In the featured article at FrontPage this morning, I discuss what we know at this point about the Mark Siljander case:
Former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander (R-MI) was indicted Wednesday for money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, in connection with charges that a Muslim charity, the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), was involved in efforts to finance the Afghan jihad terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The IARA was named a specially designated global terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2004.John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, declared: “An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban…. The indictment also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARA’s misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes.”
According to the indictment, the IARA sent around $130,000 to bank accounts controlled by its parent organization, the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), in Peshawar, Pakistan, where the money went to Hekmatyar’s activities. The ISRA’s headquarters are in Khartoum, Sudan, with the Columbia, Missouri-based IARA as its American office until it was shut down. According to the Treasury Department, “IARA is formerly affiliated with Maktab Al-Khidamat (MK), which was co-founded and financed by UBL [Osama bin Laden] and is the precursor organization of al Qaida.” The IARA has also funneled money to Hamas.
How did an American congressman get mixed up with a group co-founded and financed by Osama bin Laden? The indictment charges that the IARA hired Siljander in 2004 to lobby for its removal from a Senate Finance Committee list of organizations suspected of supporting terrorism, and reinstatement as an “approved government contractor.” The IARA, according to the indictment, paid in $50,000 that had been stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – and Siljander is also charged with helping to launder other money stolen from USAID. The IARA, then known as the Islamic African Relief Agency, had received the funds for relief work in Mali. Questioned by the FBI in December 2005 and April 2007, Siljander lied, says the indictment, about his connections with the IARA – he told agents that he had not been hired by IARA and had simply received “donations” from them to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity.And that may provide a clue as to what may have led Siljander down this path, or how he justified it to himself. In a revealing November 2007 address, Siljander described how his thought evolved, and spoke of his forthcoming book, A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman’s Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide, which was set to be published this summer. Siljander said that during his tenure in Congress (1981-1987), he was angry when the Qur’an was read during the National Prayer Breakfast. He wrote to the Breakfast’s emcee: “How can you read the book of the devil at a prayer breakfast?”
Afterward, however, he began to read the Qur’an himself, and was impressed: “I found out that Jesus was mentioned in the Quran 110 times, either directly or indirectly, and there was not a single word about Jesus that was horrible, disgraceful or, in my opinion, inconsistent with what the Bible says about him.” He explained that he had discovered “paradigm crashing” ways to harmonize Christian and Islamic beliefs on issues on which the two religions disagree, and hoped they would “create a movement, a dynamic” to bring Christians and Muslims together.
Siljander also spoke about his meeting with Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, one of the architects of the Darfur tragedy, when he went to Sudan for the UN in 2006 to mediate the Darfur conflict. Al-Bashir was so impressed with his “paradigm crashing” views of Islam and Christianity, said Siljander, that he had him address the Khartoum Sharia Law School. “We were the first white American Christians to speak on a Friday afternoon at the Khartoum mosque,” Siljander noted. “That happened, not because we’re so good looking, but because we built bridges of respect.”
Siljander’s lying to FBI agents about the nature of his relationship with the IARA suggests that he had no illusions about what he had gotten into. Still, it may be that his indictment today is the bitter fruit of his naivete. Siljander would not be the first naïve Westerner to establish, out of zeal to build bridges of respect between Muslims and Christians, ties with Muslims who had a far deeper connection to the global jihad than he would ever have imagined. Siljander’s experience should also serve as a cautionary tale for all who pursue “bridge-building” and “dialogue”: while these may be laudable, they are beset with pitfalls, and the universal purveying of the politically correct fiction that Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists has only had the effect of leading many to grow complacent about many areas in which jihadists are actively operating – notably, Islamic charities. Were there a more forthright and honest public discussion of the elements of Islam that jihadists use among peaceful Muslims to recruit and motivate terrorists, Siljander may never have succumbed to the naïvete that he manifested in his November 2007 address.
If he was really naïve at all. Columnist Debbie Schlussel opines that Siljander is less naïve than greedy. Having worked with him in his Congressional office in the 1980s, she remembers him before his change of heart, and recalls that he was a “Born-Again Evangelical Christian. We had fast days in his office. There were prayer circles. So deeply religious and so deeply against the Islamic threat, Siljander was known, at the time, as the most pro-Israel Congressman on Capitol Hill, with many Jewish and pro-Israel Evangelical contributors from all over the world.” She said that Siljander “was decades ahead of his time in understanding the Islamist threat worldwide and to America. That he’d reverse course sickens and saddens me.”
Schlussel doubts Siljander’s story of the evolution of his thought concerning Islam. “I don’t believe he thinks any differently about Islam — and this is all phony…He was just too enlightened about what Islam was all about when I worked for him to change for anything but cash.” At her website she wrote: “I think this was about money. Since he lost his Congressional seat, he was hard up for money and was involved in many failed business ventures, including an AIDS-Test-By-Mail. (He also ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress from Virginia.) Desperation and money do bad things.”
Ultimately, whether he was motivated by a naïve hope to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and the West, or by a simple need for money, or by something else, the outcome is the same: if the charges are true, Siljander was working with people dedicated to the destruction of the United States, and working to that end under the guise of charitable activity while funding violent jihad against Israel and against American troops in Afghanistan. It may be that he is among the multitudes in America today who fail to take this threat seriously – after all, there has not been a major terror attack on American soil since 9/11. It may be that, if he was aware of the IARA’s activities on behalf of Hamas and in Sudan, that he saw both – again like so many multitudes of Americans -- as regional conflicts with no geopolitical significance beyond those regions. Had he had a full and informed awareness of how Islamic charities, because of the nature of Islamic charitable giving and the status of jihad in Islam, are so often tied to jihadist activity, he might have hesitated to get involved with the IARA, even though it did bill itself as a “relief agency.” Had he had a comprehensive understanding of the jihad ideology, and an appreciation of the significance of some of the IARA’s choices of venue for its labors, he might have thought twice – unless, of course, the money was good enough to overcome even that. America fights against global jihadists with, thanks to the oil weapon, an essentially inexhaustible supply of income. The Saudis in particular use that money to buy armies of Mark Siljanders – lobbyists who fight for their causes in Washington with complete ignorance of or indifference to the ways in which our own national interests are thus compromised.
The best outcome of the Mark Siljander indictment would be an investigation of those lobbying efforts, and the framing of new laws that would require complete transparency as to the origin of the funds used by Muslim groups to pay such lobbyists. The case should also lead to a comprehensive reevaluation of Islamic charities, and a call to those still operating to cooperate fully with investigations of the jihadist money trail.
If the charges against him are true, Siljander’s story is a tragedy. But it could yet bear good fruit, in an American public newly prepared to meet the multifaceted challenge of the global Islamic jihad.
Except that He didn't die for our sins, so we Christians are all deluded fools, and screwed for eternity. Moron.
Reinstatement? ? ? [picking jaw off ground]
Why, oh W H Y is an "islamic charity" qualifying as an "approved government contractor" in the first place?
Tell me Gordon England and Hesham Islam don't have their greasy fingers in this too.
Re: “I don’t believe he thinks any differently about Islam — and this is all phony…He was just too enlightened about what Islam was all about when I worked for him to change for anything but cash.”-Debbie Schlussel
This guy is a Jim Bakker style opportunist with Lyndon LaRouche overtones: he's part greed, part nut, weird.
Afterward, however, he began to read the Qur’an himself, and was impressed:
from the article
I have big questions about this.
Are there 'alternate Qur'ans'?
This may have been covered in the past but are all Korans equal? Or are there dhimmified versions?
Did he read it or just some Cliff Notes?
It is the job of the elected members of our House of Representatives to craft some of the laws of our nation.
I have read laws and gotten bogged down on wording and subtle nuances. Lawyers work hard to interpret these laws. So do judges.
If a born-again Christian can read the Koran and find nothing wrong with it. How can he be trusted to understand the laws he is handing down to the citizens?
I can only hope that this will cause every member of Congress, both House and Senate, to take a good hard look at who they are associating with and where their 'donations' come from.
But then, Wishin' and hopin' won't get into his arms...
I have ABC on TV, no mention of this until now. A short crawler.
Apparently our news media does not consider this much of a story.
Questions: Are there any more Siljanders in the congress today? How many? Who are they? What can we do about them?
My guess is there are... and we'd better find out who they are, and execute them immediately. In the Senate there are enough boneheads who pretend to be "the president" who are working against this nation and for the jihadiists.
It's time for a kick ass cleanup in Washington D.C.
In the past, treason was a capital offense... It needs to be so again, and this is one of many reasons.
“I found out that Jesus was mentioned in the Quran 110 times, either directly or indirectly, and there was not a single word about Jesus that was horrible, disgraceful or, in my opinion, inconsistent with what the Bible says about him.” Mark Siljander
Really?
“It befitteth not (the Majesty of) Allah that he should take upon himself a son.”
(Qur’an 19:35, quoted from The Truth about Muhammad, by Robert Spencer, page 114)
Muhammad rejects the divinity of Christ. No-one can be called a Christian who rejects the divinity of Christ, for his divinity is the core belief of Christianity. There is no possible greater inconsistency. Whether he is a liar or just a fool (or both) I don’t know, but I am beginning to think he may have been in it for the money.
This incident calls to mind the idea that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
I wonder if it would be a good idea to set up a gibbet at the foot of the steps to the Capitol Building. Something to concentrate the minds of our legislators on their way to and from work.
patagonianplato,
But Jesus isn't mentioned by name in the verse you cite. Siljander would have to have done a careful reading of the Koran and what each verse meant. More likely, he simply noted every verse where Jesus was mentioned by name and noted the context, which was positive given that Mohammed was trying to lure Christians into the Muslim fold. (I wonder if he understands the concept of abrogation and that most of those verses are today irrelevant in Islam.)
Muhammad rejects the divinity of Christ.
Posted by: patagonianplato
Huh, Muhammad never did because he did not know Jesus was Christ. Mohammad's wife Kadijah had a cousin who was a Monk; his name was ibn Na-ufal, who could read and write Hebrew. Muhammad being illiterate couldn't remember the story told him. He got very confused. Muhammad only mentioned of Isa, which Muslim believe to be Jesus, but Isa can be Issiah the prophet.
Let's drink camel piss.
"I wonder if it would be a good idea to set up a gibbet at the foot of the steps to the Capitol Building. Something to concentrate the minds of our legislators on their way to and from work."
Posted by: Havoc
I love this idea! Only, I don't see a need to stop at the Capitol Building. I recommend the same, for courthouses (especially those where dhimmis have given in to demands to remove monuments to the Ten Commandments--there should be plenty of space for a gibbet). Congress should have a gibbet, as well, and so should the Supreme Court.
I think the biggest, grandest gibbet should be set up on the White House lawn--just as a little reminder to the man inside that he works for Americans, and for no one else.
Alas, the last would never happen. We can't seem, even, to fire the jerk who's already there.
"Congress should have a gibbet, as well, and so should the Supreme Court."
Scratch that. I should have said: "The Senate should have a gibbet..."
Questions: Are there any more Siljanders in the congress today? How many? Who are they? What can we do about them?
n.a.palm,
Probably most of them are Siljander types. Not that they would sell us out but that once they leave Congress their need to "support their family" allows them to rationalize taking money from the most unsavory group. Whether you're in Congress or you own a consulting company, there are no bad customers. Everyone deserves representation. At least, that's what you tell yourself. Siljander was a devout Christian while in Congress. Once he needed to make a living he decided Islam wasn't so bad after all.
What can we do about them? Hard to say. In or out of Congress, they can do great harm. It may be unintentional but it's there. I once thought term limits would serve as a brake on such behavior because they couldn't stay in Congress long enough to accumulate the influence most of these clients are looking for. But Siljander served just six years. It didn't matter.
@heroyalwhyness:
I'm scratching my head over the "government contractor" part, too. What can an Islamic charity be contracted to do for our government?
PMK
“But Jesus isn't mentioned by name in the verse you cite.”
You are probably correct. How else can one explain such a ludicrous remark. Of course, Mr. Siljander could just be a liar.
SSA
“Muhammad never did because he did not know Jesus was Christ.”
I agree to the extent that he did not accept that “Jesus” or “Isa” was “the Christ.” I also agree with you that Muhammad confused a good many things about the bible.
However, because there were many Christians in Arabia at the time, many of which Muhammad would have had contact with, (such as Khadija’s cousin, Waraqa bin Naufal bin Asad bin ‘Abdul-‘Uzza bin Qusai, wouldn’t want to have to sign that.) it is difficult to believe that Muhammad didn’t know that the Christians believed that Isa was the son of God, the Christ or Messiah, and that they believed that he was divine. I am trying to think of another reason why it would have been necessary for God to say:
“It befitteth not (the Majesty of) Allah that he should take upon himself a son.”
There is also 5:17:
”They indeed have disbelieved who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary”
Mr. Spencer comments that this means that Muhammad was stating that,
“Jesus was not divine, and was not crucified – and the Prophet of Islam rebuked the Jews for boasting that they had indeed crucified him.”
Mr. Spencer also writes:
“Demonstrating only a dim grasp of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, Muhammad announced in another revelation that Jesus himself would deny this doctrine when questioned by Allah: “And when Allah saith: ‘O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind: “Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah”?’ He saith: ‘Be glorified! It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right. If I used to say it, then Thou knewest it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy Mind. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower of Things Hidden” (Qur’an 5:116)."
All of the above quotes are on page 114
(Mr. Spencer, if I have botched anything please be gentle with your rebuke!)
patagonianplato,
Yes, Mohammad understood nothing of Christianity; he truely never mentioned the name Jesus.
The verse about Allah has no son was invented many centuries later after their leaders lost many debates with Christians. As time go, the Muslims refine their theology to meet the Christian's challences.
Mohammad never mention Mary either; he got very confuse; he thought Moses' sister, Mariam, was the women who bore a son who became founder of Christianity. He had no clue what Christ meant; he had unclue what Mesiah was. The words: Jesus, Christ, Mesiah, Mary and etc are not in Koran.
Most of what you read do exist and may not be all wrong, but the original Mohammad knew very little of anything, other than lying to gullible Arabs.
The latter day Muslim after Mohammad's death become more sophisticated after schooled by westerners. Until then, all Mohammad's work was incoherent.
patagonianplato,
When Mohammad was living, he had the firs part of Koran written by a scribe name ibn Masoud; he was a Jew, who wrote the best poetry in Koraysh, native tongue of Meccan.
The last part was written by Labib ibn Rabbi, another Jew.
After his death, Omar, Othman, and others got many people fixed the Koran up. It's been revise more than 1000 times by many Arab scholars.
There are more that 1001 sects of Islam after Mohammad's death.
Messy.
SSA, Thank-you for taking the time to reply in detail. As I am not an Islamic scholar and depend upon people like Mr. Spencer for my information, I only report to you what they have written. I have never learned such things as you report in your posts in any of the 40 books I have read about Islam. I will have to leave it to the experts to respond to what you say. Thanks Again.
Dang, but I'm getting pushed out of shape by first one American, then another, and NOW a member of our House of Representatives [Elison is at least "open"] stabs my country in the back! How would most of us even realize so many natives are undermining our country without those such as Robert, Hugh, Daniel Pipes - Stephen Emerson and the like keeping their eyes open for the sake of all of us here in the West! Sometimes I wonder just how long we'll remain safe, considering the upcoming election plus all the other traitorous acts committed against the US! There are surely more Islamic traitors scheming to conquer the US! We'll soon be like Europe, or worse!