SAN BERNARDINO, California — Rahemaan Ali stood outside the Dar Al Uloom Al Islamiyah-Amer mosque in San Bernardino, still in disbelief that someone he knew was involved in Wednesday's mass shooting that claimed 14 lives.
"It's really shocking, I'm still not over it," the 18-year-old told BuzzFeed News on Thursday. "He never seemed suspicious, never spoke about anything political. If anything he was shy."
Ali was talking about about Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two shooters who stormed a social services center and gunned down a crowd of county workers attending a holiday party, killing 14 and injuring 21.
Farook started attending the Dar Al Uloom Al-Islamiyah of America mosque in San Bernardino about two years ago, Ali said. He would come a couple of times a week to pray; the last time he saw him at the mosque was three weeks ago. Farook had recently memorized the Qur'an, a feat not many can accomplish.
In 2014, he went to Saudi Arabia to marry a woman — identified by authorities as the second shooter, 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik — whom he met online, Ali said. The couple would go on to have a baby daughter, but Ali never met them.
Farook also frequented the Islamic Center of Riverside for several years.
Dr. Mustafa H. Kuko, the director of the Islamic center, said he's been having a difficult time reconciling the man who used to pray at his mosque twice a day with the person who, along with his wife, killed 14 people in San Bernardino.
"It was bad, very demoralizing," Kuko told BuzzFeed News on Thursday.
Describing him as shy and "a little bit withdrawn," Kuko said Farook didn't mix easily with others. Still, he was able to make friends with some of the brothers at the mosque.
The last time he saw Farook was in January. After inquiring about his absence, Kuko — who presided over Farook's wedding to Malik — was told that the couple had moved to Redlands and started attending a closer mosque in San Bernardino.
Since the Wednesday shooting, Kuko said, he has been speaking with members of his congregation who were shocked by the shooting and worried about how it would reflect on them.
Kuko told them that in life, you get the good and the bad.
"This has nothing to do with Islam, or Muslims," Kuko said. "He's a disturbed person."
Still, there is concern about the backlash Farook's actions will have on the local Muslim community. Ali said they've already had to call deputies because of death threats they've received on the phone.
An unnamed U.S. intelligence official told the Associated Press Thursday that investigators are still attempting to determine if Farook became radicalized and if he was in contact with foreign terror groups after he communicated with extremists on social media who are under FBI scrutiny.
Earlier in the day, President Barack Obama said "until all the social media and electronic information has been exploited, we're just not going to be able to answer" questions about the shooters' motives.
Nizaam Ali, 23, a member of the Dar Al Uloom Al-Islamiyah of America mosque in San Bernardino said the FBI went to his home Wednesday night at about 8:30 p.m. to ask him how he knew Farook. He told authorities they weren't close, but that he knew him for about two years.
FBI agents said they had been in contact 50 times, but Nizaam Ali said that wouldn't be uncommon for a span of two years.
"He would come and pray here with us, he was a very simple person, very nice," Nizaam Ali told BuzzFeed News. "I never saw him upset or angry or talk about politics.
"There are no words to describe the feeling I got when his name was said at the press conference."
Roshan Zamir Abbassi, an assistant imam at the Dal-Al-Uloom Al-Islamiyah, said the FBI held him at gunpoint at his home to question him about his contact with Farook.
In a Facebook post Abbassi said:
"Held at gunpoint when LAPD, secret service, and FBI visited my house just a few hours ago. My crime, the shooter used to come to our local masjid. My friend was with me too. We Muslims condemn all acts of terror. Alhamdu lillah we are okay. We have nothing to hide and I repeat we condemn all acts of terror."
"They asked me if I knew this person Syed Farook," Abbassi told NBC News. "I said, 'Today is the first day I've heard this name.'"
Abbassi said he only recognized Farook when authorities showed him a picture. They told him that had phone records showing he had been in touch with Farook at least 36 times, Abbassi told the Los Angeles Times. "But each of those could have been only for 10 seconds."
Abbassi said he was searched to ensure he was unarmed and was questioned for about an hour. Authorities told him he was not under arrest and would not be charged, he said.
After the shooting, he found anti-Islamic messages on the mosque's voicemail, he told NBC News.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch echoed Obama's remarks in Washington Thursday, cautioning the public that investigators did not know "if this was workplace rage or something larger or both."
Still, in the vacuum of an official motive being found, Nizaam Ali told BuzzFeed News that he was afraid of the impact of public perception.
"The fear is that people will start taking revenge on Muslims," he said. "One Muslim does not represent an entire community. But on behalf of my community I offer my condolences, for the people who died and those who were injured."