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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋ u |
American Islamic leaders aren't always what they claim to be. In the investigation after the terrorist-Islamic attacks on the World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon and the attempt on the White House, "… agents contacted Muslim leaders in the Washington [area] asking for help. Stanley Cohn, an attorney, said at least three clients who are Muslim leaders in Washington received contacts from the FBI 'asking for help gathering intelligence on the Muslim community.' Cohen said his three clients declined" (Pete Yost, "Ashcroft: Foreign governments likely gave terrorists support," The Jerusalem Post, 2001.09.20, p. 2).
Quranic Literacy Institute (Chicago) – helped Khamas purchase M-16s, Kalashnikovs, Uzis, pistols and ammunition, some of which were used in operations that killed people, including an Israeli soldier. Mr. [Muhammad] Salah was released in 1997 and lives in Chicago." (Wall Street Journal, 2001.11.20)
Holy Land Foundation (Dallas) – "provide[s] support for Khamas." (Wall Street Journal, 2001.11.20)
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| Pipes, Daniel Ph.D. History Harvard |
American Muslim Alliance (AMA) – another group that CAIR reports had a representative at the Bush event yesterday. That's the group so extreme that even Hillary Rodham Clinton, no anti-Muslim extremist, decided to return $50,000 it had raised for her senate campaign. The American Muslim Alliance was also a sponsor of the "No to the Jews, Descendants of the Apes" rally at Brooklyn College. And, as Steven Emerson has reported on OpinionJournal.com, "AMA's head, Agha Saeed, has openly sanctioned the use of 'armed resistance' against Israel and declared that the 'Zionist occupiers of Palestine can be beaten back.' At its 1997 annual convention, the AMA distributed an article by S.A. Ahsani, head of the AMA's Texas chapter, denying the existence of 'Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek.' At AMA national conferences in 1997, 1998 and 2000, numerous speakers condemned the 'Jewish and Zionist' lobbies and their 'control' of the United States."
Mr. Bush's staff could have blundered in trying to achieve the worthwhile goal of distinguishing between fanatic Muslim terrorists and patriotic American Muslims who genuinely condemn terrorism (yes, there are indeed some).
Regardless of the reason, though, describing the CAIR, MPAC and AMA gang as "good folks" constitutes reckless endangerment to his budding coalition of 'terrorists against terror'. Inappropriate, too, is the message of "retaliation abroad and tolerance at home." Tolerance at home is one of the things that made the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the attempt on the White House possible. Some of the terrorists had been tolerated for years while living in apartments in Florida and getting flight training. Tolerance is one thing; a presidential appearance and endorsement of enemy sympathizers during wartime is quite another.
American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ) – The necessary infrastructure for carrying out the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the attempt on the White House could only have operated in the U.S. secretly through protection provided by America's militant Islamic lobby.
"How could a lobby protecting violent extremists acquire such influence? It has very carefully covered it tracks – saying one thing in private and another in public. [something they learned from Arafat, saying one thing in Arabic to his constituents and something quite contradictory in English to western media] To see how this duality works, consider the case of American Muslims for Jerusalem.
"This certainly appears to be a moderate organization… located near Capitol Hill, AMJ portrays itself as an innocent 'association dedicated to providing a Muslim perspective on the issue of Jerusalem' and it movingly appeals for 'a Jerusalem that symbolizes religious tolerance and dialogue.' AMJ notes 'the profound attachment Muslims have to Jerusalem' and reasonably calls for free access by all to the city's religious sites…
"Unfortunately, this public moderation hides a totally different private discourse. At its closed events, AMJ reveals its true colors, purveying precisely the kind of hate that might inspire a suicide hijacker.
"The Pattern was set at AMJ's first major event, a fund-raising dinner in [1999.11], which one participant has described as 'crudely anti-Jewish'. Speakers like NIhad Awad and Abdurahman Alamoudi vied with one another in verbally assaulting the State of Israel and American Jews. In particular, they spun an elaborate conspiracy theory about Jewish control of the United States and Zionist brainwashing of American Christians… Here Muslims have a crucial role in encouraging Christians to rise up to end their subjugation. Only a united Muslim-Christian front, led by Muslims, can break the supposed Zionist lock on America…
"… American Muslims for Jerusalem is no fringe outfit but a joint effort sponsored by six of the most powerful American Islamic institutions (including those most often invited to the White House and cited by the media). AMJ itself has won signal victories lobbying such American corporations as Burger King and Disney.
"The covert radicalism of American Muslim organizations has two implications. First AMJ and its six sponsoring organizations must all be systematically excluded and marginalized. Government and corporate policymakers should not meet with them. The media should not quote them as authorities. Immigration officials should study closely whom they invite from abroad. Tax authorities should scour their books for illegal transactions. Religious leaders should exclude them from ecumenical events.
"Second, moderate Muslim Americans need to organize themselves and repudiate organizations like AMJ and its ilk…" (Daniel Pipes, "Islam's American Lobby," Jerusalem Post, 2001.06.20, p. 6).
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – "CAIR is a particularly worrisome organization because it has succeeded in portraying itself as a public affairs organization promoting 'interest and understanding among the general public with regards to Islam and Muslims in North America.' In fact, this organization is radical to the core; it seeks nothing less than the imposition of Islamist mores on the United States."
Mr. Pipes notes that CAIR's record includes the following: "Apologizing for such killers as Hamas (a group associated with the murder of 7 Americans) and Usama bin Ladin (charged with the Tanzania and Kenya embassy bombings a year ago)… . Helping promote terrorism: In the words of Steve Pomerantz, a former Chief of Counterterrorism for the FBI, 'CAIR, its leaders, and its activities, effectively give aid to international terrorist groups.' … Intimidation of patriotic Muslims who disagree with CAIR's chauvinist agenda: In one case (Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani), the FBI is looking into charges that he received death threats after renouncing the chauvinists… Defense of even the most archaic and barbaric of customs associated with Islam: When a prosecutor in Cleveland argued that the bail of two young men being held for an 'honor killing' of their female cousin should be increased, CAIR replied by accusing him of 'ethnic and religious stereotyping' and called for a formal investigation into the prosecutor's actions."
In addition, as anti-terrorism expert Steven Emerson has noted in Congressional testimony, CAIR co-sponsored a May 24, 1998, all-day program in the Walt Whitman Auditorium of Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York. As Mr. Emerson testified, "In Arabic, Wagdi Ghuniem, a militant Islamic cleric from Egypt, mesmerized his audience, with his relentless tirade against the Jews, reminding them of the Jews' 'infidelity,' 'stealth' and 'deceit.' Known for his folksy deliveries and exhortations to commit violence against the Jews, Ghuniem did not disappoint his crowd, several of whom had come just to hear him. The conflict with the Jews, he said, was not over land but one of religion. 'The problem of Palestine is not a problem of belief. suppose the Jews said "Palestine-you [Muslims] can take it." Would it then be ok? What would we tell them? No! The problem is belief, it is not a problem of land.' "
Mr. Emerson continued: "Ghuniem then led his rapt audience, which numbered as many as 500, in a special song, the audience responsively repeating each refrain: 'No to the Jews, Descendants of the Apes.' "
Says Mr. Pipes: "In short, CAIR represents not the great civilization of Islam but a radical utopian movement originating in the Middle East that seeks to impose its ways on the United States. Americans should consider themselves warned: a new danger exists in their midst."
So much for CAIR. But, according to the CAIR Web site, CAIR wasn't the only radical, terrorist-sympathizing American Muslim group that President Bush met with yesterday, less than a week after the worst terrorist attack in American history. In fact, according to the CAIR web site, the meeting yesterday also included "representatives from the American Muslim Alliance" and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) – a group founded and headed by Salam Al-Marayati. He's the man whose views on terrorism were so problematic that, after an outcry, Rep. Richard Gephardt withdrew his support for Mr. Al-Marayiti whom American Muslims had managed to promote as a nominee to a federal anti-terrorism commission!!!
According to an article in the August 22, 1998, Los Angeles Times, the Muslim Public Affairs Council called America's 1998 missile strikes on Osama Bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan "illegal" and "immoral."
Again, Daniel Pipes, in an article posted on DanielPipes.org, is instructive. Mr. Pipes writes of Mr. Al-Marayati: "Here are three elements of his radicalism: First, he wraps the American flag around some of the least attractive features of Middle Eastern life. In 1993, he memorably asserted that 'When Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death," that statement epitomized jihad [Islamic holy war].' In 1996, he made the silly and inaccurate observation that 'American freedom fighters hundreds of years ago were also regarded as terrorists by the British.' Mr. Al-Marayati's intent here is obvious: to render jihad and terrorism acceptable to Americans."
Mr. Pipes continued: "Second, Mr. Al-Marayati apologizes for the most ghastly Middle Eastern regimes and draws moral equivalences between them and America. In his view, Iraq is no better or worse than America:
'Saddam Hussein's behavior in and around Iraq has been characterized as reckless. The same can be said about U.S. policy as a result of its reactionary mode.' … Third, Mr. Al-Marayati turns a blind eye to terrorism if it is of a fundamentalist Muslim persuasion (not a great credential for someone hoping to serve on a counterterrorism commission). Take the February 1996 incident when a Palestinian named Muhammad Hamida shouted the fundamentalist war cry, Allahu Akbar (Allah is Great), as he drove his car intentionally into a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem, killing one Israeli and injuring 23 others. Before he could escape or hurt anyone else, Hamida was shot dead. Commenting on the affair, Mr. Al-Marayati said not a word about Hamida's murderous rampage but instead focused on Hamida's death, which he called 'a provocative act,' and demanded the extradition of his executors to America 'to be tried in a U.S. court' on terrorism charges."
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