The National Association of Muslim American Women (NAMAW) has charged the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with entrapping four New York City Muslims arrested for planning to bomb a synagogue.

The cell was nabbed last week after a year-long police dragnet that involved an informant, who the Times of London reported probably is Shahed Hussain, a former New York state motel owner. He began collaborating with the FBI in 2002 to avoid deportation to Pakistan after being arrested on charges of fraud.

NAMAW appealed to the Justice Department to investigate the case, accusing the FBI of plotting to entrap the cell as part of a campaign against Muslims. It said that the FBI is “creating the illusion that all Muslims are either terrorists or potential terrorists, thereby substantiating the use of racial and religious profiling on Muslims and Arabs. 

“The FBI, posing as Al Qaeda-backed militants to brainwash and coax 'vulnerable' men into the walking trap of their own foiled terrorist plot, causes grave concern to the representatives of Muslims in American society," the organization said in a statement.

Police and federal investigators, after tracking the cell, sold them fake bombs and a phony Stinger missile that the four men planned to use to attack two Jewish buildings, including a synagogue, and a National Guard air base.

The cell wanted to create “a fireball that would make the country gasp, “according to a police officer.

The Muslim women’s group, which previously has asked for a probe of Jewish lobby groups for allegedly spreading hate messages, claimed that one of those arrested has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. They also charged that the FBI informant “persuaded these men into believing that their religion obligated them to carry out acts of violence in the United States in retaliation for U.S. war crimes being carried out in the Muslim world.'

Terence Kindlon, a lawyer who defended the last terror suspect to be tried in New York State, told the Times of London, “It is almost as if the FBI cooked up the plot and found four idiots to install as defendants.”

Referring to nearly 100 law enforcement officers involved n the arrests, he added, “Did they really need all those men in ninja suits with M16 rifles to arrest four idiots? Somewhere, someone in Al-Qaeda must be laughing.”

TEHRAN, Iran —  A top Iranian official accused the U.S. of hiring the bombers who carried out a devastating attack on a Shiite mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan, killing as many as 23, Fars news agency reported on Friday.

"Three people involved with the terrorist incident were arrested," Jalal Sayah, a deputy provincial governor told the agency. "According to the information obtained they were hired by America and the agents of the arrogance."

Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor general of the province, told the official IRNA news agency 23 people were killed and 125 others were wounded in the attack, which was carried out during evening prayers.

The bombing was the deadliest such incident in the Islamic Republic in more than a decade, according to Reuters.

The blast, which may been a homicide bombing, went off in Zahedan, the capital of a lawless province that frequently witnesses clashes between police and gangs involved in drug smuggling. It has also seen attacks by an Islamic militant group called Jundallah, which claims to be fighting for rights of Sunni Muslims in mainly Shiite Iran but is suspected of Al Qaeda links.

Alaeddin Mazari, a local journalist in Zahedan, told The Associated Press that the explosion occurred in the second biggest Shiite Muslim mosque in the city, some 1,000 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran.

Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor of Sistan-Baluchistan province where Zahedan is the capital, told the official Islamic Republic News Agency the explosion happened at 7:45 p.m. and said a terrorist was involved, but didn't provide further details. He told state television that he detained some suspects who planned additional attacks ahead of the June 12 presidential election.

The state news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying part of the mosque was destroyed and rescue teams were transferring the bodies of the dead and injured.

In 2007, Jundallah, or God's Brigade, killed 11 members of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards in Zahedan.

Sectarian violence has been rare in other parts of Iran, but not totally absent.

Iran hanged three men last month for their involvement in a bombing inside a packed Shiite mosque in April 2008 that killed 14 people in the southern city of Shiraz, about 550 miles south of Tehran.

The blast went off as the mosque's cleric was delivering a weekly speech denouncing the Bahai faith and Wahabiism — an austere brand of Sunni Islam practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia, according to local news reports. Such speeches are not unusual in Iranian mosques.

Iran's Revolutionary Court said the three were members of the Iran Royal Association, a little known monarchist group that wants to overthrow the country's ruling Islamic establishment. It said they had ties to the U.S.

Tehran has repeatedly accused the U.S. and Britain of backing militants and opposition groups. Both countries deny it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.