Barbara Ferguson, Arab News Correspondent

WASHINGTON, 1 October 2003 — Abdul Rahman Al-Amoudi, one of the country’s leading Islamic activists, has been arrested on criminal charges for illegally accepting money from Libya, a country listed by the US State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.

Al-Amoudi, 51, a naturalized US citizen born in Eritrea, is a former head of the American Muslim Council, who often met with senior Clinton and Bush administration officials. Al-Amoudi was arrested Sunday at Washington Dulles Airport on a return flight from London. Agents for the Department of Homeland Security accuse Al-Amoudi of accepting $340,000 from Libyan officials.

FBI Assistant Director Michael Mason described Al-Amoudi’s detention “an important arrest.”

An affidavit filed by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said US authorities had established numerous ties between Al-Amoudi and the Libyan government, and said he made at least 10 trips to Libya using one Yemeni and two US passports. It is illegal for US citizens to travel to Libya without authorization from the State Department. A federal magistrate in the US District Court in Alexandria, Va., ordered Al-Amoudi to be held without bail. A detention hearing was scheduled for yesterday, when more charges against Al-Amoudi were to be made, authorities said.

Al-Amoudi is also a founder of the Pentagon’s Muslim chaplain program for the US military. The American Muslim Foundation, founded ten years ago by Al-Amoudi, created the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council to promote young Muslims to serve as Muslim clerics in the military.

Khalil Jahshan, an expert on US-Arab relations, believes this is part of a larger crackdown on Muslim organizations with similar viewpoints. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that probably every Muslim organization and philanthropy is currently under investigation,” said Jahshan. “It’s a very frustrating time — across the board — for Gulf, Palestinian and Muslim groups.”

“The most worrisome is the ‘chill effect’ in terms of these investigations and crackdowns, which will be with this community for a long time.”