Abu Toameh: Hamas Capitalizes on Settlement Focus

We're a little late in pointing this out, but Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh has a must read at the Hudson Institute's Web site on how American diplomacy is strengthening Hamas' hand in the Palestinian territories.

With the U.S. obsessing about Israeli settlements as a starting point for peace talks, Abu Toameh reports:

"Hamas is gradually turning the Gaza Strip into a Taliban-style Islamic entity that poses a threat not only to Israel, but also to the Americans, Europeans and moderate Arabs and Muslims."

He points to a series of incidents in which Palestinian women are being arrested and harassed for failing to wear a hijab, for being in public without an escort and for other alleged moral crimes. These episodes draw little, if any, interest from foreign media and Western governments.

Palestinian leaders are boycotting peace talks until winning a freeze on Israeli settlements. But that's a straw man, Abu Toameh argues, noting Palestinians negotiated on broader issues for without such a precondition. Hamas, he says, is taking full advantage of the global distraction, recounting a comment from a Palestinian journalist he knows:

"The Americans and Europeans are fighting against Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan while Hamas is building a new fundamentalist entity here. The settlements may be an obstacle to peace, but Hamastan will soon become a major threat to stability in the region."

Today comes word of how Hamas is buying more popular support for its intransigence.

More Minneapolis Somalis Dying in Homeland

A sad, scary story in Minneapolis' Somali community is getting worse with news that Zakaria Maruf was killed Saturday in Somalia. He becomes the fourth Minneapolis area Somali to die in his homeland in the past year.

Maruf was featured in this New York Times report published Sunday, where he was cast as a recruiter trying to lure more young Somalis to join him in fighting with the Al-Shabab terrorist group.

It isn't clear how Maruf died. Two days earlier, a 20-year-old named Jamal Bana was seen on a website dead from a gunshot to the head, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

In June, Burhan Hassan was shot and killed apparently after deciding to quit Al-Shabab and return to Minnesota.

Last October, Shirwa Ahmed became the first known American to carry out a suicide bombing, driving an explosive-laden truck into a government compound as part of a series of Al-Shabab attacks.

The FBI reportedly has criminal investigations in Minneapolis and several other cities into the recruitment of the Somalis and the financing of their travel back to their homeland. More than 20 young men are believed to have made the journey to join the Somali jihad, with Maruf being one of the first.

Last week, the terrorist group beheaded seven people reportedly for abandoning Islam and espionage.

Benedicts Gorderiaux, a Somalia researcher for Amnesty International, said Al-Shabab is trying to establish itself as in control and "it's also linked to them wanting to terrorize the population under their control under the guise of applying sharia [Islamic] law."

The Times story also includes a transcript of a radio interview with Maruf. Read it here. In it, he calls non-Muslims enemies who want to break Islam. He also says the young men who left the U.S. for Somalia did so freely:

"It is not possible to brainwash or coerce a conscious, grown man. And where we come from is not a place where people are coerced or brainwashed.

We heard the verses from Allah, the most high, and we came for that reason."

Families of the missing young men have struggled to find out what they can. It is important to note that they have held protests condemning Al-Shabab and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which the families feel has been a hindrance to the law enforcement investigation.

See video from the latest protest here.

Saudi Sheik: Muslim Women Could Face Death For Marrying Non-Muslims

Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid issues fatwas on Saudi Television and at this website. Recently, Al-Munajjid's site issued one in response to the following query: "How is a woman to be punished if she marries a Christian? How is it carried out?"

The answer in a nutshell: Cruelly.

According to Al-Munajjid's clerical team:

"It is not permissible for a Muslim woman to marry a kaafir (non-Muslim), whether he is Jewish, Christian or an idol-worshipper, because the man has authority over his wife, and it is not permissible for a kaafir to have authority over a Muslim woman. For Islam is the true religion and all other religions are false."

Islamqa.com adds that if "a Muslim woman marries a kaafir when she knows the ruling, then she is a zaaniyah (adulteress), and her punishment is the punishment for adultery [death]. If she was ignorant of the ruling then she is excused, but they must be separated, and there is no need for a divorce because the marriage is null and void."

The same site includes a fatwa labeling tourism in non-Islamic countries as forbidden. The same goes for ever taking pictures of women, "because of the temptation and evil that results from that, in addition to the fact that taking pictures is forbidden in and of itself. So it is not permissible to take pictures of women when traveling or for any other reason." Another bars "honor killings" of virgins who engage in zina, or fornication. (In some parts of the Muslim world, virgins who have been raped are considered to have fornicated) Instead of capital punishment, Islamqa.com says Sharia punishment for fornicators "is one hundred lashes and exile for one year."

Al-Munajjid is best known for calling for the death of Mickey Mouse last year. See MEMRI-TV's translation here.

Balcony Falls – Accidents or Honor Killings?

A Swedish police investigation into the death of a 28-year-old woman who fell off a third floor balcony is trying to determine if it was an accident or an honor killing.

The dead woman had only recently moved to Sweden from Morocco to join her husband, who was briefly arrested in the investigation. According to a report posted by the Islam in Europe blog, a Stockholm University researcher is studying a similar case involving a 16-year-old girl. Devin Rexvid's study involves a death in which police also suspected honor killing, but were unable to generate enough evidence to prosecute:

"Rexvid says that the evidence is the most difficult. There are insufficient procedures to investigate this type of crime. He thinks the police should use experts more often. There are some people within the police who have the expertise and experience from similar cases and they should be called into the investigation at the preliminary stages.

Rexvid also calls for better cooperation between the police, schools and the social services, saying the latter two should be more engaged when it comes to young girls who have fallen from balconies."

A second researcher is cited claiming balconies have been used in Middle Eastern honor killings and the practice may be "much more common than we believe." Law enforcement officials are said to be receiving training on ways to recognize the signs of honor-related crimes.

Some high profile murders in the United States have generated attention on honor killings. For more, see this, this and this.

UK Islamists Imprisoned For Arson Conspiracy Against Book Publisher

Three Muslim men who tried to burn down the home of a publisher for printing a book about the Prophet Mohammad were each sentenced to four-and-a-half-year prison terms Tuesday.

After Abbas Taj, Abrar Mirza and Ali Beheshti learned that Gibson Square Books was going to publish The Jewel of Medina - a novel about Aisha, favorite wife of Mohammed - they traveled to the firm's headquarters on September 27, 2008 and tried to set it on fire with gasoline. The building was also the home of Gibson Square Publishing owner Martin Rynja.

The court heard testimony that Mirza and Beheshti were seen carrying out reconnaissance "drive throughs" of the area in the weeks before the attack. The pair was observed approaching the front door of the publisher's house with a gasoline can in a plastic bag, pouring diesel fuel through the letter box and using a disposable lighter in an attempt to set it on fire.

Police officers who had the group under surveillance arrested Mirza and Beheshti as they tried to run off. Taj, who was supposed to be the getaway driver, was arrested near a local subway station as he tried to escape.

Beheshti, ringleader of the terror cell, was a former member of the jihadist group al-Muhajiroun. He had set himself on fire while attempting to burn a picture of President Bush at a May 2005 demonstration. In 2006, Beheshti took his 20-month old daughter, dressed in an "I love al Qaida" hat, to protests against controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammed. In photographs found in his home, Beheshti was pictured holding a sword and posing with a gun.

Taj, a Somalia native, came to Britain as a teenager in the mid-1990s and recently served as a trustee of the Muslim Prisoner Support Group, which advocates on behalf of Muslim inmates jailed in the United Kingdom.

Random House initially agreed to publish The Jewel of Medina, written by Spokane, Washington author Sherry Jones. But it capitulated in May 2008 after warnings that Muslims might react violently to publication of the book.

Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that after sending out advance copies of the novel, the company received advice "not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but that it also could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

After consulting with security experts and Islamic scholars, Perry said the company decided "to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in the distribution and sale of the novel." Read more about that decision here.

Read more about the terrorist plot against Gibson Square Books here.

Hamas, CAIR Looking to Fund Separate Quran Drives

From Gaza comes two examples of how the Palestinian people are being ruled by extremist religious thugs who place strict adherence to religious doctrine over the welfare of its people.

First, a woman was detained for the crime of going to the beach with her head not covered. Journalist Asma al-Ghul also was accused of "laughing out loud" and being without a male escort while at the beach. According to a report:

"This is reportedly not the first attempt by Hamas security forces to enforce Islamic modesty rules. Hamas security forces are said to patrol the beach looking for lovers and to have confiscated alcohol at the Hamas checkpoint south of the Erez crossing. They also reportedly go to hotels catering to foreigners to check for unmarried couples."

Meanwhile, public officials in Gaza are taking a 1 percent pay cut to underwrite Quranic studies:

"Notably, Koran study centers in the Strip are considered a major Hamas power source used to elicit support for the organization."

That's interesting, in light of a new campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to distribute 100,000 Qurans to local and national political leaders in the U.S. The goal is to educate and "not an effort to proselytize," said CAIR executive director Nihad Awad:

"The long-term goal of the campaign is to put one million Qurans in the hands of ordinary Americans of all faiths over the next ten years."

CAIR is soliciting donations for the drive, starting at $45 per book. That's the only way to do it without an outside patron, since CAIR complained last year that its status as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-financing case prompted donations to drop off the table.

Boston's Extremist Mosque

Two Boston-based critics of the new Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISB), watched last week's opening ceremonies at the mosque and describe some disturbing, if not unsurprising incidents. The mosque's development was riddled with troubling facts, from the sweetheart land deal it received from the city to the troubling people influential inside the mosque. They include Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Qaradawi and Jamal Badawi, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation.

In a column Sunday, Boston College political scientist Dennis Hale and Charles Jacobs of Americans for Peace and Tolerance say they saw little to assuage their concerns about extremist leadership at the new mosque:

"Some milestone! The city has helped the Wahhabi clerical establishment - purveyors of the most intolerant religious teachings on the planet - and the Muslim Brotherhood - genesis of all Sunni terrorist organizations - set up shop in the Cradle of Liberty, flying a false flag of moderation. And to make matters worse, this sad milestone is praised as a great victory for diversity and a boon to local Muslims.

Meanwhile, those who criticize this arrangement are branded as bigots and dragged into court, while the press and public officials ignore the links between the leaders of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center and Islamist hatred and terrorism. These claims are supported by tens of thousands of pages of evidence - much of it delivered to us by the society as a result of the discovery process triggered by their own lawsuit."

That lawsuit, which also targeted Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson, was dropped during the discovery process. No damages were paid, no one retracted anything and the defendants are free to continue investigating and criticizing the mosque.

Despite all the disclosures, the mosque's opening still drew Mayor Tom Menino and a videotaped greeting from Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick. But outside, away from the pleasantries extended to the politicians, Hale and Jacobs report an encounter which verified their worst concerns:

"One of the imams who came over to talk with us denied the existence of slavery in the Sudan and said that preaching death for homosexuals is an 'opinion' to which Qaradawi is 'entitled.' And an angry Muslim youth from the mosque informed us that it was common knowledge that the Jews had tried to assassinate and 'betray' the prophet Mohammed. Consequently, he claimed that Jews could be discriminated against 'to some extent.'"

"No sensible person believes that this is what multiculturalism is supposed to mean," the writers conclude, Nor is it something that should be difficult to understand. Read the Hale and Jacobs column here.

Clinton Call on Obama's Speech Includes Jihad Advocate - Update

As we reported on June 4, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office held a conference call with various American Muslims immediately after President Obama's Islamic outreach speech in Cairo. Among those invited to participate was former Muslim American Society (MAS) President Esam Omeish, who lost in his bid to become a Virginia State Delegate just days after the State Department phone call.

It is now clear that the State Department knows about Omeish's controversial background. In a June 10 State Department Bureau of International Information Programs section, there is a "press guidance" relating to "Muslims: Department of State criterion in choosing Muslim American contacts/leaders."

This press guidance appears to be linked to possible questions that may have been asked about the conference call. There is the anticipated question, "What is Department of State's criterion in choosing/identifying Muslim American contacts/leaders?"

The State Department answer:

• The Department meets with a wide range of American citizens and domestic groups who have an interest in United States foreign policy.

• We do so to hear a diverse number of opinions as well as to explain our policies to American citizens.

• We value hearing all opinions, whether people agree with U.S policies or not.

And if that generic answer was insufficient for inquiring reporters:

(IF PRESSED)
• This call was designed to amplify the President's speech in Cairo. A general invitation was issued by the Bureau of Public Affairs to a large list of groups we have interacted with over many years. While I will not discuss the specifics of any one group or individual, Americans' have the right to free speech, protected by the constitution.
Background for Briefer: Esam Omeish was invited by the PA/PIL to participate in a conference call designed to amplify the President's speech in Cairo. This call was for Arab and Muslim Americans, Mr. Omeish is listed as a, "Doctor and Former President of the Muslim American Society (MAS)." The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee was also included on the call and may have raised concerns about Mr. Omeish.
Mr. Omeish is a candidate for representative of Virginia's 35th District to the State House, and a doctor at Northern Virginain (sic) Community Hospital. In 2007, he had to resign from the Virginia Commission on Immigration due to comments he made regarding "Israel's war machine" during the 2006 Israel-Hizballah conflict. He is also accused of supporting suicide attacks and violence in achieving a Palestinian state.
Mr. Mahdi Bray, MAS Executive Director, could not be on the call, Mr. Omeish took his place.

The State Department knew about Omeish's support for violent jihad, yet he was still included in the post-speech forum. Also revealing is that Omeish was not the State Department's first choice. MAS executive director Mahdi Bray, a multiple convicted federal felon, con-man, thief and drug abuser, "could not be on the call" and Omeish "took his place."

Are jihad supporters and convicted felons the partners of choice for Secretary Clinton in her "outreach" efforts into the American Muslim community?

Somali Indictment in the Works?

It looks as if the FBI's investigation into what's behind the disappearance of more than 20 Somali men from the Minneapolis area has resulted in at least one indictment. Fox News reporter Mike Levine reports at least three people have been indicted and one may already be in custody:

"Among those charged is a man from Minneapolis who went to war-torn Somalia and then, about four months ago, relocated to Seattle, according to the two sources and a leader in the Minneapolis Somali community. The man was then arrested in a Seattle airport and transferred to a jail in Minneapolis, where he is currently being detained, according to the law enforcement sources.

The law enforcement sources said the man, described as in his 20s, has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, in this case al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006."

Some of the men have returned from Somalia, but law enforcement officials indicate they don't believe the men. One of the men who disappeared from Minneapolis, Shirwa Ahmed, died in a suicide bombing in Somalia that killed dozens of people.

Relatives of many of the missing men have cooperated with the investigation.

Levine quotes Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn., expressing his relief that charges may be pending:

"What we have is human trafficking. Those Somali boys were being trafficked for a war."

About 50 members of the Minneapolis Somali community protested outside a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) ice cream social last month, saying CAIR was discouraging cooperation with the investigation.

In Sharia Courts, "Death Threat" Helps Keep British Muslims in Line

The use of Sharia courts – those driven by Islamic law - in Great Britain is far more widespread than previously believed, and it raises troubling questions about human rights and equal protection under the law, according to a new study by Civitas, an independent British think-tank.

Five Sharia courts – in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford, and Nuneaton -- are generally acknowledged to exist in the country today. But Civitas researchers found that there are another 85 such courts operating largely out of mosques. The study concludes that such courts or tribunals are issuing rulings that breach basic principles of British law and calls for removal of their formal legal recognition under Arbitration Act 1996 (c. 23), one of the nation's most important legal statutes.

"The reality is that for many Muslims, Sharia courts are part of an institutionalised atmosphere of intimidation backed by the ultimate sanction of a death threat," Civitas Director David Green writes in an introduction to the report. "It cannot be accepted that Sharia councils are nothing more than independent arbitrators guided by faith." The reality, Green adds, "is that for many Muslims, Sharia courts are part of an institutionalised atmosphere of intimidation backed by the ultimate sanction of a death threat."

One major problem is that Sharia reflects the practices of male-dominated Asian and Arabic cultures, while Britain's legal system provides for equal rights under the law regardless of race, religion, or gender. Because Sharia court records are not widely available, it is difficult (if not impossible) to obtain information about specific cases and rulings. So the report examines fatwas put on popular online sites by Islamic religious leaders to get an idea of what Sharia courts are up to. The report concludes that their rulings "walk a very fine line between legality and illegality," adding that "If put into practice, they would undermine UK law by allowing a single community to play fast and loose with British law and customs."

According to Civitas, some of the rulings "advise illegal actions" and others "transgress human rights standards as they are applied by British courts." For example: A Muslim woman should not have fertility treatment; she may not under any circumstances marry a non-Muslim man unless he converts to Islam; and she may be coerced by her husband into having sex. Moreover, a man can divorce his wife without telling her about it (so long as he does not attempt to sleep with her) and he is permitted to have up to four wives. Other examples include: Sharia must override the judgments of British courts; taking up residence in a non-Muslim country is generally forbidden; and a Muslim attorney must act contrary to British law where it contradicts Sharia.

Learn more about the Civitas study and efforts to impose Sharia law in Britain here and here and here.

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