Friday, May 2, 2008

The true account of Bos Smith's "visit" to Masjid Taqwa


This is a full account of what happened when Bos Smith and his crew came to Masjidat-Taqwah to take photograph of masjid building. I was conducting my routine martial art classes on Saturday afternoon made mostly of 20 children and about 6 adults when one of the members of the masjid summoned me from my class. I went to see what he wanted and observed two Caucasian males with him. The brother explained that they were taking photograph of the masjid and he invited them to speak to someone in authority to see how we can best assist them in this endeavor which is our protocol when any media is interested in filming Masjidat Taqwah. There were no hostility toward the two men nor were they held under any duress,they had freedom of movement and they could leave at anytime. The brother informed me that when he observed them taking photographs he inquired about nature of the photographs and when they informed him of the nature of the photograph thats when he invited them to speak to someone in authority and they complied to the invitation willingly without duress and without the present of force which is not masjid policy. I inquired about the nature of their business with Masjidat-Taqwah,Bos Smith informed us that he was doing a documentary on Muslim in America and he was going around to different masajid photographing them. I never at time informed him that he could not take photographs of the masjid. I asked him who did he represent and did he have a business card,he replied he was a free lance reporter and he didn't have a business card. I than asked him did he have a contact number and he gave that to me willingly. I than proceeded to give Imam Siraj office number and informed Bos Smith that as it is our policy to accommodate all media in these type of endeavors the imam and the community would be more than happy to oblige him in this project and they left peacefully. Note, Bos Smith says he has a law degree,why would he come to the basement without there being any presents of force or threat of force. This non incident happened in broad daylight with extreme level of pedestrian traffic and outstanding police present in our area,furthermore we understand people's first amendment rights and I am pretty sure that Bos Smith knows, so why didn't he ignore the request made to him, nor did he walk away or summoned the police for unlawful detention or restriction of movement. That is because it never happened the way he wrote the article, the article has an bias attempt to defame and discredit Imam Siraj, Masjidat-Taqwah community,Islam and the Muslims as a whole. If you notice,the truth be known, Bos Smith wrote a book soon to be released called "Within the Belly of the Beast:Jihad in America",there is a chapter devoted to radical mosques.So he does have a hidden agenda that ALLAH(SWTA) has exposed through this event and ALLAH KNOWS BEST, also I would like to note, there are law enforcement persons who attend the martial art classes, on the day this non incident occurred, there was a NYPD RETIRED DETECTIVE PRESENT and he readily available for any comments concerning this issue.

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