The Queens chapter of an international jihadist group, founded by the Brooklyn College grad accused of being an al Qaeda sympathizer - is terrorizing people in the extremist's old stomping grounds, residents said Thurdsay. "They have a lot of hatred [but] the police said they can't do anything about them," Kana Chauhan, president of the Jackson Heights Merchants Association, said of the radical group Al Muhajiroun.The organization is tied to suspected terrorist ally Syed "Fahad" Hashmi, a disciple of Syrian cleric Omar Bakri who was banned from speaking on English college campuses. The Queens-bred Hashmi, who was arrested in London Wednesday on charges he moved funds and military gear to notorious terror camps in Pakistan, founded the local chapter of the extremist group. Each weekend, it sets up its hate-spewing operation on 37th Avenue and 74th Street.
"They're against America, they make trouble," local merchant Amarjit Singh said. "Whatever they say is really nasty."
Nearly every Saturday for more than a year, Hashmi's buddies - who call themselves the Islamic Thinkers - have unloaded their propaganda from a minivan and set up a table festooned with anti-U.S. banners and fliers. Then, shouting and using a megaphone, the young firebrands - most are in their 20s and early 30s - walk the street spewing hate. "They display pictures of people dying in the war. They want people to feel they're right and get them thinking against [President] Bush and America," said Sarabjit Damber, 24. "They're talking crap about America, saying, 'Bush is a terrorist,' or that 'America is not good, don't trust these people,' " he said.
The group also is suspected of trying to recruit second-generation Muslim immigrants to fight against America, police sources said. Fights often break out between the jihadists and passers-by, merchants said.