Good news! According to the Sacramento Bee, new-style imams like Mohammed Abdul Azeez of Sacramento’s SALAM Islamic Center are all the rage. [New Wave Imams, Stephen Magagnini, Sacramento Bee, August 7, 2005)]

Azeez, writes Magagnini, is “tall, hip and handsome.” His mission is to reach out to the younger, more Americanized Muslims.

Too bad Lodi didn’t get any hip imam dudes. That might have saved the F.B.I. from a three-year investigation that included secret tape recordings of key mosque leaders.

And add this to your “bizarre immigration facts” file: imam Mohammed Adil Khan, who has agreed to be deported for overstaying his visa, cannot fly on commercial flights because he’s on the “no fly” list. The government will have to charter a private jet to return him to Pakistan.

(”Pakistani Community in California Was Taped,” Don Thompson, Washington Post, August 5, 2005)