeda headquarters.”

    “Al-Qaeda out of Woodside now,” chanted Levy and the dozen or so protestors that stood in the snow across the street from the red house where al-Khattab once lived and owned by Mr. Iqbal. Levy charged that al-Khattab had not only praised the Fort Hood massacre, but called for another attack on the scale of the 9/11 attack, plotted to bomb synagogues around New York City, and killed and maimed Jews.

    Iqbal could not be reached for comment and the phone number for him that the JDO listed on the flyer given out to neighbors has been disconnected, but according to the JDO, Iqbal told other landlords in the area that he was shocked to learn who his tenants were and was going to evict them immediately after receiving what Levy claimed was “thousands” of calls. Levy promised that the JDO would protest outside Iqbal’s Dix Hills home if al-Khattab and Jones were not evicted.

    Al-Khattab, however, told the Tribune that the apartment is vacant and that he has left the country for good. Al-Khattab, who moved to Morocco for work within the last few weeks, said the Jewish Defense Organization knew the apartment was vacant and suggested they were holding the protest to take credit after the fact for al-Khattab leaving the country.

    Al-Khattab denies Jones still resides in the apartment and claims the apartment has been vacant for at least two weeks. He said the landlords are not involved in any of his writings and have nothing to do with either him or Jones, except as a landlord. He also harshly criticized Levy and the JDO for releasing the landlord’s phone number to the public. He criticized Levy and the JDO labeling of them as al-Qaeda operatives. He said if that were true, he wouldn’t have his freedom.

    “Do they think they know something the police don’t?” al-Khattab said, noting that neither the NYPD nor federal law enforcement have arrested him on any terrorism charges. He said if the JDO’s claims were true, he’d “be in prison already”.

    “We never said ‘kill Jews’,” al-Khattab said, “We’re not blanket racists, we’re not the KKK, we’re not al-Qaeda. We merely critique American politics.”


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    16 Comments
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    ubet
    ubet
    14 years ago

    I wonder if the “right” people are reading this and it wont happen another ” I told you so”.

    A bissel seichel
    A bissel seichel
    14 years ago

    How does a Jew raised in an orthodox family, convert to Islam, and become an extremist?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Better question: How does a Muslim extremist get a seat on a plane to Morocco? What pilot would fly with such a lunatic in the cabin?

    Zach G.
    Zach G.
    14 years ago

    He was a Satmar.

    David L
    David L
    14 years ago

    The article is mistaken – he was raised in a secular (not Orthodox) family. He later became Satmar, then moved to a Gaza settlement, and finally swung over to radical Islam. He likes to protest Aish HaTorah because he thinks that it is too Zionist.

    I hope that he finds a good psychiatrist in Morocco.

    funcused!!
    funcused!!
    14 years ago

    Something is VERY fishy!
    The government knows very well about this wacko, but is waiting for him to incite violence first!! and to think we live in a “normal” world.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    He’s long been a lazy useless person. He’s followed the money because he’s too lazy to work. He was SECULAR, and is NOT from an Orthodox family.
    I just wonder what became of is (Jewish) wife and children.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    I happen to have known him personally. He grew up as a secular- traditional American Jew. became Baal teshuva, and worked in Green’s Pizza and Resturant in Williamsburg for a couple of years. This is how he got close to Satmar chasidim, so he just dressed like them, without actually being a full-fgledged Satmarer. After a while, he moved to Eretz Yisrael, and became ah farbrenter Shas Party follower. Then he moved with his wife and kids to Ramallah in the West Bank, and they converted ti Islam r”l. He was shown in a video clip saying that he says every morning “Baruch ata hashem V”ch Shelo usani Yisrael” Wer’e basically talking about someone who may look like a normal person, but is obviously all mixed up, and who knows how many more stops he will make before his final destination – which right now seems, will be deep deep in Hell.