In the wake of the Islamic terrorist attack that left 14 dead in San Bernardino, three House Democrats have decided to meet and pray at a notorious northern Virginia mosque to “help demonstrate that Congress stands against incidents of violence against Muslims.”
Democratic Reps Don Beyer of Virginia, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Joe Crowley of New York planned to meet Friday afternoon at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, which has ties to terrorists who have committed acts of terror against the United States.
For example, it was widely reported that some of the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers attended the mosque, and that Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan worshipped there.
Anwar al-Awlaki, who the U.S. government believes was a recruiter for Islamic terrorists, was an imam, or a prayer leader, at the mosque.
The Democrats are encouraging their fellow Americans to resist hatred and intolerance and celebrate diversity.
“Intolerance and hatred have no place in American society,” Beyer said this week. “We are a diverse nation of immigrants whose shared cultural heritage is one of openness and inclusion. We must celebrate this diverse thread of our cultural cloth, not tear it apart.”
The three lawmakers told their colleagues this week that Americans must resist claims that “all Muslims are terrorists” in the wake of terrorist incidents around the world that have been tied to radical Islamic extremism.
“Women taking their children to school have been heckled by passersby, and we experienced two incidences of hate violence,” said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.
The congressmen claim that the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center received a bomb threat, and that Molotov cocktails were thrown in the parking lot.
Last month, a man was charged for leaving a “hoax explosive device” at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center.
According to the imam, Muslims in the area complain of feeling “under siege” since the terror attacks in Paris.
That is not the first time Imam Johari Abdul-Malik has complained of feeling “under siege.”
In September of 2004, discussing the impact of 9/11 on the Muslim community, Abdul-Malik took the opportunity to laud one of his congregants, Ismael Selim Elbarasse, who had just been arrested for videotaping structural parts of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Elbarasse, who has been described as a “high-ranking Hamas operative,” held a joint bank account with Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook for the purpose of financing the terror group. Another congregant, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, in March of 2006, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda, while plotting to assassinate President Bush. About the charges against Abu Ali, Abdul-Malik stated, “Our whole community is under siege.”
In addition to his ties to Major Nidal Hasan (Ft. Hood) and the late Anwar Al Awlaki (who served as imam of Dar Al Hijrah in mid-2001 and was considered an important spiritual advisor for two of the 9-11 hijackers), Abdul-Malik is also tied to Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab (the “underwear bomber”).
Malik has publicly defended al-Awlaki’s clericship at Dar Al Hijrah, saying that Awlaki was “articulating the same message that I articulate today.”
In November 2004, Abdul-Malik delivered a sermon at the mosque, saying:
People, even under the pressures that you and I know about, the deen of Islam is growing because people see even within all of this struggle it is better to be a Muslim under these conditions than to be a kaffir under any conditions… before Allah closes our eyes for the last time you will see Islam move from being the second largest religion in America-that’s where we are now- to being the first religion in America.
“Kaffir” derives from the Arabic “kafir,” meaning “unbeliever, infidel, impious wretch,” with a literal sense of “one who does not admit the blessings of God.”
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