Siraj Wahhaj Testimony 14124 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK 2 ------------------------------x UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 3 v. OMAR AHMAD ALI ABDEL RAHMAN, 4 a/k/a "Omar Ahmed Ali," a/k/a "Omar Abdel Al-Rahman," 5 a/k/a "Sheik Rahman,", a/k/a "The Sheik," 6 a/k/a "Sheik Omar," EL SAYYID NOSAIR, 7 a/k/a "Abu Abdallah," a/k/a "El Sayyid Abdul Azziz," 8 a/k/a "Victor Noel Jafry," IBRAHIM A. EL-GABROWNY, 9 SIDDIG IBRAHIM SIDDIG ALI, a/k/a "Khalid," 10 a/k/a "John Medley," CLEMENT HAMPTON-EL, S5 93 Cr. 181 (MBM) 11 a/k/a "Abdul Rashid Abdullah," a/k/a "Abdel Rashid," 12 a/k/a "Doctor Rashid," AMIR ABDELGANI, 13 a/k/a "Abu Zaid," a/k/a "Abdou Zaid," 14 FARES KHALLAFALLA, a/k/a "Abu Fares," 15 a/k/a "Abdou Fares," TARIG ELHASSAN, 16 a/k/a "Abu Aisha," FADIL ABDELGANI, 17 MOHAMMED SALEH, a/k/a "Mohammed Ali," 18 VICTOR ALVAREZ, a/k/a "Mohammed," and 19 MATARAWY MOHAMMED SAID SALEH, a/k/a "Wahid," 20 Defendants. 21 ------------------------------x July 13, 1995 22 9:40 a.m. Before: 23 HON. MICHAEL B. MUKASEY, 24 District Judge 25 14125 1 Page 1 Siraj Wahhaj Testimony 2 APPEARANCES 3 4 MARY JO WHITE United States Attorney for the 5 Southern District of New York BY: ANDREW McCARTHY 6 PATRICK FITZGERALD ROBERT KHUZAMI 7 Assistant United States Attorneys 8 ABDEEN M. JABARA 9 LYNNE STEWART and RAMSEY CLARK 10 Attorneys for Defendant Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel Rahman 11 ROGER STAVIS and 12 ANDREW PATEL Attorneys for Defendant El Sayyid Nosair 13 14 ANTHONY RICCO Attorney for Defendant Ibrahim A. El-Gabrowny 15 16 KENNETH D. WASSERMAN Attorney for Defendant Clement Hampton-El 17 18 STEVEN M. BERNSTEIN Attorney for Defendant Amir Abdelgani 19 20 VALERIE C. AMSTERDAM Attorney for Defendant Fares Khallafalla 21 22 JOYCE E. LONDON Attorney for Defendant Tarig Elhassan 23 24 25 14126 1 APPEARANCES CONTINUED 2 3 GROSSMAN, LAVINE & RINALDO Attorneys for Defendant Fadil Abdelgani 4 BY: CHARLES D. LAVINE Page 2 Siraj Wahhaj Testimony 5 JOHN H. JACOBS 6 Attorney for Defendant Mohammed Saleh 7 BROWN, BERNE & SERRA 8 Attorneys for Defendant Victor Alvarez BY: WESLEY M. SERRA 9 10 FREEMAN, NOOTER & GINSBERG Attorneys for Defendant Matarawy Mohammed Said Saleh 11 BY: THOMAS H. NOOTER and 12 SALVATORE S. RUSSO 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 14127 1 (Trial resumed) 2 (In open court; jury not present) 3 THE COURT: I understand that there is a witness 4 or witnesses who have some time constraints, so we ought to 5 get started as fast as we can. Is there anything that I 6 have to do before we get started, that can't wait? 7 MR. STAVIS: No, your Honor. Page 3 Siraj Wahhaj Testimony 8 THE COURT: Then let's get started. 9 MR. RICCO: The first witness will be taken out 10 of turn. He will be a witness for Mr. El-Gabrowny. 11 THE COURT: Do you want me to explain that to the 12 jurors? 13 MR. RICCO: Please. 14 (Jury present) 15 THE COURT: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 16 JURORS: Good morning. 17 THE COURT: As has happened before, we are going 18 to take a witness out of order. Witnesses were being called 19 principally by counsel for Mr. Nosair, but there is a 20 witness who has a scheduling problem, so we are going to go 21 a little bit out of order and take a witness called by 22 counsel for Mr. El-Gabrowny. 23 Mr. Ricco. 24 MR. RICCO: Your Honor, Mr. El-Gabrowny calls 25 Siraj Wahhaj. 14128 1 SIRAJ WAHHAJ, 2 called as a witness by the defense, 3 having duly affirmed, testified as follows: 4 THE COURT: Go ahead, Mr. Ricco. 5 MR. RICCO: Thank you, your Honor. 6 DIRECT EXAMINATION 7 BY MR. RICCO: 8 Q Are you familiar with the Al-Taqwah Mosque? 9 A Yes, very much so. 10 Q How is that? Page 4 Siraj Wahhaj Testimony 11 A I am the imam, or the leader of that particular 12 community. 13 Q How long have you been the imam at the Al-Taqwah 14 Mosque? 15 A The masjid began, was incorporated in 1981, and I 16 have been the imam since then, from the beginning. 17 Q Can you explain to the jury the neighborhood 18 surrounding the Al-Taqwah Mosque? 19 A Basically, it is in the middle of Bedford 20 Stuyvesant. It is on Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue, and 21 predominantly African Americans in the area, I would say. 22 It's changed a little bit over the years. It used to be 23 infested with a lot of drugs but there is less of that kind 24 of traffic now because of our presence there, I would say. 25 Q Can you tell the jury, who makes up the 14129 1 congregation that attends the Al-Taqwah Mosque? 2 A Probably 45 percent to 50 percent would be 3 African Americans. We have a sizable African community. We 4 have brothers from Senegal, Nigeria, Sudan. We have Muslims 5 from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh. We have white European 6 Americans in our congregation, we have Hispanics, Puerto 7 Ricans. 8 Q In the time that you have been the imam, have you 9 had contact with community or political leaders? 10 A Of course, including the mayor, whether it was 11 Mayor Giuliani, Mayor Dinkins, Borough President Howard 12 Goldin from Brooklyn, Borough President Schuler from Queens. 13 Name them. The chief of police of many administrations. 14 Many political leaders, congressmen, Congressman Ed Townes, Page 5 Siraj Wahhaj Testimony 15 State Senator Markowitz, Marty Markowitz -- I mean, the list 16 goes on. A number of occasions. Civic leaders, churches, 17 meeting with rabbis, ministers. Name them, we probably met 18 one of them. 19 Q Do you lecture at all? 20 A Yes, all the time. 21 Q Do you lecture at different mosques? 22 A I have lectured at almost every major university 23 and college in America, including Harvard University. Name 24 them, I have given lectures in this country and around the 25 world. In fact, I am trying to catch a flight now to go to 14130 1 Germany. Universities, and also Muslim mosques throughout 2 the world. So yes, I have given quite a number of lectures. 3 Q What has been the subject of your lectures? 4 A Infinite number of subjects. We have talked 5 about Allah, God, all the great prophets, Jesus, Abraham, 6 Moses. We have talked about family relationships, we have 7 talked about community involvement, responsibility. We have 8 spoken about our commitment to clean up our neighborhoods. 9 We have spoken about the father's responsibility to take 10 care of his family. Just about every kind of topic you can 11 imagine. 12 Q Have you ever addressed the Congress of the 13 United States? 14 A Yes, of course. I was the first Muslim in the 15 history of the United States of America to actually do an 16 invocation to the Congress of the United States in 19, I 17 think '92, June. That began a precedent of Muslims actually Page 6 Siraj Wahhaj Testimony 18 opening up a session of Congress, and again we were the 19 first. It is in the historical record. 20 Q Do you know the man Ibrahim El-Gabrowny? 21 A Yes. Can I say As-Salamu Alkaikum to him? 22 THE COURT: It is not a social occasion. 23 THE WITNESS: It is not social but this is a 24 greeting that we have to do -- OK, sorry. 25 MR. RICCO: Mr. El-Gabrowny, can you stand up. 14131 1 Q Is that -- 2 A Yes, it is. 3 Q Can you explain to the jury the circumstances 4 under which you met Mr. El-Gabrowny brown? 5 A I met him a few years ago concerning the Nosair 6 case, and he came to what is called the majshura, 7 M-A-J-S-H-U-R-A -- Arabic words, means the council of 8 leaders. There are about 40 mosques or Muslim communities 9 that work together, and he came seeking support for brother 10 Nosair in his case, asking us to, you know, get involved, to 11 help us to raise money for his defense, to come to the court 12 and things like that. That's when I first became aware of 13 him. 14 Q On that occasion, did you have an opportunity to 15 discuss his reputation in the community? 16 A To discuss his reputation in the community? 17 Q Yes. 18 A Yes. If anyone came to the majshura, the council 19 of leaders, you know, we would have to check the person out, 20 to make sure that person was reputable. So to that degree 21 he was known and respected among us. We had nothing -- we Page 7 Siraj Wahhaj Testimony 22 didn't know anything negative about him at all. 23 Q Did the council discuss participating with the 24 Nosair trial? 25 A We did discuss it, yes. 14132 1 Q Did there come a time when you attended the 2 trial? 3 A Yes, there was. 4 Q How many times did you attend the trial? 5 A Probably three, but I am not sure.