What could possibly go wrong? Celebrate diversity!
“Staten Island Mosque Enlists Felon, Antisemite, and Pro-Jihadist to Teach Children Qur’an,” by Dexter Van Zile, Focus On Western “Islamism,” May 13, 2025:
A mosque has taken a divisive approach to promoting the Muslim faith in New York City. The Muslim Community Center (MCC) of Staten Island has enlisted the teaching skills of Tarek Mehanna, a prominent extremist who was convicted in 2011 of conspiring to kill his fellow U.S. citizens and sentenced to seventeen years in federal prison for his crimes. During his time in federal prison, Mehanna, who did not respond to queries from Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), was allegedly placed in a special unit to prevent him from radicalizing his fellow inmates.
While in prison, he allegedly wrote an article in which he justified jihad against the U.S. government, which he compared to the AIDS virus and affirmed a book he read in prison that portrayed Jews as intent on governing the world from Jerusalem.
Despite Mehanna’s radicalism, a mosque has enlisted his help in its effort to educate Muslim youth on Staten Island. Mohamed Bahi (also spelled Bahe), a volunteer and founder of the MCC of Staten Island and former senior advisor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, announced on Facebook in January that children can study Arabic and the Qur’an with Mehanna every Monday through Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The Staten Island mosque, connected to the Muslim Community Center in Brooklyn—which has hosted multiple appearances by New York City Mayor Eric Adams—has highlighted Mehanna’s affiliation with the mosque in other Facebook posts promoting celebrations of its grand opening earlier this year. (Neither Adams, Bahi, nor officials from the MCC have responded to email inquiries from FWI.)
“I’m very concerned when I see this individual is working with young people,” said Dov Hikind, former New York State assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism. “We need to keep our eyes on people like this because they are filled with hate; they are very dangerous.”
Mehanna’s Conviction
Mehanna, who, according to the U.S. Board of Prisons, was released from federal custody on August 20, 2024, is the last person a mosque committed to a peaceful interpretation of Islam would hire to teach Muslim children about the Qur’an. An FBI press release issued in 2012 states that in late 2011, “Mehanna was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda, providing material support to terrorists (and conspiracy to do so), conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, conspiracy to make false statements to the FBI, and two counts of making false statements.”
The FBI adds that according to testimony provided during the trial, “Mehanna and co-conspirators discussed their desire to participate in violent jihad against American interests and their desire to die on the battlefield” and that “Mehanna and two of his associates traveled to the Middle East in 2004, seeking military-type training at a terrorist training camp that would prepare them for armed jihad against U.S. interests, including U.S. and allied forces in Iraq.”
Upon returning to the U.S., the FBI reports, “Mehanna continued his efforts to provide material support by, among other things, translating and posting on the Internet al Qaeda recruitment videos and other documents.”
The Boston Herald reported that prior to his arrest, Mehanna worked as a pharmacist in Massachusetts, having obtained a doctorate in the field from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and that he posted at a now-defunct website, iskandrani.wordpress.com.
Archives of this site indicate that he translated the writings of Sayyid Qutb, a leading Islamist theorist of the 20th century, into English….
Kevin Kraemer says
Only in America can a travesty like this occur, perhaps in England also.
Wellington says
No, it’s occurring in many other Western nations like France, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Spain.
somehistory says
No surprise in this. Nearly 100% of mozlum barracks in the U.S. were found to have terror material when a study was done about a decade ago. The ones which didn’t, likely were just fresh out because the material is so popular with devout mozlums.
mozlums teach their kids hatred and terrorism. Many cannot read or write more than a few lines, with errors in the writing. They learn war, hatred, murder, rape and to lie like the cheap carpets upon which they kneel.
Of course the ghouls at the barracks hired a teacher who knows his terror well.
Bob Gold says
Just as you can teach an animal to operate levers, so you can teach an Islamoterroist science. It’s not absorbing morality in its lessons, only how to maim and kill.
rick says
Remember the story about the Gaza Hamas guy who on Oct 7, 2023 called his mother and father on a phone stolen from a Jewish woman who he killed to tell his parent in his great excitement, that he killed 10 Jews with his own hands. That is exactly the type of “teacher” mosques want to train young children in the “glories” of Islam.
James Lincoln says
Teach the Qur’an to children is child abuse.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Any group following the teachings of a long dead mass murdering, child molester would be banned in a civilized country. Except, that is, if you cloak it in the facade of a religion and name it, Islam.