Muhammad drew national attention when four ex-convicts who had been attending his
mosque were arrested in the
2009 New York City bomb plot, a plan, stopped by the
FBI, to shoot down military planes at an
Air National Guard base in
Newburgh and blow up two
synagogues in the Riverdale neighborhood of
New York City. During the trial of Newburgh 4 it was not mentioned that they were members of the Masjid in Newburgh. What did come out is that they met the informant and planned their acts at the house the informant rented. The congregants had discussed the fact that a man who regularly attended the mosque appeared to be recruiting members for violent
Jihad (this man turned out to be the FBI's planted informant.) However, no member of the large congregation made any attempt to report the man they believed to be a jihadi to the authorities. The imam, calling the failure on his part and the part of the congregation to report the talk of jihad a "mistake", justified the failure by saying “but how are we going to report the government agent to the government?” Muhammad did not know the man was an informant until after the would-be terrorists were arrested. Although no one at the Masjid knew for certain, the members were told to stay away from the informant. Had they (Newburgh 4 ) been members, they would have known that the informant was a suspect. He published
Bridging the Divide Between Immigrant and African-American Muslims by Utilizing the Concept of Tawheed as the Catalyst (2011). ==References==