WAMY Canada Loses Charitable Status

The Canadian branch of a terrorist-tied Saudi student organization has lost its charitable status, Canada's National Post reports. An audit of the organization cited numerous breaches of standards as well as extensive links to al-Qaida funding organizations around the world.

The director of Canada's charity review board sent a warning letter to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) Canada last summer, citing concerns that it "support[s] the goals and operations of its parent organization, located in Saudi Arabia, which has been alleged to support terrorism."

Information about WAMY's alleged terrorist funding and extremist education materials has been around for years.

In 2003 testimony submitted to the 9/11 Commission, Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson said that WAMY actively linked itself to several jihadi fronts through educational programs, funding, and other forms of material support.

The group's American branch incorporated in Falls Church, Virginia in 1992 by Osama bin Laden's brother, Abdullah bin Laden. FBI agents raided that office in 2004.

WAMY invited Hamas political head Khaled Mishaal as a featured guest for its 2002 "Muslim Youth and Globalization" conference in Riyadh, and provided the organization with millions in funding during the last intifada. The Pakistani branch offered training and fighters for the jihads against Soviet Afghanistan, as well as Kashmir, a province disputed by India and Pakistan. Members were also trained to fight in Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, and the southern Philippines.

It also produced educational materials extolling jihad and preaching violence against Jews and other infidels, which were used by branches across 6 continents. Another WAMY document, "Military Lessons in the Jihad Against the Tyrants," was found in the possession of a participant in the first World Trade Center bombings and in the London apartment of embassy bomber Khalid al-Fawwaz. The document states that an Islamic global state will not be formed through peaceful means, but "through the written words and the gun, through the word and the bullet."

Al-Qaida in Iraq Attempts Comeback

American intelligence officials and analysts are concerned about a potential rebound by al-Qaida's branch in Iraq [AQI], which had been decimated by the American military, the Washington Times reports. The return of the organization, which killed thousands in a string of high-profile suicide bombings and murders, could have regional effects on Iraq's stability, Syria, and American interests in the Middle East.

"I think AQI, which had been severely battered by the U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign, has regained strength," said James Phillips, a Middle East analyst at the Heritage Foundation think tank. This can be traced to the "undercutting and persecuting Sunni politicians and tribal leaders" by the Shiite minority, which was in turn was persecuted under Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. AQI has exploited Sunni grievances in the tit-for-tat struggle for power, claiming to champion of the rights of the recently disempowered.

The growth of mass casualty attacks undermines state building and the image of increasing stability promoted by the Iraqi government. "It is increasingly difficult to argue that Iraq, to use the president's words, is, quote, 'stable and self-reliant,'" said U.S. Sen. John McCain.

"Just consider the scale and scope of these risks," said McCain, R-Ariz. "Despite the remarkable damage inflicted on al Qaeda's core leadership by our military and intelligence professionals, al Qaeda officials - affiliates in Iraq, the Horn of Africa and the Maghreb - are growing stronger, more independent, more diffuse and more willing to attack American interests."

AQI's recovery also means trouble for Syria, which is fighting a civil war against Sunni rebel forces. Whereas foreign mujahideen previously used Syria as a path for recruits, weapons, and funds to fight American forces, the fighters are now moving in the opposite direction. Bombing of Syrian government troops with IEDs, improvised explosives devices favored by al-Qaida, has risen sharply in the past year.

Muslim Coalition Shows NYPD Support

Dozens of Muslims gathered in front of New York Police Department headquarters Monday to express support for the department's anti-terror efforts.

Those efforts, which include monitoring of web sites and surveillance in and outside the city, have drawn fire from Islamist groups and civil libertarians since they were disclosed in a series of Associated Press reports.

"In no way do we want to be spied on," said Zuhdi Jasser, a founder of the American Islamic Leadership Forum, the group behind Monday's demonstration. "But this is not about spying. This is about monitoring and public programs."

The gathering attracted a wide range of people, from students to business owners and an imam from Queens.

U.S. Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, joined Monday's event, praising the NYPD for being pro-active. "It's the job of the police department not to pick up the bodies after the attack has been launched and carried out but to stop those attacks from happening."

In a statement, the group commended the NYPD for drawing a line between Islam as a religion, "and the highly politicized ideology of hatred, supremacy and violence characteristic of political Islam." In doing so, "the NYPD has displayed far greater courage in acknowledging and addressing the ideological factors that cause radicalization among Muslims, than have the majority of federal agencies explicitly tasked with defending our nation and its people."

That sentiment was shared last week in a New York Post column by physician Qanta Ahmed. The NYPD protects all Americans, including Muslims, by stopping radical Islamists whose actions attack freedom, she wrote.

"America's extraordinary freedoms afford us an ability to define our own expressions of Islam as Muslims in a way that no Muslim-majority nation secures for any Muslim anywhere today," Ahmed wrote. "We must preserve these values, and join the NYPD, in understanding the Islamist threat to these values."

German Report Raises Concern Over Muslim Radicalization

German officials are concerned by results of a recent study which found more than a fifth of Germany's estimated 4 million Muslims value their "cultural background" more than integrating into society.

Germany's English language newspaper The Local reported on the study, conducted by the German Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, in a separate interview with German publication Bild, called the results worrying. "Germany respects the background and cultural identity of its immigrants," he said. "But we don't accept the importation of authoritarian, anti-democratic and religiously fanatical points of view."

"The Daily Life of Young Muslims in Germany" study identified a "subgroup" of 14 to 32 year olds who are considered religious extremists, hold anti-western views and are reportedly prepared to use violence. Among non-German Muslims, this subgroup comprises 24 percent of the total population. Among German Muslims, 15 percent fit that class. The study also found 33 percent of non-German Muslims expressed prejudice against Jews.

The non-German Muslim population favored integration into German society by 52 percent while 48 percent "strongly leaned toward separation." Among German Muslims, the integration figures were 78 percent favoring and 22 percent against.

MB Philosophy Rejected by Founder's Brother

The brother of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna has openly rejected the group's political aspirations, stating that Egypt should be run by a secular government with respect for human rights, Reuters reports. Gamal al-Banna argues that his brother espoused Islam as "a way of life," ignoring the strongly political tone of Hassan's texts, but claims the current MB leadership has gone too far in its conservatism.

While the popular uprising succeeded in bringing down long time dictator Hosni Mubarak and empowering the MB in elections, Gamal says the group hasn't provided a clear way to solve Egypt's deeply-rooted economic and social problems. "Many people who voted for the Brotherhood said: 'We tried Socialism, we tried Nasserism, we tried pan-Arabism, so why not try the Brotherhood?'" he said.

"There are genuine fears because the heads of the Brotherhood now and the Salafis who got into parliament, none of them - neither their organizations nor their ideas - reflect that they are people who live in this day and age and understand how a nation can progress," he added.

He also claims that successive generations of the Muslim Brotherhood have made the organization more conservative, introducing Saudi style women's dress and conservatism to Egypt. But ultimately, Gamal states, an inability to solve real problems may condemn the organization to the dustbin of history. "Any nation founded on religion must fail. This has been true in the Islamic and Christian experience," he said.

"In the long run, someone like ElBaradei will succeed in Egypt," he said, speaking about the former head of the International Atomic Energy Commission, who is now campaigning for president. However, Gamal did not address how Islamist political power, which exceeded 70 percent of votes cast, may permanently frame religion as a part of the Egyptian political system and constitution.

Penn Student Debunks anti-Israel Slanders

Many people complain about the anti-Israel vitriol that is so pervasive on many college campuses. But University of Pennsylvania freshman Shlomo Klapper is doing something about it by documenting the intellectual dishonesty of the Israel-bashers.

After a group called Penn for Palestine staged a demonstration against Israel's West Bank security barrier in conjunction with international Israeli Apartheid Week, Klapper penned an op-ed noting what Penn for Palestine neglected to address – the barrier's critical role in preventing terrorists from crossing into Israel.

"For years, Israelis were terrorized, their normal lives on hiatus," Klapper wrote. "For years, teenagers could not go to a bar without taking their lives in their hands, lest they join the fate of the 21 teenagers slaughtered by a terrorist at the beachside Dolphinarium dance club." Many families stopped going to restaurants "after countless loved ones – unlucky enough that a suicide bomber also chose the same café – never returned from lunch."

In response to that intolerable situation, the Israeli government took action to protect its citizens' safety and security. To prevent would-be suicide bombers from entering the country from the West Bank, the government erected a barrier consisting of security checkpoints and a fence.

By any measure, Israel's defensive steps have proven extraordinarily successful. In 2002, the year before construction began, more than 400 Israelis were murdered in attacks like the Passover suicide bombing at a Netanya hotel (the bomber was a resident of the West Bank town of Tulkarem). In 2009,by comparison, eight Israelis were murdered.

Convicted terrorist Wafa al-Biss is the kind of person Israel seeks to keep out. On June 20, 2005, she attempted to smuggle an explosives belt from Gaza into Israel. She was planning to detonate herself at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where she had been successfully treated for severe burns.

As Klapper points out, when Biss was released by Israel as part of last fall's Gilad Schalit prisoner swap, she urged Palestinian children in Gaza to follow her example. "I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs," she said.

Until the day that "removing checkpoints would not be tantamount to suicide…Israel has the moral responsibility to protect its citizens," Klapper concludes. "And if a security barrier is necessary to stop every Wafa al-Biss, so be it."

Read the full op-ed here. Read Klapper's earlier op-ed on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement against Israel here.

From Bad to Worse in Afghanistan

Hours after President Obama claimed his apology for Quran burnings had "calmed things down" in Afghanistan, two more American soldiers were killed by their Afghan colleagues Thursday. Officials said the Americans were shot to death at a joint U.S.-Afghan base in southern Afghanistan. The killers were two Afghan soldiers and a civilian literacy teacher who fired from a sentry tower at the base in Kandahar province's Zhari district, a Taliban stronghold.

The slayings brought to six the number American soldiers killed since the Feb. 20 burning of Qurans and other Islamic texts at Bagram Airfield near Kabul. An Afghan soldier opened fire during Feb. 23 riots in eastern Afghanistan, killing two U.S. soldiers. Two days later, a gunman killed an American colonel and major inside Afghanistan's Interior Ministry. More than 30 Afghans have died in the violence that followed the Quran burnings.

Following the Feb. 25 murders, Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, ordered all military advisors with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to withdraw from government ministries for safety reasons. Thursday's killings occurred on the same day that NATO permitted a small number of advisors to return to work at Afghan ministries.

The ISAF has stepped up training of Afghan security forces to enable them to take the lead in fighting al-Qaida and the Taliban and permit NATO to withdraw. But efforts to forge a U.S.-Afghan partnership are being undermined by the rising number of attacks on Western forces by Afghan police and soldiers (or jihadists who have managed to infiltrate).

Meanwhile, Afghanistan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak warns that a U.S. proposal to slash the size the size of Afghan security forces from 352,000 this year to less than 230,000 after 2014 could lead to catastrophe.

"Nobody at this moment, based on any type of analysis, can predict what will be the security situation in 2014. That's unpredictable," Wardak said. "Going lower [in Afghan troop numbers] has to be based on realities on the ground. Otherwise, it will be a disaster; it will be a catastrophe."

According to the Long War Journal, U.S. troop withdrawal plans are being driven more by a desire to cut costs than the Afghan forces' ability to do their job properly. The new commander of the NATO training mission, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, said the proposal for a smaller U.S. force reflects "our assessment of what the international community will provide and what the Afghans can provide for themselves."

Washington has yet to spell out what happens if Kabul and the international community aren't up to the task.

MPAC Touts Iran's "Victory"

An Iranian film wins an Oscar and the country's repressive regime gloats about its pride in beating an Israeli film in the same category. Oddly, the article is re-posted by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) on its Facebook and Twitter pages.

Though no comment was included, MPAC has lent support to Iran and Iranian-backed institutions while condemning the United States and Israel.

In a recent appearance on Russia Today's Cross Talk, MPAC President Salam al-Marayati painted Iran, which is suspected of building a nuclear weapon, as the victim in the current diplomatic crisis.

"The problem in the case of Iran is that it is singled out as the threat. We [the U.S.] don't deal with North Korea the same way we deal with Iran," al-Marayati said. "With other countries, we utilize the IAEA, we use multilateral instruments to deal with the nuclear problem. In this case with Iran, there is no dialogue, there is no negotiations, it is all confrontational policies that is part of a war mongering mentality here in the U.S. and they're just waiting for the tripwire and then the machinery of war will begin."

Not only does al-Marayati see the U.S. as the unreasonable aggressor in this situation, he accuses the American government of bending to the will of its Israeli allies.

"The other point here, which is very important historically, the United States has done a lot of dirty work that has served the interests of Israel," al-Marayati said. "It destroyed Iraq. It supported the destruction and crippling of Egypt. It has crippled the Gulf. And now, it is looking to Iran as the next target for crippling and destroying. I think this is madness. Who is driving our foreign policy? President Obama or Prime Minister Netanyahu?"

As the leader of an organization that claims to stand for civil rights and against terrorism, al-Marayati's defense of the Iranian regime is surprising. Iran is a designated state sponsor of terrorism and brutally suppresses dissent.

MPAC officials also have appeared on Press TV, the Iranian government's English-language broadcast outlet, at least six times since November 2010, always criticizing U.S. government policies or complaining about the plight of Muslims in America.

Jasser, Pipes Debate Aid to Syrian Opposition

Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes and Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, recently debated the merits of U.S. aid to Syrians fighting to overthrow Alawite dictator Bashar Assad.

Writing at National Review's blog "The Corner," Pipes advocated "a policy of inaction, of letting events transpire as they might in Syria." It is "good news" that "the abominable Assad dynasty is coming to its end," he wrote. "Better the devil we don't know than more of a totalitarian regime that oppresses its people, threatens its neighbors, and provides crucial assistance to the mullahs in Tehran."

But Pipes believes it would be a mistake for Washington to intervene militarily in an effort to bring Assad down. In his view, the best outcome for now would be prolonged fighting, which would benefit the West by weakening Damascus' ability to subvert its neighbors and deepening Sunni Muslim animosity against Assad's backers in Tehran, Moscow and Beijing.

Assad's ouster would not necessarily end Syria's civil war. More likely, according to Pipes, it would result in a scenario in which a Sunni Muslim regime tries to fend off overthrow attempts by the Alawites (in essence a reversal of the current situation.)

This argument drew a sharp rejoinder from Jasser, a first-generation Muslim American whose parents fled Syria to escape repression decades ago. In a public letter, he told Pipes that "'Letting them kill each other' (to paraphrase what you've written) is what my family struggled with when Hama, Palmiyra and other massacres happened as the West sat silent."

If the United States does nothing, the Syrian people will long remember that Turkey, the Gulf states and other Islamist nations "helped them when we did not," Jasser wrote. "American isolationism with Syria translates into surrender to Russia and Iran and China." U.S. inaction permits "Assad and his genocidal military machine to continue killing. Stemming the killing, preserving some semblance of a Syrian civilization against these power structures could not be more in our interest with regard to our influence and moral standing in the region."

The fight against Islamism "cannot work in an autocratic, corrupt environment," Jasser wrote Pipes. "So if you want liberal Muslims to succeed we need to stand with them and take sides."

In his reply, Pipes pointed to the recent examples of Afghanistan and Iraq and expressed doubt that Syrians would remember U.S. support for their liberation.

"I am in principle ready to intervene abroad – preferably using some sort of foreign legion – but I am reluctant to do so in Syria, where our intervention will likely bring an Islamist government to power," Pipes wrote Jasser. "If I thought there were a good chance of an intervention leading to positive results, I would endorse it."

Read the full exchange here.

"Played For Fools" by Iran

A recent series of benign-sounding assessments may actually indicate how little U.S. experts really know about Iran's nuclear program. Hacked e-mails published Monday by Wikileaks quote analysts from the private intelligence analysis group Stratfor (which works closely with the U.S. intelligence community) asserting that Israeli commandos and Kurdish fighters had destroyed Iran's entire nuclear infrastructure weeks ago.

National Intelligence Director James Clapper and CIA Director David Petraeus said Jan. 31 that there was no evidence that Iran had decided to make a concerted effort to build an atomic weapon.

"They are certainly moving on that path, but we don't believe they have actually made the decision to go ahead with a nuclear weapon," Clapper told the Senate intelligence Committee. According to a New York Times report on Friday, the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies believe Tehran has yet to decide whether to resume a program to design a nuclear warhead – a program Washington believes was halted in 2003.

But former United Nations weapons inspector David Kay says a note of caution is in order before concluding that one or another Iranian nuclear program has been "stopped." The lack of evidence that Iran has decided to move forward in building a bomb "reflects a real gap in the intelligence" and "a lack of access" to critical intelligence data, he said.

In Monday's Wall Street Journal, American Enterprise Institute analysts Frederick W. Kagan and Maseh Zarif wrote that the U.S. intelligence community is deluding itself when it comes to Iranian nuclear weapons development efforts.

They noted that on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a report showing that it has "made no progress in its negotiations with Iran," which continues to accelerate its uranium enrichment operations in violations of its agreements with the IAEA and U.N. Security Council obligations.

"Americans are being played for fools by Iran – and fooling themselves ... The prospect of war with Iran is so distasteful that people are desperate to persuade themselves that the problem is not serious," Kagan and Zarif wrote. "Those who oppose military action against Iran under any circumstances must say so, and must accept the consequences of that statement.Those who advocate military action must also accept and consider the consequences – regional and possibly global conflict and all of the associated perils of war. But neither American nor Israeli nor any Western interest is served by lying to ourselves and pretending the predicament will go away."

Read Zarif's rebuttal of claims that Iran had built a fake nuclear enrichment facility here.

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