| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Islamist Cover-Up? Media Silent After Imam Fired in Sexual Assault Scandal |
| 2019-12-07 |
| [PJMedia] An Arizona imam has been accused of sexual assault, child abuse, misuse of funds, and falsely presenting himself as single in order to pursue female congregants while having two concealed marriages. One mosque quietly fired him after early accusations, but another has continued to employ him. An anti-Islamist Moslem reformer has condemned a media blackout on the story, suggesting that the local Moslem community is protecting a sexual predator due to radical interpretations of sharia. "Here is the story on the imam ’quietly’ fired from our mosque in Scottsdale," M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), tweeted. "Apparently he was also a sexual predator. So tell me again this has nothing to do with their shariah supremacism, radicalism and affinity for radical imams like [Siraj Wahhaj]?" Jasser was referring to a Religion News Service (RNS) article about Moataz Moftah, a holy man who teaches youth at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix. The article cites an exhaustive report from the victims' advocacy group Facing Abuse in Community Environments (FACE) following an 11-month investigation into Moftah's alleged misconduct. FACE released the report on November 11. |
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| Home Front: WoT | |
| CAIR Trying to Have Anti-Islamist Muslim Kicked Off Religious Freedom Panel | |
| 2014-02-16 | |
| [CNSNews] Having failed in an earlier attempt to scupper the appointment of a prominent anti-Islamist Mohammedan to a statutory international religious freedom watchdog, the Council on American-Islamic Relations ... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ... (CAIR) is actively trying to have him removed from the post. CAIR, a controversial lobby group that describes itself as "America's largest Mohammedan civil liberties and advocacy organization," wants the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to investigate its vice-chairman, M. Zuhdi Jasser, questioning his suitability to serve on a body promoting religious freedom. CAIR has written twice in two weeks to USCIRF Chairman Robert George on the subject of Jasser, president of the non-profit American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). On Tuesday, CAIR said AIFD receives funding from an independent foundation called the Abstraction Fund (PDF, 1.1 MB) which, it noted, also funds organizations "known for their active role in spreading anti-Islam prejudice." These other "notorious Islamophobes" benefitting from the foundation, it said, included the Center for Security Policy, a 26 year-old Washington think tank; Islam specialist Daniel Pipes' Middle East Forum; terrorism expert Steven Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT); and Islam scholar and activist Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch.
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| Home Front: WoT | |
| Moderate Muslims Must Oppose Islamism | |
| 2013-04-24 | |
by M. Zuhdi Jasser
Perhaps Boston's terror may finally be the impetus to begin the long overdue process of retooling America's current counterterrorism strategies. Since 9-11, except for the Fort Hood massacre, we have been fortunate enough to avoid the kind of devastation and loss of life that we saw this week in Boston. That was certainly not for a lack of trying by our enemies, with over 300 arrests on terrorism charges since 9-11. Of these, over 80 percent were Islamists. I've said it before -- after 9-11, after Fort Hood, and after Times Square, this is a Muslim problem that needs a Muslim solution. | |
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| Home Front: Politix | ||
| Islamic Group says no C.O. for Muslim Soldiers | ||
| 2010-09-04 | ||
An American Muslim organization is asking the U.S. Army to deny a Muslim soldiers request for conscientious objector status, accusing him of treason and urging the military to punish him to the full extent of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
But the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) says Abdo's claim is patently false. "Muslims serve with distinction throughout the United States Military and AIFD sees Abdos traitorous public assertions as a slap in the face to all American Muslims especially those Muslims who fight in our armed forces for the liberty and freedom guaranteed by the American Constitution," the group said in a statement it issued on Friday.
AIFD on Friday called Abdos claim a cowardly attempt to use his faith to make a political statement and said it belies the religious experience of the vast majority of Muslim-American troops who have found the time to perform their spiritual rituals. | ||
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Extremist Conference in Chicago |
| 2010-07-01 |
| Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic extremist group working for uniting the world under Sharia law, is scheduled to hold its second annual conference on July 11 at the Chicago Marriott Oak Brook. The theme of the event is, "Emerging World Order: How the Khilafah Will Shape the World." The organization has chosen the home of President Obama, the leader of the free world, to pursue its anti-democratic agenda by taking advantage of the freedoms it seeks to vanquish. "HT recruiters use religious language to pull the confused Muslim youth to their side in an effort to undermine American democracy. The danger of this conference is that it legitimizes HT as a mainstream organization and allows it to further spread its hate-filled message that divides Muslims and non-Muslims," Zeyno Baran, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, told FrontPage. Hizb ut-Tahrir has accurately been described as "a conveyor belt to terror" by Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, the moderate Muslim leader of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Although the group condemns terrorism and doesn't publicly support violence, several of its members have gone on to become major terrorists, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The group may not embrace the tactics of Al-Qaeda but their goals are the same. Hizb ut-Tahrir's first conference in the U.S. was held last year in Chicago and was titled, "The Fall of Capitalism & the Rise of Islam." It was attended by between five and six hundred people, and one speaker openly called for throwing out the U.S. Constitution and putting Sharia law in its place. |
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| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Symposium: The World's Most Wanted: A Moderate Islam' |
| 2010-05-27 |
| In this special edition of Frontpage Symposium, we have invited four distinguished guests to discuss the question: Is there a moderate Islam? Our guests today are: Timothy Furnish, a former U.S. Army Arabic interrogator, he is a consultant and author with a Ph.D. in Islamic History. Tawfik Hamid, an Islamic thinker and reformer who is the author of Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam. M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. is the President and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). and Robert Spencer |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Ariz. Muslim leaders face increased FBI scrutiny |
| 2008-11-18 |
| The FBI has sharpened its scrutiny of some Phoenix-area Muslim leaders because of their links to two controversial incidents and a federal probe into the financing of terrorist groups. No Arizonan has been accused of supporting terrorist groups or actions. However, a Mesa man was charged with lying to the FBI during the financing investigation. The events that triggered the stepped-up scrutiny were the federal probe into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas; a target-shooting episode in Phoenix this year involving a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of rounds from AK-47s and other guns; and the high-profile removal in 2006 of six Arizona-bound imams from a jetliner after passengers and crew complained of their behavior. Although some Islamic leaders say they understand the scrutiny, they also view it as another sign that innocent Muslims unjustly fall under suspicion because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "Whoever did Sept. 11, go after them and see who they are. I'm not going to pay for them. I'm not going to be guilty," said Marwan Sadeddin, one of the Valley imams who sued US Airways after being removed from a jetliner in Minneapolis. Like the others, he was questioned by FBI agents after the incident, in addition to being questioned about the arrested Mesa man. The FBI is monitoring the family and community ties among Valley residents involved in the jetliner, shooting and charity probes, said John Lewis, who runs the FBI's Arizona office. "All of these things come on our scope," said Lewis, the agency's former head of counterterrorism operations. The FBI routinely watches communities and groups that show patterns of radicalism seen in terrorism cases in the U.S. and Europe; those include radical Islamic theology, anti-Western political rhetoric and fundraising tied to terrorist groups. Lewis declined to discuss any details of the agency's monitoring activities. The only Arizonan arrested by the FBI is Akram Musa Abdallah of Mesa. He was indicted by a grand jury in August on one count of lying to FBI agents. The government contended in court documents that Abdallah falsely told agents he had not raised money in the 1990s for the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity that President Bush shut down in 2001. Five founders of the Texas-based charity are on trial in Dallas on charges of steering $12 million to Hamas after the U.S. declared it a terrorist group. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix physician and Muslim who founded an organization to counter radical Islamic teachings, said Abdallah's arrest, the target-shooting episode and what he says are the imams' extreme views bear vigilance. "You can't help wonder where this is going," he added. Shortly before noon on a sunny Sunday in March, two Toyota SUVs rolled to a stop along a dirt road in north Phoenix. About 20 young Muslim males climbed out, armed with assault rifles, a shotgun, a sniper rifle and handguns. The location near Happy Valley Road and 51st Avenue is a desert recreation site for off-road motorists, hikers and bikers, dozens of whom were enjoying the spring-like weather. For more than an hour, the shooters blasted away at a granite rock and empty cans in front of a hill. Officials estimate the fusillade totaled 500 to 1,000 rounds. Some shooters left before police arrived and detained 10 adults and five boys, including an 11-year-old. The young men and boys told officers the weapons belonged to their parents. They said they were not aware it was illegal to use firearms in the residential area. Six were arrested and charged with felony weapons violations in Maricopa County Superior Court. Among them were the 20- and 21-year-old sons of two imams at Phoenix-area mosques, as well as the 20-year-old son of Abdallah. More at link |
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| CAIR membership falls 90% since 9/11 |
| 2007-06-12 |
| Membership in the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has declined more than 90 percent since the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to tax documents obtained by The Washington Times. The number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to fewer than 1,700 in 2006. As a result, the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues dropped from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35. The organization instead is relying on about two dozen donors a year to contribute the majority of the money for CAIR's budget, which reached nearly $3 million last year. Asked about the decline, Parvez Ahmed, CAIR's board chairman, pointed to the number of donors. "We are proud that our grass-roots support in the American Muslim community has allowed CAIR to grow from having eight chapters and offices in 2001 to having 33 today," Mr. Ahmed said. M. Zuhdi Jasser, director of American Islamic Forum for Democracy, says the sharp decline in membership calls into question whether the organization speaks for American Muslims, as the group has claimed. "This is the untold story in the myth that CAIR represents the American Muslim population. They only represent their membership and donors," Mr. Jasser said. "Post-9/11, they have marginalized themselves by their tired exploitation of media attention for victimization issues at the expense of representing the priorities of the American Muslim population," Mr. Jasser said. CAIR listed contributors in its Form 990 filings with the Internal Revenue Service, but the IRS redacted all the names before releasing the documents. In 2001, 26 contributors gave more than $1.6 million; in 2002, 26 gave more than $2.6 million; in 2003, 24 gave more than $2 million; in 2004, 20 gave more than $1.4 million; in 2005, 19 contributed $1.3 million. The Washington Times requested from the IRS all the 990 Forms that CAIR has filed since its inception in 1994 under the law regulating tax-exempt organizations. The first two annual forms are no longer on file pursuant to agency regulations. Tax forms for 1997 and 1998 were "unavailable" either because the group's income was less than $25,000, was filed under a parent corporation or "the return may have been requested by another department of the Internal Revenue Service," the IRS said. CAIR's papers were provided by the government agency for tax years 1996, 1999, and 2000 through 2005. Revenue from those periods totaled more than $17.7 million, while program expenses totaled $8.5 million. CAIR constantly notes in its press releases that it cooperates with federal law-enforcement activities and claims to conduct sensitivity training for Homeland Security officials. A February press release from CAIR's Chicago office says it met with Homeland Security immigration officials and made an agreement to "conduct sensitivity training to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers and possibly prison personnel." Homeland Security officials deny such claims and a check of the Office of Management and Budget Watch database of government contracts since 2000 shows CAIR has never been awarded a grant or a government contract. "The department does not have a formalized relationship with that particular organization," said one Homeland Security official speaking on the condition of anonymity. "We do have formalized relations with other community groups with whom we do contracts for training and consultation on matters that are specific to a given community." "It is not uncommon for that particular organization to issue a press release attempting to overstate their interaction with the department," the official said. |
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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| The Mainstream Media: Islamist Facilitators |
| 2007-04-21 |
| M. Zuhdi Jasser, a true (but exceedingly rare) moderate muslim, speaks out. He's simply saying what we all know to be true: the MSM is weak and islamic organizations are terror apologists. Dennis Wagner of the Arizona Republic broke the story on April 10, 2007 about PBSs censorship of the documentary, Islam vs. Islamists from its America at a Crossroads series which debuted this week. The films producers, Frank Gaffney, Alex Alexiev and the veteran filmmaker, Martyn Burke of ABG Films, Inc. have since presented in shocking detail their painful protracted experiences trying to navigate the censors at PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which funded the film with $675,000 of the taxpayers monies but now has chosen to shelve it. In just the last week of public debate, there has been a firestorm of outcry from the public who are demanding that oppressive methods of editorial content control by power brokers at PBS be investigated and the real story behind the shelving of Islam vs. Islamists be exposed. PBSs exploitation of the public dime and the public airwaves for the narrow point of view of the Islamist sympathizers with the exclusion of the anti-Islamist Muslims is just now beginning to be understood. As one of the subjects of the documentary, I was able to experience first-hand the professionalism and in-depth journalistic standards of veteran filmmaker, Martyn Burke, and his first-class team of consummate professionals. It was refreshing to have a documentary set out objectively to look into the deep-seated internal struggles of anti-Islamist Muslims like myself. Our work at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) here in Phoenix has been riddled with continual blowback and resistance in many forms from the power structure of the activist Muslim community in the Phoenix Valley. The Valley Council of Imams, the local Muslim Voice newspaper, and organizations like CAIR-AZ have provided a laboratory of typical Islamist responses to an American organization of Muslims, like AIFD, who are trying to rescue spiritual Islam from the death grip of IslamistsIslam vs. Islamists. I do this out of love for my faith and its spiritual path to the God of Abraham in order to free it from the corruption of the political imam which has become so ubiquitous. |
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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| PBS shelves film on moderate Muslims |
| 2007-04-11 |
| A 52-minute documentary film exploring the struggles of moderate American Muslims at the hands of their radical brethren has also become a showcase for the struggles between right and left in the news media. The producers of "Islam vs. Islamists" say their taxpayer-funded film has been shelved by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in "an ideological vendetta," and because the production team includes conservative columnist Frank Gaffney Jr., founder of the Center for Security Policy. "This is a well-documented, textbook case of the abuse of taxpayer funding by elements in the public broadcasting system to advocate their agenda and ensure that people who have different agenda don't get on the air," Mr. Gaffney said yesterday. "The public ought to be allowed to see a film which PBS doesn't want them to see." His partner Martyn Burke also accused CPB and PBS of stifling the film "on political grounds." CPB says the film simply needs work but stands a chance to be aired eventually as a "stand-alone" program in the future. " 'Islam vs. Islamists' has not been canceled. It is a work in progress," said CPB spokesman Michael Levy. "I am incredulous that PBS would invest so much of our tax money into contracting professionals for a documentary on a subject -- the struggle for the soul of Islam -- which is one of the most vital debates of the 21st century and then censor its release," said Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, chairman of the Arizona-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy who is featured in the documentary. "Until mainstream media and mainstream America understands the need to help this debate and expose the plight of moderates who push back against the Islamists within the Muslim community, we will continue to lose ground against militant Islamism," Dr. Jasser said. "The censorship of this documentary tells us a great deal about the level to which our government is facilitating the ideology of Islamism which runs directly counter to our foundations of Americanism." Originally, the film was intended to be shown on "America at a Crossroads," a six-night series which begins Sunday. The series comprises 11 independently produced films depicting the political and cultural complexities of a post-September 11 nation. Mr. Gaffney and partners Mr. Burke and Alex Alexiev received $675,000 in funding last year, ultimately producing an unvarnished look at Islamic fundamentalist threats and intimidation of some Muslims. Their work did not go over well with Leo Eaton, the series producer, or Jeff Bieber, executive producer at WETA, where the series originated. Mr. Gaffney received a series of critical "notes" between November and February which said, among other things, that the film would "demonize Islam" and promote public fear of Islamic organizations. The critique, Mr. Gaffney said in a March 6 rebuttal, "is itself 'a point of view' ... an apologia for Islamist extremism." Mr. Gaffney continued, "This documentary has been the subject of an ideological vendetta." He later accused CPB and PBS of suppressing the content and message of the film and ignoring the public interest. Officials counter that there simply wasn't room. From Page 2 Still, Mr. Gaffney's offering has received some high-powered applause. Rep. James T. Walsh, New York Republican, screened then praised the film during a March 21 House hearing on CPB funding. Mr. Walsh also voiced his suspicions about CPB and PBS, saying producer Mr. Eaton has "family ties to a British Islamist group" and "overtly tried to change the context of the film." |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Maker of documentary on Islamism cries foul |
| 2007-04-10 |
| The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide. Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state. Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank. "I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds," Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films. Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, "Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them." A Jan. 30 news release by the corporation listed Islam vs. Islamists as one of eight films to be presented in the opening series. Mary Stewart, vice president of external affairs at WETA, said Burke's documentary was not completed on time to be among 11 documentaries that will be aired beginning Sunday. Stewart said the picture may be broadcast by PBS at a later date. "The film is a strong film," Stewart said. "I'm still hoping to see this in the Crossroads initiative." |
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| Fifth Column |
| Muslims offer to help 'John Does' sued by imams |
| 2007-03-21 |
| By Audrey Hudson Lawyers and a Muslim group say they will defend at no cost airline passengers caught up in a lawsuit between a group of imams and U.S. Airways if the passengers are named as "John Does" and sued for reporting suspicious behavior that got the Muslim clerics booted from a November flight. The six imams are suing the airline, Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission, and the unnamed "John Does" to be named later, for discrimination, saying they were removed from the flight for praying in the airport. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix-area physician and director of American Islamic Forum for Democracy -- a group founded in 2003 to promote moderate Muslim ideas through its Web site (www.aifdemocracy.org) -- told The Washington Times his group will raise money for legal fees for passengers if they are sued by the imams. "It's so important that America know there are Muslims who understand who the victims are in air travel," said Dr. Jasser. "But I hope it doesn't get to that point because the backlash will be even greater when Americans see Islamists trying to punish innocent passengers reporting fears." The lawsuit specifically cites two passengers who stared at the men as they prayed, then made a cell phone call that the imams say went to U.S. Airways to complain about the prayer. Gerry Nolting, whose Minnesota law firm Faegre & Benson LLP is offering to represent passengers for free, says the judicial system is being "used for intimidation purposes" and that it is "just flat wrong and needs to be strongly, strongly discouraged." "As a matter of public policy, the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] presently tells traveling passengers to report suspicious behavior as part of its homeland security program," Mr. Nolting said. "This has nothing to do with race or ethnicity, but trying to intimidate and discourage reporting of suspicious behavior and [also discourage] the promotion of safe travel." Tom Malone, another Minnesota lawyer offering his services pro bono, says the lawsuit is "a very overt attempt to intimidate people" and "coerce them into silence." Appearing yesterday on Fox News, Dr. Jasser told Neil Cavuto, "Americans are going to be more afraid of Arabs and the Muslim community for fear of being sued. Why spend money on litigation when we should be spending it on fighting terrorism?" Passengers and the flight crew say the imams were disruptive, did not take assigned seats, asked for seat-belt extensions they didn't need, loudly criticized the war in Iraq and President Bush, and shouted about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. The men were escorted off Flight 300 to Phoenix, handcuffed briefly, searched and questioned for several hours by airport police and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. The imams' lawyer, Omar Mohammedi, will not comment on his case except to say that the John Does, who could also be airline employees, will not be determined until the lawsuit enters the discovery process. Airport commission spokesman Pat Hogan declined to comment on the lawsuit, except to say, "We believe the airport police appropriately responded to U.S. Airways' call for assistance. That is what we have contended all along and that is still what we believe." Some lawyers have said that suing passengers could set a "chilling" precedent, but question whether the courts would allow such charges to proceed. "If [the passengers] acted within reason, and took a reasonable course of action, they may not be subject to liability," said Victor Schwartz, a partner with Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP in Washington and general counsel for the American Tort Reform Association. Several lawyers, including Mr. Malone and Mr. Nolting, contacted PowerLineBlog.com, a site operated by Minnesota and Washington lawyers, urging fellow litigators to step forward and defend passengers pro bono. "I would hope thousands of lawyers would come forward, we need a massive showing of support, we need to let people who would intimidate us know it is not going to stand. This is where we draw the line," Mr. Malone said. "No one is against freedom of religion or the right to pray, it is fundamental to our society. But that does not mean that we use it as a cover or use it to intimidate people. There |
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