CAIR's Embarrassment

According to Vigilant Freedom/910 Group Blog, CAIR is having some trouble getting Muslims to report cases of discrimination and hate crimes. Excerpt from the report at the above link:

It’s all about the numbers in the victimhood bullying game.

And Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, has problems getting the numbers he needs to prove that Muslims are subject to unusual discrimination. This could be a real embarrassment for Awad, because if Muslims are actually doing well in the U.S., maybe they don’t need CAIR. And that could mean all that fine Saudi and UAE money is going to the wrong group. Or maybe that most American Muslims don’t want their kids to be part of the future Muslim Brotherhood Caliphate after all....

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Awad tell you about his problems with Muslims who just don’t understand how important those discrimination reports are to his career salary mission. We have the audio - Vigilant Freedom Center received a recording from the April 27, 2007 CAIR briefing on the 6 Imams, at the Muslim ADAMS Center in Virginia....

Written report and audio HERE.

Even the WaPo Decries Pelosi!

Due to personal circumstances, I've barely been able to read the newspaper for the past two weeks. Shameful, I know. But real life comes first.

Today, now that I'm once again able to make blog rounds, I spotted this commentary about a recent editorial in the Washington Post. Excerpt from "The Erosion of Our Constitution":

Once in a while, the Washington Post doesn't align with the Democratic Party, as shown by the lead editorial in the April 27, 2007 edition. The subtitle of the editorial, a commentary on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's recent trip to Syria, sets the tone:

Having finished hosting U.S. politicians, Syria's dictator has returned to jailing dissidents and sponsoring terrorism.

Ostensibly, Ms. Pelosi visited Syria to stop the flow of terrorists from Syria into Iraq, to promote the release of political hostages, and to further the idea that the road to peace is through Damascus. A Pollyanna fantasy if there ever was one!

Read the rest at Praesidium Respublicae (Latin for "Guardians of the Republic").

Weekly Radio Show: April 27

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, of which I am cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

This week's scheduled guest for the second half hour of the show is Beakerkin of The Beak Speaks.

If you are unable to listen to the radio show live, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Virginia Tech massacre

Shortly after I made the two posts about "accomodations" of Muslims at colleges and universities, I learned about the massacre at Virginia Tech. 33 people died, with many more wounded. The victims from Northern Virginia are:

Daniel Perez Cueva, Woodbridge. Age 21. Junior, International Studies.
Erin Peterson, Chantilly. Age 18. Freshman.
Mary Read, Annandale. Age 19. Freshman.
Reema Samaha, Chantilly. Age 18. Freshman.
Leslie Sherman, Springfield. Age 20. Sophomore, History and International Studies
Maxine Turner, Vienna. Age 22. Senior, Chemical Engineering.

The lives of these young women and young man were senselessly cut short. I extend my sympathy and condolences to family and friends. May God provide you courage and strength in these difficult times.

Northern Virginiastan

UPDATE: We now know that the killer was Cho Seung-Hui, a Korean national from Centreville who graduated from Westfield High School. I am saddened for his family, who will have to carry the stigma of having the perpetrator of the worst massacre in U.S. history as family for the rest of their lives.

Cynical manipulation of Virginia Tech tragedy

News media broadcast cell phone video captured by student Jamal Al-Barghouti, who likened the violence to that "suffered" by the so-called Palestinians. The Baltimore Sun reports:

On CNN, the earliest on-scene pictures and words were provided by Jamal Albarghouti, a Virginia Tech graduate student from the West Bank. His cell phone pictures of police charging Norris Hall as shots rang out were broadcast and streamed over and over throughout the day.

By dinnertime, CNN was featuring Albarghouti standing on campus, microphone in hand, reporting from the scene as he talked with anchorman Wolf Blitzer, who was in the cable channel's Washington newsroom.

"Let's face it, right now, his material is still the best of the day in terms of capturing on video what took place there," Nancy Lane, CNN's vice president of domestic news, said last night.

As pointed out by Detroit-based commentator Debbie Schlussel, Al-Barghouti is of the same family as Marwan Barghouti, who is now in prison for planning terroirst attacks. Young Al-Barghouti was cynical in manipulating this tragedy, and CNN is complicit.

Weekly Radio Show: April 20

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, of which I am cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

This week's guest is someone with whom frequenters of this blog may be familiar!

Friday, April 20: This week's scheduled guest for the second half hour of the show is Mike of Mike's America.

If you are unable to listen to the radio show live, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

The Killer At Virginia Tech

Snippet from the Washington Post web site:

Law enforcement sources said that Cho died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on one of his arms, but they were not sure what the words meant.

Definitions of "Ismail."

Georgetown U transfers control to Muslims

15 MuHarram 1431 A.H. (January 1, 2010 AD): Georgetown University, a historically Jesuit university, has become the first university in the United States to transfer control to a Muslim Board of Trusties, Alhamdilillah. All crucifices have been removed from classrooms and broken, emulating the example of Isa-alaiyhis salaam, who will return to smash crosses, and have been replaced by an arrow pointing to Mecca, so that students can interrupt class to pray. Wudu facilities for ritual washing have been installed every three classrooms so that students can wash before prayer. Student boards that adjudicate complaints against students' behavior in the dormitories have instituted sharia. Students discovered having sex outside of marriage will be stoned. Alchohol is forbidden on campus, even for Mass that the Muslim leadership has so graciously accorded to the remaining Catholics on campus. Georgetown University is negotiating with bars and restaurants in Georgetown to stop serving alcohol in order not to corrupt Muslim campus life.

OK, so it's not April Fools. Ridiculous? Maybe. But consider:

At Georgetown University, Muslim women can live apart in housing that enables them to "sleep in an Islamic setting," as the website puts it. According to a student at the time the policy was adopted, the university housing office initially opposed the idea, on grounds that all freshman should have the experience of "living in dorms and dealing with different kinds of people." That might sound appealing, Muslim students told a reporter in an article featured on the website. But in their view, the reporter wrote, "learning to live with 'different kinds of people' " actually "causes more harm than good" for Muslims, because it requires them to live in an environment that "distracts them from their desire to become better Muslims, and even draw[s] weaker Muslims away from Islam."

Again, this is taken from the StarTribune.com via Dhimmi Watch.

Muslim accomodations at college campuses

From the StarTribune.com (Minneapolis-St. Paul) via Dhimmi Watch, information about how the Muslim Student Association is conducting "soft" jihad on college campuses by pressuring them to make special accomodations for Mulsims. As with the Muslim American Society, MSA doesn't provide a street address, only a postal address in - guess! - Falls Mosque:

The task force isn't operated by overly enthusiastic college students. Its professional staff, based in the Washington, D.C., area, includes coordinators who provide legal advice, teach students to lobby, write letters on their behalf, and help them overcome "obstacles" such as college administrators' concerns about violating the separation of church and state.

The Muslim Accommodations Task Force is a project of the Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada. MSA's mission is to enable Muslims here "to practice Islam as a complete way of life," and its "main goal" is "spreading Islam," according to its website. The association calls itself the "landmark Muslim organization in North America," and says it has chapters on 600 campuses.

On MSA's website (www.msa-national.org), the sort of inclusive language used by the Muslim Accommodations Task Force gives way to hard-hitting advice for insiders. One downloadable publication --"Your Chapter's Guide to Campus Activism" -- describes how activists can advance political positions such as "restoring justice within the Palestinian territories," and opposition to the Patriot Act and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The cover features a student with a megaphone, and the slogan "Speak Out! Stand Up! Say It Loud!"

MSA views itself as America's moral and political vanguard. "As Muslims, we are a nation elected by God to lead humanity," the guide announces. On campus, that means initiating "mass mobilization" through "direct action campaigns" à la the 1960s, when students were "itching to fight" for change.

The guide explains how Muslim student groups can obtain funding, identify coalition partners and "bodies of power" on campus, work within student government, and use the media. "Marches, rallies and protests on campus" can "generate massive amounts of exposure for your MSA and its cause," it advises.

In all these endeavors, however, establishing credibility is vital to success, the guide emphasizes. Activists must "take full advantage of the open-minded environment" on campus, and skillfully employ the language of patriotism and rights. "[M]obilization commences the moment you speak in a language that resonates with your audience," the guide adds.

Thus, activists should take care to position themselves as mainstream Americans. "Make use of terminology like 'our country,' 'our security,' and 'we, the American people,' " the guide suggests. "Unless you identify with the people, you will never gain the legitimacy to criticize state policies," though "identifying yourself as an American" will not necessarily preclude criticism.

Activists should also frame their objectives in language that Americans embrace. "Most Americans identify with concepts such as 'justice,' 'self-determination,' 'human rights' and 'democracy,' " the guide explains. "These terms will be constructive when delivering your message, regardless of the issue."

NOTE: It is not my style to quote whole sections of an article, but here it is was necessary to expose the tactics of MSA. In a subsequent article, I will quote what this article said about accomodations for Muslims at Georgetown University.

Whoops

Updating our template led to the loss of comments and other items in the sidebar at right. My apologies to all our readers.

Kind regards,
Northern Virginiastan

Muslim Brotherhood denies that they were invited to speak to Congress

An update to our previous article Did Steny Hoyer's visit with Muslim Brotherhood lead to this invitation? from CNSNews.com via Jihad Watch:

Islamist Group Denies Report of Hoyer Invitation to Visit Congress -- 04/13/2007

Weekly Radio Show: April 13

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, of which I am cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Friday, April 13: This week's scheduled guest for the second half hour of the show is Pim's Ghost of What Would Charles Martel Do. She gives no quarter to CAIR!

If you are unable to listen to the radio show live, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Did Steny Hoyer's visit with Muslim Brotherhood lead to this invitation?

From the MEMRI blog, as noted by LGF and Jihad Watch

Egyptian Daily: Democrats Invite Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Leader and Muslim Brotherhood MPs to Congress

This comes at the heels of Steny Hoyer's visit with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Did his visit have anything to do with it?

Our Umar Lee moment

Today, both Jihad Watch and Little Green Footballs carried stories about Umar Lee, who defamed the people behind both sites as being members of a lynch party. Mr. Lee has described himself as a boxer, cab driver, and "Muslim in Jesusland." He is also a close friend of Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, the former CAIR official and member of the Virginia "paintball" gang, who was indicted on multiple counts, which could have put him away for a long, long time. Instead, Royer pled guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to 20 years. Mr. Lee receives Mr. Royer's communiques from prison and broadcasts them to the world.

We at Northern Virginiastan have had our Umar Lee moment - browse the comments to the post on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's article on the 9/11 mosque (that's the Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Mosque, er, Falls Church, for newbies to this site). We are honored to be in the same company as Jihad Watch and Little Green Footballs.

Georgetown University & Tariq Ramadan

The ad in the Sunday, April 8, 2007 edition of the Washington Post reads as follows:

MUSLIMS SCHOLAR BARRED FROM US TO SPEAK AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY BY SATELLITE

Three Satellite Converstions with
Tariq Ramadan

The dates are April 10-12.

This web site is cited in the ad. A link there leads to the following:

Islam-West Relations
Three Satellite Conversations with Tariq Ramadan
April 10-12, 2007, 10:30am-12:00pm
Gaston Hall, Georgetown University
Open to the Public

Islam and Democracy (Tuesday, April 10)
Muslim Minorities in Western Europe (Wednesday, April 11)
Catholic-Muslim Relations (Thursday, April 12)

Behind the rhetoric of a "Clash of Civilizations" lies the real challenge of Islam-West relations: dialogue in a spirit of truth. Before we can agree or disagree, we have to listen to one another.

Tariq Ramadan, a fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford, is one of the world's leading Muslim intellectuals. A Swiss citizen of Egyptian descent, he advocates a self-confident Islam that both engages and critiques Western ideas and institutions. For Time he is one of 100 “innovators” of the 21st century and “the leading Islamic thinker among Europe ’s second- and third-generation Muslim immigrants.” To his critics Ramadan is a dangerous fundamentalist. » Ramadan's homepage

The Visa Controversy. Since July 2004 Tariq Ramadan has been unable to enter the United States. Shortly before he was to assume a professorship at Notre Dame University, Ramadan's visa was revoked under the "ideological exclusion" provision of the Patriot Act. The visa denial is the subject of an ongoing legal challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors, and PEN American Center.
» background on the Visa controversy

The Scholarly Controversy. Ramadan's views on Islam and the West are controversial within the academy. The Berkley Center has invited three leading American intellectuals to write essays in response to Ramadan -- Sherman Jackson (University of Michigan), Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago), and George Weigel (Ethics and Public Policy Center). The essays and Ramadan's satellite presentations will be folded into a book with Georgetown University Press.

Gaston Hall is located within the Healy Building on the Georgetown Main Campus, 37th and O Streets, NW, Washington, DC.

» submit a question for Tariq Ramadan [Go to the web site to enable this link]

Additional information on Tariq Ramadan, an index of articles from Front Page Magazine. Snippet from one of those articles:

The most vocal advocate of Wahhabism in France is Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss philosophy teacher who happens to be the grandson of Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ramadan has been very active in France during the past ten years, spreading his extremist views and becoming the unofficial voice of French Islam. He has now become a "star," appearing constantly on French prime-time television. Ramadan symbolizes the view, as Jacques Jormier, a leading French expert on Islam, puts it, "that does not modernize Islam but Islamizes modernity." The extent to which Ramadan’s brand of totalitarian Islam has gained a strong foothold in France can be seen in the plight of French Muslim women.

In certain cases, French Muslim families are paid 500 Euros (around 600 USD) per trimester by Muslim organizations just to have their daughters wear the hijab....

More on Tariq Ramadan at Discover The Networks and at Little Green Footballs, the latter with an article entitled "Hirsi Ali Vs. Tariq Ramadan," including the following:

Mr Ramadan said it was wrong to suggest that Muslims were in Europe to proselytise, and wrong to say that Europe had a Judaeo-Christian past.

“Islam is a European religion. The Muslims came here after the first and second world wars to rebuild Europe, not to colonise....

This is the man with whom Georgetown is having a three-part discussion via satellite?

How did our local representatives vote? HR 1640: Anti-dhimmitude From Congress

A followup to Northern Virginiastan: HR 1640: Anti-dhimmitude From Congress:

Cheers (voted Aye):
Tom Davis (R-VA, 11th District)
Jim Moran (D-VA, 8th District) - !!!
Frank Wolf (R-VA, 10th District) - extra props for sponsoring the bill

Jeers (voted No):
Steny Hoyer (D-MD, 5th District)
Chris Von Hollen (D-MD, 8th District)

Steny Hoyer meets with Muslim Brotherhood

Rep. Steny Hoyer

From Little Green Footballs: Democrats Talking with Muslim Brotherhood

... House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer met with the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Saad el-Katatni, twice on Thursday — once at the parliament building and then at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said Brotherhood spokesman Hamdi Hassan.

Hoyer represents the 5th district in Maryland, which covers "includes a large portion of Prince George's County, the three counties of southern Maryland - Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's - and a portion of Anne Arundel County."

As noted before, the Muslim American Society, based in Falls Mosque (as I refer to Falls Church, VA), is the U.S. arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. MAS no longer lists its street address. Smart. The Muslim Brotherhood has provided the ideological basis of Islamic terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda (recall that Ayman al-Zawahiri, UBL's no. 2, was part of the Muslim Brotherhood).

This is part of Northern Virginiastan's efforts to out dhimmi politicians. Hoyer's constituents should revolt - note that Jim Horan voted aye on HR 1640. This turnaround was effected by concerted opposition that resulted from his comments that Jewish interests were responsible for entry in Iraq and campaign contributions from Muslim groups for the 2002 elections were made public - Moran was one of the main beneficiaries of campaign donations from Muslim groups that year.

Coincidence or not?

Investor's Business Daily had a commentary titled Northern Virginiastan, about Baileys Crossroads, which has the second highest concentration of Muslims in the U.S. Much of the information in this article seems to be taken from Paul Sperry's Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington, without attribution. The article, however, makes this trenchant observation:

The hijackers didn't operate in isolation, like visitors from outer space. They were secreted inside the Muslim community for well over a year, and got substantial aid and comfort from dozens of facilitators at no less than seven mosques from coast to coast. Some knew the evil they planned and helped them anyway.

BTW The name of this blog was suggested by my friend, the much-missed The Adventuress. We haven't trademarked the name Northern Virginiastan, so IBD is welcome to title their commentary "Northern Virginiastan."

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I found this article through America's Truth Forum.

Weekly Radio Show: April 6

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, of which I am cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Friday, April 6: This week's scheduled guest for the second half hour of the show is columnist and author Allan Goldstein.

If you are unable to listen to the radio show live, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

CAIR Amends Law Suit

From this source, dated March 31, 2007:

A group of imams suing US Airways for discrimination amended their lawsuit this week to target only the "John Doe" passengers who they say are racist and falsely accused them of behaving suspiciously.

The six imams were removed from a flight in Minneapolis in November for disruptive behavior reported by passengers and members of the flight crew.

The lawsuit filed earlier this month targeted "passengers who contacted US Airways to report the alleged 'suspicious' behavior of plaintiffs performing their prayer at the airport terminal."

The amended lawsuit identifies possible John Does as individuals who "may have made false reports against plaintiffs solely with the intent to discriminate against them on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity and national origin."

"The only individuals against whom suit may be raised in this litigation are those who may have knowingly made false reports against the imams with the intent to discriminate against them," Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a letter this week to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm. The Becket Fund had publicly condemned CAIR for supporting the case.

"The imams will not sue any passengers who reported suspicious activity in good faith, even when the 'suspicious' behavior included the imams' constitutionally protected right to practice their religion without fear or intimidation," Mr. Nihad said. "When a person makes a false report with the intent to discriminate, he or she is not acting in good faith."

The imams are being represented by New York lawyer Omar Mohammedi in the lawsuit, which has triggered an outcry among lawyers who say they will defend the "John Does" for free.

Becket Fund Chairman Kevin Hasson criticized the amended changes in a letter to CAIR on Thursday.

"There is no way Mr. Mohammedi can possibly determine whether the John Does 'knowingly made false reports' against his clients 'with the intent to discriminate against them' without taking their testimony under oath, at least during pretrial discovery," Mr. Hasson said.

"That prospect alone, of being dragged into court proceedings, will certainly provide a great disincentive for other citizens to come forward with their own suspicions," he said.

The case prompted House Republicans on Tuesday to insert a shield law for "John Does" into a rail safety bill. The legislation would protect passengers against lawsuits for reporting suspicious behavior that foreshadows a terrorist attack.

It is "unconscionable" that those who report suspicious activity could be "terrorized in our own court system in our own country," said Rep. Steve Pearce, New Mexico Republican, who introduced the measure.

"Religious liberty is not absolute," Mr. Hasson said. "It must yield before the government's legitimately compelling interests. And the prevention of terrorism aboard airlines is certainly such an interest."

The Becket Fund labeled the case "legal terrorism," which Mr. Awad said "only adds to the empty and sensationalistic rhetoric of those who seek to disparage and demonize a segment of our society."

"It was not meant as an insult," Mr. Hasson said. "I think the public outcry over the targeting of the John Does proves the point I was trying to make. That legal tactic is self-defeating."

See? Defying CAIR can have positive results! Don't be intimidated by the threat of litigation by CAIR.

List of pro bono attorneys who stand against CAIR