CAIR-Ohio official: Palestinian terrorists are “guerrilla groups”

A few days ago I posted a comment by Norma Tarazi (“ISGC official Norma Tarazi comments on the ‘Jewish lobby’ in Columbus”), a CAIR-Ohio board member, an official for the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC), as well as a teacher at the Sunrise Academy Islamic school in Hilliard, where she pondered on the activities of the “Jewish lobby” and “Jewish community activists” in response to an August 20th letter to the editor by Ahmad Al-Akhras published in the Columbus Dispatch. I noted that someone had responded to that letter in Sunday’s Dispatch, and wondered what her response would be. I didn’t have to wait long.

On Sunday, Tarazi circulated her thoughts on this most recent exchange, engaging in even more moral equivalence between accepted methods of warfare between nation-states and terrorist activities by Palestinians. She responds by stating that these terrorist organizations are “guerrilla groups” and are engaged in legitimate resistance. The letter to the editor she is responding to, “Israel within rights to protect itself”, said:

I respond to the Aug. 20 letter “Authorities should not advocate violence,” from [CAIR national vice chairman] Ahmad Al-Akhras. He seems to have a double standard: It’s OK for Hamas to throw rockets into Israel at civilian targets, but not OK for Israel to retaliate against that terrorist group, whose aim is to destroy the Jewish state. . .

In his authoritative book on guerrilla warfare, Insurgency and Terrorism: Inside Modern Revolutionary Warfare, Bard O’Neill distinguishes guerrilla campaigns from terrorist activity in that “its primary targets are the government’s armed forces, police, or their superior units, and in some cases, key economic targets, rather than unarmed civilians.” (p. 26)

When HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad sends suicide bombers into a crowded pizza parlor or a city bus; or as we saw this past weekend, fires a missile into a day care center compound; they are not engaging in guerrilla tactics but terrorism. It is profoundly troubling that CAIR officials continue to miss this crucial difference and attempt to paint terrorism as legitimate resistance. Isn’t this unqualified equivalence between warfare and terrorism that CAIR officials desperately profess they don’t make, and yet resort to almost constantly when pressed on this point?

Tarazi also fails to acknowledge that Palestinians have repeatedly tried to unsuccessfully use military means to destroy Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973, which is slightly more than the “ethnic group” conflict she describes. In her message reprinted below she leaves open the question of whether Israel is a nation-state at all, and also characterizes Palestinian terror attacks as “minuscule”:

Asalaam alaikum to all,

We now have a response to Ahmad’s article two weeks ago, Monday letter. Points to note: Ahmad was using facts to demonstrate that there are extremists advocating violence against civilians on both sides of the Palestine/Isreal [sic] conflict. The writer of this response does not see that he had a balanced article. The concern is not which region has a better government, Ghaza or Isreal [sic], or that Isreal [sic] has the right to protect itself. I will make a few points. I hope someone can write effectively to respond to this letter.

If Isreal [sic] is a sovereign state, for almost 60 years it has not been accepted or recognized by the people it surplanted [sic], no matter how harshly it has implimented [sic] ethnic intimidation, ethnic cleansing of areas, and massive retaliation against civilians in response to the attacks by guerrilla groups. Shock and awe campaigns like Hiroshima and Dresden are only good as war tactics for the immediate psychological impact and, if they do not create quick capitulation of the enemy, they are worthless. (I’m ignoring the whole argument of the morality of these campaigns.) Though they could theoretically be repeated over and over, if the enemy refuses to give in, they would eventually result in genocide, an unacceptable outcome.

If Isreal [sic] has the right to self defense, so do the Palestinians. They do not have the weapons of Isreal [sic], but there is no peace treaty or agreement. It is a double standard to claim that Israel has the right to conduct war and cite Hiroshima as justification for killing civilians among the enemy fighters, and cry foul when Palestinians attack in what ever miniscule [sic] way they find available.

World War II was a large conflict involving nation states and armies in uniform. The Palestinian/Israeli conflict is about two ethnic groups fighting over the same land. The Israelis have created a state and army but the Palestinians have yet to truely [sic] do so. Palestinian fighters are guerrilla groups. This is a different kind of warfare and takes different methods.

While in history we can find examples where ethnic cleansing and genocide took place, the modern world does not accept these methods of warfare any more. Where populations were willing to accept any sacrifice and not give up their fight, these are the only tools available to the military to end the conflict permanently. Examples are Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kurdistan, and others.

Since these two tools are no longer available to civilized countries, the only true means of achieving peace is through diplomacy. With entrenched positions on both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli conflicts, the moderates of both sides need to come together. Each side must work to silence or ignore its own extremist elements if peace is to be achieved, and a win/win compromise must be reached, where each side feels it is giving up the crown jewels perhaps, but where the solution to the conflict is finally seen as worth the sacrifice.

Since Palestinians have been suffering the most throughout the 60 years, they will have the most to gain in a peace settlement, if it gives them enough to ensure that the majority will accept it, and may be seen as “the winners” because of this, but Israelis will have to look at the long term challenges of water shortages, increasing Arab-Israeli population and the long term gains to be made by coming to peace with its neighbors.

The psychological scaring of people that has already occured [sic] will take a few generations to overcome. We have only to see the psychological scaring [sic] of African Americans and Native Americans that still exists because of the history of oppression these groups have undergone in history. It is inevitable that both Jews, with the scars of oppression brought from Europe, and Palestinians, with the scars of oppression from Israeli occupation, will have a hard road to learn to live together in peace.

Norma Tarazi

We are seeing a pattern develop amongst these extremists: what they say publicly (e.g. peddling themselves as “interfaith” or “human rights” activists”) is entirely different from what they say amongst themselves privately.

Again, my continued thanks to members of the local Muslim community who are willing to pass along these messages in concern for the extremist elements that have falsely claimed leadership as spokesmen for all Muslims in our area. It is only through the cooperation of Muslims and non-Muslims alike that we will be able to confront Islamist extremism in Central Ohio.

ISGC official Norma Tarazi comments on the “Jewish Lobby” in Columbus

A concerned member of the Central Ohio Muslim community forwarded me the email below from an official of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC), Norma Tarazi, commenting on the “Jewish lobby” in Columbus in demonstraton of the virulent anti-Jewish propaganda being advanced by ISGC leaders. The individual who sent this was clearly disturbed by the anti-Jewish sentiments expressed in the email reprinted below. This goes to show that there are sane voices in the Columbus Muslim community — they just aren’t the voices that are being heard.

What we see here below is that Norma Tarazi, the editor of the ISGC’s newsletter and a teacher at the ISGC’s Sunrise Academy Islamic school in Hilliard, is sure that there is some hidden meaning in that “Jewish community activists” haven’t responded to Ahmad Al-Akhras’ recent Dispatch letter to the editor, i.e., “They are up to something because they aren’t doing anything.”

Note in Tarazi’s email she isn’t criticizing Israel; she doesn’t say “Israel lobby”, but her suspicion is cast on the “Jewish community activists” and the "Jewish lobby” in Columbus. And this from someone who represents herself to be a “bridge builder” in the community. Is this the kind of open racial and religious hatred that is being taught at Sunrise Academy and in ISGC facilities?

Absolutely outrageous.

Asalaam alaikum,

Some things should be noticed for their absence. Until now, no one has responded to Ahmad’s article of last Monday. His article is strong, with solid facts and balanced, not making any sweeping generalizations against a whole group.

A few years ago the local Jewish community activists would respond immediately and forcefully, calling any criticism of any Jew “antisemetic”, as leaders in the national community have criticised former President Jimmy Carter.

The criticism last week from Larry Pollack about another article was noteworthy because he is an older contributer, repeating the same old argument he has written for years. I thought he had been sidelined in recent years as a writer because he was seen as ineffective.

I’m uncertain what this portends for the Jewish lobby in Columbus, but it is worth noting.

Norma Tarazi

You have to wonder what new “Jewish lobby” conspiracy Tarazi will spy in the Columbus after the Dispatch published this morning a letter from Barbara Soloway responding to Al-Akhras, “Israel within rights to protect itself”:

I respond to the Aug. 20 letter “Authorities should not advocate violence,” from Ahmad Al-Akhras. He seems to have a double standard: It’s OK for Hamas to throw rockets into Israel at civilian targets, but not OK for Israel to retaliate against that terrorist group, whose aim is to destroy the Jewish state. . .

In light of the Susan Purtee incident publicized last week, it is important to recognize and address the anti-Jewish sub-currents in our community, which means that the religious and ethnic hatred expressed by Norma Tarazi ought to also be condemned as vigorously as Purtee’s. And as Soloway expresses in her letter, the moral equivalency engaged in by her buddy and Mayor Coleman advisor, Ahmad Al-Akhras, in equating terrorism by HAMAS with the legitimate military response by Israel to terror attacks ought to be equally condemned as well.

My thanks to the members of the Muslim community who reject the extremism of local organizations like the ISGC and who are tired of having such notorious hatemongers and apologists for terror as Ahmad Al-Akhras and Norma Tarazi falsely claiming to represent all Muslims in Central Ohio. We welcome your continued input and cooperation in exposing the fringe elements that have tried to poison the discourse and derail interfaith relations in our community.

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!