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Five young American Muslims held in Pakistan
• Men, aged 19 to 25, said to have contacted militants
• FBI alerted by Muslim community in the US
Five American Muslims have been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of making contact with an al-Qaida-funded militant group and were believed to be on their way to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against US forces.
The five, aged 19 to 25, formed a close-knit social group in the Alexandria area of Virginia, half an hour's drive from Washington.
They all disappeared from their family homes in late November and it appears that the alarm was first sounded by relatives concerned about what they were going to do.
Family members had initially thought the men were travelling within the US. But suspicions were aroused when one of them phoned home saying he was in the US, while the caller ID suggested he was overseas.
The families contacted their imams, who in turn contacted the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which alerted the FBI that same day.
The five men are reported to have left behind an 11-minute video featuring war scenes and statements about the defence of Muslims that has been interpreted by some as a farewell message.
The council would not comment on the video, but it has launched a campaign to try to dissuade young Muslims who might be attracted to extremist views and to counter distortions of the teachings of the Koran by extremists.
The arrests, which took place yesterday, come at a time of mounting anxiety in the US about the incidence of American citizens engaging in jihadist activities – a phenomenon of "homegrown" terrorism that has previously been considered rare in the country.
Investigations are continuing into the Fort Hood shooting on 5 November in which an American-born Muslim with some contact with radical Islam killed 13 people, and yesterdayon Wednesday a man from Chicago, David Headley, pleaded not guilty to charges that he helped last year's attack on Mumbai.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the council, mindful of how sensitive relations with the Muslim community are in the US at present, said: "I think the main point is the Muslim community took the lead in taking this to the law enforcement agencies, and that is a good sign.
Nihad Awad, the council's executive director, said: "We understand, unfortunately, this incident will be exploited by the cottage industry of Muslim bashers to try to marginalise Muslims in America."
The five Americans being held were identified in Pakistan as Ramy Zamzam, Eman Yasir, Waqar Hasan, Ahmad A Mini and Umer Farooq. All are US citizens: two were born in Pakistan, one is of Yemeni origin and another of Egyptian origin.
Pakistani authorities believe the men made contact with extremists via YouTube. They are said to have arrived in Karachi on 30 November and made approaches to militant groups there and in Lahore but to have been rebuffed, apparently because they lacked references.
They then moved to Sarghoda, in the north of Punjab province, where they were in touch with representatives of Jaish-e-Muhammad, a militant group – believed to be funded by Osama bin Laden – whose members have been involved in several bombings, and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which the UN accuses of orchestrating the Mumbai attacks.
According to the New York Times, the men stayed in the house of Farooq's uncle. His father, Khalid, was also at the house and was arrested.
FBI investigators are in Sarghoda to question the five. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, confirmed that the US had access to the detainees, which she described as "part of the usual outreach" made in such cases by the US government.
Barack Obama did not refer directly to the arrests today, but did say: "We have to constantly be mindful that some of these twisted ideologies are available over the internet."
In Oslo to accept the Nobel peace prize, he made a point of praising the "extraordinary contributions of the Muslim-American community and how they have been woven into the fabric of our nation in a seamless fashion."
FBI agents have already been in contact with associates and relatives of one of the five, Zamzam. He is a dental student at Howard University, Washington DC, who graduated earlier this year in biology and chemistry.
Samirah Ali, president of the university's Muslim student group, said he had talked to the FBI last week about Zamzam, whom he had known for three years. Zamzam had never shown militant leanings. "He's a very nice guy, very cordial, very friendly," Ali told Associated Press.
One of Zamzam's younger brothers, interviewed by AP at the family's apartment in Alexandria, said: "He's a good guy. He's a normal Joe."
• Men, aged 19 to 25, said to have contacted militants
• FBI alerted by Muslim community in the US
Five American Muslims have been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of making contact with an al-Qaida-funded militant group and were believed to be on their way to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against US forces.
The five, aged 19 to 25, formed a close-knit social group in the Alexandria area of Virginia, half an hour's drive from Washington.
They all disappeared from their family homes in late November and it appears that the alarm was first sounded by relatives concerned about what they were going to do.
Family members had initially thought the men were travelling within the US. But suspicions were aroused when one of them phoned home saying he was in the US, while the caller ID suggested he was overseas.
The families contacted their imams, who in turn contacted the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which alerted the FBI that same day.
The five men are reported to have left behind an 11-minute video featuring war scenes and statements about the defence of Muslims that has been interpreted by some as a farewell message.
The council would not comment on the video, but it has launched a campaign to try to dissuade young Muslims who might be attracted to extremist views and to counter distortions of the teachings of the Koran by extremists.
The arrests, which took place yesterday, come at a time of mounting anxiety in the US about the incidence of American citizens engaging in jihadist activities – a phenomenon of "homegrown" terrorism that has previously been considered rare in the country.
Investigations are continuing into the Fort Hood shooting on 5 November in which an American-born Muslim with some contact with radical Islam killed 13 people, and yesterdayon Wednesday a man from Chicago, David Headley, pleaded not guilty to charges that he helped last year's attack on Mumbai.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the council, mindful of how sensitive relations with the Muslim community are in the US at present, said: "I think the main point is the Muslim community took the lead in taking this to the law enforcement agencies, and that is a good sign.
Nihad Awad, the council's executive director, said: "We understand, unfortunately, this incident will be exploited by the cottage industry of Muslim bashers to try to marginalise Muslims in America."
The five Americans being held were identified in Pakistan as Ramy Zamzam, Eman Yasir, Waqar Hasan, Ahmad A Mini and Umer Farooq. All are US citizens: two were born in Pakistan, one is of Yemeni origin and another of Egyptian origin.
Pakistani authorities believe the men made contact with extremists via YouTube. They are said to have arrived in Karachi on 30 November and made approaches to militant groups there and in Lahore but to have been rebuffed, apparently because they lacked references.
They then moved to Sarghoda, in the north of Punjab province, where they were in touch with representatives of Jaish-e-Muhammad, a militant group – believed to be funded by Osama bin Laden – whose members have been involved in several bombings, and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which the UN accuses of orchestrating the Mumbai attacks.
According to the New York Times, the men stayed in the house of Farooq's uncle. His father, Khalid, was also at the house and was arrested.
FBI investigators are in Sarghoda to question the five. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, confirmed that the US had access to the detainees, which she described as "part of the usual outreach" made in such cases by the US government.
Barack Obama did not refer directly to the arrests today, but did say: "We have to constantly be mindful that some of these twisted ideologies are available over the internet."
In Oslo to accept the Nobel peace prize, he made a point of praising the "extraordinary contributions of the Muslim-American community and how they have been woven into the fabric of our nation in a seamless fashion."
FBI agents have already been in contact with associates and relatives of one of the five, Zamzam. He is a dental student at Howard University, Washington DC, who graduated earlier this year in biology and chemistry.
Samirah Ali, president of the university's Muslim student group, said he had talked to the FBI last week about Zamzam, whom he had known for three years. Zamzam had never shown militant leanings. "He's a very nice guy, very cordial, very friendly," Ali told Associated Press.
One of Zamzam's younger brothers, interviewed by AP at the family's apartment in Alexandria, said: "He's a good guy. He's a normal Joe."
