Does Obama campaign email indicate illegal electioneering in Ohio mosques?

In 2006, a group of local Democratic Party-aligned clergy sent a letter to IRS Commissioner demanding that World Harvest Church in Columbus be investigated for violating its tax exempt status because of their close ties to then-GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell. Thirty-one Columbus-area ministers and rabbis signed the letter to the IRS, making national news. Their attorney said that World Harvest had stepped so far over the line that it could be characterized as, “Here’s the handbook from the IRS on what to do and not do. They’ve done the ‘not do’ stuff right out of the book.”

These clerics later organized themselves in a campaign they called “We Believe” to promote the whole slate of predictable liberal causes (the Christian clerics apparently unconcerned about Jesus’ repeated condemnations of hypocrisy). The usual suspects (Americans United for Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way, Huffington Post, et al) all jumped on board to decry this supposed destruction of the wall of separation.

Now it is 2008, and after seven years out of the White House, Democrats are pulling out all the stops. Next week’s primary elections here in Ohio are make or break for Hillary Clinton, and a win in Ohio for Obama would probably secure his nomination. To say that this primary is important for both candidates would be an understatement.

But there are already indications that both campaigns may be skirting campaign and tax laws in their efforts to win the Buckeye State. The Columbus Dispatch reported just a few weeks ago how both the Hillary and Obama camps are targeting pastors in the area seeking their endorsements (yes, the same thing that World Harvest pastor Rod Parsley and his church were accused of) in anticipation of the Ohio primary next Tuesday. So it’s going to be interesting to see if the “We Believe” group of local ministers and rabbis who previously protested the supposed violation of church and state, and publicly called Rod Parsley and World Harvest “theocrats” and “Christocrats” for their alleged illegal political activity, will respond with the same outrage that Barack Obama’s camp is coordinating a massive primary election push this coming Friday at Columbus-area mosques.

An email is circulating from an Obama campaign official calling for volunteers to spread out to all of the area mosques in Central Ohio for afternoon prayers to bring in the vote for Barack Hussein Obama (thanks to my friend ***** who forwarded me the email):

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:37:04 -0500
From: ahmad.sean.khan81@gmail.com
To: [removed]
Subject: This is Ahmad S. Khan (Volunteering for Barack Obama)

Assalam Alaik-kum,

Thanks so much for volunteering to help Senator Barack Obama turn out the Muslim vote inshalla. On Friday March 29th we want to have Muslim volunteers pray at the Mosques during Juma at around 12:45. After prayer when people are socializing outside we want to have the volunteer pass out Obama civil rights literature, faith based literature, general literature, stickers and bumper stickers. In addition we want the volunteers to emphasize that the election is the following Tuesday and encourage them to vote. That way we can reach every Muslim that went to Mosque the Friday before the election inshalla. Attached is a list of every Mosque in Columbus, if we have missed one please let me know ASAP. In addition if there is a particular Mosque you would prefer to attend Juma at and volunteer let me know.

To accomplish this we need to have a training/meeting and have volunteers pick up the necessary materials before volunteers go to the Mosques. We will be having a training/meeting at 9:30 A.M on March 29th at the Obama campus office 2240 N. High Street Columbus Ohio 43201. I will be providing everyone with more information as we get closer to Friday. Please feel free to contact me through email, or call me at 352-874-1195. If my phone is not on please leave me a voice mail with you number and I will get back to you right away. Also please feel free to pass this on to any brothers or sisters who support Senator Obama and would not mind volunteering for just half a day. Thanks again for everything.

Sincerely
Ahmad S. Khan

[It’s not entirely clear if Khan meant to say February 29th — this Friday — instead of March 29th, or if they are planning something after the primary. My read based on follow-up emails is that he got the date wrong and this is planning a pre-primary push. I could be entirely wrong on that, but regardless of whether it is Feb. 29 or March 29, it doesn’t change the potential illegality of targeting tax exempt institutions.]

Now, there’s no way for the Obama campaign to distance themselves from this potentially illegal effort as the scheduled meeting will be taking place in the Obama OSU campus headquarters. While the mosques themselves might have plausible deniability (we didn’t know they were going to show up), it appears that the Obama campaign may be involved in illegal electioneering by deliberately targeting tax exempt institutions.

While that’s for the IRS to decide, it remains to be seen if the “We Believe” clergy are as enthusiastic in their denunciations and protests as they were in 2006. My money will be on “no”.

The Central Ohio connection to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — 15 Years Ago Today

On February 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center, announcing that war had come to America.

Seven people were murdered that day by Islamic extremists:

John DiGiovanni, 45 (Valley Stream, New York)
Robert Kirkpatrick, 61 (Suffern, New York)
Steven Knapp, 47 (Manhattan, New York City)
William Macko, 57 (Bayonne, New Jersey)
Wilfred Mercado, 37 (Brooklyn, New York City)
Monica Rodriguez Smith and her unborn child (Seaford, New York)

Memorial to the souls lost on 2/26/1993 (destroyed on 9/11)

Another 1,042 people were injured, some severely. The Islamic terrorists who committed this act had intended to kill tens of thousands, if not more.

This day should be important to us in Central Ohio, in that one of the unindicted co-conspirators in this terrorist act, Siraj Wahhaj, named as such by US Attorney Mary Jo White, is a regular speaker in our area. In just the past two years, Wahhaj has been the keynote speaker at fundraising events for Sunrise Academy, Masjid Abubakar Al Siddique, CAIR-Ohio, the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, and most recently, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center.

On March 10, 2006, he was the keynote speaker at the Sunrise Academy (the area’s full-time Islamic school) sports complex fundraiser at the Makoy Center in Hilliard. I discussed the event in my article, “Hometown Jihad: The School Gym that Terror Built”. Here’s the announcement (click to enlarge):



Then on February 16, 2007, Wahhaj again appeared in Central Ohio for a fundraiser for Masjid Abubaker Al Siddique on Sullivant Ave held at Sunrise Academy. This mosque is part of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC). Here is that announcement (click to enlarge):



On June 6, 2006, Siraj Wahhaj was back again in Columbus for a fundraiser for CAIR-OH. I wrote about this event previously, “CAIR’s Blood Money”. CAIR-OH later bragged how the Wahhaj fundraiser had netted them more than $100,000 in one evening to help spread their hate speech and terror apologies. Here is the CAIR press release following the event (click to enlarge):



This past September 9th, Wahhaj was the keynote speaker for the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio (IFCO), appearing on behalf of his friend Ahmad Al-Akhras, CAIR national vice chairman and president of IFCO. (See our post here, “Mayor Coleman advisor brings hate shiekh to town”, which discusses in detail Wahhaj’s virulent hate speech and violent rhetoric.)

And most recently, Wahhaj was the featured speaker at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard on December 19, 2007 for their Eid celebration.

Very few Muslims in our area agree with the extremist ideology of Siraj Wahhaj and his local allies. In fact, these events were attended by only a very tiny minority of supporters from the Muslim community. But these same supporters are not only very vocal, but are well-funded, control several of the prominent Islamic institutions in town, and have the ear of our local and state political establishment (as has been observed, Wahhaj’s 2006 CAIR-OH fundraiser was followed in 2007 by an appearance by Governor Strickland, “Not in our name, Gov. Strickland”). As we remember what happened on February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001, it would do us well to remember all those who have been murdered and vow to be vigilant in confronting the hate and extremism that is alive and well in Central Ohio.

Andrew McCarthy, the Assistant US Attorney in charge of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing prosecutions, published an article about the attacks today that is worth reading in its entirety. As you read the excerpt below and the rest of the article, remember that the violence at work on that day 15 years ago is still with us:

On the morning of February 26, 1993, Islamic militants steered a nondescript Ryder van through the winding darkness of the parking garage under the World Trade Center. They had spent years planning this moment in secret meetings at mosques and jailhouses, in rural outposts that served as paramilitary camps, and in safehouses where explosive compounds were mixed in makeshift labs.

Loaded into the van’s rear compartment was a 1,400-pound chemical bomb.

The explosive detonated at a few minutes after noon. The hyper-intensive shockwave bored a six-story canyon into the bowels of the complex. Seven people were killed (one of the six officially listed murder victims having been well along in her pregnancy), over a thousand were injured, and the structural damage would cost nearly a billion dollars to repair.

Amid the terror, the dark cloud that envelops us still 15 years later, was a silver lining. This time, the “battalion of Islam” — as the “blind sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman, liked to refer to the cells in his emerging jihad army — had failed.

It had been the intention of the World Trade Center bombers to annihilate tens of thousands of Americans, in addition to rendering the world’s most significant financial district uninhabitable. Detonation was consciously timed for maximum carnage: high noon on a Friday, when as many as 120,000 business professionals, laborers, diners, tourists, and area residents typically swarmed the Twin Towers and their immediate Wall Street environs.

More diabolically, not content with their sophisticated, powerfully combustible urea-nitrate mixture, the jihadists laced the compound with deadly sodium cyanide and attempted to boost the explosion with hydrogen tanks. The aim was a horror virtually unimaginable back then (though it is, today, an omnipresent fear): wide dispersal of a lethal, aerated chemical, killing the thousands too distant to be obliterated by the sheer force of the blast.

May God bless the souls of those lost that awful day. And may we never forget.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s “Grand Jihad” in Toledo

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Muslim American Society: two sides of the same Islamic extremist coin.
It might only be the shores of Lake Erie, but the Muslim Brotherhood has established an invasion beachhead in Toledo. The most recent landing by the international Islamic extremist organization was last weekend when the Muslim American Society (MAS) – the ideological arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US, identified as such by the Department of Justice in a court filing back in December — held a conference at the University of Toledo. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Department of Homeland Security recently added Toledo to the list of high-risk terrorism areas.

Esam Omeish (left) and Mahdi Bray (right) — leaders and partners in the Muslim Brotherhood “grand jihad”

Among the speakers were national MAS leaders Esam Omeish and Mahdi Bray, respectively the MAS president and head of their Virginia Commission on Immigration just weeks after his appointment. According to a September 28, 2007 article in the Washington Post, Omeish was forced out when a video surfaced of Omeish preaching holy war against Israel at a December 22, 2000 Jerusalem Day rally in Washington DC, where he said:

“. . . you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land . . . and we shall do everything we can to help your cause.”

Here’s the video with Omeish’s remarks (the full speech video is here; all videos courtesy of the Investigative Project):

And yet another video of Omeish shows him congratulating Palestinian terrorists for “giving up their lives for the sake of Allah”:

Upon learning of Omeish’s recorded call for jihad and his endorsement of suicide bombings, Virginia legislators quickly lined up calling for his resignation from the state commission.

Mahdi Bray, on the other hand, had to jet to Toledo from Egypt, where he had appeared earlier in the week at a rally defending jailed members of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood. An article on the Muslim Brotherhood website hails Mahdi Bray as “A Strong Voice for Human Rights”.
On May 15, 2004, Bray also bestowed terrorist leader Abdurahman Alamoudi with a MAS Freedom Foundation award in abstentia as he was awaiting trial on terrorism charges (which he would later be convicted of and sentenced to 20 years in prison). Bray called him an “outstanding American Muslim who has courageously stood in defense of freedom and justice,” and vowed, “I don’t care what they say, we’re gonna continue to work with him, and the other detainees, Abdelrahim, and we are gonna continue to fight back. Let our people go! Let our people go!”

Bray’s enthusiasm for Abdurahman Alamoudi goes back many years, in fact. At an October 2000 rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House, Bray can be seen standing beside Alamoudi enthusiastically cheering his friend and compatriot (who again is currently serving 20 years in prison on terrorism charges) as he cheers the HAMAS and Hezbollah terrorist organizations:


As can be expected, the local dead-tree media showed up at the MAS conference and wrote a glowing report, “Muslims’ roots in America branch out”, describing MAS as “a charitable, religious, social, cultural, and educational nonprofit organization.” No mention was made by the Toledo Blade of the recent controversies surrounding Omeish or Bray, or the terrorist connections and Muslim Brotherhood origins of the MAS, which were covered in an extensive investigation of the organization by the Chicago Tribune in 2004. They also could have consulted the meticulously documented MAS dossier prepared by the Investigative Project on Terrorism to provide at least a thin measure of background on the group to their readers.

Had the Toledo Blade bothered to conduct actual research, they also would have discovered that the organization of yet another speaker at the MAS Toledo conference, Dawud Walid, state director for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Michigan affiliate, had been named as un-indicted co-conspirator this past summer in a federal terror financing trial. During that same trial, the DOJ entered into evidence and FBI agent Lara Burns testified concerning documentation proving that MAS had been founded and controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.

But in the event that the dead-tree media had asked too many questions, or stumbled accidentally upon any one of these scandalous background and activities of Esam Omeish, Mahdi Bray, or the MAS itself, no doubt Mahdi Bray would have been sent forth to attack the paper and the reporter as “Islamophobic”, and steadfastly deny even the most readily provable claims.

Such was the case following a Dallas Morning News article by terrorism expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross following the 7/7 London suicide bombings, who noted that MAS had published in their March 2002 edition of their American Muslim magazine a fatwa authorizing suicide bombings, and that their membership study curriculum features a number of Muslim Brotherhood works and well-known jihadist tracts advocating for terrorism and violence.

Mahdi Bray responded by denying both charges, essentially accusing Gartenstein-Ross of lying, as expressed in a follow-up editorial in the same paper. He categorically denied the claims about the suicide bombing fatwa:

Additionally, Mr. Ross asserts that a fatwa (religious opinion) in our March 2002 American Muslim magazine supports suicide bombing. There is absolutely no such fatwa in the March 2002 edition of the American Muslim magazine.

As I pointed out in an article last May in FrontPage Magazine, “Cover-up and Deny”, while MAS had removed the fatwa in question from the magazine’s website (which read exactly how Gartenstein-Ross represented), the fatwa could still be found on various websites not controlled by MAS. Bray’s public denial was intentionally fabricated to conceal his organization’s institutional extremism.

In response to the terrorist-inciting jihadist tracts in the MAS membership curriculum, MAS responded by having all of their chapters remove the curriculum from their respective websites in a deliberate effort to conceal from the public their radical agenda. Once again, unfortunately, MAS could not remove the evidence from the Internet archive, which contains a copy of the curriculum as printed in the April 2001 edition of MAS’s American Muslim magazine. The entire MAS membership reading list can be found in the second-part of my response to Bray’s false denials, “Cover-Up and Deny, Part 2”.

The story of the MAS conference in Toledo earlier this month is a tale of an organization that readily demonstrates its extremist roots when it believes no one is looking, and its officials, who are prepared to flagrantly lie to conceal the true nature of their covert agenda. The plans for the Muslim Brotherhood’s efforts in North America were also revealed this past summer when a document was made public outlining their goals to wage a “grand jihad” to undermine our systems and values to replace them with a strict fundamentalist version of Islam. The document outlines the true agenda of the MAS and its allied organizations:

The Ikhwan [the Muslim Brotherhood’s name for itself] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.

Undeterred, Mahdi Bray yet again tried to spin this revelation about his group’s role in the “grand jihad” in America and dismiss its importance for understanding their aims and objectives.

The people of Toledo, however, cannot afford to ignore what’s at work in their community, especially in light of Mahdi Bray’s appearance in town just a few months ago. With three Toledo area residents already facing terrorism charges, can the citizens of the Glass City afford to remain ignorant about the Muslim American Society, Esam Omeish, Mahdi Bray and their intent to wage their “grand jihad” in Northwestern Ohio? As evidenced by the recent MAS conference, the grand jihad is already well underway.

CAIR-Ohio and the Convicted Cop Killer

Convicted cop-killer Jamil Al-Amin (center), with his Central Ohio cop-killer defense crew, Siraj Wahhaj (left) and Ahmad al-Akhras (right)
The next time CAIR-OH does a “cultural sensitivity” seminar for one of our local law enforcement or homeland security agencies, perhaps someone there will ask the CAIR representatives about why their organization has persistently defended convicted cop-killer Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, who was convicted in March 2002 of murdering Fulton County (GA) Deputy Sheriff Ricky Kinchen and seriously wounding his partner in an ambush as they were serving an arrest warrant on him. He was convicted on all 13 counts and sentenced to life in prison. Deputy Kinchen was taken from his wife and two small children.

Even before Al-Amin’s trial, CAIR and several other prominent Islamic organizations championed his innocence. In a March 21, 2000 press release jointly-issued by CAIR even before Deputy Kinchen’s body was still cold, they claimed: “The charges of Imam Jamil are especially troubling because they are inconsistent with what is known of his moral character and past behavior as a Muslim.” Nothing was said about Al-Amin’s interstate flight to Montgomery, Alabama after the shootings or that when he was arrested police recovered the vehicle bearing bullet holes and the weapons used to ambush Deputies Kinchen and English.

One step these organizations, including CAIR, took was to form an alliance, the National Support Committee for Imam Jamil, and begin fundraising for his defense. One fundraising site was Columbus, Ohio, organized by CAIR-Ohio and the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus. Demonstrating their utter contempt for law enforcement, the keynote speaker was none other than Siraj Wahhaj, a member of CAIR’s Board of Advisors who was named by US District Attorney Mary Jo White as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The Columbus event was organized by then CAIR-Ohio president (now CAIR national vice chairman) Ahmad Al-Akhras, who we noted last month has fled the country for Qatar. The event was held at Masjid Omar ibn El-Khattab near campus, the gathering place for our local Al-Qaeda cell and known affectionately as “Masjid Al-Qaeda”.

Here is a copy of the announcement from CAIR-Ohio and the Islamic Society of Great Columbus for the Jamil al-Amin fundraiser:

From: “Ahmad Al-Akhras”
To: “Columbus Muslims”, “AACO”
Subject: (CAIR-Ohio) Imam Siraj Wahhaj in Columbus
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 16:30:59 -0400

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

CAIR-Ohio
Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ohio
4700 Reed
Road, Suite B
Columbus, Ohio 43220
Tel: 614-470-5228
E-Mail: cairohio@...
URL: http://www.cair-net.org

Islamic Society of Greater Columbus
580 Riverview Drive
Columbus, Ohio 43202
Tel (614)262-1310
E-Mail: info@isgc.org
URL: http://www.isgc.org

April 12, 2001

-----------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 12, 2001 (COLUMBUS, OH 4/12/2001) CAIR-Ohio and ISGC host Imam Siraj Wahhaj to speak about the case of Imam Jamil Al-Amin.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ohio Chapter and the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus are pleased to host Imam Siraj Wahhaj on Friday April 27, 2001.

Imam Siraj Wahhaj will give Juma’ Khutba at the Bill McDonald’s Athletic Complex on Olentangy River and Bethel Roads. In the evening, Imam Siraj Wahhaj will speak at Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Mosque. The topic of the lecture, which will be after Maghrib Prayer, will be about the case of Imam Jamil Al-Amin of Atlanta, GA.

WHEN: FRIDAY April 27, 2001
Juma’a Khutbah
at Bill McDonald’s
and
Lecture
at 8:30 p.m. — after Maghrib Prayer

WHERE: Juma’a Khutba
at Bill McDonald’s
Intersection of Olentangy River Road and Bethel Road
Columbus, Ohio
and
Lecture: Defending Muslims Rights, the Case of Imam Jamil Al-Amin
at Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Mosque
580 Riverview Dr
Columbus, Ohio
Tel 614-262-1310

TITLE: Defending Muslims Rights, the Case of Imam Jamil Al-Amin

CONTACT: Mohammed Azhar Masood, (614) 937-3357, Ahmad Al-Akhras, (614) 989-5916

When the guilty verdicts were announced, CAIR and these other Islamic organization denounced the trial as unfair and mobilized for his appeal. In a news conference they said, “We do not believe the facts presented in court warranted a guilty verdict against Imam Jamil. His defense team offered credible evidence indicating that he was not the person who shot the deputies. We believe Imam Jamil will be exonerated on appeal.” Fortunately, all of his appeals were examined, considered and rejected.

Here is one description of the events surrounding Deputy Kinchen’s murder and Al-Amin’s arrest:

Preaching a firebrand version of Islam, Al-Amin in the 1980s became a pillar of Atlanta’s burgeoning Muslim community. He and the law stayed on separate paths until 1995, when he was arrested for shooting a drug dealer four times in the legs, and also charged with carrying a concealed and unlicensed .45 caliber handgun. A year later, he was investigated in connection with more than a dozen homicides, which a police report ascribed to revenge, business rivalries and eliminating people who “knew too much.” By 1999 he was arrested on charges of driving a stolen car and carrying a concealed weapon.

Even so, when the two sheriff’s deputies, Aldranon English, 28, and Ricky Kinchen, 35, found Al-Amin standing in a black trench coat by a parked black Mercedes-Benz, they were not prepared for what came next. Finding Al-Amin’s hands concealed, they followed standard procedure and ordered him to show his hands. “OK, here they are,” he replied and allegedly pulled out two guns, firing first a .223 caliber assault rifle, then switching to a 9 mm revolver. English was shot in both legs, the left arm and right chest. Six bullets killed Kinchen. The next day English identified Al-Amin from a selection of mug shots.

Al-Amin, meanwhile, fled to White Hall, Alabama, and for the second time in his life made the FBI’s most-wanted list. Four days later he was caught — this time by no less than one hundred well-armed police officers. Al-Amin was wearing body armor when apprehended. Police found in White Hall his black Mercedes — complete with a tell-tale bullet hole — two cartridge clips, a .223 caliber rifle and a 9 mm handgun. Ballistic tests showed the guns to be those used to shoot English and Kinchen.

Something our local law enforcement officials ought to consider next time they agree to cozy up to CAIR-Ohio for “cultural sensitivity” and “community outreach”.

MPAC extremist to speak at Noor Islamic Center this Saturday

MPAC’s Haris Tarin says: “Vote or die, infidel”

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is an organization that published an official position paper in 1999 claiming that the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks, which killed 241 US military servicemen, by Hezbollah terrorists was not a terrorist attack, but a legitimate military operation (Salam al-Marayati, “A Position Paper on U.S. Counterterrorism Policy.” Page 58. Multi Media Vera International. June 1999). Just hours after the 9/11 attacks, MPAC executive director and co-founder Salam Al-Marayati declared that “we should put the State of Israel on the suspect list”. In 2005, MPAC national director Ahmed Younis reasoned “that Adolf Eichmann was himself a Jew, so in fact Jews killed themselves in the Holocaust.”

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a moderate Muslim leader and retired USN Lt. Cdr, has written about the danger of MPAC and other extremist organizations who claim moderation, but their message is radically different when they’re out of the spotlight.

And just last May, MPAC communications director Edina Lekovic was confronted on MSNBC’s Kudlow & Co. program (link is to YouTube video of the exchange) about her prior role as managing editor of a magazine, Al-Talib, that published a special issue during her tenure dedicated to “The Spirit of Jihad” that praised Osama bin Laden as a “great Mujahid (someone who struggles in Allah’s cause),” instructing Muslim readers to “defend our brother” Osama bin Laden, and “refer to him as a freedom fighter, someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah’s cause and speak out against oppressors. We take these stances only to please Allah.” This special issue appeared a year after Al-Qaeda bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. While Lekovic initially claimed to have no involvement at all with Al-Talib, claiming that the accusation was based on “sloppy research, she retracted her denial two days later and admitted that she had been briefly involved with the magazine only after documentary evidence was made public proving her editorial position. But her admission was also an obfuscation, because it was found that she was involved with the magazine for several years afterwards she claimed her involvement ceased, and she even listed her editorship on her own official bio.

This coming Saturday evening, an official from MPAC, Haris Tarin, has been invited by the Noor Islamic Cultural Center (NICC) in Dublin/Hilliard to speak on “Election 08 and the American Muslim Narrative”.

Here’s the announcement for Saturday’s event:

Election 08 and the American Muslim Narrative
NMCN (Noor Monthly Coomunity Meeting) with Potluck Dinner
Saturday, February 23, 2008, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
NICC
5001 Wilcox Rd
Dublin, OH
614.527.7777

Description

Haris Tarin Director of Community Development, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Haris Tarin has been active in the Muslim community for the past 10 years. He has directed MAS Youth and Community organizations in Southern California and has worked as a youth counselor and facilitator at many camps, conferences and programs. Haris has spoken at various conferences, media outlets and symposiums on the topic of Islam and the role of Muslim American community. Haris has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Europe. Haris was a first responder to the disaster zone in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for Islamic Relief an organization that Haris has volunteered with for the past 10 years.

Of additional note is Tarin’s involvement in the Muslim American Society (MAS), which was named by the Department of Justice this past summer as un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial and a front organization for the international Muslim Brotherhood (in fact, it’s ideological training arm).

MPAC has issued numerous statements denouncing terrorism, yet when President Bush denounced the “Islamic fascists” behind the 7/7 suicide bombings in London, Edina Lekovic said, “When the people we need most in the fight against terrorism, American Muslims, feel alienated by the President’s characterization of these supposed terrorists, that does more damage than good.” Lekovic did not explain how American Muslims would feel alienated by the president’s denouncing the “Islamic fascists” behind the terror attacks. (Read Rachel Neuwirth’s takedown of MPAC’s two faces on terrorism, “With Friends Like These”.)

We’ll have more on MPAC later this week. But be sure to RSVP for Saturday’s potluck dinner (527-7777)!

A reason for hope in Central Ohio

I don’t follow the local dead tree media (e.g. Columbus Dispatch, et al.), but I was made aware of a recent letter to the editor published by the Dispatch last week that gives evidence that not all Central Ohioans have fallen prostrate to the agenda of our country’s enemies (though it does seem that many of our local officials have). The letter is from a father of a local Marine and describes the treatment his son received while home on leave.

Here’s the letter in full:

City conveyed its appreciation to Marine
Sunday, February 3, 2008 3:10 AM

I am a Marine Corps dad who picked up my son from the U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot at Parris Island on Jan. 25. I had no idea what was in store for him when he came home to Columbus.

Upon our return, we have witnessed a gratitude from the people of Columbus that we did not expect. Last Sunday, my son, Pvt. Tyler Allen Leavitt, put on his dress-blue uniform for church to visit those who have prayed for him during the tough training that Marines must endure for the honor of being called a United States Marine.

During this “victory tour,” Tyler has witnessed a grateful nation through the awesome, intimate hand of fellowship from the people of Columbus.

Here are a few of the wonderful gestures:

After church we had lunch at Stan’s Restaurant. A waitress slipped Tyler $20 and whispered, “Thank you,” and went on her way. We went to T-Mobile at Easton to re-establish Tyler’s cell-phone service. The customer-service line was out the door. Tyler looked at me and said, “Dad, this could take a while.” I left him there for a couple of minutes to look around. I came back to find that the entire line had moved this Marine to the front, as he was already being taken care of by the T-Mobile staff.

While walking to our truck to leave Easton Town Center, many acknowledged Tyler by blowing their horn shouting, “Semper Fi.” The most emotional event was when we heard a mother with her young children say, “Kids, you have just been passed by a United States Marine.” It was all I could do to hold back my tears.

Tyler joined the Marines from his deep passion to serve and protect the nation and people he holds dear. I know from his silence and the look in his eyes during these events that he was deeply moved.

I can see that the honor, courage and commitment instilled during his training was strengthened by the people he loves so much.

Thank you, Columbus.

ANDY LEAVITT
Columbus

These heart-warming incidents are a testimony to the attitude of gratefulness in our area for those serving in defense of our county. It reminds me of the outpouring of gratitude on the return of the Lima Company Marines in October 2005, when the city showed up en masse to welcome home our local heroes from Iraq.

Pvt. Leavitt’s parents and family have reason to be proud, as do the families of all those from our area serving our nation in uniform. God bless all those serving at home in abroad to keep us safe and free. May we always be willing to show our gratitude.

Toledo added to high-risk terror areas

The Associated Press reported last week that Toledo had been added to a list of high-risk terror areas by the Department of Homeland Security. This no doubt stems from the homegrown terror plot in Northwestern Ohio and the Chicago-area headed by Toledo natives Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum, who have been charged with plotting to attack US military personnel in Iraq as part of a larger plan to wage jihad against the US. The trio also formed a dummy not-for-profit organization to raise money for jihad. Two Chicago men were charged as part of the plot in December.

Here’s a picture of the Toledo terror trio:


There has been no direct connection made publicly between the Toledo terror plot and the prior closing of the Toledo-based Kindhearts Islamic “charity” which was shuttered by the Feds in Feb. 2006 over the organization’s financing of HAMAS and connections with Al-Qaeda.