Toledo's Muslims say they don't fear backlash over arrests on terror charges

~ The federal government accused three of plotting to kill U.S. soldiers overseas and harboring or concealing terrorists.

TOLEDO, Ohio -- The business owners, doctors, lawyers and others who make up this industrial city's thriving Muslim community say they're not worried about any backlash against them following the terror charges leveled against three residents who share their religion.

"The Arabic community here is big, a few thousand, and they're involved in everything," said Ahmad Rachidi, 44, an insurance salesman.

The federal government accused Wassim I. Mazloum, 24, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, 43, and Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, of plotting to kill U.S. soldiers overseas and harboring or concealing terrorists. All have pleaded not guilty. Amawi was arrested last weekend in Jordan and the others were in Toledo.

All three had lived in Toledo within the past year. One was taking college courses and selling used cars. Another spent time playing in his yard with his children, according to neighbors.

The indictment, however, says they traveled together to a shooting range to practice and studied how to make explosives. It alleges that at least one of the men researched and tried to obtain government grants and private funding for the training.

Arab-Americans in other cities have been targeted by vandalism, hate mail and physical attacks following similar arrests and attacks overseas.

Mosques in Florida and Missouri were targeted by vandals two years ago after the beheadings of two American businessmen in the Middle East. Anti-Muslim signs popped up in a New Jersey neighborhood where one victim had lived.

"Anytime there's a watershed event we see hate crimes peak," said Arsalan Iftikhar, legal affairs director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

However, residents of Toledo's Muslim community -- about 6,000 out of the northwest Ohio city's total population of more than 300,000 -- said the arrests have not led to any general anti-Muslim sentiment so far.

The Arab-American community has been rooted in the city for generations. Many of today's residents are children and grandchildren of people who came to work in the city's auto and glass factories.

"We have judges, we have lawyers, we have doctors," said John Shousher, an Arab-American businessman who moved here 53 years ago. "We are part of the community."

Its members have included entertainer Danny Thomas and actor Jamie Farr -- Cpl. Max Klinger on MASH -- both born to Lebanese-American families. Former mayor Michael Damas, who took office in 1959, was thought to be one of the first Arab-Americans elected mayor of a large U.S. city.

"This relationship has built up slowly over the last 60 to 70 years," said Mohammed Ahmad, a trauma surgeon who is president of the United Muslim Association of Toledo.

"Here, nobody bothers you. The community is very close," he said.

In suburban Perrysburg, hundreds of people of all faiths rallied to support members of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo following the 2001 terrorist attacks. The mosque, founded in the 1950s, is believed to be one of the oldest in the nation.

Farooq S. Aboelzahab, imam and director of the center, said he prays that the community reacts just as peacefully now.

"We rely on the community, their understanding," he said.

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Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo contributed to this report.

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City of Toledo: http://www.ci.toledo.oh.us/