The Al Kifah Refugee Centre in Brooklyn, New York, established in the mid-to-late 1980s, was originally operated by Mustafa Shalabi, a close associate of MAK's co-founder Abdullah Azzam. Al Kifah was originally established to aid the Mujahideen cause in Afghanistan, and garner both support and funding to fight the invading Soviets. By 1988, Shalabi had set up with two chief aids inside the Al-Farooq Mosque, one of whom, Mahmud Abouhalima, would later be arrested for the first World Trade Center Bombing in New York.