Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, the 24-year-old Kuwaiti-born Muslim terrorist who murdered five active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces in Chattanooga on Thursday, prayed several times at a Brentwood, Tennessee Islamic Center located next door to a “gun free” Armed Forces Career Center.
Mohammad Fazili is the leader of the Islamic Center of Williamson County. It’s located in a strip mall on Carothers Parkway in Brentwood, next door to an Armed Forces Career Center that features a “WARNING: Weapons Prohibited” sign on its door. Fazili tells the local Nashville, Fox News affiliate that Abdulazeez had participated in afternoon prayers there but “after the first two, three days of Ramadan he disappeared.”
Since Ramadan began on June 18, the third day of Ramadan on which Fazili says the killer Abdulazeez ” disappeared” from the Islamic Center of Williamson County would have been approximately June 20.
On Monday Fazili told Breitbart News that Abdulazeez had come to the center on more than the two or three times he participated in afternoon prayers. “He was here more than three times. He did not come for morning prayers or evening prayers, but he was here more times at random. He worked near here in Franklin for two months,” Fazili said.
Fazili offered no explanation for what Abdulazeez was doing during those “random” visits prior to June 20 that were not related to afternoon prayers.
When asked if he thought Abdulazeez was casing the next door Armed Forces Career Center to learn about their patterns of behavior and procedures in preparation for Thursday’s deadly attacks, Fazili said, “I have no idea, I do not know what was in his mind.”
Breitbart News also asked why the Islamic Center of Williamson County has no signage that identifies it as such, despite the fact that it has leased its Brentwood strip mall location for four years.
“We don’t need signs,” Fazili said, “because everyone who attends here knows where we are. We have our information on our website, and we email those who attend. We will have signs at our new location.”
The center’s web site shows a photograph of a $1.5 million property in nearby Franklin, which it calls a Masjid project (a mosque) for which it is requesting donations
Ramadan, the calendar month of fasting that is one of the five pillars of Islam, began on June 18 and ended on Thursday July 16, the day Abdulazeez killed 4 Marines and 1 sailor before being killed by law enforcement officials.
As Breitbart News reported, Abdulazeez worked at Superior Essex in nearby Franklin, Tennessee for 3 months before going on his killing spree.
On Saturday, the Islamic center of Williamson County issued this statement:
The Islamic Center of Williamson County (ICWC) strongly condemns the violence that was perpetrated on July 16, 2015 in Chattanooga in which the actions of an individual resulted in the loss of five precious lives and heroes. We convey our deepest sympathy, regrets, and condolences to their families and loved ones. We stand by members of all faiths and strongly condemn any act of violence. To further our resolve to stand by the families of the fallen marines and injured police officers, ICWC is canceling its public celebration to commemorate the end of the Holy Month of Fasting which was scheduled on Sunday July 19th, 2015. We stand in solidarity and join in mourning the loss of innocent lives.
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