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.
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?
Thanks to Dirk Thompson of 610AM WTVN for having me on his program yesterday to discuss this top 10 list. Dirk’s program page is here, and the MP3 audio for the program can be found here.
For some background on the terrorist network in the Columbus area, see the CBN News report, “Jihad in Central Ohio”. Also check out our 2007 Top 10 list.
1) Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Christopher Paul pleads guilty (June 2008)
On June 2nd, we reported that Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Christopher Paul had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against Americans overseas. He has not be sentenced yet, but could face up to 20 years. His co-conspirators Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi have already pled guilty and are currently serving their respective prison sentences. The indictments in this case indicate that there are at least 10 additional Al-Qaeda cell members who have not yet been charged, with at least one deported and several others fleeing the country. Others, however, are still operating within the community. The Columbus Al-Qaeda cell is the largest known cell found inside the US since 9/11.
We also reproduced the statement of facts released by the Department of Justice which details exactly what Christopher Paul has admitted to. The statement of facts reveals that not only did Paul, a Worthington High School graduate, travel to Afghanistan in the early 1990s to train in terror camps, he returned to Columbus with the intent to build and train his own terror cell. The recruitment and training occurred primarily at the Omar Ibn El Khattab mosque just north of the OSU campus, where Paul was a leader and regularly taught martial arts classes. He also conducted firearms training at Burr Oak State Park. Paul also admitted that he assisted and sent funds to a German-based terror cell, run by a known Al-Qaeda operative, and traveled there to conduct explosives training that he knew would be used in attacks targeting Americans overseas.
Despite Christopher Paul’s confession, local Muslim leaders, including Basil Mohamed Gohar, continued to protest Paul’s innocence. As CBN News reporter Erick Stakelbeck observed, “Columbus Al-Qaeda Man Charged, CAIR not pleased”, Central Ohio Islamic leaders had been protesting Paul’s innocence ever since his arrest, most particularly CAIR national vice-chairman and Paul associate, Ahmad Al-Akhras.
Here’s a video news report on Paul’s guilty plea by reporter Maureen Kocot courtesy of 10TV CBS News
2) Toledo Terror Trio convicted on all counts (June 2008)
No sooner had the ink dried on Christopher Paul’s plea agreement than the jury in the terrorism trial of three Toledo men, Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum, returned guilty verdicts on all charges against the men of plotting to kill US soldiers overseas and recruiting others to wage jihad. Amawi and El-Hindi were also convicted of distributing information regarding explosives to terrorists.
The Department of Justice press release on the jury’s guilty verdicts details the Toledo Terror Trio’s activities:
At trial, the government proved that all three defendants engaged in a conspiracy, beginning sometime prior to June 2004, to kill or maim persons outside the United States, including U.S. armed forces personnel in Iraq. As part of the conspiracy, the defendants conducted firearms training and accessed and copied instructions in the construction and use of explosives – including IEDs and suicide bomb vests. In addition, the defendants conspired to recruit others to participate in jihad training; researched and solicited funding sources for such training; and proposed sites for training in firearms, explosives and hand-to-hand combat to prospective recruits.
The government also proved that all defendants conspired to provide material support and resources, including personnel, money, explosives and laptop computers, to terrorists, including a co-conspirator in the Middle East, who had requested such materials for use against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. For example, among other activities, Amawi communicated with a contact in the Middle East on chemical explosives and traveled to Jordan in August 2005 with laptop computers intended for delivery for mujahideen “brothers” whom he learned were preparing to cross into Iraq.
The government also proved that Amawi knowingly distributed to others a guide describing the step-by-step process for manufacturing chemical explosive compounds, as well as a video entitled Martyrdom Operation Vest Preparation, which described the step-by-step construction and use of a suicide bomb vest. Amawi distributed these materials with the intent that they be used for training others to commit a crime of violence, including the killing of U.S. nationals overseas.
The government further proved that El-Hindi knowingly distributed a slide show demonstrating the preparation and use of IEDs against apparent U.S. military vehicles and personnel, as well as the video entitled Martyrdom Operation Vest Preparation. El-Hindi distributed these materials with the intent that they be used for training others to commit a crime of violence, including the killing of U.S. nationals overseas.
Later that month, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr (a former Columbus resident) reported that the Toledo Terror Trio was in contact with active terrorism cells in Chicago, Atlanta, Toronto, and an Al-Qaeda webmaster in London. Two members of the Chicago cell are awaiting trial. Here is Orr’s report:
The terror trio are still awaiting sentencing. Here is a video on the guilty verdicts courtesy of WTOL-11 Toledo.
3) Holy Land Foundation terror finance convictions and the Ohio HLF fundraisers and HAMAS support network (November 2008)
On November 24th, a Dallas federal jury in the terrorism finance trial of six Holy Land Foundation officials returned guilty verdicts on all 108 counts. The HLF officials were found guilty of funneling $12 million to the terrorist organization, HAMAS.
Two important Ohio-related developments came out of the HLF trial.
The first was that HLF maintained at least one chapter in Cleveland, and fundraisers for the group were also held in mosques around the state. In July 2004 (and in a subsequent August 2004 report) Cleveland Plain Dealer investigative reporter Amanda Garrett detailed some of HLF’s activities in Cleveland just months before the federal government designated HLF as a terror finance entity and froze the group’s assets:
Between 1992 and 2001, the Texas-based charity raked in more than $57 million in contributions, gifts and grants and since 1995 moved at least $12.4 million of that into the Palestinian terror group’s coffers, the indictment said.
Money donated by Cleveland Muslims was likely part of the case flow.
Three years ago, when the federal government froze Holy Land’s assets, the FBI said hundreds of Cleveland Muslims attended at least two fund-raisers for the charity in April 2001.
“If we are Hamas, so what? We are helping out people,”an FBI informant quoted an unnamed speaker as saying during one of the Cleveland fund-raisers.
How many Holy Land fund-raisers were Cleveland-based or how much money was raised is unclear. But the former president of the Texas-based foundation — Shukri Abu Baker — has said his group has relationships with at least 600 mosques, including the Islamic Center of Cleveland, which is in Parma. (Amanda Garrett, “Feds link Muslim Charity to Hamas, Cleveland chapter arranged fund-raisers,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 28, 2004; see also Amanda Garrett, “Investigation links bank account in Cleveland to terror activity,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 24, 2004)
The second Ohio-related development that came out of the case is that documents entered into evidence in the case revealed the extensive HAMAS/Muslim Brotherhood support network operating in the US, which involves many prominent American Islamic organizations. Some of these organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which operates 3 chapters in Ohio (Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland) in addition to a state chapter, and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which hosted it’s 2008 national convention in downtown Columbus back in August, have committed themselves to a program of “Civilizational-Jihadist Process” dedicated to waging “a grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within”, according to one trial document entered into evidence.
Dallas News columnist Rod Dreher explains the implications of these trial documents and what they reveal about these Islamic organizations:
The HLF trial is exposing for the first time how the international Muslim Brotherhood — whose Palestinian division is Hamas — operates as a self-conscious revolutionary vanguard in the United States. The court documents indicate that many leading Muslim-American organizations — including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim American Society — are an integral part of the Brotherhood’s efforts to wage jihad against America by nonviolent means. . .
According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation, establishing the Brotherhood in the United States has been a 40-year project that has worked mostly underground — even beneath the notice of many Muslims. Richard Clarke, the former top U.S. national security official, told the Senate in 2003 that the Muslim Brotherhood is the common thread linking terrorist fundraising schemes in the United States — which likely explains why so many mainstream American Muslim organizations were named by the feds as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the HLF trial.
Is this just alarmist paranoia? Not at all.
This matters because high-profile organizations with roots explicitly in the Muslim Brotherhood have successfully established themselves in a paramount position to define Islam in America according to a radical politicized model. And they’ve done so without the American public having the slightest idea about their real agenda. (“What the Muslim Brotherhood Means to the U.S: Memo lays bare group’s plan to destroy U.S. from within”, Dallas Morning News, September 9, 2007)
In Ohio, many of our government and political leaders continue to work with and assist these organizations who admit to waging non-violent jihad in the US. In 2007, I reported on Gov. Ted Strickland’s appearance at the annual CAIR-OH banquet just days after the organization had been named unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF trial.
CBN News reported on the HLF guilty verdicts:
After the HLF trial and the guilty verdicts, an important video was released by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), which includes video taken from HLF videos of their fundraisers advocating terrorism:
4) HAMAS terror labs funded and built by Dublin, Ohio-based, Arab Student Aid International bombed by IDF (December 2008)
A last-minute entry for our 2008 Top 10 list involves the Dublin/Hilliard-based Arab Student Aid International (ASAI). Last Monday, December 29th, the Israeli Air Force bombed terrorist labs located at the HAMAS-controlled Islamic University of Gaza.
Thus far unreported is that the IUG science and technology lab was financed and constructed with the assistance of the Dublin, Ohio-based Arab Student Aid International (ASAI). In fact, the IUG website has a page dedicated to ASAI’s ongoing contributions to the Hamas institution and specifically mentions the labs financed by the Ohio Islamic group. Additionally, the ASAI website promotes its assistance in creating the IUG science and technology center, which was completed in 2002.
In a previously published article I revealed ASAI’s extensive financial ties to the IUG, including direct cash payments to the Hamas school in addition to the facilities construction projects supported by ASAI. The Washington Post also revealed in April 2006 that ASAI had financed the Western education of a number of top Hamas leaders.
The organization’s primary benefactor is Prince Turki Ben Abdul Aziz, a former high-ranking Saudi government official and half-brother to King Abdullah. Prince Turki has lived in exile in Egypt since the 1970s following a highly publicized marriage scandal, his 100+ entourage occupying the top three floors of the Cairo Ramses Hilton. The prince serves as ASAI’s chairman of the board, and the labs built by ASAI at the IUG bear his name.
In 2005, Congress passed a law prohibiting USAID from providing any funding or assistance to IUG because it is controlled by HAMAS. During congressional hearings on the matter, former House Foreign Affairs chairman Rep. Tom Lantos told USAID Director Tobias, “Providing U.S. assistance to a terrorist-controlled university in Gaza was out of the question and, in fact, violates U.S. law.” He added, “This outrageous support for terrorism must and will end.”
Unfortunately, until federal law enforcement authorities put a stop to ASAI’s support of HAMAS will undoubtedly continue.
5) FBI investigates Columbus Somalis leaving US for jihad (November–December)
A number of local and national media reports have appeared in recent weeks about current FBI investigations in a number of US cities regarding Somali men who are leaving the country and returning to Somalia to train in terror camps and waging jihad with the Al-Shabaab terrorist group. FBI officials in Columbus are looking into possible departures in our area, which hosts the second largest Somali community in the US.
The funeral for Shirwa Ahmed last week in Burnsville, Minnesota, punctuated a growing national security threat metastasizing inside the U.S. — one Homeland Security and law enforcement authorities have quickly taken note of. Ahmed, who killed himself in a suicide bombing attack in Somalia in October, is just one of up to 40 men from the Twin Cities area who have disappeared and are feared to have returned to their homeland for training with the al-Shabaab terrorist group to wage jihad.
The FBI is investigating similar disappearances in other major Somali communities in Columbus, OH, Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, and Seattle. There are even reports coming from Europe, recently from Denmark, of Somali men returning home to fight with al-Shabaab and other terrorist organizations.
ABC News also reports that a Somali from Boston, Tarek Mehenna, a U.S. citizen, was arrested last month on his way to Somalia to wage jihad after being in contact with Daniel Maldonado, a Muslim convert currently in federal prison after pleading guilty to training at a Somali terror training camp after being captured in Kenya with a Somali terrorist cell. . .
So why are authorities suddenly concerned?
In the past year developments within the Somali terrorist organizations have resulted in splits and fractionalization, with the most radical element, al-Shabaab, the former armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union movement, breaking away and forging closer alliances with al-Qaeda. As a result, Somalia is quickly becoming a new safe haven for al-Qaeda. Al-Shabaab and its leaders were designated a terrorist organization by the State Department back in March.
The most specific concern of Homeland Security officials about the departure of Somalis and other American Muslims for the terror training camps in Somalia is not that they will be killed, as was Minneapolis suicide bomber Shirwa Ahmed, but that they will get trained in the Somali terrorist camps and return home to wage jihad against the U.S. from within.
And al-Shabaab has made clear its intent to attack the U.S. and kill Americans.
Predictably, the Columbus Dispatchstumbled onto the story quoting local Somali leaders and FBI officials claiming ignorance of any local connections of the local Somali community to terrorism.
Apparently Dispatch reporter Sherri Williams doesn’t bother to read her own paper. She might consult her colleague Jodi Andes August 7, 2007 report, “Somali Man Pleads Guilty to Plot”, where she might discover that Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member and Columbus Somali Nuradin Abdi admitted to traveling to Somali terror training camps in the ethnic Somali areas of Ogaden, Ethoipia. So we already have a documented case of one Columbus Somali man linked to international terrorism.
Apparently the Dispatch will exclude any evidence — even its own!!! — to grind their pro-jihadist agenda.
Here is a video report on the case of the missing Somali men by Twin Cities Fox 9:
6) Hilliard cleric Salah Sultan appears on Egyptian TV threatening the US and preaching Jew hatred (December 2008)
Again, another late entry for our 2008 Top 10 list. Last Monday, Hilliard cleric Salah Sultan appeared on Egyptian Al-Nas TV, where he delivered a diatribe threatening the US and spewing vile anti-Jewish hate that was videotaped and translated by the indispensable Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Egyptian cleric Dr. Salah 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.
Yasin claims that AIDS was invented at a US government lab and spread by Western governments through UN agencies and Christian missionaries. (“Khalid Yasin: The New Voice of Islam?” Sunday, October 9, 2005)
Yasin justified the terrorist bombings in Bali because of years of alleged Western oppression. (“Khalid Yasin: The New Voice of Islam?” Sunday, October 9, 2005)
Yasin rejects any separation between Islam and the state and openly advocates for the reestablishment of the caliphate. (Sunday Nights with John Cleary, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, September 7, 2003)
Yasin visited Jemaah Islamiah terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir in prison. (“Koranic TV next step for radial sheikh”, Sydney Morning Herald, August 20, 2005)
Yasin was in Saudi Arabia on 9/11 soliciting support from the Al-Qaeda front Al-Haramain Foundation, which was designated a terrorist organization in 2004 by the US government, to help finance his Islamic Broadcasting Company.
It is difficult to overstate the hatred, bigotry, misogyny and malicious conspiracy theories spewed by Khalid Yasin. That notwithstanding, in Columbus Yasin appeared at Masjid Omar Ibn El Khattab, Masjid Ibn Taymiyya, the Abubaker Siddique Islamic Center, Masjid Oumar Al-Foutiyou, and a special appearance at Ohio State.
So despicable is his warped Islamic ideology that he had been made a pariah by the international media. In 2005, Australian NSW Premier Bob Carr condemned Yasin’s views, which no doubt led to Yasin being banned from Australia. Statements made on his DVDs were featured in the UK Channel 4 “Undercover Mosque” program, which were found available for sale in British mosques.
When Dayton TV station WDTN interviewed leaders for Masjid at-Taqwa about Yasin’s documented extremist views, they defended the hate sheikh:
But not everyone was thrilled about Khalid Yasin coming to Ohio, and I later reported on Muslims who began speaking out and expressing grave concerns about Yasin’s long history of fraudulent fundraising and the complicity of so-called Muslim “leaders” who look the other way at his fraud (“Did Hate Sheikh Khalid Yasin Defraud Ohio Muslims”):
One source speaking out about Khalid Yasin’s fraudulent fundraising is the Salafi Burnout blog, which has alleged that the hate sheikh is enriching himself in a series of scams preying on the American Muslim community:
Having been exposed as a fraud in Australia and the UK, Khalid Yasin is currently back in the United States still peddling his television scam and raising money and taking up to half the money as his personal cut. He has also raised money in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries for a supposed Qur’an Memorization School in Alabama that did not exist. Last report, he was taking this money and investing it in real estate in Long Island in his own name. Should Muslims continue to allow this individual to trade on his name and swindle his community out of hundreds of thousands of dollars?
These sentiments have been echoed by Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, who praised Salafi Burnout for publicly challenging Yasin and questioning how the American Muslim community has allowed a con man to operate so wantonly in their midst without the slightest criticism from Muslim leaders until now:
By now almost everyone is caught up in the buzz swirling around recent revelations of “Sheikh” Khalid Yasin’s long history of fraud and deceit. I applaud the courageous blog Salafi Burnout for attempting to protect the Muslims from what can only be described as a criminal enterprise, and to make us all aware of the tremendous damage it has caused to the community. As Yasin’s criminal house of cards appears to finally be falling, we are left with many unanswered questions as to why this kind of thing has been allowed to go on for so long.
Let there be no mistake, other shoes will drop, not only on Khalid Yasin but a whole host of other “du’ aat” and Imams who have with impunity betrayed the trust of the Muslims, and have left us wondering how individuals with such shady and dubious backgrounds were allowed to attain such stature, influence, and respectability in the first place. It is no exaggeration to say, as we shall soon learn, that our community is top heavy with these types of scoundrels, and yet the larger question remains; why did so many responsible and affluent Muslims fork over huge sums of money to a man who spouts the kind of absurd, preposterous, indeed psychotic things that he does?
Others have also expressed outrage that while Yasin has taken home as much as a hundred thousands dollars in an evening, thanks to his usual 50/50 split of all funds raised at an event, his wife and child live on public welfare in their home in Sheffield, England.
8) Cleveland’s New Terror Imam (July 2008)
In a July 9th article for Pajamas Media, I introduce the new imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Sayed Abouabdalla, the third such successor since Fawaz Damra was deported in January 2007 after being convicted of lying about his association with three terrorist groups on his US citizenship application. Abouabdalla’s most immediate predecessor was Ahmad Alzaree, who resigned his position three days before he was scheduled to start due to the revelations by Tom Blumer of BizzyBlog and myself about Alzaree’s extremist statements.
In my article about Abouabdalla’s hiring I strongly criticize the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s kid-glove treatment of Abouabdalla and their failure to report on his ties to terror — a glaring omission considering the crimes by his predecessor Damra that created the vacancy at the Islamic Center of Cleveland in the first place:
One element in the Plain Dealer’s recent coverage of Abouabdalla’s background that passes without the slightest bit of apparent investigation is the fact that he continues to serve as a faculty member of the Islamic American University (IAU) in Dearborn, Michigan. Of the 19 courses offered by IAU this summer term, Abouabdalla teaches 14 of them.
IAU is a project of the Muslim American Society (MAS), an organization federal prosecutors just recently identified in a federal appeals court brief as being “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.” The Muslim Brotherhood has been the breeding ground for virtually every single Islamic terrorist group in the world, and the vast majority of al-Qaeda’s leadership has come through its ranks.
The MAS/Muslim Brotherhood association is just the beginning of IAU’s ties to terror. The honorary chairman of the IAU board of trustees is none other than Hamas spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi — a fact acknowledged on the MAS website — who has been banned from the U.S. since 1999 for his open support of terrorist activities.
Not only has Qaradawi repeatedly issued fatwas defending the use of suicide bombings, but in August 2004 he co-signed a letter with the leaders of both Hezbollah and Hamas calling for al-Qaeda-backed insurgents in Iraq to “purify the land of Islam from the filth of occupation,” meaning U.S. military forces. He has said that “those who die fighting U.S. occupation forces are martyrs,” and he also recently defended the use of women as suicide bombers. Rightly so, the Anti-Defamation League has described Qaradawi as the “theologian of terror.”
Abouabdalla has also served on the Fiqh Council of North America as recently as last summer — an association that the Plain Dealer makes absolutely no mention of. For good reason, it seems, as the Fiqh Council is a “Who’s Who” of convicted terrorist leaders, terrorist fundraisers, unindicted co-conspirators, and terrorist associates. One former member, Abdurahman Alamoudi, is serving a 23-year prison sentence on terrorism charges for working with Libyan intelligence to assassinate the Saudi crown prince. Another former Fiqh Council member? Fawaz Damra.
9) Jihadists place $50,000 bounty on Columbus Pastor Rod Parsley’s head in terrorist online forum (September 2008)
No doubt inspired by an extensive PR campaign last year by CAIR, some jihadists posted a $50,000 bounty on the head of World Harvest Pastor Rod Parsley of Columbus on the Ekhlass online jihadist forum. The story was first reported by the Northeast Intelligence Network. In my own post on the topic, I provide a machine translation of the death threat.
10) Friend-of-HAMAS Mary Jo Kilroy elected to Congress from Ohio 15th District (November 2008)
(For an updated caveat to this entry, see this post)
During the 2008 election season, I reported on the efforts of our local HAMAS support group, CAIR, to get Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy elected to Congress. Not only were CAIR officials promoting Kilroy’s candidacy by hosting events at their headquarters featuring Kilroy, but CAIR officials opened up their wallets to fund her campaign. Federal campaign finance reports also give evidence that CAIR officials, including Kilroy’s pal, CAIR vice chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras, bundled cash for Kilroy.
But when Kilroy was announced the winner in the Ohio 15th race, narrowly beating Steve Stivers, Al-Akhras could hardly contain his glee at having a friend of HAMAS going to Washington DC on their behalf. He expressed his delight in a December 7th email circulated in the Columbus Muslim community:
Salam to all — Mary Jo Kilroy is the Congresswoman for the 15th District.
Mary Jo won the 15th District by 2311 votes and Steve Stivers just conceded. This is good news.
Ahmad
So as HAMAS continues to rain down rockets on innocent Israeli civilians from Gaza as the current crisis in the Middle East escalates, no doubt HAMAS leaders and their US-based stooges are glad to know that one of their own will be sworn into the House of Representatives this week.
That’s all for 2008! No doubt we will have plenty more to report on in 2009! We’ll be back next year at the same bat-time, same bat-channel!
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.
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:
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 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 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:
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.
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).
