Anisa Abd El Fattah speaks at conference for Iran’s mullahocracy

Happy New Year, infidel!

Columbus resident, HAMAS operative, and would-be Columbus Public School Board member Anisa Abd El Fattah is a featured speaker this weekend at a conference for a front group for the Iranian theocracy identified by former FBI Director Louis Freeh as a known domestic terrorist threat.

But don’t worry — she’s still considered a moderate by the Columbus Dispatch.

Fattah is speaking this weekend at the annual conference for the Muslim Student Association-Persian Speaking Group (MSA-PSG), also known as Anjoman Islami.


In 1999, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh identified MSA-PSG/Anjoman Islami as a domestic terror threat to the US operating under the control of the Iranian mullahocracy in testimony before the US Senate:

There are still significant numbers of Iranian students attending United States universities and technical institutions. A significant number of these students are hard-core members of the pro-Iranian student organization known as the Anjoman Islami, which is comprised almost exclusively of fanatical, anti-American, Iranian Shi’ite Muslims. The Iranian Government relies heavily upon these students studying in the United States for low-level intelligence and technical expertise. However, the Anjoman Islami also represents a significant resource base upon which the government of Iran can draw to maintain the capability to mount operations against the United States, if it so decides. (Prepared Statement of Louis J. Freeh, Director Federal Bureau of Investigation, before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary Subcommittee, February 4, 1999, Federal News Service, February 4, 1999.)

Director Freeh said that this organization is used by our avowed Iranian enemies to conduct spying against the US and a resource that Iran will draw from to launch terrorist attacks against the US.

A Decenber 2001 article in Insight Magazine by Kenneth Timmerman quotes a US government official about the immanent threat posed by MSA-PSF/Anjoman Islami:

“Without a doubt this is the most dangerous Iranian government-controlled group currently operating in the United States” one U.S. government investigator tells INSIGHT. “If they received orders, we believe they could be called into action to assassinate Iranian political leaders living in exile, in addition to the intelligence-gathering tasks they now perform.”

Counterterror expert Yehudit Barsky observes that MSA-PSG/Anjoman Islami has also been the primary promoter of the anti-Semitic and anti-US “International Al-Quds Day” celebration inaugurated by the late Iranian dictator Ayatollah Khomeini, and also that MSA-PSG published materials have openly advocated for the “global Islamic revolution”.

This is the same organization that Anisa Abd El Fattah will be addressing this weekend. Here is her conference bio and session abstract:

Sr. Anisa Abd el Fattah

Anisa Abd el Fattah is the founder and Chairwoman of the National Association of Muslim American Women. She is a former Executive director of the Center for Public Policy Research, and served briefly as the President of UASR, the United Association for Studies and Research where she also served for five years as Director of Media Relations and Public Affairs. From 1996-2000, Anisa served as the Editor of the Middle East Affairs Journal, an internationally acclaimed academic and peer reviewed journal that served as a forum for academics as well as activists writing from an Islamic perspective on issues pertaining to Islamic reform movements in the Muslim and Arab worlds.

She is author of the book, Reflections on the Spiritual Meanings of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In 1998 she conducted an in depth study of the Iranian Constitution, and authored a report on Social Order, Individual Rights and Islamic Constitutionalism based upon that research.

She co-authored the book, The Agent; Truth Behind the Anti-Muslim Campaign in America, and numerous occasional papers on Islam in the United States such as, Islam in America: A New Reading, and Justice and Normative Law: Underlying Keys to Christian/Muslim Cooperation in the US.

Abstract

“In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful”

Unity before Ummat; seeking God in the transformation of Prophet Ibrahim (as) And a meaning of Ummat

In Sura Nahl, (The Bee), Chapter 15 of the Qur’an, God guided the prophet Muhammad (sa) saying, “Follow the ways of Ibrahim the true in faith, and he joined not Gods with God.” This implies that the life of the prophet Ibrahim (as) is an example for Muslims to follow for many important reasons, including spiritual and also social and political reasons. It also seems to imply that the secrets to the success that we intuitively desire and are seeking in respect to establishing Islamic Ummat in our lifetime, like the prophet Muhammad’s success, is also to be found in the example of prophet Ibrahim (as), and the concept of unity.

Through this presentation we hope to attain a better understanding of the prophet Ibrahim’s life and his transformation from the son of an idol maker, and a member of a pagan society, to his realization of Tawhid, (Oneness of God) and the impact of that realization upon his life journey. His journey included the establishment of the first community of believers and the Kaba, which is the Sacred House of God that also became the Qibla, or direction of a new community of Muslims distinguished by the completion and perfection of their way of life, which God named Al-Islam.

For those just joining us, her bio touts her lengthy tenure at the United Assocation for Studies and Research (UASR), which one convicted terrorist leader described as “the political command for HAMAS in the US”. It also notes that she briefly served as president of UASR. The reason she rose to that position was all of her other UASR colleagues had either been deported as terrorists, been arrested and charged for being terrorists, or fled to country to avoid prosecution as terrorists. I guess that’s one way to climb the corporate ladder.

And then there is her “co-authored” book. Just whom did she co-author her book with, you may ask? Current HAMAS spokesman Ahmed Yousef.

Ahmadinejad’s Apocalyptic Faith

[I’m cross-posting this from my personal blog, because it has particular relevance today.]

UPDATE: I will be on the BBC World Service radio program, World Have Your Say, on the Ahmadinejad matter from 1–2pm EDT today. Follow the link to listen live or to contribute.

In light of the present visit to the US by Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I would direct readers to an article I wrote more than a year ago at FrontPage, “Ahmadinejad’s Apocalyptic Faith”. There I wrote about the virulent Hojjatieh brand of Shi’ism that Ahmadinejad subscribes to, which I described as follows:

Most Shiites await the return of the 12th Shiite Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, the last direct male descendent of the Prophet Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali, who disappeared in 874AD and is believed to be in an invisible, deathless state of existence, or “occultation”, awaiting his return. Though it is discounted even by the most extremist clerics, a popular belief in Iran holds that the 12th Imam, also called the Mahdi or the sahib-e zaman (“the Ruler of Time”), lives at the bottom of a well in Jamkaran, just outside of Qom. Devotees drop written requests into the well to communicate with the Mahdi. His reappearance will usher in a new era of peace as Islam vanquishes all of its enemies. The Sunnis, who reject the successors of Ali, believe that the Mahdi has yet to be born.

But rooted in the Shiite ideology of martyrdom and violence, the Hojjatieh sect adds messianic and apocalyptic elements to an already volatile theology. They believe that chaos and bloodshed must precede the return of the 12th Imam, called the Mahdi. But unlike the biblical apocalypse, where the return of Jesus is preceded by waves of divinely decreed natural disasters, the summoning of the Mahdi through chaos and violence is wholly in the realm of human action. The Hojjatieh faith puts inordinate stress on the human ability to direct divinely appointed events. By creating the apocalyptic chaos, the Hojjatiehs believe it is entirely in the power of believers to affect the Mahdi’s reappearance, the institution of Islamic government worldwide, and the destruction of all competing faiths.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has clearly indicated that he is a true believer in this faith. It has been reported that he has told confidants that he anticipates the immanent return of the Mahdi. When he previously served as Mayor of Tehran, he advocated for widening the roads to accommodate the Mahdi’s triumphal entry into the city. One of his first acts of office as President was to dedicate approximately $20 million to the restoration and improvement of the mosque at Jamkaran, where the Mahdi is claimed to dwell.

This personal belief directs his official policies as President. He has publicly said, “Our revolution’s main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi. We should define our economic, cultural and political policies on the policy of the Imam Mahdi’s return.”

However, Ahmadinejad’s messianism doesn’t stop with the Mahdi. In fact, he has made it clear that he believes he has personally received a divine appointment to herald the imminent arrival of the Mahdi, tacitly acknowledging his own role in setting aright the problems of the world.

The Hojjatieh sect is so extreme, it was banned by Ayatollah Khomeini (which is saying something). Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor is Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, known affectionately (or not so) by his moniker, “Professor Crocodile”. Mesbah-Yazdi has been pushing to succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as I noted in another FrontPage article, “The War Ayatollah”.

Understanding the worldview of our enemies (Iranian-made IEDs and EFPs are killing dozens of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan each month) is essential for understanding their intentions. You should also consult my friend Timothy Furnish’s website, MahdiWatch.org, and read his History News Network article, “What’s worse than violent jihadists?” for additional background on this brand of Shi’ism practiced by Ahmadinejad.