HLF Prosecutors Adjust Case

The Dallas Morning News reports that two defendants in the Hamas-support trial involving the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development have seen all charges against them dropped, except for the sweeping count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh still face up to 55 years in prison if convicted, but the changes drop a series of individual transactions that prosecutors argued went to benefit Hamas. That forced jurors to assess each transaction and unanimously agree that a charity committee receiving the money was controlled by Hamas.

Jury selection for a retrial of Abdulqader, Odeh and three others is scheduled to begin Sept. 15. Their first trial ended in a mistrial last October after jurors could not reach unanimous verdicts in the case.

A former federal prosecutor tells the newspaper that the move signals that "The government is trying to get back to basics and focus on the cleanest and most easily understandable allegations."

Alleged HLF Fundraiser Charged

An Arizona man has been indicted for lying to FBI agents about his work on behalf of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

Akram Musa Abdallah was interviewed by FBI agents in January 2007 and denied raising money for HLF. In fact, the indictment charges, he helped organize HLF fundraisers in the Phoenix area.

In January 2007, when the interviews occurred, prosecutors and agents were gearing up for the Hamas-support trial of HLF and five former officials. That ended in a mistrial in October. Now, those same prosecutors and agents are gearing up for the retrial, scheduled to begin Sept. 15.

See the indictment here.

Study Faults Textbooks

American students are getting a whitewashed view of Islam in their textbooks. That's the conclusion of a study by The American Textbook Council, which blames "Islamist activists [using] multiculturalism and ready-made American political movements, especially those on campus, to advance and justify uncritical Islam-related content makeover in history textbooks."

As a result, some disputed definitions, such as over jihad's peaceful vs. violent meanings, are presented in a sanitized fashion and "presented as established facts," the report concludes.

You can see the Council's full report here.

Rushdie Weighs in on Jewel of Medina

The Times of London has the first reaction from Salman Rushdie over Random House publishing's decision to drop The Jewel of Medina out of fear it could prompt threats and even violence from "a small, radical segment" of the Muslim community.

Rushdie, who lived for years under an Iranian fatwa sanctioning his murder after writing The Satanic Verses, said he was disappointed in the Random House decision to drop the novel by Sherry Jones.

"This is censorship by fear and it sets a very bad precedent indeed," Rushdie said.

Random House was not Rushdie's publisher for The Satanic Verses but has published his more recent works including Fury and Shalimar the Clown.

We are not alone

Danish Intelligence apparently has followed the lead of U.S. Homeland Security in sanitizing its vocabulary regarding terrorism. Out are words like mujahideen and Islamism.

"Terrorist groups often try to legitimize their actions by associating them with religion, using words such as jihad," said Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, who runs the Danish Intelligence Agency. "However, a jihad also has peaceful and positive meanings, and it is unfortunate if the authorities repeat it and strengthen the extremists' use of the word."

In the U.S., Congressman Pete Hoekstra has tried to block the changes from happening, arguing that accuracy is important in understanding and combating the challenge of terrorism and extremism.

CAIR Contests Testimony

Corey Saylor, the national legislative director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), felt I misrepresented his views during my testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade on July 31.

I disagree. You can read my testimony here, see Saylor's correspondence here and my reply here.

More on the Asbahi Tempest

Our colleague Doug Farah has an interesting post about the continuing furor over the resignation of Mazen Asbahi as Barack Obama's Muslim outreach coordinator. Check it out yourself, but Farah does a great job neatly dissecting the blowback that comes from any episode like this one. Asbahi resigned less than two weeks after joining the campaign after it was reported he had ties with groups connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.

As Farah notes:

The tactics have been familiar to any who follow these groups: attack the messenger, despite the fact that the postings simply laid out Mr. Ashbahi's multiple ties to MB groups, based on SEC filing and public records-and made no allegations of any illegality or impropriety; attack the Wall Street Journal and Glenn Simpson for following up on the report, and having the nerve to call Mr. Asbahi for comment (which is now described as a right-wing expose-in-the-making, as if belonging to FOUR-not one MB groups, as has been widely reported-were not worthy of comment, or a story when the resignation happened); blame the media et al for Mr. Asbahi's resignation, as if an e-mailed question about the relationship from a journalist were somehow an unacceptable practice in seeking information; and paint the entire thing as anti-Muslim bash-fest by the far right (see this wildly inaccurate and deceptive piece by James Zogby in the Huffington Post; and, finally, fail to address ANY of the substantive issues such associations raise.

IPT Fact Checks MPAC Release on Sherman Hearing

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) issued a news release July 31 concerning IPT Executive Director Steven Emerson's testimony before a House subcommittee. The release contains a serious of false and misleading claims. To see our complete fact check, click here.

MAS' Immigration Advice - Commit a Federal Felony?

The Muslim American Society (MAS), a self-proclaimed Muslim rights organization based in northern Virginia near Washington, DC, is offering some questionable advice about immigration law. In an article posted Aug. 4, MAS Freedom Foundation Executive Director Mahdi Bray provides his spin on a case related to a Palestinian man arrested recently by ICE in North Carolina.

Within the MAS immigration interpretation is what appears to be some legal advice provided by Bray. According to his own biography posted on the MAS Web site, Bray claims no standing as an attorney, but has been a "consultant" and "political adviser." (Here's a profile Bray would rather you not see) Yet this is what he advised foreign nationals (aliens) who might be encountered confronted in their homes by ICE Agents:

"Sadly, what many in the immigrant community are not aware of, is that they DO have rights," stated MAS Freedom Executive Director, Mahdi Bray.

Bray added, "If you are not guilty of a criminal offense, an important thing to remember is that ICE officials, in conducting their 'raids' and 'sweeps' are generally carrying 'administrative warrants' – not 'criminal warrants' – which means that you are not obligated by law to open the door or allow any ICE representative to enter your home."

However, that is not to say that ICE officials do not consider themselves 'above the law.'

Bray might want to reconsider that advice. He may be suggesting that people commit a felony. Under some circumstances, Bray is technically correct. ICE Agents seeking to arrest aliens strictly for removal violations are not making criminal arrests. Therefore they would not have the same authority to make a forcible entry into a dwelling as they would if they had a criminal arrest warrant and had reason to believe the suspect was inside.

That said, the facts change somewhat if that administrative removal arrest is based on a final removal order. Many (really most) of those arrests in these "raids" and "sweeps" as Bray refers to them are by ICE Fugitive Operations Teams seeking those aliens who are under final removal orders. From the available media reports and the limited ICE information, it even appears the North Carolina Palestinian case MAS details falls into that category.

Final removal orders are still administrative arrest warrants and do not authorize forced entry into a dwelling as a criminal arrest warrant would. However, there are provisions within the Immigration and Nationality Act that specifically make it a criminal offense to prevent or interfere with the execution of a final removal order or to do anything that impedes the lawful execution of such a final removal order. Actions such as barricading oneself inside one's home and refusing to surrender to ICE authorities or other failures to surrender under duly issued judicial administrative removal orders, would very much be a violation of this statute. ICE Agents could (and have...I've done it myself in years past) obtain a criminal search warrant and criminal arrest warrant based on this statute to make a forced entry into a dwelling to effect an arrest after securing the premises on the outside. This statute very much applies. It gives the force of criminal law to administrative final orders of removal.

Aliens under final removal orders who hide behind closed doors and follow Bray's advice do so at notable peril. They risk committing a felony and the potential of being so charged. Instead of simply being detained and deported, they risk becoming convicted felons, detained and deported. In some Federal Districts, the US Attorney's Offices are prosecuting significantly more immigration crimes. Bray, by offering this generalized "you are not obligated by law to open the door or allow any ICE representative to enter your home" advice is potentially recommending that many people commit felonies. He may consider ICE officials "above the law" but his advice clearly demonstrates who the lawless (or at least very ignorant) really is.

For those interested, here is the relevant section of the law:
Section 1253. Penalties related to removal

(a) Penalty for failure to depart
(1) In general
Any alien against whom a final order of removal is outstanding
by reason of being a member of any of the classes described in
section 1227(a) of this title, who -
(A) willfully fails or refuses to depart from the United
States within a period of 90 days from the date of the final
order of removal under administrative processes, or if judicial
review is had, then from the date of the final order of the
court,
(B) willfully fails or refuses to make timely application in
good faith for travel or other documents necessary to the
alien's departure,
© connives or conspires, or takes any other action,
designed to prevent or hamper or with the purpose of preventing
or hampering the alien's departure pursuant to such, or
(D) willfully fails or refuses to present himself or herself
for removal at the time and place required by the Attorney
General pursuant to such order,
shall be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than four
years (or 10 years if the alien is a member of any of the classes
described in paragraph (1)(E), (2), (3), or (4) of section 1227(a) of this title), or both.

So They Will Admit Some Things

The head of the Islamic Saudi Academy, a school under ongoing scrutiny for its use of textbooks containing passages inciting hatred against other faiths and extremist religious notions, has pleaded guilty to failing to report a sexual abuse allegation involving one of his students.

Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan was fined $500 for the misdemeanor offense.

But Al-Shabnan and the ISA are less forthcoming about promised changes to his school's textbooks. Separate reports by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Hudson Institute find passages which justify killing non-Muslims remain in the books two years after a promise to clear out such content. School officials and their defenders say the reports are flawed, but the USCIRF has been frustrated in attempts to collect a complete set of the current textbooks.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has written his third letter on the issue to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice urging State Department action. Wolf, the ranking member of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, which oversees the State Department and other international efforts, has received no response to any of the letters.

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