Tarek Mehanna, who was arrested at his home Wednesday morning, is a teacher of middle-schoolers in Massashusetts.
Mehanna teaches science and religion.
Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury, Massachusetts, is seen in this image from a video footage taken in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 11. (Reuters)
The 27-year-old Mr. Mehanna taught science and religion to middle-schoolers at Alhuda Academy in the Boston area.
Israel National News reported:
The arrest of a Massachusetts teacher of religion in a Muslim school for planning mass murders at malls and targeting American soldiers overseas has caused shock throughout the US. The suspect, an Egyptian-American named Tarek Mehanna, was arraigned in court Wednesday.
He was arrested and charged last year for lying about his ties with Daniel Maldonado, a Muslim convert who wanted to join al-Qaeda in Somalia. Prosecutors said that Mehanna also intended to kill, maim or kidnap two senior executives in the White House, both of whom no longer are in office. No other details of the targets were released except that they never were in any danger.
One of his co-conspirators is an American now living in Syria…
Muslim leaders and the Muslim man-on-the-street have expressed fears of a backlash and have argued that Muslim terrorists are a minority and are not a product of Islam. Mainstream Muslims feel threatened. “Being a Muslim in America today is not easy,” Dallas businessman Hadi Jawad, told the Dallas Morning News. “We feel under siege. There is open season on our faith. Muslims are painted with a broad brush.”
He added that there is a good side to the backlash. “It might rest on the Muslim community to reach out … to show that we are just as average and just as mundane as everyone else,” Jawad said. “We have the same aspirations, to get a good education, to take care of the poor and needy. The same issues that everyone else has, we have.”