Recently in Muslim Students Association Category

Coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing has ignored admitted bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s connection to his college’s Muslim Student Association, a group that has close relations with both the Muslim Brotherhood and a local imam friendly with an al-Qaida operative.

Although a student leader and the mainstream media have downplayed Tsarnaev’s ties to the the group, Tsarnaev associated frequently with the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

The Washington Post on April 27 reported that Tsarnaev, who has admitted his role in the Marathon terrorist bombing to police, played intramural soccer with MSA members, contradicting earlier reports that the U. Mass-Dartmouth student spurned an invitation to join the controversial Muslim Brotherhood-linked student organization.

“For a time, Jahar played on an intramural soccer team composed of students involved with the campus Muslim Student Association,” explained the Post’s Marc Fisher, a fact that has since been missing from coverage.

In fact, Tsarnaev played soccer with the Muslim Student Association nearly every week, according to MSA Secretary Bassel Nasri in an interview with George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer on April 19, 2013. Nasri simply neglected to say they were MSA games. Although Stephanopoulos described Nasri as “a soccer buddy” of Tsarnaev, neither he nor Sawyer mentioned that they were co-religionists and that the soccer games were organized by the Muslim Student Association.

Nasri was later interviewed by CNN and again didn’t mention that he had known Tsarnaev through the Muslim Student Association’s weekly soccer games.

“We used to play soccer together,” Nasri told Piers Morgan. “We used to hang out a few times. We weren’t too close — we were more acquaintances than friends. But he was really mostly a pretty good guy in that sense. He would always like ask for — if you needed any help with anything. So I’m really surprised at the outcome of what happened in the past week or so.”

A day later, Nasri told 60 Minutes that he tried to recruit Tsarnaev to the Muslim Student Association, without any luck. He left out that the soccer games where Tsarnaev was a regular player were MSA activities. He even seemed to suggest to Scott Pelley that had Tsarnaev joined MSA more seriously, the bombing wouldn’t have happened. According to the 60 Minutes report:

These friends saw him two weeks ago. He was a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Ahmad Nassri and Bassel Nasri tried, without luck to get him to join the MSA, the Muslim Student Association.

Scott Pelley: Did you see him at mosque? You see him at prayers? Nothing like that?

Group: No.

Bassel Nasri: No, unfortunately.

Scott Pelley: Unfortunately?

Bassel Nasri: I would’ve loved for him to come to the MSA a few times so he can maybe understand his religion better. Maybe that would, that would’ve helped in what happened, I would say.

Assuming Nasri is telling the truth — he, along with half a dozen other MSA members and their faculty sponsor, Neil Fennessey, did not return request for comments — he is wrong about the Muslim Student Association’s not being a haven for radicalism, explains David Reaboi, Vice President of the Strategic Policy Center.

“As the first group established by expat Muslim Brothers in America in the 1960s, the MSA has a history of Islamist radicalism,” Reaboi explains. “At the time, educational grants and fellowships in the US brought large numbers of university-age students from the Middle East to study, especially in the Midwest. The MSA began as a front for Brotherhood activity in this country by providing cover for these recently emigrated Brothers to meet and connect.”

In fact, several Muslim Student Association students have been brought up on terrorism charges. In April 2012, Muslim Student Association member Tarek Mehanna, who earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, was sentenced to 17 and a half years for  conspiring to aid al-Qaida. Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki (a.k.a. Omar Hammani), a terrorist leader and former president of the University of South Alabama’s Muslim Students’ Association, was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted List in 2012.

The Facebook page of the Muslim Student Association at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth has over one hundred members and routinely advertises speeches and seminars taught by radical imams and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)’s Todd Gallinger, who visited the campus in the days after the Boston bombing.

UPDATE April 13: Nabeel Hashmi is either disingenuous or misinformed. His organization’s website (http://umaine.edu/msa/) acknowledges that it is part of the national MSA and the national MSA website lists (http://msanational.org/2012-2013-affiliated-chapters-list/) his organization as an affiliated chapter. Thanks to Cultural Jihad via Creeping Sharia for the info.

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UPDATE: Nabeel Hashmi has contacted me; he says that his chapter of the MSA is an independent group and has no affiliation with the MSA national, which is a Muslim Brotherhood organization.

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Events like this one happen all the time all over the country, and no one ever points out that the Muslim Students Association is a Muslim Brotherhood group. The Muslim Students Association was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. In "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991, the MSA is listed as one of the Brotherhood's allied organizations. And the memorandum explains that 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."

Anyway, if Nabeel Hashmi really wants to "break" the "misconception" that "terrorism is mainly associated with Islam," he should direct his efforts toward fighting against the jihadist understanding of Islam within Muslim communities, and working toward a genuine rejection of the literal meaning of the martial exhortations of the Qur'an, not retailing soothing nonsense to non-Muslims. But that is a road we have been down many, many times before.

"Islamic Center open house to feature speakers on Islam and terroism [sic]," by Judy Harrison for the Bangor Daily News, March 21:

ORONO, Maine — A California marriage and family counselor will outline the “Psychology of a Terrorist” at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, March 23, at the annual open house at the Islamic Center of Maine, 151 Park St.

Yassir Fazaga of Mission Viejo, Calif., will talk about what factors, including religion, shape a terrorist. He also will discuss “Misconceptions About Islam” at 9 a.m. Friday, March 22, at the Wells Conference Center at the University of Maine.

The programs are sponsored jointly by the University of Maine Muslim Students’ Association and the Orono mosque.

Fazaga was invited to speak in Maine after officers in the Muslim student group heard him lecture last year at a national conference.

“In this country, terrorism is mainly associated with Islam,” Nabeel Hashmi, 20-year-old president of the Muslim Students’ Association, said Wednesday. “We want to break that misconception.”

Hashmi, who graduated from Bangor High School, said that the student group and members of the mosque were looking for a “hot topic” that would be relevant and entice people to attend the event.

Vice President Abdulraheem Sbayi, 20, of Lincoln said the Muslim Students’ Association is partnering with the Honors College in an effort to broaden students’ education and to bring more cross-cultural involvement to the Orono campus.

“There are many misconceptions about Islam, but a lot of them are minor details,” Hashmi said. “There is a lot of mixing between religion and culture. We want to be able to help students separate the religious form the cultural. It is also important to have a more intellectual discourse about Islam.”...

"There is a lot of mixing between religion and culture." This suggests a common practice from Islamic apologists in the U.S.: to ascribe any negative aspect of Sharia -- the mistreatment of women, the oppression of non-Muslims -- to "culture." The idea that after centuries of Islam, the culture of countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are not thoroughly suffused with Islam is absurd, but credulous non-Muslims fall for this line anyway. In reality, as we have illustrated many times here, the second-class status of women and non-Muslims is embedded deeply within Sharia. But instead of confronting that, these "moderates" are much more likely to obfuscate it.

Now where would anyone get the crazy idea that Islam oppresses women or that Muhammad was a warlord? But never fear: the totally benign, harmless and truthful Muslim Brotherhood organization known as the Muslim Student Association is ready to clear up all your "misconceptions" at KU: "Muslim Student Association hosts Islam awareness week," by Rebekka Schlichting for the University Daily Kansan, November 4:

Muslims and the Islamic religion are in the spotlight this week at KU. It is Islam awareness week on campus, and the Muslim Student Association will host events throughout the week.

“The purpose is to educate people on Islam and Muslims,” said Iesha Kincaid, the president of Muslim Student Association. “There are a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions out there so we hope to show what Islam is really about and get rid of some of those stereotypes and misconceptions.”

Kincaid said some of the misconceptions of Islam include terrorism, oppression among women, disliking America and the Prophet Muhammad portrayed as a war lord....

Terrorism:

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of God and your enemies..." -- Qur'an 8:60

"I have been made victorious through terror" -- Muhammad (Bukhari 4.52.220)

"Oppression among women":

The Qur'an likens a woman to a field (tilth), to be used by a man as he wills: "Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will" (2:223).

It declares that a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man: "Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her" (2:282).

It allows men to marry up to four wives, and have sex with slave girls also: "If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice" (4:3).

It rules that a son's inheritance should be twice the size of that of a daughter: "Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children's (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females" (4:11).

Worst of all, the Qur’an tells husbands to beat their disobedient wives: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them" (4:34). It allows for marriage to pre-pubescent girls, stipulating that Islamic divorce procedures “shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated” (65:4).

Muhammad "portrayed as a war lord":

Muhammad said: "I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah." (Sahih Muslim 30)

But don't believe your lying eyes! Believe the MSA!

And he attended a local mosque and prayed five times daily. He wanted to mount his jihad terror attack to help bring Muslims "one step closer to run the world." What programs have U.S. Muslim groups instituted in order to teach young Muslims that this understanding of Islam is false and must be rejected? Why, none. And what does that tell you?

"Terror suspect's family says he asked to come to US to study; feds say he was bent on jihad," from the Associated Press, October 18 (thanks to Kenneth):

NEW YORK – Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis was a terrible student in his native Bangladesh, and his middle-class parents say he persuaded them to send him off to study in the U.S. as a way of improving his job prospects.

At the Missouri college where he enrolled, one classmate said Nafis often remarked that true Muslims don't believe in violence — an image that seemed startlingly at odds with Nafis' arrest in an FBI sting this week on charges of trying to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York with what he thought was a 1,000-pound car bomb.

"I can't imagine being more shocked about somebody doing something like this," said Jim Dow, a 54-year-old Army veteran who rode home from class with Nafis twice a week. "I didn't just meet this kid a couple of times. We talked quite a bit, sir. And this doesn't seem to be in character."

Federal investigators, often accused by defense attorneys of entrapping and leading would-be terrorists along, said the 21-year-old Nafis made the first move over the summer, reaching out for accomplices and eventually contacting a government informant, who then went to federal authorities.

They said he also selected his target, drove the van loaded with dummy explosives up to the door of the bank, and tried to set off the bomb from a hotel room using a cellphone he thought had been rigged as a detonator.

During the investigation, he and the informant corresponded via Facebook and other social media, talked on the phone and met in hotel rooms, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Nafis spoke of his admiration for Osama bin Laden, talked of writing an article about his plot for an al-Qaida-affiliated magazine, and said he would be willing to be a martyr but preferred to go home to his family after carrying out the attack, authorities said. And he also talked about wanting to kill President Barack Obama and bomb the New York Stock Exchange, a law enforcement official said.

Investigators said in court papers that he came to the U.S. bent on jihad and worked out the specifics of a plot when he arrived. While Nafis believed he had the blessing of al-Qaida and was acting on behalf of the terrorist group, he has no known ties, according to federal officials.

Nafis, who at the time of his arrest Wednesday was working as a busboy at a restaurant in Manhattan, was jailed without bail. His attorney has not commented on the case, but in other instances where undercover agents and sting operations were used, lawyers have argued entrapment.

Investigators would not say exactly how he initially contacted the government informant.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, whose department had a role in the arrest as a member of a joint federal-state terrorism task force, said the entrapment argument rarely prevails.

"You have to be otherwise not disposed to do a crime," Kelly said. "And if it's your intent to do a crime, and somehow there are means made available, then generally speaking, the entrapment defense does not succeed."

Nafis' family in Dhaka, Bangladesh, denied he could have been involved — he was incapable of such actions and came to America to study, not to carry out an attack, his parents said. His father, a banker, said Nafis was so timid he couldn't venture out onto the roof alone.

"My son couldn't have done it," Quazi Ahsanullah said, weeping.

"He is very gentle and devoted to his studies," he said, pointing to Nafis' time studying at the private North South University in Dhaka.

Belal Ahmed, a spokesman for the university, said Nafis was a terrible student who was put on probation and threatened with expulsion if he didn't bring his grades up. Nafis eventually stopped coming to school, Ahmed said.

Ahsanullah said his son persuaded him to send him to America to study, arguing that a U.S. degree would give him a better chance at success in Bangladesh. "I spent all my savings to send him to America," the father said.

Nafis moved to Missouri, where he studied cybersecurity at Southeast Missouri State University. He also became vice president of the school's Muslim Student Association and began attending a mosque.

But he withdrew after one semester and requested over the summer that his records be transferred to a school in Brooklyn. The university declined to identify which school.

Dow, his former classmate at Southeast Missouri State, said Nafis spoke admiringly of bin Laden. At the same time, "he told me he didn't really believe bin Laden was involved in the twin towers because he said bin Laden was a religious man, and a religious man wouldn't have done something like that," Dow said.

He said Nafis gave Dow a copy of the Quran and asked him to read it. But he "didn't rant or rave or say crazy stuff," Dow said.

"What really shocked me the most was he had specifically spoken to me about true Muslims not believing in violence," Dow said.

Dion Duncan of St. Louis, a fellow student and member of the Muslim organization, said: "Nafis was a good kid. He showed no traces of anti-Americanism, or death to America, or anything like that. He was a trustworthy, honest kid."

"He was polite and courteous. He was helpful. All the things you would expect from a good Muslim kid. He prayed five times a day," Duncan said.

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.”...

Creeping Sharia broke this story here.

The Muslim Students Association was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. In "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991, the MSA is listed as one of the Brotherhood's allied organizations. And the memorandum explains that 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."

"Brown Appoints California's First Muslim Superior Court Judge," by Sunita Sohrabji for IndiaWest, June 8 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

Halim Dhanidina, who spent 14 years as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, was appointed to a California Superior Court judgeship May 18 by Governor Jerry Brown.

Dhanidina, a founding member of the Association of South Asian Prosecutors, will be the first Muslim American on a California bench, said Brown, announcing the appointments of 17 judges. Dhanidina will take up his new role June 20, although he has not yet been assigned to a court....

The Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council said it had advocated for Dhanidina’s appointment for more than a year. “Dhanidina’s appointment is an important step in ensuring that California’s leaders accurately reflect the communities present in our great state,” said Aziza Hasan, MPAC’s Southern California Government Relations director, in a press statement.

Dhanidina earned his law degree at UCLA, where he served as the co-chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Law Students Association. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Pomona College, where he founded the first Muslim Students’ Association, and currently sits on the Board of Governors of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Los Angeles.

The Muslim Students Association is a Muslim Brotherhood group. The NYPD was monitoring it. So what? As long as no Constitutional protections were genuinely violated, the NYPD is just doing its job. The purpose of articles like this is to stop them from doing that job, which will have the effect, intended or not, of allowing the jihadist and Islamic supremacist activities of the MSAs to advance unimpeded.

Discover the Networks here has documentation of the MSA's ties to the Brotherhood, as well as a lengthy list of inflammatory, jihadist statements and jihad activities by MSA members.

"NYPD monitored Muslim students all over Northeast," by Chris Hawley for the Associated Press, February 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

NEW YORK—The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned.

Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles away in Buffalo and even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed.

Detectives trawled Muslim student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Asked about the monitoring, police spokesman Paul Browne provided a list of 12 people arrested or convicted on terrorism charges in the United States and abroad who had once been members of Muslim student associations, which the NYPD referred to as MSAs. Jesse Morton, who this month pleaded guilty to posting online threats against the creators of "South Park," had once tried to recruit followers at Stony Brook University on Long Island, Browne said.

"As a result, the NYPD deemed it prudent to get a better handle on what was occurring at MSAs," Browne said in an email. He said police monitored student websites and collected publicly available information, but did so only between 2006 and 2007.

"I see a violation of civil rights here," said Tanweer Haq, chaplain of the Muslim Student Association at Syracuse. "Nobody wants to be on the list of the FBI or the NYPD or whatever. Muslim students want to have their own lives, their own privacy and enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities that everybody else has."

In recent months, the AP has revealed secret programs the NYPD, built with help from the CIA, to monitor Muslims at the places where they eat, shop and worship. The AP also published details about how police placed undercover officers at Muslim student associations in colleges within the city limits; this revelation has outraged faculty and student groups.

Though the NYPD says it follows the same rules as the FBI, some of the NYPD's activities go beyond what the FBI is allowed to do.

Kelly and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg repeatedly have said that the police only follow legitimate leads about suspected criminal activity.

But the latest documents mention no wrongdoing by any students.

In one report, an undercover officer describes accompanying 18 Muslim students from the City College of New York on a whitewater rafting trip in upstate New York on April 21, 2008. The officer noted the names of attendees who were officers of the Muslim Student Association.

"In addition to the regularly scheduled events (Rafting), the group prayed at least four times a day, and much of the conversation was spent discussing Islam and was religious in nature," the report says....

Yes, and so? This is egregious, as far as Chris Hawley and AP are concerned, but when jihadis consistently explain and justify their violent actions by referring to Islamic imperatives, as the underwear bomber did just days ago, why shouldn't law enforcement consider it worth noting when young Muslims discuss Islam? What assurance can the Muslim Brotherhood-linked MSA give that discussions of Islam among its members differ fundamentally in character from discussions of Islam among people like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Nidal Hasan, and Faisal Shahzad? And in the absence of the possibility of any such genuine assurance, why shouldn't law enforcement be vigilant?

Wajahat Ali was one of the five authors of the hard-Left Soros-funded Center for American Progress's attack piece "Fear, Inc.," a supposed takedown of "Islamophobes" including Steven Emerson, David Yerushalmi, Daniel Pipes, Frank Gaffney and me. My responses are here and here; Daniel Greenfield and Mark Tapson also expose the sinister agenda and propagandistic, truth-free nature of the report. Daniel Pipes shows here that the amounts the report says that he has received from donors are inaccurate, and that the CAP takes in almost as much in one year as it excoriates the "Islamophobes" in several different organizations from receiving over a period of nine years.

And now there is something new. Wajahat Ali reveals in the video above (thanks to Larry) that he was a Board member of the Muslim Students Association. The Muslim Students Association was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. In "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991, the MSA is listed as one of the Brotherhood's allied organizations. And the memorandum explains that 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."

Might the CAP's attempt to discredit and marginalize all who are standing up to jihad activity in all its forms be part of the larger effort of "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within"? In a sane world, journalists would be challenging Wajahat Ali with just that question. But none of them will.

...The MSA bills itself as a resource and support group, a place where Muslim students can network and help grow the association.

Terrorism expert Patrick Poole, however, told CBN News his investigation of the organization shows it's being used for another purpose.

"The Muslim Students Association has been a virtual terror factory," said Poole. "Time after time after time again, we see these terrorists -- and not just fringe members: these are MSA leaders, MSA presidents, MSA national presidents -- who've been implicated, charged and convicted in terrorist plots."

The roll call includes Anwar al-Awlaki, the al Qaeda cleric linked to terror plots from Fort Hood to Times Square and beyond.

Awlaki, now a target for assasination by the U.S. government, was president of the MSA at Colorado State University in the mid-1990s.

Then there is Ramy Zamzam. Before his conviction in Pakistan last year for attempting to join the Taliban and kill American troops, Zamzam was president of the MSA's Washington, D.C., council.

Omar Hammami, a leader of the al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia, is another MSA alum. He was once president of the group's chapter at the University of South Alabama.

And the list goes on.

Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was national president of the MSA during the 1980s, was al Qaeda's top fundraiser in America and is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence.

Radical Islam Incubator

The MSA is a supposedly "mainstream" group that has long operated on college campuses from coast to coast. Yet a 2007 New York Police Department report identified the organization as an "incubator" for Islamic radicalism.

Former FBI Special Agent John Guandolo told CBN News that the problem can be traced back to the group's roots in the Muslim Brotherhood -- a jihadist movement that seeks to establish Islamic Sharia law worldwide.

"The MSA serves as a recruitment tool to bring Muslims into the Brotherhood," Guandolo said. "Which was its original purpose: to evaluate Muslims and to bring them into the Brotherhood and to recruit non-Muslims into Islam as a dawa entity, giving them the call to Islam."

Guandolo worked on several major terrorism cases for the FBI. He calls the MSA the "focal point" for the Muslim Brotherhood in America.

"Their goal, both from their senior leaders, presidents of MSA's around the country, national leadership, is to implement Islamic government here in the United States," he explained. "And they say that."

Founded in 1963 at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, the MSA quickly spread to other campuses in the Midwest.

"There were really three leaders, three Iraqi guys: Jamal Barzinji, Ahmed Totonji, and Hisam Altalib, who really set it up, who are known, identified Muslim Brotherhood leaders," said Poole. "And from there, MSA became the mother ship of all the Muslim Brotherhood front groups."

Rabidly Anti-Israel

In 2004, the FBI uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a Brotherhood leader identified the MSA as one of "our organizations and the organizations of our friends."

Part of the MSA's on-campus strategy is to aggressively confront pro-Israel speakers.

The Muslim Students Union at the University of California-Irvine, an MSA affiliate, was suspended by the school after members repeatedly heckled Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren during a speech in 2010.

That video and recent coverage can be found here.

Another MSA member endorsed genocide against Jews in May 2010 during an exchange with conservative commentator David Horowitz at the University of California-Davis.

"I am a Jew," Horowitz said. "The head of Hezbollah has said that he hopes that we will gather in Israel so he doesn't have to hunt us down globally. For or against it?"

"For it," the MSA member answered firmly, in front of a stunned crowd....

Tell me again how the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Muslim Students Association is not a subversive organization.

Video thanks to Christopher.

And beer money at that. That's all it is. Anheuser-Busch wants to keep itself in clydesdales, so it opposes Sharia. It's all about the beer money, friends.

There are just a few things wrong with that theory -- for one thing, I don't recall Anheuser-Busch ever being involved in any anti-Sharia, pro-freedom initiative. And even if it were involved in such activities, that would not in the slightest mean that it was all about the beer money. The Muslim Brotherhood-linked MSA would have you believe that no one is particularly upset about stonings, amputations, female genital mutilation, honor killing, dhimmitude, the death penalty for apostasy, the denial of the freedom of speech, the jihad violence, the threats, the arrogance, the hatred -- no, none of that matters! Just don't touch my beer money!

"Islamic Awareness Lecture: 'Sharia: a threat to the west,'” by Rayan Elkheir in the Chicago Flame, February 28:

Decked out in bright yellow shirts that read the common Islamic greeting ‘assalamu alaikum', meaning ‘peace be upon you', members of the Muslim Student Association were anything but shy in making Islamic Awareness Week known to the UIC campus. Though the snowpocalypse did put a halt to the abundance of enlightening lectures and concluding dinner, members of the MSA are more than confident that the week-long event, aimed to inform non-Muslims about Islam, will continue later on in the semester.

Prior to the Blizzard of the Decade, six lectures ran on Monday, February 7 and Tuesday, February 8. The lecture, "Sharia: A threat to the west," was given by African-American Islamic leader, Abdullah Madyon, who revealed the hidden fears of Islam that, according to him, are rooted more in matters of money than in matters of security. At times light-hearted and humorous, and at others very serious, Madyon discussed three themes: who Islam is a threat to, why it is a threat to them, and why Islam refuses to compromise itself in order to dispel unrelenting fears.

According to Madyon, a prime example of who Islam is a threat to would be the corporate executives of, believe it or not, baseball teams. At every Cubs game, about 40,000 fans show up without fail. Madyon went on to elaborate that alcohol consumption is involved at sports watching events. Supposing that half of the audience are under-age or simply choose not to drink, roughly 20,000 or more of that audience pool will buy beer—roughly two beers per person. One beer costs five dollars, so two per person totals ten dollars for alcohol expenses. Ten dollars times the 20,000 people at every Cubs game buying this beer makes $200,000. That's a fifth of a million dollars made at one hypothetical Cubs game. With 162 baseball games in one season, the makers of Anheuser-Busch are making $32,400,000 just on baseball. Madyon goes on to state that sixty percent of beer sold annually is bought between Christmas and New Year's. Add the money made from various other sporting events and it becomes clear that the executives of Anheuser-Busch are rolling in beer bread.

Upon hearing the lecture, Malak Awad, a junior, interpreted Madyon's theories to mean that "principles in Islam affecting the commercial industry in the west are the reason why Islam is seen as a threat to countries that thrive on the commercial industry."

One of these Islamic principles is the belief that drinking any alcohol is forbidden, but to say that all Muslims don't drink would be false. As in any religion, the followers are human, and don't necessarily adhere to every rule they believe they're supposed to. According to the Quran, which is upheld as holy in Islamd [sic], drinking is forbidden. How could this possibly be a threat to Anheauser-Busch and how could Anheauser-Busch [sic] have anything to do with the vilification of Muslims? According to Madyon, the answer to both these questions is: the executives of Anheauser-Busch [sic] like money - a lot. The executives of this corporation and others like it make their money by selling beer. Madyon argues that if a "foreign" religion comes into town telling the people to stop drinking the very product by which these execs make their money, it's a problem.

Madyon has a theory that very rich men who see Islam as a threat have every reason in the world to throw just a little bit of cash towards news corporations, discrediting the very people who might just have the capacity to lower profits—one convert at a time....

Boo!

The Muslim Student Association is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamic organization that is dedicated (in its own words as recorded in a captured internal document) to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within." The MSA at Texas A&M, where I am speaking tonight, was invited to bring in a speaker to debate me, but they refused. And now they're showing the depth of their commitment to honest discussion and dialogue. This message went out from the Texas A&M MSA yesterday:

Assalamu Alaikum,

As many of you know Robert Spencer is coming to Texas A&M tomorrow. We as an MSA would encourage you NOT to attend because he will just bash Islam. The Prophet(S) has taught us not to listen to slander about our religion. However if you choose to go, we would highly encourage you not to speak up or make any remarks or even ask questions. The reason being is that this guy is very smart in how he plays his cards. He will mention a quote which might require a twenty minute refutation. The moderators will not give you twenty minutes to make that refutation, thus Spencer wins in the eyes of the audience and again will make his point stronger.

We as an MSA are continuously working in a proactive approach to create awareness about Islam. That includes the event that is TONIGHT in Rudder 601 at 615pm about the Islamic Contributions and others which we will announce them once they are ready.

Jazakum Allah Khair and thanks for the support.

Once again, one would think that if I were really so wrong about Islamic supremacism and jihad as they claim, they'd be able to find someone to wipe the floor with me and end my baneful influence forever, or destroy my case with a few pointed questions. Instead, they hurl abuse and false allegations, flee from discussion and debate, and present their own farrago for the easy marks on campus. The one thing they don't do is prove me wrong.

In Human Events today I discuss the MSA's non-condemnation of the Muslim UCSD student's endorsement of genocide:

A Muslim student at the University of California at San Diego last week endorsed a new genocide of Jews. Although one can only imagine the media hue and cry had a conservative student said this, the liberal media has not found Jumanah Imad Albahri's statement fit to print. However, the UC-San Diego chapter of the Muslim Student Association did feel it necessary to issue a "clarification," which only muddied the waters further and raised questions about the prevalence of Islamic anti-Semitism and supremacism among Muslims in the United States.

It all started when the veteran conservative activist David Horowitz, during the question-and-answer period after his talk at the university, asked Albahri: "The head of Hezbollah has said that he hopes that we will gather in Israel so he doesn't have to hunt us down globally. For or against it?" Albahri answered with a straightforward endorsement of genocide: "For it."

The Muslim Student Association is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamic organization that is dedicated (in its own words as recorded in a captured internal document) to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within." And so it is perhaps not surprising that the MSA's press release in the wake of Albahri's remark reeks of disingenuousness and damage control, but doesn't get around to condemning Hamas and Hezbollah (as Horowitz had asked Albahri to do), or even to condemning Albahri's endorsement of genocide.

But the USCD MSA did manage to condemn "all groups or organizations, whether state or non-state actors, who target civilians or target a civilian population to impose collective punishment." Was it condemning attacks like September 11, or the July 7, 2005 bombings in London? Not necessarily. Jihadists have said that "there are no civilians in Israel." Thus a genocide of Jews there would not, according to this twisted logic, constitute the targeting of a civilian population. And it did seem as if the MSA had Israel in mind, since after explaining how the Koran forbade killing anyone "unjustly," the MSA statement added: "It is for this very reason that MSA has organized events such as our annual Justice in Palestine Week."

That sentence makes it clear that the MSA meant in its statement to condemn alleged Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians. They were not condemning Hamas or Hezbollah, any more than did Jumanah Albahri....

Read it all.

UC-San Diego student Jumanah Imad Albahri last week, under questioning from David Horowitz, refused to condemn Hamas and Hizballah and endorsed a genocidal statement by Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah. My article about this incident, and how Albahri was merely reflecting mainstream Islamic teachings, is here. Now the UCSD chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood entity known the Muslim Students Association has issued a clever and deceptive pseudo-condemnation of Albahri's endorsement of genocide. (Thanks to Stephen.)

MSA Press Release In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Muslim Student Association
University of California, San Diego

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(La Jolla, CA 5/14/2010) The Muslim Students Association of UCSD would like to clearly define its stance on the issue of which organizations and groups it condemns and condones, to ensure that no one else attempts to define our stance for us. The MSA at UCSD condemns all groups or organizations, whether state or non-state actors, who target civilians or target a civilian population to impose collective punishment.

Jihadists have said "There are no civilians in Israel." So is the MSA condemning the killing of Israeli civilians or not?

We are instructed with a valuable truth enshrined in the Qur'an - that 'if anyone kills a human being unjustly, it is as though he or she has killed all humanity, and if anyone saves (even) one life, it is as though he or she has saved all humanity' (Holy Qur'an 5:32).

The key word in that passage is, of course, "unjustly." And the next verse, Qur'an 5:33, calls for those who make war against Allah and Muhammad to be crucified or have their hand and foot amputated on opposite sides. Does the MSA endorse these barbaric punishments?

It is for this very reason that MSA has organized events such as our annual Justice in Palestine Week.

That sentence makes it clear that the MSA is here condemning alleged Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians. They're not condemning Hamas or Hizballah, any more than did Albahri.

No single member of our student organization can speak exclusively on behalf of our MSA or other MSAs across the United States.

Fine. But to imply (not state explicitly) that Jumanah Imad Albahri does not speak for the UCSD MSA or for all the MSA chapters is not the same as saying that the UCSD MSA or the MSA as a whole condemns her endorsement of genocide. There is no such condemnation in this entire document.

The mission of the UCSD MSA is clear: to provide an environment of understanding that would foster the principles of community between Muslims and non-Muslims through education. We strive towards creating a community that promotes justice and equality for all people, regardless of religion, race, gender, or ethnicity.

This week the MSA has hosted Justice in Palestine Week 2010 at UC San Diego, dedicated to raising awareness about the apartheid crisis in Palestine. The crisis is at its core a humanitarian issue, and as such we, the Muslim Students Association, condemn the labeling of this human rights effort as a "Hitler Youth Week" in the words of a recently invited speaker. We will forever uphold the Qur'anic commandment to 'stand out firmly for justice as God's witnesses, even if it be against our own selves' (Holy Qur'an 4:135). We thus condemn the loss of all innocent lives, as well as all groups, whether state or non-state actors, that advocate and perpetuate the killing of innocent civilians. Specifically, we condemn all Palestinian factions that have rejoiced in the killing of innocent Israeli civilians just as much as we condemn the indiscriminate murder of hundreds of innocent Palestinian civilians during Israeli military aggression. We reject the current apartheid system in Palestine-Israel that discriminates against people based on their ethnicity and race.

The key word here is "innocent." Many Muslims consider no non-Muslim to be innocent, and certainly no Israeli to be innocent. Thus to condemn the killing of innocent civilians in Israel is quite possibly to condemn no killing at all.

We believe that Israel has a due right to be in accordance with international law, which demands an end to occupation in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, ensures the complete security and full equal rights of all Israel's citizens, whether Jewish or Arab, and guarantees a just settlement concerning the return of displaced Palestinian refugees.

Note that this apparent endorsement of Israel's right to exist is actually just a demand for concessions on the part of Israel that, if made, would ultimately destroy the Jewish State altogether.

As the civil rights activist Malcolm X once said, "I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."

In that case, if Malcolm X were alive today and consistent, he would not be for the UCSD MSA.

In FrontPage for Friday I discuss the recent endorsement of genocide by a Muslim student at UCSD:

UC-San Diego student Jumanah Imad Albahri last week, under questioning from David Horowitz, refused to condemn Hamas and Hizballah and endorsed a genocidal statement by Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Many were shocked. Albahri's statement is being treated as a singular utterance, a lapse that has nothing to do with the Muslim Students Association of which she is a part, and certainly not with Islam as a whole.

Unfortunately, Albahri's support for genocide of the Jews doesn't reveal that she is a closet Nazi, but that she is an entirely mainstream Muslim. Genocidal statements are painfully common from Muslim leaders today. On January 29, Palestinian Authority TV, which is controlled by the ostensibly moderate Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, broadcast a Friday mosque sermon containing this reference to the notorious genocidal hadith in which Muhammad says that the end times would not come until Muslims started murdering Jews: "The Prophet says: 'You shall fight the Jews and kill them, until the tree and the stone will speak and say: "Oh Muslim, Oh servant of Allah"' -- the tree and the stone will not say, 'Oh Arab,' they will say, 'Oh Muslim.' And they will not say, 'Where are the millions?' and will not say, 'Where is the Arab nation?' Rather, they will say, 'Oh Muslim, Oh servant of Allah -- there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' Except for the Gharqad tree, which is the tree of the Jews. Thus, this land will be liberated only by means of Jihad."

In the original hadith, Muhammad says that "the last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews" (Sahih Muslim 6985).

If the "last hour" will not come until Muslims start murdering Jews wholesale, then what's to prevent a pious young lady like Jumanah Imad Albahri from believing that speaking approvingly of the mass-murder of Jews, as Nasrallah did, is a holy and pious act?

Clearly other Muslims do. On January 12, a top Iranian official, Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, declared on Al-Manar TV: "We have manufactured missiles that allow us, when necessary, to replace Israel in its entirety with a big holocaust." And on December 29, 2009, Muhammad Hussein Yaaqub, an Islamic cleric, dashed hopes for the usefulness of interfaith discussions when he said this on Egypt's Al-Nas TV: "The Jews are our enemies. Allah will annihilate them at our hands. This is something we know for certain. We know this for certain - not because I say so, but because Allah said so. 'You shall find that the people strongest in enmity to the believers are the Jews and the polytheists.'"

Yaaqub was quoting from the Qur'an (5:82).

Read it all.

The president of OU's Muslim Student Association says suicide bomber Joel Hinrichs was not a Muslim. Oklahoma suicide update, from ChannelOklahoma, with thanks to Cindy:

NORMAN, Okla. -- The president of an OU student organization said he believes Joel Henry Hinrichs III was neither a Muslim nor a visitor to local mosques.

Ashraf Hussein, the president of OU's Muslim Student Association, also confirmed that up to seven people were either questioned or detained regarding the bombing death of Hinrichs, a 21-year-old engineering student.

Hinrichs died Saturday night after a bomb he was supposedly carrying exploded while he sat on a bench next to George Lynn Cross Hall, about 100 yards from Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where 84,000 people were watching a college football game.

While the incident and its investigation have spurred plenty of rumor and speculation, authorities have consistently maintained that there is no evidence Hinrichs belonged to an extremist organization.

More dhimmitude at my alma mater, where, of course, incoming students were made to read a partial and misleading translation of the Qur'an after 9/11 -- violent sections omitted, of course.

Now comes Daily Tar Heel columnist Jillian Bandes, who has been fired after writing a column entitled "It’s sad, but racial profiling is necessary for our safety":

I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of an airport.

I don’t care if they’re being inconvenienced. I don’t care if it seems as though their rights are being violated.

I care about my life. I care about the lives of my family and friends.

And I care about the lives of the Arabs and Arab Americans I’m privileged to know and study with.

They’re some of the brightest, kindest people I’ve ever met.

Tragically, they’re also members of an ethnicity that is responsible for almost every act of terror committed against the West in the recent past....

You also can’t debate that of the 19 hijackers on those planes, all 19 were Arab.

And you can’t debate that while most Arabs are not terrorists, sadly, most terrorists are indeed Arab.

Given this combination, I want some kind of security.

Done in a professional, conscientious manner, racial profiling is more likely to get the bad guys than accosting my 12-year-old pipsqueak of a brother on his way to summer camp.

When asked if she had a boyfriend, Ann Coulter once said that any time she had a need for physical intimacy, she would simply walk through an airport’s security checkpoint.

I want Arabs to get sexed up like nothing else.

And Arab students at UNC don’t seem to think that’s such a bad idea....

Said Muhammad Salameh, a junior biology major: “I can accept it, even if I don’t like it. I don’t want to die.”

Professor Nasser Isleem, a man for whom I have complete and utter respect after merely two weeks of sitting in his Arabic 101 class, said, “Let them search.”

“It depends on how I’m stopped, but if it is done in a professional manner … ”

Then he nodded.

“There were Muslims in those buildings, too.”

Some people say that racial profiling will make terrorism a self-fulfilling prophecy, or that it’s somehow unfair to designate certain individuals as being more likely to commit an act of terror than another.

They’re wrong.

If 19 blond-haired, blue-eyed, Caucasian Jews had plowed into the World Trade Center with two jumbo jets, I would demand to be interrogated every time I browsed Cheapflights.com.

After each interrogation, I would offer the official a cup of joe, then heartedly thank him for his efforts. And I would not be any more inclined to blow up innocent civilians as a result of it....

Well. Profiling is ultimately of limited value, given the fact that "Arab" does not equal "Muslim," and that we are facing a threat from an ideology, not a race. Profiling would not have caught John Walker Lindh or José Padilla. Nevertheless, Bandes has many good points and makes them effectively.

What happened next? The Muslim Students Association fired back: "Columnist was offensive, inaccurate, disrespectful":

Our main criticism of Bandes’ article is not in what it argues but the way that she argues her point so disrespectfully. : “I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within one hundred yards of an airport.”

Although we appreciate the journalistic hook, it was an attention-grabber, sensationalistic and forced us to read the column; however, it offended us all within the same sentence. The image of naked Arabs in a public airport is not only truly horrifying, but it is also reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib photos where Iraqis were also “stripped” down for information about terrorists....

Our qualms with journalistic language aside, we take offense to the manipulation of the quotes from Arabs to support Bandes’ limitedly researched article. After we spoke to both Muhammad Salameh and Professor Nasser Isleem, we realized that they were outraged at having their views on racial profiling misrepresented.

For example, Salameh’s response to the use of his statements was “Quote me as I say!”

His quote from Bandes’ article that “I can accept it, even if I don’t like it. I don’t want to die” is an example of the journalist’s cut-and-paste method. In actuality, Salameh said to Bandes, “I’m not comfortable with it, I’m not happy with it, but I can accept it.”

The “I don’t want to die” part of the statement was given much later in the conversation in reference to Salameh’s Islamic stoicism in accepting his fate if he died in the World Trade Center — not Arab strip searches at airports. Salameh is, in fact, infuriated at the way he was represented in the article, considering his involvement in diversity activities and clubs (such as Psi Sigma Phi, a multicultural fraternity)....

Similarly, Professor Isleem was approached by Bandes under the guise of writing about Arab reaction after Sept. 11. After speaking with Isleem personally, we discovered that someone else had been misrepresented through Bandes’s faulty journalistic endeavor. Their conversation had been cut and pasted to fulfill the expediency of her article.

Had Isleem known the true subject of the article, he would not have chosen to be affiliated with the piece. Isleem is a distinguished member of our faculty and would never agree to be “stripped naked” if he got within 100 yards of Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Then Bandes was fired. DTH Opinion Editor Chris Coletta explained that it was because of Bandes' use of the quotes, as the MSA had outlined in its statement:

Might as well get to the point: I fired Jillian Bandes yesterday.

And not because I thought she was a racist or an idiot. She is, in fact, neither — and even if she were, I wouldn’t have fired her for those reasons.

I fired her because she strung together quotes out of context. She took sources’ words out of context. She misled those sources when she conducted interviews.

In other words, she conducted journalistic malpractice, and that’s simply not something I, or The Daily Tar Heel, will tolerate.

However, Bandes points out that she did not misquote anyone, and the MSA did not establish that she did:

But what I did was not journalistically out of bounds. My sources agreed with racial profiling, and I simply added my two cents.

I was also fired for apparently misleading my sources on what I was writing about. I thought I had made it clear that my article was about both 9/11 and racial profiling when I spoke to each individual.

As I wrote, I focused more on the latter topic. And I regret misleading them, even if I had no intentions of doing so.

But after asking each source several times what he thought of racial profiling, even if I did not explicitly tell them, I would’ve thought that they would understand what a large focus of my article would be about.

I’m deeply saddened that my sources have been harassed and have received death threats. I’m slightly put off by the profanity and hatred that has been thrown my way, and I’m extremely resentful for being called racist.

Join the club, Jillian: crying "racism" is a chief weapon of those who would deflect attention away from Islamic terrorism and what we must do about it.

Anyway, what we have in sum is this: a student columnist writes a column using flamboyant language that apparently embarrasses those whom she quotes, although she quoted them accurately. She is then fired after the MSA complains. But what is the MSA? And what about an honest discussion of the legitimate points Bandes raised? It has been rendered impossible by the furor over her even daring to raise them. And so dhimmitude continues to gallop forward unhindered: it is impermissible even to consider various ways we can defend ourselves against Islamic terrorism.

The indefatigable Solomon (thanks to all who sent this in) tells the story of Mariam Sobh, who during her college career was a member of the Muslim Students Association and an inventor of vicious anti-Semitic falsehoods including fabricated statements by Ariel Sharon in which he vowed to kill Palestinian children and rape Palestinian women.

And what is she doing now? Why, working for NPR, of course!

Another Islamic Awareness Week, this time at Purdue (thanks to the Norwegian Kafir for the link): "Group raises students' awareness of Islam."

The vice president of the Muslim Students Association is just hoping for peace.

"Knowledge leads to understanding, understanding leads to tolerance and tolerance leads to peace," said Hany Gabal, a senior in the College of Health Sciences.

Great, Hany. Terrific. Now are you going to provide real knowledge of what it is in Islam that gives rise to violence and terrorism?

The association is presenting Islamic Awareness Week from Monday to Thursday and the goal is to promote the understanding of Islam.

Every day this week the association has set up an information booth in the Purdue Mall to pass out information about Islam and raise the campus' awareness.

"Everyone needs to know about other people's religions," Gabal said.

The group is also presenting daily programs, such as evening lectures and videos.

On Monday, a video entitled "Beauty and Wonder in Islam" was shown.

"This video is about a British man who converted to Islam, and he discusses the proven existence of a creator and the meaning of life," Gabal said.

Another highlight of the week is the lecture scheduled for Thursday evening.

The lecture, "What Everyone Should Know About Islam," will be presented by Yassir Qadi at 7 p.m. in Beering Hall, Room 2280 and a question session will follow.

Samina Mohammad, a junior in the College of Health Sciences, hopes that these programs will not only promote the understanding of Islam, but also clear up misconceptions about the religion.

"We spread the message of Islam and clear up any misconceptions that have formed due to existing political issues and the often irresponsible material presented in mass media," Mohammad said....

Yeah, that mass media is bad news. I hear they even flew a couple of planes into some towers in New York, and said they were inspired by Islamic teachings. Scoundrels!

Yet another Islamic Awareness period. From Baltimore's Towson University TowerLight, with thanks to EPG:

The Muslim Student Association kicked off Islamic Awareness Week on Monday with a motivational lecture by Islamic speaker Abu Omar Irfan Kabiruddin.

Kabiruddin's message was simple: He wants Muslims to be proud and promote Islam as a peaceful religion. He expressed frustration with the perception some people have had with Islam since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"People are scared when a Muslim enters the room and that should not
happen." Kabiruddin said.

Kabiruddin believes the negative perception of Islam comes from the American media, but he also feels Muslims need to be accountable for promoting Islam as a peaceful religion. He believes non-Muslims will gain a sense of comfort toward Islam once they are educated.

"It's all about education. Taking it to them. Telling them about Islam!," Kabiruddin yelled into the crowd.

Islamic Awareness Week is designed to improve understanding about the world's second largest religion. The MSA hosted a movie night on Tuesday, and hosted an evening of "Women United" on Wednesday.

While many Muslims may be frustrated about the stereotyping of Islam in the United States, Kabiruddin said they should be appreciative of living in such a tolerable country. He pointed out that Muslims in America can dress however they want, and suggested that other countries would have banned Islam and kicked Muslims out of their country following Sept. 11, 2001.

Kabiruddin said being a Muslim was tough after the attacks because of all the hostility toward the Islamic religion. But he was surprised and touched by the cards and flowers he was sent from his non-Muslim friends to still show their support for Kabiruddin and Islam.

Kabiruddin wants Muslims to not to be discouraged about the continuing terrorist's acts in the Middle East.

"The terrorist's attacks we see overseas have nothing to do with Islam," Kabiruddin said.

Fine, fine, Kabiruddin. Now convince the terrorists of that.

Another point of Kabiruddin's speech was to remind Muslims to respect other religions such as Christianity and Judiasm. Kabiruddin believes all religions should respect and accept each other, even though they have different beliefs.

"We don't want to degrade and disrespect other prophets [preachers of different religions]. We believe in all the prophets," Kabiruddin said.

Of course he doesn't want to degrade and disrespect other prophets, but if he is an orthodox Muslim, he doesn't believe those prophets were "preachers of different religions." He believes they taught Islam, and their renegade followers altered their messages.