Beware of Your Neighbors

2 Pages·2021·0.07 MB·English

Rumors of tank, underground bunkers prove false

FBI says group considered 'model' citizens

BY BRAD HEATH
Press & Sun-Bulletin

TOMPKINS -- First there was the rumor about the tank.

Members of the Muslims of the Americas, Inc. had one hidden away in their
isolated settlement here, or so the rumor went. Turns out, it was a bulldozer.

Then, there's the one about the underground bunkers -- where, rumor had it, the
Muslims of the Americas were stashing weapons. No bunkers either, it turns out.
Most of the houses and mobile homes that dot their settlement in rural Delaware
County don't even have basements.

Other rumors swirled. A link to the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. The
rattle of machine gun fire echoing through the hills. Plans to poison a nearby New
York City reservoir. Some people heard Osama bin Laden himself might have
visited. And some school children were kept home earlier this year after a rumor
circulated that the group was planning to blow up a school, the FBI said.

The FBI has heard all of them. None of them, it says, are true.

"People are calling in with all kinds of stories," said Special Agent Stephen
Benjamin, the head of the FBI's office in Binghamton. "Some things have come up
and they have turned out to be nothing."

The FBI met with Muslims of the Americas members Sept. 12 because they were
concerned there might be a backlash against Muslims in the wake of the terrorist
attacks on Washington and New York. But other than that, he said, he has had little
contact with members of the group.

"They are considered fairly model members of the community out there," he said.

State police have reached the same conclusion.

Every allegation, every complaint, has proven itself unfounded, said Maj. William
Foley, the commander of the state police Troop C, which includes Delaware
County.

Neither Benjamin nor Foley would say whether their agencies have investigated
Muslims of the Americas in the past.

Muhammad Hasib Abdul-Haqq, a spokesman for Muslims of the Americas, said
some of the rumors are laughable.

"We've talked to the FBI and they've said they've heard these rumors and they have
to investigate everything," he said. "If they found something, why aren't they up
here?"

Abdul-Haqq said he and several other members of Muslims of the Americas'
settlement in Delaware County have had to undergo background checks in the past.
His was required before he could become a prison chaplain. Each time, their
background checks have been approved, he said.

"As far as any links between these Muslims and terrorists?" Benjamin said. "No."