The FBI raided a North Side mosque in Pittsburgh on Friday as part of an unspecified "criminal investigation". The residence that served as both a Koranic school and a mosque is not a part of the mainstream Islamic Council of Greater Pittsburgh, the Post-Gazette reports (via Anthony at Irishspy):

The raid began around noon when authorities shut down the intersection of Boyle and Hemlock streets, residents said. The activity centered around a three-story green house located in the 1300 block of Boyle Street. It is home to the Sankore Institute and Light of Age Mosque, which doubles as a school for people seeking to learn the Koran and Islamic religious teachings.

FBI spokesman Jeff Killeen confirmed that the FBI was at the home. Mr. Killeen referred questions to Margaret Philbin, the U.S. attorney's spokeswoman, who said that the FBI executed a search warrant at the home yesterday morning or afternoon.

Authorities did not say if anyone was taken into custody, but residents said several men in tunics and traditional Muslim garb were led out of the house, patted down and searched along Boyle Street. The agents may have executed the raid during Friday prayers known as the Jummah prayer, neighbors said.

The group moved into the neighborhood around February and posted fliers that said "we are here to help you make the North Side a better place to live, worship, work and play." The group urged people "to join us in clothing and feeding the poor, cleaning up our community and making the North Side a safer, more beautiful place for our children."

Neighbors who witnessed the raid said FBI agents surrounded the home for more than four hours yesterday. They said there was a tactical squad at the scene backing up agents.

Closing down an intersection to execute a search warrant sounds as though the FBI expected more trouble than a simple criminal investigation would bring. The fliers themselves sound rather benign, but not benign enough to keep the FBI from bringing a tactical squad for backup. One witness told the P-G that the FBI used a robot to conduct their initial search. Clearly they anticipated something significant for this search and applied extensive resources to ensure it got conducted safely.

Oddly, this does not appear on any of the national wire services or media outlets. Even the normal outrage one would expect to hear whenever the FBI executes a warrant at a place of worship has not materialized. The P-G has no follow-up in today's edition, and no one else appears to have noticed this one report. Even the ACLU, when asked for comment in the article yesterday, only said that any search of a religious site would cause concern but that it would be premature to comment further on the specifics.

Pittsburgh seems an unlikely place for a terrorist conspiracy, but then again so did Toronto. Whatever happened in Pittsburgh the FBI and the DoJ have kept under their hats. Unlike Miami, where news coverage started shortly after the raid began, no news coverage has aired and no statements from the FBI have been forthcoming other than the one requested by the P-G.

Interesting. And a bit unsettling. Did anyone get arrested, and if not, was the raid a mistake?

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» FBI raids Pittsburgh mosque from Public Secrets: from the files of the Irishspy
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the FBI raided a local mosque Friday: Mystery surrounds FBI raid on North Side mosque From the details in the article, it's clear the Bureau thought they had something serious on their hands: FBI agents [Read More]

Tracked on July 2, 2006 8:49 PM

» From Pittsburgh To Pakistan from Hard Starboard
All that high-powered and high-tech backup suggests that something big was going on at that mosque. The FBI and Department of Justice aren't saying what yet, though Irish Spy updates that "the raid was in connection with the search for a felon wanted... [Read More]

Tracked on July 3, 2006 5:32 PM