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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; muslim american society</title>
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		<title>NY Jets Player Spoke at Event Hosted by Designated Terrorist Group</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joe-kaufman/ny-jets-player-spoke-at-event-hosted-by-designated-terrorist-group-2/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=ny-jets-player-spoke-at-event-hosted-by-designated-terrorist-group-2</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:10:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joe Kaufman]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[football]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MAS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim american society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NFL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NY Jets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oday Aboushi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[terrorist organization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UAE]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=246941</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Anti-Israel athlete regals the Muslim American Society after the group's banning from the UAE. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/unnamed.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246943" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/unnamed.jpg" alt="unnamed" width="319" height="247" /></a>The media, the NFL and the New York Jets organization can no longer overlook the problem that is Jets player Oday Aboushi. People can argue that he has the right to have pride in his family’s heritage or even that he has the right to voice his opinion against Israel, albeit in a town that has a huge Jewish population. But it is quite another thing for those to look the other way if Aboushi chooses to speak in front of a group labeled terrorist, which is exactly what he did earlier this year, when he delivered a speech to the Muslim American Society (MAS).</p>
<p>Since coming to the New York Jets as a fifth round draft pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, Oday Aboushi has been very public in his stance against the nation of Israel. On a number of occasions, he has used social media to demean and denounce the Jewish state.</p>
<p>His latest set of infractions happened this past July, when Israel’s military entered Gaza in response to thousands of rockets being fired into Israel by Hamas. Aboushi took the opportunity to bash Israel on Twitter. One of his messages could not have been clearer: “<a href="http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee431/kaufmanforcongress/Oday_Aboushi_Shame_On_You_Israel.jpg"><span style="color: #0433ff;">#SHAMEONYOUISRAEL</span></a>.”</p>
<p>There are over two million Jews who live in New York and New Jersey, the locations of the majority of Jets fans. Yet, the NFL, the Jets and the media have all stood by Aboushi, whitewashing his actions as if he is merely exhibiting pride in his Palestinian heritage.</p>
<p>Indeed, when this author pointed out in a previous article that Aboushi had spoken at a conference sponsored by the El-Bireh Palestine Society, a group that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, whose 2013 conference Facebook site contained numerous photos of Adolf Hitler and Hamas leaders, it was not Aboushi who was attacked by the media, but it was instead this author and anyone else who appeared to voice concerns based on my information.</p>
<p>When Jonathan Mael, then-new media coordinator for Major League Baseball’s official website, MLB.com, compared Aboushi to New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez, who had just been charged with murder, stating in a tweet that the Jets were “a disgrace of an organization,” there were calls for Mael’s firing. And those calls appear to have been successful.</p>
<p>Aboushi’s speaking in front of the bigoted El-Bireh Society, though, seems to have only been a prelude to his being featured at something far worse, as he has now spoken in front of a group that would soon be designated as a terrorist organization.</p>
<p>On the night of February 7, 2014, Oday Aboushi was the featured speaker at an <a href="http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee431/kaufmanforcongress/Oday_Aboushi_Muslim_American_Society.jpg"><span style="color: #0433ff;">event hosted by the Muslim American Society</span></a> (MAS), at the group’s youth center in Brooklyn, New York. The title of his speech was ‘The Easy Way vs the Right Way,’ and it was promoted by MAS on social media.</p>
<p>On November 15, it was widely reported that MAS was <a href="http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates-international/1395272478814.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">named a terrorist organization by United Arab Emirates</span></a> (UAE), on a list that included al-Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram. This was a fitting designation, as the links to terror from MAS are many and varied.</p>
<p>MAS was founded in 1993 by a group of individuals from the Muslim Brotherhood, which included the future global head of the Brotherhood (2004 &#8211; 2010), Mohammed Mahdi Akef.</p>
<p>In the recent past, MAS has used its official websites to praise Hamas and to call for violence upon and/or denigrate Jews, Christians, homosexuals and women.</p>
<p>The current National Executive Director of MAS is Mazen Mokhtar. From 1992 through 1996, Mokhtar made numerous statements on the internet in support of Hamas and suicide bombings. Prior to the September 11 attacks, Mokhtar served as a web designer for what was then the main website raising funds and recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Qoqaz.net. The site was a project of Azzam Publications, an organization named for Osama bin Laden’s mentor, Abdullah Azzam. In April 2007, Mokhtar was arrested for tax fraud.</p>
<p>The fact that Aboushi made his speech at a “youth center” does not lessen the harmful nature of his event, as MAS Youth facilities have been and remain havens for extremist activity. One must note that, prior to becoming the National Executive Director of MAS, Mazen Mokhtar served as the Youth Director of MAS-New Jersey and has been a featured speaker at a number of MAS Youth camps and children’s retreats.</p>
<p>The Youth Coordinator at MAS Youth Center, where Aboushi spoke, is Amal Hussain. According to Facebook, Hussain was an attendee at Aboushi’s speech.</p>
<p>The very first posting on Hussain’s personal Facebook page was an <a href="http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee431/kaufmanforcongress/Amal_Hussain_Siraj_Wahhaj.jpg"><span style="color: #0433ff;">announcement for a speech that was to be given by Siraj Wahhaj</span></a>, the imam of the radical At-Taqwa Mosque, located in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. Hussain used the announcement as her Facebook cover photo.</p>
<p>In 1995, Wahhaj was named an “unindicted co-conspirator” for the federal trial prosecuting those involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj had been linked to the bombmaker of the attack, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, and during the trial Wahhaj was a character witness for the spiritual leader of the attack – the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman – whom Wahhaj has openly praised.</p>
<p>On November 30, Amal Hussain posted a <a href="http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee431/kaufmanforcongress/Amal_Hussain_Mohamed_Soltan.jpg"><span style="color: #0433ff;">photo of Egyptian prisoner Mohamed Soltan on her Facebook site</span></a>, along with the following statement above it: “[Hosni] Mubarak walks away freely while Soltan is still ‘unjustly’ detained.” Soltan is awaiting trial for charges of funding a terrorist organization and conspiracy to commit violent acts. Soltan’s father, Salah Soltan, is a high-ranking official in the Muslim Brotherhood. Mohamed’s father is also a former leader of MAS.</p>
<p>Salah Soltan is the founder and former President of the MAS-run Islamic American University (IAU), which is based in Southfield, Michigan. The former Chairman of IAU is the current spiritual leader of the international Muslim Brotherthood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) refers to al-Qaradawi as “Theologian of Terror,” and about Salah Soltan, the ADL states that, in June 2013, Salah delivered a sermon labeling Jews “the enemies of God… the cursed ones.”</p>
<p>Prior to going to jail, Mohamed Soltan tweeted a photo of himself <a href="https://causingfitna.wordpress.com/there-is-no-muslim-brotherhood-in-the-united-states-ummm-correction/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">together with his father and al-Qaradawi</span></a>, at what he claimed was al-Qaradawi’s house. He also tweeted support for Hamas.</p>
<p>The day after his speech to MAS, Oday Aboushi tweeted a <a href="http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee431/kaufmanforcongress/Oday_Aboushi_Muslim_American_Society_2.jpg"><span style="color: #0433ff;">thank-you note to the group</span></a>. He stated, “Thank you @MASYouthCenter for having me last night. Being available for our youth is the biggest hand we can lend in times of need.”</p>
<p>Question: Just how far is Oday Aboushi willing to go to lend a hand to a designated terrorist organization? And how far does he have to go before the NFL, the Jets and the media end their relationship with and their support for him?</p>
<p>As a professional football player, Oday Aboushi is considered by many to be a role model for kids, but what kind of role model legitimizes bigotry and terror?</p>
<p><i>Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.</i></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Sharia on Tour</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/sharia-on-tour/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=sharia-on-tour</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/sharia-on-tour/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:30:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[icna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim american society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Siraj Wahhaj]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=211324</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Muslim Brotherhood front groups with terrorism ties are coming to a city near you. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Siraj-Wahhaj.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-211332" alt="Siraj-Wahhaj" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Siraj-Wahhaj.jpg" width="234" height="175" /></a>If you live near Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta or Rochester and want to see a Sharia-promoting show, you’re in luck. The <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-circle-north-america-icna">Islamic Circle of North America</a> and <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslim-american-society-mas">Muslim American Society</a>, two groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, have announced four conferences featuring rock stars of the Islamist movement.</p>
<p>ICNA is identified as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends” in a once-secret <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/Muslim_Brotherhood_Explanatory_Memorandum">1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo.</a> It explicitly states the network’s “work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within…”</p>
<p>The organization is a derivative of the Jamaat-e-Islami group in Pakistan. One of ICNA’s former leaders, Ashrafuzzaman Khan, was recently <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/usmuslim-leader-sentenced-death-bangladesh-war-crimes">sentenced to death</a> in Bangladesh for his involvement in Jamaat-e-Islami’s war crimes. Unsurprisingly, ICNA is <a href="http://www.icna.org/icna-expresses-concern-over-bangladesh-tribunals/">upset</a> at the ruling.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/475.pdf">2010 ICNA handbook</a> advocates a gradualist strategy that culminates in a “united Islamic state, governed by an elected khalifah in accordance with the laws of shari’ah (Islamic law).” The Islamist leaders that the handbook looks to for guidance include the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Brotherhood’s current spiritual leader and the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami.</p>
<p>MAS was “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America,” according to federal prosecutors in a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/542.pdf">2008 case.</a> Last year, a former U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leader <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3486/under-oath-alamoudi-ties-mas-to-brotherhood">testified</a> that “everyone knows that the MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood.”</p>
<p>Both groups have <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/america-islamist-groups-hold-rallies-morsi">held rallies</a> to protest the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi in Egypt.</p>
<p>Houston is the first stop on the ICNA-MAS Sharia tour. From November 29 to December 1, they will be holding their joint <a href="http://icnatexas.org/">South Central Convention</a> at a JW Marriott Hotel. The overall theme is, “Blueprint for a Lasting Legacy.”</p>
<p>One of the speakers is Imam Khalid Griggs, the chairman of the ICNA Council for Social Justice. Former CIA case officer Clare Lopez <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/wake-forest-universitys-radical-imam">found out</a> that he used to be involved with the Islamic Party of North America, a group that explicitly preaches “a revolutionary Islam.” Its inspirers include Khomeini, Qutb, Qaddafi and Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami.</p>
<p>Another speaker is Sheikh Omar Suleiman. According to his <a href="http://gamuslimevents.org/icnaseconvention/speaker/siraj-we/">bio</a>, he studied under Sheikh Salah As-Sawy and Dr. Hatem al-Haj. These are two Salafist clerics that lead the very radical <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/assembly-muslim-jurists-america">Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America</a>. The closest the organization can bring itself to foreswearing violent jihad is to <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/american-muslim-jurists-group-aspiring-towards-jihad">oppose it</a> because “the Islamic community does not possess the strength to engage in offensive jihad <b>at this time</b> [emphasis added].”</p>
<p>On November 30, ICNA is holding its first conference in upstate New York at Rochester Riverside Convention Center, themed as “Islam: The Pursuit of Happiness.”</p>
<p>Speakers include the notorious Imam Siraj Wahhaj, whose version of “pursuing happiness” includes violent jihad and replacing Western democracy with Sharia Law.</p>
<p>Wahhaj has an <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/masjid-taqwa">undeniable, documented record of extremism</a> that would make any genuinely “moderate” Muslim group sprint away from him. He’s had to tame down his anti-Americanism and support for violent jihad and theocracy in the post-9/11 atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean his beliefs have changed.</p>
<p>At the 2011 ICNA-MAS national convention, he <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/popular-muslim-iman-working-towards-sharia-america">advised</a> Muslims to avoid talking to non-Muslims about Sharia because “we are not there yet.” More recently, the NYPD <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/evidence-supports-nypd-counter-terrorism-ops">revealed</a> that it had evidence that the security team at Wahhaj’s mosque was involved in illegal weapons trafficking, anti-police martial arts training and paintball trips described as preparation for jihad. Of course, Wahhaj and his allies accuse the NYPD of “racial profiling.”</p>
<p>Another speaker in Rochester is Jamal Barzinji, one of the founding fathers of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network. His home was <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/891.pdf">raided</a> in 2003 because he “is not only closely associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]…but also with Hamas.” The Justice Department <a href="http://pjmedia.com/blog/pjm-exclusive-holders-doj-scuttled-more-terror-related-prosecutions/?singlepage=true">reportedly</a> cancelled a planned indictment of him in 2011.</p>
<p>If you live in the Atlanta area, you can get your dose of Islamist indoctrination at the joint ICNA-MAS <a href="http://www.icnaga.org/">Southeast Annual Convention</a> on December 27-29 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel. Its <a href="http://www.icna.org/are-you-ready-for-upcoming-icna-conventions/">preachers</a> include the aforementioned Wahhaj, Suleiman, Griggs and many others.</p>
<p>ICNA and MAS also announced that their <a href="http://www.icnaconvention.org/">39th annual convention</a> will be held on May 24-26 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland. Its speakers have not been decided yet but if the convention’s past content is any indication, then be ready for some subtle and not-so-subtle Islamist preaching.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, the 2011 convention included Wahhaj’s message to avoid conversations about Sharia for the time being. His recommendation was similar to another speaker at the 2002 convention who <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/chi-0409190261sep19,0,3008717.story">said</a>, “We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state…[but] we mustn’t cross hurdles we can’t jump yet.”</p>
<p>At last year’s convention, radical cleric Zaid Shakir <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/popular-us-imam-replace-constitution-sharia">preached</a> that the U.S. Constitution had failed and Islam (meaning Sharia) provides a superior model of governance because it denies equality. He said:</p>
<p>“Secularism says we keep religion out. Why? Because if we have religion and religion is the basis of membership in the community, we can’t have perfect equality. We can’t have perfect equality. If Islam is the basis, the <i>kafir</i> won’t be equal with the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew will be a <i>dhimmi.</i> They won’t be equal with the Muslim.”</p>
<p>The Islamists are going on tour but if you miss them this time around, don’t worry—they won’t be retiring anytime soon.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Ryan Mauro</strong> on <strong>The Kelly File</strong> discussing: <em>American Student Brutally Beaten by Muslim Gang in London:</em></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zvYRw8KWKPI" height="315" width="460" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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		<title>Boston Terror Mosque</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/frontpagemag-com/boston-terror-mosque/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=boston-terror-mosque</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/frontpagemag-com/boston-terror-mosque/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Aug 2013 04:26:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Frontpagemag.com]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=199547</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why are the most powerful people in Massachusetts embracing a hotbed of violent Islamic jihad? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: The following video details the shocking truth about the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, including the organization&#8217;s terrorist ties and connections to state political leaders. </em></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qUYIHRRaPmA" height="315" width="560" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Muslim Brotherhood Convention Comes to Chicago</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/muslim-brotherhood-convention-comes-to-chicago/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=muslim-brotherhood-convention-comes-to-chicago</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/muslim-brotherhood-convention-comes-to-chicago/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Nov 2012 04:41:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conference]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamic circle of north america]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim american society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Celebrating the Islamist "renaissance." ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/muslim-brotherhood-convention-comes-to-chicago/convention_email_header/" rel="attachment wp-att-164920"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-164920" title="Convention_Email_header" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Convention_Email_header.jpg" alt="" width="302" height="241" /></a>For the second time in two months, stars of the Islamist movement in America will come together in the Chicago area, parading as the moderate Muslims we need to guide us. This time, it’s the 11<sup>th</sup> <a href="http://www.masicna.com/conv2012/">annual convention</a> of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America on December 21-25.</p>
<p>Both the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) are in a 1991 internal Muslim Brotherhood <a href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/Muslim+Brotherhood+General+Strategic+Goal+for+North+America.pdf">list</a> of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” Imprisoned Brotherhood operative Abdurrahman Alamoudi <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3486/under-oath-alamoudi-ties-mas-to-brotherhood">testified</a> that “everyone knows that MAS is Muslim Brotherhood.” ICNA is <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=26552">closely</a> <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35064">linked</a> to a Pakistani Islamist group called Jamaat-e-Islami and its 2010 handbook laid out a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/2373/hand-book-shows-icna-true-goals">five-step strategy</a> that culminates in a “united Islamic state, governed by an elected khalifah in accordance with the laws of shari’ah (Islamic law).” A former president and secretary-general of ICNA, Ashrafuzzaman Khan, is <a href="http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/former-leader-icna-be-charged-war-crimes">accused</a> of committing war crimes by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal.</p>
<p>The theme of the event is, “Toward a Renaissance: Believe, Act &amp; Engage.” The “Arab Spring associated with the Islamic Awakening in many parts of the Muslim world” is <a href="http://www.masicna.com/conv2012/2012Theme.aspx">given</a> as an example of this “renaissance.” By “renaissance,” MAS-ICNA means the Islamist ideology. That is the message an expected audience of 9,500 will hear.</p>
<p>The roster of speakers is filled with Islamists, one of which is even called an Islamist in his biography on the convention website. The <a href="http://www.masicna.com/conv2012/2012GuestSpeakers/tabid/118/post/abdelfattah-mourou/Default.aspx">page</a> for Sheikh Abdelfattah Mourou, a founder of the Tunisian political party Al-Nahda, says he “started his Islamist activities in the 1960s.” He worked alongside <a href="http://www.radicalislam.org/category/tags/rachid-ghannouchi">Rashid al-Ghannouchi</a>, another one of the party’s founders, who has a very extreme past but is still consistently described as a “moderate” in the Western media.</p>
<p>One major speaker is Tariq Ramadan, who was banned from entering the U.S. in 2004 because of a donation he made to a Hamas front. The ban was lifted in 2010 on orders from Secretary of State Clinton. He is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood and the son of Said Ramadan, who was a major Brotherhood leader in Europe.</p>
<p>Nihad Awad is the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an <a href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/List+of+Unindicted+HLF+Co-conspirators.pdf">unindicted co-conspirator</a> in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history. The federal government says CAIR is a creation of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee. Awad <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/223/cairs-awad-in-support-of-the-hamas-movement">publicly</a> supported Hamas as far back as 1994 and referred to the terrorist group and Hezbollah as “liberation movements” in an Arabic <a href="http://www.translatingjihad.com/2011/01/cairs-nihad-awad-refuses-to-condemn.html">interview</a> with Al-Jazeera in 2004.</p>
<p>Siraj Wahhaj is a favorite of the various Brotherhood affiliates and was <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/409#_ftn1">listed</a> as an “unindicted person who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/laura-l-rubenfeld/democrats-embrace-siraj-wahhaj-supporter-of-cop-killer-al-qaeda-and-hamas/#_edn1">preaches</a> that the U.S. should become an Islamic State.</p>
<p>“If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if eight million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us,” he said.</p>
<p>Wahhaj has said that “America is the most wicked government on the face of the planet Earth” and that the U.S. is a “garbage can” that he prays “crumbles.” The book <em>Muslim Mafia</em> quotes Wahhaj preaching violence. “We don’t need to arm the people with 9mms and Uzis. You need to arm them with righteousness first. And once you arm them with righteousness first, then you can arm them,” he said, as well as “I will never tell people, ‘Don’t be violent.’ That’s not the Islamic way.”</p>
<p>Imam Zaid Shakir <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/us/18imams.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=all">told</a> the <em>New York Times</em> in 2006 that he hopes to see the U.S. nonviolently become an Islamic State one day. He <a href="http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/what-islamic-icon-teaching-american-youth">approves</a> of attacks on U.S. soldiers in America and <a href="http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/imam-zaid-shakir-marine-barracks-bombing-not-terrorism">says</a> that Hezbollah’s bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon was not an act of terrorism. In April, he <a href="http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/what-islamic-icon-teaching-american-youth">wrote</a> a poem that put the U.S. and its military in a disgustingly negative light. He believes in 9/11 conspiracy theories and blasts the U.S. for “demonizing” Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban, while characterizing Al-Qaeda, Hamas and other Islamist terrorists as flawed freedom fighters.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/video-christie-says-bigots-attacking-him-on-radical-islam">Mohamed Qatanani</a> leads a mosque founded by a Hamas operative and the Department of Homeland Security wants to deport him because of his terror ties. He did not disclose on his green card application that Israel convicted him in 1993 for his involvement with Hamas. He admitted to having been a member of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood but says he left in 1991 because of time limitations.</p>
<p>He has also made shady money transfers. The DHS <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1450.pdf#page=23">explained</a> in a 2008 court filing, “It is certainly suspicious when a person who has been convicted of being a member of, and providing services, to Hamas, who has personal ties to a Hamas militant leader, and a Hamas fundraiser also sends undisclosed cash to the West Bank.” More recently, he <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/free-speech-that-mocks-islam-is-national-security-threat-for-u-s-prominent-nj-imam-tells-theblaze/%20">said</a> the U.S. should institute laws against anti-Islam speech.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3569/jamal-badawi-enduring-link-to-isna-radical-past">Jamal Badawi</a> is a founder of MAS and his fundraising for the Holy Land Foundation got him designated as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the charity. He made a theological case for suicide bombings in 1999 by saying the action doesn’t qualify as suicide. In February 2009, he referred to Hamas terrorists as “martyrs” and endorsed the group’s “combative jihad” in March 2010. His name also appears in a 1992 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1083.pdf#page=2">phone book.</a></p>
<p>In July 2007, he <a href="http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/05/16/homeland-insecurity-why-is-jamal-badawi-still-allowed-inside-the-united-states/%20">spoke</a> at an event in Qatar honoring senior Brotherhood cleric, Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, who likes to call himself the “mufti of martyrdom operations.” He is also on the board of Qaradawi’s International Association of Muslim Scholars that endorsed the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.</p>
<p>Imam Suhaib Webb is the imam of the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/531">Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.</a> The mosque was founded by Abdurahman Alamoudi, the senior U.S. Brotherhood operative that now sits in prison on terror-related charges. The mosque’s 1998-2000 tax filings lists Qaradawi as one of its officials.</p>
<p>Hatem Bazian is the chairman of American Muslims for Palestine, the host of another <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/destroy-israel-conference-comes-to-illinois/%20">major Islamist gathering</a> in the Chicago area in November. In 2004, he <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/2462/conferences-make-amp-destructive-ambition-clear">called for</a> an intifada in America to “change fundamentally the political dynamics here,” calling on Muslims to follow in the footsteps of Palestinians and Iraqis involved in an “uprising,” a subtle endorsement of those fighting U.S. soldiers in Iraq at that time. He eerily predicted, “They’re gonna say some Palestinian [is] being too radical – well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet.” In speeches this year, he <a href="http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/imam-zaid-shakir-marine-barracks-bombing-not-terrorism">made</a> the U.S. sound like a racist, imperialist country that wages war on Islam abroad and persecutes innocent Muslims at home.</p>
<p>At MAS-ICNA’s 2009 conference, <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3554/icna-radicalization-continues">Ragheb Elsergany</a> <a href="http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Israel/Muslim_American_Society.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_4">preached</a> that Muslims must “liberate all of Palestine from the North to the South, from Al-Quds [Jerusalem] to the sea.” When this got attention, MAS-ICNA issued a statement saying “we deeply regret and affirm that such individuals will not be invited to future conferences,” not mentioning him by name. That same year, he said Allah commands Muslims to engage in jihad by “supporting the fighters, and the mujahideen and the besieged, and those in need there in Palestine.”</p>
<p>The 2009 statement was insincere. MAS-ICNA had him back in 2010 and he said that the Arab Spring would make Israel “vanish absolutely.”  He is speaking again this year.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/440.pdf">Kifah Mustapha</a> is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial and, like CAIR, was listed by the federal government as a member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee. He used to be a volunteer for the pro-Hamas Islamic Association for Palestine, another Brotherhood front and he fundraised for the Holy Land Foundation, CAIR and MAS. He also was a vocalist in a band that performed pro-Hamas songs. He is an imam at the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/391">Mosque Foundation</a>, which has strong Brotherhood affiliations.</p>
<p>The conference’s speakers include numerous senior officials from the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), another unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land trial that the federal government says is a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity. The FBI <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/730/new-disclosures-tighten-isna-muslim-brotherhood-bonds">identified</a> ISNA as a Brotherhood front as early as 1987 and a 1991 American Muslim Brotherhood document confirms it. The MAS-ICNA convention features ISNA Secretary-General Safaa Zarzour and former ISNA President Imam Mohammed Magid.</p>
<p>The MAS-ICNA website does not list the sponsors of its 2012 event but <a href="http://www.masicna.com/conv2012/Exhibitors/Sponsorship.aspx">last year&#8217;s sponsors</a> include the Dish Network, the Islamist group <a href="http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/exclusive-islamist-adviser-state-dept-and-usaid-exposed">Islamic Relief USA</a>, Turkish Airlines, Shop &amp; Save Market, <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/744/spinning-the-asbahi-resignation">Allied Assets Advisors</a>, Dar El Salam Travel, Zakat Foundation of America, Zaytuna College (America’s first Muslim college), Helping Hand for Relief &amp; Development, Life for Relief &amp; Development, Alwan Printing and Azzad Funds.</p>
<p>This December, while many of you will be celebrating Christmas, nearly 10,000 Muslims will be coming together in Chicago for a celebration of the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p><em>This article was sponsored by the <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy.</a></em></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Government-Funded Jihad</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/government-funded-jihad/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=government-funded-jihad</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/government-funded-jihad/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 04:04:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ahmed Yassin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al-Ashqar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al-Awlaki]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al-Hanooti]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[America]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Brotherhood]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Dar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dar al hijrah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[darrel issa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dave gaubatz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Faisal Shahzad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[falls church virginia]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Mohammed Abu]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Why is American taxpayers' money going to radical mosque in Virginia?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dar.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61282" title="dar" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dar.gif" alt="" width="400" height="290" /></a></p>
<p>Rep. Darrel Issa (R-C.A.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-M.E.) are <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2010/05/ipt-report-on-census-lease-prompts-inquiries">demanding</a> answers following the Investigative Project on Terrorism’s discovery that taxpayer money is going to the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque of Falls   Church, Virginia. The revelation is an unsettling reminder of how jihadists are using America’s freedoms and ineptitude of the government to their advantage.</p>
<p>The Investigative Project on Terrorism has <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1944/government-pays-mosque-it-considers-radical">found</a> that the Census Bureau has been paying Dar al-Hijrah about $23,000 per month since November 2008 to rent space in one of its buildings. The State Department has used the mosque in its videos about America’s Muslim community and <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2010/05/dar-al-hijrahs-other-weekend-guests">sent</a> students from its Foreign Service Institute to Dar al-Hijrah this month.</p>
<p>Dave Gaubatz, a former Special Agent with the U.S. Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations, and author of <em><a href="www.muslimmafia.com">Muslim Mafia</a></em>, described Dar al-Hijrah to FrontPage as “Wahhabi quarter,” in reference to the oppressive form of Islam practiced and promoted by Saudi   Arabia. He said that when he investigated the mosque, he found that its library included “very, very violent materials” that advocated physical jihad and sedition, and that extremism was promoted during the week but not during Friday prayers when they are most likely to be caught.</p>
<p>Gaubatz also says that the mosque immediately reaches out to people that have arrived in their area from Iraq and other places. Like in Iraq, he says, “the mosques are being used as safehouses with which to spread violent ideology.” This is dangerous because mosque attendees and leaders are “fond” of extremists like Ali al-Tamimi, a preacher who has been convicted of preparing young Muslims to wage jihad through the use of paintball guns.</p>
<p>Another section of that same building being rented by the government is also used by the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/44.pdf">Muslim American Society</a>, a <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6263">front</a> for the extremist Muslim Brotherhood organization. The Brotherhood and its affiliates have proven to be skillful in portraying themselves as “moderates” so as to wage jihad using more effective means than the reckless violence of Al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>The renting of some of its property to the Muslim American Society is just one small part of Dar al-Hijrah’s connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and extremism in general. Its imam from 1995 to 1999, Mohammed al-Hanooti, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031501768.html">defended</a> a senior Hamas official named Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook. Another Dar al-Hijrah founder, Ismail Elbarasse, was an assistant to Marzook and later <a href="http://70.85.195.205/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40150">found</a> to be part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee in the U.S.</p>
<p>Al-Hanooti was <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1521/dar-al-hijrah-officials-deception-on-awlaki">labeled</a> as a possible unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World  Trade Center bombing and supported a Muslim who refused to testify about the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Al-Hanooti argued that Islam “gives him the right to abstain from giving testimony in case it hurts him or it hurts any other Muslim.” He was an open supporter of Hamas.</p>
<p>Another former imam is Anwar al-Awlaki, the Al-Qaeda leader who currently lives in Yemen and has been involved in terrorist plots including the Fort  Hood shooting and the Christmas Day underwear bomb plot. Two of the 9/11 hijackers and the Fort  Hood shooter attended al-Awlaki’s sermons there. Al-Awlaki’s preaching also inspired Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American who recently tried to set off a car bomb in Times  Square.</p>
<p>The mosque was also attended by Abdulrahman Alamoudi, who was later convicted for his illegal dealings with Libya related to a plot to kill Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Alamoudi was a Muslim Brotherhood member who publicly supported Hamas and Hezbollah, and was integral to the Brotherhood’s <a href="../2010/04/09/tom-campbell-tool-of-the-muslim-brotherhood/">efforts</a> to influence the political process.</p>
<p>One of Dar al-Hijrah’s founders, Sheikh Mohammed Adam El-Sheikh, became the imam in 2003 and left in 2005. He also helped found the Muslim American Society and was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in Sudan. In 2004, he <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14497-2004Sep11?language=printer">spoke</a> in support of Palestinian suicide bombers since “they cannot defend themselves, except through these kinds of means.”</p>
<p>One of the mosque’s board of directors is Esam Omeish, who ran for the Virginia House of Delegates and is the former President of the Muslim American Society. He has <a href="http://www.masnet.org/pressroom_release.asp?id=1664">called</a> the Muslim Brotherhood “moderate” and admits that he and the MAS have been influenced by them. In 2004, he <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1025/mas-esam-omeish-seeks-virginia-office">described</a> the founder of Hamas as “our beloved Sheikh Ahmed Yassin” and has praised Palestinians who knew “that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land.”</p>
<p>A trustee of Dar al-Hijrah, Abdulhaleem Al-Ashqar, took part in a secret Hamas meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 where they discussed the need to use front organizations that appear more moderate. Al-Ashqar was later <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1953/government-outreach-with-terror-tied-mosque">convicted</a> for refusing to testify about the terrorist group’s efforts to raise money in the U.S. <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1849">Ahmed Omar Abu Ali</a>,a camp counselor and teacher at the mosque, has been convicted of supporting Al-Qaeda and planning to kill President Bush.</p>
<p>In February, a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2010/02/dar-al-hijrah-hosts-fundraiser-for-convicted">fundraiser</a> was held at Dar al-Hijrah for the legal costs of Sabri Benkahla, who was convicted for lying to the FBI and in court about his terrorist links. Benkahla <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/24/AR2007072401886_pf.html">traveled</a> to a training camp run by Lashkar-e-Taiba and when he returned, helped train Muslims from the mosque using paintball guns.</p>
<p>The mosque’s current imam is Shaker Elsayed, a former secretary-general of the Muslim American Society. He praised Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, in 2004, <a href="http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5723/pub_detail.asp">saying</a> that his teachings as “the closest reflection of how Islam should be in this life.” In 2002, he <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/228/elsayed-suicide-bombers-are-in-house-business">spoke</a> in support of suicide bombers and said that when Muslims are attacked, they must fight jihad with whatever “they can get in their hand and if they don&#8217;t have anything in their hand then they can fight with their hand without weapons.” Sheikh Elsayed <a href="http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5723/pub_detail.asp">gave</a> the opening prayer for the Virginia House of Delegates in March.</p>
<p>Dar al-Hijrah’s Director of Outreach, Johari Abdul-Malik, has gone to great lengths to denounce Anwar al-Awlaki, but he is a radical himself. He has <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1521/dar-al-hijrah-officials-deception-on-awlaki">supported</a> attacks on Israelis, and pushes 9/11 conspiracy theories. He also incorrectly denies that al-Awlaki preached extremism while he was the mosque’s imam.</p>
<p>Dave Gaubatz also ties Dar al-Hijrah to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, another Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that was labeled by the federal government as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Holy Land Foundation trial. The HLF was found in court to have acted as a front to raise money for Hamas and was part of the Brotherhood apparatus in the U.S.</p>
<p>“CAIR and Dar al-Hijrah are one-in-one,” Gaubatz told FrontPage. “Very little happens with CAIR where they don’t consult with Dar al-Hijrah’s board members and leaders.”</p>
<p>Government documents also support the conclusion that the mosque is a jihadist front. The IPT has one report from 2002 from a Customs and Border Protection database that said that Dar al-Hijrah is “operating as a front for Hamas operatives in the U.S.” Two other reports from December 2007 confirmed that the mosque was under investigation for potential criminal and terrorist activity. One said that people connected to the mosque were involved in financing terrorism and has been “encouraging fraudulent marriages.” <em>WorldNetDaily.com</em> <a href="http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&amp;pageId=155233">reports</a> that an investigation into credit card fraud has led to the mosque, “following reports of mysterious Dar al-Hijrah line-item charges appearing on the statements of local individuals not even connected to the mosque.”</p>
<p>The mosque’s ties to radical Islam and terrorism are so numerous they hard to keep track of. A basic Internet search would have yielded this information for the government officials that decided to do business with Dar al-Hijrah. The mosque should not be operating, and it is a disgrace that the American people are paying them tens of thousands of dollars without even knowing it.</p>
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		<title>Rashad Hussain&#8217;s Troubling Ties</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:29:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=50834</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Does Obama’s Islam envoy reject Islamic extremism?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/hussain_al-arian_doomsday_604x341.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50837" title="hussain_al-arian_doomsday_604x341" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/hussain_al-arian_doomsday_604x341.jpg" alt="" width="604" height="341" /></a></p>
<p>President Obama has chosen Rashad Hussain to be his special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a post originally created by the Bush Administration in 2008. Hussain’s past association with Muslim Brotherhood-connected entities raises major questions about the type of outreach he envisions for the Muslim world.</p>
<p>The <em>Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report</em> <a href="http://globalmbreport.com/?p=2173">took a look</a> at Hussain’s official biography and found several concerning affiliations. The first is that in October 2000, Hussain spoke at a conference sponsored by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, which was listed in an internal Muslim Brotherhood document as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends,” and the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding of Georgetown University, which receives Saudi funding and is directed by prominent Muslim Brotherhood <a href="http://familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1737/pub_detail.asp">advocate,</a> John Esposito.</p>
<p>In September 2004, Hussain played a role in the Muslim Students Association’s annual conference, which was founded by Muslim Brotherhood in 1963 and is also listed as one the group’s fronts in its own <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/20.pdf">documents.</a> Since then, many of its nearly 600 college chapters have engaged in <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/84.pdf">extremism</a> and the group closely collaborates with the other Brotherhood fronts. For example, MSA was part of an umbrella organization called the American Muslim Taskforce that led a <a href="http://www.aina.org/news/20090402103323.jsp">campaign</a> against the FBI’s use of informants in mosques and accused the agency of “anti-Muslim activity.” Several Brotherhood affiliates are in this <a href="http://www.americanmuslimvoter.net/images/special/ABOUT%20US%20AMT2008.pdf">coalition</a> including the Muslim-American Society, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.</p>
<p>At this conference, Hussain spoke alongside the daughter of Professor Sami Al-Arian, who was convicted of being a key leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group and later admitted to being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hussain also defended Al-Arian and described his prosecution as being a “politically-motivated persecution.” The network of Brotherhood-affiliated groups have consistently been on his side throughout the entire ordeal and <a href="http://www.islamist-watch.org/blog/2008/09/cair-mpac-hail-release-of-jihadist-professor">celebrated</a> his release.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the story in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs that quoted Hussain’s defense of Al-Arian has been altered since its original publication. <em>CNSNews.com</em> <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/61324">reports</a> that the quote was removed “sometime after October 2007” and that the reporter who wrote the article “expressed surprise but said she no longer worked at WRMEA and could not explain the edit.”</p>
<p>Last May, Hussain spoke at a conference sponsored by several Brotherhood affiliates, including the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an organization whose extremism has been catalogued in a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1785/mpac-pursues-islamist-ideology-in-guise-of-civil">series</a> by The Investigative Project on Terrorism, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The latter was listed by the federal government in 2007 as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the terrorism financing trial of The Holy Land Foundation, another Muslim Brotherhood front that was found to be financing Hamas. Its founders are former officials at the Islamic Association of Palestine, a Brotherhood front shut down for supporting Hamas and are said by the FBI to be members of the Brotherhood’s “Palestine Committee” in the United States.</p>
<p>Hussain’s view on the cause of terrorism is important to note as it will play a significant role in the Obama Administration’s outreach to the Muslim world. He <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/08_counterterrorism_hussain/08_counterterrorism_hussain.pdf">quoted</a> a study that concluded that “The primary cause of broad-based anger and anti-Americanism is not a clash of civilizations but the perceived effect of U.S. foreign policy in the Muslim world.” In this statement, it appears that he believes that terrorism is the product of opposition to foreign policy, rather than the product of a politico-religious totalitarian ideology, which explains his opposition to terms like “Islamic terrorism.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, Hussein does support the use of the term “Hamas terrorists,” so he cannot be said to be a supporter of Hamas, which grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has an entire section in his paper titled, “Discrediting the Terrorist Ideology.” He opposes making democracy promotion a central part of that goal, saying that it can be interpreted as imperialism and an attempt to bring about freedom that enables immorality, but admits that it may be part of the solution. He instead suggests that the government use Muslim voices to argue that Islam forbids acts of terrorism and extremism.</p>
<p>One other important part of his paper is when he proposes that the U.S. build a Muslim coalition “not limited to those who advocate Western-style democracy, and avoid creating a dichotomy between freedom and Islamic society.” This would set the stage for a partnership with the Muslim Brotherhood. Rather than focusing on supporting elements that will genuinely argue that democracy is compatible with Islam, his standard for allies is that they just oppose terrorism and extremism. Apparently, those who pursue Sharia Law through other methods do not fit his version of “extremist.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Brotherhood apparatus is so vast and powerful that it will be difficult for any administration to find someone without some sort of affiliation with one of their fronts. Hussain should be given an opportunity to clear his name by condemning the Muslim Brotherhood by name and the undemocratic ideology they espouse.</p>
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		<title>Sayyid Qutb and the Virginia Five &#8211; by Robert Spencer</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/robert-spencer/sayyid-qutb-and-the-virginia-five-by-robert-spencer/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=sayyid-qutb-and-the-virginia-five-by-robert-spencer</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:08:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Spencer]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Clues to their radicalization lie close at hand.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-42296" title="JIHAD" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/JIHAD.jpg" alt="JIHAD" width="450" height="396" /></p>
<p>When five young Muslims from northern Virginia were arrested in Pakistan for trying to join jihadist groups, the local Muslim community professed to be puzzled as to how it could have happened. Ashraf Nubani, an attorney for the mosque the five attended, said of their relatives and fellow worshippers: “There’s shock and disbelief in these families and in this mosque.” Mahdi Bray of the Falls Church-based Muslim American Society, sounded a plaintive note: “We want to know: What did we miss? We saw these kids every day. In hindsight, what could we have done?”</p>
<p>If Mahdi Bray saw these young men daily, that might have been a clue right there as to what went wrong. For the Muslim American Society (MAS) is the American arm of the international Islamic supremacist organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood, the forefather of Al-Qaeda and Hamas. A captured internal Brotherhood document says that the Brotherhood’s mission in the U.S. 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.”</p>
<p>And according to a 2004 Chicago Tribune expose of Brotherhood activity in the U.S., “to be an ‘active’ member” of the Muslim American Society, “&#8211;the highest membership class&#8211;one must complete five years of Muslim community service and education, which includes studying writings by Brotherhood ideologues al-Banna and Qutb.” These are the Muslim Brotherhood’s two great theorists, its founder Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, “the father of modern [Islamic] fundamentalism.”</p>
<p>Of these, Qutb is the more influential today. His writings can be found easily in Islamic bookstores in the U.S. And Americans, particularly law enforcement officials, should know what’s in them.</p>
<p>Sayyid Qutb actually lived in the United States from November 1948 to August 1950, and wrote about his experiences in revealing ways. While hospitalized for a respiratory ailment in Washington,  D.C., in February 1949, he heard of the assassination of al-Banna, an event which, he later claimed implausibly, set the hospital staff to open rejoicing.</p>
<p>His disgust with the gaudy materialism of postwar America was intense. He wrote to an Egyptian friend of his loneliness: “How much do I need someone to talk to about topics other than money, movie stars and car models.” Moving to Greeley, Colorado, he was impressed by the number of churches in the city, but not with the piety they engendered: “Nobody goes to church as often as Americans do. . . . Yet no one is as distant as they are from the spiritual aspect of religion.” He was thoroughly scandalized by a dance after an evening service at a local church: “The dancing intensified. . . . The hall swarmed with legs . . . Arms circled arms, lips met lips, chests met chests, and the atmosphere was full of love.” The pastor further scandalized Qutb by dimming the lights, creating “a romantic, dreamy effect,” and playing a popular record of the day: “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” He regarded American popular music in general with a gimlet eye: “Jazz is the favorite music [of America]. It is a type of music invented by [American] Blacks to please their primitive tendencies and desire for noise.”</p>
<p>Ultimately he concluded: “I fear that when the wheel of life has turned and the file on history has closed, America will not have contributed anything.” He didn’t find American prosperity to be matched by a corresponding wealth of spirit. “I am afraid that there is no correlation between the greatness of the American material civilization and the men who created it. . . . In both feeling and conduct the American is primitive (bida’a).”</p>
<p>When he returned to Egypt, he characterized the influence of the West in the Muslim world as an unmitigated evil. He derided “American Islam,” a counterfeit of the religion that was designed only to combat Communism in Egypt. (In this he may have been referring to the Egyptian dictator Nasser’s 1964 overtures to the Muslim Brotherhood, which he hoped would join an anticommunist alliance.) Even before his stay in the United States he cautioned that “Islam is a comprehensive philosophy and an homogeneous unity, and to introduce into it any foreign element would mean ruining it. It is like a delicate and perfect piece of machinery that may be completely ruined by the presence of an alien component.”</p>
<p>This chief alien component was secularism. Qutb regarded Western secularism not as the solution to the problems of the Islamic world (as many have proposed) but as the chief source of the problem: it destroyed the fundamental unity of Islam by separating the religious sphere from that of daily life.</p>
<p>Qutb saw the West’s two dominant political and social philosophies, capitalism and Communism, as bankrupt and valueless. With notable and often moving passion and vigor, Qutb’s influential book Milestones explicitly positions Islam as the true source of societal and personal order, as opposed to both capitalism and Communism. “Mankind today is on the brink of a precipice,” he asserted in this Cold War-era manifesto, “not because of the danger of complete annihilation which is hanging over its head &#8212; this being just a symptom and not the real disease &#8212; but because humanity is devoid of those vital values which are necessary not only for its healthy development but also for its real progress.” Perhaps with his time in America in mind, he went on: “Even the Western world realizes that Western civilization is unable to present any healthy values for the guidance of mankind. It knows that it does not possess anything which will satisfy its own conscience and justify its existence.”</p>
<p>To Qutb, both capitalism and Communism were spent forces: “Democracy in the West has become infertile to such an extent that it is borrowing from the systems of the Eastern bloc, especially in the economic system, under the name of socialism. It is the same with the Eastern bloc. Its social theories, foremost among which is Marxism, in the beginning attracted not only a large number of people from the East but also from the West, as it was a way of life based on a creed.”</p>
<p>With admirable prescience for a man writing in 1964, when Marxism looked to many observers to be still positioned at the vanguard of history, Qutb proclaimed that “now Marxism is defeated on the plane of thought, and if it is stated that not a single nation in the world is truly Marxist, it will not be an exaggeration.” He asserted that Marxism was doomed to fail because “on the whole this theory conflicts with man’s nature and its needs. This ideology prospers only in a degenerate society or in a society which has become cowed as a result of some form of prolonged dictatorship.” A quarter-century before the fall of the Soviet Union, he described “the failure of the system of collective farming” as just part of “the failure of a system which is against human nature.” Qutb concludes: “It is essential for mankind to have new leadership!”</p>
<p>That new leadership would come from Islam. To Qutb, what the Muslim umma needed was a restoration of Islam in its fullness and purity, including all the rules of the Sharia for regulating society. “If we look at the sources and foundations of modern ways of living, it becomes clear that the whole world is steeped in Jahiliyyah [Ignorance of the Divine guidance], and all the marvelous material comforts and high-level inventions do not diminish this ignorance. This Jahiliyyah is based on rebellion against God’s sovereignty on earth. It transfers to man one of the greatest attributes of God, namely sovereignty, and makes some men lords over others.”</p>
<p>True freedom could come to man only by restoring the divine sovereignty &#8212; that is, the Sharia. To further this end he formally joined the Muslim Brotherhood shortly after his return to Egypt from the United States.</p>
<p>In articulating his vision for a resurgent Islam that would lead the way to a restoration of civilization and true values in the world, he made one great departure from the thought of other Muslim intellectuals of his day: he classified not only non-Muslim lands but also large portions of the Muslim world as lands of jahiliyyah, the Muslim term for the pre-Islamic period of unbelief, ignorance, and darkness. He based this assessment on the fact that most Muslim lands did not follow the Sharia either in whole or part, writing in Milestones that “it is necessary to revive that Muslim community which is buried under the debris of the man-made traditions of several generations, and which is crushed under the weight of those false laws and customs which are not even remotely related to the Islamic teachings, and which, in spite of all this, calls itself the ‘world of Islam.’“</p>
<p>He advances Islam as “a challenge to all kinds and forms of systems which are based on the concept of the sovereignty of man; in other words, where man has usurped the Divine attribute. Any system in which the final decisions are referred to human beings, and in which the sources of all authority are human, deifies human beings by designating others than God as lords over men.”</p>
<p>Islam, says Qutb, in response to this wrongful deification of human beings, must “proclaim the authority and sovereignty of God” and thereby “eliminate all human kingship and to announce the rule of the Sustainer of the universe over the entire earth. In the words of the Qur’an: ‘He alone is God in the heavens and in the earth.’ (43:84) ‘The command belongs to God alone. He commands you not to worship anyone except Him. This is the right way of life.’ (12: 40)”</p>
<p>In practice, this meant implementation of the Sharia. Qutb therefore despised democracy for subjecting society to manmade laws that were the product of deliberation by the electorate or the legislature. The laws of Allah were not a matter for majority vote. He advocated active and all-encompassing resistance to governments in Muslim lands that did not implement the Sharia. He insisted: “We must also free ourselves from the clutches of jahili society” &#8212; that is, society ordered according to human laws (literally, those of ignorance) rather than divine ones &#8212; “jahili concepts, jahili traditions and jahili leadership. Our mission is not to compromise with the practices of jahili society, nor can we be loyal to it. Jahili society, because of its jahili characteristics, is not worthy to be compromised with. Our aim is first to change ourselves so that we may later change the society.”</p>
<p>This resistance must be international, in accord with the traditional Islamic view that religion transcends nationality: “A Muslim has no country except that part of the earth where the Shari’ah of God is established and human relationships are based on the foundation of relationship with God; a Muslim has no nationality except his belief, which makes him a member of the Muslim community in Dar-ul-Islam; a Muslim has no relatives except those who share the belief in God, and thus a bond is established between him and other Believers through their relationship with God.”</p>
<p>The idea that Muslim governments lose their legitimacy if they don’t enforce the Sharia has recurred throughout Islamic history. The famous medieval scholar Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) “declared that a ruler who fails to enforce the shari’a rigorously in all aspects, including the conduct of jihad (and is therefore insufficiently Muslim), forfeits his right to rule.” Nevertheless, such a view was relatively unheard-of among the secularized, Western-influenced Muslims of Qutb’s day; thus it has led numerous analysts of Islamic radicalism to label him an innovator and contrast his views with those of “traditional Islam.”</p>
<p>But Qutb’s views of the Sharia were not innovative at all. And he argued that they were not extremist, but simply the rule of Islamic law. “The way to establish God’s rule on earth is not that some consecrated people &#8212; the priests &#8212; be given the authority to rule, as was the case with the rule of the Church, nor that some spokesmen of God become rulers, as is the case in a ‘theocracy’. To establish God’s rule means that His laws be enforced and that the final decision in all affairs be according to these laws.”</p>
<p>Of course, the distinction between the rule of the Sharia and that of a theocratic ruling elite is exceedingly fine, as one can see in Iran today. Egypt’s Arab Socialist ruler, Gamel Abdel Nasser, was well aware of the theocratic implications of Qutb’s writings and had him subjected to ten years of imprisonment and torture, and finally ordered him executed in 1966. A year before that Qutb wrote from his prison cell: “The whole of Egypt is imprisoned. . . . I was arrested despite my immunity as a judge, without an order of arrest . . . my sole crime being my critique of the non-application of the Sharia.”</p>
<p>Nasser might have been most concerned with Qutb’s exhortations to jihad. These were predicated on the idea that the establishment of Allah’s rule would not be without obstacles. “Since this movement [that is, Islam] comes into conflict with the Jahiliyyah which prevails over ideas and beliefs, and which has a practical system of life and a political and material authority behind it, the Islamic movement had to produce parallel resources to confront this Jahiliyyah.”</p>
<p>Chief among those resources was jihad. “This movement uses the methods of preaching and persuasion for reforming ideas and beliefs and it uses physical power and Jihaad for abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system which prevents people from reforming their ideas and beliefs but forces them to obey their erroneous ways and make them serve human lords instead of the Almighty Lord.”</p>
<p>Armed struggle, jihad, was a necessity. “The establishing of the dominion of God on earth, the abolishing of the dominion of man, the taking away of sovereignty from the usurper to revert it to God, and the bringing about of the enforcement of the Divine Law (Shari’ah) and the abolition of man-made laws cannot be achieved only through preaching. Those who have usurped the authority of God and are oppressing God’s creatures are not going to give up their power merely through preaching; if it had been so, the task of establishing God’s religion in the world would have been very easy for the Prophets of God! This is contrary to the evidence from the history of the Prophets and the story of the struggle of the true religion, spread over generations.”</p>
<p>Muslims, Qutb says, must not only preach, but also “strike hard at all those political powers which force people to bow before them and which rule over them, unmindful of the commandments of God, and which prevent people from listening to the preaching and accepting the belief if they wish to do so. After annihilating the tyrannical force, whether it be in a political or a racial form, or in the form of class distinctions within the same race, Islam establishes a new social, economic and political system, in which the concept of the freedom of man is applied in practice.”</p>
<p>Qutb’s reference to the history of the prophets is one indication of how firmly his view of jihad is based on a close and careful reading of the Qur’an and study of the example of the Prophet Muhammad. In <em>Milestones</em> he quotes at length from the great medieval scholar Ibn Qayyim (1292-1350), who, says Qutb, “has summed up the nature of Islamic Jihaad.” Ibn Qayyim outlines the stages of the Muhammad’s prophetic career: “For thirteen years after the beginning of his Messengership, he called people to God through preaching, without fighting or Jizyah, and was commanded to restrain himself and to practice patience and forbearance. Then he was commanded to migrate, and later permission was given to fight. Then he was commanded to fight those who fought him, and to restrain himself from those who did not make war with him. Later he was commanded to fight the polytheists until God’s religion was fully established.”</p>
<p>Qutb summarizes the stages: “Thus, according to the explanation by Imam Ibn Qayyim, the Muslims were first restrained from fighting; then they were permitted to fight; then they were commanded to fight against the aggressors; and finally they were commanded to fight against all the polytheists.”</p>
<p>That these stages of jihad can be found in Qutb, as well as in the writings of the contemporary jihadis and medieval Muslim scholars, underscores the traditional character of today’s jihad. Modern mujahedin are not “hijacking” Islam; they are &#8212; at least in their own view &#8212; restoring it. Ibn Qayyim, as quoted by Qutb, goes on to outline the conditions of post-jihad society, i.e., dhimmitude: “After the command for Jihaad came, the non-believers were divided into three categories: one, those with whom there was peace; two, the people with whom the Muslims were at war; and three, the Dhimmies. . . . It was also explained that war should be declared against those from among the ‘People of the Book’ who declare open enmity, until they agree to pay Jizyah or accept Islam. Concerning the polytheists and the hypocrites, it was commanded in this chapter that Jihaad be declared against them and that they be treated harshly.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, he explains, those with whom the Muslims were at peace or had treaties became Muslims themselves, “so there were only two kinds left: people at war and Dhimmies. The people at war were always afraid of [Muhammad]. Now the people of the whole world were of three kinds: One, the Muslims who believed in him; two, those with whom he had peace and three, the opponents who kept fighting him.” In line with this, Qutb says that if someone rejects Islam, “then it is the duty of Islam to fight him until either he is killed or until he declares his submission.”</p>
<p>Qutb speaks harshly of modernist and moderate Muslims who would recast jihad as a struggle for self-defense. Even while they “talk about Jihaad in Islam and quote Qur’anic verses,” he says, they “do not . . . understand the nature of the various stages through which this movement develops, or the relationship of the verses revealed at various occasions with each stage.” In other words, they don’t understand that Allah gradually revealed the Muslim’s responsibility to wage jihad, as outlined above by Ibn Qayyim.</p>
<p>This leads to further errors: “Thus, when they speak about Jihaad, they speak clumsily and mix up the various stages, distorting the whole concept of Jihaad and deriving from the Qur’anic verses final principles and generalities for which there is no justification. This is because they regard every verse of the Qur’an as if it were the final principle of this religion.” This is probably something like what Qutb would say to contemporary Muslim spokesmen who quote the Qur’an’s “tolerance verses” without making any mention of the stages of development in the holy book’s teachings about jihad.</p>
<p>Qutb ascribes the growth of the idea that jihad is only a struggle for self-defense to a defeatist attitude. “This group of thinkers, who are a product of the sorry state of the present Muslim generation, have nothing but the label of Islam and have laid down their spiritual and rational arms in defeat. They say, ‘Islam has prescribed only defensive war’! and think that they have done some good for their religion by depriving it of its method, which is to abolish all injustice from the earth, to bring people to the worship of God alone, and to bring them out of servitude to others into the servants of the Lord.”</p>
<p>He inveighs against attempts by “these defeatist-type people [who] try to mix the two aspects,” that is, forced conversion and the struggle to establish the sovereignty of Allah alone, and who try to “confine Jihaad to what today is called ‘defensive war.’ The Islamic Jihaad has no relationship to modern warfare, either in its causes or in the way in which it is conducted.” Anyone who understands that jihad is actually a struggle to establish Allah’s sovereignty “will also understand the place of Jihaad bis saif (striving through fighting), which is to clear the way for striving through preaching in the application of the Islamic movement. He will understand that Islam is not a ‘defensive movement’ in the narrow sense which today is technically called a ‘defensive war.’“</p>
<p>Who is ultimately responsible for this misrepresentation of jihad? Qutb blames “orientalists,” Western interpreters of Islam. (Ironically, this is the very same camp blamed by Edward Said&#8211;the famous Princeton professor, Palestinian activist, and author of Orientalism&#8211;for caricaturing jihad as a struggle on the battlefield.) “This narrow meaning,” says Qutb, “is ascribed to it by those who are under the pressure of circumstances and are defeated by the wily attacks of the orientalists, who distort the concept of Islamic Jihaad. It was a movement to wipe out tyranny and to introduce true freedom to mankind, using resources according to the actual human situation, and it had definite stages, for each of which it utilized new methods. If we insist on calling Islamic Jihaad a defensive movement, then we must change the meaning of the word ‘defense’ and mean by it ‘the defense of man’ against all those elements which limit his freedom. These elements take the form of beliefs and concepts, as well as of political systems, based on economic, racial or class distinctions.”</p>
<p>In other words, Qutb will allow for a “defensive jihad” if that means defending mankind from democracy, capitalism, Communism, racism, and so on. His views on offensive and defensive jihad are not innovative: he follows the Shafi’i school of Sunni jurisprudence, which mandates that “jihad had for its intent the waging of war on unbelievers for their disbelief and not merely when they entered into conflict with Islam.” This Shafi’i school still holds sway at Cairo’s prestigious al-Azhar  University.</p>
<p>Orientalists, says Qutb, have distorted the idea of jihad by confusing it with forced conversion; but Muslim scholars have not responded properly. “The orientalists have painted a picture of Islam as a violent movement which imposed its belief upon people by the sword. These vicious orientalists know very well that this is not true, but by this method they try to distort the true motives of Islamic Jihaad. But our Muslim scholars, these defeated people, search for reasons of defensive [war] with which to negate this accusation. They are ignorant of the nature of Islam and of its function, and that it has a right to take the initiative for human freedom.”</p>
<p>To support his contention that jihad is not solely for the defense of Muslim lands, Qutb again invokes the early Islamic period. “As to persons who attempt to defend the concept of Islamic Jihaad by interpreting it in the narrow sense of the current concept of defensive war, and who do research to prove that the battles fought in Islamic Jihaad were all for the defense of the homeland of Islam &#8212; some of them considering the homeland of Islam to be just the Arabian peninsula &#8212; against the aggression of neighboring powers, they lack understanding of the nature of Islam and its primary aim. Such an attempt is nothing but a product of a mind defeated by the present difficult conditions and by the attacks of the treacherous orientalists on the Islamic Jihaad. Can anyone say that if [the first three Caliphs] Abu Bakr, ‘Umar or ‘Othman had been satisfied that the Roman and Persian powers were not going to attack the Arabian peninsula, they would not have striven to spread the message of Islam throughout the world? How could the message of Islam have spread when it faced such material obstacles as the political system of the state, the socio-economic system based on races and classes, and behind all these, the military power of the government?”</p>
<p>After quoting a number of Qur’anic verses on jihad, Qutb adds: “With these verses from the Qur’an and with many Traditions of the Prophet &#8212; peace be on him &#8212; in praise of Jihaad, and with the entire history of Islam, which is full of Jihaad, the heart of every Muslim rejects that explanation of Jihaad invented by those people whose minds have accepted defeat under unfavorable conditions and under the attacks on Islamic Jihaad by the shrewd orientalists.”</p>
<p>Those who fall for such ideas are (at best) too soft and (at worst) traitors to Islam: “What kind of a man is it who, after listening to the commandment of God and the Traditions of the Prophet &#8212; peace be on him &#8212; and after reading about the events which occurred during the Islamic Jihaad, still thinks that it is a temporary injunction related to transient conditions and that it is concerned only with the defense of the borders?”</p>
<p>Qutb’s disgust for this point of view shows through in many passages of <em>Milestones</em>. He contrasts it with the internationalist outlook that Muslims should have. “Those who would say that Islamic Jihaad was merely for the defense of the ‘homeland of Islam,’“ Qutb asserts, “diminish the greatness of the Islamic way of life and consider it less important than their ‘homeland.’ This is not the Islamic point of view, and their view is a creation of the modern age and is completely alien to Islamic consciousness. What is acceptable to Islamic consciousness is its belief, the way of life which this belief prescribes, and the society which lives according to this way of life. The soil of the homeland has in itself no value or weight. From the Islamic point of view, the only value which the soil can achieve is because on that soil God’s authority is established and God’s guidance is followed; and thus it becomes a fortress for the belief, a place for its way of life to be entitled the ‘homeland of Islam,’ a center for the movement for the total freedom of man.”</p>
<p>Perhaps with the pan-Arab movements of Nasser and others in mind, Qutb emphasized Islam’s universal character and call: “This religion is not merely a declaration of the freedom of the Arabs, nor is its message confined to the Arabs. It addresses itself to the whole of mankind, and its sphere of work is the whole earth. . . . This religion wants to bring back the whole world to its Sustainer and free it from servitude to anyone other than God.”</p>
<p>But what about the Qur’an’s command to Muslims not to “begin hostilities”? In his monumental, multi-volume commentary on the Qur’an, <em>In the Shade of the Qur’an</em>, completed in Nasser’s prison, Qutb explains Sura 2:190 (“begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors”) not as a command to Muslims to avoid attacking their opponents, as it was interpreted by many who taught that jihad was only defensive. “‘Aggression,’“ says Qutb, “implies attacks on non-combatants and peaceful, unarmed civilians who pose no threat to Muslims or to their community as a whole. This includes women, children, the elderly, and those devoted to religious activity, such as priests and monks, of all religious and ideological persuasions. Aggression would also entail exceeding the moral and ethical limits set by Islam for fighting a just war.” He pointedly avoids saying that this verse limits jihad to self-defense.</p>
<p>In fact, according to Qutb the very nature of the call to Islam rules out the idea that jihad could only be for self-defense. “Since the objective of the message of Islam is a decisive declaration of man’s freedom, not merely on the philosophical plane but also in the actual conditions of life, it must employ Jihaad. It is immaterial whether the homeland of Islam &#8212; in the true Islamic sense, Dar ul-Islam &#8212; is in a condition of peace or whether it is threatened by its neighbors.”</p>
<p>What then of non-Muslim countries that do not attack the Muslims? Can they be left alone? Only if they pay the non-Muslim poll-tax (jizya), the crowning symbol of dhimmitude and submission: “It may happen that the enemies of Islam may consider it expedient not to take any action against Islam, if Islam leaves them alone in their geographical boundaries to continue the lordship of some men over others and does not extend its message and its declaration of universal freedom within their domain. But Islam cannot agree to this unless they submit to its authority by paying Jizyah, which will be a guarantee that they have opened their doors for the preaching of Islam and will not put any obstacle in its way through the power of the state.”</p>
<p>Indeed, it is “a basic human right to be addressed with the message of Islam. No authority should deny mankind that right and under no circumstances should any obstacles be allowed to prevent that Divine Message from being delivered.” Commenting on Sura 2:191 (“persecution is worse than slaughter”), Qutb says: “Islam considers religious persecution and any threat to religion more dangerous for the future stability and existence of Islam than actual war. According to this great Islamic principle, the survival and prosperity of the faith take precedence over the preservation of human life itself.” Christianity and other faiths, of course, would say the same thing, but none except Islam enjoin in response not the sacrifice of one’s own life, but the killing of others.</p>
<p>For Qutb, violent jihad is a necessary part of establishing true peace, which equals the supremacy of the Sharia: “When Islam strives for peace, its objective is not that superficial peace which requires that only that part of the earth where the followers of Islam are residing remain secure. The peace which Islam desires is that the religion (i.e. the Law of the society) be purified for God, that the obedience of all people be for God alone, and that some people should not be lords over others. After the period of the Prophet &#8212; peace be on him &#8212; only the final stages of the movement of Jihaad are to be followed; the initial or middle stages are not applicable.”</p>
<p>That is, as Ibn Qayyim put it, there are now only two kinds of non-Muslims: those at war with Islam and those who have submitted to it. In a report on “the roots of jihad,” BBC Middle East analyst Fiona Symon implied that Qutb was breaking with tradition by classifying “all non-Muslims [as] infidels &#8212; even the so-called ‘people of the book,’ the Christians and Jews.” But Ibn Qayyim (and other authorities I’ve quoted throughout this book) make it clear that in this Qutb was in full agreement with Islamic tradition.<br />
Not only is the call to Islam universal; it is eternal. “This struggle,” says Qutb, “is not a temporary phase but an eternal state &#8212; an eternal state, as truth and falsehood cannot co-exist on this earth.”</p>
<p>While he insists that jihad is not solely for self-defense, Qutb doesn’t deny that defense of Islam is a part of the Muslim’s duty &#8212; especially given the contemporary state of world affairs: “Today, Muslims continue to be the target of religious persecution under a host of Christian, Zionist and secular regimes in many parts of the world. This situation makes jihad an incumbent duty on Muslims.” But the goal of this jihad, as he makes clear in Milestones and elsewhere, is not simply the ending of persecution, but the establishment of the Sharia everywhere.</p>
<p>This absolutist perspective is the view of jihadis today. Qutb is a widely revered figure and his books are easily available in Islamic bookstores even in the United States. <em>Milestones</em> is offered for sale by most online Muslim bookstores. The Muslim Brotherhood counts Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb as its two leading lights. The Brotherhood, as well as Muslims around the world today, hail al-Banna, assassinated under mysterious circumstances, and Qutb, executed by Nasser, as shahids, martyrs. Some Muslims even consider Qutb the leading Sunni thinker of the twentieth century. Zafar Bangash, Director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought in London, calls Qutb “a man of impeccable Islamic credentials [who] made an immense contribution to Muslim political thought at a time when the Muslim world was still mesmerised by such western notions as nationalism, the nation-State and fathers of nations.” Qutb’s biographer claims that his subject is “the most famous personality of the Muslim world in the second half of the 20th century.”</p>
<p>The Brotherhood, meanwhile, was banned by the Egyptian government in 1948 for its participation in terrorist activities, but al-Banna reacted to the ban by declaring, “when words are banned, hands make their move.” In the ensuing years the Brothers were reinstated and banned again, tried to assassinate Nasser several times, and were promised by Anwar Sadat in 1970 that Sharia would be implemented in Egypt. On October 6, 1981, with the Sharia still not Egypt’s sole source of public order, Sadat was assassinated by four Muslim Brothers. The Brotherhood is still a presence in Egypt, continuing a wary give-and-take with the Mubarak government and spreading far and wide the message of Qutb.</p>
<p>Today the Brotherhood proudly takes credit for “liberating Muslim lands from colonialist powers in almost every Muslim country. The ikhwan [Brothers] were active amongst Muslims in Central Asian Muslim republics since the ‘70s, and their involvement can be seen recently in such republics as Tajikistan. More recently they had a major role in the struggle for Afghanistan and Kashmir.” They proclaim: “Allah is our objective. The messenger [Muhammad] is our leader. Quran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”</p>
<p>And in America, we should remember that when spokesmen for American Muslim groups talk about peace and jihad as purely defensive war, they are likely to have read Qutb or at least be conversant with his ideas. Thus: Peace means a society under Sharia law. Jihad is war in defense of Allah’s law. The imposition of Sharia is the liberation of mankind. Those who currently live under what Qutb would have regarded as the tyranny of the Bill of Rights should take careful note of this.</p>
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