WASHINGTON, May 15: Muslims across the United States fear a backlash following the arrest of two Florida imams for their alleged link with the Pakistani Taliban.

The US media noted that the arrests had already caused Islamophobia to flare up.

“Mosques are the terrorists’ training camps,” wrote a man on the website of a Florida newspaper, Sun Sentinel. Another wrote: “Ban [Muslims] from the USA.”

On Saturday, FBI agents arrested Hafiz Mohammed Sher Ali Khan, 74, and his son Izhar Khan, 24, from Miami’s oldest mosque. Another of Hafiz Khan’s sons, Irfan Khan, was arrested in Los Angeles.

They will appear before a court on Monday.

US federal prosecutors have warned that the indictments against the three individuals and their three alleged accomplices in Pakistan were not meant to be an indictment against “a particular community or religion”.

But the local media warned that the arrests were likely to increase anti-Muslim sentiments in the state.

On Sunday, Imam Mohammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida in Orlando, urged Americans not to judge an entire community by the actions of a few individuals.

Imam Musri said he was not familiar with Hafiz Khan or his sons and would withhold his judgment until all facts came out at trial.

If convicted, each faces 15 years in prison on each count of the indictment. Imam Musri said he hoped that the Khans did not knowingly fund the Taliban, as authorities allege. Still, “I’m sure [the FBI] had strong evidence to arrest them,” he said. “I would love to hear that it is a false alarm, that it is not true,” he said.

Regardless of the outcome, Imam Musri said, the arrests were damaging to the community.