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

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?

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

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:

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

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

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

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.

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

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):

Noor Center speaker Wagdi Ghoneim arrested and deported from South Africa

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).

Noor Center hosts Hezbollah apologist to coincide with 25th anniversary of Beirut embassy bombing

The extremist Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has apparently found a home in Hilliard at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center. Just this past February, MPAC community development director Haris Tarin made an appearance at Noor. And just this past weekend, the chief MPAC extremist himself, Salam Al-Marayati, was the featured speaker at a youth(!) event at Noor:

NICC Youth Group Presents:
Forming a National & Religious Identity in the Age of Islamophobia
featuring
Salam Al Marayati
Executive Director of Muslim Public Affairs Council

The First Muslim Leader to testify before US House

Saturday, April 12th, 2008
11:00 am-1:00 pm

PIZZA WILL BE SERVED
Noor Islamic Cultural Center, 1st Floor
Noor Islamic and Cultural Center

Al-Marayati made national news this week when he refused to meet with the Pope, as reported by the Associated Press (“US Muslim Group Declines to Meet Pope”). So much for “interfaith relations”. However, this isn’t the first, or even the second, time that Al-Marayati’s extremism has made news.

What is so particularly offensive about Al-Marayati’s appearance is that the visit of this openly pro-Hezbollah supporter coincides with the 25th anniversary of the US Embassy bombing in Beirut by Hezbollah, which killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.

In June 1999, Al-Marayati was selected by then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt to serve on a 10-member congressional commission on terrorism. But as the CNN article pictured below with Marayati shows ("US Muslim leader denies he’s a terrorist sympathizer"), this announcement was immediately followed by revelations that Al-Marayati had made numerous statements in support of terrorism and terrorist organizations. In fact, his appointment to the terrorism commission was revoked by Gephardt following these revelations. (See the Investigative Project’s profile on Al-Marayati.)



One particular statement that raised the attention of the media was found in MPAC’s 1999 counterterrorism policy paper, which asserted that the Hezbollah suicide attack on the US Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 American servicemen, was not a terrorist attack, but a military operation:


And lest anyone think I’m doing something dodgy with his quote, here’s the screen capture from the MPAC policy paper:



What’s even more obnoxious is that MPAC equated the Hezbollah suicide attack with John Wayne and the movie, The Fighting Seabees. As the Investigative Project profile indicates, this is a favorite theme for Al-Marayati, who has compared the Islamic doctrine of jihad (holy war) to Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech:

“When Patrick Henry said, ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’ that statement epitomized jihad”

For more background on Al-Marayati and MPAC, see the CAMERA analysis and the Discover the Networks profile.

And give a call to Hilliard Mayor Don Schonhardt (614 334-2365 — city switchboard) and ask him what he’s doing to address the steady stream of Islamic hate sheikhs and terror enthusiasts going through the Noor Islamic Cultural Center and Sunrise Academy.

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

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

Seven people were murdered that day by Islamic extremists:

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

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

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

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

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



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



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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MPAC extremist to speak at Noor Islamic Center this Saturday

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s the announcement for Saturday’s event:

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

Description

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

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

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

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

CBN News: Jihad in Central Ohio

(Sorry, I’m a couple of weeks late getting this up.)

Ohio No Stranger to Radical Islam
By Erick Stakelbeck
CBN News Terror Analyst
October 27, 2007
CBNNews.com — COLUMBUS, Ohio — One traditional Middle Eastern grocery is painted to match the distinctive red, white, black and green of the Palestinian flag. Over the meat counter hangs a flag often flown at rallies for the terrorist group Hamas.

But this grocery store isn’t located in Gaza or the West Bank. It’s in Hilliard, Ohio: a sleepy suburb of Columbus. It seems an unlikely battleground in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but support for the Palestinian cause runs deep.

“We are critical of our government policy in the Middle East, and its blind support of Israel,” Mahmoud El-Yousseph, a local columnist said.

A Palestinian native, El-Yousseph writes about Muslim issues. He says many Muslims in Columbus feel the U.S. has neglected the Palestinians.

He said, “Our foreign policy in the Middle East, it stinks. It needs a tune up, and we’re going to speak about it, whether people like it or not.”

El-Yousseph served 20 years in the U.S. military. His son is serving in Iraq now. He says patriotism isn’t an issue for this Muslim community.

“We are God fearing, law abiding American citizens,” El-Yousseph said. “We love this country. We want to work together for the common good of our national defense.”

A Jihad Hotbed?
Patrick Poole isn’t so sure. A writer and consultant on terrorism-related issues, he returned to the Columbus area recently after a ten year absence.

“After a decade away, to come back and see all the changes that Hilliard had gone through and then to find out that we are essentially a center of jihad — one of the hottest centers of jihad in the country — was just mind blowing,” Poole said.

Columbus is no stranger to Islamic radicalism. Members of an al-Qaeda cell attended a local mosque. Two of the men were convicted on federal terrorism charges. One plotted to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge. Another planned to blow up a local shopping mall.

Federal law enforcement officials say other members of the cell are still on the loose.

That al-Qaeda cell was one of the largest yet discovered in America. El-Yousseph says he and other local Muslims condemned those involved.

But Poole says support for two other terror groups is widespread among Columbus Muslims.

“Hamas and Hezbollah and everything going on in Israel are really the linchpin issues of radicalization here in Columbus,” Poole said.

According to Poole, there’s a budding Hamas support network in the area. He says much of this network leads back to one man — Dr. Salah Sultan.

Poole said, “I discovered that Dr. Salah Sultan — a very prominent international cleric who’s closely associated with Yusuf Qaradawi — was living right around the corner from my own home.”

Sultan’s relationship with Qaradawi is the first thing that caught Poole’s attention. Qaradawi is listed by the U.S. as a specially designated global terrorist. He’s openly advocated suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. He’s also called on Muslims to fight U.S. troops in Iraq.

A Closer Look
Terrorism expert Steven Emerson has followed Sultan and Qaradawi’s activities closely.

“Sultan is an acolyte of Qaradawi,” said Steven Emerson, of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. “And Qaradawi is a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who has called for killing Americans and killing Jews”

Their relationship is so close that Sultan joined in honoring Qaradawi at a reception this summer.

Emerson said, “The fact that Sultan is hanging out with these men indicates exactly where he stands.”

Qaradawi is a leader of The Muslim Brotherhood, a jihadist movement that seeks to establish worldwide Islamic law. An exclusive interview with Sultan was featured on the Brotherhood’s Web site last year.

El-Yousseph told CBN News that Sultan is a Muslim scholar. He says Sultan’s views aren’t extreme, and that he even supports women’s rights in countries such as Saudi Arabia.

Sultan’s views on 9/11 are more problematic. He told Saudi TV the attacks were planned by the U.S. government.

“The entire thing was of a large scale and was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world,” Sultan said.

Sultan recently left his home in an affluent Columbus suburb and now lives in the tiny Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain.

His application for U.S. citizenship was denied after he appeared at a Hamas rally in Turkey last summer. But he’s still allowed to enter the U.S. and move around freely.

Sultan agreed to a phone interview with CBN News, but later cancelled.

Poole says Sultan continues to be influential in the Columbus area’s Muslim community.

“Dr. Sultan was insulated into all of the major Islamic institutions here in Columbus,” Poole said. “The Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, Sunrise Academy — the private islamic school — the Al Noor Center, he was preaching at several other mosques. He was all over the place and integrated into all those institutions.”

For example, one site that used to be Hilliard’s public library is now home home to Sunrise Academy, a K–8 Islamic school. Sultan lectured there on a regular basis. Siraj Wahhaj also appeared there recently. He’s an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

El-Yousseph says Sultan and other Muslims in Columbus have been singled out unfairly since 9/11.

He said, “Most Muslims I know are professional here. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, grocers, schoolteachers who love this country, who left overseas because of religious persecution. They want to be here for a better life. They’re not here to betray America and stab it in the back.”

Emerson says that’s exactly the case with Sultan.

“Salah Sultan has made incredibly incendiary comments about Jews, about jihad.” he said. “This is not someone we want in the United States.”