SEVEN men arrested in the US for planning to blow up America's tallest building and FBI offices were not Muslims and not linked to the US Islamic community, Islamic leaders insisted yesterday. The suspects - five Americans and two foreigners - arrested on Thursday after approaching an undercover FBI agent who they thought was an agent of al-Qaeda, were described as a cult. They were accused of trying to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago with help from al-Qaeda. But authorities said the men never actually made contact with the terrorist network and were instead caught in an FBI sting involving an informant who posed as an al-Qaeda operative. Federal prosecutors said the men, who operated out of a warehouse in Liberty City, a poor section of Miami, took an oath to al-Qaeda and plotted to create an "Islamic army" bent on violence against the US. The charges stated that the group, calling itself the "Seas of David", had studied the Sears Tower and other buildings as possible targets.
Those arrested ranged in age from 22 to 32 and included an immigrant from Haiti and a Haitian who was in the US illegally. Group leader Narseal Batiste told the undercover agent he was "organising a mission to wage jihad". Batiste requested money, boots, uniforms, machine-guns, radios and vehicles. The suspects were not Muslims, local Islamic leaders said. "As far as we are concerned they have no relation with our community, their ideology has nothing in common with the ideology of Islam and they should not be called Muslim," said Ahmed Bedier, of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "This seems like some sort of cult group."