Mosque records link Tennessee shooter to Boston Marathon bombers, 9/11 hijackers

Cathy Wells (left) accepts the US flag in honour of her son Lance Corporal Squire 'Skip' Wells from Capt. Michael Podbielski (right) at Georgia National Cemetery in Canton, Georgia, on July 26, 2015. Wells was killed July 16 when authorities say Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez opened fire at a Naval Reserve Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing Wells and three other Marines. A sailor later died of his wounds. Reuters

The mosques attended by the gunman in the Chattanooga, Tennessee shooting, Boston Marathon bombers and 9/11 hijackers turned out to be affiliated with the same Islamic group, according to property records obtained by the New York Post.

It said the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) is the trustee of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, to which Chattanooga suspect Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez belonged, in addition to the Boston and Virginia mosques frequented by the other terrorists.

"Yet federal investigators have dismissed any possibility that the Tennessee mosque was a source of radicalisation or support for the terrorist, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez," the report said.

The US Justice Department named NAIT in 2007 as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, which was accused of pouring in millions of dollars to the Hamas terror group. It said Gaddoor Saidi, the current NAIT chairman, is on the US government's co-conspirator list.

In the trial, the Justice Department said NAIT and Saidi are among "members of the US Muslim Brotherhood," along with NAIT's parent, the Islamic Society of North America.

NAIT tried several times but failed to request the government to remove its name from the co-conspirators' list. A judge said there was "ample evidence" about the ties among NAIT, Hamas and Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood, the report said, is jihadist movement.

Abdulazeez in the past posted on the Internet about his aim to fight in "jihad for the sake of Allah."

The report said in 2009, Islamic Society leaders invoked the names of Muslim Brotherhood figures including Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who once issued a fatwa for Muslims to kill US soldiers in Iraq, when they were raising money from Muslims in Chattanooga to build the mosque.

Abdulazeez and his family were members of the Islamic Society. His Facebook posts showed that he was feted by mosque leaders during his graduation.

According to his friends, Abdulazeez regularly prayed at the Islamic Society in the past months leading up to the Chattanooga mass killing.

The Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga started from a small mosque founded by NAIT in 1997. NAIT bought the property from the St. John United Methodist.

The land for the mosque was bought by Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga Inc., whose address was for NAIT agent Arif Shafi, who filed the articles of incorporation for the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga.

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