Madrassa Where Egyptian Would-Be Mall Shooter Taught Claim They Had No Idea He Was Into Jihad

Really? We all knew he was a jihadi a year ago. As I discussed briefly yesterday, the FBI has been watching this guy for a long time -- at least three years. He has basically committed himself to jihad since 2000 and has done little else since then besides studying up on jihad, running around with jihadis, translating jihadist manuals, and posting jihadi rants online. Check out his whole timeline here.

Rusty was all over this a year ago:

In addition to friends like Maldanado who has been convicted on terrorism related charges, Mehanna's online buddies include:

Shades of Swords, who glorifies the executed Bali bombers as martyrs.

Inshallahshaheed (Samir Khan), who we have an entire category devoted to and who claims he personally doesn't go off to fight the jihad because "it's hard" and who recently has set up his own media division in support of terrorist organizations. [AKA, Zip's favorite punching bag. -j]

Jihad Fields Are Calling, who's name pretty much sums it up.

And he posted as Abu Sabaya at Iskandari as late as October 14, 7 days before his last arrest.

He is also a fairly prolific uploader of jihadi videos to YouTube.

He had a criminal record, too. Not misdemeanors, either. He was arrested last year while trying to flee the country for lying to the FBI back in 2006, when he claimed to be ignorant of Daniel Maldonaldo's plan to join the jihad in Somalia.

He's always been connected to terrorism. He was in the Muslim Students Association when he was in pharmacy school.

Yet, in spite of all the mountains of evidence that he was a jihadi, the madrassa where he taught "religion" claims that they had absolutely no idea that he was up to no good:

During the brief period that Mr. Tarek Mehanna taught at Alhuda Academy, he exhibited nothing but excellent manners and conduct. We conducted due diligence in evaluating Mr. Mehanna’s qualifications and background, and the first we heard of the serious charges brought against him was yesterday morning.

His background, the last nine years of it (since he was 18), anyway, demonstrates that he is a committed jihadi, what with the online presence, the travels to Yemen, UAE, Jordan, and Egypt, with terrorists and for the express purpose of training for jihad.

The entire Alhuda community is shocked and dismayed by the allegations contained in the indictment. The school and its administration are confident in the fairness of our country’s judicial system, the principle of due process, and the presumption of innocence.

Yeah, and I'm shocked that Obama turned out to be a flaming communist.

We would like to take this opportunity to condemn all violence perpetrated or contemplated against innocent civilians. This condemnation is required by our faith as Muslims, and our every experience with Tarek Mehanna suggests to us that he shared this belief.

Alhuda Academy Board of Directors

Uh-huh. Because Salafists really believe that kafirs are "innocent civilians." This is a jihadi factory.