Muslims in Albany are upset and seething because a local prosecutor may become a judge.

Why are they upset, angry, and appalled?

Because he prosecuted Muslims.

Members of Albany’s Muslim Solidarity Committee say they will do everything in their power to ensure Glenn Suddaby doesn’t receive the nomination. The activists formed their group after the arrest and conviction of Mohammad Hossain, an Albany pizza shop owner, and Yassin Aref, an Albany imam.

Despite grass roots opposition, Suddaby has at least one pretty big name supporter - U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer.

News that Suddaby, U.S. attorney for the northern district of New York, is being considered by the White House for federal judge doesn’t sit well with the people who worship at the Masjid As-Salam Mosque.

“We consider this was a great injustice, really, against Muslims and against the principles on which the U.S. stands, really” Shamshad Ahmad said at the mosque.

Aref used to be the imam at the mosque. But he and Hossain, a fellow mosque member, will spend the next 15 years in prison.

Many in the Islamic community believe it was the work of Suddaby that put them there.

“To hear that this person was nominated based on the entrapment case, I was appalled. Angry and appalled,” said May Saffar of the Muslim Solidarity Committee.

(Hat tip: rogue yam.)

UPDATE at 10/17/07 7:42:35 pm:

And what were the imam and the pizza shop owner charged with? Two men deny plotting to launder missile money.

ALBANY, New York (CNN) — A Muslim cleric and a founder of his mosque pleaded not guilty at a detention hearing Tuesday to charges of conspiring to launder money and promote terrorism.

Federal magistrate David Homer denied bail for Yassin Aref, 34, and Mohammed Hossain, 49, and remanded them to custody, saying the government had proved the two were flight risks.

Aref is an imam, or prayer leader, at the As-Salam mosque in the New York capital. Both men were arrested last Thursday during raids on their homes and the mosque.

Law enforcement sources said the men are believed to be connected to Ansar al-Islam, a terrorist organization previously based in northern Iraq with links to Jordanian terrorism suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who U.S. officials believe has links to al Qaeda.

According to the criminal complaint, an FBI informant posing as an arms dealer asked the two suspects to launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile that would be used to kill Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations in retaliation for Pakistan’s support of the U.S.-led war on terrorism.