Muslim Brotherhood Cleric Calls for 'Gradualism' in Applying Shari'ah

In the November 2011 fatwa section on OnIslam.net, radical Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi recommends gradualism in the implementation of Shari'ah (Islamic law derived from the Quran or Sunnah).

Responding to a question, "What are the guidelines in an attempt to apply gradualism in Islamic Shari'ah?, " Qaradawi writes:

"Gradualism is one of the laws of nature that Allah Almighty has created. It is also needed in applying the rulings of Shari'ah to make a change in people's life. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed in Makkah for thirteen years struggling to shake the false beliefs the Makkan people had adopted. Then, for other ten years, Allah Almighty revealed to him (peace and blessings be upon him) the laws that the Muslim would live by. Gradualism played an effective role in that regard."

He adds:

"Gradualism in applying the Shari'ah is a wise requirement to follow. In doing so, we will be following Allah's Laws with regard to physical nature and teachings of Islam. Gradualism was observed in enjoining the obligations of Islam such as Prayer, fasting, et cetera, and in forbidding the prohibitions as well."

Qaradawi's gradualism in applying Shariah is in conformity with the objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Sunni Islamist movement that seeks the establishment of a worldwide Caliphate or universal Islamic state through gradual and peaceful means.

At a 1995 conference held by the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) in Toledo, Ohio, Qaradawi called for the conquest of Western regimes through Da'wa (proselytization) and their replacement by a worldwide Islamic Caliphate ruled by Sharia:

"What remains, then, is to conquer Rome. The second part of the omen. "The city of Hiraq [once emperor of Constantinople] will be conquered first", so what remains is to conquer Rome.' This means that Islam will come back to Europe for the third time, after it was expelled from it twice… Conquest through Da'wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da'wa."

In 2004, Qaradawi issued a fatwa deeming it a religious duty for Muslims to fight Americans in Iraq, including U.S. civilians. He also referred to Muslims fighting American forces in Iraq as martyrs. "Those killed fighting the American forces are martyrs given their good intentions since they consider these invading troops an enemy within their territories but without their will." In April 2001, he commented on suicide bombings, saying "They are not suicide operations…These are heroic martyrdom operations."

Often referred to as "moderate" in the mainstream media, Qaradawi is known for his militant religious rulings and statements in support of acts of terrorism. At the 1995 MAYA conference, he said, "Our brothers in Hamas, in Palestine, the Islamic Resistance, the Islamic Jihad, after all the rest have given up and despaired, the movement of the jihad brings us back to our faith."

He has in the past called for the destruction of Israel and condoned the hatred of Jews as sanctioned by Islam:

"But the balance of power will change, and this is what is told in the Hadith of Ibn-Omar and the Hadith of Abu-Hurairah: "You shall continue to fight the Jews and they will fight you, until the Muslims will kill them. And the Jew will hide behind the stone and the tree, and the stone and the tree will say: 'Oh servant of Allah, Oh Muslim, this is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him!' The resurrection will not come before this happens." This is a text from the good omens in which we believe."

To view the IPT Profile on Yusuf al-Qaradawi, click here.

Saudi High School Textbook Preaches Hate

A twelfth-grade Saudi textbook is teaching hatred of Jews and jihad to liberate Palestine, according to MEMRI. The report illustrates that hatred and violence continue to be themes in Saudi educational materials, putting a black mark on the conservative Islamic kingdom's desire to become a "knowledge society."

"Whoever studies the nature of the conflict between the Muslims and the Jews understands an important fact, [namely that] this is a religious conflict, not a dispute about politics or nationality, or a conflict between races or tribes, or a fight over land or country, as some describe it," states Saudi textbook Studies from the Muslim World.

The book says that the conflict will not end unless one side vanquishes the other, because "throughout Islamic history, the Jews have striven to destroy the [Islamic] religion and spread fitna [chaos] among the Muslims."The book also repeats classic anti-Semitic lies that Jews have taken control of Western media and culture, exploited their home societies, and aligned themselves with Christians to destroy Islam.

The natural response to the Jews and the state of Israel, the textbook states, is violence. "Jihad for the sake of Allah is the only path to liberating Palestine. Only through jihad did the Muslims conquer Jerusalem, and only through jihad did the Crusaders leave Palestine," it declares.

The widespread use of Saudi textbooks, inside and outside the kingdom, spreads extremist views, despite claims by Saudi authorities that they are refining their educational system. In September, the Hudson Institute released a report that showed that Saudi authorities did not delete hatred from textbooks, but simply shifted around offensive passages or slightly reworded them.

Seattle Terrorist Plotter Pleads Guilty

One of two defendants charged with plotting to attack a military recruiting location has pled guilty, according to the Department of Justice. The plot was intended to inspire other young radicals to launch attacks on American forces, and was itself motivated by the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, prosecutors argued.

"Why don't we all just go into there with guns blazing and just lay everybody down," Walli Mujahidh said in a recording by investigators. Mujahidh, alongside codefendant and jail convert Abu Khalid Abdul Latif, planned the massacre of military personnel at the Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS) in Seattle.

During his plea hearing, the 33-year-old's lawyers claimed he was "very ashamed of his behavior," suffered from chronic mental illness, and had a "fundamental misunderstanding of Islam." He faces 27-32 years on charges of conspiracy to kill officers of the United States, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

"This defendant tried to carry out a plot to kill American servicemen and women, and other innocent citizens who happened to be at the federal facility on the day of the planned attack," U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said in a Justice Department news release.

"The FBI is pleased that Mr. Mujahidh accepted responsibility for his actions, but this case remains a chilling reminder that there is constant work to be done," said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Laughlin. The second defendant, Abdul Latif, still faces a nine-count indictment and the potential for multiple life sentences.

The number of threats and plots against America's armed forces promoted the Republicans of the House Homeland Security Committee to issue a new report on the subject. The report calls the U.S. homeland, "the most dangerous place for a G.I. outside of foreign warzones," and calls violent Islamist the most serious threat.

PMW Releases PA Anti-Peace Book

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik of the Palestinian Media Watch recently authored a book about the Palestinian Authority's (PA) anti-peace campaign. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Advancing Human Rights founder Bomb Bernstein were on hand an event celebrating the achievement.

The book "exposes a year-long duplicitous campaign by the PA to utilize the various cultural, educational, and media sources under its control to promote messages of hate among Palestinians and undermine the peace process with Israel." The report shows that nearly of the PA's messages, even in the areas of culture and sports, demonized Israel and Jews.

"Unless the PA stops presenting terrorists as role models, and Jews and Israelis as inherently evil, and unless they stop educating their people to imagine a world without Israel, there is no chance of achieving authentic peace," author Nan Zilberdik said in a statement read at the event.

The PA is bound to promote nonviolence, to recognize the state of Israel, and to accept it as a partner for peace, according to its commitments to international peacemaking efforts. However, the PA's messages over the course of the book's year-long study show "a total abrogation of commitments," said Itamar Marcus. "The hope is that getting proper information out is a first step toward change," he added.

Fifth Circuit Appeals Court Upholds HLF Convictions

Today the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of five former officials of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) accused of illegally routing more than $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

In November 2008, a federal jury convicted the five HLF officials on all counts, including conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The officials subsequently received long prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years, concluding the largest terror financing case prosecuted in the United States since the 9/11 attacks.

Evidence presented at the trial showed the HLF was part of a broad Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy in the United States called the Palestine Committee that sought to propagate the goals of Hamas in the U.S. with "media, money, and men." Prosecution exhibits further detailed the existence of a secret Hamas-support network in the U.S. created by the Muslim Brotherhood. A Brotherhood memorandum from 1991 described the group's goal in America, calling for a "civilization-jihad process" and a "grand jihad" that aimed at "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within … so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

The 170-page opinion issued by a three-judge panel reiterates that after the creation of Hamas in 1987, the Muslim Brotherhood directed its worldwide chapters to establish "Palestine Committees" to promote Hamas objectives from abroad. The Palestine Committee in the U.S. led by Mousa Abu Marzook, the leader of Hamas's political wing in the 1990s, created the Holy Land Foundation and the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP). The IAP is the progenitor of the present-day Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim Brotherhood group in the U.S. that was also named an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

The opinion also referenced a 1993 meeting of Hamas members and supporters in Philadelphia to "derail" the then-recently concluded Oslo Peace accords. The meeting was characterized by "an aura of deception and an intent to hide the connection to Hamas." Given the sensitive nature of the conversation, participants agreed not to discuss Hamas by name. Instead, they chose to reference Hamas as "Samah," Hamas spelled backwards.

In appeals filed last October, the five defendants asked the Fifth Circuit appeals court to overturn the convictions. The defendants argued against the use of anonymous testimony by Israeli intelligence and military witnesses and evidence seized from Palestinian Authority offices during an Israeli raid, claiming it was biased, and unfairly tilted the verdict against them.

In conclusion, the ruling dismissed the appeals and affirmed the convictions of the five defendants.

"While no trial is perfect, this one included, we conclude from our review of the record, briefs, and oral argument, that the defendants were fairly convicted," the ruling said. For more court documents in this case, click here.

Muslim Brotherhood Wins Additional Seats

The Muslim Brotherhood's [MB] political party won additional seats in the second round of Egyptian elections, building on 37% of votes they won in the party list section of the election. Along with election victories for the Salafi party al-Nour, Islamists are poised to play a dominant role in the formation of any Egyptian ruling coalition.

The Freedom and Justice Party [FJP], the MB's political faction, claims that it won 34 out of 56 seats set aside for individual candidates, according to UK news source The London Daily Telegraph. In the first round, the FJP won 37% of votes as part of a coalition it had entered. The right-of-center Salafi party al-Nour seized 24% of the votes in the first round, and claims that they received 5 of 54 seats during the second round of elections.

There are conflicting reports as to whether the FJP will cooperate with the more conservative al-Nour party, who surprised analysts by winning so many votes. Al-Nour supports a severe interpretation of Sharia law and its punishments, whereas the Muslim Brotherhood advocates the gradual Islamization of Egyptian society. Christian Egyptians have expressed concern at either possibility.

Accused Pakistani Agent Pleads Guilty in Virginia Court

A Virginia man pleaded guilty Wednesday to secretly receiving millions of dollars from the government of Pakistan to influence American policy toward the disputed region of Kashmir.

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, who pleaded guilty at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, was arrested in July in connection with a decades-long scheme to conceal at least $3.5 million in contributions from Pakistan's powerful military intelligence agency, the ISI, to influence the U.S. government's position on Kashmir.

Also charged in the complaint was Zaheer Ahmad, an American citizen living in Pakistan at the time. Ahmad helped transfer money coming from the Pakistani government to Fai through straw donors operating businesses and charities. He died of a stroke in September.

The hotly contested region of Kashmir has been a military flashpoint sparking four bloody wars between India and Pakistan since the two countries gained independence from British rule in 1947.

Fai served as executive director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and public relations firm "dedicated to raising the level of knowledge in the United States about the struggle of the Kashmiri people for self-determination." According to court documents, KAC was secretly funded by the government of Pakistan, including the ISI. Documents detail budgets for KAC lobbying efforts that included hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for "campaign contributions to members of Congress, conferences, seminars, opinion pieces to be distributed to newspapers, and Congressional trips to Kashmir."

Fai pleaded guilty to both counts of the criminal information that included conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and tax violations.

"For the last 20 years, Mr. Fai secretly took millions of dollars from Pakistani intelligence and lied about it to the U.S. government," U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement announcing the plea. "As a paid operative of the ISI, he did the bidding of his handlers in Pakistan while he met with U.S. elected officials, funded high-profile conferences and promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington," MacBride added.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported earlier on Fai's ties to Islamist groups in the U.S. Fai has also been reported to work as a financial conduit for the Hizbul Mujahideen that has been designated by Indian and European governments as a terrorist organization.

Fai's sentencing is scheduled for March 9, 2012 and he faces a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy count, and a maximum of three years in prison for the tax violation. His conviction proves yet again the validity of the Justice Department pursuing Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) violations in national security related cases where the evidence is indicated and circumstances warrant. Those circumstances may provide an updated variant of the tried and true "Al Capone" concept in targeting complex and multi-faceted criminal enterprises in the counter-terrorism and national security arena, particularly when those cases involve suspects and organizations that use seemingly legitimate front enterprises and activities to cover their illicit foreign-based criminality.

Is Turkey Funding Hamas Directly?

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to provide $300 million to Hamas, in a confidential letter sent to the terrorist group's leader, according to news site International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC]. If the report proves accurate, the Turkish government would be sanctioned internationally for providing support to a globally designated terrorist organization.

The news report first appeared on the IMEMC's website, which is affiliated with the independent Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement, a project of the International Solidarity Movement.

The report alleges that the Turkey's Prime Minister sent Hamas' Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh a confidential letter agreeing to invite him to Ankara and to provide $300 million in funding to the terrorist group. The report claims Hamas' Political Bureau Chief, Khaled Meshaal, responded by telling Erdogan that he wanted to improve relations with Turkey. It also mentions that the donation would cover only some of Hamas' budget deficit of $540 million.

Shortly after the emergence of the report, Hamas denied to members of the Arabic press the invitation to Turkey and claims about funding. Arabic newspapers linked the story back to a Kuwaiti paper called al-Seyaasah.

Turkey has improved its relationship with Hamas in recent years. In May, Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan said it was "disrespect" to the Palestinian people to call Hamas a terrorist organization. Turkey has also conducted a diplomatic war on Israel, trying to isolate it internationally and force it to end its embargo of Gaza.

Israel's "Iron Dome" Combats Terror Rockets

A new analysis of the terrorist missile threat from Hamas-ruled Gaza contains good news and bad news for Israelis: The bad news is that when compared to several years ago, many more of them are within rocket range of Gaza. The good news is that the Israel Air Force operates a new missile defense system known as Iron Dome, which has achieved remarkable success in destroying rockets fired from Gaza in flight before they land in Israel.

The author of the analysis, noted missile-defense expert Uzi Rubin, wrote that a late 2008 Hamas rocket offensive that ended when Israel launched Operation Cast Lead affected approximately 200,000 Israeli civilians. By contrast, two rounds of escalation with Hamas during 2011 affected nearly 1 million people.

During the heaviest fighting this year, Gaza-based terrorists largely ignored the Israeli border town of Sderot, which has taken the brunt of previous rocket strikes dating back nearly a decade.

According to Rubin, just three of the 280 rockets fired at Israel during the heaviest periods of fighting in 2011 landed in Sderot. With their terror rockets capable of firing much longer distances, Gaza jihadists have largely ignored Sderot and focused on hitting Israeli cities like Beersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon.

But the Iron Dome system appears to have significantly diminished the destructive power of Hamas' arsenal. Earlier this year, both Beersheba and Ashkelon were subject to repeated attacks, but "very few of the Palestinian rockets penetrated the active [Israeli missile] defense, minimizing loss of life and property damage," Rubin wrote. "The combined Israeli toll in both flare ups was one dead and less than 10 severely injured."

He added that "the relatively minimal casualties and property damage enabled the Israeli government to manage the crisis without escalating the violence."

The early success of the system has created a strong demand for the new missile defense system from communities in southern Israel. Israel expects to have a total of four Iron Dome batteries activated by the end of the year.

Read the full article here.

Awlaki's Father Promotes Son's Speeches

Nasser al-Awlaki, the father of al-Qaida ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki, has released a YouTube video encouraging others to follow his deceased son's terrorist teachings. The video was released through the YouTube channel of British Islamist group United Ummah, the latest reincarnation of the recently banned organization Muslims Against Crusades.

"Anwar was assassinated because of his teachings," Nasser said in his video address, which was played at a protest in front of the American Embassy in London on December 2^nd. "He had qualities and traits that could have taken him places in this world, but he chose this path and gave it his best, the path of Allah. It is the job of all of us to spread his knowledge and keep it alive," he emphasized.

Anwar al-Awlaki's teachings have motivated large numbers of Western Muslims to carry out attacks on their home countries, or to travel to places of jihad in the Muslim world. Anwar began making recordings on general Islamic topics, but with hints at his radicalism, nearly 12 years ago. After leaving the United States following questions about his role in helping the 9/11 hijackers, he became a popular speaker during his time in Britain and Yemen. His fame was based on strong speaking skills, an ability to weave Western cultural references into sermons, and the volume of his recordings.

His father Nasser became famous when he appealed to the United States to stop drone strikes targeting his son. Nasser al-Awlaki's suit, which was promoted by the ACLU and other civil liberties organizations, ended when a U.S. federal judge dismissed his case on procedural grounds. Shortly thereafter, Anwar was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike, and Anwar's son, Abdul Rahman, was also killed in another air strike in al-Qaida territory.

The attendees of the recent pro-Awlaki rally were arrested by British authorities on charges of being members of a banned organization, violent disorder, and obstruction. The protest had been organized by United Ummah to protest "the recent spate of anti-Muslim drone strikes that have been launched by the U.S. government against innocent Muslims."

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