Recently in Muslim American Society Category

Is Wendell Marsh of Reuters clueless, or complicit?

"Islam is all-American for one U.S. Muslim leader," by Wendell Marsh for Reuters, March 20:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - - Al Azhar, the centuries-old center of Islamic learning in Cairo, is a world away from Oklahoma City where William Suhaib Webb grew up.

But it was not until the American Muslim leader immersed himself in Islamic studies at Al Azhar that he realized just how American he was, regardless of his religion.

"I didn't really have enough comfort as a young convert to really be who I was ... I adopted different cultural constructs that I had not grown up with," he told Reuters in a telephone interview from Santa Clara, California, where he is an imam at a mosque and runs a website aimed at Muslim youth.

Named in 2010 by an Islamic think-tank as one of the 500 "Most Influential Muslims in the World" for his work with youth over the last decade, Webb is now arguably the kind of moderate Islamic leader Congressman Peter King said the country needs when he chaired hearings on Muslim militancy this month.

Webb's positions on issues such as women's rights and religious community involvement are near the American mainstream. He denounces violence in the name of Islam, and encourages U.S. Muslim youth to be comfortable with their American roots....

The Reuters story never mentions it, but Suhaib Webb is actually affiliated with the Muslim American Society.

And what is the Muslim American Society? The Muslim Brotherhood. "In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004, via the Muslim Brotherhood's English-language website, Ikhwanweb.

The Muslim Brothers "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 God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.

Imagine if a Jewish or Christian leader was affiliated with a group that was, according to one of its own documents, dedicated to "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house" so that Jewish or Christian law would replace the U.S. Constitution. Would Wendell Marsh of Reuters be writing a glowing puff piece about the moderation and wisdom of such a leader?

Islamic supremacist contempt for the law in Brooklyn. The Muslim American Society is the chief Muslim Brotherhood organization in the United States. The Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated in its own words, according to a captured internal document, to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within."

"A Mega-Mosque Grows on a Quiet Residential Brooklyn Street: Why There?," by Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs, January 27:

On a quiet, tree-lined residential street in Brooklyn, the Muslim Brotherhood front, MAS, is building a mega mosque, despite the fierce opposition from the neighborhood and in violation of zoning ordinances and stop work orders. Why there?

Voorhies Avenue is a beautiful little street in Sheepshead Bay. Small, pretty, well-cared for homes line the street. There are no stores, churches, synagogues or businesses there. So why would the Muslim Brotherhood want to build a beachhead there? There are no Muslims who live on the street and not many in the neighborhood. Why there?

MAS has ignored procedure, flouted the law and violated stop work orders. They respect the sharia (Islamic law), American rule of law? Not so much. Check out the video -- why are they yelling to stop filming? What else are they hiding from the neighbors? Thanks to Logan for the video.

The neighborhood coalition that opposes the mosque wants to keep the street residential and quiet. Hardly unreasonable. The idea of a giant mosque, out of all proportion to the other homes on the street, is offensive. The traffic, congestion, noise, call to prayer changes the landscape of this otherwise quiet street. Don't neighborhoods have a say on what can or cannot be built? Don't neighborhoods have a right to preserve the sanctity of their streets and their homes? The MAS Islamic supremacists have been consistently dishonest. Their obfuscation, misrepresentation of the project and morphing mosque design hardly instill confidence that they are being straight about anything. And more to the point, why there?

They are ignoring DOB inspectors, complaints by neighbors and a stop work order, and are furiously building the massive structure in violation of code and certain requirements....

Read it all. And Pamela has more here.

Let's see. How good a judge of patriotism is Keith Ellison? Well, as I first noted in December 2008, Ellison's Hajj was paid for with $13,350 from the Muslim American Society.

The Muslim American Society is the Muslim Brotherhood's chief operating arm in the U.S.: "In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004, via the Muslim Brotherhood's English-language website, Ikhwanweb.

And the Brotherhood's agenda in the U.S. is subversive: the Muslim Brothers "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 God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.

So Ellison takes money from a group dedicated to destroying Western civilization from within, and then he stands in judgment of Juan Williams' patriotism. Give the Congressman credit for chutzpah, and hubris.

You remember when Rosa Parks took down the Twin Towers? Remember when she murdered 13 Americans at Fort Hood? Remember her Times Square bomb plot? Remember her Christmas underwear plot? Remember when she murdered a soldier at a Little Rock Army recruiting center? Remember her London bombings? Her Madrid bombings? Her Mumbai bombings? Her Beslan massacres? Her Bali bombings?

Ah, there I go again, eh? Painting Muslims with a broad brush. Muslims didn't do any of those things, you see. Even though their perpetrators were all Muslims acting by their own word in the name of Islam, there are other Muslims who condemn them, and so the ones who condemn them cannot be made to share the responsibility for all those crimes and acts of war. Right?

Sure. Except for the fact that the objective of all these acts of violence was to weaken Infidel polities so as to hasten the imposition of Sharia, and Rauf, imam of the Ground Zero mosque, is a proponent of Sharia. And not to mention also that many of these groups are linked to Hamas. So are they really an alternative to the jihadis? Or is their difference with them more about means than about ends?

"Muslim Leaders Stand by Islamic Center Near Ground Zero," by Anne Barnard for the New York Times, September 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Comparing the planners of the Muslim community center and mosque to be built two blocks from ground zero to Rosa Parks, leaders of numerous American Muslim organizations declared their strong support for the project on Monday, and said it should not move....

"We stand for the constitutional right of Muslims and Americans of all faiths to build houses of worship anywhere in our nation as allowed by local laws and regulations," said the statement read by Al-Amin Latif, president of the Majlis Ash-Shura of New York, also known as the Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York, which represents 55 mosques and Muslim groups. "Also, we stand against the racism, hatred, religious intolerance and ethnic bigotry directed against Islam and American Muslims."...

"Ground zero is all of ours," said Nihad Awad, the executive director of the [Hamas-linked] Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Ground zero does not belong to a specific group of people or religion. Ground zero belongs to all Americans, and we all share the grief, we all share the healing." He said it was unfair to associate the planned community center or all Muslims with 9/11.

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Washington-based [Muslim Brotherhood front] Muslim American Society Freedom, the civil rights branch of the Muslim American Society, compared those who want the project built elsewhere to those who he said told Rosa Parks: "We want you to move. You offend us being where you are. This is not the right place for you to be."

$13,350 from the group that wants to destroy the West from within

As I noted in December 2008, when it was first revealed that Ellison's Hajj was paid for with $13,350 from the Muslim American Society:

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 God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.

What does that have to do with Congressman Ellison? Everything. The Muslim American Society paid for his Hajj. And what is the Muslim American Society? The Muslim Brotherhood.

"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004.

Imagine if a conservative Congressman had taken a trip that had been paid for by a Christian group that was, according to one of its own documents, dedicated to "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house" so that Christian law would replace the U.S. Constitution. I expect we would hear more of an outcry than we are hearing about this.

But in this Star Tribune article, the controversy is all Pawlenty's opposition to the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero. No one seems concerned about Ellison's connections (he has also spoken to Hamas-linked CAIR, defying a Congressional warning) or what they might say about his motivations for supporting the mega-mosque.

"Ellison blasts Pawlenty over mosque remarks," by Jeremy Herb for the Star-Tribune, August 6 (thanks to Block Ness):

Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress, ripped Gov. Tim Pawlenty Friday for dumping on a proposed mosque near Ground Zero in New York City.

"I know he wants to be president really bad, and I know he's trying to appeal to the most extreme elements of his party to do that, but I hope he doesn't want to be president so bad that he's willing to dishonor the First Amendment and our heritage of religious tolerance," Ellison told the Star Tribune.

In an interview with Real Clear Politics, Pawlenty suggested that it's unpatriotic for a mosque to be built near Ground Zero.

"I'm strongly opposed to the idea of putting a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero -- I think it's inappropriate," Pawlenty said. "I believe that 3,000 of our fellow innocent citizens were killed in that area, and some ways from a patriotic standpoint, it's hallowed ground, it's sacred ground, and we should respect that. We shouldn't have images or activities that degrade or disrespect that in any way."

Ellison said that Pawlenty displayed "a profound lack of understanding" about religious tolerance, and he should apologize for his remarks.

"It's very unseemly that a Midwestern politician would try to divide New Yorkers and Americans on the basis of religion," the Minnesota Democrat said....

Indeed. Only Sharia supremacists should do that, once they have sufficient power.

The "Muslim rapper" is a smooth and persistent deceiver, and consequently this is largely a dialogue of the deaf, but Pamela Geller manages to impart a great deal of information despite his attempts to impede her from doing so.

Over at Atlas Shrugs Pamela has posted some background information to demonstrate the truth of her assertions here:

Pipes/Chadha: CAIR's Hate Crimes Nonsense:

http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=8559

Other anti-Muslim hate crimes that turned out to have been fabricated by
Muslims:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/07/hamas-linked-cair-trumpets-another-anti-muslim-hate-crime-that-was-faked-by-a-muslim.html

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2008/10/dayton-mosque-attack-hoax-update-can-of-pepper-spray-was-found-inside-the-mosque.html

There is more. Read it all.

Note how Ramey's demeanor changes from the first video to the second.

He denies that the Muslim American Society is the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S., but the Muslim Brotherhood's own website carries the Chicago Tribune expose from 2004 that identifies the MAS as the Brotherhood's arm in the U.S.

"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004, via the Muslim Brotherhood's English-language website, Ikhwanweb.

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 with good reason. The Brotherhood is dedicated, in its own words, to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within." "Controversy Surrounds Construction of Mosques Across U.S.," by Lauren Green for FOXNews.com, July 2 (thanks to all who sent this in):

They're separated by thousands of miles, but they share a common controversy: Mosques.

Murfreesboro, Tenn., has joined a growing list of midsized towns in the U.S. that are embroiled in conflicts over proposed mosques being built or bought in their neighborhoods.

Including Murfreesboro, residents have risen up against mosques in two other Tennessee towns; in Staten Island, N.Y.; Sheboygan County, Wis.; and the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, as well as the proposed mosque and Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero, which has garnered some of the most heated battles.

A new Quinnipiac Poll shows that well over half of New Yorkers - 52 percent oppose building a mosque near the 9/11 site. Only 31 percent support it.

Among ethnic groups, Hispanics show the greatest opposition to the Ground Zero mosque, 60 to 19 percent.

Among religious groups, Jews and white Catholics expressed the greatest opposition, both at 66 percent.

Those who support building the mosques say the opposition comes from growing Islamophobia, racism and ignorance.

Those who oppose adamantly deny that bigotry is involved.

In Murfreesboro, Republican congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik says she's not against the building of a mosque, but she does oppose the construction of an Islamic cultural center, which she says would be an Islamic training facility. "This has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with a radical agenda," she says.

But in Staten Island, fears that a mosque will become a breeding ground for homegrown terror are rooted in reports about who's financing the deal.

Residents of the heavily Catholic neighborhood are in an uproar over a Muslim group's plans to buy a shuttered convent and convert it into a Mosque. Besides concerns about increased traffic and little parking, there are disturbing reports surrounding the organization, the Muslim America Society, which is funding the purchase.

According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, MAS has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a 100-year-old movement that is widely regarded as one of the most influential Islamic fundamentalist groups in the world. Its stated agenda has been to spread Islam and Shariah law throughout the West. Some of its members also reportedly created Hamas.

"The Muslim American Society was created in the early 1990s as the de facto arm of the Muslim Brotherhood," says Steve Emerson, IPT's executive director.

He says the MAS and Muslim Brotherhood claim to oppose terrorism, but "behind closed doors they support terrorism and have defended various terrorists that have been convicted in the United States since 9/11."

But Ibrahim Ramey, the human and civil rights director for MAS Freedom, adamantly denies any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas or terrorism.

"There are people who don't like Muslims and don't like Muslims in their neighborhood who have been vociferously and consistently trying to link MAS with foreign organizations and movements, but that simply isn't true," Ramey says.

"We are not agents of Hamas nor do we answer to them, nor do we provide money for them, nor are we part of any conflict that they have with the U.S. Government, or any authorities in the United States."

Note the careful and evasive wording. There doesn't seem to be any explicit denial of a link to the Brotherhood, at least in Ramey's words as reported here. And no one was charging that he "answers" to Hamas.

Emerson says his group has documentation linking MAS with the Muslim Brotherhood. He also says MAS has been on a spending spree in the last two years, either buying property to establish mosques, as in Staten Island, or taking over existing mosques, like the huge Dal al-Hidrah in Northern Virginia and the very prominent Islamic Society of Boston in Massachusetts.

"The way to gain influence among the Muslim community is to control the mosques," Emerson says. "The way to control what people think in the Muslim community is to have the right imam preach the right message. So by acquiring these mosques the Muslim American Society gets the right to appoint the imam and distribute the message they believe is necessary to spread Islam around the world."...

Knock me over with a feather! "Muslim-American Organizations' Anti-Radicalization Effort 'A Sham,'" from the ADL, January 11:

New York, NY, January 11, 2010 ... As the number of American Muslim extremists allegedly involved in terror plots in the U.S. and abroad continues to grow, major Muslim-American organizations have publicly acknowledged the existence of a problem in their community and vowed to tackle it head on.

But the initial effort to root out radicalization - announced by a few of these groups in the wake of the arrests in Pakistan of five Muslim-American students from Virginia for allegedly attempting to join a terrorist group - has proven to be a sham and a cover for anti-Semitism and extremism, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) held a major community convention in Chicago in December 2009 where the convention chair called for an Islam "clean and clear of all extremism."

But the convention, which had been specifically identified by MAS and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as the venue to begin the effort to combat radicalization, failed to seriously address the problem. In fact, it provided a platform for extremist views, according to ADL. The Chicago convention, which attracted more than 1,000 participants, served as a forum for religious scholars and political activists to rail against Jews, call for the eradication of the state of Israel and accuse the United States government as waging a war against Muslims at home and abroad.

"It is shocking that this conference, identified by some major Muslim-American groups as the venue to start the process of reform at a time of growing attacks and threats by American Muslim extremists, was a sham and nothing more than a cover for the dissemination of hateful anti-American and anti-Israel views and anti-Semitism," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "The fact that it provided a platform for extremist views calls into question the sincerity of the effort to serve as a legitimate counterbalance to radicalization. No legitimate blueprint for change can emerge from a convention permeated by messages conveying hatred of Jews, the denial of Israel's right to exist and the idea that the U.S. is at war with Islam."...

Read it all.

Mahdi Bray, supporter of Hamas and Hizballah, is baffled

Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society just can't figure out how these young Muslims turned to jihad violence. The Muslim American Society is the Muslim Brotherhood:

"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004.

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 God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.

The Islamic Circle of North America is also a Brotherhood organization.

Are you starting to get an idea as to how these young men became "radicalized"? So am I.

"At Virginia mosque, a struggle to understand why young men may have held terrorist ambitions," by Bob Drogin and Sebastian Rotella for the Los Angeles Times, December 12 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The bungalow-turned-mosque has no sign out front. It sits behind a Firestone tire store and across from a busy Dunkin' Donuts in a working-class neighborhood of modest homes in suburban Virginia.

Members of the unmarked mosque struggled on Friday to understand how and why five well-liked members of an Islamic youth group embarked on a dangerous odyssey from Alexandria to their arrest this week in Pakistan on suspicion of seeking to fight alongside militant groups.

"Those are our children," Essam Tellawi, the imam, said in an emotional sermon to about 30 men and women who attended noontime prayers at the ICNA Center, which is affiliated with the Islamic Circle of North America. He added: "I could never describe the difficulties and hardships that our five families have been afflicted with."

None of the worshippers who gathered on a bitterly cold Friday had an explanation for how the five were radicalized. The young men belonged to a Muslim youth group of 12 to 15 young men that went camping, played basketball and performed community service projects.

"Our group never talked about politics" or waging war, said Mustafa Maryam, the youth group leader, who has known the five since 2006.

He called them "fun loving, career-focused children" who "appeared to have a bright future." He also called them "very goofy" and "laughing kids."...

The mosque plans an internal inquiry to see if the young men were secretly recruited by outsiders, or if they followed firebrand sheiks or extremist videos on websites.

"We want to know: What did we miss?" said Mahdi Bray, head of the Muslim American Society, an Islamic advocacy group based in nearby Falls Church, Va. "We saw these kids every day. In hindsight, what could we have done?"...

Well, Mahdi, for starters, you could institute programs in mosques and Islamic schools teaching against the jihad and Islamic supremacism. Once you've done that, get back to me -- there is more!

The Muslim American Society is the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.

"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004.

And the Muslim Brotherhood's self-proclaimed goal in the U.S. is the destruction of American society and the imposition of Sharia in this country. 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 God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.

"Man accused in Boston terror plot is son of former Muslim American Society leader: Father moves out of town weeks after son questioned by the FBI," from Americans for Peace and Tolerance, October 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Media reports on the Boston terror arrest have named three individuals as conspirators in the plot to machine gun people in shopping malls and kill American officials.Two, Daniel Maldonado and Tareq Mehanna, are in custody. The third, however, Ahmad Abousamra, escaped to Syria after being questioned by the FBI in 2006.

According to the complaint, it was Abousamra who introduced Maldonado and Mehanna to each other during an afternoon of watching "jihad videos" in which Islamic terrorists killed and mutilated American soldiers.

Abousamra seems to be the most extremist of the three, as well as the one most educated in radical Islamist ideology. According to the criminal complaint:

"Abousamra expressed his belief that suicide bombings were permissible. ... Abousamra found justification for his position in the religious writings of Muslim extremists. Abousamra justified attacks on civilians, such as the September 11, 2001 attacks. Abousamra stated that civilians were not innocent because they paid taxes to support the government and because they were Kufar (non-believers). ... Abousamra always justified their extremist views by citing Islamic teachings."

Ahmad Abousamra is the oldest son of Abdul-Badi Abousamra, former vice president of the Boston branch of the Muslim American Society, which operates the largest Islamic center in the Northeast. The MAS has branches in 34 cities within 23 states.

The Muslim American Society, according to Federal prosecutors, "was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America." The Muslim Brotherhood is considered to be the first truly modern Islamic supremacist movement. As such, it has spawned or aided most of the Islamic terrorist organizations functioning around the globe today, including Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Lashkar-e-Taibah....

Read it all.

Remarks courtesy Patrick Devenny:

Just as Jihad Watch predicted yesterday, Massachusetts Governor Mitch Romney’s comments concerning homeland security and American law enforcement’s inability to penetrate mosques have stirred up the usual vacuous condemnations from Muslim-American interest groups and their sympathizers in the press. The quote that has raised their ire is as follows:

''How many individuals are coming to our state and going to those institutions who have come from terrorist-sponsored states?" he said, referring to foreign students who attend universities in Massachusetts. ''Do we know where they are? Are we tracking them? 'How about people who are in settings -- mosques, for instance -- that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror. Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping? Are we following what's going on?"

To most Americans, such rhetorical questions from a possible Presidential candidate would be considered sensible. After all, mosques have long been recognized as hubs for jihadist recruitment and the propagation of extremist ideology. Alas, the Muslim American Society, never a fan of sensible discussion, authored this missive in response:

On September 14th Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney suggested the need to wiretap and monitor Islamic Centers as well as follow foreign students attending Massachusetts Universities. Governor Romney's comments suggesting that any of these centers are engaged in teaching doctrines of hate and terror, is not only a lie, but unacceptable and does nothing more but create the same hate and fear against the Muslim Community that Governor Romney is suggesting the Muslim Community harbors.

Note that MAS is against even the “suggestion” that mosques or universities with large foreign populations could have anything to do with terrorism (I suppose Al-Farooq in Brooklyn, which was sending money to Al-Qaeda, or the Lackawanna, New York mosque where a Saudi recruiter got six young American Muslims to join the jihad against America don’t count). The Boston Globe joins the moronic response to Romney’s quotes with an editorial entitled “Romney’s Slip” (thanks to MB):

Romney said he concluded this kind of intelligence gathering is a federal responsibility. In the absence of evidence that mosques are terrorist havens in the United States, government officials need to avoid suggesting these revered institutions are targets of surveillance. And federal agents should not wiretap any one without a court order based on strong suspicion of wrongdoing.

Romney also mentioned his fears about foreign students in the 120 colleges and universities of Massachusetts who come from terrorist-sponsoring states. ''Are we tracking them?" he asked. Again he concluded that this is a federal responsibility. Few students come from those few nations clearly linked to terrorists. Students from friendly nations such as Saudi Arabia, with influential extremist elements, need to be treated as potential allies and intelligence sources unless they show themselves to be adversaries.

And how would the wise men at the Globe editorial board suggest discerning whether such visiting students are “adversaries” absent a mechanism to observe them? Ask them?

This is not the text of the fatwa that was issued today, but it is a "Declaration of Support and Action Against Terrorism" signed by numerous American Muslim leaders. I expect it is similar to the fatwa, although we shall see. From the Muslim American Society's site (thanks to David Ouellette), with my comments interspersed:

Declaration of Support and Action Against Terrorism

We, the undersigned, Imams and community leaders, are responding to the call made by the Muslim American Society to purge Islam, our community, and the issues we advocate from the stigma of terrorism.

As those who have firsthand experience as victims of terrorism and its repercussions (bigotry, Islamophobia, dehumanization) we are determined to lead our community out of anxiety and beyond condemnations. We will increase our efforts to immunize our community against extremism.

We reiterate that terrorist acts are utterly criminal, totally reprehensible, and absolutely un-Islamic. There can never be any excuse for the taking of innocent life, and terrorism has absolutely no sanction in Islam. Nor is there any justification whatsoever in our noble religion for such evil actions. Our message is unambiguous: the authors of terrorist attacks and bombings are criminals, and we should not accept their justifications, whether ideological, religious or political. Our position has been consistent; it is anchored on solid religious, moral, and civic grounds. The Qur’an clearly declares that killing an innocent person was tantamount to killing all mankind and likewise saving a single life was as if one had saved the life of all mankind. (The Qur’an, Al-Maidah 5:32) This is both a principle and a command.

Once again, this does not address the Islamic perspective that denies the existence of civilians as a category, or which declares that civilians in countries considered to be at war with Islam are not innocent.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross meets the slick Mahdi Bray on PAX-TV to debate the prevalence of Sharia sentiments in the US. "MAS's Muslim Brotherhood Problem," by Gartenstein-Ross in the Weekly Standard:

ON MAY 14, 2005, PAX-TV's Faith Under Fire broadcast a debate that I took part in against Mahdi Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Freedom Foundation. Bray had selected the debate topic in advance, and chose to argue about "The United States of Islam?"--that is, whether American Muslims wanted to see Islamic law (sharia) implemented in the United States. While I unwaveringly agreed that most American Muslims don't want to see the United States ruled by Islamic law, I nonetheless jumped at the chance to debate this topic against Bray. After all, the Chicago Tribune recently published a story detailing how the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood operates in the United States as none other than MAS. So while most American Muslims don't want to see the United States governed by sharia, Bray's organization does. And while researching for the debate, I found that MAS--except in its most public of statements--is quite open about its agenda and allegiances. Even a brief review of various MAS chapters' websites provides a revealing look at what the national organization is teaching its members.

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD is an international Islamist group that largely operates underground and behind the scenes, with branches in about 70 countries. The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, an Egyptian schoolteacher who--in the wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and abolition of the caliphate--bemoaned the sickness of the Ummah, or larger Muslim community. The Brotherhood's response to this perceived sickness was to emphasize doctrinally that Islam encompasses all the affairs of man. As al-Banna wrote, "Islam is faith and worship, a country and a citizenship, a religion and a state. It is spirituality and hard work. It is a Qur'an and a sword." The group also emphasizes that Islam is a universal faith. As al-Banna put it, Islam "has encompassed all aspects of human life, for all peoples and nations, and for all times and ages."

Because the Brotherhood views Islam as all-encompassing and universal, one of its highest goals is to spread Islamic law. The Chicago Tribune explains that the controversial "ultimate goal" of the U.S. Brotherhood is "to create Muslim states overseas and, they hope, someday in America as well." Brotherhood members did emphasize to the Tribune that they operate within the laws of the countries where they live:

They stress that they do not believe in overthrowing the U.S. government, but rather that they want as many people as possible to convert to Islam so that one day--perhaps generations from now--a majority of Americans will support a society governed by Islamic law.

Read it all.