Christians in Middle East – Canaries in a Coal Mine

A Lebanese-American professor described the deteriorating situation of Christians in the Middle East, now complicated by revolution and Islamism, in a speech Thursday for the Westminster Institute. For a community that has always walked a fine line between politics and persecution, revolution is tearing up the fragile balance worked out under secular dictators.

Professor Habib C. Malik of the Lebanese American University spoke on the topic of "Islamism and the Future of the Christians of the Middle East," showing how Christians have advanced Islamic tolerance in their home countries. But major upheavals have occurred, such as World War I, the Lebanese civil war, and current uprisings, undermining the fragile social fabric and leading to floods of refugees, particularly Christians.

Malik focused on trends that caused emigration and offered recommendations about how to aid Christians through the revolutions. The events of the "Arab Spring" were too early to predict, he said, particularly their effect on Syrian and Lebanese communities.

According to Professor Malik, Christians have had a moderating influence on their societies and have acted as a mediating tool for universal values of human rights, religious freedom, and secular government. Yet, Western countries have not utilized this "canary in the coal mine" to gauge the growth of Islamism. They have also not pressured Arab societies to treat Christians well, as a form of reciprocity for positive treatment of Muslims in the West.

Solutions to preserve Christian communities are imperfect, but some have been practiced successfully in areas of the Middle East. These include the millet system of the Ottomans or secular federalism with the devolution of certain powers to religious communities. In the millet system, Christians and Jews were given the power to rule broad legal areas in their communities, but lived under common criminal law with other members of the state. Federalism, like in Lebanon, can be polarizing but also protects the freedom of religion by giving Christians an official status in the government and constitution.

However, these communal relationships are complicated and uneven. Christians in Lebanon fought Muslims in the civil war, leading to a flood of refugees out of the Middle East. The late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad invaded Lebanon, persecuting Christians there while preserving rights for those in his country. When the Lebanese war ended and Christians lined up with either Sunni or Shiite factions, the conflict shifted off of them and onto the tension between Muslim groups. Undermining Syria, the conduit of weapons and money to Hizballah, could help Christians by empowering moderates or endanger them by upsetting the fragile balance.

Mob Attacks U.N. Compound in Afghanistan

A mob attacked a United Nations compound in the northern Afghani city of Mazar-i-Sharif Friday, beheading two employees and killing at least six others. It came in response to an American pastor's decision to make good on his promise to burn a Quran last month. The rioting erupted after mosque preachers sermonized the burning, sending upwards of 1,000 worshippers into the streets in a rage.

Pastor Terry Jones created an international incident last year when he threatened to burn a Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The initial threat sparked a worldwide debate about respect for Islam on one hand and free speech on the other. While he backed down on his initial threats, last month the controversial pastor put the Quran on trial and burned the kerosene-soaked book after finding it guilty. While many knew of his initial threat and recanting, Jones' Quran trial and burning were less known.

The news reached Afghanistan and sparked the same outrage of Jones' initial threats. As many as 1,000 protesters burned American flags and chanted "Death to America, Death to Israel." They later attacked a U.N. compound in the city, murdering five Filipino guards and 3 other foreigners at the facility. More than 100 protesters were injured and at least four were killed after Afghani police intervened.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the attack as "outrageous and cowardly," even as U.N. spokesman Dan McNorton said the organization was trying to "ascertain all the facts and take care of all our staff."

President Obama condemned the killings "in the strongest possible terms" and saluted U.N. work as "essential to building a stronger Afghanistan."

Court: FBI Can Keep Surveillance Data Secret

Much of the information collected by the FBI about its surveillance of several Southern California Muslim activists and organizations will remain sealed despite litigation from those subjected to the monitoring, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

The litigation stems from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2006 by 11 groups and individuals who wanted to see "information reflecting any investigation or surveillance of them by the government," the Ninth Circuit ruling said.

The FBI provided a handful of heavily redacted pages just more than a year later to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and to Hussam Ayloush, its Los Angeles office director. The 11 then sued, demanding to see more. After that, the FBI found more than 100 more pages of relevant material. But they were heavily redacted and considered as "outside the scope" of the FOIA request.

A federal judge reviewed all the documents in private, ruling that the FBI is allowed to withhold them under the law. FOIA statutes allow the FBI to withhold some information, including records about "ongoing criminal investigations; (2) informant identities; and (3) classified foreign intelligence or international terrorism information," the ruling noted.

The appellate court ordered the original federal to go back over the documents, "eliminate statements" considered sensitive and release the rest of the information.

The Ninth Circuit repeatedly criticized the FBI, however, for initially failing to provide the district judge with everything it had. During the litigation, an official admitted the FBI had discovered even more records responsive to the request, but he did not immediately inform the court.

"We do not necessarily endorse the government's conduct during the litigation, but we agree with the government that the Sealed Order contains information that should not become public," the Ninth Circuit ruling said.

The other plaintiffs are identified as the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, the Islamic Center of San Gabriel Valley, Islamic Center of Hawthorne, the West Coast Islamic Center, Human Assistance and Development International, Inc., Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, Shakeel Syed, Mohammed Abdul Aleem, and Rafe Husain.

Read the ruling here.

Differing Views of Qaradawi's Tahrir Square Speech

Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Yusuf al-Qaradawi's celebratory speech in Egypt's Tahrir square one week after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak made waves in the Muslim world. While the speech endorsed the conquest of Jerusalem's mosque and a complete victory in Palestine, it was hailed for opposite reasons by a leading, Muslim-American interfaith leader and in the most recent al-Qaida magazine.

"A message to our brothers in Palestine: I harbor the hope that just like Allah allowed me to witness the triumph of Egypt, He will allow me to witness the conquest of the al-Aqsa mosque [in Jerusalem], and will enable me to preach in the al-Aqsa Mosque," Qaradawi said to crowds in Tahrir Square on February 18^th. "Allow us to enter the al-Aqsa Mosque without fear. Accomplish this complete victory for us. Oh, sons of Palestine, rest assured that you will be victorious."

Qaradawi, the self-proclaimed "Mufti of martyrdom operations," has endorsed the conquest of Israel and the murder of its Jewish population on numerous occasions. In 1995, he praised Hamas and Islamic Jihad to an American audience, telling them that "the movement of the jihad brings us back to our faith." In 2004, Qaradawi endorsed female suicide bombings, calling that form of terrorism "the greatest of all sorts of jihad in the cause of Allah." On Jan. 9, 2009, Qaradawi gave a speech calling for Allah to eliminate the Jews, saying, "kill them down to the very last one."

For Sayyid Syeed, the national director of the Islamic Society of North America's Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances, Qaradawi's historic speech was "something different."

"Fortunately, the rhetoric of the revolution in Tahrir Square is free of extremism, and is reflective of Islamic inclusiveness and youthful fervor for cooperation and partnership. Even when Sheik Qaradawi gave his historic sermon in Tahrir Square, there was something different about his language," Sayyid wrote in an op-ed in the Jewish Daily Forward. "He talked briefly about wanting to see the Palestinian people achieve victory and the conquest of Al-Aqsa, but he did so without speaking of inflicting death or destruction. This might be one of the few speeches in his life in which he did not explicitly mention Israel and Jews."

"One might have hoped for greater moderation in Qaradawi's speech, but even these subtle changes are noteworthy and stem from the changed environment with which he has been forced to grapple."

On the opposite side of the ideological spectrum, al-Qaida took a completely different message from Qaradawi's words.

"Now that Hosni is gone, we heard the Imam of the Friday prayers praying: 'O Allah we ask you to allow us to meet in al-Aqsa,' and the millions in Tahrir square roared with one voice: 'Amin,'" Yahya Ibrahim wrote in the introductory article the latest issue of al-Qaida's Inspire Magazine. "The biggest barrier between the mujahideen and the freeing of al-Aqsa were the tyrant rulers. Now that the friends of America and Israel are being mopped out one after the other, our aspirations are great that the path between us and al-Aqsa is clearing up."

Canadian Charged With Plotting to Join al-Shabaab

Canadian authorities said they arrested a man Tuesday as he tried to leave for Somalia to join the al-Shabaab terrorist organization.

Mohamed Hersi, 25, was arrested at Toronto Pearson International Airport as he was about to board a plane to Cairo through London. After arriving in Egypt, the former University of Toronto health sciences student planned to go to Somalia "to join Al-Shabaab and participate in their terrorist activities," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said.

Hersi is charged with planning to participate in terrorist activities and counseling an unidentified person to do the same.

Just over two years ago, the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service stepped up investigations of Somali jihadist recruitment in the wake of reports that Toronto men were traveling oversees to join al-Shabaab.

Previous terrorism cases in Canada were brought to the attention of the RCMP through foreign allies and intelligence agencies, Canadian officials said. In contrast, the Hersi investigation resulted from the efforts of the Toronto Police, who received a lead months ago and followed up. Once city police detectives concluded there was a genuine security threat, the RCMP was brought in to investigate.

Al-Shabaab has been increasingly active in its recruiting efforts in the Toronto area, home to tens of thousands of Somali-Canadians. Omar Hammami, a Muslim convert and U.S. native, lived in Toronto before traveling to Somalia and becoming one of the jihadist group's senior military leaders. Watch here as Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a Somali-Canadian who spent six months training alongside al-Shabaab, describes his "nightmare" – the possibility that other radicalized, disaffected Somalis will leave Canada, travel to training camps in Somalia, and return to Canada to carry out attacks.

Israel Releases Hizballah Maps

The Washington Post has published maps of Lebanon it says were provided by the Israeli Defense Force, showing over 1,000 different Hizballah military sites and facilities. Many of the installations were located south of the Litani River and in villages, in contravention of international law and the United Nations' peacekeeping mandate.

The general map shows that the organization has around 550 underground bunkers, roughly 300 surveillance sites, and about 100 other installations spread throughout over 200 villages in southern Lebanon. Another map, a close-up of El-Khiam village, shows the heavy presence of the Hizballah in civilian areas.

The Jerusalem Post reports that "the bunkers are likely being used" as "command posts as well as storage centers" for an arsenal of over 40,000 rockets and missiles provided by Syria and Iran. Many of these are short-range weapons that have wreaked havoc on border towns, but several hundred are said to be able to hit targets in Tel Aviv with a high degree of accuracy.

The Jerusalem Post also notes that the release is part of a public diplomacy campaign "aimed at preparing the world for the widespread devastation that will likely occur in Lebanon in the event of a new Israel war" with the group. This is due to the group's "decision to station assets inside populated villages." It also highlights the large weapons transfers to the group that occurred after Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon and against the U.N. resolution that ended the conflict.

The release comes months after the Israeli Defense Forces revealed classified information about the same village, showing "how Hezbollah stores their weapons near schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in the village of al-Khiam."

CAIR Chapter - Local Police Shouldn't Work with FBI Task Force

When we called attention to a flier published by the Council on American Islamic Relations' (CAIR) San Francisco chapter in January, urging people to "Build a Wall of Resistance" to the FBI, officials insisted it wasn't what it looked like.

CAIR supports law enforcement, they said, and the poster was created more than 30 years ago. Since then, however, the organization has filed two lawsuits against the FBI. Now, the same chapter that published the anti-FBI flier has joined several other groups in calling on the San Francisco and Oakland Police Departments to stop collaborating with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) immediately.

The Department of Justice created the JTTF after 9/11 in order to better coordinate information sharing between federal, state and local law enforcement.

CAIR and the other groups argued Tuesday that Bay Area law enforcement assigned to the JTTF would be forced to violate the California Constitution, which prohibits intelligence gathering without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Additionally, the groups condemned the police departments for not releasing "their now-secret agreements with the FBI," which they said would "provide assurances that their officers are adhering to the standards of state and local law."

"Community trust is the most important tool of law enforcement," said CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo. "By infiltrating organizations and interviewing people who they do not suspect of any wrongdoing, the FBI is obfuscating their ability to counter domestic crime. We do not want our local law enforcement in the same predicament."

During talk surrounding the recent congressional hearings on radicalization within the Muslim community, CAIR officials defended the group from allegations that it does not cooperate with law enforcement. "CAIR believes it is both our civic and religious duty to work with law enforcement to protect our nation," it said in a statement. "Like any long-term relationship, our interactions with law enforcement include some disagreements and disputes."

CAIR's record, however, shows a long history of condemning the FBI's actions and propagating a negative image of the FBI among its members.

In December, Billoo responded to the arrests of two individuals plotting to bomb targets in Oregon and Maryland by the FBI. "What the FBI came and did was enable them to become actual terrorists," she said. The FBI "is creating these huge terror plots where they don't exist."

Syrian President Delays Reform, Blames Conspiracy for Unrest

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad blamed foreign conspiracies and Israel Wednesday in his first speech about the unrest plaguing his country since March 6. While he also acknowledged the need for reform, he provided no specifics and did not lift the emergency law in place in Syria since 1963.

"Syria is a target of a big plot from the outside…. Its timing, its format has been speeded up," said Assad of the riots, which have killed over 60 since March 6. He also stated that some protesters had been "duped" into protests while others had legitimate demands. "There are no hurdles to reforms, but there are delays," he noted. The people "have demands that have not been met."

"Implementing reforms is not a fad. When it just a reflection of a wave that the region is living, it is destructive," Assad said, clarifying that he would not be pressured by mass protests which toppled other Arab leaders.

The general tone of the speech showed a leader in denial of widespread grievances facing his regime. The president rejected revolutionary fervor, pushing the message that it "doesn't need to be followed because Syria doesn't suffer from the same problems," said Ahmad Moussalli, a political science professor at the American University in Beirut. "He was rejecting the American domino theory, saying it doesn't work in the case of Syria."

Like his people, the international community isn't buying Assad's lack of specificity about reform. "We believe President Assad is at a crossroads. He has claimed to be a reformer for over a decade but he has made no substantive progress on political reforms and we urge him to ... address the needs and the aspirations of the Syrian people," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. "He has claimed the mantle of reform and he has implemented some economic reforms but on the political side he needs to make more progress frankly -- substantive progress."

"We call for reforms and a dialogue," stated Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France, the nation's former colonial power. However, he also acknowledged that "we're not at the stage of studying sanctions or a U.N. Security Council resolution." The same stance against U.S. involvement in Syria had been previously stated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Israelis and Palestinians, two opposing peoples who are likely to be strongly affected by changes in Syria, appear to prefer al-Assad maintaining power. "Both sides would prefer Assad to stay in power. It is a case of 'better the devil you know'," Gabriel Ben-Dor, director of national security studies at Haifa University, told the Jerusalem Post. "Neither side thinks that anything better will necessarily come out of these particular disturbances, and they fear that if Assad goes there would be a long period of instability."

Qanta Ahmed – Silence is Complicity

Muslim Americans have a duty to "speak up, out loud" about Islamists in their communities, and not hide behind false accusations of Islamophobia, according to an op-ed by Qanta A. Ahmed, an author, physician and medical school professor, in the Christian Science Monitor. Not challenging Islamists vocally is a form of "exoneration" of their ideas and presence among moderate Muslims, she writes, and causes Muslims to "have a hand in Islam's mutilation" by the radicals.

"Denial is cozy. In its inviting comfort, we endorse causality – Islamists and their attacks are explained by alienation, psychiatric disease, disempowerment," Ahmed writes. "Neatly rationalizing our distress, we foxtrot straight into the denial of our own culpability … There, in the heart of darkness, we succeed as accessories to the erosion of our own beliefs."

There's a duty to confront the Islamists and criticize their views and actions, she adds. "Be warned. They cry 'Islamophobia!' while they suffocate only us. Just when 'Islamophobia' seeks to smother debate, we must speak up, and out loud."

This is the latest example of Ahmed's courageous stand to take back Islam from extremists. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, she argued that Muslims have a historic duty to protect the society in which they live.

"According to Islamic law, Muslims are obligated to three entities: the self, God and society. This last has been overlooked too often by Muslims and their adopted societies," Ahmed wrote. "Every faithful Muslim must contribute to the preservation of justice within their society… Exposing nefarious forces at play within our community is a Muslim responsibility—the "bare minimum of faith" for every Muslim man and woman."

Ahmed has also been an outspoken critic of sanitizing martyrdom ideology and suicide bombing among radical Islamists. "When we think of martyr-suicides within a framework of 'suicide is sick' we avoid the more chilling construct of 'suicide is wrong but rational.' By assigning a sick role to the concept of suicide we are spared considerations of its morality and accompanying dilemmas," she noted in a piece for the Huffington Post. "When suicide is seen as sick it is spared a moral judgment -- instead it is seen as essentially amoral. The act is condemned but the perpetrator is not judged, because he or she was 'sick'. Suicide bombing becomes amoral, rather than immoral."

Al-Qaida Seizing Arms Amid Unrest

Fears that political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa could put weapons in the wrong hands may have become a reality, reports say.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants raided an ammunition factory in south Yemen, before explosions ripped through the building Monday, killing over 75 people. Witnesses said they saw four vehicles with cases of weapons drive off.

Meanwhile, another al-Qaida off-shoot, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has taken arms, including surface-to-air missiles, from a Libyan arsenal, according to Chad President Idriss Deby Itno. "The Islamists of al-Qaida took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles," he said, "which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere." Deby called the situation "very serious."

"AQIM is becoming a genuine army, the best equipped in the region," he added.

In February, AQIM pledged to do "whatever we can to help" in the Libya uprising.

Libyan rebel leader Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi recently admitted in an interview with an Italian newspaper that some Libyan opposition fighters are linked to al-Qaida. "Around 25" men whom he recruited to fight troops in Iraq, are now fighting "on the front lines in Adjabiya," Al-Hasidi said.

U.S. authorities remain concerned about al-Qaida's off-shoots. Developing information indicates that AQAP is now "more bent on attacking the West and continuing to plot," an unnamed U.S. intelligence official told the Washington Post last week. AQAP is a "current and concerning threat," the official said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called AQAP "the most active and at this point perhaps the most aggressive branch of al-Qaida."

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