Imam Muhammad Masood from Boston, who is fighting deportation, has disowned his brother, Jamaatud Dawa founder Hafiz Saeed, declaring, I am not his brother.
According to the newspaper Patriot Ledger, the imam said that some people might suspect him because his brother, Muhammad Saeed, is one of Pakistans most notorious radical Muslim leaders. He disavowed any relationship, certainly with his brothers politics, said Deacon Mike Iwanowicz, who represented Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church at an interfaith meeting last Wednesday.
Rabbi Barry Starr of Temple Israel and the Rev Deborah Cayer of the Unitarian Church of Sharon dismissed the family link as guilt by association.
Two other Massachusetts imams are also related to Hafiz Saeed. Imam Mahmood Hamid of the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester is also his brother and Imam Abdul Hannan of the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell is married to his sister. Imam Masood told the group he could not remember the last time he spoke to Saeed - ''a long time ago, Rabbi Starr reports Imam Masood as having said. During a 90-minute meeting with Imam Masood last week, seven rabbis, Protestant pastors and a representative from the local Roman Catholic parish pledged help for the Sharon mosques former spiritual director - everything from raising money to paying family expenses to a letter of support that will be sent to Sen Edward Kennedy, Sen John Kerry and US Rep Barney Frank, among others.
Patriot Ledger reports that Rabbi Starr and others said that it was Imam Masood who had requested the meeting. One online blogger writes, So, we do not wish to engage in guilt by association. But its legitimate to ask questions. Until you ask questions, you dont know what relationship - if any- exists between Hafiz Saeed and his numerous siblings and in-law in Massachusetts. 
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