The unindicted co-conspirator and Muslim Brotherhood arm known as the Islamic Society of North America has shown itself — again — to be less than “moderate.” Yet Obama’s aide was there, and it was all apparently fine with her.
“‘Mainstream’ Islamist Convention Features Hate Speech and Hezbollah Defense,” from IPT News, July 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):
A top aide to President Barack Obama provided a keynote address at last weekend’s 46th Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) national convention, a gathering that attracted thousands of people and also featured anti-Semitic, homophobic rhetoric and defense of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
In her remarks, Senior Advisor for Public Engagement and International Affairs Valerie Jarrett noted she was the first White House official to address ISNA. She spoke in general terms about interfaith dialogue and cooperation. She praised her hosts for “the diversity of American organizations, and ideas that are represented and will be debated” at the convention.
And she openly invited ISNA President Ingrid Mattson to work on the White House Council on Women and Girls that Jarrett leads.
During her 15-minute remarks Friday, Jarrett briefly echoed the challenge her boss issued in Cairo last month about the changes needed to bring peace between Palestinians and Israelis. “Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed,” Obama said in his speech.
“Hamas,” he added, “must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel’s right to exist.”
Jarrett was less specific, saying:
“Lasting peace will require a concerted effort on behalf of the Palestinians as well to end incitement and increase security and by Israel’s Arab neighbors to take steps towards normalizing [relations with] Israel.”
That’s a significant shift since ISNA is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-support conspiracy and maintains significant leadership ties to its foundation 28 years ago by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America. A more pointed statement also would have stood as a powerful retort to extremist sentiments offered in other segments of the conference.
While many panels featured criticism of U.S. policy and law enforcement, one stood out for its hate-filled rhetoric, and ISNA officials should have seen it coming a mile away. During a “meet the authors” session, Imam Warith Deen Umar, former head of the New York state prison chaplain program managed to:
* Argue that key Obama aides are “Israeli,” proving Jews “have control of the world.”
* Malign the motives of Jews active in the Civil Rights movement.
* Portray the Holocaust as punishment of Jews for being “serially disobedient to Allah.”
* Insinuate that Hurricane Katrina was a result of tolerance for homosexuality.[…]
ISNA described the author’s panel as “an interactive session which provides a wonderful platform to learn, share ideas, and provide literary contributions to society.” Remarkably, ISNA included Umar in that platform despite a very public record of anti-Semitism, advocacy for jihad, and praise for the 9/11 hijackers.
Umar shared the microphone with another author who did not spew out bigotry, but who did cast Hezbollah as an innocent player subject to incessant Israeli onslaught. Cathy Sultan described her book, Tragedy in South Lebanon: The Israeli/Hezbollah War of 2006, as a history of “the tragedy of the repeated incursions and wars in South Lebanon, the complexities of the Lebanese politics.”
She made no mention of Iranian funding for Hezbollah or Syrian meddling in Lebanese politics or its suspected involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Instead, she lumps Hariri among a list of “docile Arab rulers willing to acquiesce to the West and to Israelis’ demands … provided they eliminate or at least contain and disarm Hamas and Hezbollah.”
Nor did Sultan describe indiscriminate Hezbollah rocket fire toward Israeli civilian communities, or the cross-border attack on an Israeli army base by Hezbollah that left three soldiers dead and two others kidnapped.
In response to a question, Sultan said “Hezbollah still serves a role. I think that Lebanon is still under constant threat from its southern neighbor. And I see nothing wrong, as long as Hezbollah abides by certain rules and regulations; I see no reason why Hezbollah should not remained armed.”
The United States considers Hezbollah to be a terrorist group, and some experts consider it a bigger potential threat to the United States than Al-Qaeda….
There is much, much more. Read it all.
Get audio here of Warith Deen Umar telling the ISNA crowd that Jews “have control of the world.”