Report Assesses MPAC's Counter-Terror Commitment

Marilyn Stern, a candidate for a Master of Arts in Statecraft and National Security Affairs at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, has written an extensive report of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) recent counter-terrorism paper, "Building Bridges to Strengthen America." Her critiques of and response to the MPAC can be found here.

From the abstract:

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is a U.S. Islamic advocacy organization that aims to inform decision makers and shape public opinion. MPAC's political influence upon U.S. government agencies has given MPAC access to the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and the Treasury Department, as well as members of Congress. Recently, MPAC addressed law enforcement representatives at a counterterrorism conference in Southern California on "Muslim American Perspective on Radicalization." Although MPAC professes support for U.S. counterterrorism initiatives, it has a consistent history of putting law enforcement on the defensive by claiming civil rights violations in the Muslim community. MPAC's critique of law enforcement initiatives, as well as its defense of Islamist organizations tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, should motivate decision makers to examine MPAC's objectives with a greater degree of scrutiny.

In April 2010, MPAC released a policy paper, Building Bridges to Strengthen America: Forging an Effective Counterterrorism Enterprise between Muslim Americans & Law Enforcement, which recommended that law enforcement emphasize community-oriented policing (COPS) methods when dealing with the American Muslim community. COPS is an effective policing method when it applies to the entire community, but it impairs policing efforts when one group like MPAC seeks exclusive treatment.

MPAC's report, Building Bridges, sets its sights on local and federal law enforcement, which is the front line of U.S. national security. Contrary to the report's title, claiming that its recommendations will strengthen America, MPAC's superficial endorsement of methods to address radicalization, in fact, weakens American law enforcement and intelligence operations and furthers the objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood global strategy to undermine the West.

See Stern's full report here.

"Islamophobia" Not Reflected in FBI Hate Crimes Statistics

There were nine times more anti-Jewish hate crimes reported in 2009 than those against Muslims, new statistics released by the FBI show.

The 2009 hate crime report released by the FBI Monday also showed that about slightly more than one-third of the 6,604 incidents were race related. There were 2,284 anti-black incidents, the FBI reported.

Despite concerns voiced by some Muslim groups that "Islamophobia" is on the rise and fueling anti-Muslim attacks, those fears were not demonstrated in the latest report. Of the 1,303 religion-related incidents, 931 were against Jews while 107 were called anti-Islamic.

The 2009 statistics mirror those of earlier years, in which anti-Jewish hate crimes far outpaced those against Muslims. In 2006, for example, there were 967 anti-Jewish incidents compared to 156 anti-Muslim crimes, FBI statistics showed.

There were about 8,300 hate crime victims in 2009, the FBI said, compared to 9,700 in 2008.

British schools teach Saudi hate

Across Britain, upwards of 5,000 Muslim club members as well as many more attendees of private Islamic weekend schools are being exposed to extremism. These are the allegations leveled in an upcoming episode of BBC One's program, Tonight's Panorama. According to the report, youth under the umbrella group, Saudi Students Clubs and Schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland, are being indoctrinated with a wide variety of hateful and extremist sentiments. The furor around the issue is being focused on the Saudi embassy, as the network of 40 private schools and other clubs is teaching directly from the Saudi Arabian national curriculum. The UK government is also scrambling to counter the radicalism despite its apparent poor oversight over the program.

The Telegraph notes the extent of the radical sentiment being taught to children and young adults. Kids as young as six are warned that disbelievers are condemned to "hellfire," while textbooks for 15 year-olds describe punishments for breaking Sharia law. These penalties include cutting off hands and feet of thieves, replete with diagrams of where to hack off the limbs. Stoning, burning, or throwing over a cliff were also presented as the punishments for sodomy.

Other texts revived classic anti-Semitic themes among extremist Muslims. One text noted how Jews had been transformed into pigs and apes. Another cited the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a viciously anti-Semitic forgery, as proof of s Jewish plot to dominate the world.

The Saudi embassy has protested the documentary stating that it was "dangerously deceptive and misleading" to take the texts out of their historic contexts. It also declared, "Any tutoring activities that may have taken place among any other group of Muslims in the United Kingdom are absolutely individual to that group and not affiliated to or endorsed by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia."

However, the British government has taken a strong stance against any perceived hatred coming out of the schools. The New York Times reports that UK Education Secretary Michael Gove has taken issue with the curriculum being taught in England. He stated, "We have no desire or wish to intervene in the decisions that the Saudi government makes in its own education system. But we are clear that we cannot have any anti-Semitic material of any kind being used in English schools."

However, questions still exist over how this could happen again, especially under the nose of Ofsted, the UK's education supervising group. Yet, despite claims by Gove that he demanded close supervision of part-time programs, independent think-tank The Policy Exchange has noted that any checks are "piecemeal, partial and lack in-depth expertise ."

Hamas Hardliner's Book Echoes His Speeches

Hamas hardliner Mahmoud Al-Zahar's book, No Future Between Nations, echoes a recent anti-Semitic speech he delivered, according to a report released by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center this month.

In his speech which aired live on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV on Nov. 5, Zahar stated that Jews have been expelled from the countries they were living in because they committed crimes including theft.

"The expulsion will come, Allah willing, from Palestine, from the entire territory of Palestine, Allah willing," Zahar said near the end of the speech. "We are no less strong or honorable as the peoples who expelled and uprooted them. We are about to expel them. We have learned our lesson. You have no place among us and [Jews] have no future between nations. You are about to disappear, and we are about to emerge victorious" [Emphasis added].

Published in 2008, Zahar dedicated his book to "the millions of shaheeds, the wounded, and the crippled, victims of Zionism and colonialist occupation … and all those interested in knowing the truth behind Zionism and its agents…to anyone who wishes to know the role played by the Jews throughout history…"

Jews, Zahar writes, are responsible for anti-Semitism, because "no one believes the story that all the nations came together to persecute one people just because they are Jews. The truth is that it is a result of the actions of the Jews themselves and their animosity towards the nations among which they lived."

Jews also benefit from such anti-Semitism, Zahar writes. "The bigger question is who stands behind the nations' animosity towards the Jews and who benefits from that situation. The answer to that question is: the Zionists are the cause that generates anti-Semitism and they are the ones who benefit the most from it" [Emphasis added].

A copy of Zahar's book was found on board the Mavi Marmara, the IHH boat that took part in the May flotilla to Gaza that ended in a deadly clash with Israeli soldiers.

Last month Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas, met with the UK-based group Viva Palestina in Gaza.

CBC Goes Forward, BBC Pulls Documentary Linking Hizballah To Hariri Murder

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have adopted dramatically different approaches to new evidence of Hizballah involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The CBC is going forward with a documentary suggesting Hizballah operatives were involved in the February 2005 murder of Hariri, who was killed in a bombing along with 22 others while traveling through downtown Beirut in an armed convoy. The BBC's three-part series entitled "Murder in Beirut" had been scheduled to air on the network on Saturday, but producer Christopher Mitchell was informed last week that the series had been postponed to ensure that it "comp[lied] with the BBC's editorial guidelines."

The network has yet to provide much in the way of specifics regarding its concerns. But the postponement occurred as tensions mounted in Lebanon, with Hizballah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatening to "cut off the hand" of anyone who attempted to arrest any of its members.

"Murder in Beirut" was originally commissioned by the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite channel and was made by ORTV, a British-Saudi television firm. A Lebanese newspaper reported last week that the point of the film was "to implicate Hezbollah in the crime," with one image describing a former member of the terror group's foreign operations unit.

The CBC reports that United Nations officials have uncovered new details about Hizballah's role in the Hariri assassination. The records suggest that Hizballah officials communicated with the owners of cellphones used to coordinate the detonation of explosives that killed Hariri. The new revelations have encouraged speculation that a United Nations prosecutor may indict Hizballah members for the murder before the end of the year.

The CBC also obtained an internal U.N. document indicating that Col. Wissam al-Hassan, a key liaison with U.N. investigators, was considered by U.N. officials to be a top suspect in Hariri's killing. The CBC report criticizes the U.N. for failing to provide adequate security for a key Lebanese officer, Col. Wissam Eid, who was killed after developing evidence connecting the Hariri hit squad to a landline at a Hizballah-controlled hospital in South Beirut.

Read more about the CBC series here and here. Read more about the BBC's decision to pull its series here.

New Fatwas Permit Killing Tourists, Attacking Coca-Cola and McDonald's

A jihadist website has posted fatwas that permit the killing of tourists and targeting of "infidel" companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald's, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The fatwas on the website Al-Minbar Wal-Tawhid came in response to a posting by a member named "Abu Sayyed Qutub," which included the following questions:

· "What is the ruling regarding companies that distribute Jewish and American products, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's?"

· "Is it permissible to receive help from gangsters in order to carry out jihad operations, as they say the jihad in Algeria is doing?"

· "Is a group of fewer than 10 young people without military or organizational experience permitted to target tourists in countries with apostate [Muslim] governments, where no known jihad group operates?"

Sheikh Abu Walid al-Maqdisi, a Gaza-based cleric, replied that according to Sharia, it is forbidden to harm Muslim lives and possessions but permissible "to target infidel and polytheist lives and possessions."

"If the owners of these companies are Muslims, it is forbidden to harm or steal from them, even if they distribute or sell goods produced by the Jewish and Christian enemies of Allah, as long as the essence of the commerce and of the goods is permissible according to sharia," Maqdisi said. "However, if these companies are controlled by infidels, their property may be taken as booty, since the infidels of today are considered combatants."

Kidnapping and killing tourists was permissible so long as it was done by "people who are reliable, knowledgeable in Sharia, and have organizational and military experience" and are acting for the benefit of Muslims, he said. If a Muslim lives where no organized jihadist group exists, he should establish one, Maqdisi said.

Muslims are prohibited from obtaining help from infidel gangsters (although they may purchase weapons from them), he added. While Sharia doesn't bar Muslims from receiving help from Muslim criminals, the assistance should be rejected "if it is likely to harm the reputation of the mujahideen, or their jihad plan," according to Maqdisi.

British Arrest Revolution Muslim Member

Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, a 23 year old from Wolverhampton UK, has been arrested for threats directed at British Parliamentarians who voted for the Iraq War. His threat appeared on Revolutionmuslim.com, an American Islamist website that has been connected to at least two other terrorism cases in the last year. The IPT's post on the threat can be read here.

Revolution Muslim was a popular clearinghouse for speeches by Anwar al-Awlaki and other terrorist leaders, as well as a forum for aspiring radicals. Following the threat against the British parliament, Google shut down the website at the request of the American and British governments.

In particular, the website was fashionable with aspiring young, English speaking converts to radical Islam. These included Zachary Chesser, a major contributor and leader of the group, and Roshanara Choudhry. Chesser recently pled guilty to communicating threats to the cartoonists of South Park and attempting to provide material support to terrorist organization Al-Shabaab. Choudhry was sentenced to life imprisonment after stabbing British Parliamentarian Stephen Timms. A police interrogation shows that she claimed to have been inspired by speeches by Awlaki and Abdullah Azzam and by visiting Revolution Muslim.

Although Revolution Muslim is now defunct, former leader Younus Abdullah Muhammad has transferred his message to a new website called www.islampolicy.com. Posts so far indicate that the website encourages the same type of pro-terrorist sentiment as its predecessor.

Galloway Talks Up Hamas in Canada

Viva Palestina leader George Galloway began a 10-day speaking tour in Canada on Tuesday, marking his latest visit to the country following his debut in Toronto last month.

Galloway was banned from entering Canada in March, 2009 after Immigration Minister Jason Kenney noted Galloway's financial support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But a judge ruled in September that the government did not officially exclude Galloway from entering the country, and Galloway never tried to enter the country since the ban.

Despite the ruling in his favor, Galloway has vowed to sue Kenney for slander.

"Mr. Kenney please note: This isn't over yet," Galloway told a crowd of 250 people in Montreal on Wednesday. "I will not allow to go unaccountable the lies and the smears you sent around the world about me."

On Tuesday, Galloway gave a speech to a crowd of 700 at York University in Toronto, where he was also met with chants by protestors outside of the venue. During his speech Galloway promoted dialogue with the terrorist organization Hamas, and refused to condemn the terrorist group's actions.

"I have been asked why I have been dealing with Hamas," he said. "I have news for the people in Ottawa: everybody else in the world is already talking to Hamas. You don't need university education to understand that if you want to resolve a conflict, you have to talk to the people who are engaged in the conflict."

Galloway never said how his convoys to Gaza were helping to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and there's no indication he called on Hamas to cease using violence to achieve its objectives. Rather, Galloway and Viva Palestina intend to "break the siege" on Gaza by elevating Hamas politically and financially. Viva Palestina has delivered millions of dollars to the Hamas regime during its four land convoys to the region, and has met with Hamas leaders including Specially Designated Global Terrorists Khalid Mishaal, Mousa Mohamed Abu Marzook, and Usama Hamdan, as well as Hamas hardliners Ismail Haniyeh, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, Ahmed Yousef, and others.

Galloway described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as "the centre of the confrontation between the Muslim and non-Muslim world, declaring, "If there is no peace in Palestine there will be no peace in the Muslim world."

He also offered his solution to the conflict - destroy the Jewish State of Israel by granting Palestinians the right of return. "Those who are living in Palestine today, those who have driven from Palestine from 1948 until now have the right to live there but only as equal citizens under the law," he said Wednesday. "Not in a Jewish State, not in a Muslim State, but in a democratic state."

First Civilian Trial of Gitmo Detainee a Mixed Bag

A jury in federal court in Manhattan convicted Ahmed Ghalfan Ghailani Wednesday of conspiring in the 1998 destruction of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Many, however, are focusing on Ghailani's acquittal on 224 counts of murder and attempted murder; and asking what effect, if any, it should have on the location of future trials for al-Qaida terrorists.

Ghailani was indicted on December 16, 1998 for conspiring with Osama bin Laden and other members of al-Qaida to carry out the twin bombings in Africa on August 7, 1998. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Suicide bombers driving large truck bombs packed with approximately 1,000 pounds of TNT attacked each embassy. Ghailani purchased the truck as well as tanks of oxygen and acetylene gas that were used in the bombing.

In 2004, Ghailani was captured in Pakistan and sent to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Defense attorneys argued that Ghailani spent five years in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency which reportedly tortured him. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan disallowed government prosecutors from introducing evidence or witnesses that were obtained during the alleged torture.

While U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara would presumably have preferred guilty counts on all charges, Ghailani's defense attorneys praised the result. "This verdict is a reaffirmation that this nation's judicial system is the greatest ever devised," said Peter E. Quijano. "It is truly a system of laws and not men, where, in the shadow of the World Trade Center, this jury acquitted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of 284 out of 285 counts."

Discussing the political implications of the verdict, Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Bobby Chesney, a law professor at the University of Texas, explain "the only thing that will matter in the political sphere will be that prosecutors won a conviction on only one of 285 criminal counts—that they came within a hair's breadth of losing the case entirely."

Indeed, the verdict already is being used to highlight the insufficiency of civilian trials for suspected al Qaida terrorists. U.S. Representative Pete King, R-NY, who is promising to hold hearings on the issue, attacked the verdict as a "total miscarriage of justice" and said it demonstrates the "absolute insanity of the Obama Administration's decision to try al-Qaida terrorists in civilian courts."

What effect the verdict will have on the Obama Administration's efforts to prosecute al-Qaida militants remains to be seen. Of particular interest will be whether the result will make the administration gun-shy to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in civilian court. Last week Attorney General Eric Holder said the government is "close to a decision on the venue for the prosecution" of the self-described mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

Ghailani is scheduled to be sentenced on January 25 and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. U.S. Attorney Bharara has promises that "he will face, and we will seek, the maximum sentence of life without parole when he is sentenced."

Jasser Reveals CAIR's Wahhabi Agenda

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) "welcomed an anti-terror statement" made by the Saudi Cleric, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh, in a press release it issued on Tuesday.

Al Sheikh "called for religious moderation and said Islam prohibits terrorism, extremism and injustice," in his sermon delivered on Monday to millions of pilgrims making The Hajj in Saudi Arabia, according to the release.

"'This statement from Islam's spiritual capital should put to rest once and for all the false claim that Muslim leaders do not condemn terrorism,'" said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

Yet M. Zuhdi Jasser, the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) called CAIR on its bluff.

"No previous single press release or statement by CAIR more clearly reveals its ideological ties and service to the Saudis, and their Wahhabi ideologues - and its willingness to use word games, deception and moral equivalence to avoid revealing its true objectives," Jasser writes in a column published Wednesday.

Jasser notes that the CAIR press release neglects to mention the rest of the Grand Mufti's sermon and "the mere condemnation of terrorism in this CAIR promoted sermon means nothing – because the sermon is otherwise chock full of inflammatory Muslim supremacism (Islamism) and anti-Western hatred."

Other excerpts of the Mufti's sermon include condemning the West and attributing causes for terrorism.

In his sermon, the Grand Mufti "insists the Islamic nation rejects terrorism as a deplorable crime, but that it is not the only crime. The problem, he says, is not just terrorism, but also poverty, unemployment, and diseases, stemming from global crises," according to an article published Monday by the Voice of America.

The cleric also said, "'Violence cannot be cured with violence and neither can terrorism be cured with force, but by lifting injustices levied on oppressed peoples.'"

That is "hardly a morally-clear condemnation of terrorism," Jasser writes. "Rather, it is a demagogic moral equivalency of barbaric acts committed by Al Qaeda, Hamas and other radical Islamists, which this radical sheikh insinuates are understandable by the acts of America and the West."

While CAIR asserts that the Grand Mufti called for "religious moderation," Jasser points to the Grand Mufti's history of radical religious rulings. In January 2009, the Saudi Arabian Sheik ruled that adult men can marry girls starting at the age of 10, and criticized those who wanted to raise the legal age. He has also rebuked women for appearing at a conference unveiled, warning them of "grave consequences," and told Muslims at a mosque in the UK that they should tell their children to start praying at age seven and start hitting them at age 10.

"We must not be fooled by the 'condemnation' of terrorism by the Saudi Wahhabi clerics and their tribal protectors in the Saudi royals," Jasser writes." In reality, this further reveals the dangerous synergy and propaganda role of American Islamist groups like CAIR for Saudi Wahhabi fundamentalists like the Grand Mufti. Their 'double game' is manifested from their pulpits at the Grand Mosque in Mecca and from the press releases of their advocates like CAIR in the United States."

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