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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Defense lawyers in a major South Florida terror case want to make sure jurors never hear from witness Evan Kohlmann.

The proposed government expert on al-Qaida is simply no expert, lawyers say.

He has no Ph.D., no faculty position and no real-life experience in the Middle East. Plus there's the age thing.

Kohlmann, who has testified five times for the government already, is just 27. He's been called the "Doogie Howser" of terrorism.

One critic cracked that prosecutors have been using Kohlmann "since he was a zygote."

Kohlmann has fought off such attacks before. The Fort Lauderdale high school graduate doesn't take it personally. "It's a fairly common tactic to try to disqualify me," he said. "I would do the same thing if I were in their position."

Prosecutors want Kohlmann — who started his own terror-related Web site and wrote a book about al-Qaida by age 25 — to explain the complex world of Islamic terrorism to jurors at a Miami trial of an alleged terror cell.

Jose Padilla and Adham Amin Hassoun, both former Broward County, Fla., residents, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi of Detroit are charged with supporting murder, maiming and kidnapping in foreign countries.

Prosecutors say Hassoun and Jayyousi raised money for violent Islamic causes and recruited young Muslim men, including Padilla, to fight in regions such as Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir.

The case is high-profile because it involves Padilla, the man government officials said wanted to detonate a radioactive bomb on U.S. soil.

In a blistering motion, Hassoun's attorneys say Kohlmann should be barred from testifying because his proposed testimony is anti-Muslim and he lacks the qualifications and experience to be considered a terrorism expert.

His testimony could turn the trial into an inflammatory rant about al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, instead of a focused "examination of what defendants did or did not do," lawyers Jeanne Baker and Kenneth Swartz said.

In federal court, judges act as gatekeepers, determining what expert testimony can be presented at trial. Since 2003, two federal judges in Virginia and one in New York have permitted Kohl-mann to testify in five trials — all government wins.

Last year a third Virginia judge barred Kohlmann's testimony amid questions about his credentials.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who presides over the Padilla case, has not yet ruled on the matter.

Marvin Miller, an attorney who unsuccessfully tried to bar Kohlmann's testimony from a 2005 terror trial, calls Kohl-mann the government's "favorite wind-up toy."

"He's their guy who will say what they want," Miller said. "They just wind him up and send him somewhere."