Christian Persecution in Gaza

Hamas terrorists who control Gaza follow a charter which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state government by Shariah, or Islamic law. That's bad news for the small number of Palestinian Christians, if current life in Gaza is any indication.

Jonathan Spyer, a senior research at Israel's Global Research in International Affairs Center reports that radical Islamic groups have targeted Christians with bombings and other attacks.

There are only a few thousand Christians in Gaza, Spyer writes. Since Hamas took over in 2007, they have been subjected to increasing levels of violence and intimidation:

"The trend became noticeable with a series of attacks on the Palestinian Bible Society's ‘Teacher's Bookshop' in Gaza City last year. The shop was the subject of a bomb attack in April 2007. Its owner, Rami Khader Ayyad, was abducted in broad daylight, and found dead on October 7, 2007.

Over the following year, a series of bomb attacks on Christian institutions in Gaza took place. Particular attention was paid to places of education. The Rahabat al-Wardia school run by nuns in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, and the American International School in Beit Lahiya were both bombed, most recently in May 2008. The Zahwa Rosary Sisters School and the El-Manara school, both in Gaza City, were also attacked this summer. The YMCA Library was bombed, as was the Commonwealth War Cemetery."

Spyer notes that casualties from these attacks were relatively small because most came at night. And it isn't necessarily Hamas carrying them out. But nor is it acting to stop them:

"Hamas is officially committed to tolerance toward the Christian community, and spokesmen for the authorities have criticized the attacks. In practice, however, only superficial investigations have taken place, and arrests are rare. In the few cases where arrests have been made, the suspects were not charged and were quickly released. This was the case, for example, with two members of the Jaish al-Islam who were suspected of involvement in the YMCA bombing."

Life is better for Christians in the West Bank, living under the Palestinian Authority's control. However, even there Christians have fallen prey to land grabs and other forms of intimidation. Spyer wonders where it all leads:

"Bethlehem, for example, has seen its Christian population decline from a 60 percent majority in 1990 to under 20% of the population today. The small and harassed Christian community of Gaza may simply cease to exist in the near future."

While We're Talking CAIR…

We're not alone in wondering why reporters and editors ignore the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)'s well-documented roots in the Muslim Brotherhood when writing about the group. Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs notes the government-financed Voice of America offered a story on CAIR's national banquet that could have been written by a public relations firm.

The story makes no mention to CAIR's status as unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial or to evidence showing CAIR's place in a Hamas-support structure. Instead, it cites Executive Director Nihad Awad's call for President-elect Barack Obama "to pursue a less-militaristic policy in the Muslim world and to open his administration to the ideas and talents of Muslim-Americans."

It is beyond question that Awad participated in a 1993 meeting called by Hamas activists and supporters to discuss ways to derail U.S.-led peace efforts between Israel and Palestinians. His name is included among members of a "Palestine Committee" created by the Brotherhood to help Hamas politically and financially. (See name 32 on page 4 here)

Johnson suggests: "Maybe it's time to rename `Voice of America' to `Voice of Hamas Front Groups.'"

CBC Hunger Effort Challenged

A well intended anti hunger campaign is drawing some criticism in Canada because of who the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation chose as partners in the effort. The situation comedy "Little Mosque on the Prairie" is teaming with the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), the Islamic Institute of Toronto (IIT) and MuslimServ."

That prompted some head-scratching from Tarek Fateh, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, which is devoted to combating "fanaticism and extremism within the Muslim community." In a column published in today's Calgary Herald, Fateh asks some pointed questions about the program:

"On face value, this is an admirable deed. Who can argue against using star power to motivate Muslims to donate to a charity. However, if you scratch below the surface, there is much more than meets the eye.

If CBC had to reach out to Muslim organizations, why CAIR and MAC? Why not any other Muslim group such as the Canadian Council of Muslim Women? Did CBC know about the controversy surrounding these two pro-sharia groups before allowing them to piggyback on one of Canada's national institutions?"

He points out CAIR's status as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation, which ended with convictions on 108 counts December 24, and cites the depth of CAIR's foreign financial support. The Muslim Association of Canada, meanwhile, acknowledges that its "roots can be traced to the Islamic revival of the early 20th century, culminating in the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood" and says it seeks to fulfill the ambitions of Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna.

Al-Banna, Fateh notes, "proclaimed that armed ‘Jihad is obligatory on every Muslim,' and that martyrdom in the name of Allah is better than life on earth." That is a chilling message from someone partnering with the government broadcasting outlet:

"What good is it to send our troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan when our own public broadcaster is tricked into according respectability to Islamist organizations that share the same doctrine of Jihad?"

Fateh also is the author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State.

Heeding the Lessons of HLF's Evidence

The significance of the 108 guilty verdicts in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) merits far more attention than it has generated.

The investigation not only cut off a source of millions of dollars to the terrorist group and its social arms, it exposed a disturbing and shockingly sophisticated network of Muslim Brotherhood front groups which have successfully infiltrated the American "mainstream."

Dallas Morning News editorial writer Rod Dreher is accentuating the latter point in two recent posts. In one, Dreher republishes a speech from last spring by Husain Haqqani, who since has become Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. Haqqani spelled out the process envisioned by the Muslim Brotherhood for its followers to employ to enhance Islam politically in America.

"The last principle relates to how the strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood has been operationalized in the United States. According to the seventh principle, the Brotherhood should function as a teacher, and guide the whole world."

In a follow-up, Dreher emphasizes this internal Muslim Brotherhood strategy memo unveiled in the HLF trial. It lays out the role of the Muslim Brother in America as "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and `sabotaging' their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all religions."

Dreher urges that this memo, which is less than 20 years old, should be taken seriously despite its far-fetched sounding agenda:

"It sounds like a conspiracy theory out of a bad Hollywood movie -- but it's real. Husain Haqqani, head of Boston University's Center for International Relations and a former Islamic radical, confirms that the Brotherhood "has run most significant Muslim organizations in the U.S." as part of the plan outlined in the strategy paper."

That's what the evidence showed, too. Check the last page of this link, too.

Egyptian Blogger Crackdown Continues

A Cairo court may take up the case of an Egyptian blogger whose whereabouts and well-being have been unknown since state authorities arrested him Oct. 27.

In a statement released Monday, the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights (EIPR), calls Reda Abdel-Rahman "the latest victim of systemic violations of freedom of belief and expression by [Egypt's] State Security Intelligence."

Abdel-Rahman moderates a blog called "Justice Liberty and Peace," which advocates a "Quranist" approach to Muslim law. According to the Virginia-based International Quranic Center (IQC), Quranists believe in "a modern, progressive interpretation of Islam that respects the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international legal conventions, rather than the fanatic interpretations of Islamic law that are increasingly gaining strength in the Muslim world."

That's not a popular approach with the Egyptian government, which the IQC says has arrested its followers in 1987, 2000 and 2007 and accused them of corrupting Islam. In addition to his writing, Abdel-Rahman is a social worker. According to the release, he was interrogated and forced to sign a pledge to stop his blogging and other religious writing. The IQC has labeled Abdel-Rahman's case "a forced disappearance."

Amid concerns Abdel-Rahman is being tortured, the IQC pledged to have those behind his arrest prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

Last week, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said Abdel-Rahman's case would be reviewed by a Cairo court December 14.

Coincidences that Aren't

Syndicated Columnist Mark Steyn challenges the wisdom of some post-Mumbai terrorist attack discussion. Specifically, Steyn points out media reluctance to invoke words like "Islamist" to describe the terrorists who killed a least 163 people and the folly of arguing that the attack on Mumbai's Chabad center could have been anything but a deliberate jihadi attack on Jews.

The New York Times, Steyn wrote incredulously, wondered whether the Jewish center was a target or the scene of violence by happenstance:

"Hmm. Greater Mumbai forms one of the world's five biggest cities. It has a population of nearly 20 million. But only one Jewish center, located in a building that gives no external clue as to the bounty waiting therein. An `accidental hostage scene' that one of the `practitioners' just happened to stumble upon? `I must be the luckiest jihadist in town. What are the odds?'"

You can read the column here or here.

Pentagon Turnover Rolls Hesham Islam

Ace Washington Times Pentagon reporter Bill Gertz reports that two casualties of the change in administration will be Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England and his special assistant Hesham Islam.

Islam, previously described by England as "my interlocutor" on Islamic issues and outreach, drew scrutiny in January "after a dispute with Joint Staff analyst Stephen Coughlin in the fall of 2007 over the nature of Islamist extremism," Gertz reports. "Mr. Islam disagreed with Mr. Coughlin, a specialist on Islamic law and its ties to extremism, and later referred to him as a ‘Christian zealot with a pen.'"

Coughlin then was forced out after being told his contract would not be renewed. Officials said the move was unrelated to Islam's criticism.

Writer Claudia Rosett dug in to Islam's posted biography and found a number of discrepancies. Among them, Islam told an interviewer that a film depicting his life story would begin with "huddling in terror as Israeli bombs came raining down, demolishing much of the building around him and his family" in Cairo. But, Rosett noted, Israel never bombed Cairo. She also found no records to support Islam's claim that he spent three days floating in the Arabian Sea after an Iranian torpedo sunk a cargo ship he was on.

We reported that Islam, serving as an outreach liaison for England, helped schedule meetings for the deputy secretary with a member of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood and a Lebanese ambassador considered a proxy for Syria. U.S. policy at the time was to freeze out both entities.

HLF Convictions - Immigration Collateral

Wednesday's decision by the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to uphold a landmark civil anti-terrorism judgment in the Boim v. HLF, et al. case is another significant victory in the war on terrorism. In quick summary, the Court ruled that U.S.-based contributions to Hamas through charitable fronts were liable under Federal anti-terrorism laws. The specific issue of culpability for the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) was remanded back to the U.S. District Court for consideration on what appears to be a legal technicality and that resolution will be interesting in view of the recent Dallas criminal conviction against the organization.

Innovative utilization of the judicial system - within the legitimate parameters of the law - to target those who commit terrorism or those who support terrorists is yet another viable arrow in the quiver. Along those lines, extending the Government's victory in the Dallas HLF criminal case further should be considered. We have already witnessed discussion concerning the potential effect of the case outcome on various unindicted co-conspirators. Consider now the possible immigration ramifications of the convictions.

Potential immigration issues may relate to individual case defendants who may be aliens or naturalized U.S. citizens. Assuming the convictions are upheld on appeal, any alien defendants so convicted will presumably face ultimate removal (deportation) proceedings as aliens convicted of terrorism-related felonies. Any defendants who are naturalized citizens may not necessarily be off the hook. If their naturalization occurred within the time frame of the indicted "bad acts" the Government will be able to seek revocation of their naturalization and then initiate removal proceedings. Interestingly, if any such naturalization occurred within the past 10 years (the statute of limitations for naturalization crimes), there may have been an element of fraud involved in that naturalization process. A naturalization applicant is required to disclose to the Government information concerning all their organizational affiliations and memberships. Clearly, such affiliations and memberships linked to terrorist support would have been disqualifying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. If these conditions exist relative to any of the individual defendants, they may be subject to further prosecution for naturalization fraud.

Beyond this, the organization HLF itself was convicted. The indictment charges bad acts that go back as far as January 1995 (Count 11, charging Conspiracy to Provide Funds, Goods and Services to a Specially Designated Terrorist). Quite arguably, any foreign national...any alien...who worked for or who was a member of the HLF from January 1995 onward would be subject to removal proceedings as an alien who was involved in terrorist support activities [8 USC 1182(a)(3) & 8 USC 1227(a)(4)]. Any visa petitions filed by HLF on behalf of aliens from January 1995 should be reviewed for possible revocation, since HLF would have likely made false statements concerning the nature of its organizational activities on such visa petitions. The alien beneficiaries of such visa petitions would then have improperly obtained immigration status from any issued visa and would be subject to status revocation and removal.

At least one such alien was the beneficiary of an HLF religious worker visa petition. Abdel Jabbar Hamdan, a California-based Palestinian who originally entered the U.S. in 1979 on a student visa, was ultimately ordered deported in 1993 after having his various claims for relief from deportation denied. Hamdan, who was not detained at the time, appealed that deportation order to the Board of Immigration Appeals and the appeal went on for years (circa 1999) before the Feds became interested again. In the meantime, HLF filed that religious worker visa petition for Hamdan in 1997. The Government denied the petition since Hamdan was actually working for HLF as a fundraiser.

It was around this time HLF came onto the Government's radar screen as a Hamas fundraising front. Hamdan, while still fighting deportation through various legal appeal efforts, was arrested by ICE and detained based on his HLF/Hamas fundraising activities. Hamdan, with no shortage of the usual Islamist apologist support, fought his detention through habeas corpus proceedings and won his release pending further appeal of his deportation case, where it currently resides in the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Curiously, with the conviction of HLF for felony fundraising for the terrorist organization Hamas, it would appear the U.S. Government would be in a position to revisit the Hamdan deportation appeal. The introduction of "new" evidence is actually allowed in such proceedings in certain circumstances. The Government could arguably also revisit Hamdan's detention. Given the significant change of evidentiary circumstances in the Hamdan case presented by the HLF conviction, might these efforts be forthcoming?

Clearly, the Dallas HLF case presents potentialities beyond that Dallas courtroom.

More MSA Extremism

Controversy simmers at Towson University in Maryland after the school's Muslim Students Association chapter hosted radical Imam Abdul Alim Musa for a lecture called "The Long Wars." It was supposed to focus on U.S. wars on drugs and terrorism.

But many, including Muslim students, walked away offended by Musa's views on 9/11, on President-Elect Barack Obama and Martin Luther King.

As freshman Molly Groo wrote in the independent student paper, the Tower Light, Musa strayed far from the advertised issues:

"Instead, with virtually no evidence to back up his points, Imam Musa claimed that the United States and the Israelis were responsible for the attacks on 9/11; that President-elect Barack Obama is an "idiot" because "no black man should believe in America"; that Martin Luther King Jr. was a coward who should have rebelled against the system more actively and violently; that al-Qaeda doesn't exist; and that by 2050, the Imam aims to change the United States into an Islamic state run by Sharia law."

Her disappointment in the lecture and in MSA's judgment was shared by "Miraaj," a self-described African-American Muslim who commented on Groo's article. Musa's insulting invective "was enough to turn my stomach," Miraaj wrote. "Imam Musa spoke as a black nationalist stuck in the 60's. In the end I thought that he was a disgrace to black people and Muslims."

This drew a series of responses from the MSA chapter president. The unnamed president said he wasn't defending Musa's 9/11 conspiracy theory, but he didn't take issue with it, either:

"Basically the Imam said "you have to find out who had a motive, who had the ability to do it, who would gain from this, and who has a history of doing this". He cited events like the Battle of Tonkin and the USS Maine (incidents that allowed for the Vietnam and Spanish-American Wars). He stated that these incidents are, as well as 9-11, fabricated to fulfill the same interests of those in power."

…

"As a Muslim, and an Arab, I know that a vast majority of people in the Islamic East do not accept the theory of 9-11 by "Al-Qaeda", or not independently at the least."

Last month, we noted an MSA chapter bulletin at Mesa College in San Diego, in which the chapter treasurer urged his brethren to abstain from voting in the presidential election:

"Whether you vote for the white kafir or the half-black kafir, they will kill our brothers and sisters. They will subjugate our brothers and sisters."

The Towson chapter president described himself as "the chief architect of the event, and a student of social science," seemed familiar with Musa's life story, and therefore, with his positions. Musa is "not racist or illogical," he wrote

The student Miraaj disagreed, casting Musa as "a wanna-be Malcolm X" who should have been vetted in advance of the lecture. As you can see, Musa advocates the most extreme views of politics and terror, including his praise of suicide bombers in 2000, 2002 and 2003. Congratulations to the Towson students who are calling out him and his MSA hosts.

Trouble in the Heartland

The FBI is investigating reports that up to 20 young Somali men from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have secretly returned to their war-torn African homeland to wage jihad.

Tom Lyden of the Fox affiliate in Minneapolis broke the story earlier this week. He reported that as many as 20 Somali men, ages 17-22, have left returned to Somalia in the past few months without telling their families. Some of those families went to the FBI out of concern the young men were being recruited into jihad.

According to a subsequent ABC News report, one Somali man who left the Twin Cities blew himself up in a suicide bombing last month. Investigators are trying to determine whether the man, Shirwa Ahmed, set up a recruiting network that brought in the other missing men.

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune has additional details.

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