The San Diego Union-Tribune September 20, 2001 Experts say Jersey City is a breeding ground for terrorist cells By TOBY ECKERT  COPLEY NEWS SERVICE  JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Standing outside the Al Tawheed Islamic Center, in a neighborhood under suspicion, Ahmed Abdelsayed described himself as an "American-Arab-Muslim" -- in that order. The distinction is important these days because, for the second time in eight years, authorities have linked Arab men from Jersey City to an attack on the World Trade Center. Terrorism experts say Jersey City has become a hotbed of radical Islam and a breeding ground for the type of terrorist cells thought to have carried out the Sept. 11 attacks that killed thousands. Local Muslims deny that, saying that most Muslims here are peaceful and moderate, and that the attacks were executed by a handful of outlaws. At least five men who lived in an apartment building in the city's Journal Square neighborhood have been detained in connection with last week's devastating strikes. Two of the men, arrested in Texas, reportedly were booked on a flight the day of the attack and carried box cutters like those wielded by the hijackers who crashed two jetliners into the trade center. The men were part of the congregation at the nearby Masjid Al-Salam mosque, authorities say. Four others connected to the mosque, including blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, were convicted of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which killed six people. "If I had to name any place that was instrumental in forming these networks across the United States, (Jersey City) would be it," said Harvey Kushner, chairman of the criminal justice department at Long Island University. "The spiritual guidance from local imams comes out of that area, and a lot of fund raising," contended Kushner, who has been a consultant on terrorism to several government agencies. "They have been operational in that area for 15 years, at least." Yesterday, the Star-Ledger of Newark reported that investigators believe New Jersey was the financial hub of the terrorist operation. Authorities suspect the attack was masterminded by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be in Afghanistan. Muslims who live in the area say outsiders are unfairly stereotyping their entire community. "I'm sure, 100 percent, that's not true Muslims," another man standing outside the Al Tawheed Islamic Center said of the terrorists. "It's a peaceful religion, very peaceful." Most Arabs come to the United States to find work or escape political repression in their homelands, not to harm it, he said, taking time out from sprucing up the center for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "If we break this country, we break ourselves," said Abdelsayed, who is from Egypt. A few blocks away on bustling Kennedy Street, men poured into the Al-Salam mosque, a nondescript walk-up squeezed between a jewelry store and a nail salon, for afternoon prayers. They respectfully removed their shoes and stacked them neatly on a shelf before heading upstairs, referring all questions about the detained worshippers to a spokesman, who was absent. Around the corner, on residential Tonnele Avenue, two longtime residents of the neighborhood recalled last weekend's police raid on a brownstone apartment building on the block. Three men were led away in handcuffs, they said. Two other men who lived there -- Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath -- were arrested in Texas last week. They had been booked on a flight from Newark to San Antonio that departed around the same time as other jetliners that smashed into the trade center and the Pentagon. When the flight was diverted to St. Louis, they boarded an Amtrak train bound for Texas. They were arrested in Fort Worth after police found them carrying box cutters, hair dye and cash during what authorities said was a routine drug search.