Recently in Islamic Society of North America Category

As I said, at least they're consistent.

Pamela Geller has the report:

Suhail Khan, Tariq Ramadan, John Esposito, the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Karen Armstrong all appeared at the ISNA convention, thereby revealing their true colors. This is what former FBI agent John Guandolo says about ISNA:

• The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is the largest Muslim Brotherhood (MB) organization in North America, created to be the “nucleus” for the Islamic Movement, according to MB documents seized by the FBI in Annandale, Virginia in 2004.
• Because of the evidence ISNA is a Brotherhood front, as well as the numerous financial documents detailing money going directly from ISNA and their banks to Hamas entities overseas, ISNA is an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest Hamas trial ever successfully prosecuted in U.S. history (US v. Holy Land Foundation), which was adjudicated in 2008 in Dallas, Texas.
• When ISNA filed a motion with the federal court to have their name removed from the unindicted co-conspirator list, the government stated that ISNA exists to be a financial support entity for Hamas. The federal judge agreed stating the government provided “ample evidence” and left ISNA on the list. A three-judge appellate panel unanimously agreed and left ISNA on the unindicted co-conspirator list.
• ISNA’s two key directors and its President, Mohamed Magid (pictured above), all work with Secretary Clinton and her office. So, the leaders of a Hamas-supporting entity are advising the U.S. Secretary of State.

Here is the official TVC/VAST report on the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention, by an eyewitness who managed to get in:

ISNA CONVENTION OFFERS TWO VIEWS OF ISLAM –
THE MANUFACTURED PUBLIC PERSONA AND THE TRUTH

Washington, DC – The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) 2012 annual convention offered some stark contrasts between the Islam portrayed in CAIR press releases and speeches and the unavoidable facts about Islam’s size and objectives.

A project of the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) and the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force (VAST) monitored several key briefings and presentations at the convention.

Sessions ran the gamut from “Islamic Finance” to Islam’s Response to Domestic Violence in the Muslim Community to If You Care About Your Future-I Spy With My NYPD Eye.

Some speakers criticized President Barack Obama for “letting down” Islam and not doing enough to advance its cause in America.  One official, CAIR Founder and long-time HAMAS/Muslim Brotherhood operative Nihad Awad, complained that the White House treats him and other activists like an ugly step-child.   

Awad said that Muslim names are not published on the official White House visitor’s log. 

“Even those who go to the White House and have a reception that’s great.  But their names are not published on the official list. Why?  Because Muslim money and votes are radioactive.”

Nihad Awad, ISNA Annual Convention September 1, 2012

Panel on Forming a More Perfect Union

The general rule established in many presentations was “Don’t Talk to the FBI”, don’t allow any law enforcement to enter your home or business without a search warrant and never talk with any police without a lawyer present.

Substantial portions of the convention program were devoted to vilifying three law enforcement agencies – the Intelligence Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the New York City Police Department (NYPD), and the Joint Taskforce on Terrorism.

Deceptively named, the panel on “Working with Law Enforcement to Uphold our Civil Liberties” was anything but that.  All three panelists attacked law enforcement for using various techniques to monitor individuals believed to be a threat to our nation’s security.   Additionally, each speaker cautioned that law enforcement agencies have had too much access to the Muslim community with disastrous results.

Mike German, former FBI agent and now ACLU Policy Counsel on National Security, Immigration and Privacy repeatedly warned against speaking to the FBI and other law enforcement. German advised ISNA members and allies that when approached by the FBI ask which division they are in. If they are from the FBI’s Office of Community Outreach or Office of Public Affairs, German suggested it was probably ok to speak with them.  However, if they were from the FBI Intelligence Division or the Joint Taskforce on Terrorism –German warned that they were not to be trusted and advised that individuals needed a lawyer present when speaking to them. 

Ms. Rabia Chaudry also warned the Muslim community not to speak with law enforcement without a lawyer, stating that there needed to be some new “rules of engagement.”   Like many other speakers at the convention, she expressed outrage that government officials would dare monitor any Muslims or suggest their involvement in terrorism. 

Not one panelist, in various sessions, acknowledged the reality of “home-grown terrorism.”   Rather, speakers and attendees alike mocked both the idea and Congressman Peter King of New York for holding Congressional hearings.

Chaudry repeatedly made it clear that the FBI, NYPD -who she called the “Big Bad Wolf”- and other agencies were not to be trusted. 

Chaudry works with the Saudi-funded front group Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, serves as an immigration lawyer, as well as a board member of the Connecticut ACLU and is President of the Safe Nation Collaborative.  As President of the collaborative, Chaudry is working with the Obama Administration to rewrite the training manuals used to teach law enforcement personnel about the Islamist threat to America. She and others also want to ensure the new training manuals are “culturally sensitive”.

James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute and co-founder and chairman of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign continued the rant against law enforcement and the Obama Administration, complaining that things are “seen through the lens of Israel.”

Zogby encouraged the Muslim community to use “old fashioned guilt” tactics to extract what they want from the White House, Obama Administration and law enforcement as a result of law enforcement monitoring the Muslim community. He referenced a tough letter he had sent to the White House as an “ultimatum.  

Referring to law enforcement, Zogby stated, you are “screwing up the world because you don’t talk to us” and then boldly proclaimed that

“This is no longer a white world.  This world is dominated by us, people of color.”
James Zogby, ISNA Annual Convention, September 2, 2012

Panel on Working with Law Enforcement to Uphold our Civil Liberties

Zogby a delegate to the Democrat National Convention, opposed reinstating language in the party platform recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel because he said it was pandering to the Jewish vote.  Zogby is the brother of pollster John Zogby.

Conference speakers estimated the Muslim population of America as either “2-3 million” or “7 million”, depending on which version suited the argument they were making at the moment.

Many speakers including Suhail Kahn focused on the work of Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and lawyer David Yerushalmi.  An extensive campaign was outlined to stop what speakers said was a growing public sentiment against Shariah and challenge Geller/Spencer’s media presence and busy schedule of public speeches in strategic states.

Of course, ISNA also included an angry rant about the dominance of Israel on the American political scene and set a legislative priority of eliminating all U.S. foreign aid to the state of Israel.

The focus of the convention’s program was on three key messages:

1. Refining Islam’s public image and presenting an apologetics course on what to do when confronted about the facts concerning Islam’s campaign to dominate the West.
2. Continue the barrage of attacks on the most effective law enforcement agencies (FBI, NYPD, etc.) and challenge their efforts to stop the use of non-profit front groups to launder American dollars on their way to arming and supplying front-line terrorists here and in other countries.  (Increasing regulation and scrutiny of electronic fund transfers is a grave concern to the ISNA attendees.)
3. Continuing efforts to affect official Washington while recognizing that local police and government officials may be a more fertile ground for winning greater control.

Memorable ISNA moments

CAIR’s Nihad Awad was a convention favorite, appearing on a number of panels.  

Awad outlined an elaborate explanation of Islam’s strategy for neutralizing Christian opposition to the spread of Shariah in America but concluded by stating “Of course, we won’t say any of this to the public.”…

“When they [Muslims and Arabs] speak up on campuses they have opposition. I assure you this opposition is moving. You know why? Cause it does not make sense any more. It makes sense with only one group of people. Extremists. Right wing Christians. Misguided. They believe that god ordains them to support Israel for the next coming of Jesus.

No God - neither God nor Jesus believed in injustice against Palestinians. We have to remind them it is very Christian, very ungodly, very un-American to support the State of Israel. We should test their faith. We should test their faith. But of course, in a way that is more convincing.”

Nihad Awad, ISNA Annual Convention, September 2, 2012
Panel on US Foreign Policy, Palestine and the ‘New’ Middle East

“Islam is a wonderful contribution to America.  The Constitution and Islam are intertwined.  America and Islam the joint venture, the integration, the constitutionality, the history, laws and institution.  The best story in the making is Islam in America.”

Nihad Awad, ISNA Annual Convention September 1, 2012
Panel on Forming a More Perfect Union

Imagine the outcry if a prominent Republican Party operative, an imam publicly dedicated to "building bridges" with non-Muslims, and three world-renowned Islamic scholars appeared at a convention of a group closely linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. You're right, there would be no outcry at all, for that is exactly what happened over the weekend, as Suhail Khan, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, John Esposito, Karen Armstrong and Tariq Ramadan appeared, along with Nihad Awad of Hamas-linked CAIR, at the annual convention of the Hamas- and Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

According to former FBI agent John Guandolo:

• The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is the largest Muslim Brotherhood (MB) organization in North America, created to be the “nucleus” for the Islamic Movement, according to MB documents seized by the FBI in Annandale, Virginia in 2004.
• Because of the evidence ISNA is a Brotherhood front, as well as the numerous financial documents detailing money going directly from ISNA and their banks to Hamas entities overseas, ISNA is an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest Hamas trial ever successfully prosecuted in U.S. history (US v. Holy Land Foundation), which was adjudicated in 2008 in Dallas, Texas.
• When ISNA filed a motion with the federal court to have their name removed from the unindicted co-conspirator list, the government stated that ISNA exists to be a financial support entity for Hamas. The federal judge agreed stating the government provided “ample evidence” and left ISNA on the list. A three-judge appellate panel unanimously agreed and left ISNA on the unindicted co-conspirator list.
• ISNA’s two key directors and its President, Mohamed Magid (pictured above), all work with Secretary Clinton and her office. So, the leaders of a Hamas-supporting entity are advising the U.S. Secretary of State.

But none of that stopped these luminaries, who of course do not hesitate to try to tar the defenders of freedom with guilt by association at every possible turn, while not hesitating to associate with a highly unsavory group connected to violent jihadis and pro-Sharia Islamic supremacists.

From the ISNA convention program:

I owe at hat tip on this post to none other than Nathan Lean, the threatening thug who works for another stealth Islamic supremacist, Boy Reza Aslan. Lean has his Tweets "protected," but has not, of course, reckoned with Zionist black arts:

Over at FrontPage Magazine, I discuss a disturbing event:

The conservative movement appears to be at a crossroads in its approach to the threat of Islamic supremacism—not only abroad but at home. Does the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood as the dominant force of the “Arab Spring” bode ill for America? Or is the Brotherhood merely another “political actor” as the Obama administration would have us believe? Is Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, a potential security risk worth investigating, as Representative Michele Bachmann and four conservative congressmen have suggested? Or is the mere raising of this question a witch-hunt, as Senator John McCain and Speaker John Boehner and numerous Democrats maintain?

A few months ago, these questions reached another flashpoint in an unlikely setting. The incident took place at an irregular board meeting of the American Conservative Union, an organization usually intent on keeping wobbly Republicans honest. The rump group in attendance — several key board members told Frontpage they were not even aware the meeting had been called – voted “unanimously” to dismiss long-standing accusations against two ACU board members. The accusations had been made by Center for Security Policy head, Frank Gaffney. Their focus was on the activities of Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan, two prominent ACU board members, whom Gaffney claims are influential agents of Islamist agendas. The ACU’s dismissal of Gaffney’s claims was contained in a memo written by attorney Cleta Mitchell, who called them “reprehensible” — terms no less damning than McCain’s slap down of Michele Bachmann.

Frank Gaffney is a former defense official in the Reagan administration and first made these claims public in 2003 in an article, “A Troubling Influence,” which was published on this site. In introducing the article, Frontpage editor David Horowitz acknowledged that Norquist had played an important role in the conservative movement, but also described Gaffney’s claims as “the most disturbing that we at frontpagemag.com have ever published.” He further characterized them as “the most complete documentation extant of Grover Norquist’s activities in behalf of the Islamist Fifth Column.”...

Heh. Just as Islamic supremacists and their useful idiots in the mainstream media such as Spencer Ackerman, Matt Duss and Adam Serwer are crowing over their apparent victory in intimidating the FBI into dropping all materials that tell the truth about Islam and jihad from agent training, Obama signs a law prohibiting FBI cooperation with Hamas-linked unindicted co-conspirators such as CAIR and ISNA -- which shows the hazards of not reading the bill.

"PJM Exclusive: New Law Cuts Ties Between FBI and Terror-Tied Groups," by Patrick Poole at PJ Media, November 22 (thanks to Wimpy):

When Barack Obama signed the continuing resolution this past weekend averting another potential government shutdown, it’s doubtful that he was aware that tucked into the bill, which funds several federal agencies through the fiscal year and extends the continuing resolution for the rest of the government until December 16, is a provision that may dramatically impact what Islamic groups and leaders the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can continue to work with.

Under Division B, Title II of the bill, under the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Salaries and Expenses section, is the following provision:

Liaison partnerships- The conferees support the FBI’s policy prohibiting any formal non-investigative cooperation with unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism cases. The conferees expect the FBI to insist on full compliance with this policy by FBI field offices and to report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding any violation of the policy.

The most obvious group that this will impact is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was named unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case — the largest terrorism-finance trial in American history. During the trial, FBI Dallas Agent Lara Burns testified that CAIR was a front for the terrorist group Hamas.

Following the trial, which resulted in guilty verdicts on all counts and lengthy prison terms for all five Holy Land executives, the FBI was forced to cut ties with CAIR – a decision that CAIR claimed would hurt local communities and that prompted other Muslim groups, like the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), to threaten to stop cooperation with the FBI unless CAIR was reinstated. In a February 2010 letter to members of Congress, Assistant Attorney General Robert Weich forwarded evidence submitted by federal prosecutors in the trial and court testimony concerning CAIR’s ties to the Hamas-controlled Palestine Committee and that committee’s role in supporting Hamas.

Stung by their loss of access to federal law enforcement agencies, some of the Islamic organizations named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case unsuccessfully sued to have their names removed from the list. In a 2009 unsealed decision by federal Judge Jorge Solis, the court found that the government should have submitted the unindicted co-conspirators list under seal, and ordered the list resealed (a hollow victory since the list is readily available), but declined to remove the groups and individuals named.

In fact, in his decision Judge Solis recounted the evidence submitted by the government that justified CAIR’s being named unindicted co-conspirator in the case:

The Government identifies four portions of the record from the first trail that purportedly established that CAIR was a “joint venturer and co-conspirator”: (1) a Government exhibit showing the objective of the Palestine Committee is to support Hamas; (2) a Government exhibit showing CAIR founder Omar Ahmad is part of the Palestine Committee and Mousa Abu Marzook is its head; (3) a Government exhibit listing CAIR as part of the Palestine Committee; and (4) the testimony of Special Agent Lara Burns and accompanying exhibits placing the CAIR founder at the 1993 Philadelphia conference and describing the CAIR founder’s mediation of a dispute between HLF and Ashqar over Hamas fundraising . (Resp. at 12-13.) The Government does not mention any occasion where it used the 801(d)(2)(E) hearsay exception to introduce a statement of CAIR. The four pieces of evidence the government relies on, as discussed below, do create at least a prima facie case as to CAIR‘s involvement in a conspiracy to support Hamas. (p. 6-7) (emphasis added)

But it wasn’t just CAIR among the unindicted co-conspirators that Solis focused on, but also the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which bills itself as the largest Muslim umbrella group in the country, and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which owns the property to more than one-quarter of all mosques in North America. Solis wrote that the government had “produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (‘IAP’), and with Hamas.” He also wrote: “The Muslim Brotherhood supervised the creation of the ‘Palestine Committee,’ which was put in charge of other organizations, such as HLF, IAP, UASR, and ISNA.” And also: “During the [1993 Philadelphia] conference, Palestine Committee members discussed using ISNA as official cover for their activities.”

What impact this new legislation will have remains to be seen, but it is clearly intended to roll back the Obama administration’s penchant for relying on groups identified by government prosecutors as fronts for designated terrorist organizations as partners for “outreach.”

Read it all.

But they were there. ISNA has admitted ties to both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. "Obama’s Iftar guest list omits controversial attendees," by Neil Munro in the Daily Caller, August 11 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The White House’s published guest list for this year’s Ramadan Iftar dinner was much shorter than previous years’ roster. It excluded the names of several controversial advocates who have attended the event in the past, including some who The Daily Caller can confirm did attend on Wednesday night.

“It was a squeaky clean list,” said Durriya Badani, director of the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, an annual event organized by the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center and the Qatari government. The guests on the published list are “not controversial at all,” said Badani, whose name is on the list the White House provided to reporters.

“It was a lot more low-key … It was a more intimate event this year,” said Haris Tarin, the Washington director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, whose invitation was kept off the published list. “I have no idea why they didn’t publish [MPAC’s invite] … I’m going to learn about that a little bit more,” he told The Daily Caller.

Mohamed Magid also attended but did not appear on the White House’s publish list. Magid is imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque in Northern Virginia and the current president of the Islamic Society of North America. Along with MPAC, Magid’s two organizations have drawn criticism from a loose network of online critics who claim they are sympathetic to Islamist groups....

The list also excluded a few controversial attendees, such as Tarin from MPAC and Mohamed Magid, who is the imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque in Northern Virginia and the current president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Critics of Tarin’s and Magid’s organizations — including the Investigative Project on Terrorism — use the Internet to publish court records, translate Arab-language media reports, and record information released by Muslim advocacy groups in the United States and overseas. For example, court records now available online show that the federal government designated ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator during the 2008 trial of Texas Muslims who smuggled money to the Hamas terror group....

The Hamas-linked ISNA convention says it will show Muslims how to deal with "Islamophobia." If these poor victims really want to do that, here is an easy way. They can:

1. Focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Renounce definitively, sincerely, honestly, and in deeds, not just in comforting words, not just "terrorism," but any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means. In line with this, clarify what is meant by their condemnations of the killing of innocent people by stating unequivocally that American and Israeli civilians are innocent people, teaching accordingly in mosques and Islamic schools, and behaving in accord with these new teachings.
3. Teach, again sincerely and honestly, in transparent and verifiable ways in mosques and Islamic schools, the imperative of Muslims coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis, and act accordingly.
4. Begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach sincerely against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Actively and honestly work with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.

If Muslims do those five things, voila! "Islamophobia" will evanesce!

"Largest U.S. Muslim Gathering to 'Deal With Islamophobia,'" by Alex Murashko for the Christian Post, July 1:

The Islamic Society of North America meets for its annual convention in Rosemont, Ill., beginning Friday with a focus on how Muslims respond to Islamophobia, organizers said.

The Ahlul Bayt News Agency prefaced it story about the 48th Annual ISNA convention with this statement: “With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 looming, attendees at North America's largest Muslim gathering next month will be told that the best way to deal with Islamophobia is not to lay low, but get involved in politics, interfaith work and community affairs.”

The four-day conference includes guest speaker the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ. In 2009, Saddleback Church founding pastor Rick Warren spoke to crowd of some 8,000 Muslim Americans at the conference. Warren talked about the need to have more than just interfaith discussions, but to have interfaith projects together as well....

In this fulsome puff-piece about the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Miami Herald pseudo-journalistic propagandist Jaweed Kaleem, whose inveterate prejudices have shown through in his "reporting" before, tries to mislead his unlucky readers into thinking that ISNA's links to the jihad terror group Hamas are just a fabrication of Americans Against Hate, rather than something that has been officially confirmed by a U.S. District Court Judge and federal prosecutors. ISNA has even admitted ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, contrary to Kaleem's claim here.

Did Jaweed Kaleem really not trouble himself to find out any of that? Or does he just hope that you don't know it? And are journalistic standards so far gone that he can keep his job at the Miami Herald despite consistently turning in such shoddy, misleading, inaccurate and tendentious work?

Apparently so.

"ISNA conference draws hundreds of Muslims," by Jaweed Kaleem for the Miami Herald, January 8:

As a sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Feras Ahmed doesn't get many opportunities to interact with other Muslims outside his family and a close circle of friends.

So when he heard that one of the largest Muslim organizations in the country was convening hundreds of Muslims from the eastern seaboard in South Florida this weekend, Ahmed joined his brother, mother, uncle and two cousins on a road trip to Fort Lauderdale.

``I'm here to try to get a sense of community, to get involved in what's going on with Muslims in America,'' the 20-year-old said. [...]

Four months after a Gainesville pastor's threats to set off a bonfire of Qurans drew international attention to Florida, the Islamic Society of North America is holding a regional conference in South Florida for the first time, aiming to strengthen community ties and promote civic engagement among Muslims.

The organization, which draws 40,000 Muslims to its annual national convention in Chicago, is making a timely bet on South Florida, which has about 70,000 Muslim residents.

``There has been a lot of misunderstanding of Islam. We have got to get out there and show who we are,'' said Imam Mohamed Magid, the organization's president and a well-known figure in Islamic circles. [...]

Yes, there has been a lot of misunderstanding of Islam. Unfortunately for Magid, Muslims who misunderstand his peaceful, tolerant religion are committing acts of oppression and violence in its name virtually on a daily basis. Yet of course he is referring not to them, but to those non-Muslims who dare to report about their activities. He hopes not to convince violent and supremacist Muslims to live in peace with Infidels as equals on an indefinite basis without trying to impose Sharia upon them; instead, he hopes to convince Infidels to disregard the evidence of their eyes and ignore or misdiagnose Islamic jihad attacks and plots even as they increase in number around the world.

In a community where mosques and Muslim organizations are often divided along ethnic or geographical lines, the conference was notable for drawing a broad cross-section including Sunni and Shia Muslims and groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations and Islamic Circle of North America. [...]

A few hours later, Americans Against Hate held a protest outside the convention center. The small Broward organization accused ISNA of having ties to terrorists and of supporting Hamas, a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist group.

ISNA officials have denied such allegations, and the organization has formally denounced terrorism....

More evidence of Rauf's sterling moderation. "Ground Zero imam kicks off tour at Hamas conspirator banquet," from WorldNetDaily, January 2 (thanks to David):

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Muslim cleric behind a plan to build an Islamic center two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks, is kicking off a nationwide speaking tour by addressing the banquet of a group that is an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas.

Rauf's first appearance is scheduled for Detroit, the city with North America's largest Muslim population, on Jan. 15. Rauf is scheduled to deliver the keynote address to the so-called "Diversity Forum Banquet" of the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA.

ISNA is known for its enforcement of Saudi-style Islam in mosques throughout the U.S. It was named by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in its case against the Holy Land Foundation in Texas, which was found guilty in 2008 of raising money for the Hamas terrorist organization. Last year, Holy Land founders were given life sentences for "funneling $12 million to Hamas.

Rauf had previously refused to condemn Hamas in a radio interview. The chief of Hamas has also come out in public support of Rauf's proposed mosque near Ground Zero.

Rauf told the Associated Press he will tour the country in an effort "to inspire interfaith understanding" for his proposed mosque neat [sic] Ground Zero....

Recently an erroneous story circulated to the effect that ISNA and CAIR had been removed from the unindicted co-conspirator list -- see here. The story turns out to be even worse for Hamas-linked CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT, three of the most important Islamic supremacist organizations in the U.S. today: the judge's actual ruling has just been unsealed, and as it turns out, the judge reaffirmed the three organizations' links with Hamas. He was only taking issue with the publication of the unindicted co-conspirator list. "Judge's ruling on Islamic groups as 'unindicted co-conspirators' made public," by Josh Gerstein at Politico (of all places), November 19 (thanks to D. C. Watson):

A federal judge's long-secret ruling that federal prosecutors violated the rights of three major American Islamic organizations and others named as unindicted co-conspirators in a Texas terrorism support case finally became public on Friday.

However, publication of the ruling is a mixed blessing for the groups: the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust. That's because U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented "ample evidence to establish the association" of the three organizations with Hamas, a Palestinian group that the U.S. has labeled as a terrorist organization and with a defunct charity convicted in the terrorism support case, the Holy Land Foundation.

NAIT appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to overturn Solis's ruling and have it unsealed. The federal appeals court recently agreed that the ruling should be unsealed and suggested that parts of it went too far, but the appeals panel refused to change it....

A Jewish leader quoted below ably articulates the reason for reservations about the "twinning" project, explaining that "he and other Jews struggle over what extent they can discuss interfaith values with people who 'are on one side promoting peace and on the other side participating in virulently anti-Israel rallies'."

There is ample reason for alarm well beyond the participation by affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked ISNA in one rally or another. The fundamental causes for concern are the imperative in Islamic law to subjugate unbelievers under its sway, and the fevered pitch of antisemitism found in the Qur'an itself. And the Qur'an's grievance is with the Jews for being Jews, and not, of course, over the Jewish state founded almost one and a half millennia later.

The Muslim Brotherhood itself describes its agenda in America as "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

That is the Brotherhood's ultimate "interfaith initiative." This sort of thing tends to cast suspicion on other, ostensibly friendlier projects. "Muslim-Jewish outreach effort contracts following allegations," by Jay Tokasz for the Buffalo News, November 11 (thanks to Mark):

A national effort to forge better ties between Jews and Muslims has run into opposition from some Jewish community members who view the interfaith partnerships as a ruse perpetrated by radical Muslims.

An undercurrent to the "twinning" events in mosques and synagogues has had a significant impact in Western New York, where two rabbis who participated in last year's local twinning weekend have since distanced themselves from the effort.

But organizers here said the local tensions stemmed from entrenched disagreement over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and were symptomatic of the need for greater dialogue between Muslims and Jews.

Organizers put together more events for this year, including an interfaith scripture study session on Tuesday evening and a planned visit Friday to the Sufi World Foundation mosque in Orleans County.

"Good will and positive things will win out, and people will see what we're doing and become more comfortable with it," said Rabbi Drorah Setel of Temple Beth El in Niagara Falls, the lone local rabbi onboard with this year's twinning effort.

Rabbi Irwin A. Tanenbaum of Temple Beth Am and Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein of Temple Sinai, both in Amherst, had participated with Setel in the twinning last November but withdrew their support this year.

"I'm only saddened that it's become impossible to be involved," Tanenbaum said, declining further comment on the matter.

While it is "in the best interests of the Muslim and Jewish communities to work together," the twinning program was no long-er the appropriate vehicle for it, said Lazarus-Klein, citing concerns about the national organization of the effort.

Twinning was started in 2008 by a group called the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, in cooperation with the Islamic Society of North America, a controversial national organization that, over its objections, has been linked by federal prosecutors to an international Muslim organization accused of promoting Islamic fundamentalism.

In its court case against the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity accused of funneling funds to terrorist groups, federal prosecutors linked ISNA with the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide network considered by many Jewish groups to be stridently anti-Israel.

ISNA leaders have vehemently denied any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Lazarus-Klein said he believes the local twinning organizers are well-intentioned.

But he and other Jews struggle over what extent they can discuss interfaith values with people who "are on one side promoting peace and on the other side participating in virulently anti-Israel rallies."...

There is more.

A few days ago I picked up this story from the JTA, claiming that an appeals court had removed the unindicted co-conspirator designation from CAIR and several other Hamas-linked groups. It turns out that the story was false.

The actual ruling is here, and it doesn't bear out the JTA's story, or the story from the Leftist pseudo-news site Politico, upon which the JTA relied. Here is an explanation from Z Street: "Still tainted by terrorism ties," from Z Street, October 25:

[...] You see, the courts did NOT decide that CAIR or its fellow-terrorist-travelers are not actually terrorists or not actually terrorist enablers.

What the courts did was rule that the government should not have made public a document it attached to a brief in May, 2007, which the government then referred to as a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. The case determined that the so called Islamic Charity actually existed almost exclusively to support Hamas, the Arab Palestinian terrorist entity.

In fact, thank you so much to CAIR and to ISNA and to NAIT. In the course of trying to get the courts to clear their "good" names, those organizations gave the courts and the government lawyers nearly half a dozen opportunities to point out that the government presented evidence during the trial of the organizations' connections to Hamas. In other words - the fact that there was a violation of the organizations' Fifth Amendment rights because the organizations were publicly named as having close connections to terrorist entities in a document - and the organizations had no opportunity to defend themselves in that document - really didn't amount to a hill of beans because evidence was introduced at trial of those same connections. In fact, the government witness, testifying under oath, referred to CAIR as a Hamas front group....

Pamela Geller has more analysis here.

UPDATE: This JTA report was in error. See here.

This means CAIR is officially "moderate," right?

Well, let's look at the record: CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several of its former officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. Two of its other officials have made Islamic supremacist statements. CAIR also was involved in the Flying Imams' intimidation suit against the passengers who reported their suspicious behavior.

CAIR has attempted to intimidate the FBI and JTTF and dictate their choice of speakers, and in doing so retailed numerous false charges, defamation, distortions, and outright lies about me, SIOA, and Pamela Geller.

CAIR has a long record of duplicity and deception. Although it has received millions of dollars in donations from foreign Islamic entities, it has not registered as a foreign agent as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), despite spreading Islamic supremacist propaganda within the United States.

Although it presents itself as a civil rights group, CAIR actually has numerous links to Islamic supremacist and jihad groups. CAIR founders Omar Ahmad and Niwad Awad (who still serves as CAIR's executive director) were present at a Hamas planning meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 where they and other Hamas operatives conspired to raise funds for Hamas and to promote jihad in the Middle East. CAIR has steadfastly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups.

Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror:

* Ghassan Elashi, founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, in 2009 received a 65-year prison sentence for funneling over $12 million from the Islamic charity known as the Holy Land Foundation to the jihad terrorist group Hamas, which is responsible for murdering hundreds of Israeli civilians
* Mousa Abu Marzook, a former CAIR official, was in 1995 designated by the U.S. government in 1995 as a "terrorist and Hamas leader." He now is a Hamas leader in Syria.
* Randall Royer, CAIR's former civil rights coordinator, in 2004 began serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding al-Qaida and the Taliban against American troops in Afghanistan and recruiting for Lashkar e-Taiba, the jihadist group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai jihad massacres.
* Bassem Khafagi, CAIR's former community relations director, was arrested for involvement with the Islamic Assembly of North America, which was linked to al-Qaida. After pleading guilty to visa and bank fraud charges, Khafagi was deported.
* Rabih Haddad, a former CAIR fundraiser, was deported for his work with the Global Relief Foundation (which he co-founded), a terror-financing organization.

In 1998 Omar Ahmad, CAIR's co-founder and longtime Board Chairman, said: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

After he received unwelcome publicity as a result of this statement, Ahmad denied saying it, several years after the fact. However, the original reporter, Lisa Gardiner of the Fremont Argus, stands by her story.

CAIR's spokesman Ibrahim Hooper once said: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."

I wonder whether Judge Solis considered all this.

"Court removes 'co-conspirator' tag from Muslim groups," from the Jewish Telegraph Agency, October 22 (thanks to Abu Lahab):

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- In a decision that could inhibit efforts to stigmatize some Islamic groups, a U.S. appeals court ordered that a lower court's reference to a group's association with Hamas be expunged.

The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit released its decision on an appeal from the North American Islamic Trust on Wednesday. It was first reported that day by Politico's Josh Gerstein.

Last year, Jorge Solis, a U.S. District Court judge in Dallas, ruled that NAIT and 245 other entities and individuals had their Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination violated when prosecutors listed them as unindicted co-conspirators in the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation, which had been charged with providing material assistance to Hamas.

Among the other groups vindicated by Solis were the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America.

The government acknowledged that not sealing the list was an oversight, and further said its intent was to list the groups and individuals as "joint venturers," which suggests a weaker association than "unindicted co-conspirator" and does not imply that the entity had knowledge of the alleged crimes.

NAIT, which owns a number of mosques, nonetheless appealed the decision because Solis ordered the decision sealed -- apparently in a bid to protect the reputation of those on the list. CAIR and ISNA did not join this appeal.

The three-judge appeals panel ordered Solis' decision unsealed and expunged one reference to past NAIT associations with Hamas, but left in another.

By clearing CAIR and ISNA of "unindicted co-conspirator" status, the unsealing of Solis' decision could have political consequences, as a number of conservative and pro-Israel groups had used the label to tar politicians associated with the groups....

The Campbell's Soup/ISNA story keeps getting media attention, and now it has come to light that Campbell's is doing more with ISNA than just getting halal certification: it is partnering with the Hamas-linked group to sponsor an Islamic conference in Montreal.

On the 25th of September 2010, there was in Montreal what "they" have sold as the "Biggest Islamic Conference in Montreal History." Here is an English translation, via Pamela Geller, of "Campbell's Soup se joint à ISNA pour commanditer la conférence islamique de Montréal," from Point de Bascule, September 25:

Campbell's Soup is joining the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in sponsoring the Islamic Conference in Montreal. Campbell's is lending all of its prestige and reputation to legitimize a conference permeated by the Muslim Brotherhood in association with ISNA, an organization that is nevertheless still linked to the financing of terrorist activities in the United States.

ISNA is on the list of organizations designated unindicted co-conspirators by the U.S. government. Jamal Badawi, one of the featured speakers of the conference, is also designated an unindicted co-conspirator. He appears on the documents the U.S. government as "individuals who have participated in fundraisers for the Holy Land Foundation."...

FDI/SIOA today is calling upon Campbells Corporate to instruct all departments and personnel to undergo mandatory sensitivity training regarding unbelievers, non-Muslims, moderates, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, et al, and all victims of jihad.

We call upon Campbells to

1. Investigate ISNA;

2. Offer the infidels, kuffar, non-believers, and victims of jihad a formal written apology;

3. Review the documentation and evidence entered into the largest terrorist funding trial in human history, the Holy Land Foundation trial;

4. Participate in FDI's sensitivity and diversity training.

Pamela has more details here.

Merita Ilo of the Canadian Press thinks that concern about Islamic supremacism can be sneered away. "Soup and nuts: Canadian soup feeding Jihad?," by Merita Ilo in The Canadian Press, October 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

TORONTO - The controversial Ground Zero mosque in New York and Campbell's Canadian-made tomato soup have nothing in common, one would think.

Yet they're being stirred in the same pot by some conservative bloggers in the U.S., who say Islamic terrorists are behind both projects.

Actually, no one is saying that Islamic terrorists are behind either project. Islamic supremacists and stealth jihadists are not terrorists, although they share the terrorists' goal of imposing Sharia upon non-Sharia states.

Pamela Geller, who runs a widely read anti-Muslim site called Atlas Shrugs, is calling for a boycott of some 15 soups made by the Canadian subsidiary of New Jersey-based Campbell Soup Co..

It is not "anti-Muslim" to stand for human rights -- the freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and equality of rights of all people before the law -- against the Sharia.

The soups are certified as halal food, meaning they're prepared according to Islamic dietary laws.

Sold in Canada, the soups are certified by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which has been certifying halal foods since 1988.

But Geller claims ISNA has ties to terrorist groups, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

"No one is suggesting they not have halal food. I'm not against halal food any more than I'm against kosher food. My issue is who's doing the certifying," Geller told The Washington Post Sunday.

A number of conservative groups, including JihadWatch.org, have joined Geller's call for the soup boycott. A Facebook page called Boycott Campbell Soup counted more than 3,500 members as of Sunday night.

"But Geller claims ISNA has ties to terrorist groups, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood" -- as if she made it up. In reality, in July 2008 federal prosecutors refused to remove ISNA's status as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding case. Hamas defines itself as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.

What seems to be lost in the American blogosphere is the fact that Campbell's halal soups are not offered in the U.S., and the company says it's not planning to.

So what?

The company says ISNA was selected after consultations with professionals in the field of Islamic foods and nutrition, and with Islamic scholars.

ISNA has denied any ties to Hamas and has specifically condemned religious extremism and violence, the Washington Post said in a story headlined "A Canadian line of Campbell's soups has activists stewing over Islamic connection."

And the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist political movement founded in Egypt in the 1920s, is not included in the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations, the report said.

The Muslim Brotherhood "must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

That's from "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," a 1991 presentation by Muslim Brotherhood operative Mohamed Akram.

The New York Times has also published a profile of the 52-year-old mother of four, who critics say is spreading fear of Islam and a dehumanization of Muslims.

Apparently it is now "dehumanization of Muslims" to report on what they say and do. And of course Merita Ilo doesn't think that Nidal Hasan, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Faisal Shahzad and all the rest had anything to do with spreading "fear of Islam."

According to the NY Times report, Geller's Atlas Shrugs, which gets about 200,000 unique visitors a month, helped draw thousands to protests against the Ground Zero mosque project earlier this summer. She's also the leader of an organization called Stop Islamization of America.

It is not the first time Geller looks north for inspiration.

In 2008, she issued an appeal to raise $4,000 for a headstone for a Muslim-Canadian girl who was killed by her family for refusing to wear a headscarf, the NY Times reported.

Aqsa Parvez, a 16-year-old woman from Mississauga, Ont., was killed by her father and brother after a dispute over her choice of dress, her friends and other issues. The two men were sentenced to life in prison after guilty pleas last June to second-degree murder.

As for the impact the boycott calls have had on Campbell's soup business, the company says it has not noticed any effect on its sales.

Apparently Merita Ilo cares nothing for Aqsa Parvez or others like her. To care for them wouldn't be multicultural.

The source article for this ridiculous Canadian Press piece is "A Canadian line of Campbell's soups has activists stewing over Islamic connection," by Paul Farhi in The Washington Post, October 18. Farhi sneers as well, but not as much as Ilo -- and it's noteworthy that Farhi includes material about the Justice Department designating ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case, but Ilo ignores it.

ISNA has admitted ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. So why is Campbell's Soup rushing to do its bidding? "M-M-Muslim Brotherhood Good?," from Scaramouche, October 5 (thanks to Kathy Shaidle):

Campbell's Soup Canada is about to go halal.

No biggie, right? Wrong. It is doing so under the auspices of the Islamic Society of North America, a Wahhabi-funded racket that is said to have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood....

ISNA has admitted ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case. Several of its former officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. Two of its other officials have made Islamic supremacist statements. CAIR also was involved in the Flying Imams' intimidation suit against the passengers who reported their suspicious behavior.

The "interfaith leaders" who are bamboozled by these groups have only themselves to blame. CNN likewise should be ashamed of itself for reporting this story without mentioning the unsavory aspects of either ISNA or CAIR -- but in that CNN is just like the rest of the mainstream media.

"Interfaith leaders: Fear, intolerance emerge over Islamic center," from CNN, September 7:

Washington (CNN) -- Interfaith leaders from across the country will continue their push Tuesday to "address the growing tide of fear and intolerance" that has emerged in the debate over a Muslim community center planned near ground zero in New York.

In reality, we -- the opponents of the mega-mosque -- are the ones with the actual death threats. The CAIR grievance-mongers point to various recent incidents against mosques, but in every case the connection with anti-jihad or anti-Ground Zero mega-mosque activism is asserted without a shred of evidence.

The Washington meeting is being organized by the Islamic Society of North America.

"Participants are expected to release a joint declaration underscoring the clergy's moral responsibility in communicating the need for solidarity and compassion and to lay out a plan of action for interfaith collaboration," a statement from the group said.

The debate has been heightened by a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Opponents of the plan to build the community center say it is too close to the site of the terror attacks, and is an affront to the memory of those who died in the al Qaeda strike.

Last week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) launched a series of commercials designed to fight what it called growing Islamophobia. One in the series features a Muslim firefighter who was among the first responders on 9/11.

Opponents of the New York Islamic center are "trying to tell the world and tell Americans that Muslims do not belong here. That Muslims are the others, when we are in fact, all Americans," said Nahad [sic] Awad, executive director of CAIR.

"They're trying to portray Muslims as foreigners. This is a dangerous repeat of history. If it's allowed, it's going to hurt all of us," he said....

ISNA has admitted ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. The Muslim Brotherhood is waging, in its own words, "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

And now this thuggish, deceptive, unsavory group is sponsoring events for the Boy Scouts. "ISNA and ADAMS Co-Sponsor Islamic Scouting and Inter-faith Events at Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree," from ISNA.net, July 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

(Fort A. P. Hill, VA - July 28, 2010) The Islamic Society of North America, in partnership with the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) and the National Council on Islamic Scouting (NCIS) will join fellow Scouts and leaders at the 18th National Scout Jamboree which will be held from July 26 through August 4, 2010, at Fort A. P. Hill, Virginia, located near Fredericksburg and Washington D.C. in celebration of the first century of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

"Every Scout should have religion. Religion seems a very simple thing: First: Love and serve God. Second: Love and serve your neighbor," said BSA founder Robert Baden-Powell.

ISNA and ADAMS will be co-sponsoring interfaith events which will be held during the jamboree. Imam Izak-EL Mu'eed Pasha, Resident Imam of Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, NICS member, will deliver the sermon and lead prayers at the Islamic congregational services on Friday, July 30th at 1pm.

Interfaith prayer services will be led by Rizwan Jaka, ADAMS/ISNA/IFCMW Board Member and ADAMS Scouts Chartered Organization Representative, on Sunday, August 1st, at 10:30am.

Participants include Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and various other faith leaders and Scouts. Reverend Clark Lobenstine, Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (IFCMW) will be the special guest during the service....

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), quoted in this article about the convention of the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), has claimed that "anti-Muslim hate crimes" have risen sharply in the U.S. since 9/11. In fact, the rate of such crimes has actually dropped. CAIR knows well that victimhood is big business: insofar as they can claim protected victim status for Muslims in the U.S., they can deflect unwanted scrutiny and any critical examination of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and supremacism.

That's most likely why CAIR and others have not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating "hate crimes." They want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they can use them for political points and as weapons to intimidate people into remaining silent about the jihad threat.

"Muslim convention to shine a light on hate: Survey of 3,000 to track effects of Islamophobia," by Vernon Clement Jones for the Chicago Sun-Times, July 3 (thanks to Choi):

Thousands of American Muslims -- in Chicago this weekend for a mega convention -- are being asked to detail hate directed at them because of their faith.

"The survey will be asking about 3,000 respondents how Islamophobia has affected them and to identify where they see the most examples of it," Amina Sharif, Chicago spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Thursday.

"Chicago is a diverse metropolis, but that doesn't mean we're exempt from racial and ethic tensions."

Council officials will fan out across the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont to interview a random sampling of 30,000 Muslims registered for the 47th annual Islamic Society of North America Convention. Friday night, Gov. Quinn addressed the four-day conference, billed as the largest gathering of its kind.

Panel discussions will touch on a wide variety of issues, from building alliances with members of the Jewish community to exploring the ethical implications of stem cell research.

The variety of topics, said organizers, might counter the kind of stereotypes the council survey seeks to expose.

The research effort comes on the heels of the pipe-bomb attack of a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque. About 60 worshippers were inside. None was injured. The FBI continues to investigate.

Chicago has avoided that kind of incident. Still, the council points to 170 complaints of discrimination filed by area Muslims this year alone.

"In one case, a man was verbally and then physically assaulted in the grocery store," Sharif said....

Naivete. "Moderate Muslims speak, but they are rarely heard," from the Houston Chronicle, March 18:

Recently two events have occurred that describe opposing views of how some Muslims see the world. The reactions of Muslims in the United States to these two events will affect how their non-Muslim fellow citizens view this new and growing minority.

One of the events occurred March 7 when Adam Gadahn, an American-born "spokesman" for al-Qaida, called for terrorist attacks on American targets, including "mass transportation systems." Many non-Muslims will hear about this through the widespread media coverage it got and will wonder, "Where are the moderate Muslims among us? Why don't they speak out?"

But they have been speaking out. For example, the Muslim Public Affairs Council issued the following statement March 7: "MPAC rejects this latest call for criminal acts by al-Qaida, considering it a failed attempt to deliver its bankrupt ideology to Western Muslims, who have continued to reject terrorism in all its forms."

The Islamic Society of North America has also emphatically rejected Gadahn's statement: "American Muslims ... reject al-Qaida's attempts to lure our young men and women to their revolutionary fantasies. ... Adam Gadahn and his masters have deviated from justice by calling for the indiscriminate murder of vast numbers of people on American soil."

The other event occurred March 2, when Pakistani-born Sheikh Tahir ul-Qadri, a prominent theologian, launched a seminal fatwa in London condemning terrorism in all its forms. "Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses of ifs and buts. The world needs an absolute, unconditional, unqualified and total condemnation of terrorism."

This is only one of many such statements that have been issued by Islamic scholars since 9/11, but it is significant because it is one of the few that was issued in English and publicized in the United Kingdom, where most British-born extremists have family or cultural links within the Muslim community.

Regrettably, our news media will probably devote significant coverage to Gadahn's statements, and too few non-Muslims will hear of the condemnations of his statements issued by American Muslim groups, or of ul-Qadri's fatwa. [...]

We are part of a group of Jews and Muslims who have come together to understand each other's narratives under the auspices of Interfaith Ministries and the Institute for Sustainable Peace....

What could go wrong? Plenty.

MPAC was formed out of the Islamic Center of Southern California, whose leaders are known members of the Muslim Brotherhood. MPAC's Senior Advisor, Maher Hathout, has close ties to the Brotherhood.

ISNA, for its part, has admitted ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

The Muslim Brotherhood "must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- Mohamed Akram, "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America," May 22, 1991, Government Exhibit 003-0085, U.S. vs. HLF, et al. P. 7 (21).

And what more enjoyable way could they have found to sabotage our miserable house than to sucker the naive kuffar into buying that groups like MPAC and ISNA are really opposed to jihad?

Yet another Which-Side-Is-Obama-On moment.

"Unindicted terrorist co-conspirator promotes radical agenda at U.S. mosques," by Aaron Klein at WorldNetDaily, February 19:

A radical Muslim group that was an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas facilitated the controversial meeting last week between Muslim law students and John Brennan, President Obama's top adviser on counter-terrorism.

The Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, boasted in its website that it facilitated the meeting at New York University with Brennan. ISNA, whose members asked Brennan scores of questions during the event, stated the meeting was intended to initiate a "dialogue between government officials and Muslim American leaders to explore issues of national security."

The Justice Department named ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in its case against the Holy Land Foundation in Texas, which was found guilty of raising money for the Hamas terrorist organization. Last year, Holy Land founders were given life sentences for "funneling $12 million to Hamas."

ISNA is known for its enforcement of Saudi-style Islam in mosques through the U.S.

Discover the Networks notes ISNA, through its affiliate, the North American Islamic Trust - a Saudi government-backed organization - reportedly holds the mortgages on 50 to 80 percent of all mosques in the U.S. and Canada.

"Thus the organization can freely exercise ultimate authority over these houses of worship and their teachings," states DTN.

ISNA was founded in 1981 by the Saudi-funded Muslim Students' Association. The two groups are still partners. WND previously attended an MSA event at which violence against the U.S. was urged by speakers.

"We are not Americans," shouted one speaker, Muhammad Faheed, at an MSA event attended by WND at Queensborough Community College in 2003.

"We are Muslims. [The U.S.] is going to deport and attack us! It is us versus them! Truth against falsehood! The colonizers and masters against the oppressed, and we will burn down the master's house!"...