Forgetting Terror

Of the many New York Times readers who made their way through this week’s three-part series, “An Imam in America,” one was paying especially close attention.

The series, which ran at the top of Page One on Sunday and Tuesday, focused on the political tightrope walked by Sheik Reda Shata, imam of Brooklyn’s Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, as he tries to reconcile the often conflicting values of America and Islam.

Devorah Halberstam knows full well about the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge. On March 1, 1994, a Lebanese-born man who had just listened to a hate-filled anti-Jewish sermon at that mosque filled his car with deadly weapons and attacked a van filled with Hasidic Jewish children on the Brooklyn Bridge.

One youth was killed – her 16-year-old son, Ari. Tuesday was the 12th anniversary of his death.

Halberstam pored through the Times series, expecting to see at least some mention of her son’s case in the second installment, which dealt with the issue of terrorism. But Ari’s name never appeared in the 11,000-plus-word series.

Certainly, there is no denying the mosque’s critical connection to the case.

Dr. Douglas Anderson – the psychiatrist of killer Rashid Baz – testified at trial that Baz had attended a prayer service at the Islamic Society mosque following the massacre of 29 Palestinians by a Jewish doctor, Baruch Goldstein, in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Baz’s friend, Moufaq Askar, recounted the sermon: “According to Moufaq,” Anderson said, “he heard the imam say that ‘this takes the mask off the Jews. It shows them to be racist and fascist, as bad as the Nazis. Palestinians are suffering from the occupation and it’s time to end it.’ ”

After hearing that sermon, Baz took a Glock semiautomatic pistol, a Cobray machine gun and a 12-gauge Streetsweeper shotgun and put them in his car. The first two were the weapons he used in attacking the van carrying Ari Halberstam.

To date, no one has been able to identify the imam who gave that sermon. It most definitely was not Reda Shata, however – he first came to Bay Ridge from Egypt in 2002.

Was it his predecessor, who now works at a mosque in Union City, or a guest imam? No one has been able to say for sure.

To be fair, the Times series specifically focused on the imam, not the mosque. But given its connection to a case of terrorism that made national headlines, you can understand Devorah Halberstam’s frustration over the absence of any reference whatsoever to her son’s murder.

It’s been a difficult 12 years for Halberstam. Not only did she lose a son, but she has faced one roadblock after another in her quest for a full investigation of the case. Federal and state investigators seemed to believe that the arrest and conviction of those who bombed the World Trade Center the year before had eliminated any terrorist threat here.

Which is why the FBI’s legislative counsel, in a letter to Sen. Charles Schumer, outrageously declared that Ari’s killing “stemmed from road rage and was not an act of terrorism.” (The agency later withdrew its “road rage” claim.)

Halberstam and her supporters have long maintained that the attack was “a planned act of terror.” But Baz wasn’t talking – he pled guilty, avoiding a trial. Two friends who helped him conceal evidence also pled guilty to hindering prosecution, but served no jail time. (Baz was sentenced to 141 years.)

Were others involved, but allowed to flee because investigators failed to pursue leads, believing the “lone gunman” theory? No one has explained where Baz got his weapons, or why some of those questioned knew specific details of the case not revealed to the public.

As for the Islamic Society, it has won high marks from local law enforcement and political officials for its cooperative attitude. And yet even its current imam has praised Hamas, hailing its slain leader as the “lion of Palestine” and eulogizing a Palestinian woman who killed four Israeli soldiers in a suicide bombing.

Shata told the Times he would never condone the killing of Israeli civilians, but believes that targeting military figures is justifiable. It’s a dicey, but arguable, position. What he did not explain – because the Times apparently didn’t ask – is how he can then so fervently endorse Hamas, which unabashedly slaughters civilians.

Such are the dilemmas for a religious leader with a following that certainly includes those who draw no distinctions between Jewish soldiers and civilians – either in Israel or New York.

Which is the point Devorah Halberstam has been trying to make for the past 12 years. For too long, officials refused to accept the evidence that New York was being targeted by terrorists. They tried to dismiss cases like her son’s murder, making less of it than it was.

The end result of this “see no evil” approach was 9/11. That’s why, she says, Ari Halberstam’s murder can’t be forgotten or ignored – not just because of the precious life that was lost, but because of the important warning that it sent.