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.

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)!

Hate sheikh featured speaker at upcoming Sunrise Academy fundraiser

Apparently stung by my revealing their past fundraisers featuring hate sheikh Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (see, “Hometown Jihad: The School Gym that Terror Built”), our local fulltime Islamic school in Hilliard, Sunrise Academy, is bringing in the next best thing — Siraj Wahhaj’s running buddy, fellow hate sheikh Abdalla Idris Ali. Sunrise is a program of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus.

The fundraising event this coming Sunday, December 9th, is scheduled to be held at the University Plaza Hotel (flyer below). Abdalla Idris Ali is best known as the former President of the Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and his virulently anti-Jewish and anti-Christian website, Islamicity.com. The website also features videos of extremist speakers, including multiple videos by a US government designated global terrorist and al-Qaeda cleric, in addition to promoting violent interpretations of jihad.

Ali’s presidential tenure of ISNA from 1992–1997 marked one of the most radical periods of the organization’s existence. In 1995 under Ali’s oversight ISNA established a defense fund for HAMAS terrorist leader Musa abu Marzook. Reporters for the St. Petersburg Times examining the organization have described ISNA as “the main clearinghouse for Wahhabism in the US” and say that the group is funded by the Saudi government.

Professor J. Michael Waller testifying before the US Senate Judiciary Committee described ISNA as a group that seeks to marginalize moderate Muslim voices:

The Islamic Society of North America is an influential front for the promotion of the Wahhabi political, ideological and theological infrastructure in the United States and Canada. Established by the Muslim Students Association, ISNA seeks to marginalize leaders of the Muslim faith who do not support its ideological goals. Through sponsorship of propaganda, doctrinal material and mosques, is pursuing a strategic objective of dominating Islam in North America.

Then there is Ali’s founding and continued leadership of Islamicity, a subscription website that openly advocates writings denouncing Jews and Christians as “disbelievers” and advances an extremist view of jihad. Here is a video of Idris Ali fundraising for the Islamicity website. Among the writings promoted at the Islamicity online library is an article entitled “The Corruption of the Torah” saying about Jews that “Allah has told us of the hatred they hide in their hearts”. Another article is entitled, “Confirmation That Judaism And Christianity Are Forms Of Disbelief”.

Then under its definition of jihad, it calls violent jihad against the “enemies of Islam” as the highest and most noble form (so much for the “lesser jihad”!):

Q308: Jihad: Basic definition of A308 : Jihad could be a simple action, such as standing firm in defense of the cause of Islam. This may require speaking out in public, against ignoring Islamic principles, and writing articles or publishing books. It may also take the form of reminding people of their Islamic duties and motivating them to conduct their lives according to Islam. Its top and most noble form is to fight the enemies of Islam in battle in order to foil their attempts to smother the call of Islam.

Perhaps even more troubling is Islamicity’s video channel dedicated exclusively to al-Qaeda cleric and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Abdul-Majeed Al-Zindani (see John Devon’s article, “Yemeni Shiekh of Hate”). Al-Zindani is considered one of Osama bin Laden’s mentor. Another video channel of Islamic conferences feature some of the most extreme Islamic leaders in the US, including our own former Hilliard HAMAS cleric, Salah Sultan (who fled the country for Bahrain earlier this year). We should also remember that Sultan was a regular fixture at Sunrise Academy during his years of residence in Central Ohio, and he used Sunrise Academy as a base of operations.

Another Sunrise Academy fundraiser, another hate sheikh. Go figure.

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.”

Former Hilliard HAMAS cleric pictured with two global terrorists

Two months ago I reported on our former Hilliard resident, Salah Sultan (Soltan), who spoke at a conference in July honoring Specially Designated Global Terrorist and HAMAS spiritual leader Yousef Al-Qaradawi (see “Hilliard man roasts global terrorist Qaradawi at conference in Qatar”), an event in which Sultan was photographed with the terrorist leader (see "Hilliard man shares a moment with Global Terrorist Qaradawi"). Sultan’s speech and a paper he delivered at the conference are posted on Qaradawi’s own personal website. Qaradawi was listed by the U.S. government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 1999.

But new photographic evidence of Sultan’s appearance at the Qaradawi conference in July has emerged showing Sultan sitting on the speakers dais with HAMAS leader Khaled Mash’al and Qaradawi while Mash’al praised the terror cleric for his fatwa endorsing HAMAS suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Mash’al’s comments were broadcast live by Al-Jazeera, and recorded and translated by MEMRI.

In the video of their remarks, Sultan can be clearly seen seated on the dais with the two terrorist leaders, as seen in the screen captures below.

Salah Sultan (far left) seated at the conference speaker dais (taken at 2:40 in the MEMRI video).

Sultan (third from right), Khaled Mash’al (third from left), and Yousef Al-Qaradawi (middle in white turban — 4:13).

Mash’al (left) and Qaradawi (right) justifying suicide bombings (3:43).

Mash’al praises Qaradawi for his suicide bombing fatwa (1:07).

Qaradawi expressing his support for HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah (3:29).

It’s important to note that even though Sultan fled the country earlier this year for Bahrain after having his US citizenship application denied (thanks to yours truly, see my multiple FrontPage “Hometown Jihad” reports in the right-hand links column), he is still able to re-enter the country. He is still a member of the Fiqh Council of North America and has appeared at recent meetings, notwithstanding his continued association with designated global terrorists.

Why is Sultan still allowed to travel in and out of the US despite his openly associating with terrorist leaders, even being repeatedly photographed with them?

As a member of the Fiqh Council, Sultan was a signatory of their much-heralded 2005 “Fatwa against Terrorism”, which specifically prohibits any cooperation “with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence.” And yet Sultan and another Fiqh Council member and “Fatwa against Terror” signatory, Jamal Badawi, were both in attendance and actively participated in the conference honoring HAMAS terror cleric Qaradawi, as well as openly associating with HAMAS political head Mash’al (see my previous Family Security Matters article, “CAIR Terror Fatwa Signatories Attend Conference Honoring HAMAS Terror Cleric Qaradawi”).

Since Sultan has moved to Bahrain and obtained citizenship there (much to the displeasure of many Bahrainis), and he is directly flaunting the anti-terror fatwa he signed, why is he still a member of the Fiqh Council of North America?

This is the same Salah Sultan that the Columbus Dispatch defended in May 2006 as a "moderate" (much as they have with local terror apologist Abukar Arman, and now, local HAMAS operative Anisa Abd El Fattah). In that article, the Dispatch dismissed his connections to Qaradawi:

Soltan is a former president of the Islamic American University in suburban Detroit, and he said Al-Qaradawi served the school as “volunteer chairman of the board.” [Qaradawi was appointed after he had been designated a global terrorist by the US government — ed] The two men also belong to the European Council for Fatwa and Research, but Soltan said members of the scholars group hold divergent views.

Of course, the Dispatch’s defense of Salah Sultan appeared two weeks before he appeared on Al-Risala TV declaring that the US was behind the 9/11 terror attacks and defending al-Qaeda cleric and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani (MEMRI report, video, transcript), and a month before Sultan spoke at a pro-HAMAS rally in Istanbul with HAMAS head Ismail Haniyeh.

Where’s the Columbus Dispatch now?

LA Times: Hilliard Holy War Homeboy Causing International Furor

LA Times (July 2007): Salah Sultan a “controversial Sunni figure”, “glorifying holy war”, “sharing the outlook of Al-Qaeda”.

Columbus Dispatch (May 2006): Salah Sultan a moderate, peaceful Muslim preacher falsely accused of extremism and terrorist ties.

Remember that peaceful, moderate Muslim preacher living in Hilliard that the Columbus Dispatch cleared of my outlandish and scurrilous charges of associating with terrorist leaders last year? Well, according to an article in the LA Times, our Hilliard homeboy, Salah Sultan (Soltan), is now causing trouble in Bahrain.

The article by Borzou Daragahi, “Strategic rift in Bahrain’s royal court”, published on July 7th, is opened with this set-up:

MANAMA, BAHRAIN — Leading members of Bahrain’s royal family have thrown their weight behind hard-line Sunni Muslim groups, some of whom share the outlook of Al Qaeda, in an attempt to counter a perceived Shiite threat, government officials and critics say.

And just who represents these “hard-line Sunni Muslim groups” who are glorifying holy war and share the outlook of Al-Qaeda?

Critics worry that in a country long a bastion of relative moderation, clerics are glorifying holy war. Islamic newspapers have grown more strident and anti-American. One, Akhbar Khaleej, refers to Bin Laden as a “sheik,” a title of honor.

Two controversial Sunni figures who left the United States have found refuge and employment in Bahrain: Wagdy Mohammed Ghoneim, the head of an Orange County mosque who was suspected of giving speeches in support of terrorist organizations and arrested in November 2004 on suspicion of overstaying his U.S. visa; and Salah Soltan, a scholar.

“Every week they appear on television, telling people how to be clean and religious and pious,” said one journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Fear of retribution? Why ever would a Bahraini journalist fear retribution from naming Salah Sultan? Didn’t he read Felix Hoover’s article in the Columbus Dispatch “clearing” Salah Sultan of my baseless charges? Doesn’t he know that Sultan signed a fatwa against terrorism? Hasn’t he read the dossier Ahmad Al-Akhras is currently circulating to government officials and establishment media personalities that cites Hoover’s article “clearing” Sultan as proof that I’m a discredited Islamophobic hack? Isn’t the LA Times and its reporter aware that Salah Sultan has been defended by a number of Central Ohio Muslims, including Al-Akhras, Abukar Arman, Norma Tarazi, and most recently, Mahmoud El-Yousseph, who called Sultan “one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars”?

Or maybe — just maybe — the Columbus Dispatch got it wrong, and Salah Sultan really is a terrorist associated radical. I know it is a possibility difficult to entertain, but just go with me here for a minute.

In the past month, we have not only seen that Salah Sultan was speaking at a conference in Doha, Qatar honoring Yousef Al-Qaradawi in July, listed by the US government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, where he said that he considered himself a “friend and pupil” of Qaradawi; that Sultan’s remarks and a paper he delivered at the conference were posted on Qaradawi’s personal website; but just days ago we noted that Sultan had his picture taken with the terrorist leader at the event.

In addition, I have reported about Sultan’s speech at a pro-HAMAS rally in Istanbul with HAMAS terrorist-in-chief Ismail Haniyeh last year, just a few weeks after the Dispatch article was published. But just days after Hoover’s article appeared, Sultan was recorded on Al-Risala TV saying the US government was behind 9/11, and praising Al-Qaeda cleric and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Abd-al-Magid Al-Zindani [video clip and transcript of Sultan’s Al-Risala interview].

And it seems that not everyone is Bahrain is pleased with Sultan’s presence there. An article in Al-Wasat (in Arabic) dated May 8th, many people were upset that Sultan and his buddy Ghoneim were granted Bahraini citizenship almost immediately upon their arrival in violation of the country’s constitution. This is particularly curious since according to my sources, Sultan still has a US citizenship application pending. I’m also told that his family is still living in Hilliard while he cavorts with terrorists all over the Gulf region and preaches jihad in Bahrain.

Surely the Columbus Dispatch and Felix Hoover couldn’t have got it wrong on Salah Sultan, could they? And Ahmad Al-Akhras, Abukar Arman, Norma Tarazi and Mahmoud El-Yousseph couldn’t be covering up for their jihad-loving buddy? Say it isn’t so, Joe!

Hilliard Man Shares a Moment with Global Terrorist Qaradawi

Hilliard resident Salah Sultan (kneeling) sharing a private moment with Specially Designated Global Terrorist Yousef Al-Qaradawi (far right) at a conference honoring Qaradawi held last month in Doha, Qatar (image from Islamonline.net)

A little over a week ago, I posted information on Hilliard resident Salah Sultan, president of the Hilliard-based American Center for Islamic Research, speaking at a conference honoring US-designated global terrorist Yousef Al-Qaradawi in Doha, Qatar (“Hilliard man roasts global terrorist Qaradawi at conference in Qatar”). Over the weekend, I discovered the picture above of Sultan and HAMAS/Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Qaradawi together during a dinner at that same conference on the Qaradawi-owned and supervised Islamonline.net website.

In that previous post I included pictures of Sultan speaking at the conference and greeting attendees, which were included in Sultan’s speech at the conference and a paper he delivered there on Qaradawi’s intellectual contributions that are published on Qaradawi’s personal website. The conference also featured a speech by HAMAS political leader Khaled Mash’al, who praised Qaradawi for his groundbreaking fatwa authorizing HAMAS suicide bombings (remarks by Mash’al and Qaradawi have been translated by MEMRI).

What makes this situation interesting is that the Columbus Dispatch “cleared” Salah Sultan of charges I had made about his connections to Qaradawi in a May 2006 article by Felix Hoover, “Muslim Milestone”, and likened him as a moderate because he was a signatory to a bogus CAIR fatwa “against terrorism”, even though the fatwa condemned no terrorist organization, individual or any specific act of terror, nor did it even define “terrorism”. For continuing to report on Sultan’s activities for the past year and a half I have been savagely attacked by several Central Ohio Muslim writers and an advisor to Mayor Michael Coleman. In a dossier compiled by Ahmad Al-Akhras and circulated by him to various government and establishment media officials attacking FrontPage Magazine and myself, he specifically cites Hoover’s article as proof that my claims about Sultan have been debunked (more on the Al-Akhras dossier later this week!).

Will an apology from Dispatch executive and CAIR lackey Mike Curtin be forthcoming? I won’t hold my breath.

Another interesting element is that despite the multiple reports I have had published regarding Sultan’s open support for terrorist organizations, including his appearance last summer at a rally in Istanbul in support of HAMAS (see “Hometown Jihad: The HAMAS Connection”, and a COAT post by Scanderbeg, “The Hilliard-HAMAS-Muslim Brotherhood Connection”), his videotaped appearance on Al-Risala TV claiming that 9/11 was planned by the US government and praising another US-designated Al-Qaeda terrorist [video], several Central Ohioans have risen up to defend Salah Sultan.

Chief among Salah Sultan’s public defenders has been none other than Abukar Arman, who was recently “cleared” by the Columbus Dispatch for his repeated statements in support of terrorist organizations, including his characterization of Qaradawi as a “moderate”, even though he was forced to resign from the Homeland Security oversight board because he wasn’t eligible according to Ohio law to serve on the panel (see “Terrorist Sympathizer Tossed from Homeland Security Oversight Panel”). After my initial FrontPage exposé on Sultan, “Hometown Jihad”, Abukar Arman likened me to Joseph Goebbels and denouncing my “Goebbelian excercise [sic] of freedom of speech”:

Only a few days ago, one such moderate Muslim, Dr. Salah Soltan, a renown scholar and a member of the North America and the European Fiqh Council, and Sunrise Academy, a Kindergarten to Seventh Grade Islamic school which this author has been sitting on its board for the past six years, were implicated with those all too familiar innuendoes as terror-promoting individual and institution. The accusatory article was written by a gentleman who claims being a “policy researcher” . . . . and boasts to have only spent 3 hours to arrive at that conclusion. (“The Trilogy that Muffles Moderate Muslims”)

Just as a point of clarification, the “3 hours” comment about the amount of time I spent researching Salah Sultan is pure fiction by Arman. After the series of reports I published on Sultan’s activities, it would take someone less than 30 minutes to arrive at that conclusion.

Another vocal local Salah Sultan defender is Mahmoud El-Yousseph, who just this weekend had an article published, “Muslim Basher, Patrick Poole, Preys on People’s Fears”, complaining of my reports on Sultan’s terrorist support activities:

Last May he attacked Salah Sultan, a nationally noted Muslim scholars. For no reason other than his views — the very same thing he accused Abukar Arman of. [The US Constitution guarantees freedom of expression to every citizen and non-citizen living in this free country.]

This is not the first time that El-Yousseph has promoted and praised Salah Sultan in print. In an op-ed published in the Newark Advocate on June 23, 2005, El-Yousseph called him “one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars” and promoted Sultan’s website and books:

I asked doctor Salah Soltan of Central Ohio, who is one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars, about a woman’s rights to drive from an Islamic perspective. He said, “There is nowhere in the Holy Quran or the teaching of the prophet Mohammad that prohibits a woman from using any mode of transportation, even traveling by herself.”

Dr. Soltan recently wrote a book about women’s rights under Islamic law. In fact, he pointed out 25 examples where women have more right than men when it comes to inheritance. A visit to his Web site www.salahsoltan.com could be very useful for people seeking information about Islamic topics.

If observing that one of my Hilliard neighbors is regularly cavorting with known designated international terrorists makes me a “Muslim Basher”, it should give us all pause; if being concerned about it makes me an “Islamophobe”, than my accusers have all the evidence they need to find me guilty. And if self-proclaimed local Muslim leaders, such as Ahmad Al-Akhras, Abukar Arman and Mahmoud El-Yousseph, are all too eager to rise up in defense of Salah Sultan’s activities supporting terrorists (Qaradawi) and terrorist organizations (HAMAS), it should indicate that these gentlemen are not representative of moderate Muslims in Central Ohio at all. With such abundant information now available about Salah Sultan’s known terrorist associations, we can safely conclude that Ahmad Al-Akhras, Abukar Arman and Mahmoud El-Yousseph, along with their buddy Salah Sultan, are exactly the extremists I have portrayed them to be.

Hilliard man roasts global terrorist Qaradawi at conference in Qatar

(Welcome to everyone joining us from JihadWatch and Solomonia!)

This picture was taken last month of Hilliard resident and Muslim Brotherhood/HAMAS operative Salah Sultan speaking at a conference honoring Specially Designated Global Terrorist and HAMAS spiritual leader Yousef Al-Qaradawi in Doha, Qatar (see the previous post on Sultan, “The Hilliard-HAMAS-Muslim Brotherhood Connection”). The conference, “Imam Al-Qaradawi: A Forum with Students and Friends”, was broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV.

During the conference, Sultan gave a moving tribute to his mentor Qaradawi, describing himself as a “friend and pupil”. Sultan’s speech appears (in Arabic) on Qaradawi’s own personal website, “Pupils do not forget their teachers”. Interestingly, Sultan begins his speech by describing how he has been attacked for his association with Qaradawi in “Boston, Chicago, and Ohio” and the campaign to deny him US citizenship (a story I broke last year, “Hometown Jihad: Our Newest Citizen?”) and brazenly saying that “I endorse Qaradawi; especially on the position of Israel, and support of the Palestinian cause.” He also talks about his meetings with Qaradawi, specifically a meeting in 1999, Qaradawi’s last appearance in the US right before he was designated a global terrorist by the US government, and again in 2003, when he received personal advice and counsel from his mentor.

Sultan delivered another paper at the conference on the “scientific and intellectual development of Qaradawi” — again, posted on Qaradawi’s own website, as the screen capture below shows:



It is interesting that Sultan mentions the “Palestinian cause”, because another important speaker at the conference, HAMAS leader Khaled Mash’al, also praised Qaradawi for his contribution to the "Palestinian cause". And what specifically was that? Here are Mash’al’s comments translated by MEMRI [video]:

“The support we got from Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi is different from the support of anybody else, because of his religious status, his status in terms of morale, and his ability to draw the attention of the nation and the world to the issues of the nation, particularly the issue of Palestine. This support was of great value to us, to the Palestinian people, in the first and second Intifadas, and in all matters pertaining to the Palestinian cause. . . One of the most notable manifestations of this support was when we relied — after Allah — on his support of martyrdom operations. He never hesitated to issue rulings in support of these operations, and there were times when we were in dire need of these rulings.”

When he talks about “martyrdom operations”, he’s talking about suicide bombings. In fact, Qaradawi was the first major Muslim Brotherhood cleric to issue a fatwa endorsing suicide bombings, which unleashed a torrent of terror in Israel (one of the most horrific incidents — the bombing of the Sbarro pizza shop — occured six years ago today). By qualifying suicide bombings as “martyrdom” instead of suicide (prohibited by Islamic law), it radically changed the dimensions of the Israel/Palestinian conflict and prompted a rapid escalation in violence.

As I have noted elsewhere, this is not the first time that Salah Sultan has been discovered speaking with officials with the terrorist group HAMAS. I reported a few months ago about his speech in Istanbul last summer at an AKP pro-HAMAS rally, where Sultan spoke, along with HAMAS head Ismail Haniyeh, “Hometown Jihad: The HAMAS Connection”. He has been involved in the following Central Ohio Islamic institutions:

• Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (where he was employed, and which owns several area mosques Sultan has preached for)
• Sunrise Academy (an affiliate of ISGC, where Sultan has regularly lectured)
• Noor Islamic Cultural Center (where he was a regular fixture, being right around the corner from his Hilliard home)

It is also worth noting that Salah Sultan was “cleared” by Columbus Dispatch reporter Felix Hoover in May 2006 (see my article, "Hometown Jihad: Blowback"), just a few days before Sultan appeared on Al-Risala TV saying that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks and praising another Specially Designated Global Terrorist and al-Qaeda cleric Abd-al-Magid Al-Zindani [video clip of Sultan’s Al-Risala interview]. The Dispatch’s “clearing” of Abukar Arman earlier this week should be considered in light of this fact. Arman also praised the terrorist leader Qaradawi as a “moderate” (“Who is the ‘moderate’ Muslim”, International Herald Tribune [November 11, 2005]), and rose to Salah Sultan’s defense (“The Trilogy that Muffles the Moderate Muslims”) after my initial article revealing Sultan’s ties to terrorist leader Qaradawi.

Sultan’s current position as fiqh advisor to the Supreme Islamic Council of the Kingdom of Bahrain was arranged by Qaradawi, and Sultan also sits on two organizations headed by Qaradawi that have endorsed terrorist acts and attacks on US troops: the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the International Association of Muslim Scholars, which in 2004 issued a fatwa to wage jihad against Americans in Iraq.

With such open associations to one of the most notorious terrorist clerics in the world, why is Salah Sultan still allowed to live and work in the US? What are our local Hilliard leaders doing about this immediate terrorist threat?

Update #1: Someone asked me about links to my previous articles on Sultan, so here they are:

Hometown Jihad (04/03/2006)

Hometown Jihad: Blowback (05/24/06)

Hometown Jihad: Our Newest Citizen? (09/08/06)

Hometown Jihad: The Return of Salah Sultan (03/29/07)

Hometown Jihad: The HAMAS Connection (05/11/2007)

Sunrise Academy’s Fundraising Friends

An article in today’s FrontPage Magazine, “Hometown Jihad: The School Gym that Terror Built”, reports that Sunrise Academy in Hilliard, the only full-time Islamic school in Central Ohio, has twice used Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and close personal friend of “Blind Shiekh” Omar Abdel-Rahman, for fundraisers for the school. Abdel-Rahman was convicted of “seditious conspiracy” and given a life sentence for his role in the 1993 WTC bombing, and Wahhaj appeared in court as a character witness for Abdel-Rahman’s defense.

In March 2006, Wahhaj was brought in to help raise funds for Sunrise Academy’s new sports complex, an event that was held at the Makoy Center in Hilliard (coincidentally, the same facility visited in November 2006 by First Lady Laura Bush for a fundraiser for Cong. Deborah Pryce). That fundraiser was apparently so successful that Wahhaj was brought in again by Sunrise Academy this past February to raise money for the school.

As the article this morning notes, this is not the first time that Wahhaj has been used by a Central Ohio organization for fundraising purposes. Back in March, it was reported (“CAIR’s Blood Money”) that CAIR-Ohio brought Wahhaj in June 2006 for another fundraiser, where he raised $100,000 for the “civil rights” organization, as noted in a CAIR press release.

Today’s article offers quotes by Wahhaj to give readers an idea of Wahhaj’s positions. In one he calls for Muslims to takeover America:

“[I]f 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.”

In another, he outlines his vision for 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?”

Paul Barrett, an editor for Business Week and author of the recent book, American Islam: Struggle for the Soul of Religion, explains the kind of justice that would be administered in Wahhaj’s Islamic America:

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.

And having spent significant amounts of time with Wahhaj, Barrett describes how he rises to the defense of Osama bin Laden, saying that he wants to remain neutral on bin Laden’s involvement in 9/11:

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.’”

Surely Sunrise Academy will claim that this is nothing but “guilt by association”, but is their position really defensible? Wahhaj’s extremist public statements and his associations and public defense of convicted terrorists are well known. Sunrise Academy can’t claim that they weren’t aware. And yet they publicly chose not only to voluntarily associate with Wahhaj, but they brought him in to represent their organization for fundraising purposes.

Let’s not forget that Sunrise Academy was also the operational hub of Hilliard resident and Muslim Brotherhood operative Salah Sultan (see our recent post, “The Hilliard-HAMAS-Muslim Brotherhood Connection”). Sunrise Academy has many associations they should feel guilty about.

Today’s article promises more explosive revelations about the extensive network of Islamic radicalism in Central Ohio, which apparently extend into the corridors of political power. We can’t wait to see what those articles reveal.

The Hilliard-HAMAS-Muslim Brotherhood Connection

Have you seen this man? If you live in Northwest Columbus, you very well may have. His name is Dr. Salah Sultan, a Hilliard resident (Britton Farms) and this picture was taken last July in Istanbul as he was delivering a speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters of the radical Islamic Saadet Party of Turkey in support of the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by the Palestinian terrorist organization HAMAS. Also making an appearance by video was the terrorist-in-chief of HAMAS, Ismail Haniyeh.

An article in today's FrontPage Magazine, “Hometown Jihad: The Hamas Connection”, discusses the story that has developed over the past year regarding Sultan’s multiple connections with extremist organizations, individuals identified as terrorists by the US government, and his own extremist statements.

Sultan's activities have been detailed in a series of articles at FrontPage:

• Hometown Jihad (04/03/06)
• Hometown Jihad: Blowback (05/24/06)
• Hometown Jihad: Our Newest Citizen? (09/08/06)
• Hometown Jihad: The Return of Salah Sultan (03/29/07)

Until just a few months ago, Sultan was delivering evening lectures at Sunrise Academy, the only full-time Islamic school in Central Ohio. Last May, Sultan was taped delivering a tirade on the Saudi TV network Al-Risala, where he claimed that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to persecute Muslims. Fortunately, the good people at MEMRI caught, recorded, and translated his TV appearance [video]. Then in November after the US elections, Sultan was delivering political commentary on the official website of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that birthed Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

At a Muslim American Society-New York conference in April 2004, Sultan told the attendees:

Da'wah [conversion] work can never succeed unless Muslims embed themselves within the very marrow of American society.

For those of us in the Hilliard area, we should pause and take note that thus far Sultan has been successful in embedding himself into Central Ohio. It should give us considerable pause indeed.