| Home Front: WoT |
| Minneapolis mosque damaged in Cedar-Riverside fire seeks a home |
| 2014-01-13 |
| [Shabelle] The Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Minneapolis, which sustained water damage in a deadly Jan. 1 fire next door, needs a temporary home. Displaced by the New Year's Day kaboom and fire in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis that killed three people, members of the adjacent Dar Al-Hijrah mosque have spent the past week searching for a temporary home, so far without success. Their building at 504 Cedar Av. S. survived the fire that destroyed the adjacent building, a street-level grocery store with apartments upstairs, but severe water damage left it unusable, perhaps for months, Abdisalam Adam, director at the Dar Al-Hijrah Cultural Center, said Thursday. About 300 people pray at the mosque, considered the state's first Somali-American mosque. Several churches stepped forward in the days after the kaboom to offer temporary space to the mosque and its cultural programs; so far those churches are too far away or don't have enough space. Mosque officials said they will hold prayers Friday at the nearby Brian Coyle Center of Pillsbury United Communities, a cultural hub of the neighborhood. At least 14 people were maimed in the fire, including several who jumped from second- and third-story windows to escape the blaze. The cause remains under investigation, said Chuck Brynteson, Minneapolis Fire Department assistant chief. A spokeswoman for CenterPoint Energy said last week that a preliminary analysis detected no leaks in the utility's gas network; she has since directed questions to the Fire Department. A witness reported smelling gas before the kaboom, Fire Chief John Fruetel said at a news conference just after the fire. Other survivors, including two who spoke to the Star Tribune from their hospital beds, said they did not smell natural gas before the blast. The bodies of two men who lived in the apartments above the Otanga grocery were found in the rubble. A third man died Jan. 3 of injuries sustained in the fire and kaboom. Mosque officials looked at one church, Trinity Lutheran Congregation on Riverside Avenue, and at space at nearby Augsburg College, Trinity pastor Jane Buckley-Farlee said. "They are hoping to find a place close by where all of their programming could be in one location, but that might not be possible in Cedar-Riverside," she said. A preschool program run out of their building has also been suspended due to the water damage, along with a weekend program for teenagers, affecting about 30 children and 70 teens. "We may have to be split into two locations," said Abdikadir Ibrahim, who oversees the Al-Hikma preschool. |
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| Fifth Column |
| FBI/Police Holding Hands with 9/11 Skeptics & Muslim Terrorist on a Texas Stage |
| 2007-12-04 |
| Muslims meet up for the annual Texas Dawah Conventiona, what could possibly go wrong? You may remember that two years ago Yahya Ibrahim, who was to be a featured speaker, was denied entry into the U.S. by Customs agents. The event is being billed as "focusing on the family", but the speakers include known associates of convicted terrorists, terror supporters, and 9/11 skeptics. In addition to the various seminars, some of them given by supporters of the most conservative brand of Sunni Islam, the event will also have a variety of carnival rides--and a petting zoo! What's interesting about this year's meetup of Islamists in the U.S. is that an FBI agent will be a featured speaker. Ironically, Special Agent Randall Clark appears to be on the cyber crimes task force. Given that Islamists are experts at using the internet to propagandize and recruit new blood for jihad, you'd hope he was there in a monitoring capacity. Don't count on it. Instead I suspect he's there in a PR capacity or to discuss his real expertise, which is in online child pornography cases. I'd suggest that Muslim children are far more at risk of watching online beheading videos or clips of U.S. soldiers being hit by IEDs than kiddie porn. Also on the stage will be Officer Muzaffar Siddiqi, who leads the Houston P.D.'s Muslim outreach and diversity training program. Who else is speaking at what is billed as the "largest Islamic convention in the southwest"? Page 2 Musa Maguire. The name may not sound familiar, but maybe you know his cousin "Sulayman". Doesn't ring a bell? Well maybe you'll recognize his given name John Walker Lindh. Musa Abdun Nur Maguire is best known for his defense of his cousin's treason fighting for the Taliban. He calls Lindh a "authentic American hero". To show you how screwed up our Federal government is, your tax money is subsidizing Musa: In 2004 he was the recipient of a Fulbright grant to take K-12 teachers to the Middle East. Read the post, in it Musa describes how Salafis (who are the Sunni Islamists with the same political goals as al Qaeda) cured him of his extremism and how convicted jihadist Ismail Royer should get a Fulbright and not jail time. johari_abdul_malik.jpgImam Johari Abdul-Malik (pictured right). Abdul-Malik is the number one fund raiser for the Ali Asad support committee which is trying to free convicted terrorist Ali Asad Chandia. Chandia, a Maryland school teacher, was convicted of providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror organization and assisted Ali al-Tamimi, the spiritual leader of the Virginia Jihad Network. He is the imam of the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va, where convicted terrorist Ahmed Omar Abu Ali worshiped. Abu Ali has admitted to meeting with Zubayr Al-Rimi, al Qaeda's #2 man in Saudi Arabia while studying in Mecca. Malik was outraged at Omar Abu Ali's prosecution for plotting to kill the President of the United States and once called him the "Rosa Parks of the Muslim community". Abdul Malik is most famous for his support of Hamas. Dr. Salah As-Sawi. Vice President of the Sharia Academy, the mission of which is "to disseminate proper and authentic Islamic knowledge based on the principles of Ahlus-Sunnah Wal-Jamaah". Longtime readers know that Ahlus-Sunnah Wal-Jamaah is what Salafists call their version of conservative Islamic law. What they mean by it is that they are followers of "authentic" Islam, as understood by the first generation of followers of Mohammed. In other words, they want to return to a 7th century version of Islamic law. Generally you and I would call them "Wahabbis", although they hate this term. He is perhaps most notorious as a 9/11 skeptic and as the man who penned a counter-fatwa forbidding Muslims to join the U.S. military in any actions against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He claimed "the Jewish media" had rushed to blame Osama bin Laden for 9/11. Siraj Wahhaj: Formerly on CAIR's advisory board and an possibly unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Bombings. He denies he was ever on any list of unindicted co-conspirators, but bombing mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman (the "Blind Sheikh) was a regular speaker at Wahhaj's At-Taqwa Mosque in Brooklyn. In addition, Wahhaj was a character witness in Rahman's behalf at his terrorism trial. Rodney Clement Hampton-El, aka "Dr. Rashid", an Afghan veteran (fought with the mujahideen) and the group's "explosive expert", was also a worshiper at Wahhaj's mosque. |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Terrorism Case Puts Words of Muslim Leader On Trial in Va. |
| 2005-04-05 |
| Islamic spiritual leader Ali Al-Timimi's pen is mightier than his sword, prosecutors contend. It's not so much his actions but his words that make him so dangerous, they say. Less than a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Timimi told a group of Northern Virginia Muslims that it should train for violent jihad abroad and wage war on the United States, prosecutors say. In 2003, he celebrated the crash of the space shuttle Columbia in a message that prosecutors say reflected his view that the United States itself should be destroyed._ The government says the statements of Timimi -- who goes on trial today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria -- constitute nothing short of treason. But some Muslims, who are rallying to Timimi's side through a Web site and other expressions of support, see a respected religious leader being prosecuted for his words. "He is not accused of anything except talking. It's all about him saying something," said Shaker Elsayed, a member of the executive committee of Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. "If this isn't a First Amendment issue, I don't know what is." Although legal experts are as divided on the case as the two sides are, some said that the case reflects the power of words in the post-Sept. 11 climate -- and that it poses an important test of the free-speech rights Americans have come to expect since the First Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1791. "This is a troubling case with very significant First Amendment concerns," said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor with experience in national security cases. If Timimi "encouraged people to go kill Americans, it comes very close to the criminal line, if not passing over it," Turley said. But historically, he said, "Courts have been uneasy with a criminal allegation based solely on words alone." Victoria Toensing, a Washington lawyer who created the Justice Department's terrorism unit during the Reagan administration, said Timimi's words could send him to prison. "If he said, 'I want you to go join the movement in Afghanistan and here is where you get the training,' that's no different from saying, 'Go join a murder club,' " Toensing said. Whether Timimi will go to prison probably will depend on whether he expected his listeners to act on what he told them, legal experts said. Although free-speech rights have been interpreted differently in different eras, the current standard derives from the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court opinion Brandenburg v. Ohio, they said. That opinion says the government cannot forbid "advocacy of the use of force" unless that advocacy is intended or likely to produce "imminent lawless action.'' "The key," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director for the ACLU of Virginia, "is whether Timimi's speech was likely to cause others to act and whether he intended it to cause them to act.'' Timimi is charged with 10 counts, which include attempting to contribute services to the Taliban and soliciting or inducing others to commit a variety of crimes, such as conspiring to levy war on the United States, using firearms and carrying explosives. One charge involving war is drawn from a section of federal law headed "treason.'' If convicted on all counts, Timimi, 41, of Fairfax County, would face up to life in prison. Jury selection began last Monday, and opening statements are scheduled for today. The trial, before U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, is expected to last as long as three weeks. |
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| India-Pakistan |
| NYT unveils new Crusade |
| 2005-02-27 |
| Case Adds to Outrage for Muslims in Northern Virginia FALLS CHURCH, Va., Feb. 25 - When the Saudi police burst into a classroom at the Islamic University of Medina during final exams two years ago and whisked away an American exchange student named Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, his imprisonment swiftly reverberated among Muslims in this Washington suburb. Mr. Abu Ali was never charged, and he spent 20 months in a Saudi prison where his family says he was whipped, tortured and starved. This week, he was finally returned to Virginia - only to face an accusation by American prosecutors that he had plotted with members of Al Qaeda to assassinate President Bush. The charge has outraged members of Northern Virginia's growing Muslim population and escalated a conflict with federal law enforcement authorities over terrorism investigations into religious leaders, mosques, businesses and private Islamic schools in the region. "Our whole community is under siege," said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, a spokesman for the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, where Mr. Abu Ali and his family worshiped. "They don't see this as a case of criminality. They see it as a civil rights case. As a frontal attack on their community." "The feeling I get here on a daily basis must be what it was like to be a member of Martin Luther King Jr.'s church following the case of Rosa Parks," said Imam Abdul-Malik. "People always ask, 'What is the latest from the courthouse?' " |
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| Terror Networks |
| Useful Fools Report Moslem Scholarsâ Denials of Beheadings in Koran |
| 2004-07-02 |
| From Slate, an article by Lee Smith .... "Beheadings are not mentioned in the Koran at all," Imam Muhammad Adam El-Sheikh, co-founder and chief cleric at the Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., told USA Today. Yvonne Haddad, a professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University agreed, telling New York Newsday, "There is absolutely nothing in Islam that justifies cutting off a personâs head." If reporters bothered to open up a copy of the Quran, say, N.J. Dawoodâs Penguin Classics translation, theyâd find at least two relevant passages: God revealed His will to the angels, saying: "I shall be with you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers." (Sura 8, Verse 12) ... it is simply wrong to say that the Quran does not mention beheadings or that there is absolutely nothing in Islam that justifies decapitation. Islamic history is giddy with heads separated from their bodies, a tradition detailed in news outlets that are generally considered right-wing and on conservative Web sites, but apparently whitewashed in the mainstream press. .... We really wish the Muslims who are lending their expertise to our infidel press would tell the truth. Otherwise, this conversation between cultures isnât going to work. We are surely destined for a very violent clash of civilizations if one dialogue partner will lie about something that is written down for anyone â even American journalists if they make the effort â to read. ... A group of American journalists has just returned from a trip to Syria and Lebanon, where they met with Syriaâs president, Bashar Assad, and the one-time spiritual guide of Hezbollah, Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. What are these Americans reporting from their travels? That Arabs like Americans but not U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Is this true? Well, it is surely in the interests of an Arab dictator and a Muslim cleric who wrote fatwas permitting suicide bombings against Israeli civilians to say it is true. If U.S. journalists are going to serve as dragomans for various sponsors and theorists of terrorism to the American public, at least they could push their interview subjects a little harder. .... One common complaint about Americans, including our press, is that we know very little about the Middle East. That may be true, but as complex as the subject is, knowledge of the Middle East is hardly gnostic wisdom available only to a few initiates. Thanks largely to the efforts of the oft-despised Orientalists, much of the history and literature of those cultures is accessible to anyone who is interested (a service, as this Muslim scholar explains, rendered to both the West and Islam). Much of it is even on the Internet. Certainly the press, when reporting on the Middle East and Islam, should question its sources at least as rigorously as it interrogates athletes suspected of steroid use, be more inclined to doubt than belief, and report fact rather than serve agendas. That is to say, whether or not beheading actually appears in the Quran is a matter of verifiable fact and not subject to the opinion of imams and professors who are apparently interested in advancing a message. If Americans have to start sorting through their news in the way that consumers of Arab media must, wondering which piece of information serves whose interests, we are inviting what would be a very ugly result of our current engagements in the Middle East: the Al-Jazeera-fication of the U.S. press. |
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