Atlas Shrugs

Hamas-CAIR's FBI "ENTRAPMENT" Myth Morphs: Jihad is a Mental Illness

In the wake of the blood and carnage of the Boston jihad bombings, Hamas-CAIR is stepping up its aggressive efforts to shut down the very law enforcement programs that succeeded in thwarting a large majority of jihadist attacks. (Photo right: CAIR poster)

Unlike the recent NY to Canada passenger train bomb plot (and its accompanying bacterial jihad aimed at killing 100,00 people), the FBI chose not to conduct serveillance of the devout Muslims who blew up women and children in the streets of Boston, despite the repeated warnings about the Tsarneav brothers from two foreign governments. Perhaps it was because Muslim Brotherhood groups like CAIR succeeded in agitating for the removal of jihad and Islam from all counter terror related materials. Perhaps it was because FBI and NYPD counter jihad surveillance programs have come under relentless attack from these same Muslim Brotherhood groups and their shills in the media. The AP won a Pulitzer for leaking the NYPD programs.

Here again, they aggressively seek to shut down the law enforcement's counter terrorism programs under the guise of the "vulnerable." Snakes.

The objective to paint jihad as a mental illness is laughable, but knowing how law enforcement and media do the bidding of these Islamic supremacists, I am not laughing.

• CAIR Blog: FBI Entrapment Harms Vulnerable Muslims
   

As details emerge about Matthew Aaron Llenaza, the San Jose man arrested for plotting terrorism at the behest of an undercover FBI agent, we have learned that Mr. Llenaza had a history of bipolar disorder and psychosis. This newly publicized information about Mr. Llenaza casts doubt on the portrait the FBI has drawn of its suspect, whom they characterize as a shrewd and calculating Taliban sympathizer intent on doing harm to the United States. It also raises concerns about the FBI using public resources to thwart plots that it is, in fact, concocting on its own. 

But these new details about Mr. Llenaza highlight something not often talked about in the mainstream discourse about counterterrorism efforts: its effects on the mentally ill.

Our organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has offered legal representation and advice to hundreds of American Muslims who were approached by FBI and other law enforcement agents purportedly for terrorism-related investigations in recent years. 

Our California offices have received several complaints from family members of mentally ill Muslims that the FBI or a cooperating agency expressed a need to question their disabled loved one as part of a terrorism investigation. The reason given was that the subject had exhibited some "suspicious behavior."  In several such cases, law enforcement agents conducted multiple interviews with mentally ill individuals without an attorney present. 

Family members reported that law enforcement agents asked questions about religion and geopolitics, which were met with answers that, although wild and often incoherent, could be misconstrued as support for violence against the U.S and be used as a basis to further target that subject.

These interviews, when coupled with the generally pervasive fear American Muslims have of terrorism accusations, have also resulted in exacerbating the illnesses of the Muslims approached.  We know of cases in which mentally ill Muslims have suffered psychotic episodes and have even attempted suicide after interactions with law enforcement.

Because mental disabilities often result in an inability to control physical behavior and speech, interviews that take place in this context have the potential not only to unfairly incriminate an innocent suffering person, but to mislead law enforcement and waste public resources on those who need treatment, not criminal penalties for crimes they would never have the capacity to commit.

In many of the prominent terrorism trials of the past decade, the Muslim defendants who worked with FBI and law enforcement agents to plan or attempt to carry out attacks on the U.S. also had histories of mental illness.

For example in the trial of the Newburgh Four, a group of Muslim men were lured by an informant bearing expensive gifts into plotting to blow up synagogues in the Bronx, NY and shoot down a military jet. One of the defendants, Laguerre Payen, who suffered from schizophrenia, was repeatedly disruptive during his trial and engaged the judge in a rambling dialogue about his conviction at the time of his sentencing.

In another case, Ahmad Ferhani, unemployed and in and out of mental institutions for many years, was convicted of plotting to blow up synagogues after being approached by an informant linked to the New York City Police Department.

The pressure on law enforcement to produce results for counterterrorism efforts, especially when combined with anti-Muslim training that characterizes Muslims as unhinged and bent on destroying the U.S., has the potential to criminalize those members of the community most in need of the system's protections.

That the entrapment defense has failed in every terrorism trial in the past dozen years despite clear government overreach highlights how our criminal laws have not been able to overcome the climate of fear that permeates our post-9/11 world.

Law enforcement agencies must take steps to implement ethical standards when they interact with members of the public, Muslim or not, who have been diagnosed with or who exhibit signs of mental illness.

Law enforcement should also focus their efforts on those who have already taken an affirmative step toward committing a terrorism-related crime. According to a recent article in Mother Jones, an FBI informant led one of every three terrorist plots foiled, and also provided all the necessary weapons, money, and transportation to people who ordinarily would not have the resources, intellectual or material, to carry out attacks.

As a society, we have much to learn about how we care for and treat the mentally ill. Scapegoating them for crimes or subjecting them to heightened scrutiny simply for being members of their religious community is a step backward.

Pamela Geller, WND: Hamas-CAIR bully teacher in rural America

DEFENDING THE WEST
Islamists bully teacher in rural America
Exclusive: Pamela Geller defends woman in crosshairs of 'Hamas-CAIR'

Mary Janda is a middle school teacher at the Concrete Middle School in the small town of Concrete in Skagit County, Wash. One of her former students said about her: “I’ve never met another teacher who put so much effort into our education. She put in mile after extra mile.” But on Oct. 29, 2012, she held a class on bullying that ironically has made her a target of the thugs at the local chapter of the Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who have been bullying her ever since.

We see this pattern repeated in small towns and cities across America. Hamas-CAIR, armed with millions of dollars from Islamic supremacist countries, is waging its own stealth jihad in our schools, workplaces and political arenas. They have enormous funds to harass, intimidate and bully small, ill-equipped organizations and individuals who have the audacity to tell the truth about jihad violence and Islamic supremacism. Mary Janda is just one of many.

The Muslim persecution of Mary Janda began with a discussion of bullying in her classroom. A Hamas-CAIR press release claimed that Janda “compared Muslims to Nazis during a class lesson on bullying. The teacher allegedly stated that ‘just like Hitler,’ Muslims train their children from birth to give their lives to Allah and are raised to be martyrs. She also allegedly stated that Muslim children are raised and taught to ‘kill innocents.’”

The real story is that Janda was talking about Hamas and the Taliban, not all Muslims. A student said during the class: “My father is a Muslim and these statements are not true.” Janda recounts what happened next: “I explained to her that I was not talking about Arabs and Muslims in general, but groups that chose to impose their will by training people to intimidate and kill other people. This discussion was not about religious beliefs. It is related to a state mandate that public schools teach students about bullying and not allow it.”

The student’s father brushed aside this explanation and went to the bullies of Hamas-CAIR, who asked for an investigation of the incident and demanded that the Concrete School District “ensure that absolutely no retaliation occurs against the father, student, or any other parents” – while publishing the student’s photo and the father’s name on its website, even as it asked the media to protect the anonymity of the father and the student.

Hamas-CAIR also demanded that the school district “clarify which textbooks and texts are used in the district,” so that they could make sure that books including their propaganda be used; “clarify the religious accommodation policies of the district”; and “institute CAIR-WA’s diversity training for all employees of Concrete School District” – among other demands.

The Concrete School District did investigate and found out that Janda had done nothing wrong. But true to form, Hamas-CAIR was not satisfied. Crying racism, the CAIR thugs even demanded that the Justice Department intervene.

Eric Archuletta, the chairman of the Mary Janda Support Committee, pointed out to me that CAIR-Washington kept its account of this incident on its website even after Janda was cleared by the school district and “even after they were told about making false accusations at their community forum meeting on March 24, 2013.” Archuletta continued:”My committee and I feel that this is one of two things: either CAIR is totally incompetent, or this is a message they are trying to send to their supporters that this incident is indeed a factual event. We all agree it is the latter. Either way it is unacceptable.”

It is most assuredly deliberate. This is what they do: defame, smear and libel anyone who gets in the way of their sinister agenda.

Read it all.

Pig flying moment: Bill O'Reilly gets an Islamic Surpemacist Reality Check from Hamas-CAIR's Nihad Awad

For years, my colleagues and I watched in frustration as Bill O'Reilly would host Islamic supremacist dissemblers like Hamas-CAIR's Nihad Awad and Ahmed Rehab or Muslim Brotherhood Congressman Hakim Muhammad (Keith Ellison) and let them mislead and deceive the American people. And worse still, he always thanks them for coming on, calling them "stand up guys."

So this clip is one of those he-got-a-cluebat moments. Why O'Reilly allows this Muslim Brotherhood front man to go on and on with his Islamic supremacist propaganda is beyond me. Why did he let him run on?

Bill, it's time to have Robert Spencer  or Ibn Warraq or Wafa Sultan etc. on. Now is the time to get the truth to the people. The prohibition of truth tellers is over. The death and carnage of the Boston jihad will not be brushed under the rug of sharia compliance (blasphemy laws -- 'do not offfend Islam'). It's time to arm the people with knowledge.

Hamas-CAIR declares Americans Will Remain Subdued in Face of Boston Jihad Bombing (and they will see to it)

That is exactly what they are saying. Why would we remain "united" with killers and their enablers? Hamas in America (CAIR) has infiltrated the hallowed corridors of American power with money, media and men, but they have not co-opted the American people. We will not go quietly into the night.

They pay lip service and "condemn" the attack, but they promote and advance the very ideology behind the attacks. Why isn't CAIR condemning the ideology that commands mass murder, ethnic cleansing, Islamic Jew-hatred, gender apartheid, creed apartheid? Because they support it.

Their concern is imaginary "anti-Muslim backlash." Our people are killed and they are concerned with anti-jihad backlash. If only.

Look at the groups represented: all Muslim Brotherhood groups whose stated goal is to install a universal caliphate.

CAIR: Americans Will Remain United in Face of Boston Terror Development CAIR Press Release

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/19/13) -- Representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today joined other leaders from the national and Washington-area Muslim community at a news conference in Washington, D.C., to state that Americans will remain united in face of developments in the Boston Marathon bombings that include the naming of suspects who are reportedly Muslim.

SEE: U.S. Muslim Leaders Condemn Boston Terror Attack (USA Today)
Local, National Muslim Groups Condemn Bombings

Organizations represented at the news conference included: (In alphabetical order.)

• Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
• Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)
• Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
• Masjid Muhammad (Washington, D.C.)
• Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)

CAIR is urging Muslim individuals and Islamic institutions to review advice on security procedures contained in its "Muslim Community Safety Kit."

CAIR: U.S. Muslims Mobilize to Prevent Boston Backlash

Hamas-CAIR to honor extremist terror supporter, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik of the 911 mosque

Well, you have to hand it to them -- they are consistent. Jihad all the way. The theme of Hamas-CAIR's annual banquet is “Upholding our Constitution, Defending our Faith.” For the humorless, they sure are funny. If they love the Constitution so much, why didn't they remove the CAIR leader in St. Louis who called for blasphemy laws?

The event will feature keynote speaker Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, Outreach Director, Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, VA (the 911 Muslim terrorists' mosque); Ryan Kiesel, Executive Director ACLU of Oklahoma; and Imam Imad Enchassi of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City.

It also bears noting that the other Islamic supremacist on the bill that night is Imam Imad Enchassi. Enchassi has called fro a woldwide caliphate here and has called Tea Party patriots KKK in drag. 

VAST Chairman James Lafferty said of Johari Abdul-Malik.

“In his public statements, Abdul-Malik demonstrates regularly his contempt for the rule of law and his support for terrorist acts against America. Speaking before the General Assembly is an honor which should be reserved for those who have done something worth honoring. Abdul-Malik praises those who have attacked our country and attempted to kill the President of the United States. No American should honor this man or his disgraceful words and behavior.”

#MyJihad: Syrian jihadists pick former Hamas-CAIR rep to lead Islamic supremacist government

"#MyJihad is deceiving and misleading Americans about jihad and then going off to fight in the cause of jihad in Syria." So it seems.

Look at the seamless transition from Islamic propagandist to Syrian caliph. And the media keeps guzzling the halal kool-aid.

Syrian jihadists pick former rep of Hamas-linked CAIR to lead interim government

thanks to Robert Spencer, Jihadwatch

New York Times reporter Anne Barnard is much more respectful toward the jihadist Hitto than she was toward the counter-jihadist Pamela Geller. Par for the course. As far as the mainstream media is concerned, Hamas-linked CAIR is a sainted, sinless organization -- even when one of its former officials becomes the leader of a group that will unavoidably contain violent pro-Sharia jihadists.

"Syrian Rebels Pick U.S. Citizen to Lead Interim Government," by Anne Barnard for the New York Times, March 18:

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria’s main exile opposition coalition elected a naturalized Syrian-born American citizen early Tuesday to be the first prime minister of an interim Syrian government, charged with funneling aid to rebels inside Syria and offering an alternative to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

By choosing Ghassan Hitto, 50, an information technology executive who lived in Texas until recently, the Syrian opposition coalition concluded months of contentious efforts to unite behind a leader, under pressure from the United States and its allies, which demanded that the opposition set up clear chains of command as a condition of increasing aid to the rebels.

Mr. Hitto, a relative unknown in opposition politics who rose to prominence recently through efforts to improve the delivery of humanitarian aid, was far from a unanimous choice. After a day of maneuvering and voting on Monday that lasted into early Tuesday, he won 35 votes, just three more than Assad Mustafa, a former agricultural minister under Mr. Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad.

Mr. Hitto faces formidable challenges in his quest to to establish administrative authority over areas of northern Syria that have been secured by the rebels....

With his many years in Texas, Mr. Hitto may seem like an unusual selection to lead a government struggling to establish street credibility with rebels — or an uprising facing allegations from Mr. Assad’s supporters that it is an American creation.

But he said he could not resist getting involved, especially after his son Obaida, 25, sneaked off to Syria and joined rebel fighters to shoot videos, deliver humanitarian aid and spread word of their struggle.

Mr. Hitto and his wife, Suzanne, an American schoolteacher, have four children, all born in the United States, where Mr. Hitto advocated for Muslim Americans after 9/11 as a representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations....

#MyJihad in Texas: Exec Dir of Hamas-CAIR at Muslim Rally, "We are above the law of the land'

It's like I have been saying for years: this is the agenda, this is the objective. Islam in America.

'We are above the law of the land' WND, March 3, 2013

Muslim's stunning claim at Texas rally for Islam

A leader for the Texas branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations has told a crowd at a rally for Islam that members of the faith really shouldn’t be bound by American law.

“If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land,” said Mustafa Carroll, the executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth CAIR branch, a keynote speaker as the recent rally.

The event was a rally in Austin, a part of the nationwide effort to hold “Muslim Capitol Day” events.

CAIR itself has been under investigation for its documented ties to terrorist organizations in the past.

• CAIR funded the Holy Land Foundation, which was used to funnel money to Hamas. President Bush shut down Holy Land Foundation, which CAIR called “unjust” and “disturbing.”
• CAIR denied Osama Bin Laden was behind 9/11, even though Bin Laden said so on camera.
• CAIR demanded removal of a billboard in Los Angeles in 1998 that described Osama bin Laden as “the sworn enemy,” saying that this description was “offensive to Muslims.” [Osama had by this point released his Declaration of War on the United States.]
• CAIR called the conviction of the 1993 WTC bombers “a travesty of justice.”
• CAIR called the conviction of Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh who planned to blow up New York City landmarks, a “hate crime.”
• CAIR labeled the extradition order for suspected Hamas terrorist Mousa Abu Marook “anti-Islamic” and “anti-American.”

CAIR also had on its advisory board Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the attempted 1993 WTC bombings. It was the same Siraj Wahhaj who was asked to deliver the “Juma,” or invocation at the Democratic National Convention for President Obama. He also once remarked, “It is my duty and our duty as Muslims to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Quran.”

According to the website about the event, Muslims from around Texas went to the Capitol in Austin to “promote civic and political activism throughout the wider Muslim community.”

VIDEO: Terror TV's Al Jazeera aka Current TV's Jihad against Pamela Geller

Defame, libel voices of freedom: film at 11.

Terror TV,  Al Jazeera, is wasting no time exploiting its buy of "Current TV" to advance its malevolent jihadist propaganda.  Al Jazeera-Current is going after the vocal among us who are exposing their terror ties and lies to advance sharia and jihad.

They did a segment on my defense of freedom as "islamophobia." Of course Hamas-CAIR posted the video here. Al Jazeera is the leading terrorist propaganda organization in the world.

Jihad murder mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki has praised Al Jazeera, and several years ago one of its most prominent reporters was arrested on terror charges. Al Jazeera also has for years been the recipient of numerous al-Qaida videos featuring Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and American traitor Adam Gadahn. Yet they never seem to be able to trace where these videos are coming from. They have repeatedly been set up at the point of attack right before a bomb went off, so that they could take the picture of the slaughtered, dismembered bodies.

Al Jazeera has provided material support for jihad terrorism. A number in their employ are members of al-Qaida. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Afghanistan, who interviewed Osama bin Laden, was sent to prison for being an agent of al-Qaida. Al Jazeera’s first managing director was exposed as an agent of the Saddam Hussein regime, and the channel promoted the bloody jihad against American forces in Iraq.

We are at war. And there are many theaters in any given war, but the war in the information battle-space is key to conquest and colonization. Hitler and Goebbels understood this. The Nazi government had an entire ministry of propaganda – a war division. The Muslim Brotherhood understands this, too. It has its own ministry of propaganda: Al Jazeera. Muhammad said, “War is deceit.” The U.S. once understood the power of ideas. We had a war department that had Hollywood greats like Frank Capra and John Ford making films for freedom. Where are our cheerleaders now?

There is a real danger that Al Jazeera’s pro-jihad broadcasting and its influence over jihadists in this country and elsewhere will inspire terrorist acts against Americans.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called Al Jazeera’s reporting “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable,” and President George W. Bush joked about bombing it. Senior Bush officials caricatured the channel as an anti-Semitic, anti-American outlet for Islamo-porn. And here we are, 11 years after the largest and bloodiest Islamic attack on America, and Al Jazeera is buying Gore TV. This is a major step in the network’s goal of expanding jihad propaganda further into the U.S. cable market and gives it a chance to brainwash millions of Americans.

My colleague Cliff Kincaid, president of America’s Survival Inc., who also spoke at the press conference, said: “While Americans are packing theaters to watch the movie ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and celebrate the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden, the former al-Qaida leader’s favorite TV channel is coming to 40-50 million American homes. Al Jazeera should be exposed as a homeland security threat that already has American blood on its hands. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ mentions that the courier who eventually led the CIA to bin Laden was located in Pakistan near an Al Jazeera office in order to get the terrorist leader’s videotapes to the channel for worldwide distribution. This captures an essential truth about al-Qaida – its use of Al Jazeera as a weapon of war.”

Take action to stop the jihadists’ stealth coup in the information war.

Hat tip to MJ -- Thanks to BNI for the video.

Hamas-Goons@CAIR Missouri want to prosecute Americans who insult Islam…using sharia law

It's always been about instituting the sharia. This is the Muslim Brotherhood in America. Hamas-CAIR is "an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department – and CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror, and CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements. CAIR’s California chapter distributed posters telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI." (More here):

Director of CAIR Missouri wants to prosecute Americans who insult Islam…using sharia law

Posted on February 19, 2013 by creeping

via zTruth: Faizan Syed, director of CAIR Missouri, wants to punish those who insult Islam with sharia law!

Last August, the director of CAIR St. Louis, Faizan Syed, wrote about his ideas for monitoring social media titled Social Media Task Force.  Sayed wants to create a Muslim youth association who would aggresively monitor the media.  What really stood out was this statement under the section “I have few suggestions to make in this regard” (5th bullet):

“Report anti Islamic and anti Muslim content on the internet to appropriate authorities to take action to remove it and go after those who post it online and prosecute and take actions according to the Shariah ruling.”

Take action according to the Sharia ruling?  Humm… in some countries this could mean death.

Simply astonishing.

—–

Also see:

pdf of the CAIR webpage

Download Prosecuteantiislamwww-cair-stlouis-com

---

See these recent images of the same Faizan Syed proselytizing Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. The governor is apparently clueless on the terror-linked Muslim group and that Syed is calling for sharia law in America. h/t @CausingFitna for the photos.

Numerous CAIR leaders have been convicted of terror charges, some have been deported [see Rogues gallery of terror-tied CAIR leaders]. Several leading CAIR officials have stated their goal to bring sharia law to the U.S.

“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.” ~Co-Founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

“I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future…But I’m not going to do anything violent to promote that. I’m going to do it through education.” ~ Dougie (aka Ibrahim) Hooper, CAIR Spokesperson

Hamas-CAIR Gave the Islamic Prayer Cursing Christians and Jews Before the Arizona State Senate

The  stupidity (or complicity) behind such a move is profound. The immediate question is who was behind the invitation to a Hamas group named an un-indicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist-funding trial in our nation's history to proselytize to the Arizona State Senate? There. are. no. words.

A Call to Islam in the Arizona Senate  Robert Spencer, February 14, 2013, Daily Mailer,FrontPage

Last week, a representative of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) gave a prayer before the Arizona State Senate.

No news media picked it up. No one reported on it. It was a commonplace thing. CAIR, after all, is a “civil rights” organization; why should anyone be concerned if a CAIR leader prays in a U.S. government body? CAIR has been linked by the Justice Department to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, but no one seems to mind. What could go wrong?

And so this is the situation: in America today, representatives of a group linked to an international organization dedicated to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within” (the Muslim Brotherhood’s stated goal in the U.S., according to a captured internal document) are consulted daily by law enforcement officials and the mainstream media, and one is invited into the august chambers of government to give his blessings on the proceedings. While there, he leads the lawmakers in a prayer that obliquely condemns their own religious traditions.

Meanwhile, those who are trying to defend the nation against their subversive influence, are demonized, defamed, marginalized and shunned. Again, what could go wrong?

The website of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Arizona chapter announced proudly that “on Thursday, February 7th, 2013 – the Arizona State Senate’s prayer invocation was led by Anas Hlayhel – the Chairman of the Arizona Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ.)

Hlayhel, who also serves as the part time imam of the Islamic Center of the Northeast Valley led the lawmakers and all those in attendance through the reading of al-Fatiha (the opening chapter of the Holy Quran) in addition to an additional prayer thereafter.”

He “led the lawmakers and all those in attendance through the reading of al-Fatiha.” So what did they read? The Fatiha, the first sura of the Qur’an, contains this: “Guide us in the straight path, the path of those whom Thou hast blessed, not of those against whom Thou art wrathful, nor of those who are astray.” (1:6-7)

It sounds straightforward enough: guide us to the truth, guide us onto the path to God, don’t let us get on the wrong paths, that lead us away from You. A simple expression of piety, that any religious person could endorse, no? No. The traditional Islamic understanding of this is that the “straight path” is Islam — cf. Islamic apologist John Esposito’s book Islam: The Straight Path. It is also traditionally understood in Islamic explanations of this passage that the path of those who have earned Allah’s anger are the Jews, and those who have gone astray are the Christians.

The classic Qur’anic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that “the two paths He described here are both misguided,” and that those “two paths are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer should beware of so that he avoids them. The path of the believers is knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians.”

Ibn Kathir’s understanding of this passage is not a lone “extremist” interpretation. In fact, most Muslim commentators believe that the Jews are those who have earned Allah’s wrath and the Christians are those who have gone astray. This is the view of Tabari, Zamakhshari, the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, the Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Arabi, as well as Ibn Kathir. One contrasting, but not majority view, is that of Nisaburi, who says that “those who have incurred Allah’s wrath are the people of negligence, and those who have gone astray are the people of immoderation.”

Saudi Wahhabis drew criticism a few years back for adding “such as the Jews” and “such as the Christians” into parenthetical glosses on this passage in Qur’ans printed in Saudi Arabia. Some Western commentators imagined that the Saudis originated this interpretation, and indeed the whole idea of Qur’anic hostility toward Jews and Christians. They found it inconceivable that Muslims all over the world would learn as a matter of course that the central prayer of their faith anathematizes Jews and Christians.

But unfortunately, this interpretation is venerable and mainstream in Islamic theology. The printing of the interpretation in parenthetical glosses into a translation would be unlikely to affect Muslim attitudes, since the Arabic text is always and everywhere normative in any case, and since so many mainstream commentaries contain the idea that the Jews and Christians are being criticized here. Seventeen times a day, by the pious.

And in the Arizona State Senate, with the willing participation of the foolish kuffar who had no idea that they were asking God to be led away from the Judeo-Christian foundations upon which American society was based. However, given the fact that they invited an official of Hamas-linked CAIR to address them in the first place, they are not likely to be too concerned about that.

Pamela Geller, Monday WND Column: Savage Summit

Kick off your week with a dose of reality:

DEFENDING THE WEST 

Savage summit and its 'Islamophobia' problem
Exclusive: Pamela Geller unmasks CAIR director as operative advancing Shariah

The Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, took off its mask last week and joined the modern-day caliphate, the 57-government Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo to discuss the No. 1 issue to the Muslim world: “Islamophobia to be major issue discussed at meeting of heads of state.”

Islamophobia: in other words, the imposition of the Shariah. You might think that the leaders from every Muslim country would convene to discuss the brutality of Shariah: the persecution, oppression and slaughter of non-Muslims in Muslim countries and the subjugation of women. You would think that they might look inward – but you’d be wrong. They want more of all that.

Hamas-CAIR Director Nihad Awad’s Facebook page carried this announcement: “CAIR Director to Tweet from OIC Summit in Cairo: Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, will tweet updates (@NihadAwad) from the two-day summit of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Cairo that begins on Wednesday.”

The announcement continued: “At the summit, Awad will meet with heads of state and other foreign dignitaries and will offer input on the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia in the United States and around the world.” Said Awad: “It is critical to understand the damage Islamophobia is causing not only to Muslims, but also to the fabric of Western society, which is based on diversity and inclusion.” Awad also “noted that growing Islamophobia damages relations with the Muslim world, fuels anti-Americanism and is driven by a tiny minority of individual hate-mongers and hate groups.”

In the eyes of OIC officials, no problem in the contemporary world is more urgent than “Islamophobia,” which it calls “a crime against humanity” that the U.N. and the EU must officially outlaw. Even discussing why so much terrorism is carried out in the name of Islam is to be forbidden. The OIC insists, too, that international bodies ban “defamation of religion,” by which it means criticism of anything Islamic. Defamation of Judaism, Christianity, Bahai, Hinduism and even heterodox Muslim sects such as the Ahmadiyya is common within the borders of many OIC countries, a fact the OIC refuses to acknowledge.

While there, Awad can rub elbows with Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad, said Iran’s PressTV “is leading the Iranian delegation to the Cairo summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which begins on February 6.”

Yet the same week the OIC summit started, CNN ran a silly piece featuring Awad commenting on Hamas-CAIR’s cynical whitewash of jihad in its #MyJihad campaign. Why didn’t the reporter ask Nihad Awad about his attendance with the annihilationist Ahmadinejad at the OIC Shariah summit in Cairo this week? And the BBC did a full hour of coverage on the #MyJihad campaign, without a word about the summit, either. The enemedia’s love affair with the Hamas-CAIR #MyJihad campaign continues unabated.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation is the strong arm of the ummah – an enormous worldwide machine. The renowned historian Bat Ye’or said: “The OIC is one of the largest intergovernmental organizations in the world. It encompasses 56 Muslim states plus the Palestinian Authority. Spread over four continents, it claims to speak in the name of the ummah (the universal Muslim community), which numbers about 1.3 billion. The OIC’s mission is to unite all Muslims worldwide by rooting them in the Koran and the Sunnah – the core of traditional Islamic civilization and values. It aims at strengthening solidarity and cooperation among all its members, in order to protect the interests of Muslims everywhere and to galvanize the ummah into a unified body.”

Bat Ye’or explains: “The organization has numerous subsidiary institutions collaborating at the highest levels with international organizations in order to implement its political objectives worldwide. Its main working bodies are the Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), which seeks to impose on the West the Islamic perception of history and civilization; the Observatory of Islamophobia, which puts pressure on Western governments and international bodies to adopt laws punishing ‘Islamophobia’ and blasphemy; and the newly created Islamic International Court of Justice. As stated in its 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, the OIC is strictly tied to the principles of the Koran, the Sunnah, and the sharia. In a word, the OIC seeks to become the reincarnation of the Caliphate.”

And so now, courtesy of Hamas-CAIR and Ahmadinejad, here it comes: the next stage to a final solution by Islamic supremacists. They have successfully berated, cajoled, harassed and threatened Western journalists and politicians to self-enforce the blasphemy laws under the Shariah. Isn’t it enough that the press don’t cover jihad, honor killings, FGM or the persecution of non-Muslims under the Shariah truthfully or adequately? No, it is not enough. Now they will press on to final victory: the criminalization of all criticism of Islam.

With Obama in the White House, they might well get it. But in the meantime, the remnants of the free press should take note of the “moderate” Awad appearing at the same summit with the bloodthirsty, genocide-minded Jew-hater Ahmadinejad. Awad should lose, once and for all, his status as the enemedia’s go-to guy for Muslim comment. He is now unmasked for what he really is: a Hamas operative to advance Shariah in the U.S. As if we didn’t know all along.

 Read the rest

Pamela Geller, Monday WND Column: Prosecuting Muslim bomber 'alienates Muslims'?

Kick off your week with a shot of truth.

DEFENDING THE WEST

Prosecuting Muslim bomber 'alienates Muslims'? WND, February 4, 2013

Exclusive: Pamela Geller sheds light on CAIR's bizarre, twisted reasoning

In what could have been a jihadi bloodbath of unimaginable proportions, a young American Muslim attempted to mass murder upward of 25,000 infidels (mostly women and children) at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore. Mohamed Mohamud has now been found guilty, and the Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is enraged. According to Reuters, Hamas-CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper “said the case could alienate the Muslim community.”

Mohamud’s undercover handlers offered him several choices in the service of jihad. He could have opted just to pray for the destruction of the infidels. On the other hand, he could have opted for Islamic martyrdom: killing infidels and getting himself killed in the process. He chose something in-between: a plot to kill infidels in large numbers without killing himself. He told the FBI he wanted to “become operational.”

Now the jury’s verdict is in. Mohamud has been found guilty. And the Muslim Brotherhood front CAIR says has the audacity to say that the prosecution of Mohamud “alienates Muslims.”

Again, there it is. Plain as day. Hamas-CAIR exposes its real agenda yet again. The prosecution of this jihadist “alienates Muslims”? Shouldn’t Muslim groups be standing with those of us who are fighting against this very thing? They should be condemning this attempt at jihad mass murder. But no, instead they stand with the would-be murderer. They are claiming that Mohamed Mohamud was a victim of FBI entrapment. What is the goal of this obfuscation? It is revealing of the true nature of “moderate” groups in the U.S.

Entrapment? Could anyone “entrap” you into mass murdering tens of thousands of people?

Mohamed Mohamud pushed the button twice. It failed to detonate, thanks to FBI surveillance programs (that very ones CAIR is working fiercely to stop).

On the morning of the planned jihad murders, Mohamud told one of his friends that this was “the greatest morning of my life.” No one was forcing him when, a few hours after that, he pushed the buttons on a cell phone that he thought would set off his jihad bomb and murder thousands upon thousands of infidels.

But Hamas-CAIR and other Muslim groups aren’t denouncing jihad and the Quranic verses that inspire these attacks. Why? Why aren’t they critical of jihad? Aren’t they supposed to be “moderate”? Why are they telling Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement? On two occasions, Cyrus McGoldrick, who was then an official of Hamas-CAIR’s New York chapter, issued threats to “snitches.” Is anyone investigating Cyrus McGoldrick, and trying to find out what he was afraid Muslims would “snitch” about?

Hamas-CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper also said, “I think convictions in these kinds of cases are almost forgone conclusions based on the government’s actions. They are the same in each case.” Yes, it’s the government’s fault that devout Muslims want to slaughter in the cause of Islam. Let’s blame the government for stopping this mass slaughter.

Why did Bill O’Reilly have CAIR on yet again last Thursday night, giving them the imprimatur of legitimacy?

There is much more. Read it all.

Hamas-CAIR: Prosecution of US Muslim Christmas Tree Lighting Bomber 'Alienates Muslims'

Mohamud's undercover handlers offered him several choices in the service of jihad. They ranged from simple prayer to full-on martyrdom. Mohamud chose a step short of killing himself, saying he wanted to 'become operational,' according to the FBI."

Jury verdict is in GUILTY. But Muslim Brotherhood CAIR says the prosecution "alienates Muslims."

Again, there it is. Plain as day. Hamas-CAIR exposes its real agenda yet again. In what could have been a jihadi bloodbath of unimaginable proportions, a Young American Muslim attempted to mass murder upwards of 25,000 infidels (mostly women and children) at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. He has been found guilty. And the prosecution of this jihadist "alienates Muslims"? Shouldn't Muslim groups be standing with those of us who are fighting this very thing? But no, they stand with the would-be murderer. Entrapment? Could anyone "entrap" you into mass murdering tens of thousands of people?

Mohamed Mohamud pushed the button twice. It failed to detonate, thanks to FBI surveillance programs (that very ones CAIR is working fiercely to stop).

On the morning of the planned bombing, Mohamud reportedly told a friend that it was "the greatest morning of my life." Hours later, he dialed a cell phone that he thought would trigger the bomb and kill thousands of people.

But Hamas-CAIR and other Muslim groups aren't denouncing jihad and the Koranic verses that inspire these attacks. Why? Why aren't they critical of jihad? In one case involving Hamas-CAIR (NY), threats were made to "snitches."

Hamas-CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper said, "I think convictions in these kinds of cases are almost forgone conclusions based on the government's actions. They are the same in each case." Yes, it's the government's fault that devout Muslims want to slaughter in the cause of Islam. Let's blame the government for stopping this mass slaughter.

Why did Bill O'Reilly have CAIR on last night, giving them the imprimatur of legitimacy?

Hamas-CAIR is a subversive Muslim Brotherhood group implicated in the largest terrorist funding trial in our nation's history, and is (according to the US government) "operating in concert with a host of individuals and organizations dedicated to sustaining and furthering the Hamas movement. ... The object of the conspiracy was to support Hamas. The support will be shown to have take several forms, including raising money, propaganda, proselytizing, recruiting, as well as many other types of actions intended to continue to promote and move forward Hamas's agenda of the destruction of the State of Israel and establishment of an Islamic state in its place."

The International Muslim Brotherhood ordered the Muslim Brotherhood chapters throughout the world to create Palestine Committees, whose job it was to support Hamas with "media, money and men" (more here).

The following Reuters report is ridiculous. Why go to Hamas-CAIR for comment? Why not ask those who are fighting jihad? But even their vigorous moral equivocation cannot alter the facts -- facts are facts. These relentless attempts to whitewash jihad are part of an ongoing re-education campaign. The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) issued this directive a couple of weeks after 9/11; for sheer propaganda, their “Diversity Guidelines” are hard to beat. In fact, the enemy who attacked our country in an attempt to bring it down may just as well have been writing the narrative (read it all here).

CAIR: Prosecution of Christmas Bomber 'Alienates Muslims' Reuters (thanks to The Religion of Peace)

(Reuters) - A Somali-American man was found guilty on Thursday of trying to blow up a Christmas-tree lighting ceremony in Oregon using a fake bomb supplied to him by undercover agents posing as Islamist militants, the public defender's office said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen and former Oregon State University student, faces a possible life prison term on his conviction on a single charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Sentencing is set for May 14.

Mohamud was arrested shortly after attempting to use his cell phone to remotely detonate an artificial car bomb planted near a Portland square crowded with thousands of people attending the ceremony the day after Thanksgiving in 2010.

No one was hurt, and authorities say the public was never in real danger.

During a three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Portland, defense attorneys argued that overzealous law enforcement officers posing as al Qaeda militants invented a crime and entrapped their client.

But the jury agreed with the prosecution's argument that Mohamud, 19 years old at the time of the crime, was already radicalized and could have backed out of the bomb plot at any point.

On the morning of the planned bombing, Mohamud reportedly told a friend that it was "the greatest morning of my life." Hours later, he dialed a cell phone that he thought would trigger the bomb and kill thousands of people.

"Mr. Mohamud made a series of choices over a period of several years - choices that were leading him down a path that would have ended in violence," Greg Fowler, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Portland division, said in a statement.

"His actions showed little regard for the rights and responsibilities that come with being an American or respect for the lives that he was prepared to take," he added.

LONELY WITH LITTLE MONEY

The case, closely watched by many in the nation's Muslim American community, was one of several sting operations in recent years in which individuals were tracked by undercover FBI agents and later tried to detonate fake bombs in various locations.

"We are disappointed with the verdict," federal public defender Steven Wax said, adding that he planned to appeal. "There are a number of issues that will be raised."

Defense lawyers had tried to paint a picture of Mohamud, who spent months with the undercover agents, as a young man who was particularly vulnerable to entrapment, which legal experts had earlier said was always a tough case to prove.

At trial, one of the undercover agents testified that he and a fellow agent were aware that Mohamud was lonely, had little money and that his family was in distress. He said Mohamud wept during their first meeting and that he heard his partner tell Mohamud on many occasions, "I love you."

The agent also acknowledged that he and his partner had coached Mohamud on what he should say in a videotaped "goodbye" message they filmed of him weeks before the planned attack.

In the video, shown to the jury by prosecutors, Mohamud is seen solemnly saying to the camera: "A dark day is coming your way ... your people will not remain safe."

Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for The Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the case could alienate the Muslim community, but was quick to say that "nobody wants to see any possibility of any sort of violence by a lone wolf."

"I think convictions in these kinds of cases are almost forgone conclusions based on the government's actions. They are the same in each case," he said.

Lawsuit against Massive Hamas-CAIR Fraud Scheme Awaiting Judge’s Ruling; Jury Trial Expected

The case against jihad groups aligned with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood moves forward:

Legal Challenge Exposing Massive CAIR Fraud Scheme Awaiting Judge’s Ruling;
Jury Trial Expected AFLC

Yesterday, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) and the Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C. filed its reply brief in support of its motion for summary judgment in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of five former clients of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who had earlier filed two separate lawsuits in federal court against CAIR, alleging common law and statutory fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

CAIR, a self-described Muslim public interest law firm, was previously named as a Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the federal criminal trial and conviction of a terrorist funding cell organized around one of the largest Muslim charities, the Holy Land Foundation (HLF).  HLF raised funds for violent jihad on behalf of Hamas, and top CAIR officials were part of the conspiracy.  In addition, several of CAIR’s top executives have been convicted of terror-related crimes.  As a result, the FBI publicly announced that it has terminated any outreach activities with the national organization, which bills itself as “America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization.”

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