From Jihad watch, some convincing proof that the myth of the moderate muslim is just that....
A welcome overview of Saudi involvement in spreading the message of violent jihad, from the Washington Post via MSNBC.com:
SAN DIEGO - Omar Abdi Mohamed, a lanky, soft-spoken political refugee from war-ruined Somalia in East Africa, had been preaching the word of Islam in the United States for the past nine years. Two things make him unusual.
In January, U.S. immigration authorities arrested him, saying they suspected him of being a conduit for terrorist funds, federal court records show. At the time, he was on the payroll of Saudi Arabia's government.
Mohamed was one of 30 Saudi-financed preachers in this country. Each month, the Saudis paid $1,700 to the 44-year-old, who taught the Koran at a run-down Somali social center here. He worked with little supervision from Saudi religious authorities 8,000 miles away. In the late 1990s, he set up a small charity to help famine victims in Somalia, and that is how his trouble began.
The charity received $326,000 over three years from the Global Relief Foundation, a private Islamic charity based in Illinois. In October 2002, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Global Relief a terrorist-financing entity linked to al Qaeda.The collision of Saudi missionary work and suspicions of terrorist financing in San Diego illustrates the perils and provocations of a multibillion-dollar effort by Saudi Arabia to spread its religion around the world.
Mohamed worked on the front lines of that effort, a campaign to transform what outsiders call "Wahhabism," once a marginal and puritanical brand of Islam with few followers outside the Arabian Peninsula, into the dominant doctrine in the Islamic world. The campaign has created a vast infrastructure of both government-supported and private charities that at times has been exploited by violent jihadists — among them Osama bin Laden.
And this campaign has been largely successful. But it should not be overstated. The Wahhabis have found success around the world not only because of money, but because they came with convincing, traditional exegeses of the Qur'an and Sunnah. And because their doctrines of jihad meshed nicely with the angular Shi'ism of Khomeini in Iran.
Wahhabism, the dominant doctrine in the Islamic world
Muslim power in Canada
This article is typical of most "moderate" muslim behaviour in Canada. Behind closed doors they are often as radical and as driven by Jew-hatred as the head-choppers they seem to secretly emulate.
DAVID OUELLETTE
The Great White North hardly registers as a hotbed for Islamic political activity. Yet in the run-up to last June's Canadian federal elections, Islamic lobbies exerted unprecedented pressure on electoral candidates and actively pursued the emergence of a Muslim voting bloc.
A key player among the seemingly endless list of Islamic groups and lobbies operating in Canada is the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC). The CIC is a numerically small yet extremely prolific outfit presided by Egyptian-born Mohammed Elmasry.
A few days ahead of the federal elections, three Canadian Muslim leaders met at Concordia University in Montreal to discuss Islamic "committed voting." The event, however, turned into an anti-Zionist, Jew-bashing fest.
The meeting's tone could be felt at the hall's entrance: flyers calling to boycott Mount-Royal Liberal deputy and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, a human rights lawyer who defended such political prisoners as Nelson Mandela and Natan Sharansky and a strong advocate of Israel's right to defend its citizens from Palestinian terrorism.
Bearded men and hijab-clad women filled the room. A handful of representatives from the Canadian Marxist-Leninist Party also attended, nodding in sync to all the speakers' statements. I was the only reporter present.
CIC President Mohammed Elmasry opened the meeting by saying: "The Conservatives' strong performance in recent polls should alarm Muslims" since, in his view, Conservative leader Stephen Harper espouses an extreme-right agenda. Mohammad Sherif Kamel of the Canadian Muslim Forum sounded the same warning bell: "The Conservatives are so right-wing they put Bush to shame; its members are all racists and Zionists."
In addition to defeating the Conservatives, the Muslim leaders want to shake Canadian Muslims out of their electoral apathy. While the last national voting rate hovered around 60%, it was below 50 % among Muslims. Elmasry warned Muslims that if they refrain from voting, "we will end up with anti-hijab laws, and just like in France, will need to ask the police for a permit to pray in our workplace."
CIC President Elmasry explained that thanks to the report he commissioned, Muslims were projecting political power for the first time in Canada’s history: “All MPs and their opponents know we are watching them. But don’t believe that all deputies who scored well are happy about it. Many resent, for obvious reasons, being associated too closely with Muslims.”
These “obvious reasons” were made explicit by Kamel: “The Zionists and corporations run the show in Canada, the Zionist Global Television and the Issi Asper Foundation want to form our minds and the next government.” ...
“I could not vote for a thief. Zionism is theft. A proud Zionist candidate commits a fatal mistake. I’ll name some people: Jacques Saada [Montreal liberal deputy and now minister] is a Zionist, he is therefore a thief!”
Kamel also denounced Prime Minister Paul Martin as a “Conservative in Liberal clothing whom the Zionists and the corporations elected as leader of the Liberal Party.”
Elmasry was upbeat about the emerging Muslim vote: “With an average age of 37 years, the Muslim population is young and growing twice as fast as the rest of the population. For the first time in Canada’s history, Muslims are projecting political power.”
The day after the elections, the CIC reported an improbable 88% vote participation among Muslims and congratulated itself on helping defeat the “Zionist” Conservatives.
Imam Elmenyawi was elated: “A Conservative victory would have been disastrous for Muslims. A minority government is a victory for us. We Muslims will wield greater power, especially with regards to foreign policy. There is no better shield from terrorism than Muslim participation in Canadian political life.”
How long before we pay the infidel tax?
A Hindu being beaten by Muslims in a mosque in Bangladesh. He was captured outside the mosque while going home. After Friday prayers were over, the Muslims came out and grabbed the first Hindu they could. Mr. Vimal Patak a Bangladeshi born Hindu was beaten to death with sticks as the Muslim mullas chanted "kill the Kafir!". With folded hands he begged for his life but died a brutal death.
"Moderate Muslims?"
This from Harry Binswanger on his HB List. The following is the relevant excerpt (titled "Moderate Muslims?") from a larger post looking at what hasn't happened (but should have) in the three years since 9/11:
Imagine that a sect of fanatical Jews blew up three American buildings, killing thousands. Imagine that this sect of Jews issued a declaration of holy war on the United States, in the name of Judaism.
What do you think would have been the response of the rest of the Jews in America and around the world? Our ears would have been deafened by the roar of Jews' moral outrage, their resounding support for America, and their demands for the destruction of the radical sect. You wouldn't be able to turn around in NYC or any urban center without seeing Jews wearing some insignia to show their love for America and hatred for the sect. There would be endless TV spots sponsored by Jewish organizations, there would be T-shirts with "Those killers aren't Jews," there would be multitudes of young Jews volunteering to go into the military to fight the sect. Israel would be acting in the same way.
So where is any peep from the Muslims? Or the Muslim nations?
The WSJ had a review of a new book What's Right with Islam, by Frisal Abdul Rauf. According to the review, "Mr. Abdul Rauf makes an effort to come to grips with this disastrous passivity [i.e., silence] on the part of Muslims, but his comments fall far short. To state that 'suicide bombing is a tragic phenomenon that strikes at us all' and to follow this up with the remark that 'it takes a terrible toll of innocent lives, while it also reflects the deep despair and hopelessness of its perpetrators' hardly seems commensurate with the magnitude of the disaster." I'll say. And I wouldn't describe Osama bin Laden or Muhammed Atta as filled with "despair and hopelessness."
Whatever it says or doesn't say in the Koran, there is something terribly wrong with a religion whose adherents fail to be heard in the 3 years after an attack of this magnitude made in their name.
What a surprise - Muslims using a mosque to plan terrorism.
Two leaders of a mosque in Albany, New York, have been arrested in a sting operation, for helping a government agent they believed was a terrorist interested in purchasing a shoulder-launched missile. What a surprise Muslims using a mosque to plan terrorism.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — Two leaders of a mosque in Albany, New York, were arrested on charges stemming from an alleged plot to help a man they thought was a terrorist who wanted to purchase a shoulder-fired missile, federal authorities said Thursday.
The men have ties to a group called Ansar al-Islam, which has been linked to the al Qaeda terror network, according to two federal law enforcement authorities speaking on condition of anonymity.
The two arrests came as FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agents executed search warrants at the Masjid As-Salam mosque and two Albany-area homes, officials said. The men were identified as Yassin Aref, 34, the imam of the mosque, and 49-year-old Mohammed Hoosain, one of the mosque’s founders.
According to law enforcement officials, the two are being charged with providing material support to terrorism by participating in a conspiracy to help an individual they believed was a terrorist purchase a shoulder-fired missile.
The individual was an undercover government agent and no missile ever changed hands. Aref and Hoosain were allegedly involved in money-laundering aspects of the plot, the officials said.
'The Blood of Your Husband is the Blood of a Dog because He is an Idolatrous Infidel'
A Letter by an Alleged Wife of a Martyr to the Wife of Paul Johnson
The recent issue of Sawt al-Jihad ("Voice of Jihad"), published an article titled "A Letter to the Wife of the Slain Pagan Paul Johnson from the Wife of One of the Martyrs." This letter celebrates the murder of the American hostage Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia. The anonymous letter is attributed to the wife of one of the terrorists killed by the Saudi Security forces. The following are excerpts from the letter:
"I have heard that you appeared on television feigning innocence and wondering haughtily what was your husband's sin and what was his crime. I believe you are not ignorant of the fact that he was one of the greatest criminals indeed, although he is not considered that according to your standards, you infidels.
For you call the criminal innocent and the innocent one, defending his rights – criminal. Or else, what was the purpose of your husband's work with the Apache helicopters? Have you ever believed that these helicopters hover over Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq to shower flowers and sweets over the heads of our children there? Or do you know that they throw on them rockets and bombs in order to turn their streets and homes into ashes upon which their corpses become coal? Is his work above reproach, then? Or was he innocent, while he worked on this kind of airplane [sic]?
"Do you know that my husband was killed before my eyes in his homeland? Do you know that those who killed him are security people trained to defend the imperialists and to frighten and kill the Muslim people of the country? When your husband was taken hostage, there was much talk and the world was shaken. However, these same people did not speak half as much when America, the so-called country of justice and liberty, has been detaining more than 600 Muslims in Cuba for the past three years. That is besides our prisoners in Iraq, Pakistan, the land of the Two Sacred Mosques [Saudi Arabia], Jordan, and other places.
"You should know that our brethren whom you detain in your prisons and our brethren whom your husband used to burn with his helicopters are not alone. Rather, there are hearts pounding with love for them, just as you have demonstrated that you have loved your slain husband. Nay, we love them more than you can imagine because the blood of a Muslim is for us more precious than the Ka'ba , but the blood of your husband is the blood of a dog because he is an idolatrous infidel."
'The Corpse of Your Husband shall be followed by Mountains of Corpses'
"Do you know that we have not done anything [yet] about the blood of Muslims and the blood of my husband that was shed for no reason. We are just getting started and the corpse of your husband shall be followed by mountains of corpses of his countrymen, until they leave the country of our Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace upon him, lowly and humiliated. How can you claim innocence for your husband, Allah's curse on him, while you have been hearing the warnings of the Mujahideen calling you to leave our country that is forbidden for you? You however shut your ears and went obstinately with your wrongdoing. This is your penalty. May you shed tears mixed with blood, just as we wept blood because of your airplanes and your troops.
"When my husband was killed you certainly were not interested, nor did you know about it; and if you had known, you probably would have been pleased that he was killed before he reached your husband and his countrymen. However, I find solace in the fact that the Mujahideen were able to reach their target with precision, and they killed your husband by slaughtering him. By Allah, on that day I rejoiced a lot because the real terrorist was killed having been gorged with the blood of our Muslim children."
'We Hate You, Infidels, and We Loathe You to the Bone'
"I don't know whether you know that we hate you, infidels, and we loathe you to the bone. How could we not, while you are given preference over us even in our own country? For a long time did one of our airplanes hover to search for your husband while he was held hostage? There was much talk – even by people who pretend to be Muslim clerics – about negotiating with the Mujahideen, in order to persuade them to set your husband free. But my husband, they prevented us from praying over him, even after his death, and they did not give us his pure body [for burial]. We rely only on Allah to [punish] those who wronged us for the purpose of pleasing your husband and his likes. None has uttered a word about my husband even though everybody knew my husband and attested to his righteousness. That was because of fear of their goddess, America.
"Tell the government, which has appointed itself over us [i.e. the Saudi government], that what they do with our youth who are engaged in Jihad is good: If you kill them, you thereby send them to heaven in the shortest way, Allah willing; and if you let them stay alive, not having overcome them, that is fine for they will fight you and will force out the infidels form the land of Islam.
A muslim with courage - an encouraging sign?
Sheikh Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, the former Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at the University of Qatar, wrote an article in the London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat titled "Following the 9/11 Commission, do the Arabs have the Courage to Reconsider their Position?" In his article he called upon Arabs to recant their conspiracy theories regarding the perpetrators of the attacks, and apologize for spreading these theories. The following are excerpts from the column:
The 9/11 Report Details the Terrorists' Plans
"The 9/11 Commission depicted the full and accurate picture of the attacks, their planning, their perpetration, the perpetrators, and their nationalities. The report clarified that the idea of the attacks was conceived by Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, who admitted that he first discussed the idea of attacking the World Trade Center with commercial planes with his nephew Ramzi Yousef [the architect of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993].
They discussed it again when they planned the Bojenka conspiracy in Manila [Phillipines] in 1995, which aimed at hijacking commercial planes on 10 American targets, including the 4 targets chosen for September 11, American intelligence [CIA] headquarters, the highest tower in California, and nuclear reactors. He presented the plan to Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qa'ida leaders, who at first weren't enthusiastic about it because of its complexity and magnitude, but in April 1999 bin Laden invited him to Kandahar and told him that Al-Qa'ida supported his idea. Bin Laden chose the first four suicide bombers after the original plan was changed.
"The American report also describes how the four trained to fly commercial planes in America and how they established four groups, the first group led by the Egyptian Muhammad Atta, with four hijackers. The second group would be led by Marwan Al-Sheihi, from the Emirates, with four hijackers. The third group, led by the Saudi Hani Hanjur, with four hijackers. The fourth group was led by the Lebanese Ziad Al-Jarrah with three hijackers, totaling 19 hijackers. The report criticizes the CIA, stating that they missed 10 opportunities to discover their activities. It claims that there were flaws in the operation, capabilities, forecasts, and policies of the CIA, and that it needs to undergo major changes. President Bush responded to the recommendations and has begun implementing them."
Will We Now Admit that Arabs were behind the Attacks – or are We 'Incapable of Apologizing?'
"No doubt the Americans are going to draw practical lessons from the report in order to prevent their recurrence of their failings. But what about us? What about the Arabs who are the active element in this conspiracy?
"After September 11, we blamed the Israeli Mossad for planning the attacks. This belief prevailed not only among popular circles. Intellectuals and high-level figures held to this belief, validating it by their allegation that 4,000 Jews didn't come to work at the World Trade Center on that cursed morning, and by the arrest of the Jews who gleefully took pictures of the destruction [of the falling towers].
"Another group among us blamed the American extremist right for planning the attacks in order to provide a justification to attack Afghanistan and spread American hegemony in Central Asia. We are also very happy with the book written by the French crook Thierry Meyssan, 'The Appalling Fraud,' who became a millionaire thanks to our stupidity in translating the book into Arabic and disseminating it. Another group, headed by Muhammad Hassanein Hayka l, blamed the Yugoslavian Serbs for carrying out the attack in revenge for America's attacks on them.
"The question must be asked: Are those who blame the Mossad, the American Right, and the Serbs still holding strong to their convictions? What do they say about the American report? Do our religious leaders, especially those who appear so many times on the satellite channels and who have a monopoly on programs on Al-Jazeera, still hold to the conviction that Al-Qa'ida and bin Laden [are] innocent of the September 11 attacks? These leaders used to say that bin Laden is a miserable sheikh who has no capability of planning operations at this high a level of accuracy and planning, and that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by the Americans themselves in order to prepare for attacks on Muslims and Islam.
"Moreover, one of our religious leaders claims that America is absolutely certain that bin Laden is innocent and he is being blamed because of their Crusader approach that hates Islam and Muslims. Does this sheikh and the others who held these conspiratorial theories and spread them - do they have the courage to apologize for their words, mistakes, and misleading of other people after all the facts have now been clarified, or are they going to continue with their arrogant stubbornness as if this whole matter doesn't relate to them?
"One of the absurdities is that while Al-Qa'ida and its supporters are proud of their deeds, calling them the 'Manhattan Raid,' and even printing advertisements in London in commemoration of the 9/11 attacks, with pictures of the 'magnificent 19' – our religious, cultural, and political elite [are] struggling to deny that [the Arabs] could have had anything to do with it.
"Do we have the courage to criticize ourselves, to admit to our fault, and to apologize as many people do, or is it one of our hidden qualities that we are a people that are incapable of apologizing? Why won't we take the opportunity of the appearance of the 9-11 Commission's report to ponder why destructive violence and a culture of destruction have taken root in our society? Why won't we take this opportunity to reconsider our educational system, our curricula, including the religious, media, and cultural discourse that causes our youth to live in a constant tension with the world?"
Good questions. Very good questions.