Ashland Terror Suspect Had Been Kicked Out Of Boston Mosque Over Views

BOSTON (CBS) – The man accused of plotting to attack the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol was previously asked to leave every mosque in the city of Boston, according to a leader at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.

"He's probably tried every mosque in the Boston area and they've all probably thrown him out,"
Atif Harden of the Islamic Center told WBZ-TV.

Harden said on Friday that Rezwan Ferdaus came to the Islamic Center a year-and-a-half ago, and after six months, they asked him to go someplace else. Harden says he was asked to leave because, "He was very belligerent and hostile. He did not agree with our philosophy and how we ran the Mosque."

WBZ-TV's Karen Anderson reports

Harden says the Mosque is open to everyone, but Ferdaus was rude to people he didn't want there.

"We had a member of the Shia community come to the Mosque and he was very nasty to them," Harden said. "The Cafe is open to everyone, Muslim or not, and he didn't like the way we ran the Cafe. He didn't like that non-Muslims could come there and that Muslim men and women ate together… He went off on Christian women who had skin exposed."

Harden says Ferdaus was also upset with the fact the Mosque encouraged people to be involved with the political process.

"He didn't like that we asked people to vote. He thought American government was bad and evil, and if we participated we were as bad as them. He was clearly disaffected, angry and upset," Harden says of Ferdaus.