Ali Asad Chandia

Ali Asad Chandia (b. 1976 (age 40–41) in Lahore, Pakistan) was a third-grade teacher at the Al-Huda School, of Dar-us-Salaam mosque, in College Park, Maryland in the United States. Chandia provided material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani terrorist organization, and assisted the Virginia Jihad Network. On June 6, 2006, a jury unanimously found Chandia guilty. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with three years of supervised release at the end of his incarceration, on three counts of conspiracy and providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba on August 30, 2006. Assistant U.S. Attorney David H. Laufman and Department of Justice Trial Attorney John T. Gibbs, who prosecuted the case, had sought a sentence of 30 years to life.

Chandia moved from Pakistan to the U.S. in 1994 at the age of seventeen. He attended Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The mother of one of his high school friends said he moved toward Muslims, who had a similar culture. She spoke anonymously because some of Chandia's supporters were against interaction with the media. The mother said Dar al-Arqam mosque "became a community center" for Chandia and his friends "because they're not really comfortable with the opposite sex. That's a cultural thing." He attended Montgomery College from fall 1995 through spring 2000, becoming increasingly religious, and serving as the president of the Muslim Students' Association from 1998 to 1999. Chandia has a son, born in 2004, and a stepdaughter, born in 2000. Chandia taught Arabic at Al-Salik Institute in College Park sometime before working at Al Huda.

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