The Silencing
Before CAIR and the Flying Imams...the Islamic Society of Boston had already pioneered the use of lawsuits to silence their critics and the media.
By Martin Solomon
[Illustration from All Things Beautiful]
You are a graduate of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, the foremost religious school in Sunni Islam. You’ve grown up in Egypt, earned a BA, MA and PhD from the prestigious academy, and have spent your life as a believing and devout Muslim in the heart of the religious establishment. Your religion, and your belief that Islam is a force for good in the world, is something you’ve built your life around. You believe there is no contradiction between your faith, democracy, and modern standards of human rights, and you dedicate yourself to writing and speaking in support of your beliefs.
And it’s for those beliefs that a canonical court expels you from Al-Azhar. You are imprisoned for a short time by the Egyptian Government. Finally a Wahhabist fatwa calling for your assassination forces you to flee the country.
You flee to political asylum in America, where you can, you hope, continue to explore your beliefs and practice your religion without fear for life and limb at the hands of fanatics.
Then one day you visit a local mosque….
In late 2003, after visiting the local Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ahmed Mansour and his wife emerged in what can only be described as a state of shock. Mansour’s wife had attended a religious lesson and Mansour himself browsed the literature on display. According to the affidavit of Dennis Hale (PDF), Episcopal Lay Minister, Boston College Professor and founder of Citizens for Peace and Tolerance, Mansour informed him that “both the religious lesson and the Arabic newsletters inside the mosque were full of hateful references against the West and Jews.” In particular, he noted that the mosque was touting a fund-raising endorsement for their new mosque project featuring infamous Wahabbi cleric and pitch-man for the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradawi.
Shocked to see that the poison he thought he had left behind, the poison he thought was an ocean away but was following him to America, Mansour spoke out about what he had seen.
As thanks for stepping forward, Mansour has found himself a defendant in a wide-ranging defamation lawsuit, a lawsuit that has involved television and print media outlets, activist organizations, and individuals — anyone, it seemed, who had dared speak or repeat anything less than complimentary about the Islamic Society of Boston.
What the Wahhabis had failed to do in Egypt, the exploitation of the American legal system threatens to do here — ruin the life of a moderate Muslim and anyone who stands with him.
A Flawed Founding
The Islamic Society of Boston was founded in 1982 by then university student Abdurahman Alamoudi, who became its first president. Ten years later, according to the Hale document, Alamoudi “appeared in a videotaped rally in Washington, D.C. where he publicly supported Hamas and Hezbollah.” In “2003 and 2004, Alamoudi was indicted and pled guilty to a series of terrorist-related charges arising from a fraudulent scheme to assist Libya in raising money to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.” This scheme included, according to a background piece appearing in The New Republic, “providing approximately $1 million to an organization that supports Al Qaeda.” Alamoudi “was sentenced to 23 years in prison.”
The ISB was organized under the tax exempt umbrella of the Islamic Society of North America, which was itself a spin-off of the Wahhabist Muslim Student Association, and has been called “an influential front for the promotion of the Wahhabi political, ideological and theological infrastructure in the United States and Canada.”
“This is how it should be.
Religion must lead the war.
This is the only way we can win.”
From humble beginnings came big plans. A 2003 Boston Herald article quotes an ISB attorney as saying their new project had been in the works for a decade. According to the article:
…A project update in the Islamic Society of Boston’s May 2000 newsletter reported that in the previous month alone, the group raised $2 million in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.One source familiar with the project who spoke on the condition he not be named said the leaders of the Islamic society have made it clear that virtually all the financing for the cultural center is coming from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Gulf states.
Many mosques and Islamic institutions in the U.S. are funded by wealthy individuals and foundations in Saudi Arabia. Those financiers are almost without exception followers of Wahhabism, a harsh Saudi-based fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, and they make sure the American mosques they bankroll adhere to the sect’s anti-Western ideology…
In fact, the Boston Herald, with its two part special report (both articles available here, on the web site of The David Project: Radical Islam: Outspoken cleric, jailed activist tied to new Hub mosque, Under suspicion: Hub mosque leader tied to radical groups) was one of the first major media outlets to pick up on what was soon to become a burning controversy, pulling into the public consciousness something that had up until then been passing well under the radar.
The articles noted the involvement and history of terror-connected Abdurahman Alamoudi in the ISB, as well as, and just as disturbingly, the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual adviser, Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi is quoted as supporting terrorist attacks against Israelis and Americans. He has boycotted interfaith efforts where Israelis were invited. He has justified the stoning of homosexuals. He has called for a “Day of Rage” following the Danish Cartoon Crisis. He has said the following:
…”They fight us with Judaism, so we should fight them with Islam. They fight us with the Torah, so we should fight them with the Koran. If they say ‘the Temple,’ we should say ‘the Al-Aqsa Mosque.’ If they say: ‘We glorify the Sabbath,’ we should say: ‘We glorify the Friday.’ This is how it should be. Religion must lead the war. This is the only way we can win.”……”Everything will be on our side and against Jews on [Judgment Day]; at that time, even the stones and the trees will speak, with or without words, and say: ‘Oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim, there’s a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ They will point to the Jews…
On and on like that goes Qaradawi’s record. He is regularly referred to, without intentional irony, as a “moderate” in his Middle Eastern milieu.
Qaradawi, according to the Herald, was listed as an ISB board member for at least three years, and was, and still is, a proposed trustee on the real estate trust as well. In a widely circulated response to the series, including in a comment on my blog, the ISB stated that his inclusion had been in effect an “administrative oversight,” and that Qaradawi does not accept such positions in any case. The point, it seems to me, is that they wanted him. He was, according to the statement, invited due to his “popularity within the Muslim community.”
The ISB maintains a page in response to the articles on their own web site. They claim no significant connections to either Alamoudi or Qaradawi. In fact, they claim no contact with Alamoudi since he left Boston in 1984, though discovery brought about by the ISB’s lawsuit (more on that later) has uncovered a check on behalf of the ISB to pay Alamoudi’s expenses for a speaking engagement in late 2000, and ISB Trustee Osama Kandil (himself targeted in the Herald series with accusations denied by the ISB) signed the “Free Abdurahman Alamoudi” petition — a petition that calls the terror-supporting Alamoudi “our community leader” — sometime in ’03 or ’04.
“Connections to radicals
have plagued the Mosque.”
Following the ISB’s denial of a Qaradawi connection, the Herald uncovered the fact that the Sheik’s endorsement was used in an Arabic-only fundraising brochure in 2003 which the paper obtained and had independently translated.
Other apparent connections to radicals have plagued the Mosque. For instance, the group has invited the Muslim Brotherhood connected Dr. Salah Soltan as a speaker. Soltan is an advocate for suicide bombing, and has praised terrorist Sheik Al-Zindani among other things. Another society guest has been Imam Siraj Wahaj, a character witness for the “blind sheik” Omar Rahman, and a man who “calls for replacing the American government with a caliphate.”
But perhaps the most embarrassing series of episodes involved Saudi Arabia-based ISB trustee, Dr. Walid Fitaihi. After an initial charm offensive targeted at Boston’s Jewish Community which had prominent Rabbis singing Fitaihi’s praises, disturbing facts soon came to light which had the community humming a different sort of tune.
It emerged that Fitaihi, in more comfortable surroundings back home, had been more candid about his feelings. The Middle East Media Research Institute had found some of Fitaihi’s writings. Shortly after September 11, Fitaihi had written:
“Despite the attacks of distortion coordinated by the Zionist lobby, to which it has recruited many of the influential media, there are initial signs that the intensive campaign of education about Islam has begun to bear fruit…Jewish institutions have begun to contact Muslim institutions and have called on us to hold dialogues with them and cooperate [with them]. They are afraid of the outcome of the Islamic-Christian dialogue through the churches, the mosques, and the universities…”“Thus, the Muslim community in the U.S. in general, and in Boston in particular, has begun to trouble the Zionist lobby. The words of the Koran [3:113] on this matter are true: ‘They will be humiliated wherever they are found, unless they are protected under a covenant with Allah, or a covenant with another people. They have incurred Allah’s wrath and they have been afflicted with misery. That is because they continuously rejected the Signs of Allah and were after slaying the Prophets without just cause, and this resulted from their disobedience and their habit of transgression.’”
“The great Allah spoke words of truth. Their covenant with America is the strongest possible in the U.S., but it is weaker than they think, and one day their covenant with the [American] people will be cut off.”
When confronted with this information, Fitaihi’s response was to claim he was a victim of a false, “insulting,” translation. The Herald, ever on the case, commissioned their own translation, and found MEMRI’s interpretation of Fitaihi’s writing to be correct.
“Jews will be ‘scourged’ because
of their ‘oppression, murder,
and rape of the worshipers of Allah.’”
Fitaihi and the ISB retreated into embarrassed silence.
Seven months later, the ADL got involved, sending a letter to the ISB with their concerns, calling upon them to “seize the opportunity to condemn and disassociate expressions of anti-Semitism,” and noting that, “In the absence of such a clarification, other allegations against the ISB are gaining greater resonance, and there remains a contradiction between your values statement and your actions.” The Boston Globe also noted that the ADL had a further translation of Fitaihi’s writing, stating that he “wrote that Jews will be ‘scourged’ because of their ‘oppression, murder, and rape of the worshipers of Allah.’”
The ISB finally responded with a clarification that still appears on their web site today, dated September 2004 (it’s not clear why this pre-dates the ADL’s October statement): “…the articles were intended to condemn particular individuals whom he believes were working to destroy one of Islam’s holiest sites, killing innocent children, and thereby blocking the possibility of peace in the Middle East; the articles were not meant to incite hatred of an entire faith or people.” In other words, “He wasn’t talking about you GOOD Jews, he was talking about those BAD Jews.”
No better was ISB Board Chairman, Dr. Yousef Abou-Allabans response in a conversation with the Boston Phoenix about the incident:
Judging from Abou-Allaban’s comments, its a stretch to say any repudiation actually took place…”So how about Fitaihi’s comments in the original Arabic? ‘We are against the statement as it was quoted in the paper,’ he replied with a chuckle.”
Ha ha.
“The overlap between the Muslim American Society
and ISB is so great that it’s difficult to unravel
where one group ends and the other begins.”
One more apparent connection between the ISB and radicals is worth noting at this point. The overlap between the Muslim American Society and ISB is so great that it’s difficult to unravel where one group ends and the other begins. Until very recently, the ISB shared space with the local chapter of the Muslim American Society, the ISB’s email list is now hosted and run by the MAS, and commentators have noted what a considerable amount overlap there is among the leadership of local Muslim groups overall.
The Muslim American Society is widely believed to represent the face of the Muslim Brotherhood in America, though MAS leaders have denied the connection. In fact, missives showing the MAS’s radical face began appearing with such frequency on the MAS/ISB email list that I inaugurated a new feature on my blog — MAS Watch. Emails urging support for jailed Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian, welcomes to the PLO Ambassador, petitions urging support for Hamas, invitations to events proclaiming “Israeli Apartheid,” and emails containing veiled threats against those who cooperate with the authorities, among other items have ensured that I am rarely at a loss for material. In one embarrassing incident, then Public Affairs Coordinator for the Boston Chapter of the MAS, Hamza Pelletier, appeared on a local radio show and made statements to the effect that he did not believe Hamas was a terrorist organization, prompting a quick official retraction/clarification from Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the MAS Freedom Foundation.
Mahdi Bray has been one of the principal actors in the staging of the “Flying Imams” drama, in which, as Act 2, the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has threatened to sue the “John Doe” passengers who spoke out about the threat they perceived on the flight that day.
Breaking Ground
In 2000, the City of Boston agreed in principal to convey a lot of land at Tremont and Malcolm X Boulevard in the City’s Roxbury neighborhood to the ISB for $175,000 cash. Both the ISB and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (the authority tasked with managing the city’s land development whose employees are appointed by the Mayor) agreed the real value of the land was closer to $400,000, but fundraising was difficult at the time for the ISB, so the city and the group came to an agreement where the project would be completed in stages and the ISB would perform other ways to make up for the short cash payment by performing services such as maintaining a park, helping with fund-raising, performing lectures on Islam and setting up an Islamic Law library at Roxbury Community College.
The idea that the City might be subsidizing Islamic proselytizing (Dawa) of itself did not go unnoticed in the greater community.
In November of 2002, a very public groundbreaking took place for the ISB’s massive new $20 million+ Mosque and Islamic Center project. Mayor Thomas M. Menino was proudly on hand, though a few years later, with the ISB mired in controversy, he imitated Sergeant Schultz in an appearance on a local talk radio show as he denied he was even Mayor at the time the land deal had gone down. He had actually been mayor for almost a decade at the time of the groundbreaking.
A few hours after the ceremony, festivities and further fundraising were conducted at Boston’s Sheraton Hotel — a function at which Sheik Qaradawi, “barred from entering the U.S., delivered a videotaped message to the attendees encouraging them to support the project.”
In early 2003, with the paperwork returned from Saudi Arabia where it was signed by ISB trustees resident there, the land transfer became official.
Lawsuits for Everyone
In September 2004, Boston resident James Policastro filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that it had violated the separation of Church and State by providing a subsidy to the ISB in exchange for what the suit claims amounts to religious services to be rendered. As part of the discovery process — a process which the BRA vigorously fought, refusing by turns to either turn over documents or make them available, and refusing to answer questions from the press or even the City Council — it emerged that one internal document had even valued the land at over $2 million [PDF], making the city’s “contribution” even greater than previously known.
A large number of disclosures have involved the ISB’s ultimate insider, Muhammad Ali-Salaam. Ali-Salaam was simultaneously involved with the ISB as its principal Middle East fundraiser and a confidential adviser to the ISB board, while also serving as Deputy Director for Planning with the Boston Redevelopment Authority and working on the ISB deal as part of his official duties. While in the BRA he shepherded the ISB’s efforts, traveled to the Middle East on fundraising junkets, advised the ISB on the proper way to deal with the city in order to get the best deal possible, and attempted to arrange a trip to Saudi Arabia for Mayor Menino and some of the Mayor’s supporters (the trip never came off).
The first of what were to be several other shoes dropped in February of 2005, when, according to the Boston Globe, ISB board chairman, Dr. Yousef Abou-Allaban, sued WFXT-TV (Channel 25), Fox Television Stations Inc., reporter Michael Beaudet, and producer Jonathan Wells for a story they had done claiming that Abou-Allaban was a member of the infamous Muslim Brotherhood.
It was only the beginning. At the time, FOX-25 was, along with the Boston Herald, one of the few mainstream media outlets taking the issues surrounding the Mosque seriously (see this page where the top video clip still shows one of Beaudet’s stories). In May, the ISB expanded their lawsuit to include the Herald. In October, they expanded it yet again, this time, massively. In fact, by the time of its last revision, the list of individuals and entities the ISB’s leadership was suing encompassed:
- Boston Herald, Inc.
- Jonathan Wells (Herald reporter)
- Jack Meyers (Herald reporter
- Thomas Mashberg (Herald reporter)
- Maggie Mulvihill (Herald reporter)
- Kevin Wisniewski (Herald reporter, also Fox News)
- Fox Television Stations, Inc, dba WFXT-TV
- Michael Beaudet (Fox News)
- The Investigative Project, Inc.
- Steven Emerson (Investigative Project)
- William R. Sapers
- The David Project
- Anna Kolodner (The David Project)
- Citizens for Peace and Tolerance, Inc.
- Steven A. Cohen
- Dennis Hale
- Ahmed Mansour
They allege, among other things, that “the Defendants publicly portrayed the ISB and its then-current leadership as Muslims who supported radical Islamic terrorism, and who were themselves active members of terrorist organizations…” that the defendants had “substantially delayed the completion of the ISB’s project,” and that “donations to the ISB have decreased…”
To prove all this, subpoenas for private communications, including private emails and notes have gone out far and wide. The list of recipients has included:
- Tamar Morad
- The Anti-Defamation League (twice)
- Hillel Stavis
- Josh Katzen
- Boston College
- Simon & Schuster
- Anna Kolodner’s cell phone provider
- Anna Kolodner, Steven Cohen and William Sapers’ banks
- Jack Fainberg
- Avi Goldwasser
- Gloria Greenfield
- Shulamit Reinharz
Radio host Michael Graham received a subpoena demanding his “personal phone records, show notes and other materials related to… on air conversations” after he had the temerity to discuss the issue on the air.
Discovery is a double-edged sword of course, and interesting disclosures have come fast and furious, several of which I’ve already noted. For instance, it emerged that just three months before filing its lawsuit alleging monetary damages (donations had “slowed to a trickle”, Mosque representatives have claimed), an internal ISB email called fundraising “robust” — not exactly the type of thing you’d like made public when alleging you’ve been damaged. Particularly embarrassing considering the quote came from the very same ISB attorney who also filed the lawsuit.
It has also emerged, and I am publicizing this for the first time here, that in early 2003, fully eight months before the Boston Herald wrote their series of articles, BRA/ISB official Muhammad Ali-Salaam, wrote to the FBI in Washington, D.C. to request help in setting up a “Know Your Donor Program” to help ensure the project remained clear of taking money from those with known terrorist ties. Ali-Salaam admits in his letter that he has concerns with people both outside and inside the ISB:
While I believe that neither the religion of Islam, nor the collective loyalties of the sponsors of the Cultural Center to the Constitution of the United States are being called into question, I must acknowledge the existence of individuals [both internal and external] who may be determined to undermine the public’s confidence in the Project.
So this was before any supposedly slanderous media reports, before any supposed conspiracy…the ISB insider was noting, in writing, that there were individuals that might well run afoul of an anti-terror program. Yet to date Ali-Salaam remains off the list of defendants. [Ali-Salaam's letter to the FBI is available here: Page 1, Page 2]
Further, and this is also being made available for the first time here, liberal Congressman Michael E. Capuano, immediately after the publication of the Herald series (the facts of which have never been in question), sent letters to ISB board chairman Abou-Allaban, and to Juan Carlos Zarate, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Exec. Office of the Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime of the US Department of the Treasury. He asks the Treasury Department to open an investigation into the allegations, and he advises Abou-Allaban to cooperate with the investigation and “respond publicly to each and every one of these allegations.”
Capuano is clearly alarmed by the charges, as any reasonable person would be, and starts demanding answers. Capuano remains off the defendant list, yet ordinary citizens who share the same concerns have not been so lucky.
Damage Control
ISB spokespeople have been out on the stump trying to get groups and individuals to sign on to an amicus brief in support of the suit. Particularly of interest have been well-meaning Jewish groups who may want to be seen as good neighbors to the Muslim members of their community. Good news came for the ISB in February of this year when a judge dismissed the Policastro suit on a technicality. An appeal has been promised, but the short-term victory prompted excited emails from ISB spokesperson Jessica Masse, one of which noted the numerous organizations that had signed on to the amicus. As I noted at the time, a closer look showed that the list was the usual collection of “Islamists, Arabists, [and] FAR-Leftists” — groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, the National Lawyers Guild, United for Justice and Peace, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
More recently Masse sent out a lengthy email continuing the ISB as victim line, and distributing a series of emails [PDF] obtained from some of the lawsuit’s defendants purporting to support the conspiracy accusation. In fact, what the emails show is that there were discussions among these people whose “interest[,in the words of one of the emails] is based on the premise that some of the senior people in the ISB are supporters of terrorism and sworn enemies of America and Jews, and that the construction of the mosque may be funded by Wahhabis…If we are going to convince others to support our cause, especially in the media, we will need reasonably well-supported allegations.” In other words, what’s been “exposed” is indistinguishable from the private discussions of a group of people who recognize a threat and begin to discuss among themselves what to do about it — something the ISB’s lawsuit is attempting to criminalize. Some conspiracy of defamation.
The latest act in the drama to date came in early April, in the form of a cameo walk-on by ISB trustee Walid Fitaihi. The Fitaihi statements had never quite been put to bed, and had continued to haunt claims of ISB moderation, hanging around the necks of ISB spokespeople like a stinking albatross.
So, in early April, Fitaihi parachuted into town from Saudi Arabia, and, before a hand-picked invitation-only interfaith audience at the headquarters of left-wing Jewish group, Workmen’s Circle, issued an “apology.” The press was not allowed in. We do not have a transcript nor do we have video of the statement, nor do we know what, if any, questions were asked of him. Workmen’s Circle officials were impressed, but Workmen’s Circle has been one of the primary Jewish groups pressing the defendants in the suit to agree to accept mediation, so it is unlikely that their standards for sincerity were particularly exacting. As I asked at the time, what is the meaning of an apology given in front of a bunch of people who weren’t looking for one in the first place? In fact, as Islamic history scholar Andrew Bostom points out, it would have been difficult for the Saudi Fitaihi to issue a sincere apology when much of what he said was sanctioned by the Koran.
The “apology” was issued on a Friday. By that Sunday, Fitaihi was on a jet back to Saudi Arabia.
But not before he had resigned from the ISB Board of Trustees.
Yes, in addition to his closed-door appearance, Fitaihi had some other, perhaps more pressing business to attend to. You see, a few weeks before, the judge in the defamation case had, for technical reasons, ordered that the plaintiffs had 30 days to amend their complaint and include the trustees as individual plaintiffs. The deadline for changes to the board was April 11.
Fitaihi’s resignation was officially filed on April 10 (as was the resignation of Egyptian trustee Ali Yusuf Tobah), one day before the deadline, and one day before Fitaihi would have been locked in as a trustee, a party to the lawsuit, and subject to deposition and the discovery process, all of which was ably explained at the time by blogger Miss Kelly.
Fitaihi had been involved with the ISB for over a decade, since the trust’s founding in 1993, yet according to an ISB broadcast email, his obligations at home had suddenly become so pressing he had had to resign.
Worry not, however, for according to the same email, Fitaihi “remains a key leader of our community” and “will soon assume a new position with the ISB…”
And that is where things stand at the time of this writing.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve read this far, you’ve gotten a fairly good primer on the various twists and turns that brought us here.
It should be obvious by this point that there is and was enough known about the financing and characters involved at the highest levels of the Islamic Society of Boston that a reasonable man acting prudently would be compelled to look closer at this group, their connections, and their financing.
And that’s just what was done. And when those reasonable people found themselves disturbed by what they had found and began speaking out about it, they found themselves silenced by a lawsuit, their personal lives violated by subpoenas and their private emails exposed to the world.
“The intolerant export-version
of Wahhabi Islam, driven by petrodollars,
has made itself a scourge the world over.”
Neither the Boston Herald nor FOX-25 have done a hard-hitting report on the issue since the lawsuit was filed, and I have been told by more than one person, in the media and out, that they were reluctant to speak about the issue publicly in any way for fear of either being drawn into the suit or affecting the outcome. Involvement with the court system is a burdensome, unpleasant, expensive affair that most people avoid if at all possible. (This begs the question of who is paying the bills for this wide-ranging suit.)
It’s possible that there are what we would recognize as moderate Muslims somewhere in Saudi Arabia, but that is not the type of Islam that is being exported and financed world-wide from the Kingdom. On the contrary, the intolerant export-version of Wahhabi Islam, driven by petrodollars, has made itself a scourge the world over — in the Middle East, the Balkans, Africa, and Asia…Saudi Wahhabism has made sure it is the Islam people find when newcomers look to discover Islam, and when nominal Muslims seek to rediscover their religion.
One need only look at the Kingdom itself to see where its image of Islam leads — misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamic supremacism, contempt and the most extreme intolerance for non-Muslims…Jihad. It’s not hard to understand why anyone would be urging a loud NO to any institution with funding from Saudi Arabia, or even significant funding from anywhere else in the Middle East.
Moderate and reformist Muslims do exist, and we do them and ourselves no favors by remaining silent for convenience’s sake and to avoid ruffling a few feathers.
If a truly moderate, reformed version of Islam is to emerge in the West, it won’t come through funding from the Near East, and it will happen because ordinary Americans insist that emerging institutions and organizations are compatible on a deep level with American values, not simply using the trappings of the Enlightenment West — our tolerance, our courts, our freedom of speech and association — to subvert those very things that make us great.
And it won’t happen if ordinary Americans are afraid to speak for fear of financial and personal ruin at the hands of malicious court filings.
Maybe that’s the idea.
Martin Solomon is a Boston area blogger and small business owner. Solomon writes on a variety of topics on his blog, Solomonia, as well as having covered the Lamont/Lieberman race for PJ Media.”
Further Reading:
The David Project maintains a collection of material related to the lawsuit, here.
The ISB has a page of responses, here.
I have followed the matter on my own blog, Solomonia, for some time. Search for “Islamic Society of Boston” or “Boston Mosque.”
Local blogger Miss Kelly has also followed matters closely.
[Daniel Pipes has maintained a collection of links since the controversy hit the press, here.
PDF’s of the ISB’s complaint are available here (original), and here (first amended).
Sol — This whole business sounds like something presidential contender Rudi Giuliani — he who just said no to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s offer of $10 million for disaster relief after the prince suggested U.S. policies in the Middle East had contributed to the September 11 attacks.
Maybe he could help?
excellent piece. gets at the heart of the problem. the only major point i see neglected is the immense difficulty a “liberal” paper like the Boston Globe has in coming to grips with the problem — both for reasons of political correctness, and the more obvious problem that they don’t want to be on that hit-list of to-be-sued.
Just as a general historical note, wasn’t that the strategy used by George III and Lord North? In the Wilkes case the government in 1777 sued a newspaper (for libel?) to silence it. The courts there wouldn’t allow it because it meant there could be no free discussion of political views. Freedom of the press was established in Britain during the American Revolution.
Sol, congratulations on an excellent piece. It’s unsettling to say the least, and rather disheartening that the Boston Globe and the rest of mainstream press have failed to publicize this. Not at all surprising, though. Actually, this is just the kind of story you would expect to see on 60 Minutes — if you were naive, of course.
Excellent piece.
It’s been pretty clear for some time that Western legal, educational and media institutions are being deliberately gamed.
Our so-called leadership classes are either clueless and can no longer tell when they’re being snookered, or they lack the courage to call this whole racket out for the obvious shakedown it is.
So that’s where Howard Dean gets his SLAPP inspirations.
Sol;
Excellent recap of all the hard work you and Miss Kelly have done over the past two years to expose this issue. As with the ‘John Doe’ lawsuits threatened by CAIR against the non-flying imams, our own legal system is being used in an attempt to silence valid questions about public trust and security. Well Done !!
Wow, this is a reeeeeeeeeaaallllly loooooong article. I know that it contains a lot of good stuff and all, but I came here on a link looking for a quick status report on Islamist lawsuits in Boston. Instead I am treated to the unabridged history of the ISB in Boston.
Maybe you should write a book instead.
This is an excellent article.
“You are a graduate of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University… [you believe] that Islam is a force for good in the world… [that] there is no contradiction between your faith, democracy, and modern standards of human rights… [A] canonical court expels you from Al-Azhar. You are imprisoned for a short time by the Egyptian Government… [You are forced] to flee the country…” etc.
Look. I feel sorry for this man. He is no doubt a decent and humane human being. But frankly, that “canonical court” was correct to expel him, as he clearly didn’t really know much about Islam!
It’s time for the West to wake up, and to stop listening to people who tell us Islam can moderate, or that Islam IS moderate, or that Islam is or ever will moderate.
It’s also high time for us to face facts, and stop vainly hoping that so-called “moderates” within Islam (those creatures as elusive and ephemeral as unicorns) will EVER exert any sway with the Islamic global community at large.
To continue this charade is to continue our warrantless deaths at Muslim hands, and the squandering of trillions of dollars into down the sewer pit of Muhammad.
The “moderate” position is eminently impeachable by the facts – those facts which inconveniently reside within the Koran itself. Those inconvenient facts pertaining to the life of their so-called “propet”. Fourteen centuries of Islamic jurisprudence have cemented the violence and the hatred of “the other” among most Muslim cultures. The Indonesian and the Malaysian Muslim hates the Jew. The Philippino and the Chinese Muslim regularly perform clitorectomies on their girls, and behead apostates and “infidels”. The eternal scapegoat, the Jew, and now the American, serves to expiate every crime and every sin committed by the Arabs and the Persians across the entirety of the Middle East and North Africa. 9/11 turns into an opportunity for American and Canadian Muslims to lecture the West on the error of our ways, a chance to threaten, after the most heinous Islamic terrorist attack that we’d do well as “infidels” and “kaffirs” to acquaint ourselves with Islam.
Their hatred of the apostate, the “infidel”, the Jew, the “other”, is woven into the warp and weft of Muslim consciousness.
It was appropriate for the “canonical court” to expel a heretic like Ahmed Mansour — for he is no Muslim, not a true one, anyway.
How many of we “infidels” are familiar with the Koran and what it says? How many are actually familiar with the ugly realities of the intolerance and hatred sacralized in that book, or are aware of the fact that the Koran only forms a small portion of the definition of Islam as it’s practiced by 99% of its votaries??
How many are familiar, for example with the horrid violence, mayhem, thievery, and murderous jihadi lifestyle of the “prophet” of Islam, Muhammad? How many have simply accepted sugar coated offerings from Islam’s apologists, who lie outright about Muhammad’s example, or paper over his crimes as if they are of no import? How many non-Muslims are aware for example that in Arabic, Muhammad is referred to as “uswa hasana”, the “prefect man”, a model for all time and for all Muslims to emulate as the perfect manifestation of Muslims life and devotion to their god Allah?
How many have been told this? How many have been told that, in addition to the Koran and the life of Muhammad, that 14 centuries of horrid Islamic laws known as “sharia”, which are roughly similar to each other whether we’re talking about Sunni Islam or Shiite Islam – how many have been told that THIS IS ISLAM TOO — inseparable from the notion and practice and reality of that “religion”?
We must wake up. We must see how Muslims have arrived here, not like other immigrants who come as fans of the West, of cheerleaders for the opportunities which the West offers them, but as parasites, determined to take every advantage offered to benefit Muslims and Muslims only — to further Islam and Islam only, and to happily exploit our man made laws, rights, and freedoms, and the commensurate wealth derived thereof, to use it all to subvert that system of laws and rights and replace it with their heinous Islam?
How many know? How many have acquainted themselves with the facts?
We wake up and fight, or we succumb to subversions like the one exposed above.
An executive summary would go a long way. This is, you know, the Internet!
Excellent investigative reporting! You might have gotten a Pulitzer for this back when it wasn’t a Confirmation gift for a far-left Mutual Admiration Society.
Lesson learned? Jihad is not just waged on far-flung battlefields. It is being waged at all levels of society, both here and abroad. To paraphrase Ho Chi Minh, “We will win this battle in the courts of America.” The scary part? They may just be right.
This is a terrific summary of a very arcane dispute. We are fortunate to have people like Sol who can put the whole story together this way- Despite Sunny Jim’s and Ron Coleman’s protestations about the length and contrary to Mr Doodslag’s over-simplification of Islam, we must have more articles like these. We cannot fight complex enemies with simple solutions and pat answers. That only plays into the hands of the liberal/leftist simple retreat into ersatz emotion and kitsch. When they tell you that Islam is humiliated or that the Palestinians are suffering, you have to present them with facts and storylines to show why those humiliations and that suffering are self-inflicted and of mortal threat to all humanity. Sol always does this with accuracy and a cool hand!
So “Yaacov Ben Moshe” — rather than simply stating that my detailed exposition is an “over-simplification of Islam” — why don’t you impeach what I allege above? Explain how those canonical experts at the top Islamic university in the world, those scholars of Islam got their interpretation of Islam so wrong while YOU (a Jew? Posing as a Jew to make your position on “moderate” Islam seem more plausble??? inquiring readers want to know…) and Ahmed Mansour got it so right.
I invite you to take my points on and explain why they are an “over-simplification of Islam”. That would be far more enlightening that lobbing unsubstantiated swipes.
Axiomatically, without substantiation, your claim of “over-simplification of Islam” is itself an over-simplification of what I wrote.
Please provide evidence of your position. I provided ample evidence for mine.
Here are some questions to help you do this –(I even provide chances for you to earn extra credit!):
Is anything I said above untrue? If so, explain.
Is Muhammad and his violent life an example for Muslims for all time of the “perfect man”, the perfect Muslim — Does his life serve for Muslims the world over as the template for the exemplary Muslim life?
*(for extra credit — explain how discussing the centrality to Muslims of the concept of “uswa hasana” vis-a-vis Muhammad is an “over-simplification of Islam”.)
Has 1400 years of Islamic jurisprudence “cemented the violence and the hatred of “the other” among most Muslim cultures”? or has it not? Explain.
*(for extra credit, explain why statements of hatred towards Jews are regularly to be found in Islamic cultures as far afield as Indonesia and Malaysia the Philippines and China — be sure to explain why Indonesian Muslims, Chinese Muslims, Philippino Muslims, Malaysian Muslims express hatred of Jews, give their girls clitorectomies, behead apostates, and resort to terrorism. Explain how Mulsims, most of whom have never seen a Jew, and couldn’t identify Israel on any map, nevertheless hate Jews and “infidels”. Explain the ubiquitous expressions of hatred among Musims across the global spectrum for “non-believers”, “infidels”, “kuffir” etc., and how exposition of this fact is an “over-simplification of Islam”.)
Cheap swipes are one thing, and they tend to be “over-simplification[s]” in and of themselves.
Please explain for this forum how I have ‘over-simplified’ Islam. Oh do.
Morton-I’ve spent quite a few months researching-the Qur’an, Hadiths, Sira, Robert Spencer, Ibn Warraq, Bat Ye’or, Bostom, Fregosi, the Sirat Rasul Allah, Mary Habeck, Patai, even that pseudo-historian and fabulist Karen Armstrong and a lot more and, from what I’ve learned, you’re absolutely correct.
I, too, am skeptical about any help coming to us non-believers from the elusive “moderate Muslims.”
There are many post WWII trends that have led us in the West to our current position, squarely behind the eight ball but, the simple, overarching reason for our inability to clearly see and understand what is right before our eyes and to then confront Islam, is fear. Many people do not want to recognize the inescapable fact that leaders in an Islam reanimated by oil money and fundamentalist ideology have resumed their quest to conquer the world of non-believers that was stopped at the Gates of Vienna in 1683, and that, today, on every continent and in every country, Islam is on the attack. We are being enveloped in a giant pincer movement; one arm is the military/terrorist arm, the other is the “peaceful” arm of demography, the courts, propaganda and strident demands for accommodations to Muslim’s sensibilities and Shari’a law. We must not forget either the internal subversion in which Saudi created and funded and Wahabi run madrassas and Mosques in the West indoctrinate Muslims in the Wahabi brand of Islam. Recognizing these facts and then fighting Islam will involve all of us non-believers in a world-wide war–perhaps bigger that WWII-that will require all sorts of sacrifices, a drastic reordering of priorities and will involve many casualties; a grim situation that may last for generations. Many want this massive storm cloud on the horizon to disappear, for a rescuer to come over the ridge and they are hoping that these fabled “moderate Muslims” will be the ones to come to our aid, to rescue us, somehow reform Islam and banish this looming war. Unfortunately, it ain’t gonna happen. We non-believing residents of the Land of War (Dar al-Harb) are on our own and the sooner we recognize this and suck it up the better.
Mr D.
I share with you your horror of contemporary Islam and I know from the comments that you have left on my blog (http://breathofthebeast.blogspot.com/) that you are not inherently a classical “over-simplifier” so I am happy to have the opportunity to clarify my reference to your remarks as over-simplification.
As any serious thinker must acknowledge, every religion has within it the seeds of the kind of atavistic, bloodthirsty, collectivist fundamentalism that we see ascending in the Islamic world today. Christianity spent most of its first two thousand years (longer than the entire history of Islam) behaving the same way using the bible as justification. Judaism has had centuries of barbarity in the past also. You may talk all you want about Islamic jurisprudence and I agree with you about its effect on humanity but you could say the very same things about the Spanish Inquisition. Both Christianity and Judaism, along with most of their sects and peripheral cults have joined the modern world and accepted tolerance, dialogue and mutual acceptance as the ideal. It is not logical to look at this record and assume that Islam cannot, ultimately, respond to the right kind of (in order of importance) logic, violent counter-reaction and persuasion to overcome its past and present ignorance.
Moreover, the alternative to logic, appropriate (I am in favor of more and better focused than is being applied currently) violence and persuasion would only to be wholesale slaughter. This is (again in order of importance) impossible, unthinkable and impractical.
As I have written on my blog, there are a few ways into real solutions. Most of them require that logic and persuasion be applied to the great weaknesses of the Caliphate Islam Movement. These are (also in order of importance) Women’s rights, Child Abuse, Humiliation due to the exposure of illogical beliefs and behavior and Humiliation due to the total ineptitude and uselessness of the Islamic governmental and economic approach. If we can liberate their women and children and show them that their humiliation is self-inflicted, we will have no need to kill them all- they will be modern.
It will not be easy or bloodless but it is possible.
Yaacov–I agree that the great weakness of Islam is psychological and that an attack against this major weakness/fault line is just as important as any military attack and is vital if we are to win. That is why is is so discouraging to see the current state of ignorance or disinformation about Islam displayed by the MSM and government officials and our unwillingness to devote our full attention and resources to what is, in my opinion, a struggle for our existence.
Gary,
This is the critical realization- There are only two ways to defeat this kind of foe
One is to wait until it burns itself out. This is not wise because an ascendant movement will inflict too much pain before its internal faults break it apart.
The other is to fight it with intelligence and to put exacting pressure on those weak points. You are exactly right that we need more and better information. They do their best to show us their vulnerabilities every day- we have to pay better attention. Instead of rejecting their monstrous behavior as would most people would do with a maggot. We need to study it with the intensity and devotion of an entomologist who fondles, treasures and prods the maggot until he understands how to stop its growth and discourage its proliferation.
All over the world Muslims in their sermons, newspapers, TV shows, books and statements slander, insult, damn and attack Christians, Jews and all other un-believers on a daily basis–check MEMRI-TV’s website. Yet, we are reluctant to comment, much less attack or criticize Islam or Muslims in any way for fear of causing offense or being uncivilized. Instead, we should be trying, with all our might, to dismantle the Islam project.
I’m afraid we’ve become way too soft these days and too averse to conflict. WWII was won by a “greatest generation” that had been tempered by the Great Depression and I suspect many today would judge them as undereducated, unsophisticated, provincial, easily led and prone to violence. Unlike our generation, they were un-pampered, largely unsentimental and not easily fooled and they had the common sense to see our enemies for what they were and the courage to fight them. They sacrificed their lives for us and for our benefit yet, many of us, their heirs, value our comfortable lives so highly that we refuse to look up from our pursuits and pleasures to see the onrushing war and fear to put ourselves in harms way to defend our way of life and our country; thus the public insistence on denial of the threat and its character, source and dimensions.
The greatest generation’s victory made possible our prosperity, longevity and health but it has also led to most of us having been shielded from reality and from true evil and it also led to the idea that any conflict or violence is wrong. Post WWII Postmodernist thought-Multiculturalism, Diversity, Moral Relativism and Political Correctness–has played a substantial part, too, in disarming us, because it deprives us of the ability to analyze our enemies, the yardsticks by which to evaluate them, the vocabulary to name them and the freedom to discuss and debate; it also robs us of a sustaining faith.
The mindset for victory by our side is just not there anymore and it will take extraordinarily determined leaders and individuals with vision and persistence and, unfortunately, probably another 9/11 or two before enough people wake up to reality and decide to fight as whole heartedly and ruthlessly as we fought our enemies in WWII.
Two questions for Yaacov Ben Moshe — do “moderate” Muslims believe in the eventual dominance of the Caliphate, and the obligation to ensure that dominance [long, but really one question
]? If they do, is that not completely inconsistent with our perspective of the “moderate” Muslim?
This “moderate” thing is a joke.
We are Muslims, plain and simple.
http://radicalmuslim.blogsome.com/2007/05/13/the-muslims-burden/
Jamal -
Thanks for proving the point of the article of the threat of Wahabbism. Radical Islam is a danger to all Americans and the British (I was going to say your countrymen but I don’t think many Brits would lay claim to you and your anti-Semitic rantings). Re-name your blog “Politically-Charged anti-Semitic Rantings” and you’ll be closer to truth in advertising.
Kudos to you, Martin, for being willing to continue working to expose the truth.
Excellent article. Thanks, Martin.
As far as the argument about moderate Muslims, just look at Turkey: 1.5 million people rallying against Islamocraziness. I am sure most of them are Muslims. MEMRI shows perverted idiots. I don’t blame MEMRI: it’s their job, and they are doing it well. But viewers must understand: however many idiots there are, even if they are a majority, there are non-idiots too. Here is a short list I’ve compiled:
Sala Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. Bangladeshi journalist for English-language newspaper “Blitz”. A Zionist, a defender of Israel and a devout, practicing Muslim. Advocates establishing ties with Israel. Arrested in Nov. 2003 by security personnel at Zia International Airport in Dhaka as he was about to fly to Tel Aviv to participate in a cultural conference with the Hebrew Writers Association and deliver a speech. Spent 17 months in jail. Meanwhile his office was raided, his computers and files seized by police, his home looted by mobs and his family threatened and physically assaulted for being “allied with Zionists.” Charged with sedition in Feb. 2004. Released on bail in April 2005. In Aug. 2006 unknown assailants set off explosives outside the newspaper’s offices and planted a bomb in the press room that failed to detonate. On Oct. 5, 2006 was severely beaten by 40 people. No arrests were made, and police refused to allow Choudhury to file charges against his attackers. Charged with blasphemy, sedition, treason and espionage, punishable by death in Bangladesh. Richard L. Benkin said, “If the Choudhurys were in Europe during the Holocaust, they would have refused to drive the trains.”
“Israel is the land blessed by God. But, finally, God’s power has saved me from the dark. I am proud to be a son of Israel. Now my eyes are really thirsty to have a look into the land of Israel, inshallah.”
“As a journalist, I counteracted the biased ‘news’ that promoted hatred of Israel and Jews, condemned terrorism, promoted the free exchange of ideas and urged Bangladesh to recognize Israel.”
“When my own people abandoned me, my Jewish brother defended me, stood with me”
Imam Shaheed Satardien. Imam in a tiny mosque in Dublin, Ireland. Born in South Africa. Former anti-apartheid activist. Fled after his younger brother was shot dead in 1998 following a row with Islamic radicals and he was told he would be next. Was cast out by the majority Islamic community in Dublin for his outspokenness
Takes a stand against the cult of the suicide bomber, warning his multinational congregation against blaming other religions and the West in general for all Muslims’ ills. Said that the main Dublin mosque at Clonskeagh is under the influence of Yusuf al-Qaradawi
“I am standing firm in my beliefs. The truth is more important than being popular or living a quiet life. Extremism has infected Islam in Ireland. It’s time to get back to the spiritual aspect of my religion and stop it being used as a political weapon”
“Young, impressionable Muslims in Ireland are being raised to think that suicide bombers are cool. .. What I am trying to do is convince the young people that such practices are un-Islamic”
Raymond Ibrahim. Born in Egypt. Language Specialty Assistant at the Library of Congress’s Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division. Author of “The Al Qaeda Reader.” Author of article “Islam gets concessions; infidels get conquered: What they capture, they keep. When they lose, they complain to the U.N.”
Bassam Tibi. Political scientist. Born in Syria. Lives in Germany. Moderate Moslem. In an interview with Der Spiegel urged European Muslims to integrate. Said that to become Europeans, Muslims must renounce jihad, give up shariah and accept pluralism and tolerance. When asked how many Muslims out of 3 million in Germany would agree to these demands, he replied: “A few thousands perhaps”
Mithal al-Alusi. Prominent Iraqi official who favors establishing diplomatic ties with Israel. Visited Israel. After that was expelled from the Iraqi National Congress. A specially convened court even charged him with a criminal offense for that visit. On Feb. 7, 2005 his two sons Ayman and Jamal were gunned down during an attempt to kill him. Other attempts have been made on his life, and he now says that members of the new Iraqi government are connected to those attempts
Salim Mansur. Professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario and senior fellow with Canadian Coalition for Democracies. Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C. Member of the Academic Council of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. Dr. Recently received the American Jewish Congress’s Stephen S. Wise Profiles in Courage award along with Salman Rushdie, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan and Tashbih Sayyid
M. Zuhdi Jasser. Director of American Islamic Forum for Democracy. (www.aifdemocracy.org): a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state. Has offered to pay for the legal defense of any “John Doe” passengers who end up being sued by six imams who were removed from a plane in Minneapolis for suspicious behavior
Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi. Co-chairman of the Root and Branch Association: Islam-Israel Fellowship. Secretary General of the Italian Muslim Assosiation. Former Imam of Rome
Ishmael Khaldi (www.ishmaelkhaldi.com). Bedouin Israeli Muslim. Served with the Israeli border police and worked for the Ministry of Defense. He is now training with the Israeli foreign service to serve as Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat. Member of Arabs for Israel
Tashbih Sayyed. Member of Arabs for Israel. Editor-in-chief of Pakistan Today, a California-based weekly newspaper. President of Council for Democracy and Tolerance. Adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute
From “Disposable Children”: “This latest Palestinian attempts to kill and maim Israelis was another example of their cynical use of innocent children. It seems that for the radical Islamists, children are no more than a disposable commodity. That’s why it is so easy for them to turn the children into human time bombs”
Tawfik Hamid. (www.thamid.com). Author of “muslimsforhumanrights.org” website. Author of “The Roots of Jihad”. Born in Egypt to a secular Muslim family. Joined Gama’a Islamiya when he was in Medical School . Used to pray with Al Zawahiri. Eventually questioned his reasons for terrorist participation. When he began to preach in Mosques to promote a message of peace instead of violence and hatred, he became a target of his former friends. They threatened his life, forcing him and his family to flee Egypt, and then Saudi Arabia. Sees his mission as “to speak out against radical Islam, a cancer that is spreading with frightening rapidity across the globe today.” Testified at the first major Intelligence Summit in Washington
From “It is time to admit it” (Dec. 2005): “After the barbaric terrorist attacks done by the hands of my fellow Muslims everywhere on this globe, and after the too many violent acts by Islamists in many parts of the world, I feel responsible as a Muslim and as a human being, to speak out and tell the truth to protect the world and Muslims as well from a coming catastrophe and war of civilizations. [...] We ask others to respect our religion while all the time we curse non-Muslims loudly (in Arabic) in our Friday prayers in the Mosques. What message do we convey to our children when we call the Jews ‘Descendants of the pigs and monkeys’? Is this a message of love and peace, or a message of hate? I have been into churches and synagogues where they were praying for Muslims. While all the time we curse them, and teach our generations to call them infidels, and to hate them. [...] I am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness after September 11th and after many other terror attacks. Muslims denounce these attacks to look good in front of the media, but we condone the Islamic terrorists and sympathise with their cause.”
Abdel Razek Kader. Algerian writer. Lives in exile. Has boldly championed Israel’s cause. Author of an article, “Real Enemy of the Palestinian People” in the Jerusalem Post, January 8, 1969
Irshad Manji. (www.muslim-refusenik.com). Born in Uganda in a Muslim family. Emmigrated to Canada when 2 years old. Journalist, television personality, and writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto. Author of “The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith” Recently visited Israel
Mohammad al-Harbi. Secondary-school teacher in Saudi Arabia. Discussed the Bible and praised Jews. For that he was charged with promoting a “dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer.” Sentenced to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes
Taslima Nasreen. Born and grew up in Bangladesh. Writer, poet, and doctor. Author of Laffa [Shame] (1992). The book touched off deadly riots in Bangladesh and triggered a Muslim death sentence on her head. Awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1994. Now in hiding in Sweden. She returned to see her dying mother in 1998, but was soon forced to flee once more. In September 2002, a court in Bangladesh found her guilty in absentia of offending Muslims and sentenced her to a year in prison
Khaleel Mohammad. Imam and assistant professor of religious studies at San Diego State University. Studied classical Islamic theology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Master’s degree in Judaism and Islam in Canada. Doctorate in Islamic law at McGill University in Montreal. Spoke at UC Santa Cruz, discussed the religious roots of Islamist Jew-hatred
Tashbih Sayyid. Journalist. Editor of “Pakistan today” and “Moslem World Today”. President of the Council for Tolerance
From an interview with Israel National Radio’s Tovia Singer: “I had a chance to be liberated from the collective clerical hold that keeps the Moslem world in the darkest corner of the intellectual mind. My faith rests in the premise that as long as there is anti-Semitism in this world, the world will never be able to see peace. People don’t recognize that whatever trouble the world is confronted with today is because of anti-Semitism. People hide anti-Semitism under different guises or title. Some call it anti-Zionism, some call it anti-Americanism, some say we are leftists, liberals, Moslems…but the crux of the matter is that they are anti-Semites. Anti-Semitism is a disease, an affliction that has troubled the mind of this world for the last 2,500 years… As a Moslem, I am concerned for the welfare of my community for the future of my children. I do not want Moslems to continue living in the bottomless epic of darkness and evil. … Israel, after coming into existence in 1948, has been something that refuses to submit to evil and darkness… If Israel is not secured, then the world will not be secure”
Khalid Duran. Writer and Muslim-American scholar. Lives in the U.S. Spoke out against radical Islam and its support for terrorist groups. Translator and senior adviser for the 1994 documentary “Jihad in America.” Together with Abdelwahab Hechiche wrote “Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews” — a children’s book promoting understanding of Islam — and enlisted the American Jewish Committee to publish it. That earned him a death fatwah from Lebanese Muslim cleric, Abd al-Mun’im Abu Zant and numerous death threats
Abdelwahab Hechiche. Together with Khalid Duran wrote “Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews”
Riad Nachef. Head of the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects. (Started in Lebanon, now active in the US. Two of its leaders were murdered by radical opponents in recent years.)
“Swindlers” is how Mr. Nachef describes Mr. Al-Marayati and the other heads of radical organizations.
When Mr. Nachef’s name came up just as the National Commission on Terrorism was first proposed by Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, it elicited intensely hostile responses from radical organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Suher Hamdan (Zohair Hamdan, Zuhair Hamdan).
Muktar (leader) of Arab village / Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Bahir. Protested transfer of Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods to Palestinian Authority control. Said he would prefer to remain under Israeli sovereignty rather than Arafat’s. Launched a petition campaign, collecting more than 10,000 signatures of Jerusalem Arabs opposing Arafat’s rule. Immediately after the petition drive was completed, Hamdan’s name was placed on the PA’s wanted list. Hamdan was declared an enemy on Hezbollah television. His effigy was placed on an electric pole by Marwan Barghouti. Visited Israelis wounded in terrorist attacks and condemned violence on both sides. Led a delegation of Jerusalem muktars to Gilo to condemn the shooting in that Jewish neighborhood. Visited a 12-year-old Jewish boy wounded in a shooting attack in a Jerusalem suburb. Was shot at and wounded by attempted assassins, most probably from Fatah, in the courtyard of his home, on Oct. 5, 2001. Was shot outside his corner shop near Bethlehem in Nov. 2001 by a member of PLO Bethlehem gang. Survived
“I knew the risks, I took them into account, but I knew I was doing the right thing.”
“Any little boy can see through Arafat’s failed leadership. It is in Arafat’s interest that the bloodshed continue, for without violence and bloodshed, he cannot survive. He has done nothing but bring bloodshed and death to his people. The Palestinians have had enough of him, but they are just afraid”
Khaled Mahameed. Israeli Arab. Opened the first Holocaust museum geared to an Arab audience in Nazareth to educate fellow Arabs about the World War II Holocaust.
“My goal is to teach how the Holocaust influences Jewish and Arab policies and contribute to (future) peace”
Kadra. Norwegian-Somalian. Exposed imam support of female circumcision in a 2000 hidden camera TV documentary revealing the positive attitude of Muslim leaders to female circumcision. In newspaper VG said that the Koran’s views on women needed to be reinterpreted. Beaten unconscious by seven or eight persons of Somali origin on April 12, 2007 in downtown Oslo. Had several broken ribs
Sulaiman al-Hattlan. Saudi. Columnist for the Al-Watan newspaper. Covered the war in Afghanistan in 1988-89. Lives in the U.S. since 1992. Said Arabs “lack the human face” when it comes to condemning terror attacks, including those against Israelis. He said those who denounce such bombings usually do so for political reasons – because they do not advance the attackers’ cause – and not for humanitarian reasons.
“You have to have a moral standard. You have to look at others as human.”
“Ironically, while millions of Iraqis at home and in exile celebrate their freedom, the broader Arab world is crying for the ‘dignity’ of Iraqis under the ‘US occupation’ ¬≠ as if it weren’t shameful enough that they had ignored the daily humiliation of Iraqis during 30 years of Saddam Hussein’s brutal occupation.”
“Saudi Arabia suffers from a homemade brand of fanaticism propagated by members of the conservative Wahhabi school of Islam. …Because of the dominance of Wahhabism, Saudi society has been exposed to only one school of thought, one that teaches hatred of Jews, Christians and certain Muslims, like Shiites and liberal and moderate Sunnis. But we Saudis must acknowledge that our real enemy is religious fanaticism.”
Every one of these people has had threats on their lives. I have also omitted a few who are not so public and therefore not protected.
I have personally encountered quite a few non-crazy Muslims: Iranians, Indonesians, Pakistanis, etc.
I am not naive. In addition to “Friends” file from which these names came, I also maintain a “Bad people” file – a much, much longer file.
But look at this list. Look how many heroes there are. I am not sure I would be as brave if I were in their circumstances.
Yes, Islam is currently very sick, its disease is like cancer. Still, one should blame the disease, not the patient.
Saul Davis- I agree that the question of belief in the Caliphate is a critical one. It is not a question for me so much as for any and all Muslims. I have written about this extensively: (http://breathofthebeast.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-name-for-beast.html) and have expressed the opinion that it is the true “litmus test” question one must ask of any Muslim. And, yes I agree that fundamental belief in the Caliphate disqualifies the believer from membership in the modern world.
Kirtlane- What a great compilation! I will use it and study it! It is only a shame that all of the fine human beings that have been summarily shot, maimed and tortured as “Collaborators” in the streets of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Gaza, etc… cannot be named and honored too.
They are betrayed by their leaders and clergy and the western left and the journalists ignore their sacrifice. We should help them as best we can.
Kurtlane–Islam is the problem. Fundamentalists, Islamists do not pervert or hijack a “peaceful” Islam, rather they represent and actualize the true nature of Islam as found in the Qur’an, Hadiths, Sira and the actions of Muhammad; they carry on the 1,400 year old tradition of the Muslim Jihad against all non-believers.
Much as many non-believers desperately want to diminish and limit Islam’s war against us by attributing it to a “tiny minority” or “fringe groups” within a much larger “peaceful” umma, the evidence is plain for all to see in Islam’s core documents, in the example of Muhammad’s life and in 1,400 years of Muslim slaughter, conquest and domination of all non-believers on virtually every continent and in virtually every non-Muslim country.
Inmypajamas,
A simple definition searh will show you that Arabs are semitic also. An indepth investigation will rule out jews completly.
Thereefore how can one be “anti semitic”.
From Middle East scholar Efraim Karsh’s opinion piece in today’s New York Sun;
“This is not to deny that American failures to respond to rogue actions and terrorist attacks have been harmful to its deterrent image, or that Osama bin Laden has misconstrued certain American setbacks for an indication of its diminishing resolve.
Yet it was not America’s perceived weakness that brought about the September 11 attacks, as Mr. Lewis argues, but rather its undeniable prowess. This is because Mr. bin Laden and other Islamists’ war is not against America per se but is rather the most recent manifestation of the millenarian jihad for a universal Islamic empire, the umma.
As the preeminent world power for quite some time, and the only remaining superpower after the collapse of the Soviet empire, America blocks the final realization of this goal and hence is a natural target for aggression. In this sense, the House of Islam’s war for world mastery is a traditional, indeed venerable, quest that is far from over.”
The above opinion piece, by the way, was titled, “Islam’s War for World Mastery”
I believe that Islam should require men to wear a veil. This will protect the women from having any carnal thoughts.
Daniel Pipes’s blog ( http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/115 ) is very clear that Policastro filed the first lawsuit.
The discovery materials that the ISB has provided show very clearly that the David Project and its friends conspired to use a combination of frivolous lawsuits and defamatory scare-mongering to prevent American citizens from exercising their democratic and constitutional rights of free assembly and unfettered practice of their religion. (See http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/05/emails-show-pro-israel-anti-mosque_08.html and http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/05/web-of-zionist-enmeshment.html, more to be published at http://eaazi.blogspot.com later this week.)
Kandil’s, Abou-Allaban’s, and the ISB’s lawsuits represent a perfectly reasonable response of American citizens and a law-abiding religious organization to a racist legal and media attack by a criminal conspiracy of wealthy extremist ethnic Ashkenazi Americans and their non-Jewish panderers.
The David Project includes in its mission the goal of “diminishing the impact of Israel’s detractors.” For the sake of Zionism, the leaders of this extremist Israel advocacy organization are willing to subvert the US Constitution.
Patriotic Americans can only be aghast at the abusive Israel advocacy practices of the David Project and the other Jewish communal organizations with which the David Project shares interlocking directorates.
True Americans can only sympathise with the Islamic Society of Boston and its leaders, who are only trying to defend themselves from the David Project, which employs more than 30 attorneys, is backed by several extremist Zionist billionaires more loyal to Israel than to fundamental American principles and has paid Floyd Abrams, perhaps the most highly priced attorney in the USA, to argue the anti-SLAPP motion of the non-media defendants.
The need for such a costly advocate is completely understandable because of the way in which the David Project twists the American legal system.
Normally, anti-SLAPP regulations are supposed to protect ordinary American communities from wealthy predatory developers. The David Project and its friends include some of the most aggressive Boston area real estate investors. These conspirators are making a racist attack on a religious community, whose largest components consist of taxi drivers, construction workers and African American Muslims, who live in Roxbury.
I am unable to comprehend how anyone can take seriously the whining of the David Project and its friends.