Friday, April 29, 2005

Charity Begins At Home

According to an article from www.cair-net.org , Muslims living in America are bemoaning their bad fortune (undeserved, of course) because they can no longer give to the charities of their choice, as found @
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/042805dnnatcharities.534be30f.html

Muslims finding it's hard to give
U.S. investigations into some major Islamic charities scare many donors
08:53 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 27, 2005
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – "...Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. government has shut down several major Islamic charities, alleging some of their money went to al-Qaeda, Hamas or other terrorist organizations.In Dallas, some Muslims have started giving to local shelters and non-denominational causes..."

Isn't it about time that these people, who are reaping many of the benefits of living here in the United States, stopped sending their required 2.5% zakat to organizations which support terrorism.? Cutting off the financial connections which terrorists exploit is one of the smartest moves of the Bush administration.

Again, from the article cited above: "Some Dallas-area mosques have seen drastic reduction in collections since 9-11....People are...very careful on who to donate to."

Considering what some of these mosques have been up to (I am referring to the recent conviction of Ali Al-Timimi, one of the founders of the mosque in Falls Church, Virginia) at least some of the activities in these mosques are part of a treasonous conspiracy.

Let charity begin at home, where the authorities can monitor what's going on with the organization receiving sizeable amounts of money. I am hoping that these changes in donations will apply to all the Muslim communities. Our law-enforcement officials should keep putting on the pressure! The First-Amendment right of freedom of religion (and I question the validity of considering Islam a religion in the normal sense of the word) does not apply to donating to subversive organizations.

SIXTH COLUMN: You Don't Say?

George Mason at Sixth Column Against Jihad adds his own spin to the story on the ISA school bus driver in his article SIXTH COLUMN: You Don't Say?

Welcoming a new team member

As moderator of the Northern Virginiastan blog, I am pleased to announce that this blog has become a team blog. Always on Watch has accepted my invitation to join Northern Virginiastan as a team member. Always on Watch's first posting is What Is Your Child Learning in School? Readers of Northern Virginiastan will also be interested in visiting Always on Watch's own blog.

Welcome, Always on Watch, to the Northern Virginiastan blog. We look forward to reading more of your postings!

Thursday, April 28, 2005

What Is Your Child Learning In School?

This from http://www.dawanet.com/methods/publicschool.dawapublic.asp:
"Dawa means to invite non-Muslims to accept the truth of Islam. Performing Dawa involves both our words and actions.... Students are routinely exposed in their classroom to new information and opinions, hence they tend to be more receptive to new beliefs and ideas.
Schools are therefore fertile grounds where the seeds of Islam can be sowed inside the hearts of non-Muslim students. Muslim students should take ample advantage of this opportunity and present to their schoolmates the beautiful beliefs of Islam."
Particularly disturbing is the last section: "We should use every opportunity to sensitize non-Muslim peers and school staff to Islam and to establish an environment in which everywhere a non-Muslim turns, he notices Islam portrayed in a positive way, is influenced by it and eventually accepts Islam with Allah's guidance, Insha Allah (if God wills)."

The site explains the various methods which can be employed. Interested readers might want to visit the October 20, 2004 posting on this blog to see just how far matters have gone in the Fairfax County Public Schools. The curriculum may indicate that children are learning about multiculturalism when the reality is that the students are being encouraged to accept the tenets of Islam.

Is learning about other cultures a bad thing? No, provided the portrayal of such cultures is balanced. Dawa.net, however, advocates subtly persuading our children to accept particular religious doctrines.

Fairfax County parents--indeed, all concerned citizens--should review what children are learning in school, not only in the classroom but also in student-to-student communications and during school-sponsored activities. Religious indoctrination should not be occurring on the grounds of our public schools.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Alhamdulillah

(Praise be to Allah)

Ali al-Timimi convicted
.

But Judge Leonie Brinkema freed him on bond until his sentencing in July. I would consider him a flight risk and detain him without bond until sentencing.

Monday, April 25, 2005

WaPo conflates two school bus accidents

The subtitle of the article Second Child Dies of Injuries From Bus Crash from the April 21 edition of the WaPo is School's Driver Charged In Unrelated Accident. I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of the deaths of Harrison Orosco, 7, and Lilibeth Gomez, 9, who died from their injuries in the school bus accident last week, but this blog is about "monitoring how Islam is subverting public institutions (media, politics, business, schools, and religious organizations) in Northern Virginia and the greater DC metro area": for that reason, I will be focusing on the unrelated incident.

"In a separate incident in Alexandria yesterday, a private school bus with faulty brakes and bald tires crashed, but none of the 34 students aboard was injured. Police said the driver should not have been behind the wheel."

"In yesterday's crash of the private school bus, the driver, Abdelrazeg Abdalla, 31, of Falls Church, was charged with several counts, including operating the Islamic Saudi Academy bus on a suspended license."

"Investigators said Abdalla's driving privileges had been suspended at 12:01 a.m. yesterday because of insurance-related issues. He was fired by school administrators shortly after the charges -- including citations for reckless driving and driving a vehicle with faulty equipment -- were issued.

"They determined that the bus had little or no brakes at all and that the tires were in fact bald," said Alexandria Police Capt. John Crawford, adding that investigators found skid marks to suggest that Abdalla tried to apply the brakes.

The chain-reaction crash, in which two other drivers sustained minor injuries, occurred as the school bus ferrying students to the Islamic Saudi Academy failed to stop as it traveled south down a hill on North Quaker Lane near Duke Street. The bus struck a Honda Civic, causing a chain-reaction crash involving the bus and three cars.

Police said Abdalla told them he was unable to stop the vehicle as traffic slowed. State police towed the bus to a maintenance lot for examination."

Virginia State Police determined that the bus was unsafe to drive and said it would remain out of service until the problems were repaired.

David Kovilik, director of education for the Fairfax County academy, said the bus was not part of the fleet's normal daily rotation, calling it "a spare."

He said that the bus passed its Virginia state inspection in July and that it was subject to daily mechanical checks as well as monthly preventive maintenance.

"I looked at the bus [after the crash], and the tire tread was thin, and on one axle the brake was worn down to the metal," Kovilik said. "The other three tires had functioning brakes."

Kovilik said Abdalla was hired as a driver in August after a comprehensive background check that he said included a search for any past convictions and "points on his license."

But a check of court records in Virginia revealed seven past charges, including several traffic violations for speeding and crossing a double yellow line. Several of the charges had been dismissed.

Abdalla also had a misdemeanor conviction in Fairfax for abducting his estranged wife and 3-month-old daughter at knifepoint. He had originally been charged with felony kidnapping, but friends and family -- including his wife -- wrote letters of support to the court on Abdalla's behalf, and he agreed to plead guilty in May 2003, after nearly three months in jail, to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault and battery.

After his release, Abdalla was picked up by Department of Homeland Security officials and detained for about six months, according to court records. It could not be determined why he was detained.

A phone number for Abdalla could not be found yesterday.

Kovilik said Abdalla's firing was based solely on his driving the school bus without a valid license. He said he was stunned by news that Abdalla had a court record.

"Oh no, no, no!" he said. "I'm going to revisit this."

--- End of article ---

Questions:

1. The Washington Post no longer has on its web site an important story about the hiring practices of The Islamic Saudi Academy, owned and operated by the nation of Saudi Arabia and alma mater of Ahmed Abu Ali, arrested on national-security charges. Why did story about the school's bus accident disappear from the Post web site? Did CAIR or a similar group see to it that the article was removed?
2. Exactly what are the hiring practices of the Islamic Saudi Academy?
3. Are children and the general public endangered by the bus-fleet operations of the Islamic Saudi Academy?
4. What is the school-license status of the Islamic Saudi Academy?
5. Who are the friends who influenced the court to reduce the bus driver's previous charge of felony kidnapping to a misdemeanor?
6. Why is anyone ever detained by Homeland Security allowed to have the responsibility for transporting children? Not to mention the knife-point kidnapping charge?

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Neighbor or terrorist?

A story received by Email:

Neighbor or Terrorist?

My family and I live in an established neighborhood which is much like a small town: when a neighbor needs help, the others of us pitch in. Also, there is not much turnover here, so when a house goes on the market, we watch closely to see who will be moving in and joining our community.

The house across the street from us stood empty for several months when the original purchasers divorced in the early 90’s. When the new neighbors Mohammed and his wife Isabel moved in, I walked over and introduced myself. I learned right away that Mohammed was the son of a former ambassador from a Middle Eastern country and had been reared right here in the DC area; Isabel was a second-generation Hispanic American. The couple had been married for several years and had moved to our neighborhood because they were ready to start their family.

Over a period of several years, all of us became friends. We did petsitting for each other, organized yard sales together, borrowed each other’s lawn tools, and shoveled snow in the Blizzard of ’96, when the plows didn’t come and we had to dig ourselves all the way out to the main road.

When Isabel started having children, I offered to babysit from time to time so that she and Mohammed could occasionally have a night out. It was at that time that I saw an interesting photograph of Mohammed, in what appeared to be traditional Arab garb. This came as a surprise to me because I had always seen him dress in modern Western clothes. When I later asked Isabel, “Is Mohammed a sheikh?” she told me that he was. I thought nothing more about it, other than we had some pretty exotic neighbors in our little community.

In the late 90’s, Mohammad began making regular trips to the Middle East. One morning, around 4:00, I went outside to get the newspaper and saw Mohammed just arriving home. I smiled to myself, called out to him, and said, “What are you doing, coming in so late?” He walked over to me, and that’s when I discovered that he was quite intoxicated. He slurred, “I’ve been to Vegas.” I said, “I thought that Moslems didn’t drink.” Mohammed morosely replied, “Maybe I’m just not a good Moslem.” His answers surprised me—never had I known Mohammed to drink or to speak about his beliefs, religious or political.

A short time later, Mohammed informed me that they were moving back to his home in the Middle East in order to conduct new business ventures there. In early 1998, he sold his business here in the DC area, and the entire family departed for an extended time. Both Mohammed and Isabel told me, “We’ll never sell this house. We’re coming back.” We continued to keep in touch by e-mail and every time they returned to the States, visited each other.

For a while, the house remained empty because Isabel planned to come back to the States for extended visits with her family. In the summer of 1999, I was preparing to teach a world literature course and approached Mohammed to get some advice about Middle Eastern literature. He told me that what I was planning to use, Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, were mere fairy tales and that his culture didn’t have literature as such. Then he said something I’ll never forget: "You want to know how a Middle Eastener thinks? It's me and my brother against my cousin. And when we finish my cousin off, it's me and my brother against each other. We are Semites—Jew and Arab. We're the most treacherous people you've ever known.” He launched into a diatribe against American foreign policy, specifically mentioning his disapproval of Israel and of Madeline Albright, “a Jewess as Secretary of State.” He concluded by stating that he supported Saddam Hussein. My impression at the time was one of “He’s trying to explain the world situation to me.” I did not feel particularly threatened or alarmed but, as odd as this now sounds, was grateful to learn about the Arab position from someone whom I considered my friend.

Until the summer 2001, we kept in touch through e-mail. They sent photos of their children and asked about the tenants now living in the house. Since 9/11, those e-mails have never resumed, nor have Mohammed or Isabel ever returned to our neighborhood. According to the tax records, their house was sold to a man in Miami; this man had an Arab surname. The house has now been resold—to the last tenants.

My post-9/11 research—at first through books available at the public library and more recently through the Internet—makes me wonder who Mohammed really is. I’ve learned that Islamists accept no literature other than the Koran. I’ve learned that the jihadists who attacked us on 9/11 made trips to Las Vegas. I’ve learned that there could be sleeper cells here in the United States and that when the call comes, they will answer.

And, yet, those years that he lived next door to us, I thought Mohammed was such a good neighbor! Now, every time pictures of wanted terrorists are released, my family and I scrutinize those pictures. Will Mohammed’s photo appear one day?

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

The Muslim community's newspaper

The Muslim Link is a newspaper distributed free of charge, primarily through Muslim businesses. It's a good way of keeping tabs on the Muslim community in the DC-MD-VA metro area and to realize that there's a whole parallel culture. Unfortunately, its Web archives are not kept current.


The Sheraton Premiere, site of Islamic fundraising events

I picked up the April 15 edition from a local Muslim business, and here are but a few things that caught my eye:

- listings of rental properties near area mosques, presented by Sister Gena Chung

- an ad selling copies of the Quran for $1 apiece (Spanish versions $2) for purposes of Dawah (and Afeefa Syeed claims that Dawah is not central to the practice of Islam!)


Abdulhalim Ashqar - fundraising for the HAMAS fundraiser

- a full page ad for a fundraising dinner to support Abdulhalim Ashqar and aspiring assassin Ahmed Abu Ali, to be held May 22 at the Sheraton Premiere. What makes the Sheraton Premiere, aside from its central location, the "go-to" place for holding Islamic functions? (CAIR is hosting two events - its MD-VA chapter annual fundraiser and its "Islamophobia" conference there) Confirmed speakers include our old buddy Shaker Elsayyed and Imam Seraj Wahhaj, identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombings. The Muslim Link provided the space for this ad free of charge.

- a flattering interview with Sean Connaughton, who is running for Lt. Governor of Virginia in the June 14 primary. Connaughton is currently the Chairman, Board of County Supervisors, Prince William County. The article speaks glowingly on how Connaughton's office supported the mosque-building activities of the Dar Al Noor Masjid and Manassas Mosque.

- a sidebar on the front page concerning the trial of Ali Al-Timimi. Here is a link to the website of Dr. Ali Al-Timimi's Support Committee. Gee, he seemed like a nice American kid until his parents moved him to Saudi Arabia when he was 13!

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Think it's just Detroit, Washington, etc.?

Jihad comes to Small Town, USA

This article really struck a chord with me, as I had lived in a small college town in the Midwest prior to moving to the DC Metro area. I don't understand Arabic, as does the author of this articule, but I did hear the rantings and ravings of Muslim students, concerning alleged discrimination and persecution of Muslims, hatred of homosexuals ("they should all be killed"), support of Sharia punishments, etc.

Until that experience, I was a naive, stupid liberal believing in the unity of the human family, regardless of religion or race or ethnic background.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Another disingenuous representation by WaPo


Susan Douglass

In an article ostensibly about presentation of Hinduism in textbooks used by Fairfax County Public Schools, Susan Douglass is described as a "world history curriculum consultant who has worked with Fairfax schools." Despite her Western name, Ms. Douglass is a former teacher at ISA and is listed as "Consultant, Researcher/Analyst, Content Developer" for the Council on Islamic Education based in California.


Afeefa Syeed

BTW I am rethinking the "pass" I gave to Afeefa Syeed, who brought in children from a Muslim school in Herndon to give presentations to grade school kids on Ramadan. Turns out that Ms. Syeed is principal of that school, called Al-Fatih Academy, at 730 Jackson Street, Herndon and the children are in fact her charges. Ms. Syeed is also a failed candidate for the Loudon County Board of Supervisors.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Gleanings from the Blogosphere

From Yahoo! Groups: dc-terror, Witness testifies against Al-Timimi. Thanks also to a reader who notified Northern Virginiastan via Email.

Through the article A "Must Read" Book and Interview with Author from Sixth Column Against Jihad, I discovered SperryFiles.com, a companion web site to the book Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington by Paul Sperry.

Northern Virginiastan has used pictures and links to predefined locations in MapQuest to make Islamic subversion of public institutions visible to readers. Sperry provides pictures of Islamic leaders and picture of office locations of Islamic organizations along what he calls (quite accurately) the Wahhabi Corridor, known to the uninitiated as Route 7 (Leesburg Pike, Harry Byrd Highway).

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Not-so-new News for April 6, 2005

From the WaPo via Yahoo! Groups: dc-terror, Terrorist Case Puts Words of Muslim Leader On Trial in Va.:


Photo of Shaker Elsayed from 1999 (Source: Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly - NEWS - Islamic Teachings on Death and Mourning - November 5, 1999 | PBS)

Our old buddy Shaker Elsayed weighs in on the Ali Al-Timimi trial ... In addition to being identified Secretary General of the Muslim American Society and President of the "World Muslim Institute" (I could not find a web site), he's identified here as a member of the executive committee of the Dar Al Hijrah mosque. Busy, busy, busy!!

The article notes that DC native Ali Al-Timimi lectured at the Center for Islamic Information and Education, also known as Dar Al-Arqam, in Falls Church. CIIE'S address is 360 S Washington St, suite 104; Falls Church VA. 22046.

Northern Virginiastan has posted many articles about the links between the Muslim American Society and the Muslim Brotherhood. Now comes news from Islam Online via Dhimmi Watch that the US State Department has drawn up a memo calling for direct and permanent political dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood.