Changing of the Guard?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Small world.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Central Ohio

The Investigative Project on Terrorism reports from the Holy Land Foundation HAMAS terror financing trial in Dallas that during testimony yesterday an FBI agent was questioned regarding a Muslim Brotherhood phone directory showing the terror organization’s US leadership (“Muslim Brotherhood Phonebook Confirms that MAS is Brotherhood’s Baby”).

A quick look at the Muslim Brotherhood directory shows that one member of their board of directors at the time (1992) was located right here in Columbus (in the 614 area code):

The office number for Hani Saker/Shaker is an Ohio State University phone number that currently goes to the OSU Department of Orthopedics, but additional information on Saker’s past/present relationship to OSU will need to be the subject of further research.

It has been known that the Muslim American Society (MAS) organization was the ideological training operation for the Muslim Brotherhood in the US, especially after a September 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé on MAS, “A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America”, featured an interview with Ahmad Elkadi, who worked with current international Muslim Brotherhood General Guide Mahdi Akef to found the organization here and served as the leader in the US for several years in the 1970s and 1980s. Elkadi and other MAS officials admitted their relationship to the mothership of Islamic terrorism and extremism. These new documents and testimony in the Holy Land Foundation trial support this prior evidence about the role of MAS as an arm of the international Muslim Brotherhood. Counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt has already testified in the trial about the MAS-Muslim Brotherhood connection.

For those not familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, its credo is: “Allah is our objective, the Koran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our way, and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations”, and it has spawned virtually every single Islamic terror organization in the world today. It’s chief theorist, Sayyid Qutb, articulated the jihadist ideology that undergirds the present global jihad, and the graduates of the Muslim Brotherhood include Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, 1993 WTC bomber Ramzi Youssef, 9/11 leader Mohammad Atta, et al.

The MAS-Columbus affiliate has been one of the more important groups in the national organization. So important, in fact, that Muslim Brotherhood operative Salah Sultan made Central Ohio (specifically, Hilliard) his home. Sultan was a MAS board member from 2000-2004, he worked for the group at the head of their Tarbiyah department in the late 1990s, and was the founder of the Islamic American University in Michigan, where he installed his mentor and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Yousef al-Qaradawi as honorary chairman. So important was this major Muslim Brotherhood figure’s move to Columbus, that MAS-Columbus posted a major annoucement heralding Sultan’s arrival on their website (archived copy).

Another prominent member of the MAS-Columbus group is none other than my good friend, Ahmad Al-Akhras. When he was appointed to the Leadership Columbus Hall of Fame, MAS-Columbus again posted the announcement on their website, crowing that a MAS member had been chosen for such an honor.

Ahmad Al-Akhras, vice chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and close advisor to Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood? Say it isn’t so, Joe!

The day before MAS-Columbus posted that announcement regarding Al-Akhras, it published an article entitled, “Palestine: Is it the Jews’ Promised Land?”. Believe it or not, it concludes that it isn’t. I know you are staggered in disbelief. In conclusion, it states:

Though, seizing the chance of Muslims’ lapsing in weakness and deviating from Allah’s teachings, the Jews have occupied Palestine, they will never remain there forever, for the evil within themselves is beyond description. They will suffer another defeat and sever blow; we hope this will be at the hands of Muslims once they return back to their Lord and be unified again.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Central Ohio? The documents don’t lie, even though its members do.

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.