sentencing memorandum which described Aref's background and the support shown for him in the community. Aref professed innocence before his sentencing, and criticized the government's treatment of Muslims. After sentencing, Aref was taken to the Communication Management Unit (CMU) at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was assigned BOP# 12778–052. The Times Union ( ) and the Daily Gazette (), Albany's two main daily newspapers, both ran editorials at the time of the sentencing asking for extreme leniency, the Times Union on March 8 and 9 and the Gazette on March 9. In addition, Times Union columnist Fred LeBrun, who had followed the trial closely, wrote, prior to the sentencing, Someday we'll look back on the present national paranoia over terrorism and the excesses done in its name with the same national embarrassment that Americans feel for Sen. Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunts of the 1950s and our appalling treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Someday. But not anytime soon, and certainly not before Yassin M. Aref, the former imam at an Albany mosque, and Mohammed M. Hossain, a pizza shop owner, are sentenced ... Looking up from a warm seat somewhere, Senator Joe must be viewing all this with a knowing smile. Carl Strock, the columnist for the Gazette, wrote many columns attacking the process as extremely unfair. The FBI responded by contacting the editorial boards of the Times Union and the Gazette and running an op-ed piece in the Gazette upholding the sting operation as legitimate. Muslim Solidarity Committee After the convictions, the Muslim Solidarity Committee (MSC) was formed to support Aref, Hossain, and their families. It generated over 50 letters, and nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition, to the judge in support of leniency, and raised over $30,000 to support the two families. Its founders won an award from the NYCLU in November 2007. In 2008, supporters formed another group, Project Salam, which started studying other Muslim “terrorism” convictions, and advocating for others they believed had been treated unfairly. In 2010, Project Salam joined with other groups to form the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF) (later shortened to the Coalition for Civil Freedoms [CCF]) which does essentially the same thing, on a larger scale. In 2018, members of Project Salam recorded a podcast, Terror Talk in which they discussed the Aref/Hossain case and the larger context over several episodes. Appeal Aref's appeal,