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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576324071441122848.html

By ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES

Members of the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, reacted with dismay to the news of Hafiz Khan’s arrest on Saturday morning.

“We were all really shocked,” said Asad Ba-Yunus, spokesman for the Muslim Communities Association of South Florida, the parent organization of the Flagler Mosque. “This was something completely out of the blue for us.”

Mr. Ba-Yunus said the mosque has suspended Mr. Khan indefinitely and has been in regular contact with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI.

If the accusations against the imam are true, “we unconditionally condemn” his actions, said Mr. Ba-Yunus. But he emphasized that “these are the alleged acts of a few people and one family” and not representative of the broader Muslim community.

He added that Mr. Khan “did not conduct any of the alleged activity in the mosque itself,” and if mosque leaders had known of it, “we would have alerted law enforcement ourselves.”

Mr. Khan—a U.S. citizen originally from the northwest province of Pakistan—was a “very gentle 76-year-old man, like a typical grandfather,” said Mr. Ba-Yunus. “Everybody respects him and treats him nicely because of his demeanor and because of his Islamic knowledge.”

He has been the mosque’s imam for 14 years, said Mr. Ba-Yunus, and wasn’t known for making extremist statements. Mr. Ba-Yunus has attended several of the imam’s sermons and said they hewed to uncontroversial subject matter, like how to fast or pray.

“He never delved into political or geopolitical stuff,” said Mr. Ba-Yunus.

Another area Muslim leader, Sofian Zakkout of the American Muslim Association of North America, said that the imam was frail and nearly blind.

“He is very, very low-profile,” said Mr. Zakkout. “He is not like other imams going around South Florida giving lectures. I’ve never seen him. He’s always in that Islamic center.”

The Jamaat al-Mu’mineen Mosque in Margate, Fla., where Mr. Khan’s son was the imam, has no affiliation to the Flagler Mosque. A message left at the Margate mosque on Saturday afternoon was not returned.

In the wider Islamic community of South Florida, many feared that the imams’ arrests would trigger a backlash against Muslims.

“It’s like a hurricane hit our communities,” said Mr. Zakkout. Area Muslims are “very worried, they are upset, they are confused.”

He said that the recent news of Osama Bin Laden’s killing brought a sense of relief to the community. “We felt that it would be a change, that the black cloud has passed,” said Mr. Zakkout. “Now the nightmare is coming back.”

In his conversations with South Florida imams, he said, he’s been urging them to be patient and to wait for more facts to emerge before deciding how to proceed.

But Mr. Zakkout said some Muslims are wary of law enforcement because of what they consider intrusive surveillance and scapegoating. “There is mistrust, unfortunately,” he said.

Mr. Zakkout said he was pleased with the way authorities handled the arrests. He received a call on Saturday morning from John Gillies, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami office, who assured him that law enforcement didn’t enter the mosques to make their arrests.

“I told him we respect that,” said Mr. Zakkout. “We really don’t know exactly what’s going on,” he added, “but we will cooperate with the government.”