CBS News: New Al-Qaeda cell a growing threat to US

Local guy Bob Orr reports on the growing threat of Al-Qaeda operatives entering the US from North Africa through Europe.

We Remember and Honor — Memorial Day 2008

Today we remember and honor those men and women of our armed forces throughout our nation's history who have given their last full measure of devotion by laying down their lives to keep America safe and free. I would highly recommend taking the time today to read the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning article by the Rocky Mountain News, “Final Salute”, that we may understand the terrible cost for our freedom.

We honor as well all those veterans who served our country honorably and have now laid their burdens down and have gone to their eternal rest.

We also remember those brave souls currently serving in harm’s way all over the world to protect and defend this great nation and the families they have left behind. May God bless them all.



Photos courtesy of the US Air Force.

Hate sheikh Khalid Yasin’s “Islamic Hatred in the Heartland” tour continues in Columbus all this week

International hate sheikh Khalid Yasin, whose message of hate, bigotry and violence had been condemned around the world (for instance, the 2005 condemnation of Yasin’s views by Australian NSW Premier Bob Carr), will be spending the entire upcoming week featured at events all around Columbus. He will be hosted at several mosques affiliated with the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC).


You might recall that Yasin appeared at an event in Dayton earlier this month for Masjid At-Taqwa at Sinclair Community College, and his appearance covered by Dayton NBC affiliate WDTN.


Just as a refresher, here are some of Khalid Yasin’s extremist views (covered in this previous post):

• Yasin says that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks. (“Khalid Yasin: The New Voice of Islam?” Sunday, October 9, 2005)
• Yasin claims that AIDS was invented at a US government lab and spread by Western governments through UN agencies and Christian missionaries. (“Khalid Yasin: The New Voice of Islam?” Sunday, October 9, 2005)
• Yasin advocates for the death penalty for homosexuality. (“Home Grown”, Sixty Minutes, Channel Nine, July 24, 2005)
• Yasin justified the terrorist bombings in Bali because of years of alleged Western oppression. (“Khalid Yasin: The New Voice of Islam?” Sunday, October 9, 2005)
• Yasin says that the Quran permits wife-beating and that equal rights for women is a “delusion” and “foolishness”. (cited in “Undercover Mosque”, Channel 4 [UK], January 15, 2007)
• Yasin calls the beliefs of Christians and Jews “filth”. (cited in “Undercover Mosque”, Channel 4 [UK], January 15, 2007)
• Yasin says that Muslims cannot have non-Muslim friends. (“Home Grown”, Sixty Minutes, Channel 9 [Australia], July 24, 2005)
• Yasin rejects any separation between Islam and the state and openly advocates for the reestablishment of the caliphate. (Sunday Nights with John Cleary, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, September 7, 2003)
• Yasin visited Jemaah Islamiah terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir in prison. (“Koranic TV next step for radial sheikh”, Sydney Morning Herald, August 20, 2005)
• Yasin has lectured with Hizb-ut-Tahrir hatemonger Omar Bakri Mohammed, who was banned from the UK in 2006.
• Yasin was in Saudi Arabia on 9/11 soliciting support from the Al-Qaeda front Al-Haramain Foundation, which was designated a terrorist organization in 2004 by the US government, to help finance his Islamic Broadcasting Company.

And here are some of his statements and positions observed by the Australian media as noted in a July 24, 2005, article in the Sydney Morning Herald (“Sheikh calls Prime Minister’s comments inflammatory”):

Sheik Khalid Yasin, the executive director of the Islamic Teaching Institute which is dedicated to the work of promoting Islam, told a large gathering of young muslims at Bankstown Town Hall in Sydney last week that muslims could not be friends with anyone who did not share their faith.

“They’re not your friend because they don’t understand your religious principles and they cannot because they do not understand your faith,” he said.

The sheik said young Muslims should not attend university because they would lose their direction.

“University is a gateway for deviation,” he said.

“You forget your Islamic direction. Now you have become compromised through some kind of intellectuality.”

The sheik told the Nine Network men whose wives disobeyed them should be beaten.

He quoted a verse from the Koran and translated it.

“Now specifically, if you take that word literally, it means literally, beat them lightly,” Sheik Yasin said.

“Beat them, like I would my child.”

He also said homosexuals should be killed.

“We don’t make any excuses about that, it’s not our law, it’s the Koran,” he said.

With that in mind, it’s interesting to see that Yasin will be leading both youth and women’s events while in Columbus this week. Also interesting is that he will be speaking at Ohio State University this week, despite the fact that he’s said that Muslims should not attend university: “The university is a gateway for deviation. You forget your Islamic direction. Now you have become compromised through some kind of intellectuality.”

Will it be CAIR-OSU, the Muslim Student Association, or both sponsoring his OSU visit?

Here’s his schedule for this upcoming week (courtesy of Basil Mohamed Gohar and Columbus Dawah):

Shaykh Khalid Yasin in Columbus this week (updated schedule)

Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem

Assalaamu ʿalaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barakaatuh

Alhamdulillaah, our community is truly blessed to have with us Shaykh Khalid Yasin, perhaps best known for his powerful & inspiring lecture, The Purpose of Life. He will be visiting several locations throughout the community during his stay in the coming week, in shaaʾ Allaah. Please visit this page frequently as the schedule is being updated and finalized.

Saturday (May 24th, 2008)
Ibn Taymiya Masjid & Islamic Center (map)
7:00 PM Presentation

Sunday (May 25th, 2008)
Masjid Omar bin El-Khattab (map)
4:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Ladies only)
After Maghrib khaatirah (everyone)

Monday (May 26th, 2008)
Abubakar Siddique Islamic Center (map)
After Maghrib khaatirah

Tuesday (May 27th, 2008)
Masjid Oumar Al-Foutiyou (map)
After Maghrib khaatirah

Wednesday (May 28th, 2008)
Ibn Taymiya Masjid & Islamic Center (map)
7:00 PM Presentation

Thursday (May 29th, 2008)
Event at OSU (details still coming)

Friday (May 30th, 2008)
Masjid Omar bin El-Khattab (map)
Jumuʿah Khutbah @ 1PM
After Maghrib khaatirah

Saturday (May 31st, 2008)
Masjid Omar bin El-Khattab (map)
10:30 AM Youth Program
After Maghrib presentation

Sunday (June 1st, 2008)
Ibn Taymiya Masjid & Islamic Center (map)
7:00 PM Presentation

Will our self-proclaimed “interfaith” leaders, such as Abukar Arman and the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio condemn ISGC’s promotion of this international hatemonger?

You know the answer as well as I do. . .

Oh, wait, Khalid Yasin is being hosted by Abukar Arman’s mosque three times this week. Nevermind.



Here are the links to the international media coverage cited above of Khalid Yasin’s campaign of hate:

Interview, Sunday Nights with John Cleary, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, September 7, 2003

“Khalid Yasin in conversation”, The Religion Report, Australian Broadcasting Corporation National Radio, September 10, 2003

“Sheik calls Prime Minister’s comments inflammatory”, Sydney Morning Herald, July 24, 2005

“Home Grown”, Sixty Minutes, Channel Nine, July 24, 2005

Marian Wilkinson, Anne Davies and Andrew Clennell, “Muslims unites — it’s time to disown terror”, Sydney Morning Herald, July 26, 2005

Tom Allard, “Koranic TV next step for radical sheik”, Sydney Morning Herald, August 20, 2005

“Khalid Yasin: The New Voice of Islam?” (transcript), Sunday, October 9, 2005

“Undercover Mosque” (transcript), Dispatches, Channel 4 [UK], January 15, 2007

Robert Spencer, “Guess Who’s Speaking at the Local Mosque”, Human Events, May 14, 2008

Patrick Poole, “Islamic Hatred in the Heartland”, FrontPage Magazine, May 14, 2008

Islamofascists disrupt documentary screening at Columbus State

Yesterday I reported on the altercation Monday afternoon by some of our local Islamofascists thugs, “Islamofascist Intimidation at Columbus State”:

What began as a peaceful screening of the documentary, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, Monday afternoon at Columbus (Ohio) State Community College turned to shouts and intimidation as Muslim students confronted students in attendance and Islamofascism Awareness Week event organizers. The video screening was part of Columbus State’s Islamofascism Awareness Week activities hosted by the campus chapter of the Terrorism Awareness Project (TAP), which runs through Wednesday.

According to TAP president Josiah Lanning, commotion began during the first screening of the documentary film and continued to escalate throughout the afternoon. According to Lanning, an individual who identified himself as an Iraqi Muslim began loudly arguing with audience members. After continuing to disrupt the discussion period following the screening, the individual complained that the group was allowed to show the film and warned Lanning not to show the film again.

Three screenings of the Fox News documentary, Jihad USA: Homegrown Terror are planned for today (Tuesday), and screenings of both Obsession and Jihad USA planned for Wednesday afternoon.

Lanning expressed concerns that more confrontations might be forthcoming this week, as the school hosts a chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Muslim Student Association. Columbus State, which reportedly has one of the highest Muslim student body representations of any public higher education institution in the country, has previously been the site of threats of violence and intimidation by Muslim students. . .

[More]

I’ll be posting the video as soon as it is available.

Terrorism Awareness Project events at Columbus State this week

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week
Presented by the David Horowitz Freedom Center
& CSCC Terrorism Awareness Project
May 19–21, 2008
Schedule of Events:

Monday, May 19th
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm and 1:45 pm – 2:45 pm
Movie: Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West

Tuesday, May 20th
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:15 pm & 1:30 pm – 2:15 pm & 2:15 pm – 3:00 pm
Movie: Jihad, U.S.A: Homegrown Terror

Wednesday, May 21th
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Movie: Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West

Time: 1:30 pm – 2:15 pm & 2:15 pm – 3:00 pm
Movie: Jihad, U.S.A: Homegrown Terror

Location: Columbus State Community College
East Wing of Nestor Hall (side with the TV)

WDTN-TV: Dayton mosque defends hate sheikh Khalid Yasin event

Dayton NBC affiliate WDTN-TV covers our story about international Islamic hate sheikh Khalid Yasin’s speech tomorrow evening at Sinclair Community College. For more background on Yasin’s hatemongering, extremist statements and virulent conspiracy theories, see our original post. And just for clarification, this report states that I didn’t return a request for an interview, which might be because I’m traveling out of state, and reporter Holly Samuels emailed me at 2:18pm for a 5pm report. Glad she gave me plenty of time to respond!

Khalid Yasin, internationally-renowned Islamic hate sheikh and 9/11-denier, speaking in Dayton on May 16th

Khalid Yasin is one of the most notorious Islamic hate sheikhs in the world today. He had been widely condemned from the US to Britain to Australia for his virulent Wahhabism, his extreme anti-Americanism (despite the fact that he is an American-born convert), his justification of Islamic terrorism, his wild-eyed conspiracy theories, and his outright racial and religious bigotry. And an Australian news investigation found that Yasin had claimed academic degrees that the schools had no record of, and also discovered that he had engaged in outright fraud in building his international Islamic media empire.

So it is troubling to see that Khalid Yasin will be lecturing at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio on May 16th, sponsored by Dayton’s Masjid-at-Taqwa:



For example, consider some of his stated positions:

• Yasin says that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks.
• Yasin claims that AIDS was invented at a US government lab and spread by Western governments through UN agencies and Christian missionaries.
• Yasin advocates for the death penalty for homosexuality.
• Yasin justified the terrorist bombings in Bali because of years of Western oppression.
• Yasin says that the Quran permits wife-beating and that equal rights for women is a “delusion” and “foolishness”.
• Yasin calls the beliefs of Christians and Jews “filth”.
• Yasin says that Muslims cannot have non-Muslim friends.
• Yasin rejects any separation between Islam and the state and openly advocates for the reestablishment of the caliphate.
• Yasin visited Jemaah Islamiah terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir in prison.
• Yasin has lectured with Hizb-ut-Tahrir hatemonger Omar Bakri Mohammed, who was banned from the UK in 2006.
• Yasin was in Saudi Arabia on 9/11 soliciting support from the Al-Qaeda front Al-Haramain Foundation, which was designated a terrorist organization in 2004 by the US government, to help finance his Islamic Broadcasting Company.

It is difficult to overstate the hatred, bigotry, misogyny and malicious conspiracy theories spewed by Khalid Yasin. So despicable is his warped ideology that he had been made a pariah by the international media. Statements made on his DVDs were featured in the UK Channel 4 “Undercover Mosque” program, which were found available for sale in British mosques. Here’s the relevant part of that program’s transcript:

N: Regular interfaith meetings with other religions take place at this mosque, yet in a DVD (‘Changing The World Through The Da’wah’; IBC Ltd/Islam Productions) bought from its bookshop, a British-based (African-American) convert called Sheikh Khalid Yasin (KY), who studied Arabic in Saudi Arabia, condemns the teachings of other religions —

KY: “We don’t need to go to the Christians, or the Jews, debating with them about the filth which they believe . . . We Muslims have been ordered to do ‘brainwashing’ because the kuffaar . . . they are doing ‘braindefiling’ . . . You are watching the kaffir TVs, and your wife is watching right now, and your children are watching it right now, and they are being polluted, and they are being penetrated, and they are being infected, so that your children and you go out as Muslims and come back to the house as kaffirs.”

N: In this DVD (entitled: ‘Some Advice To The Muslim Woman’; Islam Productions), from the Mosque bookshop, he preaches against the equality of women

KY: “This whole delusion about the equality of women is a bunch of foolishness, there’s no such thing.”

N: In this DVD (entitled: ‘Jihad or Terrorism?’, Ahlus Sunna’wal Jama’ah), he claims that AIDS is a Western and Christian plot —

KY: “No, missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever, and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus, which is a conspiracy.” (his emphasis)

In an interview with Sarah Ferguson of Australia’s Sunday program entitled, “Khalid Yasin: The New Voice of Islam?” he describes his conspiracy theories related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, denying the existence of Al-Qaeda:

SARAH FERGUSON: And he’s waded right into one of the most divisive issues between the Muslim community and the Federal Government — September 11.

SHEIK KHALID YASIN: There has been no evidence that has surfaced, no bona fide irrevocable, irrefutable evidence that had been surfaced that showed that there is a group called al-Qa’ida that did the September 11 bombings. I’m of the opinion there was a rogue operation that took place. Now, to go beyond that would say I would have to have some evidence, which I don’t.

SARAH FERGUSON: But he does go beyond it.

SHEIK KHALID YASIN: An operation that took place with the complicity of some very sophisticated entities other than some Middle Eastern guys on an airplane or being orchestrated by someone in a cave in Iraq.

SARAH FERGUSON: What do you mean by “sophisticated entities”?

SHEIK KHALID YASIN: Sophisticated entities means entities who themselves were governmentally instructed, equipped, motivated. We now know that the way that the World Trade Center fell the way that those buildings fell — they fell from internal explosive charges, the same way it’s done in a construction site.

The Sunday program also asked him about his conspiracy theories claiming that the US government and Christian organizations are responsible for the creation and the spread of AIDS:

SARAH FERGUSON: Conspiracy theories are Yasin’s bread and butter, and the wilder, the better.

SHEIK KHALID YASIN, DVD EXCERPT: An AIDS virus, that is a classic disease that was created in Fort McKinley, United States. Fort McKinley, the AIDS virus, 63,000 gallons.

SARAH FERGUSON: This one comes from his DVD called ‘Jihad or Terrorism’.

SHEIK KHALID YASIN, DVD EXCERPT: Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus.

And in a July 2003 conversation on Australia’s Sunday Nights with John Cleary program, Khalid Yasin articulated his vision of the reinstitution of sharia and the dismantling of the wall between Islam and state:

John Cleary: Where does the Sharia fit into that?

Khalid Yasin: Well the Sharia is the cement that keeps all the bricks together. The Sharia is the legislative element. The Sharia is the judicial element. This is where rules, this is where juristic decisions, this is where the courts, this is where law. And I mean if you don’t have a people that is governed by Sharia, then you have a lawless people.

John Cleary: Christianity once had a problem with that in the Middle Ages, and so canon law developed, and church law was the law of the State. And then alongside that civic law developed. And gradually over the years, they split and then civil law became predominant over church law. Do you see that sort of evolution taking place in Islam as well?

Khalid Yasin: No. As a matter of fact this dichotomy of church and State and civil law and religious law, doesn’t exist in Islam. Because the source of law has never been the human being. In Christianity the source of law, human beings have always had something to do with the evolution of the law, but in Islam it is not the case. The law is an inspiration from God, the Qu’ran is the word of God alone. Even it is not the law of Mohamed. Mohamed was inspired by God, it is his example of the law, his explanation of the law, his personal example of the law. So in this sense civil law and religious law are congruous together.

John Cleary: Could you have a secular Islamic state, like Turkey is trying to be, over the years?

Khalid Yasin: No, it doesn’t work. These are experiments that have been tried, but they haven’t worked. Of course, you can have it, but you’ll see that after a certain amount of time it disintegrates, it cannot work.

John Cleary: So ultimately the Sharia should become the law of the land?

Khalid Yasin: Exactly. It has to be. I mean, who is the best lawgiver? Who is the best legislator: the designer, the author, the creator or the human beings who themselves are subjected to that law? It has to be.

When investigators for the Sunday program looked into his academic background and his media company, they found a pattern of rampant fraud and misrepresentations:

SARAH FERGUSON: Yasin moved to the UK. He made headquarters here in the northern city of Sheffield and began looking for new investors. Armed with this glossy brochure on the UK operation, Yasin came back to Australia last year.

VOICE-OVER: Islamic Broadcasting Corporation — a unique investment opportunity. It will host up to 50 multimedia TV channels and five radio stations. potentially serving 1.2 billion viewers across the globe.

SARAH FERGUSON: The brochure’s biggest selling point is a TV broadcast centre in Coventry, complete with photos and architects’ drawings.

VOICE-OVER: We are currently relocating to our brand new purpose-built 8,000 square feet broadcast centre. It will be opened for business in September 2005.

SARAH FERGUSON: By the time we’d discovered Yasin’s brochure, Yasin had left the country on an overseas trip. We put its claims to the new managing director of IBC Australia, Walid Ali. IBC in the UK claims it’s building a massive ?2 million broadcast centre. And that broadcast centre is under construction now. In fact it’s supposed to be ready now. Have you seen it?

WALID ALI, MANAGING DIRECTOR ISLAMIC BROADCASTING GROUP: I will be very honest with you. I don’t know a great deal about their operations but I do know that that facility has not been built as yet. Obviously with any organisation, any business venture that you take on, there will be unexpected delays. I’m sure they’re having some unexpected delays. The idea of a Muslim-owned TV station was very attractive to Muslims here, and the brochure was crucial. Yasin used it to convince them that the UK operation was worth investing in. We’ve spoken to people who attended fundraisers in Sydney run by Yasin. At one event last year, $90,000 was pledged in a single evening. We’ve also seen bank documents transferring almost $50,000 of that money to a bank account in the UK in the name of one of Yasin’s companies.

The question is — what happened to that money? This is the real technology park in Coventry and there is no broadcast centre because the brochure is a work of fiction, indeed fraud. Yasin’s only connection with the Coventry Technology Park was a small office space rented out by his UK associate Channel Islam. According to the company which leases space here, Channel Islam broke its lease last year and is being pursued by debt collectors. None of these groups is collaborating with Yasin. The sums don’t add up and the drawings were lifted from someone else’s brochure.

MUHAMMAD ALI, ISLAM CHANNEL, UK: I don’t think now after this long time of promises that channel is going to start broadcasting tomorrow, after tomorrow, next week, next month, next year I don’t think there is much credibility left for such promises.

*****

SARAH FERGUSON: Where Yasin’s accreditation lies is another mystery. He prepared this CV to support an application to the Immigration Department. Neither institution has any record of a Khalid Yasin graduating. While he was still in Australia, we asked Yasin about his qualifications as a preacher.

SHEIK KHALID YASIN: I say to you that whatever qualifications I have they are subjective. And I don’t even care. And if there was a choice for Khalid Yasin I would take any qualification, academic qualification I have and I throw it out the window. And I tell you whatever other qualifications I have, whatever convictions I have will stand on their own.

SARAH FERGUSON: The issue is that he has claimed to have those qualifications. I’ve checked. He doesn’t. Does that concern you?

WALID ALI: Well, I guess it would concern me. I would really need to understand why he would make those claims if they weren’t true.

SARAH FERGUSON: Sunday sent Yasin a series of questions about these discrepancies but we haven’t received a reply. No doubt his rhetoric of Muslim victimhood will apply equally to him.

See also the August 2005 Sydney Morning Herald article on Yasin, “Koranic TV next step for radical sheik”, where he reaffirms many of these extremist positions.

2006 CAIR-OH banquet speaker: 1993 World Trade Center bombing conspirator Siraj Wahhaj

Later today CAIR-Ohio will host their 10th annual fundraising banquet here in Columbus. This week, we’ve revisited some of the more infamous moments in CAIR-OH history:

1999 CAIR-OH banquet speaker: convicted terrorist and bin Laden operative, Abdurahman Alamoudi

CAIR-OH revisited, 2001: CAIR-OH holds fundraiser for notorious cop killer, Jamal Al-Amin

CAIR-OH revisited, 1999: CAIR-OH rushes to aid pre-9/11 dry-run hijackers

But the appearance of Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, as the keynote speaker for the 2006 CAIR-OH annual banquet has to rank among one of the most despicable acts in that group’s ten years of existence.

And following the banquet featuring Wahhaj, CAIR-OH bragged in a press release 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):


In a March 2006 article, “CAIR’s Blood Money”, I prefaced my evaluation of CAIR-OH’s activities with this historical reflection:

At 12:17 pm on February 26, 1993, a 1,500lb urea-nitrate fuel-oil bomb hidden inside a rental van caused a massive explosion that ripped through the parking garage of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring another 1,042 — the first large-scale terrorist attack on U.S. soil by Islamic extremists. The terrorists had intended to topple one of the buildings onto the other, potentially killing tens of thousands of innocent Americans. Sadly, the fourteenth anniversary of that event passed last week with very little discussion by major media outlets, even though that lethal attack by Islamic terrorists ominously foreshadowed the unspeakable horror of 9/11.

At 8:00 pm on June 6, 2006, the Ohio affiliate of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OH) honored one of the unindicted conspirators in that 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn, NY imam that had also served as a defense witness at the trial of one of the men convicted for that terrorist attack, the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman (a conviction that CAIR has labeled “a travesty of justice”). More than 400 CAIR-OH supporters gathered at this fundraising banquet.

Read the whole article. And consider the terrible legacy of hatred and terrorist support that CAIR-OH has wrought over the past decade.

CAIR-OH revisited, 1999: CAIR-OH rushes to aid pre-9/11 dry-run hijackers

Continuing this week’s look at CAIR-Ohio’s past achievements in preparation for their annual banquet this Saturday evening at the Columbus Marriot Northwest, we revisit November 1999 and CAIR-OH’s rush to defend two Saudis (pictured above), Muhammad Al-Qudhaieen and Hamdan Al-Shalawi, which the 9/11 Commission Report identified (page 520, footnote 60) as individuals who ran a pre-9/11 dry-run hijacking on a Columbus-bound America West flight from Phoenix. CAIR-OH helped the pair file a lawsuit against the airline and threatened to file criminal charges against the pilot.

Our two previous installments in the CAIR-OH commemorative series:

1999 CAIR-OH banquet speaker: convicted terrorist and bin Laden operative, Abdurahman Alamoudi

CAIR-OH revisited, 2001: CAIR-OH holds fundraiser for notorious cop killer, Jamal Al-Amin

According to the 9/11 report, Al-Qudhaieen and Al-Shalawi were friends of Arizona-based Al-Qaeda recruiter, Zakaria Mustapha Soubra, who drove them to the airport that day in Qadhaieen’s car. Both men attended the Islamic Center of Tuscon, which counterterrorism expert Rita Katz described in a September 2002 Washington Post article as “basically the first cell of Al-Qaeda in the United States; that is where it all started”.

The men repeatedly tried to enter the airplane’s cockpit to test the flight’s security. Before the plane landed, the flight’s pilots had radioed ahead that Al-Qudhaieen and Al-Shalawi had repeatedly tried to enter the cockpit even after being warned by the flight crew not to attempt further entry, kept changing seats, as well as asking the flight crew strange questions about the plane and its destination. Immediately upon the flight’s arrival in Columbus the pair was taken into custody.

CAIR-OH president Ahmad Al-Akhras then lept into action on the dry-run hijackers’ behalf. Al-Akhras immediately began making accusations of racial profiling and denouncing the FBI’s investigation into the matter. He, along with Andy Amid of Arab Americans of Central Ohio, were quoted in the local, national, and international media protesting the innocence of the two Saudi men. Al-Akhras was quoted by the Columbus Dispatch the following day:

Ahmad Al-Akhras, president of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ohio chapter, said that the government and the airline industry appear to be profiling Arabs and Muslims.

“It seems like they single out some individuals because of their name, the way they look or their national origin,” Al-Akhras said. (Roger Alford and Kevin Mayhood, “Airline detains, releases ‘suspicious’ pair at airport”, Columbus Dispatch [November 20, 1999])

Al-Akhras’ comments were also picked up by the Egyptian daily, Al-Ahram, as were Andy Amid’s, who told the Egyptian paper, “Americans are programmed to think of Arabs as terrorists”. Amid also gave the Dispatch his take on the event:

“It’s called Islamophobia,” said Andy Amid, former president of Arab Americans of Central Ohio.

Except in this case, the two men involved were terrorists, Al-Akhras and Amid’s protestations notwithstanding.

CAIR held a press conference with the two Saudi men in Washington D.C. the day after the incident and called for Muslims to boycott America West. Ahmad Al-Akhras threw his weight behind the effort, sending an email to local Muslims on November 21, 1999 saying:

salam

CAIR is pursuing legal action and asking Muslims, Arabs and other concerned people to boycott American West until it investigates the issue and makes corrective measures.

Ahmad

When someone responded that the “innocent” Saudi students should not settle for anything less than the dismissal of the American West pilot, Al-Akhras went further:

salam

CAIR is exploring all leagl [sic] venues at this time and may press charges. i’ll keep you posted. salam.

Ahmad

What legal charges Al-Akhras and this CAIR crew had mind against the flight’s pilot he doesn’t say, but in fact, CAIR filed a lawsuit in 2000 against America West on behalf of the two Al-Qaeda terrorists over the matter, which the judge quickly dismissed. But the damage by Al-Akhras and his CAIR comrades had been done. Instead of beefing up airline security, CAIR’s intimidation tactics were no doubt instrumental in maintaining the status quo in aviation security, that is, until 9/11.

As I have noted here previously, CAIR has quietly scrubbed any mention of the incident from their website.

And whatever happened to Mohammad Al-Qudhaieen and Hamdan Al-Shalawi, who’s innocence Ahmad Al-Akhras and Andy Amid were quick to proclaim? As I reported in a FrontPage Magazine article back in April, “CAIR’s Grievance Theater, the Flying Imams, and 9/11”:

As the 9/11 Commission Report explains, Hamdan al-Shalawi was in Afghanistan in November 2000 training at an Al-Qaeda camp learning to make car bombs and planning to launch “Khobar Tower”-type attacks against the US in Saudi Arabia, and Mohammad Al-Qadhaieen was arrested in June 2003 as a material witness in the 9/11 attacks.

No doubt CAIR-OH, Ahmad Al-Akhras, Andy Amid and “Arab Americans of Central Ohio”, are proud for helping make the most devastating terror attack in American history a reality.

CAIR-OH revisited, 2001: CAIR-OH holds fundraiser for notorious Cop Killer, Jamal al-Amin

Convicted cop-killer Jamil Al-Amin (center), with his Central Ohio cop-killer defense crew, Siraj Wahhaj (left) and Ahmad al-Akhras (right)
[In commemoration of CAIR-OH’s upcoming annual banquet this weekend (10 years of Islamofascism!), we are revisiting some of the groups most infamous highlights. Today we revisit CAIR-OH’s open support for notorious copkiller, Jamal Al-Amin. For yesterday’s installment on 1999 CAIR-OH keynote speaker, convicted terrorist and “bin Laden’s man in America” Abdurahman Alamoudi, go here]

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’s murder took him away from his wife and two small children. CAIR-OH held no fundraisers on his family’s behalf.

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. 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”.

1999 CAIR-OH keynote speaker: convicted terrorist leader and bin Laden operative, Abdurahman Alamoudi

In honor of this Saturday’s upcoming CAIR-OH banquet, I thought it appropriate to revisit this week some of CAIR-OH’s previous keynote speakers and events since last year’s banquet. Today we remember 1999 speaker, convicted terrorist leader Abdurahman Alamoudi, a founding CAIR board member. Alamoudi was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 23 years in prison for his terrorist activities.

According to the US government, Alamoudi was Osama bin Laden’s point man in the US, and was used by bin Laden as a conduit to funnel money to “blink sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman (currently serving life in prison for his involvement in planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and plotting other terrorist attacks inside the US).

According to the NY Post:

Amoudi’s name surfaced almost a decade ago when federal agents grabbed the blind sheik and several other suspects as they were literally mixing a “witches brew” of explosives in Queens to detonate bridges, tunnels and landmarks in the Big Apple, a knowledgeable source said.

Among those arrested was Abdel al-Rahman Haggag, the sheik’s speechwriter, who turned government informant.

Haggag said he believed Osama bin Laden routinely funneled $5,000 payments to Rahman through Amoudi and his organization, the American Muslim Council.

Bin Laden’s funds were allegedly used to pay Rahman’s rent and phone bills in New Jersey and Brooklyn, a source said.

So Alamoudi’s involvement with bin Laden was what initially put bin Laden on the US terror radar.

So who better to headline the second annual CAIR-OH banquet! Here’s the announcement:

CAIR-Ohio Second Annual Meeting and Fundraising Dinner

Date: Saturday, June 19, 1999
Time: 07:00PM - 09:00PM EDT

In the next century, American Muslims will (inshallah) take their proper place in this society. The Muslim voice must be heard at every level and on every issue of importance, both domestic and foreign. Grassroots support for national and regional Muslim organizations is a key to the community’s success.

The past year saw a new culture of activism being born in our community. CAIR Ohio has been working on promoting balanced and correct understanding of Islam and Muslims, defending Muslims’ rights and making a difference. . .

Muslims, Challenges and CAIR. . . Making a Difference

Guest Speakers:

Omar Ahmad, CAIR National Chairman
Abdurahman Alamoudi, American Muslim Foundation

Where: Ramada University Hotel
3110 Olentangy River Road
Columbus, Ohio

Tickets: Columbus Ahmad Al-Akhras (614)457-1141
Andy Amid (614)471-9849
Asma Mobin-Uddin (614)761-9650
Inam Khokar (614)527-4617
Cleveland M. Esam Zaiem (440)835-1946
Cincinnati Hassan Dawas (513)651-0321
Dayton Beshir Ahmed (937)667-8071
Mohammad Abu Matar (937)643-9891
Toledo A. Hammuda (419)474-2889

For More Information, please contact:

Council on American Islamic Relations, Ohio
570 Riverview Drive
(off Olentangy River Road)
Columbus, OH 43202
Tel: (614)470-5228

Not long after his appearance for CAIR-OH, Alamoudi was videotaped leading a rally in Layfayette Park in Washington DC, leading the crowd in chants hailing the terrorist groups HAMAS and Hezbollah (Alamoudi is the speaker; the man highlighted in the video is Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society):


Here’s a transcript of Alamoudi’s remarks, courtesy of the Investigative Project:

Alamoudi: I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas, anybody supports Hamas here?
[Crowd cheers, “Yes!”].
Anybody is a supporter of Hamas here?
[Crowd cheers, “Yes!”].
Anybody is a supporter of Hamas here?
[Crowd cheers, “Yes!”].
Hear that, Bill Clinton, we are all supporters of Hamas, Allahu Akbar. [Crowd responds].
I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hizballah. Anybody supports Hizballah here?
[Crowd cheers, “Yes!”]
Anybody supports Hizballah here?
[Crowd cheers, “Yes!”]
Takbeer!
[Crowd: “Allahu Ahkbar!”].
Takbeer!
[Crowd: “Allahu Ahkbar!”]

How nice. Both HAMAS and Hezbollah were designated terrorist organizations in 1995 by the US government.

Just a few months after that in January 2001, Alamoudi put in an appearance at the “First Conference on Jerusalem” in Beirut. Also in attendance were representatives of Al-Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, HAMAS, Hezbollah, and terrorist leaders from all over the Middle East.

The picture below shows Alamoudi (second from left) at the Beirut conference with current HAMAS spokesman Ahmed Yousef (far left; recently noted here as local Columbus resident Anisa Abd El Fattah’s coauthor), Yaser Bushnaq, and Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad.


Here’s one description of the conference, courtesy of Fox News:

— In February and April of 2001, the world’s most extreme Islamic terror groups held meetings in Beirut and Tehran, respectively, to set aside their differences and unite for jihad (holy war) against Israel and the United States. The two unprecedented meetings had over 400 militants in attendance. They called it “the Jerusalem Conference,” aimed at uniting behind the Palestinians and winning total Arab control over Jerusalem. Sources say the group agreed on a document and the creation of an actual organization now known as “the Jerusalem Project.” The document included the statement: “The only decisive option to achieve this strategy is the option of jihad in all its forms and resistance . . . America today is a second Israel.”

The participants included leaders of Usama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terror group, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Qatar, Yemen, the Sudan and Algeria. Sources say at least one participant went to the conference from the United States and returned to the country afterward. U.S. intelligence sources have identified two leaders of the Beirut-based Jerusalem Project.

The end for CAIR-OH keynote speaker Abdurahman Alamoudi came in August 2003, when he was arrested at Heathrow Airport with $340,000 he had obtained from Libyan intelligence to fund a variety of terrorist operations. Again, according to the NY Post:

On Aug. 11, Amoudi was stopped in England at Heathrow Airport with 34 bundles of sequentially numbered $100 bills in his suitcase as he prepared to fly to Syria.

He said he received the money from Libyan officials to try to win release of Libyan assets frozen after the 1988 Pan Am bombing.

But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Brett Gentrup said in court documents yesterday the feds suspect Amoudi might have been funneling the $340,000 to terror groups operating in Syria, such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Gentrup also said a transcript had been uncovered in which Amoudi criticized al Qaeda’s selection of terror targets.

Amoudi said too many Muslims were killed in attacks such as the 1998 Kenyan embassy bombing, the court documents claimed.

“I prefer to hit a Zionist target in America or Europe or elsewhere,” Amoudi said, according to the court documents.

Yes, he complained that Al-Qaeda attacks were killing too many Muslims and not enough Americans. As noted by the Washington Post, Alamoudi pled guilty and confessed to his crimes. CAIR-OH, however, has not said a word in response to the terrorist activities of their previous annual fundraising banquet keynote speaker.

Thanks to Ahmad Al-Akhras and everyone associated with CAIR-OH for bringing this terrorist leader into our community!

Ohio State Muslim Student Association funded by terror organization Kindhearts

A belated plug for my article published on Tuesday, “Terror Funded MSA at Ohio State”, regarding the Ohio State Muslim Student Association’s financial backer, Kindhearts, which was raided by federal authorities and shut down by the US government for terrorist financing. (I would also note our recent post about the OSU MSA’s playing host to now convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist leader Sami Al-Arian.)

Here’s the intro:

February 20, 2006 proved to be an eventful day for the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at The Ohio State University. Not only did that date mark the conclusion of their weekend-long “Leaders of Tomorrow” conference, but that was also the day that their conference sponsor, Kindhearts, was raided by federal law enforcement and closed by order of the Department of the Treasury for financing terrorism, freezing its assets.

According to the US government, Kindhearts, which was established following the closure of the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation, was not only engaged in providing millions for HAMAS in Lebanon and the West Bank, it had hired as a fundraising specialist the man identified by HAMAS head Khaled Mishal as the designated HAMAS bag man in the US, Mohammed El-Mezain. (For additional background on Kindhearts and its multiple connections to the international terrorism finance network, see Joe Kaufman’s FrontPage article, “The Black Hearts of Kindhearts”)

Kindhearts, however, was not the only terror-connected sponsor of the OSU MSA conference. Also supporting the MSA’s conference was its local parent organization, Masjid Omar Ibn El-Khattab, known affectionately in the Central Ohio area as “Masjid Al-Qaeda”. The mosque nearby the OSU campus was home to the largest known Al-Qaeda cell in the US since 9/11, with two former members — Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi — already convicted and serving prison terms for their participation, and another cell member — Christopher Paul — currently awaiting trial.

The third identified sponsor of the MSA conference, Ilmquest Productions, is the media arm of the Al-Maghrib Institute (profiled last year here at FrontPage, “Jihad U”). Ilmquest not only publishes and markets DVDs and CDs of Al-Maghrib “scholars”, but also a long-line of other extremist speakers, including Bilal Philips, Khalid Yasin, and Yemeni Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar Al-Aulaqi.

Read the whole article.

Commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, and remembering CAIR's censorship of it

We fly Israel's flag in spite of CAIR's attempt to censor it.
We recognize this week’s international commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, vowing to never forget. And in our remembering, we recall the attack by CAIR-Ohio officials, namely Ahmad Al-Akhras, against Holocaust Remembrance Day in April 2001. Islamofascist thug Al-Akhras was joined by Andy Amid and several other leaders demanding that the city of Gahanna strip down Israel’s flag flown in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

CAIR crowed about their success in a press release (now conveniently disappeared after I mentioned in an expose of Al-Akhras last year).

Here’s the now-removed April 2001 CAIR-OH press release:

Israeli flag taken down in Ohio following protests from Muslims

The mayor of a Columbus, Ohio, suburb has agreed to take down an Israeli flag that flew for a day from the city’s flagpole. The flag had been flown as part of the “Days of Remembrance,” a national commemoration of the mass killing of Jews in Europe during World War II.

Mayor Jim McGregor of Gahanna, Ohio, took the flag down after meeting with representatives of the CAIR’s Ohio chapter (CAIR-OHIO), Arab Americans of Central Ohio, the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, and the Muslim Student Association.

“We want to thank Mayor McGregor for understanding that the desire to honor and remember all those who died at the hands of the Nazis is a completely separate issue from flying the Israeli flag. For the Islamic and Arab communities in Ohio, that flag is a symbol of the ongoing oppression suffered by Palestinian Christians and Muslims,” said CAIR-OHIO President Ahmad Al-Akhras.

Al-Akhras cited the fact that more than 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and more than 400 Palestinian town and villages were wiped off the map by the creation of Israel in 1948. He also noted that today is the fifth anniversary of the Qana massacre in Lebanon during which Israeli troops, using American weapons, killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians who sought shelter in a U.N. compound.

“Americans cannot, without a strong sense of hypocrisy, praise the principles of Holocaust remembrance on the one hand, and turn a blind eye to the daily atrocities committed by Israel on the other,” said Andy Amid, a founding member of the Islamic Council of Ohio, who also attended the meeting.

It is, of course, hypocritical to cite the events of 1948 as justification for removing the Israeli flag, as the Palestinians were not driven off by Israelis, but the invading Muslim armies who attacked Israel vowing to finish the genocide that the Nazis had begun. And the feigned concern for Palestinian Christians is equally hypocritical, as the HAMAS allies of these organizations are the biggest persecutors of Christians in Palestine. We also remember the ongoing liquidation of Christian communities in virtually every segment of the Muslim world. Where’s the CAIR press release on that?

Jim McGregor is no longer mayor of Gahanna, but now serves as a state representative.