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)!

Former congresswoman encourages Columbus State censorship of anti-terror student group

Following up on my FrontPage article last week, “Censorship State”, and my related blog post here concerning the decision by Columbus State Community College Student Life Director Timeka Rashid (trashid@cscc.edu) to prevent students with the Terrorism Awareness Project (TAP) from promoting their events later this month, I can now report that former Ohio congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar appears to be behind the Columbus State’s move to censor the anti-terror student group.

In early September, Mary Rose Oakar sent a letter (both the letter and the text are reprinted below) to Columbus State President Valeriana Moeller (vmoeller@cscc.edu) on behalf of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) encouraging the censorship of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week events to be held later this month sponsored by the Terrorism Awareness Project student group. Columbus State is just one of dozens of universities and colleges that will be hosting such events. In a bold move of Orwellian irony, ADC bills itself as a “civil rights organization”.

In an email to TAP student leaders, CSCC administrator Timeka Rashid appealed to Oakar’s letter as the grounds for her denial of the group’s posting fliers advertising their Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week events. At this time, it still is unknown whether Rashid solicited Oakar’s letter as a pretext to censor the TAP, or whether ADC is behind a nationwide push to censor anti-terror student groups. That notwithstanding, this is an unmistakable effort by Mary Rose Oakar and the Columbus State administration to deny these students their civil rights.

Yesterday, JihadWatch had a post revealing that the Muslim Public Affairs Council has posted a handbook providing instruction to university and college administrators on steps to censor students, which may indicate that Oakar’s letter is part of a collective effort by radical Islamist organizations to censor students with an anti-terror message.

In the letter below, Oakar spews plenty of epithets and make a number of baseless claims, but what is of particular note is that the real issue Oakar is concerned with is students challenging the pro-Palestinian terrorist orthodoxy on college campuses — an orthodoxy that Columbus State apparently is desperate to protect.

Here is the text of Oakar’s letter:

September 7, 2007

President Valeriana Moeller
Columbus State Community College
550 East Spring Street
Columbus, Ohio 43216

Dear President Valeriana Moeller:

I am writing on behalf of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). Founded in 1980 by former United States Senator James Abourezk in response to stereotyping, defamation and discrimination directed against Americans of Arab origin, ADC is the largest Arab American civil rights organization in the country. ADC has 38 chapters, members across the nation, and ADC is a member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR).

It has come to our attention that Columbus State Community College will be the host of a campaign which carries false, hateful, and biased messages about Muslims and Arabs. This nationally organized campaign is called “Islamo-Facism [sic] Awareness Week” and is scheduled to take place on Oct. 22–26.

As a civil rights organization, ADC values the principle of free speech, however, hateful speech cannot be condoned and should not be allowed to permeate American campuses. The post-9/11 United States has seen a dramatic increase in hate crimes targeted against Arab and Muslims or those perceived to be. Events such as “Islamo-Facism [sic] Awareness Week” do not seek to further the discussion in a peaceful manner, but rather they contribute only to the prejudicial anger and hatred which ultimately is targeted against Arab and Muslims in the US.

“Islamo-Facism [sic] Awareness Week” is being organized and promoted by Mr. David Horowitz and his Horowitz Freedom Center. Mr. Horowitz claims, “During the week of October 22-26, 2007, the nation will be rocked by the biggest conservative campus protest ever — Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, a wake-up call for Americans on 200 university and college campuses.” While the plan for the week includes sit-ins, lectures, and film, ADC is deeply concerned that these planned activities seek not to increase awareness, tolerance, and understanding, but instead promote intolerance, fear, and bigotry.

Materials scheduled to be distributed are: “The Islamic Mein Kampf,” Why Israel is the Victim,” “Jimmy Carter’s War Against the Jews,” and “What Every American Needs to Know About Jihad.” Mr. Horowitz advises campus organizers to request funding from the student government and the University for these activities. If funding is not forthcoming, according to Horowitz’s guide, “it will prove the hypocrisy of your University’s claim to be committed to intellectual diversity and academic freedom.”

This proposed “Islamo Facism [sic] Awareness Week” initiative must be viewed within the context of the organized national campaign to foreclose the debate on the Middle East, especially at university campuses, by promoting fear of Arabs and Muslims. ADC is deeply troubled by the possibility that a tiny handful of student with a narrow political agenda, backed by a well-funded special interest group, would organize this type of hateful and bigoted event on your campus. I urge you to ensure that hate speech and demonstrations of bigotry and racial and religious profiling not be tolerated on your campus.

I would welcome the opportunity for ADC to discuss these concerns with you.

Mary Rose Oakar Kareem Shora, LL.M., J.D.
President, ADC National Executive Director

“President Moeller, George Orwell on line one!”