Central Ohioans Against Terrorism

Former HAMAS fundraiser/crooner Monzer Taleb to speak at CAIR-Cleveland fundraiser this weekend, sang about exterminating Jews, “I am from HAMAS!”

2009-04-02T21:50:00.027-04:00

Before the Holy Land Foundation was closed by the US government as a designated global terrorist fundraising entity just weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Monzer Taleb (aka Munzir Taleb, Monzer Talib, et al.) was part of the infamous Al-Sakhra Band, which toured the US raising money for HLF and the terrorist group, HAMAS. [UPDATE: It appears that not only was Taleb a fundraiser for HLF, but he was also named unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF terror finance case. See below for more details.]

As part of Al-Sakhra, Monzer Taleb sang of violence, terror and hatred. Dallas-based investigative reporter Todd Bensman described the group of terror crooners in his article, “HAMAS Rock Stars,” as follows:

It wasn’t exactly feel-good music in the conventional sense. Mufid’s Al Sakhra (“The Rock”) band crooned a gospel of death and hatred toward the Jews at Hamas fundraisers, while the collection plates moved through wildly enthusiastic Arab-American audiences.

In the indictment of Holy Land Foundation executives, federal prosecutors said that skits and songs performed by Al-Sakhra “advocated the destruction of the State of Israel and glorified the killing of Jewish people.” (p. 13)

Now Monzer Taleb continues his HAMAS fundraising as a featured speaker for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Cleveland chapter’s annual banquet this coming Sunday:

CLEVELAND 7th ANNUAL FUNDRAISING BANQUET
Sunday, April 5, 2009

Embassy Suites — Cleveland Rockside
5800 Rockside Woods Blvd.
Independence, OH 44131

Speakers:
Hussam Ayloush, Executive Director, CAIR Los Angeles
Monzer Taleb, Islamic Association of North Texas

Tickets:
$50 in advance, $60 at the door
Babysitting $10/per child

CALL 216-830-2247 TO RESERVE YOUR TICKETS EARLY!

CAIR was named unindicted co-conspirator in the recently concluded Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, which resulted in guilty verdicts on all 108 counts against the defendants. During the trial, FBI Agent Lara Burns testified that CAIR was a front for HAMAS. As a result of the substantial evidence presented during the trial tying CAIR to the international Islamic terrorist network, the FBI recently cut its ties to CAIR, as has the Columbus Police Department and Police Academy.

One of the defendants in the Holy Land Foundation trial, Mufid Abdulqader, who was convicted on conspiracy charges, was the leader of Al-Sakhra. After he was indicted along with the other Holy Land Foundation executives, a Dallas TV station revealed that Abdulqader is the half-brother of HAMAS leader Khaled Mishal. Trial exhibits also revealed that Al-Sakhra had performed at 25 HLF fundraisers in one year alone.

Monzer Taleb also figured into the Holy Land Foundation trial as he was personally named as unindicted co-conspirator in the case, in addition to CAIR, as this graphic taken from the federal prosecutors’ list of unindicted co-conspirators indicates (p. 6, no. 40 — click graphic for larger image):

Videos of the Al-Sakhra Band were also entered into evidence by federal prosecutors to show the connection between the “charity” and HAMAS. In fact, one solo performance by Monzer Taleb was particularly difficult for defense attorneys to explain away, as Taleb sang “I am from HAMAS” (complete video and transcript available from the Investigative Project):

[Caption on the screen]
I am from Hamas
[End of caption]

Munzir: I am from Hamas and have never cheered for anyone else besides her.

I am from Hamas and have never cheered for anyone else besides her, she is the way to reciprocate the deceit of the attacker.

And she is the one which marches with the light of Muhammad, and it is the one which marches with the light of Muhammad, with the light of Muhammad towards Jihad, towards Jihad, towards Jihad, towards Jihad by its renewed determination.

[Caption on the screen]
Hamas
A continuous revolution
[End of caption]

Another troubling video of the entire troupe, including Taleb, was presented as evidence of them singing about the murdering and enslavement of the Jews (full video and transcript available from the Investigative Project):

Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews.
The Army of Muhammad will return
Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews.
The Army of Muhammad will return
Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews.
The Army of Muhammad will return
Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews.
The Army of Muhammad will return
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey.
Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews.
The Army of Muhammad will return
Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews.
The Army of Muhammad will return
Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews.
The Army of Muhammad will return
Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews.
The Army of Muhammad will return
We will crawl and fight.

In a January 2001 article in the New Yorker, Jeffrey Goldberg explained the significance of the popular Islamic chant:

I had not heard this particular slogan since 1991, during the first Intifada, but that was in Gaza, and it was the fundamentalists of the militant Islamic group Hamas who had chanted it. This crowd was beardless — a mostly secular crowd. Khaybar is the name of an oasis near Medina that, in the time of Muhammad, was populated mainly by Jews. In the year 628, Muhammad led the Muslims against it, defeating the Jews in battle and subjugating the survivors, who would later be expelled from Arabia. The intent of the slogan, then, is clear: what the army of Muhammad did to the Jews fourteen hundred years ago in Arabia it would soon do again in Palestine.

Another interesting tidbit gathered from this video is that the drum played by Taleb bears the Arabic inscription, “Al-Sakhra Band, Islamic Association for Palestine”. The now-closed Islamic Association for Palestine was the parent organization of CAIR.

In yet another video Monzer Taleb is introduced as part of Al-Sakhra by Holy Land Foundation President and CEO Shurki Abu Baker, as they sang:

O Hamas the religion
Get rid of these enemies.
O sword of the Muslims.
Hamas the Jihad.
O Hamas the religion
Get rid of these enemies.
O sword of the Muslims.
Hamas the religion
O Hamas the religion
Get rid of these enemies.
O sword of the Muslims.
We challenge with our Quran.
We challenge with our Quran.
Our youth are roaming around.
Our youth are roaming around.
We challenge with our Quran.
We challenge with our Quran.
Our youth are roaming around.
Our youth are roaming around.
And our dwellings will not be returned.
And nothing will wash our disgrace,
Except blood and stones.
Rebel, rebel, rebel.
Rebel, rebel, rebel.
Hey, hey, hey.
Hey, hey, hey.

It wasn’t just Monzer Taleb’s participation in the Al-Sakhra Band that got the attention of federal prosecutors, as he was also identified in seized Holy Land Foundation documents as the head of the “Artistic Aspect” of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee responsible for fundraising and propaganda in the US on behalf of HAMAS (click to enlarge).

Monzer Taleb has continued his “artistic” pursuits by authoring and directing a play, “Once Upon a Time in Medina”, about the early battles of conquest by the Muslims and the “grand conspiracy” of the Jews against Islam. The play was presented in February 2004 by the Muslim American Society Youth Center of Dallas, which Taleb founded and directs.

And of course, CAIR-Cleveland has run into its own troubles with promoting hatred and violence, such as their attempt in March 2008 to present a hate-filled movie at the Cleveland Heights Library, which was loudly denounced by Jewish groups in Northeast Ohio. But when CAIR-Cleveland features speakers such as Monzer Taleb at their annual banquet, is it really any surprise?!

BBC exposes Columbus mosque speaker, hatemonger Khalid Yasin

2009-02-19T00:17:00.006-05:00

The BBC’s Panorama program on Monday, “Muslim First, British Second,” addressed the growing problem of Islamic radicalization flourishing under the guise of “non-violent” Muslims. What they discovered is that extremist preachers, while nominally disclaiming violence, in fact, are a major contributor to the atmosphere of hate that breeds Islamic terrorism.

So it was no surprise then that one of the hatemongers they profiled was none other than Khalid Yasin, who was in Ohio last year conducting fundraisers in Columbus and Dayton. As we reported here exclusively at COAT last May, Yasin spent more than a week touring a number of Columbus-area mosques and Ohio State, his visit sponsored by the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus.

The segment on Khalid Yasin begins around the 9:40 mark:

Sure is nice to see a major media outlet addressing this problem — even if they are 3,866 miles away. Now if only get the media a little closer to home to begin seriously tackling this issue. Not holding my breath.

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Qaradawi calls for the genocide of the Jews — his friends in Central Ohio

2009-01-12T17:20:00.027-05:00

Last Friday, HAMAS spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi went on his weekly TV program on al-Jazeera to pray for the genocide of the Jews:

Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.

MEMRI has the video and the transcript of Qaradawi’s comments. This tirade and his calls for the genocide of the Jews is nothing new, of course. You can read more from this post at JihadWatch.

However, what should be of concern to residents of Central Ohio is that Qaradawi has close associates in our area. Don’t believe me?

Yes, that’s our local terror sheikh, Hilliard resident Salah Sultan (right) hamming it up with Qaradawi (center) and Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood leader Faisal al-Malawi (left). Sultan serves on the board for two of Qaradawi’s organizations along with al-Malawi, the International Association of Muslim Scholars and the European Council for Fatwa and Research. Qaradawi and Malawi are both banned from the US for their open support of HAMAS and other terrorist organizations, as well as for issuing fatwas allowing for suicide bombings against civilians. In 2004, Qaradawi, Malawi and Sultan issued a fatwa in the name of IAMS calling for jihad against American troops in Iraq.

Sultan is also a member of the Fiqh Council of North America, which bills itself as the top Islamic ruling body in the US.

Here’s another shot of them laughing it up:

These photos of Qaradawi and Sultan have never been released before and are provided here exclusively by COAT. We have about a half-dozen more we are not releasing at this time.

Let’s not forget Sultan’s appearance in July 2007 with Qaradawi and HAMAS head (and designated terrorist) Khaled Mish’al sitting together on the speaker’s dais at a conference in Qatar honoring Qaradawi:

So impressed was Qaradawi with the two speeches that Sultan delivered in his honor that he posted them on his own personal website:

For those just joining us, Sultan appeared on Egyptian Al-Nas TV just two weeks ago (which we reported here) preaching Jew hatred and predicting death and destruction for America:

Let’s not forget that Sultan was the religious director for the Islamic school in Hilliard, Sunrise Academy, as seen in this 2005 announcement for a seminar taught by Sultan (seen teaching below) held at Sunrise sponsored by the school and the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (click to enlarge):

And let’s not forget about his friends at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard/Dublin, where Sultan served as scholar-in-residence for his best friend, Noor president Hany Saqr:

And here’s a shot of Sultan at one of the Noor Center’s intifada-fests:

Hmmm . . . where did all that money go they raised that night? And will the Noor Center's de facto press agent, Columbus Dispatch religion reporter Meredith Heagney, quickly move to explain this all away?

LMAO — Congresswoman Kilroy snubs CAIR, votes FOR House resolution supporting Israel

2009-01-11T04:55:00.006-05:00

I’m never one to begrudge praise when someone does the right thing no matter how much I’ve disagreed with them in the past. So a tip of the hat to new Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy for bucking her CAIR supporters on Friday in her first week in Washington DC and voting FOR the House resolution supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, reaffirming the United States’ support for Israel, and supporting the peace process.

As I have reported here, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a HAMAS front group, invested significant money, time and energy to get Kilroy elected. It isn’t a stretch, considering her very slim margin of victory, that she owes her seat to CAIR. And in the past, she has been more than willing to do their bidding. But Ahmad Al-Akhras, Asma Mobin-Uddin and Abukar Arman must be steaming that Kilroy has turned on them so quickly. And to think that they couldn’t even get their own congressman, Keith Ellison, to vote against the resolution (he voted “present”)!

How are those political dividends paying off, CAIR?

LMAO

BREAKING: Ohio Terror Sheikh Salah Sultan Preaches Jew Hatred, Threatens US on Egyptian TV

2008-12-30T17:06:00.024-05:00

Salah Sultan, internationally renowned Islamic hate sheikh from Hilliard, Ohio, was recorded yesterday on Egyptian Al-Nas TV preaching Jew hatred and spewing conspiracy filth. In his interview, Sultan approvingly cites the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Sultan also warns of the forthcoming descruction and deaths of Americans, vowing that more Americans will be killed than Palestinians in Gaza — and soon! (Hmmm . . . what could he possibly be talking about??? And how would he know???)

Wonder what his friends at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, especially his best friend and mosque president Hany Saqr, think about that? Oh, and did I mention that Sultan used to be the religious director at the Islamic school in Hilliard, Sunrise Academy, and the scholar-in-residence for the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus? They have any thoughts on his comments? And was this what Sultan was preaching while he was touring Columbus-area mosques this month?

Here’s the transcript of his interview courtesy of MEMRI:

Al-Nas TV, December 29, 2008

Egyptian cleric Dr. Sallah Sultan: The arch-murderer who commanded the campaign against Jenin in 2003 went to America a few months later and boarded a NASA space shuttle. The space shuttle was launched by NASA, and a few minutes later, it reached Texas, the land of President Bush. Then this space shuttle shattered to pieces, along with the five top American space scientists, and that commander of the Zionist airforce was on board with them. Where exactly did it shatter and fall? By Allah, Sheik Mahmoud, although I was living in America, I didn’t know that there was a city called “Palestine” in America. Sheik Mustafa, the space shuttle fell, of all places, in the city of Palestine, in President Bush’s state of Texas.

[ . . . ]

The stone, which is thrown at the Jews, hates these Jews, these Zionists, because Allah foretold, via His Prophet Muhammad, that Judgment Day will not come before the Jew and the Muslim fight. The Jew will hide behind stones and trees, and the stone and the tree will speak, saying: “Oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” The only exception will be the Gharqad tree.

TV host: The Jews know this for sure, that’s why they plant Gharqad trees.

Dr. Salah Sultan: The stone’s self-awareness is such that it can distinguish Muslims from Jews.

TV host: True, and it will support the Muslims.

[ . . . ]

Dr. Salah Sultan: American, which gave [Israel] everything it needed in these battles, will suffer economic stagnation, ruin, destruction, and crime, which will surpass what is happening in Gaza. One of these days, the U.S. will suffer more deaths than all those killed in this third Gaza holocaust. This will happen soon.

[ . . . ]

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an attempt to rule and corrupt the entire world. When the world concentrates on its desires and lusts, the [Jews] will be free to implement their plan of controlling the world.

[ . . . ]

I might remind our regular readers of my September 17th post regarding an interview Salah Sultan recently gave to Islamonline, “Ohio Terror Sheikh Salah Sultan: Jews Killed President Kennedy, Advocates Islamic Theocracy for US Elections”.

And let’s not forget about his comments on Al-Risala TV back in May 2006 (just two weeks after the Columbus Dispatch defended Sultan as a moderate), where he expounds on how the US government was behind 9/11, and praising Osama bin Laden’s mentor and designated terrorist, Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani:

We Salute All Veterans!!

2008-11-11T14:52:00.001-05:00

Thank you for your service and sacrifice!

Bringing it all together.

2008-10-21T02:57:00.018-04:00

Is a Columbus City Hall staffer providing an ear (and a voice) for local Islamists?

Another interesting wrinkle in this ongoing saga — if you will, is the appearance of Abukar Arman and Abukar Osman (Balle) business partner Abdinur Mohamud on the scene (or, more accurately behind the scenes).

Since the apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree, finding Abdinur (who works for the State of Ohio Dept of Education) is not all that unusual. Where we found him is. . . .

In this 2006 video, Abdinur is seen leading a protest against a visit by a South African ambassador — which is mind you, perfectly legal in the Shari’a free USA. The uniqueness, if you will comes when we see Abdinur pictured with a Columbus Mayoral Staffer (Community Relations Commission-New Immigrant Initiative) employee named Abdirizak Farah, whose brief city bio can be found here.

Don’t they look imposingly handsome together? (There is a perfect shot of them at 1:40 into the video).

Before you read further, glance back at our last post on this crew and get a good look at Mr. Osman in City Hall.

Now watch the video one more time. Notice that at :27 seconds into the video that a man that looks just like Abukar Osman is seen holding a sign for his friends Abdinur and Abdirizak.

Isn’t coincidence so coincidental?

Is it possible that we have found the gatekeeper to City Hall for these Shari’a law advocates in Mayor Coleman’s adviser Abdiriak Farah?

I’m sure there are dozens of other people that work for the Mayor that have appeared in internet videos with local Islamists — just right now I can’t find any.

Someone had to have put a bug in the Mayor’s ear when Arman was being chased all over the city and off the Franklin County Homeland Security Advisory Board. Although we see emails from Michael Brown from City Hall, it would be hard to believe that nobody in City Hall asked the native Somalian on staff what his insights were on Arman. . . .

Are we also to believe that 15 year old Ilhan Abukar Dahir, daughter of Abukar Osman, just happened to be chosen for the Columbus Youth Commission out of thousands of young Somalis who would have also qualified for the job?

Unfortunately, that is how politics works. . . .

In the “Gee . . . . it’s a small world category” Mr. Farah can also be seen here assisting the Obama 2008 crew from Minneapolis sign up local Somalis to vote for Obama.

The fact that Mr. Farah is working to assist fellow Somalis, presumably by translating for them on his own time, is very commendable.

The fact that Mr. Farah seems to have deep connections with Abdinur Mohamud, Abukar Arman, and Abukar Osman — all who have publicly outed themselves as supporters of Shari’a law in Somalia (and perhaps beyond) is however concerning. This is not intended to be for or against any candidate. But since I do not speak Somali, I cannot comment on what the majority of the men are saying in these videos.

What should concern every American and every voter are the answers that are heard in English. Following the "campaign" meeting, www.Bartamaha.com shot two follow up videos entitled "Why I want to vote for Barack Obama" Pts. 1 & 2. They also spliced out an excerpt they entitled “The Obama Kid”, which can be seen here. Out of the mouths of babes comes the truth.

If you don’t watch any other segments, the “Obama Kid” will provide great insight as to what the majority of this meeting probably was — that would also explain why ‘the kid’ got cut off before he finished his sentence about the war in Iraq. . . . . . .

Hopefully there are other figures amongst the Somali community in Columbus that are also in positions of leadership and/ authority, that regardless of their political affiliations, aren’t so well connected to men who outwardly advocate for anti-democratic Shari’a law — because it looks like the Islamists have the Department of Education, Charter Schools, and possibly City Hall all wrapped up.

In light of the documents WorldNetDaily published today regarding Kenya’s Odinga and the Orange Party, some folks might want to dust off their Fiqh manuals to get a better idea of just where they stand in the coming times of Change.

Changing of the Guard?

2008-10-16T05:40:00.009-04:00

One would have thought that with all the attention that Ahmad al Akhras and his close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated group CAIR (as alleged by the Federal Government in the ongoing Holyland Foundation [HLF] trial in Houston, Tx.), that the International Academy of Columbus would have steered clear of any potentially controversial figures when creating a new Board of Education.

They didn’t. By replacing Al Akhras with Dr. Hazem Gheith, the operation went from ‘troubling’ to overtly dangerous (when looked at through the long term goals of the Muslim Brotherhood and their ‘grand jihad’ against the West).

On the good side, while CAIR is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF case, the Muslim American Society (MAS) is not. They are however considered the operational arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT),

[f]ounded as the United States chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, the international Islamist, anti-Western organization whose goal is the “introduction of the Islamic Shari`ah as the basis controlling the affairs of state and society.”

According to the Secretary of the State of Ohio, in 2007 Dr. Hazem Gheith incorporated a 501 c3 (not for profit) organization in Columbus, Ohio called the Muslim American Society.

Gheith is not only on the Board at the International Academy, but also served as the president of Masjid Omar ibnal Khattab (Omar Mosque) back when Columbus Al Qaeda ‘associates’ Iyman Faris, Nuradin Abdi, and Christopher Paul were ‘hanging out’ there (and involved in martial arts training — amongst other projects. . . .).

I wonder what the Muslim Brotherhood’s flagship, the MAS is doing wanting to be involved in educating Columbus’ children?

Maybe we can get Abukar Arman or Abukar Osman to check with Mr. Gheith and make sure they are not trying to subvert or influence Columbus’ youthful immigrant population.

Funny coincidence; Arman and Osman associated with another group advocating for Shari`a law dominance.

Small world.

Giving credit where credit is due. . . .

2008-10-15T04:19:00.011-04:00

The Dispatch Stands up to CAIR (and our old friend and Islamic Courts supporter, Abukar Arman). . . .

Credit also to Patrick, who although he is under the weather right now, came across this editorial by Mr. Arman, and the retort to Arman and CAIR’s Islamofascist tactics by Glenn Sheller of the Columbus Dispatch — Glenn, not that it matters, but great job — thank you!

Glenn’s article speaks for itself. Please read it and contact him to encourage him. He is bound to face some heat for speaking the truth about CAIR and their war against free speech.

Now, onto Mr. Arman’s article; we will point out some additional issues that could use a closer examination.

While digressing on the many “anti’s” (Semitism, Catholicism, etc.) that exist in America today, Arman naturally brings up “Islamophobia”. In doing so, Arman provides the most truthful and accurate depiction of the phenomena called “Islamophobia” that has (possibly) ever been uttered by a CAIR employee:

“And like the rest, Islamophobia was developed and is fostered by special agenda-driven groups attempting to achieve a political, social or economic end.”

YES. YES, and YES! Very true Mr. Arman!

It should be noted that the “special interest group” Mr. Arman is referring to (whether he realized it or not) is none other than CAIR itself.

Even Mr. Sheller notes,

“Where CAIR errs is in labeling anyone who discusses Islamic terrorism a bigot and hatemonger, an Islamophobe, to use CAIR’s favorite slur.”

Mr. Arman goes on further to state,

“Gone are the days when the perpetrators of hate would march with banners that explicitly express their negative views of other groups. Today, hate messages and propaganda often are camouflaged as talk-radio punditry, political speeches and infomercials.”

That is not entirely accurate Mr. Arman. Perhaps you have forgotten about the November 2007 protest at the Ohio Statehouse (fortunately YouTube has not), where at 2:30 into the video, you stated [in reference to the implied US support of Ethiopian military activity in Mogadishu, Somalia] “it would create even more people to hate this (the United States) country for this policy. It fuels more anti-Americanism.”

Mr. Arman take solace, you are still batting one thousand with your honesty and sincerity - at least when it comes to your true beliefs about the United States.

This video, which was taken by a man who calls himself Mahdy Maaweel is just one in a series of videos posted by Maaweel under the username somalisan.

As I write this piece I can see a still photo of a man that I recall reading about on Robert Spencer’s site (www.jihadwatch.org) about a year ago. His photo, and his henna stained beard make him rather easy to recall. . . .

A quick search revealed that Spencer’s article also appeared on the Frontpage magazine website under the title, “The Minneapolis Jihad”.

After further review, the man in Maaweel’s video is definitely one in the same. He is identified as Mohamed Hassan Jaamici J.D., the chairman of the Somali Institute for Peace and Justice (SIPJ), and an Imam at a local Minneapolis mosque.

Perhaps ironically, Jaamici can be seen in this link from a September, 2006 press release reiterating his support for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU).

Peeling another layer back from the onion reveals that Mr. Arman and Sheikh Hassan (Jaamici) do not appear as featured speakers in Maaweel’s videos by mere coincidence. An internet search confirms that Arman is still the President and founder of the Pan Somali Council for Peace and Justice (ISRAACA) {now-defunct website www.israaca.org}.

Here is a snippet from the ‘press release’ for a planned multi-organization protest in Washington DC in June 2007 linking the two groups together:

THE EVENT IS SPONSORED BY THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS:

Somali American Peace Council (SAPC) — Washington , DC
Somalis for Peace and Justice (SPJ)
Somali Diaspora Network (SDN) — Fairfax Virginia
North American Somali Diaspora Steering Committee
Pan-Somali Council for Peace & Democracy (Israaca)
Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance
Somali Institute for Peace & Justice (SIPJ)- Minneapolis , MN
Alberta Centre for Somali Canadian Relations
Midwest Resource Center (MRC) — Minneapolis, MN
Hirgal Consulting and Adult Education-Rochester, MN

A little Googling revealed that in August 2006, ISRAACA Chairman of the Board Abukar Osman issued a statement also supporting the ICU restoring itself as the chief law enforcement (sharia) mechanism in Somalia.

If Abukar Osman rings a bell with COAT readers — it should. He is also a business partner of Abukar Arman’s and Abdinur Mohamud’s — in their business ventures dealing with (failing) charter schools here in Columbus. According to their website, Mr. Osman is currently on the IAC Board of Education.

Oh, did I mention that even more ‘Googling’ revealed a picture of Mr. Osman, a girl who is labeled as his daughter, and the Mayor of the City of Columbus, Mike Coleman, together inside City Hall?

Apparently Ilhan Abukar Dahir is on the Mayor’s Youth Commission. Whatever that is . . . .

How nice. The same City Hall Administration involved in advocating for Abukar Arman when he was in hot water last year for being on the Franklin County Homeland Security Advisory Board — as a non-US citizen — is now appointing the daughter of his (Arman’s) business partner (Osman) as an advisor.

Isn’t coincidence so coincidental? Isn’t it nice to know that fellows advocating for the implementation of Shari’a law in Somalia and running several taxpayer funded pseudo-madrassas have access and influence in City Hall?

I wonder if the same guys advocate for Shari’a here in the US? If not, I would be curious why not?

So, in closing. Thank you, Mr. Arman for your tremendous insights into how America’s adversaries are blending old school protests, never changing politics, and new age information warfare (from internet propaganda to using taxpayer dollars to fund potentially subversive charter schools) to further the cause of the stealth jihad. It always sounds more believable when it comes from folks “in the know”.

Your friends at COAT.

Update: Thanks to google 2001, the special edition that Google is allowing access to for the month of October, COAT was able to recover this ISRAACA document from 2002 that lists--surprisingly (tic) Abdinur Mohamud as a key player in the ISRAACA organization along with Mr. Arman and Mr. Osman aka (Balle) (see #4 and #42) respectively.

Muslim Americans for Obama running illegal get out the vote drives at swingstate mosques this week — including Noor Center

2008-10-01T00:58:00.021-04:00

UPDATE: For those who has asked about lawful voter registration drives at religious institutions, that is only legal IF the organization is non-partisan. “Muslim Americans for Obama”, the sponsor of these events, is unquestionably a partisan organization, and thus, any participation by these mosques is illegal and violates their tax exempt status. Additionally, since the Muslim Americans for Obama announcement says that these voter registration drives are intended to “get out the vote for Sen. Obama”, they are considered partisan (i.e. intended to benefit a specific candidate) under the law and illegal on that basis as well — in addition to the fact that these events are sponsored by a partisan organization.

UPDATE #2: In just the past few hours, Muslim Americans for Obama has added a “clarification” to their announcement with this howler:

Muslim Americans for Obama has made clear to all its volunteers that all voter registration activity is strictly non-partisan (no advocacy on behalf of any candidate or party, whether written or verbal).

The simple fact that this is “Muslim Americans for Obama” makes this partisan political activity, their “clarification” notwithstanding. No amount of instructions to their Muslim Americans for Obama volunteers can change that fact.

They also claim that they are only doing activities on “adjoining property”, but that is belied by the fact that event postings on their own Muslim Americans for Obama website indicate that some of the voter registration/get out the vote booths are located inside the mosque. How exactly is that not sponsorship by the mosque? Can't keep their lies straight, it seems. (And, yes, we have saved screen shots of the evidence before they pull it down. Hello, IRS?)

Update #3: A quick aside, I would point out that one of the mosques targeted by Muslim Americans for Obama, Dar al-Hijrah in Falls Church, VA, is the mosque that hosted two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf Al Hazmi and Khalid Al Mihdhar. Their former imam, Anwar al-Aulaqi, is wanted by the FBI for questioning about his role in helping these two terrorists while he was serving mosques in both San Diego and Northern VA. Read this Washington Post article, “Imam from VA mosque now thought to have aided Al-Qaeda” for more background on al-Aulaqi (who now lives in Yemen), and this previous COAT post discussing al-Aulaqi’s Central Ohio ties.

Original post: The group, Muslim Americans for Obama, has announced a series of “get out the vote” events at mosques in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Ohio this week during Ramadan celebrations. As can be seen in the announcement reprinted below, the organization admits these are “get out the vote” events masquerading as “voter registration”:

Muslim Americans for Obama will be working to get out the vote for Sen. Obama, and they need help registering voters! Volunteers need not be Muslim, though appropriate attire is advised (no sleeveless tops; long pants and ankle-length skirts recommended).

These get out the vote events, of course, flagrantly violate the tax exempt status of these participating mosques, including our own local Noor Islamic Cultural Center, which are strictly prohibited from supporting or endorsing any kind of partisan political activity — even when they claim it is only “voter registration”. In fact, it was these kinds of activities that eventually sunk the Christian Coalition's tax exempt status with the IRS.

Here's the entire announcement posted on Sunday at the Asian-Americans for Obama 08 website (no doubt it will disappear from there shortly), as well as the Muslim Americans for Obama website:

September 28th, 2008

National Muslim Voter Registration Day 2008 on 9/29-10/1
Posted by Eugenia Beh

Muslim Americans for Obama will be working to get out the vote for Sen. Obama, and they need help registering voters! Volunteers need not be Muslim, though appropriate attire is advised (no sleeveless tops; long pants and ankle-length skirts recommended).

—–

National Muslim Voter Registration Day 2008
EID VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVES
Volunteer Opportunities

MICHIGAN

Multiple volunteer opportunities are available on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (Sep 30/Oct 1) in the greater Detroit area. Contact Abdelnasser at arashid@fas.harvard.edu

PENNSYLVANIA

1. Islamic Society of Chester County
1001 Pottstown Pike, West, PA 19380
2 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED - 7:30AM
(will decide Mon evening if celebrating on Tues or Wed)
Contact: salimub@yahoo.com

2. North Penn Mosque
600 Maple Avenue, Lansdale, PA 19446
Contact: Umar Abdur-Rahman
No additional volunteers needed at this time.

3. Coatesville Masjid
723 Merchant Street, Coatesville, PA
1 VOLUNTEER NEEDED - 7:30 AM on Wednesday
Contact: mohammedjamaluddin@yahoo.com

4. Devon Masjid
EID Prayers held at Villanova at the following address:
1860 Montgomery Ave. Villanova, PA 19085
2 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED - 7:30 AM on Wednesday
Contact: alhuda@comcast.net
and Br Iqbal Zaman - iqbal_zaman@yahoo.com

5. Foundation for Islamic Education
1860 Montgomery Ave, Villanova, PA
Eid is on Wed - Salah is at 8 AM
Contact: Mahmood Siddique
No additional volunteers needed at this time.

6. Masjid Al- Furqan
7252 Roosevelt Blvd, Philadelphia, PA,
Eid is on Wed - salah is at 8 AM
Contact: Mahmood Siddique
No additional volunteers needed at this time.

NEW YORK

1. Jamaica Muslim Center
85-37 168th Street, Jamaica, NY 11432
Eid Jamaats- 8, 9 and 10 am.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Contact: shabbir.chaudhury@gmail.com

2. Islamic Center of Long Island (ICLI)
835 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, NY 11590
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Contact: sajjadi@yahoo.com

3. Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center
89-89 Van Wyck Expressway, Jamaica, NY 11435
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Contact: kiran.siddiqi@gmail.com

4. Islamic Center of Rochester
727 Westfall Road, Rochester, NY 14620
Contact: Umaira Khan
No additional volunteers needed at this time.

5. 96th Street Mosque
Islamic Cultural Center of New York
1711 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10029-7303
Contact: fatimashraf@gmail.com
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

NEW JERSEY

1. Masjid Al-Amman - Prayer at Brookdale Community College
Middletown, New Jersey
Contact: engy.abdelkader@gmail.com
No additional volunteers needed at this time.

2. Masjid-Al-Islah
320 Fabry Terrace, Teaneck, NJ 07666
No additional volunteers needed at this time.

3. Islamic Education Center of Bergen County
78 Trinity Place, Hackensack, NJ 07601
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Contact: hesham@technochief.com

4. Islamic Center of South Jersey
612 Garfield Avenue, Palmyra, NJ 08065
Contact: Nasreen Badat
No additional volunteers needed at this time.

5. Great Adventures Muslim Family Day
537 Jackson Mills Road, Jackson, NJ
OCT 1ST & 2ND (shifts available - 10AM -9PM)
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED & FREE ADMISSION PASSES AVAILABLE
Contact: engy.abdelkader@gmail.com

VIRGINIA

1. Dar Al Hijrah’s Eid Prayers
Date: Wednesday, October 1
Location: Marriot Fairview Park, 3111 Fairview Park, Falls Church, VA 22042
Prayer Times: 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 12 noon.
Please meet at the prayer site, outside the main prayer hall
(we will have signs) starting at 8 a.m.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Contact person: Lubna Alam, 314-369-1981, lubnalam@gmail.com

2. ADAMS Center Eid Prayers in Fairfax
Date: Wednesday, October 1
Location: Hilton Garden Inn, 3950 Fair Ridge Dr. Fairfax, Va. 22033
Prayer Times: 7.30 8:30, 9:45, 11:00 a.m., 12:15 p.m.
Please meet at the prayer site, outside the main prayer hall
(we will have signs) starting at 7:30 a.m.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Contact person: Zeenat Iqbal, 703-798-4205, zeenat.iqbal@gmail.com

3. ADAMS Center Lansdowne prayer
Date: Wednesday, Oct 1
Location: National Conference Center, Sports Center (formerly
Xerox Center) - Lansdowne, VA (Btwn Sterling and Leesburg) Off
of Rt 7 and Belmont Ridge Rd.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Contact person: Saba Baig Salaam - saba_baig@yahoo.com

4. Imam Ali Center Eid Prayers
Date: Wednesday, October 1
7900 Backlick Rd Springfield, VA 22150 (703) 455-5599
Prayer Times: 8:30 a.m
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Please meet directly at the mosque at 8am to volunteer
Contact person: Zahir Janmohamed; (202) 368 8914; zahirj@gmail.com

5. Idara-e-Jafaria Eid Prayers in Burtonsville, Maryland
Date: Wednesday, October 1
3140 Spencerville Road, Burtonsville, MD 20866
Prayer Times: 8:30am
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Please meet directly at the mosque at 8am
Contact person: Khizer Husain, (202) 276 6080, khizer101@yahoo.com

OHIO

1. Noor Islamic Cultural Center
5001 Wilcox Road, Dublin, Ohio 43016
8:30AM to 11:30AM
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
10-15 volunteers needed for each of three sites
Contact: engy.abdelkader@gmail.com

2. Islamic Society of Greater Youngstown
535 Harmon Avenue, Youngstown, OH 44502
OCT. 3RD Friday afternoon prayer - 12 noon
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Contact: Zeina Saymeh, zsaymeh@hotmail.com

CAIR spreads Islamophobia as Round 2 of Obsession DVD campaign arrives by mail

2008-09-26T01:27:00.007-04:00

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday!

Last week I reported about the response by our local Islamic extremists to the distribution of the DVD copies of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War against the West” in dozens of major US daily newspapers on Sunday, September 14, including the Columbus Dispatch. Hatemongering organizations, like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), have gone near catatonic with rage that anyone is challenging their control over the establishment media.

Well, the second round of Obsession DVDs has begun hitting Ohio homes, as seen from the mailer above which arrived here yesterday. This very well may push extremists like CAIR over the edge. CAIR has already demanded an FEC investigation into the organization, the Clarion Fund, who is sponsoring the DVD distribution. And in Toledo, Muslim groups are in a state of near hysteria, claiming that they are living in fear because of the video drops.

Thus, in a curious turn of events, CAIR is directly responsible for Islamophobia, telling Muslims that they need to be afraid.

What is CAIR afraid of exactly? What the Clarion Fund has done is to take their message beyond the reach of Islamic extremists with their jackboot grip on the establishment media narrative, and reach out directly to American families to warn them about the immediate dangers of Islamic extremism. While the producers of Obsession go to great lengths to distinguish between mainstream Muslims and extremists, CAIR and its allies are attempting to erase that distinction between moderates and jihadists.

CAIR’s malignant ideology has finally turned in on itself, and their reactionary response to the Obsession DVD drops is exposing the group’s true motives for all the world to see. When American families watch the Obsession video, and compare it to CAIR’s overheated rhetoric, the jig will be up.

PS — look for my forthcoming review of the Clarion Fund’s next documentary, “The Third Jihad”, which is scheduled for release next month.

Noor Center speaker Wagdi Ghoneim: Eating and drinking left-handed is Satanic

2008-09-25T08:34:00.006-04:00

In May 2004, international Muslim Brotherhood figure Wagdi Ghoneim came to Central Ohio to speak at a fundraiser for the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, now in Hilliard. That, of course, was before he was arrested, deported, and banned from the US later that year for his advocacy of terrorism and religious extremism. He was serving as the imam for the Islamic Institute of Orange County (CA) at the time. A few months ago I reported on Ghoneim’s Central Ohio connections after Ghoneim was arrested and deported from South Africa for the same reasons.

Well, the former Noor Center speaker appeared earlier this month on Al-Nas TV, addressing the age-old issue of how eating and drinking with your left hand follows Satan and his success at beating back the demonic temptations to use his left hand. MEMRI has the video, and also the transcript of Ghoneim’s remarks:

Wagdi Ghoneim: Some people eat with their left hand. What’s this supposed to be? They say: When you eat, the fork goes in the left hand. Do you eat with your left hand? You do, and then you take a drink. What’s this supposed to be? You use your left hand, and yet you claim to hate Satan?! You dare to tell me that you sense the enmity of Satan?! Allah give me the strength to resist Satan. . . Hold on a sec. The Prophet Muhammad said: “When you eat or drink, do not use your left hand, because Satan eats and drinks with his left hand.” Whoever eats and drinks with his left hand follows Satan, and whoever loves the Prophet Muhammad must eat with his right hand.

But when you tell people this, they say: But Sheik Wagdi, the rules of délicat and étiquette require the knife to be in the right hand, and the fork in the left. You should cut the food with your right hand, and eat with your left. If you dare to switch — the fork in your right hand and the knife in your left — they say: “Oh, how sauvage! This is unheard of.” Brother, what délicat? You are a Muslim.

When I was secretary-general of the commerce trade union, a large Iraqi delegation came, and we took them to a very big, five-star hotel in Cairo. We sat down to eat, and as I always do, I took the knife in my left hand and the fork in my right. Along comes the chef in his hat, taps me on the shoulder, and whispers: “Pardon me. . .” I said to him: “I am a Muslim!” So he said: “I’m sorry, I apologize.” I take pride in my Islam — or is Islam something disgusting, which I should be ashamed of? No.

[...]

Ghoneim: Some people say: “I am left-handed. I use my left hand for everything.” I was like you. I used to eat, drink, dress, and write with my left hand. That’s how Allah created me. The moment I became religious in 1969, Allah be praised, this came to an end. There were times when Satan tempted me to use my left hand, so in order to put an end to this altogether. . . What do I eat? Rice? I eat rice with a spoon. Bread? I need to cut it first. Fine, I’ll cut the bread in advance. I prepare the water and everything. That’s it. I’ve already cut the bread. . . Then I take my left hand and place it under my left leg. That’s it, it’s stuck. It won’t come out. I take the spoon in my right hand, and the same goes for the fork. . . The hadith says that when you are done eating, you should lick your fingers clean, because you don’t know where exactly the blessing lies. You say this is disgusting because it was the Prophet Muhammad who said it, but if Michael Jackson or some nobody told you to lick your feet, you would. We are Muslims, and we follow the path of the Prophet.

Oh, and don’t forget to lick your fingers after eating in the proper Quranic manner! We wouldn’t want to give in to Satan’s temptations!

Pipeline News has provided a very brief overview of Ghoneim’s documented racist views and support for terrorism:

He had also referred to Jews as “monkeys” and “pigs” during a Brooklyn College conference of the American Muslim Alliance on May 24, 1998.

Before leading the audience in anti-Jewish verse, Ghuneim said: “The Jews distort words from their meanings. . . . They killed the prophets and worshipped idols.

Speaking about suicide bombings that took place in Israel in 1996: “Those young people who explode themselves to kill the Jews were not committing suicide but jihad,” Ghuneim said, “They are mujahedeen because there is no way to struggle and fight the Jews except that way. Allah bless those martyrs.”

On May 24, 1998, for example, CAIR co-sponsored an incendiary rally at Brooklyn College that featured speakers spouting anti-Jewish rhetoric. One speaker was Wagdy Ghuneim, a radical cleric from Egypt. He told listeners, “Allah says he who equips a warrior of jihad is like the one makes jihad himself.” He led the audience in a song with the lyrics: “No to the Jews, descendants of the apes.”

The audio of Ghoneim leading a song depicting Jews as monkeys and apes can be found at the Investigative Project.

All of these incidents occurred and made public well before Ghoneim’s May 2004 appearance on behalf of the Noor Center.

Local Islamic extremists attack Columbus Dispatch for Obsession DVD distribution

2008-09-17T16:11:00.016-04:00

UPDATE: The Columbus Dispatch wusses out.

Included in the Sunday edition of the Columbus Dispatch this past weekend (you know, before the power went out) was an advertising insert containing a DVD copy of the documentary, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West”. You can go to FrontPage Magazine to read my review of the movie.

Even before the newspapers began hitting the porches of Central Ohio homes, Islamic extremists upset with the DVD distribution began a campaign to attack the Columbus Dispatch for allowing the distribution campaign. Hany Saqr, chairman of the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard, sent the following email to supporters demanding that they contact the Dispatch to express their disapproval (thanks to my friends who forwarded this message):

From: Hany Saqr
To: Noorfriends
Subject: please act now . . not later
Date: September 16, 2:48am

The Sunday Columbus Dispatch released in the advertisements a DVD titled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War against the West”

This DVD is a mere campaign of spreading hate against the Muslim community

http://www.truthout.org/article/newspapers-deliver-millions-terror-dvds-subscribers-swing-states

Please contact Columbus Dispatch and ask about the reason behind this anti-Muslim campagin and who is sponsoring it

Head Retail Advertising — Nick Lazaroff — nlazaroff@dispatch.com
Advertising — adaugherty@dispatch.com, ckerr@dispatch.com, sthomas@dispatch.com
VP of Marketing — Philip Pikelny - ppikelny@dispatch.com
News Editor — Ben Marrison — bmarrison@dispatch.com
Religion Editor — klecker@dispatch.com, mheagney@dispatch.com

Let us know the columbus dispatch response by sending an email to: contact@noorohio.org

There is even now a Facebook page, “Muslims against the Columbus Dispatch”, that features the exact same information contained in Saqr’s message. As an aside, the Facebook page is run by a kid out of Miami University, Azzam Mahmood.

Here’s the message from the Facebook page:

On Sunday September 14th, 2008 The Columbus Dispatch had released thousands of newspapers containing DVDs containing disparaging comments against Islam, containing huge amounts of slander. They were written as advertisements however, as seen in the Times, these were implemented by the newspaper. As Muslims we should end our subscription and look into new sources of news, unbias and truly newsworthy. The Dispatch has proved through its supposed “advertisement” that its conservative voice is no longer needed in our society.

Act now, and contact one of these people, the more emails the more impact, remember!

Head Retail Advertising — Nick Lazaroff — nlazaroff@dispatch. com
Advertising — adaugherty@dispatch .com, ckerr@dispatch. com, sthomas@dispatch. com
VP of Marketing — Philip Pikelny — ppikelny@dispatch. com
News Editor- Ben Marrison - bmarrison@dispatch. com
Religion Editor — klecker@dispatch. com, mheagney@dispatch. com

Stand up for your culture and people!

What exactly are they demanding? It really isn’t clear, but we’re sure that there will be some profuse groveling by the Dispatch management involved, followed by a glowing article by Felix Hoover on how there are no Islamic extremists in Central Ohio. Will the Dispatch fall quickly back into line and apologize for offending Hany Saqr and his band of Islamic extremists?

In the off-chance that the Dispatch won’t knuckle under, contact the Dispatch at the email addresses above and thank them for standing firm in defense of the First Amendment — something some of our local Islamic leaders aren’t very fond of.

Here’s the press release from the Clarion Fund for the Obsession DVD drop:

September 15, 2008

CONTACT: www.watchobsession.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HOMES ACROSS AMERICA receive “OBSESSION” dvd

WARNING ABOUT RADICAL ISLAM THREAT TO AMERICA

Shariah Law Would Erase Basic Freedoms and Codify Discrimination Against Women

Homes in over 100 major American cities are receiving DVD copies of the film Obsession — Radical Islam’s War Against the West starting today.

The Clarion Fund will deliver millions of copies of the DVD during the next month to homes across America.

This is the second phase of a nationwide initiative to inform the American people about the threat of Radical Islam to America, including its efforts to incorporate Islamic fundamentalist Shariah law which would negate a wide range of Constitutional laws and rights.

At the beginning of August tens of thousands of copies were distributed at both the Democratic and Republican conventions. Additional tens of thousands were nationally distributed in publications including National Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times and others.

The Obsession initiative is one of the largest distributions ever undertaken of a film to individual households because officials at the Clarion Fund believe the issues addressed in the film are critically important.

“Obsession demonstrates in graphic detail what can happen in a nation when it ignores the troubling symptoms of the influences of Radical Islam and its efforts to sneak Shariah principles into local and state laws,” said Watch Obsession.Org national chairman Tom Trento.

“Obsession offers details and documentation of story after story about secretive and often violent efforts to spread Islam throughout Europe and here in America. Every American should know the lessons taught by this important film.

“This film is not a blanket condemnation of all Muslims. Many moderate Muslims have been intimidated into silence by lawless and violent cells of extreme jihadists who are now operating in America and throughout the world.”

Consult the list below to identify a national spokesperson or someone from your area to interview. For more information about Obsession and Radical Islam go to radicalislam.org To see a four minute trailer from Obsession — Radical Islam’s War Against the West go to watchobsession.org

Ohio terror sheikh, Fiqh Council of North America member Salah Sultan: Jews killed President Kennedy, advocates Islamic theocracy in US elections

2008-09-17T14:11:00.014-04:00

Welcome Investigative Project and RoP visitors!

It has been a while since we heard last from our local terror sheikh and former Hilliard resident, Salah Sultan. Despite having fled to Bahrain last year, Sultan still sits on the Fiqh Council of North America. That’s why I was so interested to see an interview with Sultan published by IslamOnline earlier this year addressing the upcoming elections, “Politicking US Muslims — How Can US Muslims Change Realities: Interview with Dr. Salah Soltan”.

Those who have been following Sultan’s activities and statements might recall that he gave an interview to the official Muslim Brotherhood website, Ikhwanonline, immediately following the 2006 elections, "US Islamic Center: Democrats More Tolerant Towards Muslims".

The entire IslamOnline interview is definitely worth the read, and it is reprinted below in its entirety. There are a few curious statements I would like to point out. The most glaring is his statements about the political activity of the Jewish community in the US. Claiming that the number of Muslims in the US is greater than the Jews (a fact not supported by most polls, which finds the number of Muslims at no more than 3 million), he clearly wants Islamic political power to rival that of the Jewish community:

Jews are certainly less in numbers than Muslims now in the US. Our number is between 8 to 10 millions, yet although American Jews are no more than 6 million they have vision, plan, determination of whom to vote for and whom to ignore, and in some cases they support two candidates at the same time so that whomever wins becomes accountable to them. This is done in the Congress or the presidential elections. Jews in the US spend massive amount of money on elections’ publicity campaign. . .

Such exorbitant expenditure on US elections by Jewish-owned mega-businesses and organizations is not done in philanthropy.

Ah, but he’s not done yet. In fact, he relates a fictional account about how a Jewish community leader approached President Kennedy to help finance his reelection if only he would turn over foreign policy decision-making to the Jews. When Kennedy refused, they had him assassinated:

I will mention an example that Muslims in the US and Europe should be well aware of. Mr. Paul Findley’s book “Silent No More” says that President Kennedy in his second elections had a shaky stand, and accordingly a man responsible for 300 Jewish organizations proposing to fund all his campaign on one condition which was to place the keys of foreign policy in his hands, and Kennedy refused such proposal. The result was the assassination of John Kennedy.

So Salah Sultan claims that the Jews in America killed President Kennedy because he wouldn’t let the Jews control American foreign policy. Wonder how our interfaith leaders, like Sultan’s friend and Interfaith Association of Central Ohio board member, Abukar Arman, would respond to Sultan’s views on this topic?

Two other topics covered by Sultan in his IslamOnline interview should be noted:

He states that if Muslims would participate in elections, they could then leverage their political power to show that homosexuality is a “perversion”, and ensure that their views would be taught in American schools.
He also advocated US elections done by Islamic “shura councils”, i.e. theocracy.

Just as reminder, here are some of the organizations that Sultan worked with in Central Ohio:

Sultan was brought to the area by the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, who hired him as their fiqh research director.
Sultan also served as religious director for the Hilliard-based Islamic school, Sunrise Academy, where he also conducted teacher training.
Sultan later served as the resident scholar at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard, working directly with his Muslim Brotherhood buddy, Hany Saqr.

Oh, and let’s not forget that one our local Muslim columnists Mahmoud El-Yousseph proclaimed Sultan "one of America’s most-noted Muslim scholars", and Sultan was defended as a moderate in a lengthy article by Columbus Dispatch reporter Felix Hoover.

Sultan was the focus of this CBN News report, "Jihad in Central Ohio":

Sultan also gave an interview to Al-Risala TV (translated by MEMRI) in May 2005, just days after the Dispatch article defending Sultan appeared, where he claimed that the 9/11 attacks were done by the US government, and defending Yemeni Al-Qaeda cleric and designated terrorist, Abdulmajid Al-Zindani:

Here’s the entire IslamOnline interview with Salah Sultan:

Politicking US Muslims

How Can US Muslims Change Realities
Interview with Dr. Salah Soltan

By Abdelrahman Rashdan

Staff Writer — IslamOnline.net

US Muslims: Interview with Dr. Salah Soltan

Dr. Salah El-Deen Soltan has been described as “one of America’s most-noted Muslim scholars.” Scrolling through his eight-page CV, one would be astonished at the amount of positions, publications, activities, researches, and workshops he held, led, or was part of.

As the founder of several US Muslim organizations, including the American Center for Islamic Research, the Sultan Publishing Company, and the Islamic American University, Dr. Soltan has proved that his insight of the American Muslim community is worth digging into.

It is obvious that the American-Muslim community needs change, needs to be more active in the US politics, and needs to change the policies of its country that has changed and continues to change the lives of a lot of Muslims all around the world. And it appears that Dr. Soltan is well-suited for the talk about this arduous mission.

“To achieve Allah’s consent and Paradise through the reformation of the soul, the family, the society, and the nation according to the methodology of the Qur’an and the Sunnah,” this is how he sees his mission in life, and it shows in this interview.

IslamOnline.net (IOL): Why should Muslims participate in the US elections?

Salah Soltan: I believe that such participation is not only permissible, but obligatory as well when it comes to the US elections; and the Islamic text proves that.

Allah — Subhanahu Wattaala (“Glorious and exalted is He”) — says: [Hide not testimony] (Al-Baqarah 2: 283) and elections is a witness according to the agreement of many of the Ummah scholars. [Hide not testimony. He who hideth it, verily his heart is sinful] (Al-Baqarah 2:283) such scripture, along with many others, signifies that nonparticipation leads to the sinning of the heart.

Through research, collecting opinions of credible Sheikhs and Fatwa councils, arguing the doubts that some of the respectable brothers and Sheikhs rouse about the participation in elections, all of that made me end up with a firm believe that participation in the US elections from the juridical angle is an obligation.

Circumstantially, it is an obligation too. According to the constitution, the American system makes everything goes through elections. I believe that for every Muslim who lives there commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong goes through elections.

The participation of Muslims in the US elections is a judicial obligation and a circumstantial necessity.

The last elections before I left America was about smoking in public places in Ohio. Voters went to vote and Muslims were mobilized to vote against smoking in public, especially in restaurants.

Even the police has a board that is elected by cities’ citizens. Mayors, governors, board electricity companies, and educational councils are all elected.

Another example there is a fierce debate between the elected educational councils in different parts of America on whether to consider homosexual boys and girls pervert or not. If people vote that they are normal not pervert, they would assign big number of social counselors, not to guide those boys and girls, but to guide their parents and teach them to accept their homosexual children and that it is normal, as statistics show that 70% of those who leave school and home are homosexual, who are not accepted by their parents and tend to leave their parents which makes them drop out of school in order to work to earn their living. If Muslims were present in such debate, and demonstrate both logically and religiously that such homosexuality is prohibited pervert in all religions not just in Islam, the results would be very satisfactory.

I have an issue with brothers’ nonparticipation in elections, the duty of participation in election is put forth only when there is a presidential elections. But presidential elections are part of a long chain in the structure of the American society. Thus, I would like our brothers who have Fiqh of reality to give attention to every elections that occurs in any state not just to the presidential ones; I think this issue is really important.

The American congress is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives and these are the most supreme powers after the president, and they give the needed legitimacy for the latter. The Congress can litigate the President and dismiss him.

Thus, nonparticipation means the continuation of their crimes in our countries.

Jews are certainly less in numbers than Muslims now in the US. Our number is between 8 to 10 millions, yet although American Jews are no more than 6 million they have vision, plan, determination of whom to vote for and whom to ignore, and in some cases they support two candidates at the same time so that whomever wins becomes accountable to them. This is done in the Congress or the presidential elections. Jews in the US spend massive amount of money on elections’ publicity campaign.

The average sum of money spent on publicity for a Senate candidate is $5 million and for the House of Representatives candidate is $1 million, yet the US presidential candidate exceeds by far this amount. The most expensive presidential campaign was that of President Bush in year 2004; it reached billions of US dollars.

If it was a presidential election, such as that coming up at the end of 2008, then there has to be formed a Shura council from all US states that will assemble and take one decision.

Such exorbitant expenditure on US elections by Jewish-owned mega-businesses and organizations is not done in philanthropy.

I will mention an example that Muslims in the US and Europe should be well aware of. Mr. Paul Findley’s book “Silent No More” says that President Kennedy in his second elections had a shaky stand, and accordingly a man responsible for 300 Jewish organizations proposing to fund all his campaign on one condition which was to place the keys of foreign policy in his hands, and Kennedy refused such proposal. The result was the assassination of John Kennedy.

These facts, supported with incidents and numbers, prove that the participation of Muslims in the US elections is a judicial obligation and a circumstantial necessity. I hope that Muslims stop yelling at the Islamic centers and Masjids justifying not participating in elections with claims of widespread scandals in the US, especially in the municipality elections.

IOL: Put between two choices of personal benefits — related to candidates’ internal agenda — and the US foreign policy that affects the Muslims world, which choice do you think the US Muslims should ideally go for?

Soltan:In this case I would put methodology instead of a solution. The methodology in such case would be the presence of a Shura council according to the nature of the elections. If it was a local election, then the Shura council would be a local one that would decide which candidate is more appropriate. If it was a presidential election, such as that coming up at the end of 2008, then there has to be formed a Shura council from all US states that will assemble and take one decision. But for one US Muslim to sit alone and start making a judgment of who fits and who does not that is not correct.

Two conditions have to be satisfied in a good candidate: does not be notorious for attacking Islam and to be qualified enough to the positions he is running for.

This Shura council has three levels of choice. The first, is that it chooses the best out of two good candidates incase both had no drawbacks, which does not happen. The second involves choosing between goods and evils, the lesser harm should be warded off for the greater benefit; if the harm is greater, then the benefit should be left. The third point, and which happens a lot in the US, is to choose the lesser of two evils; in the third case, both candidates will do harm to Muslims internally or externally, thus the choice will go to that who will do less harm to Muslims.

Thus, I propose two methodologies, one about decision making through the Muslim Shura councils that will work according to the municipality, state, or the US levels. The second is to value issues according to the best out of two goods, and then judging among the goods and evils, or judging the lesser of two evils concerning Muslims.

This is the methodology and US Muslims can solve problems accordingly.

IOL: What should the US Muslims look for in a presidential candidate?

Soltan:In my book "Muslims Participation in the American Elections: Its Obligation and its Islamic Guidelines," Sultan Publishing, 2005, I said that such conditions that determines an acceptable candidate should include that he does not be notorious for attacking Islam and to be qualified enough to the positions he is running for. If such candidate was not against Islam yet was not qualified enough, then he should not be chosen. If the two mentioned conditions were satisfied a Muslim can accordingly vote for such candidate.

IOL: How do you see the future of the Muslim community in the US? Is it going for a better or worse one?

Soltan:I imagine that the future of the US Muslims is tied up to a number of factors. First is giving more attention to the internal development more than moving and extending outwards in the Da’wah activity. Muslims in the US need much more internal treatment than external one; US and European Muslim communities need to bring up leaders and calibers much more than it is in the rest of the Muslim world.

Secondly, those Muslims must have the abilities to unite themselves behind one cause and say. The Muslim influence is conditioned with unity. As an example, in Birmingham, UK, where there is a high Muslim density, six Muslims ran into elections against each others and the other non-Muslim candidate won the elections because votes were wasted in the competition among the six Muslim candidates. Thus, the nomination of more than one Muslim candidate stood against the success of Muslims. We are facing an actual crisis because we are exerting some real efforts yet such efforts are wasted by disunity.

We do not want to get into a competition and end up with a weak politician that would do more harm than benefit to Muslims.

The third factor that will act towards a better future for the Muslim community is to foster political figures. Most Muslims in the US want to bring up their children to be either a medical doctor or an engineer; there are no Muslim Congressman except for only one who is a doctor and the others are lawyers. We have to direct Muslim youth since high school towards the study of law, but the mentality and culture of the immigrant Muslim community tend to put the study of medicine and engineering ahead of any other field.

Youth have to be directed to the study of political science and law, Allah Almighty said [If they had intended to come out, they would certainly have made some preparation therefore] (At-Tawbah 9:46). We do not want to get into a competition and end up with a weak politician that would do more harm than benefit to Muslims. The Muslim politician should have strength, distinction, ability to deliver strong speeches, and good argumentative powers so that he can command what is right and forbid what is wrong in the correct way.

On the bright side, there is a sister who studied Shari’ah in Zaitouna University and then travelled to Stockholm, Sweden to study the Swedish language and post-graduate degrees. She ran in elections as a member of the municipal council and won; she is an excellent example that should be followed.

Forth, we have to teach the native American people and not only Muslims that acquired the nationality. Till now there are many Americans that have a negative look to non-native immigrants; Native American, white, and African American Muslims have to be taught and trained well to become distinguished lawyers political activists, and I confirm that they can be trained from the Zakah money.

Not only training and education is needed, there have to be leadership positions that such Muslims must be placed in.

Not only training and education is needed, there have to be leadership positions that such Muslims must be placed in. Such practical experience is extremely important so that they can be lively, effective, and powerful leaders that would impress other Americans making them feel that Muslim Americans are also caring for the common interests and not only that of the Muslim community. In my book, I mentioned as the first condition for the participation in the US elections is that the Muslim candidates should observe the welfare of the US society first and then the US Muslims community. When the American common person finds that the Muslim candidate keen on his security, economic wellbeing, cleanliness of streets, the quality of education, the absence of drugs, raping crimes, and violence, this will be the best way to convince Americans that Muslims are different from what Zionists and Islam-enemies are spreading and accusing them of being.

These are the factors that I see determining the future of Muslims in the US. Always I am optimist and I see the future of US Muslims to be more pleasant than now by Allah’s willing.

Abdelrahman Rashdan is a staff writer for the Muslim Affairs section of IslamOnline.net. A graduate of the American University in Cairo, he holds a BA in political science with a specialization in political economy and international relations. Click here to reach him.

9-11-01 We Remember

2008-09-11T02:05:00.005-04:00

In memory of all those who died.

(Prosecution Exhibit P200336, US vs. Zacarias Moussaoui, 01-445-A)

We remember our fellow Ohioans killed on 9/11.

Wendy R. Faulkner	47	Aon Corp.	Mason	OH	World Trade Center
William David Moskal	50	Marsh USA	Brecksville	OH	World Trade Center
Lt. Col. David M. Scales	44	U.S. Army	Cleveland	OH	Pentagon

(CNN)

In honor of those who gave their last full measure of devotion to keep us safe and free.

We pray for those still standing watch and their families.

(DefendAmerica.mil)

Our 9-11-2007 Remembrance.

Remembering the Israeli Olympians murdered by Palestinian terrorists 36 years ago today

2008-09-05T19:33:00.008-04:00

One of my earliest memories was the 1972 Olympic Games. American swimmer Mark Spitz’s Olympic record 7 gold medals in the games electrified the world — a feat only surpassed in recent days. But just days after Spitz’s amazing performance, the world was shocked again as the most horrific incident in the entire history of the Olympic games unfolded on September 5, 1972 in Munich.

In the early morning hours of that dreadful day, a band of Palestinian terrorists gained access to the 31 Connollystraße building housing the Israeli team in the Olympic village. Two Olympians were killed as the terrorists seized the hostages. Nine others were taken hostage. As the drama continued throughout the day and into the night, the Palestinian terrorists and their nine Israeli hostages were taken to the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield where two military helicopters awaited them. At 11pm that day, German police snipers opened fire before the helicopters could take off. The counterattack was unsuccessful, and the Palestinian terrorists shot and killed all of the Israeli hostages in one helicopter, and threw a hand grenade into the other, killing the rest of the hostages.

It was left to ABC newscaster Jim McKay to tell the world the awful news, who announced the deaths of the Israeli athletes at 3:24am German time on September 6:

“When I was a kid, my father used to say ‘Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized.’ Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They’ve now said that there were eleven hostages. Two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They’re all gone."

These are the Israeli Olympic team victims of the Palestinian terrorist attack:

Moshe Weinberg (wrestling coach)
Yossef Romano (weightlifter)
Ze’ev Friedman (weightlifter)
David Berger (weightlifter)
Yakov Springer (weightlifting judge)
Eliezer Halfin (wrestler)
Yossef Gutfreund (wrestling referee)
Kehat Shorr (shooting coach)
Mark Slavin (wrestler)
Andre Spitzer (fencing coach)
Amitzur Shapira (track coach)

One German police officer was killed in the firefight at the airport:

Anton Fliegerbauer (German counter-terrorist police officer)

Here is a short ESPN video interviewing McKay and other ABC executives about that day:

A 2002 article by Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Abrahamson recounts the tragedy.

The frontpage of the New York Times, September 6, 1972:

A memorial plaque in front of the former Israeli Olympic team apartments in Munich, which reads in both German and Hebrew:

The team of the State of Israel stayed in this building during the 20th Olympic Summer Games from 21 August to 5 September 1972. On 5 September, [list of victims] died a violent death. Honor to their memory.

We will not forget.

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

Illegal electioneering by Obama campaign at ISNA convention?

2008-09-05T00:50:00.015-04:00

UPDATE (9/5/08): Dave Gaubatz is reporting that ISNA made an illegal official endorsement of Barack Hussein Obama at last week's convention and has a video recording of such. We will link to it as soon as it is online. [HT: Northeast Intelligence Network]

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is a 501c3 tax exempt organization. As is true for any 501c3 entity, especially a religious organization, ISNA is prohibited from hosting or supporting any partisan political activity. And yet at their national convention here in Columbus last week, ISNA hosted an Obama campaign booth in their exhibitors’ area as this picture taken on Friday night shows:

[PS — Yes, you might think that is actually Barack Obama at the booth, but it is just a life-sized cardboard cutout. As thin and vapid as Obama’s policies and experience are, it is an easy mistake to make.]

You might recall that in January 2006, a local organization of liberal religious figures in Central Ohio demanded that the IRS investigate alleged political activity at two area churches — World Harvest Church in Columbus and Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster.

A Columbus Dispatch article at the time, “Churches Could Face IRS Probe”, quoted one of these “pastors”:

“For me, it’s church and state, not church in state and I really feel there are some churches in central Ohio crossing that line,” said Eric Williams, senior pastor of the [North Congregational United Church of Christ]. “The law allows church involvement in issues. This goes beyond issue-involvement to partisan politics and we’re simply asking the IRS to uphold the law.”

Did ISNA and the Obama campaign violate tax and election laws in this instance? That is clearly an issue for the IRS and the FEC to decide. So based on their previous outrage at alleged partisan political activity by religious organizations, will Eric Williams and his friends now join Central Ohioans Against Terrorism in demanding that the IRS investigate whether the Islamic Society of North America violated their tax-exempt status by hosting the Obama campaign?

Not holding my breath.

Jihadist post $50,000 bounty online for Columbus Pastor Rod Parsley’s head after CAIR's Christophobic campaign

2008-09-04T03:54:00.011-04:00

UPDATE: Graphic of the Ekhlass Parsley bounty post and partial translation included below (thanks to Sean Osbourne of Northeast Intelligence Network).

As reported yesterday by “Archangel” and the Northeast Intelligence Network, an internet message offering a $50,000 bounty on the head of Columbus-area Pastor Rod Parsley for defaming Islam appeared earlier this week on the notorious “Ekhlass” online forum. Parsley is the pastor of World Harvest Church.

The complicity of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), particularly the Ohio chapter, in this violent threat must be noted. Since May, CAIR has waged a media campaign against evangelical pastors, particularly Pastor Parsley, and made a number of statements stoking the flames of Christophobic bigotry (statements, by the way, given plenty of attention by the Columbus Dispatch). The campaign by CAIR has attempted to marginalize evangelicals Christians by seeking to silence any criticism of the wave of violence caused by Islamic radicalism all over the world.

Central Ohioans Against Terrorism calls on CAIR to apologize for the violence provoked by their partisan political attacks on Parsley and immediately demands that they denounce this jihadist threat of violence against a member of our own community. CAIR should learn to how to express their political and religious disagreements without having to sink to ugly and divisive campaigns of religious bigotry in an attempt to smear and marginalize American Christians other faith communities. Their flagrant Christophobia in this instance has directly resulted in the violent threats we see against Pastor Parsley.

Partial machine translation:

50 thousand dollars to those who come Presse Rod Parsley

-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------

Name of God the Merciful

(To hear from those who were given the book before you who have been involved is often abused) of Imran, 186

To each of Nasser taghoots this is America incite fighting all Muslims
To both defend Americans from the Muslims, this is America incite fighting all Muslims
To all secular Ethan, this is America incite fighting all Muslims
Toner to the bad and scientists Sultan, this is America incite fighting all Muslims
The dogs and interior ministries in the Arab and Muslim worlds, this is America incite fighting all Muslims

The sincerity of the Mujahideen in the name of Allah and there is superseding Khose and Almkzlon, the Americans claim to a crusade and annoy Allah and His Messenger, it would read the article fully aware repugnant to Islam and the Reverend Enough of this lowliness and Hakarh when he says that God Almighty is the devil who was revealed to Muhammad peace be upon him.

This is Rod Carsley Rod Parsley, who incited Christians in the United States to prepare to fight a war to eliminate the new crusade against Islam and Muslims, through speeches and written by the famous religious center in the pro-American Republicans. This is a priest's spiritual adviser McCain now

This picture of the American priest - Treasury God - Muslims, it is able to do it already, who is president of the Church "World Harvest" and you following URL who wants to prosecute and eliminate

www.rodparsley.com

CAIR gets failing grades at running Ohio charter schools

2008-09-01T12:22:00.009-04:00

Last week the Ohio Department of Education released the school report cards for the 2007–2008 school year. Included in these were the report cards for International Academy and Westside Academy, both here in the Columbus area, two charter schools operated by officials of the extremist Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). As I note in my article today, “CAIR gets failing grades at running Ohio charter schools”, both schools failed miserably.

Here’s the intro:

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) released their annual school report cards this week, and the results show that two taxpayer-financed Islamic charter schools operated by officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have failed miserably yet again. But protected by powerful political connections, including Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, and apparently indifferent to their exploitation of the Somali children that comprise the vast majority of their students, the Islamic extremists running the operation appear to have no fear of losing their cash cows. In fact, Ohio educrats have renewed one school’s contract after five years of complete academic failure.

The two schools, International Academy and Westside Academy, are run by a group of local Islamic leaders, including CAIR national board vice chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras, CAIR-Columbus president and CAIR-Ohio board member Abukar Arman, and Islamic Society of Greater Columbus president and imam Mouhamed Tarazi (who serves as principal of one of the schools). At one time or another, all have served on the board of the local private Islamic school in Central Ohio, Sunrise Academy.

Beginning operations in 2002, International Academy has a long track record of failure. According to the school’s most recent state report card, the school only meets two of the 19 indicators measured (one of the two indicators it met was attendance). The performance index score of 73.9 fell well short of the 100 points required (of 120 total; the state median is 96.6), but since that was slightly more than the 72.2 scored the previous school year (2006–2007) the school received a “continuous improvement” designation. Only in the Orwellian world of union-controlled, taxpayer-financed public education does this performance rate a grade of C-, thanks to some grade inflation in this year’s report cards courtesy of the ODE.

That “continuous improvement” designation notwithstanding, since International Academy opened, it has never met the state’s required “adequate yearly progress” standard and has never met more than two of the state indicators. Looking at the past three years of academic performance data, we find in four of the seven tested areas, test scores declined last year from the previous year.

The second school, Westside Academy, appears to be following in its older brother’s failing footsteps. Their state report card shows that they met state standards in one area — attendance. Across all grade levels and subjects, less than 20 percent of their students rated proficient or better. In one subject area, 3rd grade math, the school achieved zero percent proficiency. Their performance index also dropped to 56.9 last school year (again, 100 of 120 points being the state requirement), putting them in the “academic watch” category.

Read the whole thing.

ISNA’s “soft jihadist”, Ingrid Mattson, on the record (4 days until ISNA convention in Columbus)

2008-08-25T09:24:00.024-04:00

In preparation for ISNA president Ingrid Mattson’s appearance yesterday at the Democratic National Convention’s “interfaith prayer service”, the good folks at the Center for Security Policy prepared a short backgrounder on Mattson’s statements and positions, “Democrats’ Soft Jihadist”.

Since Mattson will be bringing her entire ISNA cultural terrorist crew to Central Ohio later this week for their 2008 annual convention, I thought it appropriate to republish the Center’s analysis here to get a taste of Mattson’s extremist views (Christians are anti-Semitic, Christians are a greater threat than Osama bin Laden, Wahhabism is just a reform movement, praise for jihadist authors, there are no terrorist cells in the US, etc):

Mattson places loyalty to Islam before loyalty to the United States of America:

If Muslim Americans are to participate in such a critique of American policy, however, they will only be effective if they do it, according to the Prophet’s words, in a “brotherly” fashion. This implies a high degree of loyalty and affection. This does not mean, however, that citizenship and religious community are identical commitments, nor that they demand the same kind of loyalty. People of faith have a certain kind of solidarity with others of their faith community that transcends the basic rights and duties of citizenship.
Mattson on the possibility that Americans may “rise to the challenge of defining themselves as an ethical nation”:

The first duty of Muslims in America, therefore, is to help shape American policies so they are in harmony with the essential values of this country. In the realm of foreign policy, this “idealistic” view has been out of fashion for some time. Indeed, the American Constitution, like foundational religious texts, can be read in many different ways. The true values of America are those which we decide to embrace as our own. There is no guarantee, therefore, that Americans will rise to the challenge of defining themselves as an ethical nation; nevertheless, given the success of domestic struggles for human dignity and rights in the twentieth century, we can be hopeful.
Mattson denies the existence of terrorist cells in the United States:

There’s a prejudgment, a collective judgment of Muslims, and a suspicion that well “you may appear nice, but we know there are sleeper cells of Americans,” which of course is not true. There aren’t any sleeper cells.
Mattson defends Wahhabism:

CHAT PARTICIPANT: What can you tell us about the Wahhabi sect of Islam? Is it true that this is an extremely right wing sect founded and funded by the Saudi royal family, and led by Osama bin Ladin? What is the purpose of the Wahhabi?

MATTSON: No it’s not true to characterize ‘Wahhabism’ that way. This is not a sect. It is the name of a reform movement that began 200 years ago to rid Islamic societies of cultural practices and rigid interpretation that had acquired over the centuries. It really was analogous to the European protestant reformation. Because the Wahhabi scholars became integrated into the Saudi state, there has been some difficulty keeping that particular interpretation of religion from being enforced too broadly on the population as a whole. However, the Saudi scholars who are Wahhabi have denounced terrorism and denounced in particular the acts of September 11. Those statements are available publicly.

This question has arisen because last week there were a number of newspaper reports that were dealing with this. They raised the issue of the role of Saudi Arabia and the ideology there. Frankly, I think in a way it was a reaction to the attempts of many people to look for the roots of terrorism in misguided foreign policy. It’s not helpful, I believe, to create another broad category that that becomes the scapegoat for terrorism.
Mattson on the negative effects of the end of the Islamic Caliphate:

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Osama bin Laden made a reference that Muslims have been living in humiliation for 80 years. Did he refer to the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 that dismantled caliphates and sultanates?

MATTSON: Yes, he is referring to that, to the overthrowing of the caliphate, which was a plan of European powers for many years. This deprived the Muslim world of a stable and centralized authority, and much of the chaos that we’re living in today is the result of that.
Mattson teaches the jihadists Sayyid Qutb and Syed Abu’l-`Ala Mawdudi in her course at Hartford Seminary — see the syllabus here.

Mattson praises the jihadist Mawdudi (aka Maududi):

In response to another question, “Please suggest any comprehensive work of Tafseer (Qur’anic commentary) for us Muslim youth,” she said, “There are different kinds of Tafseers. For e.g. there are ones that contain detailed interpretations of grammatical aspects of Qur’anic language. And there are others that serve to explain the general message of Qur’an, coupled with the experiences and insights of the author of the Tafseer. However, there aren’t really any Tafseers that combine the both aspects. So far, probably the best work of Tafseer in English is by Maulana Abul A’la Maududi.’”
Maududi on jihad (Jihad in Islam, page 9):

“Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which Nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State. It must be evident to you from this discussion that the objective of Islamic ‘Jihad’ is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of State rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single State or a few countries; the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution.”
Maududi on denial of rights to non-Muslims (Jihad in Islam, page 28):

“Islamic ‘Jihad’ does not recognize their right to administer State affairs according to a system which, in the view of Islam, is evil. Furthermore, Islamic ‘Jihad’ also refuses to admit their right to continue with such practices under an Islamic government which fatally affect the public interest from the viewpoint of Islam.”
Maududi on Shariah Law’s precedence over any other legal system (Islamic Law and Its Introduction, p. 13):

“That if an Islamic society consciously resolves not to accept the Sharia, and decides to enact its own constitution and laws or borrow them from any other source in disregard of the Sharia, such a society breaks its contract with God and forfeits its right to be called ‘Islamic.’”
Although she recommends and teaches Abdul ala Maududi, who advocates violent jihad against non-Muslims (see above), Mattson is highly critical of Christians who make the factual statement that texts by Muslims support violent jihad against non-Muslims — and she equates Christian critics of violent jihad with Osama bin Laden, who wages violent jihad. Mattson on critical statements by Christians about Muslims:

“These kinds of statements are really irresponsible, because they can lead to violence against ordinary people. . . . I don’t see any difference between that and al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden [using] Islamic theology to justify violence against Americans. What’s interesting is if you compare [their] statements about what Islam is and what Muslims believe, you’ll find they are almost identical, and I reject both interpretations — both the non-Muslims who are saying that Islam justifies violence against Christians and Jews, and the Muslims who are saying it. Certainly these statements have a very unnerving effect, especially when they continue, when more than one person says it.”
Mattson is a traditionalist on Shariah law and the legitimacy of Shariah authorities:

“As a practicing Muslim, I believe that there is a core of fundamental beliefs and practices that distinguish authentic Islam from deviations. I also believe that apart from this essential core, the task of interpreting the application of Islamic norms to human society is an enormously complicated task, which inevitably leads to a broad range of opinion and practice. I agree with “Sunni” Muslims, the majority of the Muslim community worldwide, that after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, no one has the right to claim infallibility in the interpretation of sacred law. At the same time, this does not mean that all opinions are equal, nor that everyone has the ability to interpret law. Without the intense study of Islamic texts and traditions under qualified scholars and without the presence of a stable Muslim community through which one can witness the wisdom of the living tradition, the chances of an ordinary believer arriving at a correct judgment about most legal issues are slim.”
Mattson is a leader in Muslim efforts to censor the right to free speech in America and especially in the United States government:

Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, said Friday at the opening of the group’s 43rd annual convention that labeling terrorism as “Islamic” was not helpful to people of her faith.

“I’m convinced that it is not only inaccurate, but unhelpful. If our major concern is security, security of this country, this is a term that has very bad resonance in the Muslim majority world and makes us feel uncomfortable here,” Mattson said.

Bush and other Republicans have been using the term “Islamic fascism” in recent speeches. White House aides and outside Republican strategists have said the term is an attempt to more clearly identify the ideology that motivates many organized terrorist groups.

Mattson said her group would argue for a change in rhetoric away from “Islamic fascism.” U.S. officials are attending the meeting here, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England. . . . As an alternative to “Islamic fascism,” Mattson suggested the words “terrorism, crime, violence,” adding that she and other Muslims don’t understand why the label “Islamic” is included when Bush and other leaders talk about terrorism.

“The products that are coming from the Muslim world are not being called ‘Islamic products’ or ‘Islamic oil,’” she said.
Mattson denies the actual state of women’s rights under Shariah law:
1. http://www.videosift.com/video/Ingrid-Mattson-on-Community-in-Islam [Transcribed: quote is in last few minutes]
  
  “I believe that many Americans believe that Muslim women don’t have any rights in Islam. Perhaps they see images of Muslim women being oppressed in different parts of the Muslim world and believe that that is because of their religion. But in fact we know that Muslim women have the same rights as Muslim men and virtually all the same duties and obligations.”
2. http://www.beliefnet.com/story/198/story_19898_1.html
  
  “One of the popular misconceptions about Islam is that women are seen as lesser figures, that they don’t have rights.
  
  “This perception that women in Islam are oppressed is based both on misinformation as well as am amplification of certain unfortunate tendencies in some parts of the Muslim world. It’s true that people have seen some Muslim authorities using Islam as a justification for the oppression or suppression of women. That’s a reality, we can’t deny it. But we have to balance those incidents with what’s going on in the rest of the Muslim world, in which most women are participating in their societies. We’ve seen that within recent times four Muslim-majority nations have had female heads of state. In most countries that I’ve traveled to, Muslim women are involved in all aspects of society.”
3. http://archives.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/10/18/mattson.cnna/
  
  “MATTSON: Muslim women have the same legal rights as Muslim men. The Prophet Mohammed’s wife was a businesswoman. In fact, he met her working for her as her agent. The legal rights of women were enshrined in Islamic law. However, cultural practices in many societies have prevented those rights from being enforced.”
Mattson rationalizes the actions of the Taliban against women:

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Does the Taliban place blame upon women for the weakness of men in their society? Is that why they place such restriction upon them?

MATTSON: The Taliban place restrictions on everyone in their society, men and women. They’ve extended their authority over individuals far beyond traditional government in Afghanistan. In their minds, they are protecting women from other men by placing these restrictions on them.
Like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Mattson condemns terrorism in general but avoids criticizing Hamas or Hizballah:

“That can be frustrating. I want to also make sure people understand that although American Muslims do have a responsibility to clarify their views on terrorism and violence done in the name of Islam, we don’t have control over these situations. We don’t have some sort of magic power over all Muslims in the world.”
Mattson apparently thinks that Evangelical Christians are more of a threat to Jews than Islamic jihadists:

“‘Right-wing Christians are very risky allies for American Jews,’ Mattson said, ‘because they [the Christians] are really anti-Semitic. They do not like Jews’ and enter into the alliance on the basis of fundamentalist beliefs that it would be desirable for all Jews to return to Israel. She suggested that fundamentalist Christians might turn against Jews or that there could be backlash from ordinary Americans against Jewish and fundamentalist Christian supporters of Israel.”
Mattson is highly critical of Israel:

“The American government has not criticized sufficiently the brutality of the Israeli government, believing that it needs to be “supportive” of the Jewish state. The result is that oppression, left unchecked, can increase to immense proportions, until the oppressed are smothered with hopelessness and rage.”
Mattson limits dialogue:

“Thus, it is not permitted for a Muslim to maintain a close friendship with a highly intelligent person who engages him or her in stimulating conversation, if that person continuously derides the sacred (Qur’an 5:57–58). Indeed, since preserving faith is the highest priority, it is important that Muslims avoid demoralizing dependence on other faith communities for their protection and material needs. . . . Clearly there are groups among American Christians and Jews who are so hostile to Muslims that we should not join with them even in shared concerns, lest we lend any credibility to their organizations. There are many other groups within those communities, however, who are eager to work respectfully with Muslims to further just causes.”
Mattson and ISNA have been criticized by those who identify themselves as American Muslim reformers and moderates:

ISNA, which URJ has accepted, apparently uncritically, as a “partner,” has a long history of association with extremist trends in Islam. ISNA has served as a front group for Wahhabism, the official sect in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia; the jihadist ideologies originating in Pakistan with the writings of a certain Mawdudi and the Deoband schools in that country — the latter of which produced the Afghan Taliban, and the Ikhwan al-Muslimun, or Muslim Brotherhood.

Ingrid Mattson, president of ISNA, revealed the style of radical rhetoric with which the organization is saturated when, in addressing the URJ’s recent convention, she declared that in the current U.S. presidential primaries, “we see candidates being asked to prove that they comply with an ever narrower definition of what it means to be a Christian — forget about being a Muslim or a Jew.”

This is an inexcusably irresponsible, inflammatory charge. Although Christian affiliations have been a topic among some presidential candidates, none has been compelled to “comply” with a Christian religious test and no such criterion is reasonably possible in the American electoral process.

Many Islamic mosque congregations, Sufi orders, and Muslim personalities have called for intelligent and sincere discussion with Jewish individuals and groups, to further interfaith civility and cooperation. This noble goal, to which we as Muslims are called by our revelation and our traditions, cannot be served by flattery toward groups like ISNA, in which radicals are camouflaged as moderates.

We therefore appeal to Rabbi Yoffie and other Jewish leaders to conduct a serious and thorough survey of the situation in Western Islam, identifying authentic moderates, and enabling them as interlocutors with Jews and other non-Muslims. We do not believe that ISNA qualifies for such a role. We fear that heedless acceptance of ISNA as an ally of URJ does harm to both our communities, by legitimizing a radicalism that, regardless of ISNA’s rhetorical claims, is fundamentally hostile to Jews and suppresses the intellectual and social development of Muslims.

Nawab Agha, president, American Muslim Congress
Omran Salman, director, Aafaq Foundation
Kemal Silay, president, Center for Islamic Pluralism
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, executive director, Center for Islamic Pluralism
Salim Mansur, Canadian director, Center for Islamic Pluralism
Jalal Zuberi, Southern U.S. director, Center for Islamic Pluralism
Imaad Malik, fellow, Center for Islamic Pluralism
M. Zuhdi Jasser, president, American Islamic Forum for Democracy
Sheikh Ahmed Subhy Mansour, president, International Quranic Center

More moderate “interfaith” Islam from ISNA!

Be sure to check out some of our other recent ISNA-related posts:

2006 ISNA convention: wife beating breakout session (8/18/08)

2008 ISNA speaker Siraj Wahhaj calls for Islamic caliphate in America (8/01/08)

1995 ISNA Convention: Judaism “a most racist religion” (7/28/08)

DOJ: Facts tie ISNA to HAMAS (7/24/08)

FBI Declassified Memo: ISNA conferences “provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters” (7/23/08)

Members of Congress ask DOJ to withdraw from 2007 ISNA convention (7/15/08)

HAMAS terrorist leader thanks ISNA (7/14/08)

The countdown until ISNA occupation continues . . .

Islamofascist Anisa Abd El Fattah declares Michelle Malkin “an enemy of the people”, incites violence against Jews, Christians

2008-08-25T02:58:00.013-04:00

Founding CAIR Board member: Michelle Malkin “an enemy of the people”
When the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded, the HAMAS network leaders in the US turned to one of its own, Anisa Abd El Fattah/Caroline F. Keeble to serve as one of its founding board members. Her two mentors and former employers, HAMAS chief Mousa Abu Marzook and Abdurahman Alamoudi, have respectively been designated a terrorist and convicted of terrorist support. Thus, she is quite familiar with both the overt and more subtle methods of cultural terrorism.

Recently, Anisa Abd El Fattah, a Central Ohio resident, published an editorial inciting violence against her old enemy — “Judeo/Christian fascists”. This time around, however, she put a face with the name: conservative media pundit and blogger Michelle Malkin. Her article, “Michelle Malkin: Enemy of the People and the US Constitutiion [sic]”, was published in a number of places, including her National Association of Muslim American Women blog.

In the article (reprinted below), Fattah encourages her supporters to “fight back”, demanding that they fight “more forcefully”, against her enemy. She also recommends that federal racketeering statutes and criminal charges be used to silence the “Judeo/Christian fascists”.

Those who have been following my reporting on Anisa Abd El Fattah’s local activities might recall that late last year she was publicly defending neo-Nazis in a published interchange with law professor Eugene Volokh. She later came out defending the neo-Nazi website, STORMFRONT. And in December, she spoke to a student group acknowledged by the FBI to be a front group for the Iranian mullahocracy.

Thus, it isn’t hard to catch the irony of her jihad against Malkin.

For those just joining us, here are some of our previous posts on our local HAMAS honey:

HAMAS spokesman Ahmed Yousef’s Central Ohio connection (4/19/08)

New report documents Anisa Abd El Fattah shilling for Iranian ayatollahs (4/5/08)

Anisa Abd El Fattah backs Ron Paul and neo-Nazi STORMFRONT (12/31/07)

Anisa Abd El Fattah speaks at conference for Iran’s mullahocracy (12/29/07)

Another Anisa Abd El Fattah colleague sentenced to prison (11/26/07)

Anisa Abd El Fattah laments dead HAMAS terrorist-in-chief (10/28/07)

HAMAS-linked Ohio Statehouse conference speaker defends neo-Nazis (10/24/07)

HAMAS operative nearly appointed to Columbus Public School Board (10/12/07)

HAMAS in the (Ohio State) House: HAMAS operative to speak at Ohio State Capitol later this month (10/08/07)

Before getting to her article declaring Malkin “an ememy of the state” — a term used by Lenin to designate those dissidents and other innocents who were to be executed or sent to the gulags — it is worth recalling that this is hardly the first time that Anisa Abd El Fattah has come out inciting violence. Take for instance her letter to the editor published last September in the Columbus Dispatch, where she declares that all Israelis, including women and children, are enemy combatants and legitimate targets for HAMAS “military operations”. No doubt she considers Malkin (and presumably, myself) in that same category.

Also worth remembering is how Anisa Abd El Fattah was interviewed for an open position on the Columbus Public School Board, operating under her given name, Caroline F. Keeble, and conventiently excluding troubling items on her resume, such as her tenure with the HAMAS front, the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), and her close association to convicted Al-Qaeda bag man, Abdurahman Alamoudi. The families in Central Ohio dodged a bullet (pardon the pun) when she was not selected for the open school board position.

So without further ado, here is Anisa Abd El Fattah in her own words:

Saturday, May 31, 2008
Michelle Malkin: Enemy of the people and US Constitutiion[sic]?
by Anisa ’Abdel Fattah [Detroit]

After reading several of the right wing blogs, and the comments left mostly by right wing supporters commenting on the Michelle Malkin, Rachel Ray scarf situation, I realized that Michelle Malkin, who poses as a mere conservative columnist and commentator is actually more likely an enemy of the people of this country, that is out to undo our Constitution. I know it sounds far fetched, but when you read the titles of this woman’s books, and her opinions on rights and freedoms, it becomes pretty clear that she is no patriot, and that she has not grasped the importance of individual liberties as essential elements of freedom and self governance, and has no respect for US law and traditions.

Either like, or along with the Judeo/Christian religious right who is almost daily taking actions aimed at limiting, depriving and violating the constitutional rights of US citizens through the use of public censure, and threats, Malkin is out to demonstrate how the Constitution can be forced into obsolescence simply with a flick of the pen, a few wicked and inflammatory lies, and threats. Whereas the law may not necessarily prohibit the right of any person to hold a view such as Malkin’s, such tactics might be criminal if carried out with others like racketeering, according to some readings of the RICOH [sic] Act.

When such tactics and views become the methodology of choice for a number of people and organizations, working in concert, and very obviously acting to overthrow the constitution of this country and to replace it with their unethical, racist and fascist Judeo/Christian ideology, America has a problem and it’s bigger than Dunkin Donuts.

Anyone who remembers the run up to the Iraq war is familiar with these tactics. They were used to shut down, or vilify and silence all voices that opposed the war, or who challenged the lies disguised as intelligence that became the cause for war. We now know that the primary advisors to the President during that time were not military men, or even lawyers and Constitutional experts. The presidential advisers that helped lead us into an unnecessary war based upon lies were the Judeo/Christian movement pastors and political operatives that took over our government after 9/11 through political appointments, or who were granted access through US Congress people who eat from, and are sustained by the garbage in the Judeo/Christian Zionist trough. They are not finished. Bush has until January in office, and they plan to use that time to further their agenda.

Having succeeded in imposing their devilish vision of Judeo/Christian dominance over the world, brought about through the use of US military force and proselytizing in Iraq, they are acting now to lead us into another unnecessary war, this time with Iran. Malkin, who wrote a book, explaining why Muslims, Arabs and other Americans should be held in detention camps as they prosecute these illegal wars, is now at work insuring that everyone is put on notice that there will be no dissent allowed this time either, not even symbolic dissent.

Malkin’s most recent assault against the American people and our US Constitution is her attempt to use public censure as a means to deny us our constitutionally protected rights to hold a dissenting and unpopular view, and also to hold and express a political opinion, and to express that opinion in our dress, or any other way that we and not Malkin chooses. Malkin and the right wing fascists that support her are a danger to the United States, since they threaten to overturn by stealth, everything that our founders and the noble men and women who struggled for freedom from the British Empire fought for without due process. It seems that they plan to take over the country, and in fact the world, by force.

The people of this country have a constitutionally protected right to hold unpopular and dissenting political and even religious views without the threat of organized campaigns designed purely to deny or to deprive us of those rights. American citizens also have the right to express such views, whether it is through our choice of clothing, or speech, or our choice of whom to financially support through financial contributions, etc. The Supreme Court has consistently upheld these rights, and has never wavered in its interpretations.

Malkin or others have no right to organize to deprive us of our rights, or to threaten and intimidate businesses, and other institutions in this country with harm should they act in deference to the US Constitution and citizen’s rights.

Since this most recent effort by the fanatical right to undermine the US Constitution is centered on a scarf and a donut maker’s advertisement for coffee, it may seem to be a trite and unimportant incident. When we consider what is at stake, if every business in the US, every school, or other institution falls in lockstep with Malkin and her fascist cohorts, what we will lose will be the very Constitution that our founders and subsequent generations of patriots have fought and died for. Our freedoms and our rights will be past history. We will all be forced to live by the rules of John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Pat Robertson, and Joe Lieberman. Our country will be a place where we must all dress the same, think the same and worship the same, sacrifice our lives and treasure for Israel, or be subjected to organized campaigns of defamation and scourging, and censure.

Perhaps as a former soldier who once took an oath to protect the US Constitution and my country, I am particularly sensitive to the ploys of people like Malkin, and her co-conspirators. They claim to be patriots, while they are actually more likely to be subversives who use their rights to deny others the freedoms that God bestowed upon us all equally, regardless of our races, religions, or political affiliations.

If we are smart, we will not let this recent attack on the constitution just go away, and wait quietly for the fascist’s next assault. It’s time that the people of this country wake up, and realize that whether we like it or not, we are involved in a cold war for the very soul of our country, and the Constitution that protects that soul in the same way that Holy Books protect and validate the practice of religion.

We must not surrender to Malkin and those who feel that the US Constitution can be forced into obsolescence or rendered irrelevant by the force of public censure and threats. The United States is a republic that is governed by law, not public opinion.

We, the people, must organize to fight this cold war in defense of our constitution, never failing to speak and to stand for the unbridled constitutional rights of every citizen in this country, and especially the right to hold dissenting views, and to express those views whether it be through our choice of dress, fashion, fundraising, protesting, marching, speaking, etc., etc., etc., that we choose.

Michelle Malkin has proven on more than one occasion that she is a person who has not understood the US Constitution, and its significance. Perhaps she feels that we are all like Dunkin Donuts and the other people and institutions that she has whipped with her fascist tongue and pen, and threatened into conformity. We should let her, and her cohorts know that they have underestimated the American people, and that we also have a pen, and a cause. I pray that every decent American who loves their country will boycott Dunkin Donuts until they restore the Rachel Ray advertisement. I hope that everywhere Michelle Malkin shows up to spread and spew her hateful anti-American venom, crowds of freedom loving people will be there to shout her down.

The luxury of apathy has ended. Malkin fired one of many salvos fired by the Judeo/Christian fascists, when she sought to make the case that American citizens should be denied the right to political freedom and public expression, and that those who refuse to conspire with her and her fellow stooges should be threatened into complicity and conformity. We must respond equally, if not more forcefully, without using the fascist tactics they employ.

Part of this response must be to put US businesses and other institutions on notice. If they think Malkin and her crew are to be feared, imagine a United States run by the likes of Malkin, and the other right wing fascist who have taken over the US airways and blogs in an effort to systematically undermine the US Constitution, and to deny and deprive us of our Constitutional rights. If you want to live by the laws of Hagee, Robertson, Parsley and Malkin, keep kowtowing.

If we want to remain free, we must fight back.

If we truly want to remain free, we must speak out against the threats of violence and the strategy of cultural terrorism advocated by Islamofascists, such as Anisa Abd El Fattah, by continuing to resist and expose her “Final Solution” to the “Judeo/Christian” problem.

Confessed Al-Qaeda terrorist still registered to vote in Ohio — and may be able to legally cast an absentee ballot!!

2008-08-20T18:11:00.030-04:00

“That’s not the Christopher Paul I know!”
In 2004, the Columbus Dispatch reported just days before the Bush/Kerry presidential election that two local Al-Qaeda terrorists, Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi, were still registered to vote in the state of Ohio.

Following that revelation, Democrats and moonbats nationwide pointed to this as conclusive proof that then-Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican, and his office were hopelessly corrupt and trying to rig the election for George W. Bush.

What will those same Democrats and moonbats have to say now that one of Faris and Abdi’s partners in terror, Christopher Paul, who pled guilty this past June to conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against targets in the Europe and the US, is still registered to vote? (See the Statement of Facts Paul agreed to in the case.)

Will the fact that the present Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, is a Democrat now temper their outrage?

And will the fact that Christopher Paul has yet to be sentenced mean that he may still legally get to pull the lever (or more likely, submit his absentee ballot) for his man, Barack Hussein Obama, for President, and his lady, Mary Jo Kilroy, for Congress?

(Psst — you might also want to check out our previous post, “Toledo Terrorist Fundraisers 4 Obama”)

A quick check with the Franklin County Board of Elections finds that Paul is still registered to vote as of today (click below to enlarge screen capture or go directly to Paul’s registration on the BOE website).

A search of the Ohio Secretary of State website also shows Paul still registered to vote.

I spoke with Ben Piscitelli at the Franklin County Board of Elections this afternoon and asked about the process of removing felons from the voter rolls. Piscitelli responded:

In such instances, a court will notify us of a felony conviction about one month after sentencing. We will remove the name of the voter in question immediately thereafter.

But no sentencing date has been announced yet for Christopher Paul, and because of the time it takes to compile the sentencing report it is unlikely that such will occur before the November 4th election. Unless the court suddenly sentences Paul in the next few weeks, it appears he will be legally eligible to vote in the upcoming election by absentee ballot (whether he will, of course, is unknown).

As noted above, the problem of having some of our local Al-Qaeda terrorists on the voting roles is nothing new for the State of Ohio. In late October 2004, Jon Craig of the Dispatch reported:

A dirty tale of duplications, even terrorists, on voter lists

Ohio’s voter-registration rolls are dirty, containing more than 122,000 apparent duplicates as well as the names of people who moved out of state in the 1990s, a local murder victim and even a pair of accused terrorists.

Among supposedly eligible voters in Franklin County are suspected terrorists arrested for alleged plots to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge and a local shopping mall. As an imprisoned felon, one is ineligible to vote. The other, from Somalia, is not a U.S. citizen and thus broke state and federal laws when he registered in 1999, officials said. . .

“That’s really disturbing,” said Ohio State University law professor Terri Enns. “There certainly are potential problems, but there are a lot of (Election Day) safeguards to keep it from swaying the election.”

Accused terrorists Nuradin Abdi, 32, and Iyman Faris, 35, are registered to vote in Ohio. An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in June said Somali immigrant Abdi and admitted al-Qaida member Faris plotted with a third Columbus man to attack a mall.

Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said Abdi’s false registration may violate state and federal law. In fact, the application he signed — swearing he is a U.S. citizen — notes that election falsification is punishable by up to six months in prison, a fine of $1,000 or both.

Faris, a Columbus truck driver, is serving a 20-year sentence after admitting that he scouted the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and other potential targets for al-Qaida as recently as March 2003. As an incarcerated felon, he will not be allowed to vote. Faris, from Kashmir, became a naturalized citizen in 1999. (“Long Gone But Still Registered”, Columbus Dispatch, October 24, 2004)

Faris and Abdi were not eligible to vote in the 2004 election because Faris had already been sentenced (though was still on the rolls); and even though Abdi had only been indicted at that time, he had falsely claimed to be a US citizen when he registered and thus was ineligible (though he too was on the voter rolls). But in Christopher Paul’s case, he’s a natural born US citizen; and even though he has admitted his role in the local Al-Qaeda cell (of which only three members have been charged and at least 10 others are known to have been involved), since he hasn’t been sentenced he may not lose his voting rights until after the election.

Some of our local Islamic leaders will have no problem with Christopher Paul voting since they have publicly declared him innocent notwithstanding his guilty plea. But since Obama is desperate for every vote in the State of Ohio, and Mary Jo Kilroy lost by just over 1,000 votes in 2006, how quickly do you think that Secretary Brunner and fellow Ohio Democrats will move to address this issue? In the absence of sentencing by the court he may be legally eligible to vote in the upcoming election. Will Obama or Kilroy supporters care?

2006 ISNA Convention: wife-beating breakout session (11 days until ISNA convention in Columbus)

2008-08-18T01:25:00.010-04:00

Saudi women’s activist Rania Al-Baz received a first-hand lesson in Verse 4:34
With less than two weeks before the Islamic Society of North America lands in Central Ohio for their 2008 national convention, we continue our look at past ISNA conventions to see what brand of Islam they will be bringing to our city.

At their 2006 convention, ISNA hosted a curious breakout session: “And Beat them Lightly. . .” An Analysis and In-Depth Discussion of Verse 4:34.

For the uninitiated, here’s verse 4:34 in the Quran:

Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme.

You’ll notice immediately that there’s nothing here about beating women “lightly”. One of the speakers in this ISNA breakout session was none other than Muzzamil Siddiqui, former president of ISNA and current ISNA Board of Directors member. Here is the session description taken directly from the ISNA official program (click to enlarge):

Sunday, 11:00–12:30 pm
Room 22
Session 9G: “. . . And Beat them Lightly”: An Analysis and In-Depth Discussion of Verse 4:34

This session will discuss the following: understanding the context of revelation (asbaab al nuzuul) for this verse. Emphasis will be focused on understanding the correct meaning of the verse, with specific attention given to the words qiwamah, nushuz, and daraba as well as to understand how this verse is to be applied as a protection for women, not as an abuse.

Speakers: Muzzamil Siddiqi, Rabia Karim Khan
Moderators: Mohamed Magid Ali

Got that? This verse actually protects women! One of Siddiqui’s partners in explaining how to properly beat your wife according to the Quran is Jamal Badawi, a fellow ISNA Board of Directors member, who has published a book on proper wife beating (see our previous post about Badawi’s last appearance in our area). Siddiqui and Badawi cleared up the matter in a fatwa for Islamonline:

This verse neither permits violence nor condones it. It guides us to ways to handle delicate family situation with care and wisdom. The word “beating” is used in the verse, but it does not mean “physical abuse”. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explained it “dharban ghayra mubarrih” which means “a light tap that leaves no mark”. He further said that face must be avoided. Some other scholars are of the view that it is no more than a light touch by siwak, or toothbrush.

Ah, so I see now. If you beat your wife anywhere except her face, and the stick you beat her with is small enough that it doesn’t leave a mark, it really isn’t violence. So glad they cleared that up for us! Both Muzzamil Siddiqui and Jamal Badawi will be speaking again this year at the upcoming ISNA convention in downtown Columbus.

More moderate Islam from ISNA!

Be sure to check out some of our other recent ISNA-related posts:

2008 ISNA speaker Siraj Wahhaj calls for Islamic caliphate in America (8/01/08)

1995 ISNA Convention: Judaism “a most racist religion” (7/28/08)

DOJ: Facts tie ISNA to HAMAS (7/24/08)

FBI Declassified Memo: ISNA conferences “provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters” (7/23/08)

Members of Congress ask DOJ to withdraw from 2007 ISNA convention (7/15/08)

HAMAS terrorist leader thanks ISNA (7/14/08)

The countdown until ISNA occupation continues . . .

Will CAIR protest Ohio State Fair prize-winning pig of blasphemy?

2008-08-11T17:27:00.007-04:00

Oh, the cultural insensitivity! Rampant Islamophobia in the Buckeye State! From the Columbus Dhimmi Dispatch, nonetheless! The horror!

No doubt this little girl innocently intended to honor world champion boxer Muhammad Ali (which is what the Dispatch article indicates), but will that prevent them from burning Dispatch reporter Braden Lammers and editor Ben Marrison in effigy in Karachi tomorrow? History has proven time and again that extremists need less excuse than this.

CAIR boycott of the Columbus Dispatch and Kroger will commence in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . .

[article online]

2008 ISNA speaker Siraj Wahhaj calls for Islamic caliphate in America (4 weeks until ISNA convention in Columbus)

2008-08-01T09:18:00.008-04:00

Siraj Wahhaj is a regular visitor to the Central Ohio area, but his next appearance in Columbus will be as a featured speaker at the 2008 Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention held here later this month. One of the unindicted co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Wahhaj has been in the news recently for being featured in NY subway ads that have proved controversial in light of his known terrorist ties.

Paul Barrett, an editor for Business Week and author of the recent book, American Islam: Struggle for the Soul of Religion, has spent considerable time with Wahhaj and made him one of the primary subjects in his book (read the introduction to Barrett’s book at the Washington Post). Barrett has previously described the transformation of America into an Islamic state that Wahhaj would like to see:

He has told his followers that a society governed by strict Islamic law, in which adulterers would be stoned to death and thieves would have their hands cut off, would be superior to American democracy. Speaking of unnamed forces in the government and media, he has preached, “These people want the destruction of Islam.” (“One Imam Traces the Path of Islam in Black America”, Wall Street Journal [October 24, 2003])

Barrett also describes how Wahhaj brushes off evidence of Osama bin Laden’s involvement in 9/11, including dismissing bin Laden’s own video pronouncements claiming responsibility for the terror attacks, preferring to remain “neutral” on the subject:

He says the al-Qaeda leader’s videotaped boasting about the attacks may have been a media ruse: “I’m just not so sure I want to be one of the ones who say, ‘Yeah, he did it. He’s a horrible man.’” (Ibid.)

Elsewhere Wahhaj has offered a grotesque convergence of bin Laden’s calls for the revival of the Islamic caliphate with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech, envisioning an Islamic supremacist society:

I have a vision in America, Muslims owning property all over, Muslim businesses, factories, halal meat, supermarkets, all these buildings owned by Muslims. Can you see the vision, can you see the Newark International Airport and a John Kennedy Airport and La Guardia having Muslim fleets of planes, Muslim pilots. Can you see our trucks rolling down the highways, Muslim names. Can you imagine walking down the streets of Teaneck, [New Jersey]: three Muslim high schools, five Muslim junior-high schools, fifteen public schools. Can you see the vision, can you see young women walking down the street of Newark, New Jersey, with long flowing hijab and long dresses. Can you see the vision of an area . . . controlled by the Muslims?” (quoted in Daniel Pipes, “The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America”, Commentary [Nov. 2001])

How is this Islamic supremacist society governed by an Islamic caliph supposed to come about? Wahhaj is not shy about laying out his plan for violent revolutionary action by Muslims:

If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. If we were united and strong, we would elect our own emir and give allegiance to him. Take my word if eight million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us. (quoted in Robert Spencer, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam [and the Crusades], p. 45)

And in an audiotape message Wahhaj speaks of his love for the kuffar (infidel):

. . . And he [Allah] declared ‘Whoever is at war with my friends, I declare war on them.’ Who is a friend of Allah? [He chants a passage in Arabic] Allah. Your true friend is Allah, the messenger, and those who believe. Americans and Canadians. Hear it well. Hear what I’m telling you well. The Americans are not your friends, hear what I’m telling you, hear it well. The Canadians are not your friends, hear what I’m telling you, hear it well. The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah, the Messenger and those who believe. These people will never be satisfied with you until you follow their religion. They will never be satisfied with you. . . (audiotape, “The Afghanistan Jihad” [September 28, 1991]; quoted in “UCLA Sponsors of Terrorism”, FrontPage Magazine [April 4, 2003])

More ISNA interfaith moderates!

Be sure to check out some of our other recent ISNA-related posts:

1995 ISNA Convention: Judaism “a most racist religion” (7/28/08)

DOJ: Facts tie ISNA to HAMAS (7/24/08)

FBI Declassified Memo: ISNA conferences “provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters” (7/23/08)

Members of Congress ask DOJ to withdraw from 2007 ISNA convention (7/15/08)

HAMAS terrorist leader thanks ISNA (7/14/08)

The countdown until ISNA occupation continues . . .

1995 ISNA Convention: Judaism “a most racist religion” (32 days until 2008 ISNA convention in Columbus)

2008-07-28T10:16:00.011-04:00

Continuing our look at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in preparation for their annual national convention to be held next month in Columbus, we examine today an address delivered by Hamza Yusuf Hanson at the 1995 ISNA convention. In Hanson’s speech, he identified Judaism as “a most racist religion”:

The Jews would have us believe that God has this bias to this little small tribe in the Middle of the Sinai desert and all the rest of humanity is just rubbish. I mean that this is the basic doctrine of the Jewish religion and that’s why it is a most racist religion.

Ah, yes, those ISNA conferences draw such interfaith moderates! Wonder how the folks at the Columbus Jewish Federation will feel about that one?

Exposing Hamza Yusuf Hanson’s racist diatribes is essential as he will be a featured main session speaker again this year at the 2008 ISNA convention. But don’t worry folks! He says that he has “grown out of” his hatred for Judaism.

For some more of Hamza Yusuf’s greatest hits, including his recent extremist statements, check out the article at the Center for Islamic Pluralism, “The ‘Sufi’ Master of Deceit: Hamza Yusuf Hanson”. Stephen Schwartz says of our upcoming Central Ohio visitor:

Even in his alleged Sufi incarnation, Hamza Yusuf Hanson propagandizes for the Islamization of America. . . . It is Hamza Yusuf Hanson who is dishonest, when he calls himself, ridiculously, “the mufti of California,” and when he claims to be a Muslim moderate. He is neither. . .

Be sure to check out some of our other recent ISNA-related posts:

DOJ: Facts tie ISNA to HAMAS (7/24/08)

FBI Declassified Memo: ISNA conferences “provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters” (7/23/08)

Members of Congress ask DOJ to withdraw from 2007 ISNA convention (7/15/08)

HAMAS terrorist leader thanks ISNA (7/14/08)

The countdown until ISNA occupation continues . . .

DOJ: Facts tie ISNA to HAMAS (36 days until ISNA convention in Columbus!)

2008-07-24T11:40:00.008-04:00

The New York Sun reported earlier this month that federal prosecutors have responded to a filing by the Islamic Society of North American (ISNA) to have itself delisted as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial.

In their reply brief, the Department of Justice not only defended their designation of ISNA as unindicted co-conspirator, but cited more than two dozen government exhibits connecting ISNA and its financial arm, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), to the HLF criminal conspiracy to raise money for the HAMAS terrorist organization. The NY Sun quotes the trial brief:

“During last year’s trial, numerous exhibits were entered into evidence establishing both ISNA’s and NAIT’s intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestine Committee, and the defendants in this case,” the prosecutors wrote. “They were intimately connected with the HLF and its assigned task of providing financial support to HAMAS. . . . That ISNA and NAIT appeared in these documents and share a common history with these defendants is a reflection of the evidence, not any attempt to ‘disparage’ or ‘vilify.’

But that’s not all. More from the trial brief:

ISNA checks deposited into the ISNA/NAIT account for the HLF were often made payable to “the Palestinian Mujahadeen,” the original name for the HAMAS military wing. Govt. Exh. 1–174. From that ISNA/NAIT account, the HLF sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to HAMAS leader Mousa Abu Marzook, Nadia Elashi (defendant Ghassan Elashi’s cousin and Marzook’s wife), Sheikh Ahmed Yassin’s Islamic Center of Gaza, the Islamic University, and a number of other individuals associated with HAMAS. Govt. Exh. 20–55, 20–56.

ISNA was also discussed during the 1993 Philadelphia conference, a meeting of the Palestine Committee convened to discuss the impact of the Oslo Accords. Govt. Exh. 16–47. During the conference, Palestine Committee members discussed using ISNA as official cover for their activities. Govt. Exh. 16–0059 at 10–11; 16–60. In short, evidence introduced during the course of a public trial demonstrates that ISNA and NAIT are indeed co-conspirators/joint venturers, and no relief that the Court can grant would alter the state of the record in that regard. (p. 14)

For more on the DOJ brief, see the related report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism. And here are some of our recent ISNA-related posts:

FBI Declassified Memo: ISNA conferences “provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters” (7/23/08)

Members of Congress ask DOJ to withdraw from 2007 ISNA convention (7/15/08)

HAMAS terrorist leader thanks ISNA (7/14/08)

And for those unclear on what we’re saying:

FBI Declassified Memo: ISNA conferences “provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters”

2008-07-23T11:27:00.003-04:00

A newly declassified FBI memo, released yesterday by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, discusses examining the extremist ties of the North American Islamic Trust, the financial arm of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), concludes:

. . . ISNA conferences provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters.

Where is the next ISNA conference to be held? Oh, that’s right! Columbus! Next month!

37 days and counting . . .

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser to speak at Noor Center, Saturday July 26, 7–9pm

2008-07-19T23:55:00.017-04:00

In a stunning development, and no doubt shamed by my repeated exposes about the long trail of Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and HAMAS enthusiasts and Muslim Brotherhood extremists that have come through the Noor Islamic Cultural Center over the years, we are pleased to announce that Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy will be speaking at Noor this coming Saturday, July 26 from 7–9pm (event flier below and full size flier here). Curiously, nothing as of yet has appeared on the Noor website about this important community event.

I previously posted about Dr. Jasser back in April. Then I said:

Dr. Jasser is a welcome alternative to the long line of extremists that have paraded around town identifying themselves as “moderates”, but openly support terrorism and radicalism when they think no one is looking. And he is exponentially better than the bevy of Wahhabis and Muslim Brotherhood preachers regularly imported to our area by the usual suspects — Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, Noor Islamic Cultural Center, etc.

May we have more true moderate Muslim voices in Central Ohio! And Dr. Jasser, you’re welcome to Columbus any time.

So I’m delighted that Zuhdi will be in town and that others in the area will finally be able to hear his message of mainstream Islam, not the garden variety extremism we’re used to here in Central Ohio.

As evidence of the opposition to his message, read about how he has been viciously attacked by extremist publications in his own community in Phoenix, and more recently by mosque leaders in Florida.

On a more positive note and as a testament to his character, Zuhdi recently received the FBI Director’s Community award in Phoenix for his work in advancing mainstream Islam:

And be sure to see his short video interview at HotAir with Erick Stakelbeck.

Here’s the press release announcing his upcoming talk at the Noor Center:

M. Zuhdi Jasser to Address Columbus Muslim Community
“Upholding Our Islamic Responsibility: Countering the Ideologies that Fuel Terrorism”
Phoenix, AZ — July 8, 2008 — The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), a think tank and activist Muslim organization focused on the separation of spiritual Islam from political Islam, announced today that M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D, President AIFD, will speak about “Upholding our Islamic Responsibility: Countering the Ideologies that Fuel Terrorism” on Saturday July 26, 2008, 7 pm at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, 5001 Wilcox Road, Dublin Ohio.

AIFD openly engages all American Muslims to proactively be in the forefront of the domestic and foreign struggle (jihad if you will) against the primary driving force of militant Islamism and its terrorist offshoots. Militant Islamists are fueled ideologically by a radicalization of the faith of Islam. This radicalization includes both militant components and a more central political desire (Islamism) to establish Islamic states. Islamists view pluralistic societies like America as an anathema to Islam. AIFD rather seeks to build coalitions of Muslims which not only reject the means of terror as an anathema to Islam but more globally reject the ends of the Islamic state which Islamists seek.

“Without Muslims leading the effort to reject the ends of the Islamic state and defend societies like America which are rooted in universal religious freedom and the separation of religion and government, we will not see the ultimate defeat of militant Islamists,” says Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser.

AIFD believes that the contest of ideas needs to begin, first, in the mosques if there is to be any hope for the domestic and global Muslim community to marginalize the militants, depoliticize the ummah (faith community), and promote a spiritual theology immune from radical militant anti-national interpretations. “AIFD is founded upon the premise that it is our primary Muslim responsibility to foster ijtihad (modern interpretation of our scripture). Today that ijtihad must be focused on the rescue of spiritual Islam from the clutches of political Islamists. We reject political Islam regardless of whether Muslims are a minority or a majority, and we believe that when given the opportunity to bring this discourse to the mosque most devout Muslims will agree that the most sacred and pure practice of Islam is one which is wholly free and unencumbered by coercion or any mandate from the state or government,” continues Dr. Jasser. AIFD believes that Islam, like any faith, is no longer a faith but becomes a coerced autocratic system when its laws and belief system are in any way enforced by government.

It is this debate over the role of shar’ia (Islamic jurisprudence) and the Islamist desire of imposing the faith of Islam in government which AIFD believes needs to be raised.

“With the ever-increasing threat of militant Islamist terror, it is imperative that the activist Muslim community wake up and direct their valuable resources toward fighting the root cause of terrorism which arises from dreams of political Islam,” adds Dr. Jasser. “The reality is that our security is not threatened as much by the tactic of terrorism, but more so by those individuals who are driven by the political ideology that feeds the mind-set of radical Islamism.”

“The only effective counter-terrorism is one that attacks the fuel and root cause of the Islamist terrorists — political Islam and their dreams of an Islamic state,” concludes Dr. Jasser.

And here’s the flier for the event (click here for full size):

Dublin woman fails medical school, sues for religious discrimination

2008-07-18T11:20:00.004-04:00

A tip to my FrontPage Magazine article yesterday, “CAIR's Medical School Grievance Theater”, which has a local angle:

When Iram Qureshi of Dublin, Ohio was dismissed from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine last month after having to repeat her first year and then failing two “systems” in her second year after she stopped attending classes, she did what any normal American Muslim woman would seem to do these days — she called the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and sued.

Tragically, perhaps fatally one day for one of her future patients, a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge has granted her a temporary restraining order so that she could resume her “studies” and clinical rotation beginning this month while her dismissal appeal is reviewed, the Charleston Gazette reports. Curiously, the Charleston Gazette waits until half-way through their article before telling readers that the cause of her dismissal was poor academic performance, not religious discrimination.

Her academic failure, however, hasn’t stopped her attorney, James McQueen, from making a series of allegations of religious discrimination in her defense, including her reluctance to conduct chest and pelvic examinations on male subjects. She claims that her alleged persecution grew so bad, she stopped attending classes altogether and is now forced to take anxiety medication.

Qureshi’s pretended plight has garnered significant attention in the medical community nationwide, with at least one medical student online forum engaging in extensive debate about the situation, including some of Qureshi’s classmates. Many of the participating students seem unsympathetic to her claims for preferred treatment even beyond what many other female Muslim students have agreed to, as the following comments represent:

[more]

Members of Congress ask DOJ to withdraw from 2007 ISNA convention (45 days until 2008 ISNA convention in Columbus)

2008-07-15T03:57:00.004-04:00

In preparation for next month’s 2008 ISNA national convention, we are looking at some of the organization’s highlights.

Today we remember the efforts by Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Rep. Sue Myrick asking the Department of Justice to reconsider the decision to have a recruiting booth at the 2007 ISNA convention. These efforts followed the revelation by the Washington Times that DOJ would participate in the event, even though DOJ prosecutors had just named ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism finance trial. Tomorrow we will reveal what happened when DOJ went ahead with their plans to appear at the ISNA event

An image of the Hoekstra/Myrick congressional letter [pdf] is immediately below:

HAMAS terrorist leader thanks ISNA (46 days until ISNA national convention occupies Columbus)

2008-07-14T00:18:00.009-04:00

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is coming to Columbus for its annual convention at the end of August (46 days and counting!), and I thought it appropriate to remind our readers exactly who and what ISNA really is.

For instance, in 1997 after he was deported to Jordan (two years after he was designated a terrorist by the US government) HAMAS terrorist leader Mousa Abu Marzook published an open letter in the Washington Report of Middle East Affairs in thanks of the support by American Islamic organizations that had aided him and contributed money to his defense fund in the two years he was incarcerated while the US government was trying to deport him (Jordan would also deport Marzook and the rest of the HAMAS leadership).

And as is seen in this graphic taken from his open letter, ISNA is right in the middle of the organizations that this HAMAS terrorist thanks:

For more detail on ISNA’s legacy of terror and extremism, see the extensive report prepared by the International Assessment and Strategy Center, “Extremism and ISNA”.

Cleveland’s New Terror Imam

2008-07-10T10:44:00.008-04:00

Sayed Abouabdalla (right), the new imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland and current Islamic American University instructor, with IAU chairman and HAMAS spiritual leader (and designated terrorist), Yousef Al-Qaradawi (left)
In my Pajamas Media article yesterday, “Cleveland’s New Terror Imam”, I introduce the new imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Sayed Abouabdalla, the third such successor since Fawaz Damra was deported in January 2007 after being convicted of lying about his association with three terrorist groups on his US citizenship application. Abouabdalla’s most immediate predecessor was Ahmad Alzaree, who resigned his position three days before he was scheduled to start (an issue I recount in my article). Abouabdalla’s hiring fills a long leadership vacuum for Ohio’s largest Islamic mosque.

But considering the kid glove treatment that Abouabdalla has thus far received from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, I discuss some of his troubling connections to international Islamic terrorism that they have quite clearly missed:

Since Damra’s forced departure, two potential successors have rapidly come and gone. The first intended successor, Mohamad Altabaa, who was hired from another area mosque, was quickly given the heave-ho for being too moderate. Now, however, the Cleveland mosque has settled on a permanent replacement, Egyptian cleric Sayed Ahmed Abouabdalla, who seems qualified to pick up where Damra left off.

Just weeks into his new position, Abouabdalla is already being hailed as a great interfaith leader by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, even though by its own admission Abouabdalla barely speaks English (a translator was needed for his interview with Plain Dealer reporter David Briggs) and has a short track record as a religious leader in the U.S. (his most recent position was as part-time imam for the Islamic Cultural Institute in St. Clair Shores, Michigan).

But considering what happened with Abouabdalla’s most immediate predecessor, Ahmad Alzaree, last October (more on that episode below) you might think that the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the rest of the media would be more cautious, or at least more diligent in researching the background of its newfound interfaith paragon, who, it should be noted, is replacing its old interfaith paragon, Fawaz “Jews are sons of pigs and apes” Damra.

In fact, there is much in Abouabdalla’s résumé that ought to give his media cheerleaders considerable pause.

One element in the Plain Dealer’s recent coverage of Abouabdalla’s background that passes without the slightest bit of apparent investigation is the fact that he continues to serve as a faculty member of the Islamic American University (IAU) in Dearborn, Michigan. Of the 19 courses offered by IAU this summer term, Abouabdalla teaches 14 of them.

IAU is a project of the Muslim American Society (MAS), an organization federal prosecutors just recently identified in a federal appeals court brief as being “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.” The Muslim Brotherhood has been the breeding ground for virtually every single Islamic terrorist group in the world, and the vast majority of al-Qaeda’s leadership has come through its ranks.

The MAS/Muslim Brotherhood association is just the beginning of IAU’s ties to terror. The honorary chairman of the IAU board of trustees is none other than Hamas spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi — a fact acknowledged on the MAS website — who has been banned from the U.S. since 1999 for his open support of terrorist activities.

Not only has Qaradawi repeatedly issued fatwas defending the use of suicide bombings, but in August 2004 he co-signed a letter with the leaders of both Hezbollah and Hamas calling for al-Qaeda-backed insurgents in Iraq to “purify the land of Islam from the filth of occupation,” meaning U.S. military forces. He has said that “those who die fighting U.S. occupation forces are martyrs,” and he also recently defended the use of women as suicide bombers. Rightly so, the Anti-Defamation League has described Qaradawi as the “theologian of terror.”

Abouabdalla has also served on the Fiqh Council of North America as recently as last summer — an association that the Plain Dealer makes absolutely no mention of. For good reason, it seems, as the Fiqh Council is a “Who’s Who” of convicted terrorist leaders, terrorist fundraisers, unindicted co-conspirators, and terrorist associates. One former member, Abdurahman Alamoudi, is serving a 23-year prison sentence on terrorism charges for working with Libyan intelligence to assassinate the Saudi crown prince. Another former Fiqh Council member? Fawaz Damra.

The Fiqh Council issued a fatwa in 2005 that was much ballyhooed by the media for allegedly denouncing terrorism, though it never defined terrorism or condemned any terrorist group by name. And as I have reported elsewhere, notwithstanding their own terrorism fatwa forbidding any association with terrorists, three members of the Fiqh Council appeared at an event in Qatar in July 2007 honoring Yousef al-Qaradawi and featuring Hamas leader Khaled Mishal — a specially designated terrorist by the U.S. government. The trio’s appearance at the event was noted on Qaradawi’s personal website. Video of the event that originally aired on al-Jazeera shows Fiqh Council member Salah Sultan sitting on the speaker dais right beside Qaradawi and Mishal.

Now all of this information concerning IAU and the Fiqh Council would have been easily accessible for any reporter going through the motions of journalism. If the two glowing Cleveland Plain Dealer articles welcoming Abouabdalla to the area in recent weeks are any indication, however, none of that background investigation was ever done.

[more]

I also review the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s colossal blowing of the Ahmad Alzaree story last October. I observe in conclusion that the contrast between the PD’s coverage of the Fawaz Damra scandal and the kid glove treatment given to both Ahmad Alzaree, and now Sayed Abouabdalla, couldn’t be more stark.

Did Hate Sheikh Khalid Yasin Defraud Ohio Muslims (and did ISGC officials looking the other way)?

2008-07-07T11:04:00.008-04:00

In May I reported here that international hate sheikh Khalid Yasin was making an appearance in Dayton sponsored by Masjid At-Taqwa and a weeklong schedule of events in Islamic Society of Greater Columbus mosques, in addition to an event at Ohio State (flier for the OSU event below).

But as I write in FrontPage today, “Khalid Yasin: Hate Sheikh, Con Man?”, some Muslims are speaking out and expressing grave concerns about Yasin’s long history of fraudulent fundraising and the complicity of so-called Muslim “leaders” who look the other way at his fraud:

But the issue raising concerns amongst some Muslim leaders in the US is not just Yasin’s cross-country tours promoting his toxic blend of rancid theology and conspiracy-mongering, but also about his fraudulent fundraising and questionable business practices. These Muslim leaders are also concerned that some Islamic institutions have willing looked the other way and ignored these scams as long as Yasin continues to regularly rake in substantial sums on their behalf.

Others have also expressed outrage that while Yasin has taken home as much as a hundred thousands dollars in an evening, thanks to his usual 50/50 split of all funds raised at an event, his wife and child live on public welfare in their home in Sheffield, England.

One source speaking out about Khalid Yasin’s fraudulent fundraising is the Salafi Burnout blog, which has alleged that the hate sheikh is enriching himself in a series of scams preying on the American Muslim community:

Having been exposed as a fraud in Australia and the UK, Khalid Yasin is currently back in the United States still peddling his television scam and raising money and taking up to half the money as his personal cut. He has also raised money in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries for a supposed Qur’an Memorization School in Alabama that did not exist. Last report, he was taking this money and investing it in real estate in Long Island in his own name. Should Muslims continue to allow this individual to trade on his name and swindle his community out of hundreds of thousands of dollars?
These sentiments have been echoed by Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, who praised Salafi Burnout for publicly challenging Yasin and questioning how the American Muslim community has allowed a con man to operate so wantonly in their midst without the slightest criticism from Muslim leaders until now:

By now almost everyone is caught up in the buzz swirling around recent revelations of “Sheikh” Khalid Yasin’s long history of fraud and deceit. I applaud the courageous blog Salafi Burnout for attempting to protect the Muslims from what can only be described as a criminal enterprise, and to make us all aware of the tremendous damage it has caused to the community. As Yasin’s criminal house of cards appears to finally be falling, we are left with many unanswered questions as to why this kind of thing has been allowed to go on for so long.

Let there be no mistake, other shoes will drop, not only on Khalid Yasin but a whole host of other “du’ aat” and Imams who have with impunity betrayed the trust of the Muslims, and have left us wondering how individuals with such shady and dubious backgrounds were allowed to attain such stature, influence, and respectability in the first place. It is no exaggeration to say, as we shall soon learn, that our community is top heavy with these types of scoundrels, and yet the larger question remains; why did so many responsible and affluent Muslims fork over huge sums of money to a man who spouts the kind of absurd, preposterous, indeed psychotic things that he does?
As I reported previously, this is far from the first time that allegations of fraud and deception have dogged Khalid Yasin. When investigators for the Australian Sunday program looked into his academic background and his media company, the Islamic Broadcasting Corporation, back in 2005 they found a pattern of rampant fraud, deliberate misrepresentations, a mountain unpaid debts by Yasin, and unanswered questions about his phony academic credentials:

[more]

Exit question: Were ISGC leaders (such as Mohammad Tarazi) aware of Khalid Yasin’s history of fraudulent fundraising before they invited him to into their mosques to prey on the Muslim community in Columbus?

Final comment: Bravo to those Muslims courageously speaking out against the corrupt leaders who tolerate lies and fraud, and who sell their congregations away to rancid preachers like Khalid Yasin for money.

Noor Center speaker Wagdi Ghoneim arrested and deported from South Africa

2008-07-06T02:01:00.015-04:00

Hany Saqr’s HAMAS/Muslim Brotherhood buddy and previous speaker at Hilliard’s Noor Islamic Cultural Center, Wagdi Ghoneim, was arrested and deported from South Africa last week. This is yet another in a long string of expulsions for the Muslim Brotherhood cleric, who spoke at a Noor Center event in May 2004, just months before he was expelled and banned from the US for his open support of terrorism.

Here’s the announcement that circulated for Wagdi Ghoneim’s May 2004 Noor Center event:

Sh. Wagdy Ghoneim and Imam Siraj Wahhaj are visiting Columbus
Posted on Sunday, May 23 @ 11:19:02 EDT

Sh. Wagdy Ghoneim and Imam Siraj Wahhaj are visiting Columbus. Sh. Wagdy is invited by Masjid An-Noor to give a speech in the Fawcett Center on May 23rd at 6pm. Imam Siraj Wahhaj will be speaking on the topic “The Mood of the Nation” on Friday June 4th at 8pm in the Columbus Africentric Secondary School located at:

300 East Livingston Ave, Columbus, OH 43215

Tickets for both events are $10 per adult. Babysitting provided and refreshment served.

Of course, Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is a Noor Center regular, appearing most recently as the mosque’s Eid keynote speaker in December 2007.

Wagdi Ghoneim’s May 2004 speaking engagement is not the only tie between the Noor Islamic Cultural Center and himself. In fact, Ghoneim and former Noor Center resident scholar Salah Sultan were both identified in a July 2007 LA Times article by name in an article outlining “controversial Sunni figures”, “glorifying holy war” and “sharing the outlook of Al-Qaeda” in Bahrain.

In fact, here's an image from that LA Times article identifying the pair:

At issue was a Bahraini TV program featuring Ghoneim and Sultan, which the government of Bahrain eventually cancelled after vocal protests from members of parliament, who also protested the speed with which their citizenship applications were considered (Sultan’s was approved; Ghoneim was deported).

Wagdi Ghoneim has been banned from the US since being expelled in December 2004. While he was deported on a visa violation, a US Customs and Immigration Enforcement was much more frank about Ghoneim’s terrorist connections:

The government alleges that Ghoneim, who came to the U.S. in 2001 from Egypt, participated in fundraising activities around the country that could have helped terrorist organizations, said Bill Odencrantz, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director of field legal operations.

Ghoneim has not been charged with terrorist activity, however. Instead, he was arrested at his Anaheim home on Nov. 4 on suspicion of overstaying his religious-worker visa. he was charged with the immigration violation, Odencrantz said, “because it was the easiest charge to prove.”

“Frankly, our task is not to sit and wait around for people to blow up buildings,” Odencrantz said. “Our task is to look at situations and circumstances and take action against people.” (Kimi Yoshino, “To Avoid Visa Fight, Muslim Cleric to Leave”, LA Times, December 29, 2004, pg. B3)

Ghoneim was prevented from entering Canada in 1998 and subsequently banned for being a member of HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood (Ottawa Citizen, “Egyptian Religious Leader Denied Canadian Visa”, January 10, 1999).

In 2005, he was banned from entering Switzerland, which cited his fundraising for HAMAS (Islam Online, “Preacher Denied Entry, Swiss Muslims Furious,” September 19, 2005).

More recently, Ghoneim was expelled from Bahrain in November 2007, as reported by my friend and Bahraini blogger, Mahmood Al-Yousif of Mahmood’s Den.

Pipeline News has provided a very brief overview of Ghoneim’s documented racist views and support for terrorism:

He had also referred to Jews as “monkeys” and “pigs” during a Brooklyn College conference of the American Muslim Alliance on May 24, 1998.

Before leading the audience in anti-Jewish verse, Ghuneim said: “The Jews distort words from their meanings. . . . They killed the prophets and worshipped idols.

Speaking about suicide bombings that took place in Israel in 1996: “Those young people who explode themselves to kill the Jews were not committing suicide but jihad,” Ghuneim said, “They are mujahedeen because there is no way to struggle and fight the Jews except that way. Allah bless those martyrs.”

On May 24, 1998, for example, CAIR co-sponsored an incendiary rally at Brooklyn College that featured speakers spouting anti-Jewish rhetoric. One speaker was Wagdy Ghuneim, a radical cleric from Egypt. He told listeners, “Allah says he who equips a warrior of jihad is like the one makes jihad himself.” He led the audience in a song with the lyrics: “No to the Jews, descendants of the apes.”

The audio of Ghoneim leading a song depicting Jews as monkeys and apes can be found at the Investigative Project.

All of these incidents occurred and were public well before Ghoneim’s May 2004 appearance on behalf of the Noor Center. This raises the question of what other hate mongers and terror sheikhs are being featured at Noor (other than Siraj Wahhaj).

Another question that also remains concerns the connections of the Noor leadership to international terrorist organizations (more on that later).

Happy 232nd Birthday, America!

2008-07-04T08:30:00.004-04:00

“. . . We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Mary Jo Kilroy locks up Ohio 15th female HAMAS vote

2008-07-01T22:47:00.006-04:00

HAMAS ladies ♥ Mary Jo Kilroy!
Yesterday we saw Ahmad Al-Akhras, national vice chairman of the HAMAS front organization Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), stepped up to help his pal Mary Jo Kilroy’s congressional campaign after not many questions were asked at the Franklin County Commission concerning Al-Akhras business partner Abukar Arman after I disclosed that he was illegally serving on the Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board, which oversees area homeland security.

But apparently the gratitude for Kilroy’s efforts didn’t end with Al-Akhras. In fact, CAIR-Ohio “president” Asma Mobin-Uddin tossed a $250 donation to Kilroy’s congressional campaign last August at the same time as her ameer, Ahmad Al-Akhras. Again, these donations from CAIR officials occurred AFTER federal prosecutors had identified CAIR as an integral part of the HAMAS terrorist support infrastructure last year.

Additionally, HAMAS honey Mobin-Uddin previously gave $250 in 2006 for Kilroy’s first failed congressional run.

Looks like Mary Jo Kilroy has locked up not only the male, but the female HAMAS vote in the Ohio 15th!

HAMAS ♥ Mary Jo Kilroy

2008-06-30T23:27:00.017-04:00

Mary Jo Kilroy and friends
UPDATE: Check out our new post on the topic, "Mary Jo Kilroy locks up the Ohio 15th female HAMAS vote".

It hardly seems like a year since Mary Jo Kilroy and her employees were helping Kilroy comrade and Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) national vice chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras stonewall and cover-up the illegal appointment of Al-Akhras business partner Abukar Arman by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners (of which Kilroy is president) to the Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board, which oversees area homeland security. Kilroy claimed to have no involvement in Arman’s appointment (more on that later), which was illegal by virtue of the fact that he is not a US citizen and thereby barred from serving according to Ohio law. (Yes, they had a foreign national who had openly praised HAMAS helping overseeing our homeland security, but don’t worry — the Columbus Dispatch said it was all OK, because he wasn’t a terrorist!)

But in the weeks that followed the Arman county commission kerfuffle, Ahmad Al-Akhras saw fit to reward Mary Jo Kilroy’s never-ending congressional campaign for the Ohio 15th Congressional District with two donations totaling $750. By the end of 2007, Al-Akhras had fully doled out $1000 to Kilroy’s campaign — with the last contribution coming less than a month before Al-Akhras fled the country to take a job with the government of Dubai. FEC reports showing Al-Akhras’ 2007 contributions to Kilroy are below.

Mary Jo Kilroy accepted these donations AFTER CAIR — the very same organization that Al-Akhras heads — had been named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism finance trial. And as the Investigative Project has noted, CAIR has been identified as one of the key components of the HAMAS terrorist support infrastructure in the US. Not by me. By federal prosecutors.

In fact, around the time of Al-Akhras’ last contribution to Mary Jo Kilroy’s campaign, the Department of Justice identified CAIR as a longtime terrorist support operation in a legal brief filed in another terrorism-related case (for more see, “For the Record: Government Reminds Court of CAIR/MAS Ties to Terrorists”).

Here is what the DOJ said about Mary Jo Kilroy’s friends at CAIR:

Moreover, since its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists. (DOJ Brief No. 07-4778, USA v. Benkahla, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, p. 58)

Oh, I just happen to have an image of that statement taken from the DOJ brief:

And it was more than a decade ago that Steve Pomerantz, former FBI chief of counterterrorism, made the very same assessment about CAIR’s ties to international terrorism:

Any objective assessment of the material presented above leads to the conclusion that CAIR, its leaders, and its activities, effectively give aid to international terrorist groups. Unfortunately, CAIR is but one of a new generation of new groups in the United States that hide under a veneer of “civil rights” or “academic” status but in fact are tethered to a platform that support terrorism. The degree to which these groups are able to deceive the American public and intimidate writers and counter-terrorist officials will be a significant ingredient in whether this country will be rendered more vulnerable to terrorism in future years. (“Counterterrorism in a Free Society,” The Journal of Counterterrorism & Security International 5:1, Spring 1998, p. 26)

And what, you may ask, is Abukar Arman up to these days now that he’s not helping oversee Franklin County homeland security? That’s right. He’s now the new president of CAIR-Columbus.

Exit question: Are HAMAS, CAIR, and Ahmad Al-Akhras the kinds of friends that Democratic congressional candidate Mary Jo Kilroy wants to be associated with?

Two separate contributions by Ahmad Al-Akhras to Kilroy for Congress (8/29/07, 9/29/07) for $750 [click to enlarge; original]

Additional $250 contribution (12/03/07) by Ahmad Al-Akhras to Kilroy for Congress [click to enlarge; original]

Where’s CAIR on Christopher Paul?

2008-06-27T17:36:00.006-04:00

That’s the question I ask today in my FrontPage article, “CAIR Mum on Ohio Al-Qaeda Guilty Plea”:

Earlier this month Christopher Paul stood before a federal judge in Columbus, Ohio and pled guilty to receiving training in Al-Qaeda terror camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, fighting with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Bosnia, and passing that training on to other Muslims in the US and Europe with the intent to kill Americans at home and abroad as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors to avoid conviction on even more charges.

Since then, however, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been curiously silent on Paul’s guilty plea, with no press releases, media interviews or angry editorials on the matter for nearly three weeks. And any mention of Christopher Paul and his Columbus Al-Qaeda co-conspirators has been tellingly scrubbed from CAIR’s website.

This is especially curious considering the media full-court press that some CAIR officials engaged in when he was arrested in April 2007. At that time CAIR had no reservations about speaking publicly on the matter, as evidenced by the public protestations of Paul’s innocence by CAIR national vice-chairman, go-to friend of terrorists, and sometime pugilist Ahmad Al-Akhras, who defended his Al-Qaeda associate to the Associated Press:

Ahmad Al-Akhras, vice chair of the Columbus chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, knows Paul and said the charges are out of character.

“From the things I know, he is a loving husband and he has a wife and parents in town,” Al-Akhras said Thursday. “They are a good family together.”

Al-Akhras said he and others in the Muslim community are guarding against a public backlash.

“People start wondering and questioning, what is happening and why now?” he said. “When something like this pops up, it creates some anxiety among the members of the Muslim community. . . . We hope nothing bad will happen and everything will be clear.”

Two of Christopher Paul’s Ohio Al-Qaeda associates, Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi, are already serving prison sentences for their role in the Columbus Al-Qaeda cell (from court documents at least 10 others are known to have been involved, but have not yet been charged). As noted by Andrew Cochran at Counterterrorism Blog, Paul’s admission to his extensive collaboration with international terrorist plots going back to the early 1990s and the statement of facts in the case indicates that he is the earliest known American Al-Qaeda operative.

In each of these cases of the Columbus Al-Qaeda cell, CAIR has initially rushed to publicly defend these men from the charges and to flog their own grievance-mongering agenda. But as the full scope of their involvement in the terrorist network became clear they attempted to distance themselves and their organizations from the terrorist network, while still attempting to promote their agenda and give their terrorist associates as much cover as possible.

For instance, after Iyman Faris had pled guilty to felony terrorism charges, Al-Akhras business partner Mohammad Tarazi (whose wife serves as the corporate secretary for CAIR-OH), was dispatched to speak to a local TV station to float the story that Faris was mentally ill and possessed by demons:

An Islamic religious leader said an Ohio trucker who pleaded guilty to felony terrorism charges had once claimed he was possessed by demons and attempted suicide.

Mouhamed Nabih Tarazi volunteers as an imam to lead prayer services at various sites around Columbus. He performed the marriage ceremony for Iyman Faris, but said Faris did not attend services regularly because he was often on the road.

Tarazi said he never heard Faris talk about politics, but thinks he might have been mentally ill.

“He did have some mental problems. We did not know about these problems when he was married,” Tarazi said.

Here Tarazi is attempting to deal with the guilty plea aftermath by simultaneously distance the mosque (Masjid Omar Ibn El Khattab, which was the hub of the Columbus Al-Qaeda cell) from Faris while explaining away his behavior with bizarre claims of mental illness and demon possession to still give cover for his friend — a claim that magically appeared only after the guilty plea.

Nuradin Abdi’s arrest was more difficult for CAIR-OH to address as Abdi was known to have been an active in Masjid Omar and was one of the leaders of the local Al-Maghrib Institute (aka “Jihad U”) chapter.

So it’s not surprising that Ahmad Al-Akhras rushed to defend Abdi to the local media:

“What we know about him is unlike how he is portrayed,” said Ahmad Al-Akhras, president of the Ohio office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The group’s leaders questioned the evidence and the timing of the announcement of charges against Abdi, noting that the FBI has dropped charges accusing others of terrorism.

“This may be one of the cases also that may not have enough evidence or there’s no evidence at all,” Al-Akhras said.

CAIR-OH actively aided Abdi’s defense team by parroting their bogus narrative that Abdi had been tortured in prison by US officials and was exhibiting signs of mental illness because of this alleged abuse.

This time it was CAIR-OH president Asma Mobin-Uddin who was dispatched to do the group’s dirty work. She penned an op-ed for the Columbus Dispatch invoking her credentials as a physician to attest to Abdi’s mental state:

As a physician, I am extremely concerned that his behaviors might indicate mental and possibly physical abuse during his detention, and that his mental injuries may be permanent.

Area Marxist moonbat Harvey Wasserman and Columbus State professor and fellow moonbat Bob Fitrakis also parroted this theme of Abdi’s alleged torture:

In court, Abdi looked nothing like a terrorist — or his former self. His family and the larger Somali community here were horrified to see Abdi enter the courtroom smiling vacantly and failing to recognize his own brother. Apparently unconscious of his surroundings, Abdi banged his head repeatedly on a table and grinned at nothing. Many who know Abdi in the central Ohio community say the vague, sensational charges against him are absurdly out of character.

No photos have emerged of abuse in prison. But Abdi’s new attorney, his family and the community who knew him find little else to conclude. Some say he has apparently lost his mind under the conditions of his incarceration.

The problem with Mobin-Uddin’s narrative of Abdi’s torture and mental collapse, however, is that she is a pediatrician, not a psychiatrist, and had a definite conflict of interest in her bogus diagnosis. And unfortunately for CAIR-OH, when actual mental health officials examined Abdi, they found that he was faking symptoms of mental illness in an attempt to avoid the 80 years in prison that he possibly faced. A federal appeals court also rebuffed his lawyers’ attempt to suppress incriminating statements he made at the time of his arrest.

Notwithstanding Abdi’s eventual guilty plea, Asma Mobin-Uddin still features her Columbus Dispatch editorial in defense of Abdi on her personal website. And when a local Muslim columnist, Mahmoud El-Yousseph, conceded Abdi’s guilt and proper punishment and chastised CAIR-OH for refusing to withdraw their support for the terrorist, he was publicly rebuked by Ahmad Al-Akhras and others for deviating from the CAIR line of maintaining Abdi’s innocence at all costs.

The most recent guilty plea by Columbus Al-Qaeda member Christopher Paul, however, provided a particularly difficult conundrum. Not only was Paul an active and well-known member of Masjid Omar, for years he had been the martial arts instructor for the mosque, presumably providing members there with jihadist training. This no doubt prompted Al-Akhras’ full-court media press at the time of Paul’s arrest.

And now that Paul has admitted his guilt and acknowledged that he had conspired to use weapons of mass destruction against US citizens at home and abroad, CAIR’s continued silence is as condemning as the respective guilty pleas by Iyman Faris, Nuradin Abdi and Christopher Paul. Considering that our local terrorist cell is the largest known Al-Qaeda operation in the US since 9/11, and that these convicted terrorists were close associates to CAIR officials (by their own admission), the campaign of silence by CAIR has becoming deafening.

OSUMSA speaker Sami Al-Arian indicted — AGAIN

2008-06-26T23:49:00.006-04:00

Bad news for local supporters of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist leader Sami Al-Arian, who was indicted against today for contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury looking into terrorism financing by Al-Arian’s former benefactor, the International Institute for Islamic Thought. Al-Arian remains in prison for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury about the involvement of his associates in terrorist financing in the US.

Here’s a few paragraphs from a report today by the Investigative Project on Terrorism describing the new charges:

Convicted terrorist Sami Al-Arian has been indicted in Virginia on two counts of criminal contempt after refusing to testify before a federal grand jury despite a grant of immunity.

Al-Arian, who pled guilty in 2006 to conspiring to provide goods and services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has argued that his plea agreement ruled out any cooperation with the government. Two appellate courts, the 4th Circuit and 11th Circuit have rejected that argument, saying no such agreement is in the written plea and was not uttered during Al-Arian’s plea hearing.

The indictment offers few details, except to give Oct. 16, 2007 and March 20, 2008 as the dates of his alleged criminal contempt. The grand jury’s focus is believed to be on terror financing by the Herndon, Va.-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).

IIIT was the single biggest donor for Al-Arian’s Tampa-based think tank, the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE). The president of IIIT Al-Arian wrote a letter in 1992 referring to WISE as an extension of IIIT.

IIIT also housed Bashir Musa Nafi, one of the original founders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In 1995, Al-Arian sponsored a petition for a workers visa on behalf of Nafi to allow him to work as a research director employed by WISE. However, Nafi was actually employed by IIIT, and false information on his INS petition leading to Nafi’s deportation to London in June 1996.

Back in April we noted that in 2002 Al-Arian was a featured speaker for the Ohio State Muslim Student Association (“OSUMSA speaker and convicted terrorist leader enters fifth year in prison”).

That would also be the same Sami Al-Arian who delivered his infamous “Let us damn America!” speech at the Islamic Center of Cleveland. You can see Imam Fawaz Damra’s introduction of Al-Arian, where he acknowledges that Al-Arian’s organization is “the active arm of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine”. Nor can we forget his other greatest video hit, the “Jihad is our path, death to Israel” diatribe. Both of these speeches were BEFORE he spoke at the OSUMSA event.

Moderate Islam in full bloom in Central Ohio!

CAIR-Ohio funded Al-Qaeda Legal Team

2008-06-24T19:12:00.010-04:00

Matthew Vadum at Newsbusters today exposes the deep pockets that are financing the legal team of the Al-Qaeda terrorists held at Gitmo, and discovers that one of the financial backers of this effort is none other than CAIR-Ohio [HT: Tom Blumer]:

Much has already been written of the U.S. Supreme Court’s lawless, nonsensical decision in Boumediene v. Bush that gives America’s terrorist enemies unprecedented access to our civilian court system, but little has been written about the aggressively anti-American public interest law firm that helped to make it happen.*

The nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights, which acted as co-counsel in the case, is deeply enmeshed in the politics of terrorism (take one guess on whose side) and has even taken money from groups linked to terrorism. CCR donors include the Ohio branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Safa Trust Inc., and the International Institute of Islamic Thought, all of which have been accused of connections to Islamist terror groups.

For more background on CAIR-OH’s support of CCR, see this Capital Research Center report, “The Terrorists Legal Team” and NGO Monitor’s report on CCR’s “Serial Abuse of International Law”.

Just as a reminder, recall that Salim Hamdan was Osama bin Laden’s driver, and Lakhdar Boumediene and his five associates were taken into custody to prevent an attack on the US Embassy in Bosnia.

Did some of that CAIR-Ohio money funding Al-Qaeda’s law firm came from the fundraiser featuring 1993 World Trade Center bombing unindicted co-conspirator Siraj Wahhaj, who helped raise $100,000 for CAIR-OH as the keynote speaker at their 2006 annual banquet, or the 2007 CAIR-OH annual banquet featuring Governor Ted Strickland?

For a good analysis of why granting habeas corpus rights to unlawful enemy combatants and other terrorists captured in the field is a significant departure from accepted international rules of warfare and American jurisprudence, see Timothy Furnish’s recent article, “Supreme Ignorance: America’s High Court Disregards the Laws of Land Warfare,” and former US Senator Fred Thompson’s piece at Pajamas Media (one of my writing homes), “Boumediene: A Supremely Problematic Court Decision”.

As Justice Scalia observed in his dissent in Boumediene:

Today, for the first time in our Nation’s history, the Court confers a constitutional right to habeas corpus on alien enemies detained abroad by our military forces in the course of an ongoing war.

And Chief Justice Roberts:

Today the Court strikes down as inadequate the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants. The political branches crafted these procedures amidst an ongoing military conflict, after much careful investigation and thorough debate. The Court rejects them today out of hand, without bothering to say what due process rights the detainees possess, without explaining how the statute fails to vindicate those rights, and before a single petitioner has even attempted to avail himself of the law’s operation. And to what effect? The majority merely replaces a review system designed by the people’s representatives with a set of shapeless procedures to be defined by federal courts at some future date. One cannot help but think, after surveying the modest practical results of the majority’s ambitious opinion, that this decision is not really about the detainees at all, but about control of federal policy regarding enemy combatants.

Islamic group coming to Columbus in August scheduled Pakistani terror leader as speaker

2008-06-21T12:30:00.007-04:00

UPDATE #1: Naresh Raghubeer of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, the organization that opposed Qazi Hussein Ahmad’s entry into Canada for the ISNA conference last month, reports that Qazi was eventually denied a visa by the Canadian government as a result of the public outcry and political pressure, preventing him from speaking at the ISNA conference.

Original post: On August 29th, the Islamic Society of North American (ISNA) will be having their 45th annual US convention at the Columbus Convention Center. The ISNA convention’s host is the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC).

As I report today at PJM, “North American Islamic Group Hosts Pakistani Terror Leader”, ISNA invited Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the head of the Jamaat-e-Islami terrorist organization to speak at their conference in Toronto, Canada just last month. Qazi has been banned by more than two dozen countries in Europe and the Middle East.

Does this portend the kind of extremism that will be brought into our own community in just two months time?

Here’s the opening of the article:

Qazi Hussein Ahmad has been banned from more than 25 countries across Europe and the Middle East for the activities of the Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) organization that he heads. Terrorism analysts around the world have noted JEI’s close ties to al-Qaeda, and Qazi has publicly defended Osama bin Laden, admitting to meeting with him on several occasions and claiming that no definitive proof exists of bin Laden’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks. In an October 2002 interview with Der Speigel Qazi went so far as to deny al-Qaeda’s existence altogether and defended his group’s support of the Taliban, saying that “they were just and honorable men, who brought peace to Afghanistan.”

With that kind of extremist rhetoric and close associations with known terrorist organizations currently at war with the United States, it is troubling that the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) had Qazi Hussein Ahmad as one of its featured speakers at its annual Canadian conference last month. The ISNA-Canada conference was run jointly with the Muslim Students Association and Muslim Youth of North America, and endorsed by the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Circle of North America, and the Muslim Association of Canada.

The program for the ISNA conference lists Qazi Hussein Ahmad speaking at their seventh session on Saturday, May 24, on the topic of “Religious Extremism: Fact or Fiction.” This was not his first time at an ISNA conference, however, as he was featured at the group’s 1998 35th annual convention held in St. Louis, where Qazi was one of two speakers on the topic of “Human Dignity in the Muslim World: The Case of Pakistan and Algeria.”

Qazi’s appearance at the ISNA-Canada conference was denounced by the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, which demanded that the government immediately review and reconsider his visa application, especially since Jamaat-e-Islami has been designated a terrorist organization by the Canadian government. ISNA’s decision to include the JEI leader in their event was strongly criticized by Calgary Herald columnist Rob Breakenridge, who used the occasion to question Canadians’ paradoxical “tolerant society.”

[article continued]

To verify Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s scheduled appearance at the ISNA conference, here’s the conference flier with him listed prominently as one of their speakers (original here):

CBS News: Toledo terror trio connected to other terrorist cells

2008-06-19T07:38:00.004-04:00

Columbus native Bob Orr of CBS News reports that the Toledo terror trio convicted last week were tied to other terror cells in Chicago, Atlanta, Toronto, and an Al-Qaeda webmaster in the UK:

But don’t think that there is a terrorism problem in the Buckeye State. Everyone go back to sleep.

BREAKING: Toledo Terror Trio Guilty on All Charges

2008-06-13T20:36:00.013-04:00

UPDATE #1: Added video coverage below from WTOL-11 Toledo.

It’s been a bad month for jihadists in the Buckeye State. This afternoon, a jury found three Toledo men, Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum, guilty on all charges of plotting to kill US soldiers overseas. Amawi and El-Hindi were also convicted of distributing information regarding explosives to terrorists. This follows last week’s guilty plea by Columbus Al-Qaeda member Christopher Paul to charges of joining and fighting with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Bosnia, and training jihadists from Central Ohio and Europe to kill Americans at home and abroad.

Here’s part of the report this afternoon from the Toledo Blade:

A federal jury on Friday convicted three Toledo-area men of Middle Eastern descent of plotting attacks against U.S. troops overseas and other terror-related acts.

Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum, all of whom are Muslim, were convicted on all counts of conspiring to kill or injure people outside the United States and face sentences of life in prison.

Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops.

“Today’s verdicts should send a strong message to individuals who would use this country as a platform to plot attacks against U.S. military personnel in Iraq and elsewhere,” said Patrick Rowan, acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, in a written statement.

“This case also underscores the need for continued vigilance in identifying and dismantling extremist plots that develop in America’s heartland.”

Amen to that.

Deafening silence from CAIR-Ohio will commence in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . .

UPDATE #1:

What Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Christopher Paul pled guilty to

2008-06-04T00:08:00.007-04:00

Notwithstanding local Muslim leader Basil Mohamed Gohar’s bizarre and self-serving claims that Christopher Paul and his local Al-Qaeda associates are innocent, Christopher Paul changed his plea to guilty on the charge of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction against Americans.

Andy Cochran at Counterterrorism Blog has a good summary, “Earliest Known ‘American Al-Qaeda’ Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Charges”, but it is helpful to review the statement of facts released today by the Department of Justice to understand the scope of Christopher Paul’s crimes, and how critical his involvement was to establishing and training the “jihadist” network in Central Ohio.

* * *

Statement of Facts
Investigation by the Columbus, Ohio FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), through interviews of international and U.S.-based witnesses and the analysis of thousands of physical exhibits, many of which were recovered from defendant’s residences, establish that the defendant, Christopher Paul, provided material support and resources to terrorists by providing himself and others; by providing training; and by providing equipment, knowing and intending that such support would be used in preparation for or in carrying out a conspiracy to destroy property and causing the death and/or serious injury of human beings, which for purposes of this statement of facts will be referred to as “committing jihad.”

Since 1989, defendant Christopher Paul has been known by a number of aliases: including Abdul, Abdul Malek, Abdul Malik, Abdul Melik, Abdel Malek, Abdulmaled, Abdul Malek Kenyatta, Paul Kenyatta Laws, Paul Laws, hereinafter (“defendant”). Defendant is a United States citizen.

In the early 1990s, defendant traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to join the mujahadeen. Upon his arrival in Pakistan, defendant stayed at the Beit Ul Ansar guest house, located in Peshawar, Pakistan. Beit Ul Ansar was a guest house affiliated with al Qaeda. While at Beit Ul Ansar, defendant went to Afghanistan and received initial training at an al Qaeda training camp. The training included, but was not limited to, map reading, climbing, use of assault rifles, grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, small unit tactics, and hand-to-hand combat. Successfully completing his initial training defendant joined al Qaeda and then stayed at Beit ur Salam guesthouse, which was exclusively for al Qaeda members. Distinguishing himself to al Qaeda, defendant was selected for and obtained advanced training in rappelling, military history, and explosives and explosive devices. Upon joining al Qaeda and having received their training, the defendant fought with other mujahadeen in Afghanistan.

After fighting in Afghanistan, defendant returned to the United States for a period and began instructing individuals in martial arts at a mosque in Columbus, Ohio. Defendant also began recruiting and associating with individuals with jihadist intentions in order to establish a jihadist group in Columbus, Ohio.

Over time and through his association with al Qaeda, the defendant became an individual dedicated to committing jihad, including causing the death of human beings and the destruction of property and furthering the objectives of al Qaeda and other radical Islamic fundamentalists.

From 1993 through 1995 defendant, using various passports and aliases, returned to the Balkans area in Europe and fought jihad in conflict zones such as Bosnia establishing further contacts with the radical Islamic fundamentalist movement and creating a master list of contact numbers for senior al-Qaeda leadership and other radical Islamic fundamentalists and operatives world-wide. On this master list, investigators also found listings of component parts for bombs/detonation devices. Defendant’s master list of terrorist contacts and bomb-making information was seized by the Columbus JTTF in a search warrant at defendant’s residence.

The defendant returned to Columbus after jihad in the Balkans. In January 1997, defendant received a fax from two al Qaeda, radical Islamic fundamentalist coconspirators from Europe asking, on behalf of “the brothers,” for Paul to find them a “true group and place to make jihad.” The term “brothers” is a euphemism for fellow radical Islamic fundamentalists, AQ members, or mujahadeen. The fax is in the possession of the Columbus JTTF.

While in Columbus, as established by state park records, defendant and others stayed at Burr Oak state park and witnesses establish that defendant conducted hiking, camping, and other training operations in Burr Oak State Park in Ohio with several members of his local jihadist group replicating terrorist training defendant had received in conflict zones such as Afghanistan and Bosnia.

Preparing to travel overseas again, on February 3, 1999, as established by official passport records, defendant obtained a passport in the name of “Christopher Paul,” after defendant had claimed “water damage” to his old passport in one of his other aliases.

Beginning in March 31, 1999 through January 31, 2000, as established by defendant’s own phone records, on forty-four (44) occasions, defendant called a radical Islamic fundamentalist co-conspirator in Europe who in 2003 was arrested and has since been convicted of a terrorist conspiracy.

As established by defendant’s passport and cooperating witnesses, on April 16, 1999, defendant traveled to Germany to meet with members of a radical Islamic fundamentalist terrorist cell in Germany. Paul, who was known to the cell as an expert in bomb-making/detonation devices, was asked to travel to Germany to provide explosives training and information to this German terrorist cell.

The government’s investigation and witnesses establish that defendant provided such training knowing that the German terrorist cell was planning to use such training and information to construct bombs, car bombs, and similar devices to be used against Americans while they vacationed at foreign tourist resorts.

The government’s investigation and witnesses establish that the German terrorist cell also planned to use bombs and similar devices against Americans within the United States and against property that was owned, leased, or used by the United States outside the United States such as U.S. embassies, diplomatic and consular premises and military bases located in Europe.

After Germany, defendant returned to Columbus, Ohio. In May 1999, defendant had a member of the “true group” he had formed in Columbus purchase a printer/scanner for the defendant. This printer/scanner was then shipped to one of the German terrorist cell members Paul met with in April 1999. The document scanner was to assist the German cell in the manufacture of fraudulent documents which would then be used to facilitate the travel of jihadists worldwide. The cell member, however, did not claim the package in Germany and it was sent back to defendant and later recovered by the Columbus FBI JTTF.

During this period defendant also purchased other equipment to be used by jihadists as part of the conspiracy, including a laser range finder and night vision equipment. Similar items were recovered during search warrants executed by the Columbus FBI JTTF.

In November 1999, defendant’s bank records show defendant wired transferred $1,760 to one of the principal members of the German terrorist cell.
All of the foregoing evidence establishes that, from at least April 1999 through January 2000, the defendant, Christopher Paul, agreed with at least one other person to become a member of a conspiracy which intended to use a weapon of mass destruction, namely explosive devices, against one or more of the following: U.S. nationals outside the United States; persons or property within the United States affecting interstate or foreign commerce; and/or, property that was owned, leased, or used by the United States.

* * *
So here’s what we have in summary:

Christopher Paul traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to train in Al-Qaeda camps;

Christopher Paul “joined Al-Qaeda” and fought with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan;

Christopher Paul returned to Columbus and began training “a jihadist group” out of a local mosque (Masjid Omar Ibn El Khattab);

Christopher Paul was “dedicated to committing jihad” and “furthering the objectives of Al-Qaeda”;

Christopher Paul fought with Al-Qaeda in Bosnia;

Christopher Paul compiled a “master list” of international terrorist contacts, which was recovered by the FBI;

Christopher Paul conducted training sessions for “his local jihadist group” at Burr Oak State Park;

Christopher Paul contacted a member of the German terrorist cell on forty-four different occasions;

Christopher Paul traveled to Germany to assist in training that terrorist cell in bomb-making and explosives;

Christopher Paul knew that this training would be used against American citizens;

Christopher Paul obtained materials to support the German terror cell’s operations;

Christopher Paul wired money to the German terrorist cell.

This was all admitted to in Paul’s plea agreement today (version initialed and signed by Paul at the Columbus Dispatch). Paragraph 16, pg. 6 of that plea agreement reads in part:

The defendant acknowledges that no threats have been made against him and that he is pleading guilty, freely and voluntarily, because he is guilty.

Paul signed that plea agreement admitting his guilt. That seems more than some of our self-appointed local Muslim leaders and loudmouths can admit.

Local Muslim leader defends convicted Columbus Al-Qaeda cell members

2008-06-03T02:57:00.012-04:00

There are times when even our local jihadists shock and amaze me. This is one such occasion.

Later today, local Al-Qaeda terror cell member Christopher Paul will plead guilty in federal court to conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against Americans. He faces life in prison, but it appears that he will receive a sentence of 20 years as part of his plea agreement. Much like his other co-conspirators, Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi, he is making this plea of his own free will.

So what is shocking is that one of the leaders of our local Al-Maghrib Institute chapter, Basil Mohamed Gohar, circulated an email earlier today defending these Al-Qaeda terrorist cell members; not only going so far as to protest their innocence in the face of their own guilty pleas, but to ask others to pray for their early release and for their elevation in Paradise!

Al-Maghrib is a traveling Wahhabist roadshow that preaches an extremist and exclusivist version of Islam. The organization’s rabid anti-Semitism, Holocaust denials, and militaristic preaching of jihad even have other Muslims expressing concern about the radicalizing effect of Al-Maghrib’s preaching and programs. Gohar is the former “ameer” of the Columbus chapter, Qabeelat Hayl, and another one of Qabeelat Hayl’s founding fathers was none other than Nuradin Abdi, Christopher Paul’s convicted Al-Qaeda cell co-conspirator. Thus, Al-Maghrib has rightly earned the moniker, “Jihad U”. (See our previous posts on Al-Maghrib’s activity and events in Central Ohio.)

Gohar also heads up a local outfit, “Building Muslim Leaders”. This group just recently held a workshop in Columbus on “The Pursuit of Excellence”, which featured both Gohar as one of the featured speakers.

So it is especially disconcerting that an individual who is devoting so much time and energy into training local Muslim leaders is not only quick to defend our three local Al-Qaeda convicts, who as I already noted have all pled guilty of their own accord. Gohar’s email message is reproduced in its entirety below (thanks to the member of the Muslim community who forwarded it to me, but remains anonymous for fear of retaliation by these extremists).

To: [removed]
From: “Basil Mohamed Gohar”
Subject: Brother expected to plead guilty
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:51:06 -0400

Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem

Assalaamu ʿalaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barakaatuh

In shaaʾ Allaah this e-mail finds you all in the very best of health & ever-increasing imaan!!!

I was checking the weather today, and my heart sank when I read the following news on the front page:

http://10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2008/06/02/paul_plea.html?sid=102

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Worthington man accused of plotting to help al-Qaida agreed Monday to plead guilty to working with terrorists.

Christopher Paul will plead guilty to a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, 10TV News reported.

He is expected to make the plea in court on Tuesday.

According to prosecutors, Paul, 44, worked with Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi, who plotted to help raise money and provide equipment for al-Qaida.

Both Abdi and Faris pleaded guilty to the charges and are serving time in a federal prison.

Paul, born Paul Kenyatta Laws, changed his name to Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989 and to Christopher Paul in 1994. He is said to have obtained passports in several names.

Stay with 10TV News and 10TV.com for continuing coverage.

Just as the case with both Iyman & Nuradin, the idea that they are guilty of any wrongdoing, whether it be by US law or otherwise, is ridiculous, as anyone that knows them and knows even a little of their cases can attest to. Sadly, these brothers will stand a chance of being released much earlier if they plead guilty than if they fight through the courts and try to “prove” their innocence. The way these cases have been prosecuted has been a travesty and has been devoid of any kind of justice or due process, with the verdicts, as is common in most “terrorism”-related cases, having been decided long before these brothers were ever apprehended.

I ask Allaah to make the brothers and their families patient through these trying times and to expedite their release for captivity and to let this be a means of elevating their status in the aakhirah.

Wassalaamu ʿalaykum

If anything has been a travesty with respect to the legal process against Gohar’s associates, it has been the willingness of the self-proclaimed Muslim leaders to openly defend these terrorists at every turn! Let’s not forget that according to court documents filed in Iyman Faris’ case, after the FBI turned him, they watched as Faris communicated directly with Al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in real time. And Christopher Paul trained in Al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan — training he intended to use to kill Americans. These facts are not in dispute.

These individuals, such as Basil Mohamed Gohar, Ahmad Al-Akhras and Asma Mobin-Uddin, and the groups and organizations they represent, including CAIR-Ohio and Al-Maghrib Institute, sully the reputation of the entire Muslim community when they falsely claim to speak in its name and declare the innocence of these convicted and self-confessed terrorists. But as I have stated repeatedly, these individuals have NEVER been elected by people they claim to represent, and one only need look at their most recent published IRS tax filings to discover that officially CAIR-Ohio has no membership! Zero. Zilch. Nada.

The only way to combat Islamic radicalization and to defeat jihadist recruitment in our area is for local Muslims to begin to speak out against such outrages and to publicly oppose those terror apologists who claim to speak in the Muslim community’s name. Christopher Paul’s guilty plea should be a clear indicator that it must take place sooner rather than later.

BREAKING: Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Christopher Paul to plead guilty!

2008-06-02T17:16:00.024-04:00

UPDATE #1: Added local news video from 10TV reporter Maureen Kocot below.

UPDATE #2: For those not familiar with the terror problem in the Columbus area, I’ve also added below the 5 minute CBN News feature from last October, “Jihad in Central Ohio” (link is to video text; video below).

UPDATE #3: Incredible as it seems, take a gander at my most recent post, “Local Muslim leader defends convicted Columbus Al-Qaeda cell members”.

UPDATE #4: Now that Paul has officially pled guilty, see my wrap-up, "What Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Christopher Paul pled guilty to".

This is breaking news, but it is being reported today that Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Christopher “Kenyatta” Paul has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. While two of Paul’s conspirators, Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi, have already been convicted on terrorism charges, we also know from court documents in these three cases that there are at least 10 others known to have been involved in the Columbus Al-Qaeda cell that have not yet been charged.

You might remember that several prominent Muslim organizations and self-appointed Islamic spokesmen (CAIR National Vice Chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras included) openly criticized Paul’s April 2007 arrest as evidence of Islamophobia (see Erick Stakelbeck’s CBN News article, “Columbus Al-Qaeda Man Charged, CAIR not pleased”). What is CAIR’s response today? Nothing appears on their website. For Al-Akhras’ comments regarding Christopher Paul and his other convicted terrorist associates, see my FrontPage article, “Hometown Jihad: Getting By With a Little Help from His (Terrorist) Friends”. Oh, and Christopher Paul was the longtime martial arts instructor at Masjid Omar Ibn El Khattab, where Ahmad Al-Akhras attended before fleeing the country earlier this year.

Also recall that local wackademic, Ohio State National Security Studies chair John Mueller has published a book, “Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them”, and created a cottage industry of touring the country claiming that there is no domestic threat from Al-Qaeda to the United States. No doubt Mr. Mueller is not available today for comment.

Here’s the Associated Press report:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Court documents say an Ohio man will plead guilty in an alleged plot to bomb overseas U.S. military facilities and European resorts.

Christopher Paul of the Columbus suburb of Worthington is the last of three Ohio men charged with alleged terrorist activities.

Documents filed Monday in federal court in Columbus say Paul will plead guilty Tuesday to one count of using bombs in a terrorist attack with a possible sentence of 20 years.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment. Paul’s attorney, Jim Gilbert, says the documents speak for themselves.

The Columbus Dispatch report is more specific, saying that Paul has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. He could face life in prison.

UPDATE #1: Here’s a video news report by reporter Maureen Kocot courtesy of 10TV CBS News.

UPDATE #2: As a refresher to our local terrorism problem, here’s the CBN News video, “Jihad in Central Ohio” (link is to video text):

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

2008-05-26T22:45:00.002-04:00

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

2008-05-26T03:33:00.006-04:00

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

2008-05-24T23:40:00.018-04:00

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

2008-05-21T11:07:00.006-04:00

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

2008-05-19T03:34:00.004-04:00

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

2008-05-15T18:25:00.006-04:00

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!

Central Ohioans Against Terrorism

Former HAMAS fundraiser/crooner Monzer Taleb to speak at CAIR-Cleveland fundraiser this weekend, sang about exterminating Jews, “I am from HAMAS!”

BBC exposes Columbus mosque speaker, hatemonger Khalid Yasin

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Qaradawi calls for the genocide of the Jews — his friends in Central Ohio

LMAO — Congresswoman Kilroy snubs CAIR, votes FOR House resolution supporting Israel

Top 10 Ohio Terrorism-Related Stories of 2008

BREAKING: Ohio Terror Sheikh Salah Sultan Preaches Jew Hatred, Threatens US on Egyptian TV

We Salute All Veterans!!

Bringing it all together.

Changing of the Guard?

Giving credit where credit is due. . . .

Muslim Americans for Obama running illegal get out the vote drives at swingstate mosques this week — including Noor Center

CAIR spreads Islamophobia as Round 2 of Obsession DVD campaign arrives by mail

Noor Center speaker Wagdi Ghoneim: Eating and drinking left-handed is Satanic

Local Islamic extremists attack Columbus Dispatch for Obsession DVD distribution

Ohio terror sheikh, Fiqh Council of North America member Salah Sultan: Jews killed President Kennedy, advocates Islamic theocracy in US elections

9-11-01 We Remember

Remembering the Israeli Olympians murdered by Palestinian terrorists 36 years ago today

Illegal electioneering by Obama campaign at ISNA convention?

Jihadist post $50,000 bounty online for Columbus Pastor Rod Parsley’s head after CAIR's Christophobic campaign

CAIR gets failing grades at running Ohio charter schools

ISNA’s “soft jihadist”, Ingrid Mattson, on the record (4 days until ISNA convention in Columbus)

Islamofascist Anisa Abd El Fattah declares Michelle Malkin “an enemy of the people”, incites violence against Jews, Christians

Confessed Al-Qaeda terrorist still registered to vote in Ohio — and may be able to legally cast an absentee ballot!!

2006 ISNA Convention: wife-beating breakout session (11 days until ISNA convention in Columbus)

Will CAIR protest Ohio State Fair prize-winning pig of blasphemy?

2008 ISNA speaker Siraj Wahhaj calls for Islamic caliphate in America (4 weeks until ISNA convention in Columbus)

1995 ISNA Convention: Judaism “a most racist religion” (32 days until 2008 ISNA convention in Columbus)

DOJ: Facts tie ISNA to HAMAS (36 days until ISNA convention in Columbus!)

FBI Declassified Memo: ISNA conferences “provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters”

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser to speak at Noor Center, Saturday July 26, 7–9pm

Dublin woman fails medical school, sues for religious discrimination

Members of Congress ask DOJ to withdraw from 2007 ISNA convention (45 days until 2008 ISNA convention in Columbus)

HAMAS terrorist leader thanks ISNA (46 days until ISNA national convention occupies Columbus)

Cleveland’s New Terror Imam

Did Hate Sheikh Khalid Yasin Defraud Ohio Muslims (and did ISGC officials looking the other way)?

Noor Center speaker Wagdi Ghoneim arrested and deported from South Africa

Happy 232nd Birthday, America!

Mary Jo Kilroy locks up Ohio 15th female HAMAS vote

HAMAS ♥ Mary Jo Kilroy

Where’s CAIR on Christopher Paul?

OSUMSA speaker Sami Al-Arian indicted — AGAIN

CAIR-Ohio funded Al-Qaeda Legal Team

Islamic group coming to Columbus in August scheduled Pakistani terror leader as speaker

CBS News: Toledo terror trio connected to other terrorist cells

BREAKING: Toledo Terror Trio Guilty on All Charges

What Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Christopher Paul pled guilty to

Local Muslim leader defends convicted Columbus Al-Qaeda cell members

BREAKING: Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Christopher Paul to plead guilty!

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

We Remember and Honor — Memorial Day 2008

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

Islamofascists disrupt documentary screening at Columbus State

Terrorism Awareness Project events at Columbus State this week

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