The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. - The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested an Islamic religious leader at the Portland airport on Sunday for unlawful use of a Social Security number and unlawful possession of a U.S. government document, according to a statement from the FBI.
Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, 40, was booked at the Multnomah County Jail and was to appear in court Monday.
Kariye served as a clergyman at the Islamic Center of Portland-Masjed As-Saber, a southwest Portland mosque, according to Hussein Adam Gude, a member of the center who said he regularly attended services.
Calls to the Islamic center went unanswered Sunday evening.
Police referred all questions to the FBI’s Portland office, where an answering machine played a recording of FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele reading the statement, which did not provide further details.
Steele did not immediately return phone calls Sunday.
The FBI had shown interest in Kariye’s mosque before.
Charles Mathews, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, had toured the Islamic center on Aug. 31 on an invitation from the board of directors, The Oregonian newspaper reported in Monday’s editions.
Phone listings show a Mohamed Kariye living in southwest Portland, but no one answered calls at that number Sunday.