A well-known Paris imam has been arrested, along with 20 members of his family, for laundering money for terrorists. (Hat tip: Robert.)

PARIS — The arrest of Daw Meskine, Secretary General of the French Council for Imams, and his son on suspicion of money laundering activities linked to a “terrorist” organization has sent shockwaves across the sizable Muslim minority.

“We are in contact with the Interior Ministry to find out why he has been detained,” Zuhir Burik, the council’s president, told islamonline.net. He said the arrest raises many questions. “Meskine is a prominent and respected Muslim figure and is well known to French authorities and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy himself,” he noted.

Interior ministry sources told IOL Meskine and his son were arrested on Monday, June 19, as part of a probe into the funding of his al-Najah school and a farm he owns in northern France, which he has turned into as a summer camp for the school students.

Some 20 members of Meskine’s family and aides were arrested in the swoop ordered by Paris prosecutors.

The sources said the arrests are linked to an investigation into laundering money coming from Gulf countries and money laundering activities linked to a terrorist organization.

Last Thursday, Imam Daw Meskine was praising the opening of a new Islamic center to fight “Islamophobia.”

UPDATE at 6/21/06 9:35:31 am:

Oddly enough, Imam Daw Meskine and his family members were arrested last Monday, but the story is almost completely unreported in mainstream media. I’ve searched everywhere, and IslamOnline is one of the only sources in the entire world.

UPDATE at 6/21/06 9:59:35 am:

The Associated Press did put this story on the news wire yesterday, but Fox News is apparently the only media outlet that published it: France Detains 17 Suspected Finance Associates of Radical Islamic Terror Group.

UPDATE at 6/21/06 10:11:20 am:

LGF reader RadicalRon points out another report at Expatica: Islamic leader caught in terrorist funds probe.