Shortly after a Yemeni cleric who described himself as a spiritual adviser to Osama bin Laden was arrested on charges of using a Brooklyn mosque to funnel millions of dollars to Al Qaeda, the city’s Department of Correction reassigned a leader of the mosque who is also a chaplain at Rikers Island. A department spokesman said the chaplain, Amin Awad, has been “put into an administrative capacity” and can no longer deliver sermons or offer spiritual counseling to prisoners. The spokesman, Thomas Antenen, said the department continues to pay Mr. Awad’s $38,900-a-year salary while he works in its ministerial services office, which oversees the 22 other full-time chaplains at Rikers. Newsday first reported Mr. Award’s reassignment yesterday. Mr. Awad is an official of Al Farooq mosque on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill. The Yemeni cleric, Mohammed Al Hasan al-Moayad, was arrested in Germany and boasted that he had personally delivered $20 million to Mr. bin Laden. In court papers, the Justice Department suggested that Mr. Moayad had collected about $10,000 at the mosque. Full Story
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