Pirouz Sedaghaty Update. "Feds want Oregon Islamic charity figure held," by William McCall for the Associated Press:
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - A missing passport and questions about whether he supports radical Islamic doctrine will keep the co-founder of a defunct Islamic charity in jail at least another two weeks after he voluntarily returned to face tax fraud and conspiracy charges.
Pirouz Sedaghaty, 49, also known as Pete Seda, left the country in 2003 during an investigation that resulted in a federal grand jury indictment in February 2005, accusing him of helping to smuggle $150,000 out of the country to aid Muslim fighters in Chechnya.
He returned exactly one week ago, on the same day that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was hearing arguments about warrantless wiretapping of the U.S. chapter of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation that Sedaghaty co-founded in the Southern Oregon town of Ashland in 1997.
Sedaghaty pleaded not guilty to the tax and conspiracy charges last week, and asked to be released pending trial.
But the U.S. Attorney's office asked that he be held in custody, arguing he is a flight risk, leading to a lengthy detention hearing on Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin.
The judge said he was being asked to decide whether religious beliefs could be the basis for keeping a person in jail, comparing it to whether a devout Christian opposed to abortion posed a danger to the community if he or she believed abortion should be prevented by any means possible, including violence.
"Under those circumstances it's appropriate to ask if a person believes in using violent means," Coffin said, adding that he did not want "to take on the role of censor."
Coffin said he expected to decide at the next hearing, in two weeks, whether to order Sedaghaty to remain in custody until trial or grant a conditional release.
Chris Cardani, the assistant U.S. Attorney handling the case, argued that Sedaghaty promoted a radical version of Islam based in Saudi Arabia known as Wahabbism, making him a danger because he could incite radical followers to acts of violence - even though he did not believe that Sedaghaty himself posed a danger.
"Are you telling me that you think he is a Trojan horse?" Coffin asked Cardani.
"Perhaps," Cardani replied.
He noted that Sedaghaty, a U.S. citizen who was born in Iran, had returned to the United States on a duplicate U.S. passport, and had not surrendered his Iranian passport until he appeared in court Wednesday.
Cardani said that raised suspicions about where Sedaghaty had traveled the past four years, noting he had lived in Syria, Iran and the United Arab Emirates at different times.
Cardani said Sedaghaty offered no explanation about how he supported himself, noting he had trouble finding work and apparently had to live on less than $80,000 from the sale of a house in Ashland for more than four years.
[...]
Matasar also called an expert witness, As'ad AbuKhalil, a California State University, Stanislaus, professor who disputed the government's claim that Sedaghaty supported radical Islamic doctrine.
AbuKhalil said Saudi wealth is used to promote Wahabbism worldwide by funding mosques and charities, and distributing a Saudi version of the Quran called the "nobel Quran" that has a more militant interpretation of its teachings.
That's "noble," and the Qur'an is often referred to as the "Noble Qur'an" (including at USC's Muslim Student Association Qur'an site) or "Qur'an Sharif." And the text of the scriptures (always accompanied by the Arabic version, of course) is the same in any event, any accompanying commentary notwithstanding.
Muslims seeking to perform charity work - one of the five pillars of Islam - often are forced to accept Saudi money in order to pay for buildings or supplies, and distribute the Saudi version of the Quran because it is typically the only free version available.
Forced? Or just not inclined to look elsewhere?
"The Saudis have been proven to have misused some of these charities for their own nefarious purposes," AbuKhalil said.
But a witness for the government, author Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a former Al- Haramain worker in Ashland, said the charity promoted radical Islamic doctrine by distributing the "noble Quran" to U.S. prison inmates.
He noted that version supports violent jihad, or holy war, although he said that Sedaghaty had been upset by the embassy bombings and the link to militant Muslims.
Marisol at Midnight, a regular treasure of JW/DW, if only it weren't for the continuous onslaught of depressing subject matter.
Without asking too much about her location, Marisol's time zone needn't necessarily be EDT.
At any rate, Marisol, from your comments, do you think there's a difference between the Saudi version of the Quran vs others? In fact, what is the Saudi version? Hilali-Khan? Shakir? I'm assuming we are talking about English translations, since in Arabic, the only valid Quran would be the original, and what is variant would be the tafseer. Right? Incidentally, if I remember right, only Hilali-Khan's version is called the 'Noble Quran'.
Do a check of any verse you like in Quranbrowser.com, and find out how different any verse is between various translations.
Chris Cardani, the assistant U.S. Attorney handling the case, argued that Sedaghaty promoted a radical version of Islam based in Saudi Arabia known as Wahabbism, making him a danger because he could incite radical followers to acts of violence - even though he did not believe that Sedaghaty himself posed a danger.
Boy, I wonder if this guy is going to get fired by the Bushies... abnd i am sure Bloatbaugh and Shamnity willl find a way - ANY WEAY AT ALL - to explain THAT one to the American people!
I can't STAND the way they are ragging on ol' Obama for saying he'd invade Pakicrappistan if he knew that Bin Laden were there and the oaks refused to act on it. is that a really bad idea? I don't think it is - regardless of where it comes from.
At the very least it puts the PACK on NOTICE that we are getting pissed off and ready to act!
The fact that these Bushbots keep misrepresenting what Obama said - whom I'd never vote for for fear he's not serious about what he said - shows clearly that they are nothing but shills for the Repube=party line.
P.U.K.E!!!
Infidel Pride at August 23, 2007 1:18 AM
The "official" Saudi koran is called "INTERPRETATION of the Meanings of THE NOBLE QUR'AN IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE A Summarized Version of At-Tabari, Al-Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir with comments from Sahih Al-Bukhari Summarized in One Volume by Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Halali, Ph.D. (Berlin) [and] Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan"
It can be found here online:
http://www.salafipublications.com/sps/nbq/nq.cfm
Watch out, they'll try to put a cookie on your browser and you have to register to look through anything more than just the koranic verses, meaning, you can't look at the accompanying tafsir and appendices without registering.
Appendix III is called "THE CALL TO JIHAD (HOLY FIGHTING FOR ALLAH'S CAUSE) IN THE QUR'AN" and it's full of good tidbits. This is the koran that is being distributed in prisons in the Pacific Northwest which is referenced in the al-Haramain trial (although probably distributed in other prisons as well, I don't know).
How do I know this? I'm looking at the vile thing right now. I bought it at Sound Vision -- yes, the actual brick-and-mortar Sound Vision in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview, IL, 15 miles away -- that hosted the American-born jihadi message boards that used to feature beheading videos to the glee and laughter of the all-American muslim participants before it was shut down by the proprietors sometime in late 2004 or whenever because of too much infidel attention.
When we're finally done with our jihad "problem" in thirty years or so (when enough infidels have died to make really defending ourselves acceptable), I'm going to burn it in a glorious pig-fat bonfire. Until then, it's a nice leather bound book, full of interesting information, convenient to shove in the faces of those who believe in the "tiny minority". Tee-hee.
Oh, I forgot to mention:
Saudi publications are often distributed by a company called "Maktba Dar-us-Salam". Look for their mark on your favorite islamic texts.
Based in Riyadh, Saudi Entity.
I WANT YOU
for the Jihad Awareness Project.
We are at the beginning of the tenth day of posting this request at Jihad Watch, and we are up to 54 volunteers in 29 states.
WE STILL ARE SEEKING VOLUNTEERS FROM ALL 50 STATES, ESPECIALLY FROM THE FOLLOWING:
Alabama
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Idaho
Kansas
Louisiana
Michigan
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
New Jersey
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wyoming
I'm looking for at least two people in every state of the Union who would be willing to purchase a copy of Robert Spencer's Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't and mail it, on an agreed upon date, to one of the senators in your state. I'm organizing an effort to get the book simultaneously to all 100 senators, in order to send a strong message. If we get more than two people per state, books can also be sent to the House of Representatives.
If you’d like to be involved, please write to me at traehnam@yahoo.com under the subject heading “Senate,” and tell me the state your senator represents, an email address where I can reach you, and a nickname. No need for your real name. And I will never share your email address with anyone, not even with other volunteers for this project.
And visit www.jihadawareness.blogspot.com to get more info on this project and to leave comments other volunteers can read. You can also see there the growing list of participants in this project, and the states their senators represent. I’ll try to update the list at least once a day. I've also designed a graphic that might amuse. Scroll down when you get to the site.
Once we have at least two people from every state, we can agree on a mailing date and then each of us can mail a copy of the book on that date.
Right before each of us mails the book, we can issue a press release to various media outlets in every state, and in that way announce and explain the mailing. And perhaps we can come up with some other ways of maximizing the effectiveness of this project and gaining as much positive attention as possible.
One of the project's volunteers suggested contacting Rep. Sue Myrick, who started the anti-Jihad caucus in Congress. I'll try to coordinate this project with Rep. Myrick to maximize its effectiveness. I've also been calling various congressional offices to get advice on how best to go about this. And I'll soon contact Regnery, Robert Spencer's publisher, to ask their advice and to see if we can coordinate with them in some way.
Howdy, Tasty!
Your first link was spot on!
I could smell that rotten stink of Pigslam as soon as I hit the "Login" page...
Needless to say, I did not continue. I don't need any more viruses on my computer!
To Tasty Beverage (and all other Kaffirs):
Some research on the site:
http://www.salafipublications.com/sps/nbq/nq.cfm
tries to paint the RoP as a, well, Religion of Peace.
Lipstick on a pig? Yup. Don't believe anything here.
Move along...Ain't nothing here to see...
...."the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ...."
........with this group of justices, he will be rewarded with a lifetime pension, a beachfront mansion, a book deal, a fine wardrobe, a new car, and be allowed to have as many wives as he desires......he will never be convicted....
That's spelled...
"9th circus court of schlemiels"
Thank God there is the Supreme Court over their pin-heads, who overrule them almost all the time.
(to the tune of 75%+/-)
Infidel Pride--
I've seen "Noble Qur'an" tossed around pretty freely (like at the USC-MSA site linked as an example), which is why I took issue with AbuKhalil's statement as reported above, which seems to suggest that only such a Saudi "Bizarro Qur'an" would contain violent and intolerant verses.
But on the subject of Hilali-Khan, I must admit I haven't yet gotten acquainted with it as I have with others (I don't have Robert's multiple decades of experience or impressive Qur'an collection), though I'm certainly aware of the variations in translations, and always consult more than one when looking for a verse in order to be thorough.
As for the time zone-- that would be Undisclosed Standard Time-- though complicated by the fact that it's been a bit warm.
"The Saudis have been proven to have misused some of these charities for their own nefarious purposes," AbuKhalil said.
-- from the article above
What a farce. The "innocent charities" given Saudi-related names ("Al-Haramain"), innocently receiving check after check from the "nefarious" Saudis, innocently receiving Saudi material, and "Wahhabi" (what does this mean?)versions of the Qur'an, presumably so different from the non-Wahhabi versions, when of course they are identical. One doesn't fool around with the text of the Qur'an; the only conceivable change might be, here and there, in the translation, in the amount of truthfulness in the translation, with the Wahhabi version being the one closer to the full original harshness of the Arabic. That's all.
(
And then there is the little matter of that "expert witness" As'ad Abukhalil. It is he who should now be under investigation, for daring to maintain, so absurdly, that those who receive the sums they do from Saudi Arabia are being used and abused. Imagine if, in 1941, Fritz Kuhn of the Bund had been charged with the receipt of Nazi funds, and a German-American professor sympathetic to the Bund and Kuhn (such a person would have been hard to locate, for Nazi sympathizers among that population were were not numerous, while among the population of Muslims, a great many are stoutly behind, eager to defend, fellow Muslims from all charges brought against them, ever, by what they regard as the illegitimate power of the illegitimate Infidel nation-state) had testified that it was perfectly acceptable to take money from Goebbels' operation in Berlin because, you see, this poor German-American group neeed money, and had no other sources.
This "expert witness" who "disputed the government's claim that Sedaghaty supported radical Islamic doctrine" has given testimony against himself. First in the court of public opinion. He should not be teaching at a university funded by Infidel taxpayers, but rather watched like a hawk. Second, one hopes that such obvious supporters of what Wafa Sultan and Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ibn Warraq and Ali Sina keep warning us about -- see the new book by Wafa Sultan -- will be seen for what they are, and suffer the consequences in this Infidel nation-state, now under, like all such states, Muslim siege, of the first-a-little, thence-to-more variety.
If not incarcerated the least that should be done is fire his ass out of the free world.
Liked the way the judge worked his reasoning on the "religious" angle.
But is there such a thing as a non toxic jihadi ?
Yes, when he's dead.
Misused????
Well, better stop sending those checks to those Saudi charities.
/sarc
""Under those circumstances it's appropriate to ask if a person believes in using violent means," Coffin said, adding that he did not want "to take on the role of censor.""
And all a good, little muslim has to do is practice taqiyya and say whatever the judge wants to hear in order to be free. We really need to take this out of the civil courts.
exsgtbrown, we usually call them the '9th circus court of appeals' out West here.
Charity begins at home.
Allah wants to send tsunamis to torment his own, that's his business.
Help those not sharpening "strike at their neck" knives or strapping on "Jihadi goes Boom" bombs.
Islam belongs in Saudi Arabia. Period.
On a side note I was at my local library and noticed a book on a table. I can't remember the name (it was two or three months ago(. It was a commentary on the Koran. I was just getting interested and really starting to investigate this issue of Islam. I checked it out and started reading. I won't bore you because the important fact is that this book is available in the three public library's in my area. In fact one had two books, another had three and the last had one. They were published in 2000 or 2001 as I recall. These libraries are not affiliated with one another. Two are city and our is a county library. I did some searching on the county site and found they had almost 20 of the same book at a half dozen locations in the county.
I will let you draw our own conclusions and I am going to find the name of that book to give you more information. My feeling is that these were given to the libraries all over the country (hasn't been proven) by supporters of Islam. Possibly financed by Saudi Arabia.
I would like to think his "missing" (yeah, right) passport would make this guy an automatic flight risk and subject to remand without bail.