WCOM NEWS

5-27-04

Miramar mother denies U.S. charge that her son is tied to al-Qaida

MIRAMAR--From a sofa in her Miramar home, the mother of Adnan El'Shukri-Jumah watched her son's face flash across the television screen with six other pictures of terrorist suspects. When Attorney General John Ashcroft singled out her son by name in Wednesday's live broadcast, Zurah Abdu Ahmed loosened her pursed lips.

"First!" she said.

But the early mention of her Saudi-born son's name held the only surprise for Ahmed, 42. Her lips moved silently in prayer as Ashcroft said her son had met overseas with senior al-Qaida leaders to plan attacks, and that he has scouted America for potential sites. But soon she tired, and clicked off the television.

"It's not something new," Ahmed said, her eyes wide beneath her black head scarf.

In his national address, Ashcroft made no claim that investigators have new information to link El'Shukri-Jumah, 28, to terrorist attacks since the FBI first publicized their search for him 14 months ago. For his mother, the prominent placement of El'Shukri-Jumah's face and name in the announcement served as cover for the lack of information officials have been able to gather.

"Maybe they don't have the proof or the power to tell the truth," she said. "There is something very big going on."

In Washington, her sentiments were echoed in part by Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who sits on the Intelligence Committee.

"This warning is not surprising. Far from it. We have known since 9-11 that al-Qaida and other terrorist networks have active cells in the United States just waiting for the opportunity to strike again," Graham said.

"Unfortunately, the FBI has not done enough to ferret them out and shut down their plots."

FBI officials said they have gathered no new evidence about El'Shukri-Jumah since they first announced their suspicions of his terrorist links last year.

"We're reissuing this just to get the name out there and to build familiarity with these faces," said Megan Baroska, an FBI spokeswoman in Washington.

For El'Shukri-Jumah's family, Ashcroft's announcement served only to renew the despair they have endured since a similar FBI announcement brought the world's attention to their doorstep in March 2003. The family last saw the eldest son in 2001, before the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. His mother said he has called once since then. He said he was teaching English in Morocco, had married and had a son; she warned him to stay away, telling him that the U.S. government was imprisoning Arab and Muslim men without letting them see a lawyer, Ahmed said.

Within days of the intense publicity of the FBI search for his son, Gulshair El'Shukri-Jumah, 74, was dismissed from his position as religious leader at the mosque next to his family's home. The well-respected, Saudi-trained Islamic scholar has since suffered a stroke, and his wife said their son's infamy contributed to the rapid deterioration of his health.

His wife is keeping the latest splash of publicity from him. He has lost the soft-spoken eloquence that he used to defend his son last year. Wednesday, he sat in the back room where he spends most of his time in a Medicare-issued hospital bed and alternately looked blankly across the room and struggled to make conversation.

Both spouses have withered beneath the Islamic robes they wear, and Ahmed said she lives on prayer alone. She, her husband and their three children still at home can no longer sleep or eat well, she said.

"You know, I cook half a chicken and two cups of rice and we never finish," she said. "I don't know how we live."

Ahmed said she, too, fears those who want to harm America and spread terror worldwide. She said some would hide behind the name of a religion to do so, but she has no doubt that her son cannot be counted among such people.

Aschroft said Wednesday that the younger El'Shukri-Jumah's mastery of English and his years in the United States added to his ability to help an al-Qaida attack.

Ahmed insisted that her son, who was born in Saudi Arabia and came to the United States as a teenager, was a generous and peaceful man. Now she fears that U.S. authorities may never give him the chance to prove his innocence.

"I hope and pray they don't find him," she said. "They will kill him!"

Ahmed said her son lived the life she would have, were she not a woman with family responsibilities. He loved to travel and would delight her with accounts of different cultures and places he encountered here and abroad.

He traveled for business, not scouting sites for attacks or meeting with terrorists, she said.

He may have been uncomfortable with the open expression of sexuality in the American public, but her son never expressed hatred or the desire to harm anybody.

He appreciated this country, its cultural diversity and the kindness of its people, she said.

"You know something," she said, "he and I used to say, `If this country had Islamic law it would be the best country on the Earth.'"

(source) Sun Sentinel (Tanya Weinberg) 5-27-04