Alabama police arrested a man from Huntsville this weekend on terrorism charges. Aziz Sayyed, 22, a Muslim originally from North Carolina but who lived in the Middle East for some years, was taken into custody and the details of the case have yet to be released:
As per the article and video release from WHNT local news, his former IHOP franchise employer, Tayseer Zuaiter and Hani Zuaiter, promised to "fully cooperate with police."
WHNT News 19 has learned that Aziz Sayyed, the 22-year-old charged with supporting an act of terrorism, worked at the IHOP on Highway 72.Former IHOP General Manager, Hani Zatier, told WHNT Sayyed was a hard worker.
The terrorism suspect started at the restaurant as a dishwasher in 2014.
"Then a couple months later his language was getting really good. So, he told me 'Look I really want to be a server to make the money'," said Zatier.
Zatier, who now lives in Colorado, hired Sayyed, who went by Zach at work.
The former general manager said the 22-year-old U.S. citizen moved back from the Middle East to go to school in Huntsville.
"He liked to work. He always told me I want to make the money, I want to pay for school. So, he wanted to try really hard in school. He wanted to be an engineer and he always wanted to work. You know, he's a good guy," explained Zatier.
WHNT has confirmed the terrorism suspect attended the Huntsville campus of Calhoun Community College.
"I would not expect from him to be this kind of person because he never talked about this kind of stuff to me. I'll always look at him like a little brother because giving him the job and teaching him how America is not easy, and that you have to work and have to support yourself," said Zatier.
The owner of the franchise, Tayseer Zuaiter, released a statement confirming that the franchise did not know about Sayyed's charges and is fully cooperating with authorities.
According to the statement:
"We were very surprised to learn that Mr. Sayyed was arrested. He no longer works for us and we are prepared to cooperate fully with authorities. Since we know nothing more than what is being reported in the news and because an investigation is underway, questions are best answered by authorities." (source)
The details of his crime will likely be revealed by authorities in the coming weeks. What is more interesting- and in our opinion, relevance- to this incident is his employer.
Tayseer is that he is the franchise owner of not just one, but a chain of IHOP restaurants, and as with all franchises, they are not cheap to start. In the case of IHOP, it costs approximately $50,000 to open one restaurant, let alone multiple restaurants in multiple states:
When he relocated to Colorado, one can see from public records that he purchased a property for one of his IHOP's for over $2 million.
Another interesting fact about Tayseer is that he is a Palestinian Muslim. As we have documented extensively here and our very own Walid knows from lived experience growing up as a Muslim in the Holy Land, too often times Palestinian Muslims, especially in the USA, have been tied to or associated with groups advocating for the genocide and destruction of Jews and Christians in Israel, as well as with causes tied to Islamic terrorism.
A little bit of digging to Tayseer's background reveals a character that is all too common. On the surface, he has a story of an idealized Muslim American immigrant- somebody who comes to the USA, goes into business, does very well, has a nice family, and who is an open Muslim but promotes "peace and tolerance" in terms of his religion. After all, on his LinkedIn profile he has inspirational quotes, including a picture of Confucius on one of them:
And of course, who can forget a family picture of him and his children when they were younger found elsewhere online:
But then after getting past the superficial distractions and we get to learn more about him, we find out that back in 2012, he was interviewed and complained of 'anti-Muslim discrimination' because he was on a Federal terrorism watch list that obstructed his ability to fly on an airplane:
Tayseer Zuaiter never expected to be on a list of suspected terrorists.
But the Denver Muslim and restaurant owner was detained at Denver International Airport last month because his name popped up on an FBI database.
After security officials questioned him for several hours, Zuaiter was allowed to fly to Las Vegas for a business conference. As it turns out, the man officials were looking for has no left arm.
"Sept. 11 was a wake-up call for all Muslims in this country," Zuaiter said.
More than two years after the terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, some Americans still harbor a fear of Islam and Muslims.
"Muslims are known by the three B's: bomber, billionaire or belly dancer," said Dr. Liyakat Takim, a professor of religion at the University of Denver. "We need to overcome these stereotypes."
Takim and other Muslim leaders continued their quest to teach Americans about Islam on Saturday by hosting a conference at DU's Graduate School of International Studies.
Attending the symposium were several elementary and high school teachers as well as other educators interested in teaching students about Islam in America.
"We hope they take the content back to the classroom so we can maximize awareness and promote tolerance," said George Brown a DU professor who helped organize the conference.
Denver's Muslim leaders have recently started pushing their communities to reach out and educate others about Islam. (source, originally posted at Denver Post)
Now there are a lot of people who were wrongly placed on these lists. Could it be that he was one of those people who was wrongly added?
Maybe. But then, why would he be listed online as a point of contact with MSA in Colorado, which as has been known for years, is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood? Likewise. Tayseer is involved in many different "Palestinian rights" groups. His name is listed in the directory for Palestineremembered, and he signed a petition for the absolute right of return of 'all property' (often times used as a way to promote war and ultimately, genocide against Israelis), as well as another petition from protesting Israeli policies concerning Palestinians, which again is often times used as a cover for evil intentions.
However, the biggest piece of evidence comes from his Facebook page:
Note that picture on the lower left corner:
How interesting it is as well that Tayseer is also licensed as a Federal Firearms Dealer out in Colorado (source).
If this is not convincing enough, then what about his children? After all, a man's children often times reflect the values they were raised with. For example, the little girl in the picture above, Dalal, is now in college, and not only did she "like" the above picture of a Palestinian terrorist, but her Facebook profile speaks for itself:
Notice again, the picture of Dalal herself on the lower right taken from her Facebook pictures feed, which yields even more photos:
But enough about his daughter. What about his son, Hani, who was interviewed for the article? His Facebook page likewise is quite revealing:
It also seems a child (perhaps one of his own, perhaps a family member) aspires to follow in this path:
Another interesting fact revealed from his photos is that Hani is a pilot:
He also likes to take a LOT of photos when flying. Something I noticed, at least from a few of the photos, is that he was flying very close to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, which also borders on Redstone Arsenal, where the US Government makes a large number of their rockets and other explosives for the Military:
The large rocket you see is from the Museum. Redstone Arsenal literally borders this site.
Just for context, here is a map. Notice how the Rocket Center and Redstone Arsenal are literally neighbors.
Details have yet to come out as to what the circumstances surrounding Aziz Sayyed actually are. However, what merits further investigation are his connections with both Tayseer and Hani Zuaiter, because from their own public associations, they are indicative of a pattern characteristic to Islamic terrorist activity in the West: feign assimilation, deny connections with any kind of "Islamist" movements, publicly promote "peace" and "anti-discrimination," secretly support terrorist activity, and if caught, deny everything and try to hide the evidence. In their case, while one cannot say they are actively terrorists, their own associations show they have surrounded themselves with people and causes associated with terrorist activity.
That itself merits further investigation.
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