A jailed bookseller told FBI agents last year that he agreed to wire money to Islamic fighters in Afghanistan because he was hesitant to offend the customer at his bookstore who made the request, according to court documents.

The bookseller, Abdulrahman Farhane, 52, has emerged as a central defendant among four men who, prosecutors say, plotted to provide everything from martial arts training to money for Islamic fighters.

Prosecutors say two of the men, Tarik Shah and Rafiq Sabir, swore oaths of fealty to Osama bin Laden, and that a third, Mahmud Brent, traveled to Pakistan following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to attend a terrorist training camp. Mr. Farhane is accused of conspiring to send money to Afghanistan for the purpose of buying communications equipment and weapons for Islamic fighters warring against American soldiers there.

On Friday, a lawyer for Mr. Farhane released notes that FBI agents had taken during an interview with Mr. Farhane in October 2005.

According to the notes, Mr. Farhane, who changed his story several times during the interview, repeatedly said he went along with the plot because he thought it was inappropriate to question the motives of his customer. The customer, who went by the name Mohamed, had approached Mr. Farhane, whose bookstore provides money transfers, about wiring the money.

“Farhane advised that Mohamed was a customer and that he did not want to be rude,” the document reads. “Farhane advised that he believed Mohamed was being truthful” in his intent to transfer funds to terrorists.

Ultimately, Mr. Farhane put the customer in touch with Mr. Shah, who is a defendant in the case, according to the FBI notes. Mr. Farhane said Mr. Shah, a Harlem-based jazz bassist, would be able to smuggle money out of the country, according to the notes.

In other sections of the interview, the FBI agents confront Mr. Farhane about his anti-American views, which were caught on tape by Mohamed, who is a government informant.

Mr. Farhane apparently refers to America by the Arabic word for devil, “Shaytan,” in those recorded conversations with the informant, according to the FBI document.

A lawyer for Mr. Farhane has previously identified the informant as Mohamed Alanssi, who set himself on fire in front of the White House in 2004, according to news reports.

The informant frequented Mr. Farhane’s Islamic bookstore, the House of Knowledge on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, and taped several conversations with him in December 2001, according to court documents

In February 2005, the judge presiding over the case, Loretta Preska ordered that Mr. Farhane be held without bail.

Mr. Farhane’s attorney, Michael Hueston, said his client was led to believe the money was intended for “Muslims overseas who were in need,” according to court papers filed late last week.

Mr. Hueston calls the government’s sting operation “outrageous government conduct” and said it constitutes entrapment, according to the filings. Mr. Farhane, who emigrated from Morocco in 1995, told his FBI interviewers that he was innocent.

“Farhane advised that he loved the US, had done nothing wrong against it, and that he was not a terrorist,” the document reads.