Egyptian cleric held for Christmas bomb plot a Sunni envoy

The Egyptian Islamic missionary held for allegedly plotting a Christmas bomb attack is an envoy of Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning who was arrested by mistake, the institution’s grand imam said on Sunday.

Al-Azhar’s Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi told Egypt’s official MENA news agency that he was personally following up the case of Sheikh Mohammed al-Sayyid Ahmed Mussa who was arrested by police in Cotabato City.

Tantawi aide Sheikh Abdel Fattah Allam said he expected Sheikh Mussa to be released on bail “in the next few hours.”

“The envoys of Al-Azhar abroad are chosen according to strict criteria to encourage moderation in Islam and the renunciation of violence and terrorism,” he added.

Egypt’s religious affairs ministry issued a statement saying that Sheikh Mussa was being well treated but that there were contacts at the highest level between the two governments to try to secure his release.

“Sheikh Mussa is a man of faith who represents a prestigious religious institution,” the ministry said.

“There are 29 Al-Azhar envoys in the Philippines teaching Arabic language and Islamic religion in accordance with an agreement between Cairo and Manila,” he added.

Mussa, identified by police as Mohamad Sayed, was arrested during a dawn raid on a flat in the Majad Islamic School in Cotabato City. Arrested with Mussa was a Filipino companion, Mohammad Said.

An explosive device fashioned from a 60-millimeter mortar round and ball bearings attached to a timing device was reportedly recovered from his room.

Police said the Egyptian was captured after surveillance and that intelligence reports suggested he planned to detonate the bomb at an undisclosed location in the city on Christmas.

Among the items they said were recovered from his room was a booklet on the organization of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

‘A kind preacher’

To his neighbors in Campo Muslim in Cotabato City, Mussa is viewed as kind, respectful, and pious and an unlikely terrorist.

Security forces insist that Mussa, Abu Hussein on police records, has links with the al-Qaeda global terror network and to its Asian cell, the Jemaah Islamiyah.

Mussa taught Islamic values, peace education and Arabic language at the Mahad Islamic School near his rented house,

Mussa’s neighbors said they believe the bomb-making paraphernalia found in his house during a raid on Dec. 18 were planted.

More than a dozen foreigners, said to have terror links, have been arrested in Central Mindanao since 2003.

One of those arrested was Egyptian-born Dia Algabre who was picked up at the Cagayan de Oro airport more than three years ago, along with foreign-trained Maranaw bomb-maker Muklis Yunus, while on his way to Manila for an alleged bombing mission. Algabre is married to a Maguindanaon.

An Iraqi and a Palestinian were also arrested in Simuay District in Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan two years before Yunus’ arrest by the Army’s 12th Intelligence and Security Unit, led by then Maj. Alden Juan Masagca.

Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, said Hussein was an ordinary preacher and “is not a terrorist.”

In 2004, an elite police team from Camp Crame pounced on Indonesian-born Taufik Rifki, also an alleged member of JI.

Rifki and his companions rented a house in San Pablo, Cotabato City for their headquarters, received money from the Middle East through several bank accounts, and even learned to speak Tagalog and Maguindanaon.

Rifki was enrolled in a government school here using the name Ami Irza.  – John Unson