Nomani: King Hearings A Chance for Reality

The political spin against Thursday's congressional hearing into Islamic radicalization against America is off base, a Muslim journalist argues. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., is not waging a McCarthyite witch hunt, but acknowledging a problem self-anointed Muslim political leaders refuse to see.

As she does so often, Asra Nomani swims against the tide in columns published by the Daily Beast and the Washington Post. Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who just completed a compelling investigation into all the players behind the murder of her former colleague Daniel Pearl, has been pushing for Muslim Americans to do a better job policing their own communities.

It's difficult, she writes, for "shame-based societies" to break through a reflexive denial that any problem exists. Instead, they deliver "obtuse PR campaigns that don't address issues of radicalism head-on."

That's what national Islamist groups are doing this week, drumming up protests and condemnation of King and of the hearing's focus on radicalization among Muslims, as opposed to political violence in general.

Muslim Americans "have to shake off the fear of shame and own the problems inside our community. In a sense, we need to be shameless," Nomani writes. "We have to realize that neither our community nor Islam has to be defined by criminals such as [Fort Hood shooter] Maj. Nidal Hassan and [Times Square attempted bomber]Faisal Shahzad, but they will be if we don't disavow these men and their ideologies."

It is a point she has made in the wake of the Fort Hood massacre, citing the case of a man ostracized from his Maryland mosque after trying to call attention to Hassan's radicalism, and in her campaign for gender equity during prayer.

"For far too long, our nation has had a politically correct stance when it comes to the question of militancy, extremism and radicalization inside Islam," she writes. "In the name of interfaith dialogue, we have pulled our punches on the very serious and real issues of extremist interpretations of Islam, issuing feel-good statements such as, 'Islam is a religion of peace.' We try to be polite and not offend."

As our story Monday shows, King's witness list is incredibly balanced, with a Muslim member of Congress who is critical of the entire episode and a law enforcement official who is cozy with Islamist groups sharing the microphone with two men whose relatives fell prey to radicalization.

Read Nomani's columns here and here and see the Pearl Project report here.

Somali Official Says Senior American Jihadist Killed

Omar Hammami - an American jihadist also known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki - was killed in fighting for the terror group al-Shabaab near Mogadishu, Somalia's Defense Minister said Tuesday. That report remains unconfirmed.

The announcement comes amid reports that al-Shabaab, al-Qaida's affiliate in Somalia, has suffered serious setbacks on the battlefield and could be on the verge of collapse. "We shall also sweep them away from Mogadishu. Our enemies have suffered a great loss; it is obvious they will run away from many towns," Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told reporters Monday.

Somali witnesses told Reuters that al-Shabaab fighters had deserted a number of towns that had come under siege from advancing Ethiopian and Somali troops. Those troops captured numerous towns from al-Shabaab near the Ethiopian and Kenyan borders over the weekend. Somali President Ahmed said the Ethiopians were giving his forces logistical help. Kenyan authorities are attempting to capture fleeing al-Shabaab fighters that have crossed the border into that country.

It would be a major blow to al-Shabaab if Hammami, one of its senior commanders, is dead. Born near Mobile, Ala. 26 years ago, he grew up a Christian before converting to Islam and becoming president of the Muslim Students Association at the University of South Alabama at the time of 9/11. "Everyone was really shocked," he said at the time. "Even now it's difficult to believe a Muslim could have done this."

Hammami dropped out of school the following year and moved to Toronto two years later and arrived in Somalia in 2005, where he joined al-Shabaab and rose through the ranks. In September 2009, he was indicted on charges that included providing material support to terrorists and providing material support for al-Shabaab, a designated terrorist organization.

Palestinian Government Rekindles Incitement

A United Nations-sponsored youth center near Ramallah has announced plans to name a youth football tournament after Wafa Idris, the first Palestinian female suicide bomber, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports. It is the latest example of incitement to violence from Palestinian government officials, who have used government monies and UN aid to promote a pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic agenda.

"The administration of the Al-Amari youth center has announced its plans to launch a youth tournament to be named the "Shahida [Martyr] of Honor, Wafa Idris [tournament]," Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadid reported. Idris became infamous in 2002, when she blew herself up in downtown Jerusalem after smuggling into the city as a volunteer on a Red Crescent ambulance. The attack killed an 81-year-old Israeli man and injured more than 100 people.

The event mirrored several others in honor of Idris, including a 2003 summer camp named after her that was sponsored by UNICEF. Palestinian-funded initiatives in her honor have included an honorary Fatah women's terrorist cell and an Al-Quds university course on "democracy and human rights" in 2002. She has also been the subject of several video tributes on Fatah-sponsored television and newspaper articles in major Palestinian dailies.

Palestinian government factions Fatah and Hamas, who have been strongly opposed to one another since the violent 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza, also recently objected to the UNRWA's March 2011 push to teach about the Holocaust in UN-sponsored schools. Hamas called the move "a provocative act" and a "challenge to the feelings of the Palestinians," which "violates their culture and unchangeable values." The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Culture in the Gaza Strip advocated classes on Israeli racism instead, and said, "They want us to accept the tales and lies to win sympathy."

Fatah officials, even outside of Gaza, criticized the effort. Salah al-Wadiyeh, a Fatah representative in the West Bank, called the Holocaust a "big lie" and said the Palestinians "know more than any other people the history of their enemies and their false claims and lies."

Toronto Police Refuse to Investigate Islamist Death Threats

Canadian authorTarek Fatah has written about his frustration with Canadian authorities' response to a death threat against him.

It came in a Twitter posting containing a Somali profanity. "This is an open threat to Xaar Boy@Tarek Fatah," it read. "I know where you live and where your office is." The sender pictured herself "wearing a purple hijab in the style of Toronto's radical young Islamists," wrote Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

He explained that he learned about it just after waking up after surgery.

Other Twitter users condemned the threat, with some urging that the woman be arrested. She withdrew the posting, only to repeat the threat later that morning. "He was also the 1 to propose banning the Niqab in Quebec, (and he) supports homosexuality," she wrote, adding: "This is an open threat. I know where you live/work @TarekFatah."

Other Islamists joined the attack against Fatah, with some saying he had brought the threats on himself. Fatah contacted Toronto police. A few hours later, two uniformed policemen came to interview him in the hospital. A minute into the interview, two other men entered and ordered everyone else to leave the room. Fatah recognized the pair as police intelligence officers. One of them "had shut down a previous investigation into a death threat against me in 2008," Fatah wrote.

The same intelligence officer had shut down a 2007 investigation into a death threat directed at another liberal Muslim: Tahir Gora, then a columnist for the Hamilton Spectator, had noticed a Facebook page listing him in a group called "The Enemies of Islam." Next to his name was written: "Pseudo Muslims like you should be put to death."

Gora called the Toronto police and was visited two days later by a pair of Muslim officers who tried to talk him out of filing a complaint against a fellow Muslim. Fatah received a call from a Muslim police officer telling him that the woman who had threatened him twice "didn't mean to say it."

Fatah concludes: "The Toronto police, in their wish to promote an image of diversity and outreach, have dedicated themselves to serving and protecting the radical Islamist elements within our city. Meanwhile, Muslims like myself, who do their best to promote the equality and respect that the police claim to cherish, are left without legal protection when radicals explicitly and publicly threaten us with violence."

Read the full column here.

Obama Allows Military Tribunals to Resume

President Obama on Monday cleared the way for military tribunals for suspected terrorists to resume at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The President suspended the commissions shortly after taking office.

The White House remains "remains committed to closing" the Guantanamo center, a statement said. In prosecuting terrorists, "we will continue to draw on all aspects of our justice system" including U.S. criminal courts, Obama said. Some suspects will continue to be held indefinitely without trial, but Obama signed an order requiring periodic reviews of such cases.

There were 242 detainees at Guantanamo when Obama took office. Now there are about 170 suspected terrorists housed there, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Pro-Israel Student's Suit Targets UC Berkeley

A federal civil rights complaint against the University of California, Berkeley and the Regents of the University of California was filed on Friday by a former student who was assaulted on campus last year.

Jessica Felber alleges she was attacked "because of her Jewish ancestry and religious affiliation and because she was holding a sign stating 'Israel Wants Peace,'" according to the complaint. She was participating in "Israel Peace and Diversity Week," sponsored by UC Berkeley's Tikvah: Students for Israel group. While Felber was holding the pro-Israel sign, the lawsuit alleges, she was injured when Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) leader and UC Berkeley student Husam Zakharia rammed a shopping cart into her.

The complaint claims that the university was negligent because it failed to adopt new policies following previous incidents of threats, intimidation and harassment of Jewish students involving Zakharia and the SJP.

It highlights the formation and early activity of SJP at Berkeley starting in late 2000, including campaigns calling for an international boycott of Israeli products; the creation of mock checkpoints on campus; disruptive protests that involved SJP occupying campus buildings; the publication of magazines that laud Hamas and Hizballah; and the physical intimidation of Jewish students.

The Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UC Berkeley cooperates and cosponsors events with SJP and shares the same office and campus facilities, according to the complaint. MSA is a national student group formed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s. On many campuses, including UC Berkeley, MSAs invite speakers who support terrorism and violence, and some MSA students espouse these views as well.

The lawsuit states that "the University has consistently failed to discipline and effectively condemn SJP and its affiliate RSO, the Muslim Student Association," although the "defendants had ample notice of harassment, intimidation, incitement and violence committed by the SJP and MSA against Jewish students at defendant UC Berkeley, Irvine and San Diego campuses. Such incidents continue to the present." To read the entire complaint, click here.

Finding the Right Libyan Partners a Challenge

On a day when Libyan forces unleashed what is being called "their fiercest counterattack yet" on anti-government rebels, concern is mounting over radical forces that can capitalize on the unrest.

That makes decisions for the United States and others hoping to push Col. Muammar Gaddafi from power all the more challenging. "If the U.S. and its allies are going to pour economic aid and military support into their hands, in the best of all worlds it would be wise to know just who is on the receiving end," writes former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg.

Libya has at least 140 tribes, and already exists as two nations: one centered around the western capital city of Tripoli, the other on the eastern city of Benghazi, 480 miles away.

Benghazi is the capital controlled by the National Council, currently led by former Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who defected from Gaddafi's regime to the rebel side. "Being a 'justice minister' in what passed as the Gaddafi government may be an oxymoron," Ginsberg adds. "But Abdel-Jalil has a well-deserved reputation for honesty as an international jurist. Whether he is able to become the de facto leader of the revolution is still very much an open question."

Another prominent Gaddafi foe is Abdul Fatah Younis, a former Libyan general and interior minister who resigned right after the revolution broke out and urged the army to join the revolution. Little is known about the political leanings of Younis, an aide to Gadaffi since the 1969 coup that brought him into power.

"Circulating in Benghazi are also remnants of the Libyan [Islamic] Fighting Group, a franchise cell of al Qaeda and theoretically linked to the larger Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) as well as Islamic militants who escaped prison during the initial days of the revolution. They should not be underestimated. AQIM is a growing, potent al Qaeda franchise throughout the Sahara," Ginsberg writes.

U.S. officials say they are weighing a variety of options regarding Libya, including a no-fly zone to stop the bombing of government opponents. Even if that doesn't happen, Ginsberg suggests other ways to help the non-jihadist forces opposing Gaddafi, including "financial aid, military equipment, special forces support, intelligence and satellite imagery and humanitarian support."

As Washington seeks ways to militarily assist anti-Qaddafi forces, keeping Libyan weapons out of terrorist hands should also be a top priority. There are numerous reports of civilians carrying weapons like such as SA-7 shoulder-fired missiles taken from Gaddafi's weapons facilities. Security experts warn that these could circulate on the black market and eventually fall into the hands of terrorists outside Libya.

Britain's Emerging Common Ground on Extremists

Deputy British Prime Minister Nick Clegg is winning praise for a speech he gave Wednesday about extremism. While press accounts say it "collides" with remarks given last month by Prime Minister David Cameron, a London-based think tank devoted to combating Islamist extremism offered praise and said it built upon the Prime Minister's thoughts.

Clegg, head of the Liberal Democrats, joined a coalition with Cameron's Conservative Party last year. In his speech, Cameron expressed concern about surging homegrown terrorism. Such acts are not exclusive to any one ethnic or religious group, he said. "Nevertheless, we should acknowledge that this threat comes in Europe overwhelmingly from young men who follow a completely perverse, warped interpretation of Islam, and who are prepared to blow themselves up and kill their fellow citizens."

Cameron blamed Britain's emphasis on multiculturalism in part for the problem. While the intentions were good, the result was a failure to build a united vision of society, instead "We've even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values."

Clegg, meanwhile, drew some policy distinctions from Cameron, defending the principles of multiculturalism and spending more time emphasizing that extremist ideology exists across the spectrum. "We will also challenge extremism across the board, ending the previous Government's exclusive and unhelpful focus on Islam," he said.

But Maajid Nawaz, director of the Quilliam Foundation, opted to emphasize the positive. "This speech builds on David Cameron's recent speech in Munich and is an important step towards building a national consensus on this important issue," said Nawaz, who walked away from extremism and now challenges its narrative.

He praised Clegg for dismissing economic grievances as a cause for terrorism. "There are much deeper and more complex forces at work," Clegg said, saying terrorism results from "a lethal cocktail containing a disaffected individual, an enabling community and a legitimizing ideology."

While media outlets and politicians emphasize the differences in the speeches, "we believe that this speech reveals a large degree of common ground between the two leaders," Nawaz said. "However, there is a clear need for further discussion of many of these issues. The exact nature of 'smart engagement' with extremists still needs to be defined, as do 'shared values.' We also hope that in the future Nick Clegg will also be more explicit on why non-violent extremism is a problem in and of itself for society, regardless of whether it leads directly to terrorism or not."

CAIR Accused in Radio Host's Firing

Supporters of former U.S. Rep. Fred Grandy blame pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for his departure from WMAL Radio in Washington. Grandy, whose resignation was announced by the station on Thursday, noted that he and his wife (a regular guest on his morning-drive program) repeatedly warned about the spread of radical Islam in the United States and abroad. After Mrs. Grandy criticized "stealth jihad" late last month, management ordered her off the air, prompting her husband to resign.

A WMAL statement about Grandy's departure was read on the air by another station host, Chris Plante, who said his own forceful opposition to radical Islam had not been curtailed in any way.

Grandy told the conservative media watchdog group Accuracy in Media (AIM) that "We cannot affirmatively conclude CAIR or any of the prominent Islamic organizations had anything to do with" his departure. He observed that in 2005, CAIR had successfully pressured for the firing of another WMAL host for anti-Islamic statements. Asked about claims that CAIR had a role in Grandy's ouster, spokesman Ibrahim Hooper professed surprise and said: "What is the evidence for that claim?"

Jersey Jihadists Plead Guilty to al-Shabaab Conspiracy

Two New Jersey men, thwarted in an attempt to join a Somali terrorist group, pled guilty Thursday to murder-conspiracy charges. Carlos Almonte, 24, and Mohamed Alessa, 21 were arrested in June as they tried to board separate flights to Egypt. They had planned to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, which has formed an alliance with al-Qaida.

Appearing in federal court in Newark, the pair told Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise that they lifted weights, and practiced combat. Almonte and Alessa admitted they travelled abroad in an effort to join terror groups. They planned to attack Somali civilians, African Union peacekeepers and members of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, which al-Shabaab seeks to overthrow.

The men "planned and trained for a mission that began in their New Jersey neighborhoods and would end with the murder of innocent civilians," said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

The pair pled guilty of conspiring to murder individuals oversees on behalf of a foreign terror group. Although they could receive life in prison, defense lawyer said they had reached agreement with prosecutors that neither side would oppose sentences ranging from 15 to 30 years imprisonment.

Court documents and statements show the case started in October 2006, when the FBI received a tip that the pair was talking about killing American soldiers and declaring their determination to kill non-Muslims.

As the investigation continued, NYPD Intelligence Department undercover officers recorded conversations in which the defendants discussed their plans and prepared to carry them out. These included lifting weights; engaging in combat simulations using paintball guns and computer software; acquiring night-vision equipment and military clothing; and traveling to Jordan in 2007 where they attempted to join jihadist organizations.

Almonte and Alessa also admitted acquiring and showing audio, video and written materials by al-Qaida and al-Shabaab members advocating violence against their opponents.

In one secretly recorded conversation, Almonte commented about how law enforcement wanted to put the pair in prison. He joked that he is "innocent" and wants "the troops to come home safely and cozily."

"In body bags, in caskets," Alessa replied.

"In caskets," said Almonte.

"Sliced up in 1,000 pieces cozy in the grave in hell," Alessa said.

Read more about the guilty pleas here.

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