Notify The Art Museums

Just how much censorship is required to satisfy the sons of Allah?

http://www.indexonline.org/en/indexindex/articles/2005/2/italy-artist-s-sculpture-banned-from-the-ven.shtml :

Sculpture banned from the Venice Biennale

"A sculpture by German artist Gregor Schneider was banned from the 51st Venice Biennale because the event’s organisers said it might be offensive to Muslims. The sculpture was a 15-metre-high cube covered in black fabric modelled after the Ka’ba in Mecca and was set to be displayed in St. Mark’s Square. A spokesman for the Venetian arts authority said there was a danger that Muslims would feel provoked by the work, heightening the risk of the city being vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Schneider insisted that the artwork was not meant as a provocation. He said he wanted to symbolise a connection between European and Arab cultures. The organisers tried to place the sculpture at another site, but finally decided not to display it at all. Instead, Schneider showed a video explaining his failed attempt."

Hugh Fitzgerald has written an important commentary on the above item.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/006771.php :

"Statues, like paintings of any living creature, are forbidden in Islam. If the Bamiyan Buddhas managed for centuries to survive in Islam, it was only because the technical wherewithal was lacking. Once the Taliban acquired enough Western-produced explosives, they could finish the job.

"A little booklet, possibly the most pathetic guide to an art museum ever published, is the 'Guide to the Kabul Museum.' I have a copy, published in 1964, long before the Taliban arrived on the scene to see Islamic justice done. There are a few dozen pages, a handful of photographs. It is clear that the ancient Greco-Buddhist civilization of Afghanistan, and of all other non-Islamic civilizations, were reduced mostly to rubble -- the flying rubble that we see whenever we see pictures of Afghanistan.

"For in Islam, the pre-Islamic or non-Islamic artifacts are of no interest, no valuable. They can be destroyed, they should be destroyed. The tens of thousands of Hindu temples destroyed by the Muslim invaders, a partial list of which was compiled by Sita Ram Goel, are perhaps the best-known example.
But what of everything that might have gone into that Kabul Museum but never made it?

"The greatest destruction of art works in human history is that wrought by Muslim conquerors on the non-Muslim lands and peoples they invaded, conquered, and subjugated.

"What will happen in Europe if it is islamized? If there are already people removing statues, however banal those statues may be, from art expositions now, what will happen in 10 years? In 20 years? Already statues have been vandalized or destroyed by Muslims -- in the Piazza del Popolo, and in a church in northern France (a statue of Mary and Jesus). Muslims have been recorded discussing their plans to destroy a celebrated fresco in Bologna that depicted Muhammad in Hell. What else is happening, and is being suppressed from us by worried European governments, whose elites, having been responsible for permitting millions of what are clearly enemy aliens, a classic fifth column, behind our own lines, cannot bring themselves to recognize the problem, and instead are intent on hiding the full truth from their own populations?..."

Can't happen here, you say? I'm afraid that it can. Already we are so far down the road to the policitical correctness of "We must not offend Muslims" that the mere prospect of perceived offense causes Americans to tippy-toe around. And in reaction to the alleged incidents regarding the Koran at Gitmo, CAIR has launched their "Explore the Quran" project, hot on the heels of their CAIR Library Project. See http://www.cair-net.org/explorethequran/ and http://www.cair-net.org/libraryproject/ . Meanwhile, Anti-CAIR is dealing with a lawsuit, which is nothing short of an attempt at censorship. See http://socialsense.blogspot.com/2005/06/web-sued-by-muslim-group.html .

Now, back to the issue of art appreciation. I don't often visit The National Gallery of Art, but when I do, I don't notice many Muslims there, unless there is an exhibit specific to Islam, such as one which extolled the brutal Salladin (I hope I have that name correct. The exhibit to which I am referring is one which I visited several years ago and largely contained tapestries).

I'm guessing that most of the depictions at the NGA are offensive to Muslims, so they don't visit. Fair enough. But how far away are we from a situation similar to the ones in Italy or in France?

If Mr. Fitzgerald is accurate in his commentary--and I believe that he is--some of the works of art which you appreciate today may be forbidden in the future. We had better have a good look at them while we can, because the day may come when the only view we have of those classic works will be in coffee-table volumes.

A Book Excerpt

The following in an excerpt from Paul Sperry's Infiltration: How Muslims Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington (Nelson Current, Nashville, Tennessee: 2005, page 319):

"Citizens should also find out what kind of mosque is going up in their neighborhood, and who is backing it. I did. I noticed a large mosque under construction not far from my home in Fairfax, Virginia. So I investigated. After pulling the real estate records at the county courthouse, I discovered the trustees were from Pakistan...the cradle of the Taliban movement....Then I learned that the lead trustee, Mian Muhammad Saeed, is also the imam of the mosque, called the Islamic Center of Northern Virginia. It turns out Saeed was the spiritual adviser to the Pakistani terrorist who last decade fatally gunned down two CIA employees and wounded three others outside the agency's headquarters in nearby Langley, Virginia. After his recent execution, the Pakistani community hailed him as a martyr. Saeed is a hard-line Pakistani cleric. This is information the public should be aware of..."

Mr. Sperry also provides a list of ten ways to defeat the perfect enemy:
1. Not in my backyard [from which the above excerpt is taken]
2. Enforce the oath of allegiance
3. Profile Muslim travelers
4. Audit Muslim charities and mosques
5. Break off official ties with CAIR
6. Expose the Saudi Embassy
7. Deny security clearance to Muslim activists
8. Offer scholarships in Arabic
9. Fight Muslim activism in public schools
10. Step up counterterrorism training at Quantico

The book concludes with the following words:

"America is fighting a perfect enemy, one protected by religious freedoms and racial sensitivities. And we have a less-than-perfect understanding of what motivates the enemy, and how it is aided and abetted by a religious support network that exploits American culture and tax laws and is patiently infiltrating the American system to overturn it from within. More than three years after 9/11, we are still hacking at the branches of terrorism rather than striking at its root."

Infiltration should be required reading for every American and, more importantly, for every governmental official.

Another Activist At The Mosque

Just what the Wahhabi Corridor needs--another activist of the Muslim variety. According to the Washington Post, the Falls Church Mosque has a new imam, who also happens to a spokesman for Ahmed Abu Ali.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/10/AR2005061001869_pf.html :

Leader Named at Mosque
Falls Church Site Selects Activist
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Saturday, June 11, 2005

"Dar Al Hijrah, one of the Washington area's largest mosques, has named a prominent Muslim activist as its new spiritual leader. The new imam is Shaker El Sayed, who has been secretary general of the Muslim American Society for the past five years. Sayed, 53, is an Egyptian immigrant who served in the late 1980s as imam of the Islamic Center of Washington on Massachusetts Avenue NW. Sayed said he was taking the post at a time of great challenges for Muslims in the area. 'There is a lot of stress on the community because of the 9/11 paranoia,' he said..."

Paranoia? Paranoia?

You are correct, Mr. Sayed, in saying that there is a lot of stress, but it's not because of 9/11 paranoia. We Americans are stressed because some 3000 of our countrymen died on 9/11 when Islamists committed acts of war on our native soil. And our stress levels are not relieved when the local mosque is led my someone who calls the tactics of terrorists "moderation."

This mosque apparently is fond of "activists," including Al-Timimi, a respected teacher there, who was recently convicted of treason.

Quoting further from the above article:

"Dar Al Hijrah in Falls Church is closely affiliated with the Muslim American Society, a 13-year-old organization that promotes Islam. The society has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, considered the world's largest and most influential Islamic movement, which advocates a purer, more restrictive form of Islam and greater reliance on Islamic law. [Translation = Wahhabism] The Egyptian-based Brotherhood generally renounces violence [Note the qualifier "generally." More doublespeak] but endorses resistance to 'occupation' by such groups as the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas. Hamas has conducted a campaign of suicide bombing against Israelis."

Despite the fact that he received his training in Islamic studies in Egypt, Sayed denies that he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Pardon my skepticism, but I don't trust the game of "Sayed Said." The Post article further states that the new imam

"supports what he described as the movement's [Hamas's] moderation and its denunciations of violence."

Anyone who supports Hamas should not be giving speeches in a mosque less that seven miles from the seat of America's government.

Our Own Gullibility

In his book entitled Comes the Millennium, Jack Blake states, “the grand American experiment in individual freedom is in imminent danger from within, and the enemy is our own gullibility.” But Mr. Blake’s book is about his view that American intolerance and the political aggression of fundamentalist Christians is the principal threat to the ideals of our founding fathers and threatens to transform America into a totalitarian regime. I disagree with Blake. It is true that Americans are in danger from within, and that the enemy is our own gullibility, but the threat to America does not come from fundamentalist Christians, it comes from the Wahhabism that has been introduced, paid for, distributed, and reinforced by our “good friends,” the Saudis. In fact, we might also conclude that Wahhabism is directly responsible for every single act of Islamic terrorism since the end of World War II.

In a study conducted by the Center for Religious Freedom, entitled Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques, it becomes clear that America has become the target of Islamic violence. In a foreword by former Director of Central Intelligence, R. James Woolsey states:

“A major part of the reason for this and other important changes in the Kingdom was the Saudi royal family’s reaction to the tumultuous year of 1979 [Khomeini’s Rise to Power—ed]. We are still feeling the after-shocks today. The Saudis chose after the twin shocks of that year to strike a Faustian bargain with the Wahhabi sect and not only to accommodate their views about propriety, pious behavior, and Islamic law, but effectively to turn over education in the Kingdom to them and later to fund the expansion into Pakistan and elsewhere of their extreme, hostile, anti-modern, and anti-infidel form of Islam. The other side of the bargain was that if the Wahhabis would concentrate their attacks on, essentially, the U.S. and Israel, the Saudi elite would get a more-or-less free ride from the Wahhabis and the corruption within the Kingdom would be overlooked.”

Woolsey continues:

“Today in the Kingdom . . . young people are systematically infused with hostility for 'infidels.' Moreover, most young Saudis are not equipped when they graduate from school to perform the jobs necessary to operate a modern economy. Instead many are employed, if that is the right word, as, e.g., religious police – walking the streets to harass women whose veils may not fully cover their faces, for example. Young Saudis’ anger based on their lack of useful work and their indoctrination is palpable. It is not an accident that 15 of the 19 terrorists who attacked us on September 11 were Saudis. The New York Times (January 27, 2002) cited a poll conducted by Saudi Intelligence, and shared with the U.S. government, that over 95% of Saudis between the ages of 25 and 41 have sympathy for Osama bin Laden.”

Now, much has been written about the concerns of many (surely, not most) Americans about the thousands of Muslims who live among us. It may be fair to say that we are not being provided with the truth about what is happening within our own communities. For example, we have seen instances where Islamic leaders stand before a podium and renounce extremist views and publicly align themselves with the so-called “war on terror,” but should we believe it? Is it possible to think that most Muslims living in America stand solidly with the rest of us in adoration of the “land of the Free?” Perhaps not; a recently scheduled Muslim demonstration against terror fizzled.

But Mr. Woolsey continues:

“The Saudi-funded, Wahhabi-operated export of hatred for us reaches around the globe. It is well known that the religious schools of Pakistan that educated a large share of the Taliban and al Qaeda are Wahhabi. But Pakistan is not the sole target. I had in my office recently a moderate Muslim leader from an Asian country. He was in the U.S., seeking to obtain funds from foundations, so that he could have printed elementary school textbooks to compete with the Wahhabi-funded textbooks that are flooding his country and that are being made available to schools at little or no cost.

“The Wahhabi textbooks in his country, like textbooks in Saudi Arabia, teach that it is the obligation of all Muslims to consider all infidels the enemy. As an illustration of the consequences of such teaching, I have heard that in some cases during the fighting in Bosnia in the early nineties, American churches and synagogues that were raising funds for food and other aid for the Bosnian Muslims would approach local mosques and suggest a cooperative effort. On a number of occasions they were turned down and didn’t understand why. The reason was that for a Wahhabi Imam (and Sheikh Kabbani, perhaps the U.S.’s leading moderate Muslim leader, says that a substantial percentage of American mosques have Wahhabi-funded Imams), it is normally not believed to be permissible for Muslims to work with infidels, even if the purpose is to help Muslims.”

Reaching into America is the goal of the Wahabbists. They are capable, as we have seen, to do great harm to the American people, our guests, our institutions, and the economy, but there is no possibility that Jihadists can destroy America from an outward invasion. But these people do realize that American is within their grasp through subterfuge, and they are doing it almost in plain sight of us all, if only we would open our eyes to the truth.

Mr. Woolsey correctly points out that:

"Americans are not normally comfortable distinguishing between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable within a religion, unless they are, say, debating views within their own church. Because of the First Amendment and American culture, most Americans tend not to make judgments about others’ religions. But the Wahhabis and the Islamists whom they work with and support have a long political reach and their views have substantial political effect. Some of the consequences of this 'grotesque protection racket' have been quite lethal: American deaths and the failure to apprehend the terrorists who killed them."

Finally, this warning by the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency:

"Wahhabi and Islamist extremism today is the soil in which al Qaeda and its sister terrorist organizations are growing. We need to recognize the problem posed by the international spread of this hate ideology, including within the American homeland."

Okay, so what? For one thing, any American who believes that Islam is a peaceful, forgiving religion has lost touch with reality. Despite what the Koran says about Jews and Christians (people of the book), Muslim actions are speaking much louder than Koranic words, and in several important areas. Perhaps it is true that we are being over-inundated with information concerning terrorists; maybe most of us have tuned it out because it is disturbing and we’d much rather focus on our private, materialistic goals. Some might argue that this is just another example of the right-wing conspiracy to frighten people away from the democratic platform.

So let’s just take a quick look at what these “textbooks” are telling Muslims who are living in America; what to do, how to behave, and how to “embrace” America. Quoting now from the study conducted by the Center for Religious Freedom:

“On December 3, 2004, Ahmed, an Arab exchange student, walks down a palm lined boulevard in a working class neighborhood of Los Angeles. Since it is Friday, he bypasses the Hispanic restaurants, the 7/11, and the sporting goods store, and enters the King Fahd mosque – an elegant building of white marble etched with gold, adorned by a blue minaret, that is named after its benefactor, the King of Saudi Arabia. Later he will join 500 other California Muslims in prayer but, because it is early, he visits the mosque library where he picks up several books on religious guidance, written in Arabic, that are offered free to Muslims like him, newly arrived and uncertain on how to fit into this modern, diverse land.

"The tracts he opens are in the voice of a senior religious authority. They tell him that America, his adoptive home, is the 'Abode of the Infidel,' the Christian and the Jew. He reads: 'Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law.'

"The advice is emphatic: 'There is consensus on this matter, that whoever helps Unbelievers against Muslims, regardless of what type of support he lends to them, he is an unbeliever himself.'

"The books give him detailed instructions on how to build a 'wall of resentment' between himself and the infidel: 'Never greet the Christian or Jew first. Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday Never befriend an infidel unless it is to convert him. Never imitate the infidel Never work for an infidel. Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates the infidel.'

"Ahmed looks carefully at the book’s cover. It says 'Greetings from the Cultural Department' of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C. The book is published by the government of Saudi Arabia. The other books are textbooks from the Saudi Education Ministry, and collections of fatwas, religious edicts, issued by the government’s religious office, published by other organizations based in Riyadh."

Such hate-filled materials are not limited to distribution at mosques. In Alexandria, Virginia, a few scant miles from our nation’s capital, sits the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private school providing education for K through Grade 12. This school was established in 1984 and is owned and operated by the nation of Saudi Arabia, a bastion of Wahhabism. Quoting terrorism expert Daniel Pipes:

“[A]n outpost of Saudi values on American soil, the academy enjoys Saudi government funding, is chaired by the Saudi ambassador in Washington, and boasts a curriculum imported straight from Riyadh.” According to a February 25, 2002, front-page story, the Islamic Saudi Academy teaches students, among other things, that “the Day of Judgment cannot come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start attacking Jews.”

Furthermore, global maps hanging in classrooms are missing Israel.

ISA recently made national news in February 2005, when 1999 valedictorian Ahmed Abu Ali was arrested on federal charges, including planning to assassinate President Bush and trying to establish an Al-Qaeda cell in the United States. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) has repeatedly called for an investigation into the operations of ISA. There are three other similar schools in the Washington, D.C. area: the Muslim Community School in Potomac, Maryland; the Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America in Fairfax, Virginia; and the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences of Ashburn, Virginia. According to Dr. Anis Shorrosh, a member of the Oxford Society of Scholars and a Palestinian Christian Arab American who is fluent in both Arabic and English, there are 300 exclusively Muslim schools in the United States. Furthermore, Susan Douglass, national curriculum advisor for social-science texts, formerly taught at ISA and is married to a Muslim who teaches at the Muslim Community School of Potomac, Maryland; she has influence on the material presented to children attending our nation’s public school system.

The following quotation from Dawanet, a Muslim website, explains how thoroughly the public-relations campaign to Islamify our culture has invaded our educational system:

“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….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…”

According to Dr. Shorrosh, author of Islam Revealed, Americans are sleeping through an invasion. He believes that the United States is under systematic attack from within and cites the following as danger signals: hate-crime bills are terminating freedom of speech, dialogues in the media and in institutions of learning are proclaiming the virtues of Islam and propagandizing that Islam is similar to Judeo-Christianity, Muslim sympathizers are serving in political office, Muslims are buying up stock in various public media, Muslim funding is establishing Centers for Islamic Studies at our universities, various organizations are appealing to Americans for sympathy and tolerance toward immigrants from oppressed Muslim countries, and numerous charities are serving as money-launderers for terrorist organizations.

One of the leaders in the public-relations campaign is CAIR, which was established in 1984 under the banner of “Establishing Trust, Building Partnerships.” Just recently, this organization completed its library project, whereby pro-Islam materials have been donated to every library system in the United States; Saudi Arabia contributed substantially to the funding of this project, and, as a result, the materials are particularly adept at whitewashing information about Wahhabism. Not only have the materials been placed, but also Muslims are encouraged to check out the material on a regular basis so as to keep the books and videos in circulation and thus out of the book sales which larger systems use to make room on their shelves. In addition, CAIR is presently running a Quran-distribution program. This newest public-relations strategy is making available an English translation which promotes hatred toward the infidels. The translation was so objectionable that even the Los Angeles Public School System removed it from their shelves.

Furthermore, CAIR is not the innocuous civil-rights organization it purports to be. The organization’s connections to terrorism run deeply, in spite of CAIR’s denials. For example, in October 1998, CAIR demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard which criticized Osama bin Laden because the depiction was “offensive to Muslims.” CAIR has also defended other militant Islamists, including Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh who planned to plant bombs at various New York City landmarks; in addition CAIR proclaimed the conviction of the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as “a travesty of justice.” CAIR protests nearly every arrest of a suspected terrorist, usually on the grounds of profiling. This past weekend, for the second time in a month, CAIR held events at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel, located in Vienna, Virginia. The second event was a fundraising banquet, and, attending the meeting, were the parents of aspiring Presidential assassin Ahmed Abu Ali and Senator John Warner of Virginia. Just a few days ago, Florida Governor Jeb Bush sent CAIR a letter commending the organization for its “contributions to the protection of civil rights and freedom of religion.” All this pandering to CAIR in spite of the warning from Steven Pomerantz, the FBI’s former chief of counterterrorism:

“CAIR, its leaders and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups.”

What should we conclude? First, we should think that former Central Intelligence Director Woolsey knows what he’s talking about when he says,

“Wahhabi and Islamist extremism today is the soil in which al Qaeda and its sister terrorist organizations are growing. We need to recognize the problem posed by the international spread of this hate ideology, including within the American homeland.”

I suspect that the U. S. Constitution protects free speech for Muslims, just as it does for everyone else. But are textbooks prepared by a foreign government, which incite discord within American borders, also protected? Muslims have the right to express themselves, but does our Constitution protect the King of Saudi Arabia when he or his government provokes a wall of resentment? Encouraging Muslims to hate their American hosts, along with Jews, would seem to present a clear and present danger to the safety and security of the American people, so I think there is cause to wonder how our government intends to safeguard us when the enemy is already here.

Terrorists are urged to “use” American law against Americans who may want to prosecute them by encouraging them to make claims of duress and abusive treatment, and instructing them insist on their constitutional rights. Extremists are taught how to take advantage of free legal representation. All of this suggests to me a conspiracy against American democracy and its people by the people who petitioned us for permission to live here.

Any American who sees “Reds” under his bed may be a fool. On the other hand, any American who fails to see the danger of Wahabbism when it is standing directly in front of him is irrationally, dangerously, and potentially terminally gullible. The threat is real, and unless or until Americans become aware of this danger, and begin to insist that their elected officials acknowledge this menace as well, they are unwisely subjecting themselves, and their families to horrific consequences.

Jointly authored by Always On Watch and Social Sense.

Dave Chapelle's spiritual "crisis"

Dave Chapelle as America's most vicious blind white supremacist

Comedian (and DC native) Dave Chapelle signed a $50 million deal with the Comedy Central TV network for two years of his Chapelle's Show, only to "disappear" and put a halt to production.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford of the irreverent The Jawa Report cites a MSNBC article which stated that Chapelle '"was having problems throughout the writing," Farley added. "It dealt with some very difficult sexual and political and racial material ... He himself has sort of changed inside as he has become a practicing Muslim and so with all those issues and the fact that he wants to make sure the show projects him and his comedy in the right light."'

If you're not familiar with Chapelle's Show and Dave Chapelle's brand of humor, the picture and caption might tell you something: also, The Jawa Report provides dead-on satire of what a new improved totally halal Chapelle's Show might be like.

Jihad Watch takes Northern Virginiastan to a wider audience

I forwarded the post on Fundraising for the HAMAS Fundraiser to Jihad Watch, and Rebecca Bynum, who's been filling in for Robert Spencer, graciously referred to it in a May 22 post on Jihad Watch. Read the feedback.

ICE Ice Baby

From the indefatigable Jeffrey Imm, moderator of Yahoo! Groups: dc-terror via Jihad Watch: ICE Campaign Against Illegal Money Transmitters & Underground “Hawalas” Yields 140 Arrests & 138 Indictments Nationwide

This press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cites actions against two DC area residents running illegal money transfer operations. Northern Virginiastan has already reported on Louay Habbal, the Vienna resident arrested for operating an illegal money transfer business that sent $23 million to Syria. This press release also notes that on May 20, "Rahim Bariek, 46, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan and resident of Herndon, Virginia, pleaded guilty in Alexandria to operating an unlicensed money transmittal business that wired millions of dollars to Iran, Pakistan, and areas in Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban between 2001 and 2003."

Gleanings for May 31, 2005

Daniel Pipes discovers the Muslim American Society - Daniel Pipes has directed most of his attention to CAIR, no doubt because CAIR has made him one of the prime targets of its attacks (the other being Steven Emerson). Consequently, the Muslim American Society has not been in his sights, although he has written that if he had enough time, he'd investigate other Muslim organizations. He comments in the May 25 entry The Muslim American Society's Goals in his weblog:

"Those of us who watch the growth of radical Islam in the United States tend to focus on the noisy organizations like CAIR, MPAC, and ISNA. The Muslim American Society, which claims 53 chapters and 10,000 members, tends to go about its work quietly; it is none the less dangerous – and perhaps more so – for that."

Will wonders ever cease? NPR has long been one of my pet peeves. The last straw was WETA's dropping its classical music programming. From Dr. Pipes's May 23 entry MSM Criticizes CAIR, CAIR Brazens It Out in his weblog, NPR's Day to Day program reported on how CAIR uses any incident to inflate the number of hate crimes against Muslims. Pipes noted that Day to Day is broadcast at 4 am, but here in DC, WETA broadcasts Day to Day at Noon weekdays.

Wash Times article on ISA - Readers from Springfield notified Northern Virginiastan via Email about the article Critics want probe of Alexandria Islamic school, which was published in the May 29, 2005 edition of the Washington Times. Thanks, friends!

Planned updates include ICE Ice Baby (which has nothing to do with Vanilla Ice), DC native Dave Chapelle's "crisis" about reconciling his TV show's humor with his newfound Islamic faith, and Jihad Watch's bringing our article Fundraising for the HAMAS Fundraiser to a broader audience.

Another Big Meeting on the Wahhabi Corridor

Just who owns the Sheraton Premier Tysons? Do we need to add this luxury hotel to the Wahhabi Corridor (aka Leesburg Pike/Route 7) list already posted on http://www.sperryfiles.com/corridor.shtml ?

Below is word of yet another CAIR convention at the Tysons Sheraton. Notice the interesting guest list.
http://www.cairmd.org/new/Index.asp :

CAIRMaryland-Virginia-DC
2005 Annual Fundraising Banquet

"Establishing Trust, Building Partnerships"

Saturday, June 4th 2005 at 5 PM
Sheraton Premier @ Tysons Corner
8661 Leesburg Pike, Vienna VA 20178

Imam Abdalla Idris Ali
Congressman Elijah Cummings
with Joshua Salaam of Native Deen

Local Launch of Bridges TV Network

Malcolm X Award Presented to: Dr. Ahmad El Bendari (President of Islamic Relief)

Invited Guests:
Congr. Chris Van Hollen, Sen. Barbara Mikulski
Attorney David Cole, Mayor O’ Malley (Baltimore)
Senator John Warner, Chaplain James Yee

Somehow I find it difficult to establish trust and build partnerships with CAIR, which has terrorist affiliations. Our U.S. Senator from Virginia is far more trusting than I am.


A short time ago, Kawal Nawash's Free Muslim March, unaffiliated with and unsupported by CAIR, got very little coverage and, in terms of numbers, was pretty much a fizzle.
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18209 :

"In the first of its kind for an event organized by a major national Muslim organization, Kamal Nawash and the Free Muslims Coalition (FMC) recently held the Free Muslims March Against Terrorism. Not surprisingly, the leaders of every other major Muslim organization shunned the march and declined to take a public stand against terrorism and extremism. Noticeably missing from the list of over 80 sponsors Nawash rounded up was any of the Muslim groups that claim to be moderates, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Though these groups pay lip service to opposing terrorism, they couldn’t put their money where their mouth is and bring themselves to stand side-by-side with the Free Muslim Coalition....If other Muslim groups could even go as far as condemning specific acts of Islamic terror, that would be a step in Nawash’s direction. But organizations such as CAIR, for instance, have pointedly refused to condemn Islamic terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, or even specific Islamic terrorist attacks...."

I suppose that CAIR is too busy with its fundraisers for "misunderstood and persecuted" Muslims to be bothered with voicing support for peace. And our elected officials are patronizing CAIR's events, not those of the FMC.
Talk about head-in-the-sand syndrome! [Pun intended.]

Once Muslim, Always Muslim?

More than once, Osama bin Laden has referred to the Reconquest of Spain as the "Andalucian Atrocity." The first time I heard him use that phrase, I thought that he was referring to a military defeat. Later I realized that he meant more than that: Muslims are duty bound to take back any land that was once under Muslim rule.
Now I'm wondering if that same principle could be applied to cemeteries here in the United States.
Note the following excerpts from http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050520-090732-4620r.htm :

Hindus, Muslims in Taj Mahal Tussle
By Palash Kumar
AGRA, India
"An ownership battle has erupted over the world's most famous monument to love, the Taj Mahal, as it celebrates its 350th anniversary. The magnificent 17th-century structure built by Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his beloved queen, Mumtaz Mahal, is owned and managed by the Archaeological Survey of India as a national monument. But the Sunni Waqf Board, which oversees Sunni Muslim graveyards and mosques throughout India, has staked a claim to the white-marble tomb, saying since the monument houses Muslim graves, the Taj belongs to it...."

Many cemeteries here in the D.C. area have Muslim sections. I believe that National Memorial Park in Falls Church has such a section. In other states, entire cemeteries are exclusively used for the burial of Muslims; one such proposed cemetery in Tennessee encountered citizen opposition, but I don't recall the outcome.

Yes, it sounds unreasonable to wonder if such a foothold in a cemetery presents a problem because Americans feel that different cultures should be allowed to bury their dead as they see fit, here on American soil. We respect the right of families to note the passing of loved ones, according to various cultural rituals. Do Muslims have a different view about the land on which their families are buried? After reading about the dispute over the Taj Mahal, "since the monument houses Muslim graves," I wonder if there might be a hidden agenda.

And what about the land on which sit various Saudi-owned institutions including schools, mosques, and businesses, even if those institutions promote activities which are treasonous and subversive in nature? My understanding is that Saudi owns the land itself. Is it against Muslim law for a non-Muslim organization to buy that land or for our government to seize that land, should the necessity arise? I've read--though I don't remember where--that once property is Muslim-owned, sharia law can be applied to that particular parcel of land, even if the nation itself is not a caliphate.

India is not a caliphate, yet the questioned ownership of the Taj Mahal may well go to that nation's Supreme Court. Again quoting from the above article: "Waqf Board Chairman Hafiz Usman said the body would do everything it could to establish its claim to the Taj and says 'we will go all the way to the Supreme Court to get the Taj.' The Waqf Board is also laying claim to 7 percent of the around $3 million paid annually by the 2.3 million tourists it draws each year."

Arabic, the language of Allah, doesn't have a past tense, at least not in the sense that we Westerners understand past tense. (See Raphael Patai's The Arab Mind) Such a linguistic anomaly goes far to explain why Muslims never see anything as over and done with. And if their preferred language doesn't have a past tense, can they ever, in the eyes of sharia law, ever cede that land to someone else?

We need to be careful about allowing Muslim ownership of land, particularly if such ownership can be used to justify, however obliquely, statements such as Osama bin Laden's. And, harsh as it may sound, we need to check our cemeteries too. The principles behind the dispute over the ownership of the Taj Mahal may, one day, extend to land here in the United States.

Many times, we learn after the fact about the far-reaching effects of Muslim laws and Muslim customs. I hope that United States land dedicated for cemeteries will not be justification for something we didn't expect. Such conflicts get very ugly.

CPB looking into NPR programming

From The New York Times via LGF.

The board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has told staff that it should consider redirecting money away from national newscasts and toward music programs produced by NPR stations. So maybe WETA had it wrong when it abandoned its music programming.

So what does this have to do with Northern Virginiastan? I believe our western culture, as expressed by its arts, is something to celebrate. Find out What's at Stake as Islamicists take over Europe, and imagine how grim life would be without these wonders. Now let's build a list of what we'd lose if Islamicists took over the U.S.

Best wishes for your recovery, Always on Watch

Our team member Always on Watch was recently injured in a car accident. Please send greetings and best wishes for recovery on AOW's blog.

Best wishes for your recovery, Always on Watch! I look forward to future articles both here on Northern Virginiastan and on your own blog.

Fundraising for the HAMAS fundraiser

Abdulhalim Ashqar - fundraising for the HAMAS fundraiser

On Sunday, May 22, a fundraising dinner to support Abdulhalim Ashqar, charged with raising funds for HAMAS, and aspiring assassin Ahmed Abu Ali, will be held at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel in Tysons Corner. Confirmed speakers include our old buddies Shaker Elsayyed and Mahdi Bray and Imam Seraj Wahhaj, identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombings.

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. Does the Sheraton Premiere not have any scruples about who books its facilities?

As noted by Caroline Glick in her article Wake up Washington! (thanks to Jihad Watch), HAMAS and Al-Qaeda share ideological roots in the Muslim Brotherhood (as does the Muslim American Society), and financial and operational networks. HAMAS is not just a danger to Israel, HAMAS is a danger to the US.

Our reporting on Northern Virginiastan has made apparent these connections:

Ideology from the Muslim Brotherhood (which of course is based on the Quran and Sunnah)
Operations by HAMAS and Al-Qaeda
Funding from Saudi Arabia

and it's all happening here in the DC Metro area!

Seeking reports on Muslim events for May 13-15, 2005

Northern Virginiastan is seeking first-hand accounts of CAIR's Islamophobia/Anti-Americanism conference and the Free Muslims March against Terror, both scheduled for this weekend, March 13-15, 2005.

You may use the Haloscan commenting facility to submit reports - standard HTML tags enabled.

Won't--or Can't?

Despite the title of the article cited below, "Terror Suspect's Attorneys Link FBI to Alleged Torture by Saudis," no such link has been definitively established. The title should more accurately read "Terror Suspect's Attorneys Claim FBI Link to Alleged Torture." Absolutely no evidence has been produced to substantiate the Washington Post's headline.

Furthermore, I predict that the defense attorneys for Islamic Saudi Academy valedictorian and aspiring Presidential assassin Ahmed Abu Ali will play every angle to get their client off the hook. My first reading of the Post article made me wonder if the case might be heading for a temporary-insanity or post-traumatic-stress-disorder defense in order to negate Abu Ali's confession. Apparently, a recent challenge from federal prosecutors has gone unanswered.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051001463.html :

"Prosecutors asked a judge yesterday to order Abu Ali to produce his medical records to see whether he had 'pre-existing medical problems.' They said Abu Ali's attorney's won't provide the records."

Medical problems? As in psychiatric ones? No doubt, the rot of Al-Qaeda's hateful ideology, an inherent part of the Wahhabist curriculum at the ISA, poisoned Abu Ali's mind. How many other minds have been poisoned, or continue to be poisoned, at Saudi-run schools here in the United States?

According to the article, "Abu Ali confessed to the assassination plot against Bush and admitted discussing with members of al Qaeda his plans to conduct a Sept. 11-style terrorist attack in the United States." The defense attorneys do not deny that Abu Ali confessed, but they "signaled in the filing that they intend to use the torture allegations to get Abu Ali's statements to Saudi interrogators thrown out."

Voluntarily subscribing to a treasonous ideology--and Abu Ali clearly did so--is not a mental illness. It's a choice. Preceding the alleged torture, Abu Ali made it quite clear that he subscribed to Wahhabism and its annihilistic doctrines.

Of course, the alleged medical records could relate to the alleged torture, which federal agents have denied. Supposedly, that alleged torture led to a false confession. The fact remains, however, that Abu Ali is an American citizen who had ties with Al-Qaeda. Furthermore, he actively pursued his Wahhabi teachings, well ingrained by the ISA, by going to Saudi Arabia, the heart of Wahhabism.

Jihad Watch: The Free Muslims March

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch takes a skeptical view of the The Free Muslims March Against Terror to be held in DC this Saturday, particularly after Kamal Nawash's hostile reply to a writer's concerns about the implications of certain statements about jihad on the Free Muslims Against Terror website. Here is a more conspiratorial view from the Augusta Free Press, a newspaper serving Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County, Virginia.

Daniel Pipes is more optimistic, and even Little Green Footballs is urging participation.

More on Mahdi Bray

This fellow really gets around! According to http://masnet.org/takeaction.asp?id=2410 , the website of the Muslim American Society, Bray is quite a busy man as he campaigns for his particular ideology.

According to the above site, on May 6, he appeared in NYC's Freedom Times' Square to "address a rally in support of protecting places of worship." On May 7, he will be appearing at a Speak-Out in Washington, D.C., at the Plymouth Congregational Church. Notice the oxymorons: he's appearing in Freedom Square and at a church. Just who sets up these schedules? Is there a satirist on the staff of the Muslim American Society? Exercising great restraint, I'll refrain from stating the obvious pun as to the name "Bray."

The D.C. event's special attraction seems to be the presence of Ahmed Abu-Ali's father, "who will tell the story of his son's current incarceration and tragic ordeal." Tragic ordeal? Really? Never mind that Abu Ali is currently under investigation for various treasonous crimes, including consorting with Al-Qaeda and plotting the assassination of President Bush. Had Abu Ali succeeded with some of his plans, we would indeed have seen a tragedy, but not of the type alluded to in the MAS announcements.

Perhaps the above event in Washington, D.C., is a precursor to the upcoming May 15 CAIR Conference at the Tysons Corner Sheraton Premeire. This MAS Freedom Action Weekend will focus on the "continued erosion of civil rights and civil liberties, and the unjust social and economic policies espoused by the current Administration." Sounds like CAIR's line, doesn't it? No surprise there.

Makes one wonder just how many "special visitors" the D.C. area will be hosting over the course of the next week. Attention, Homeland Security!

Jihad Watch: Fitzgerald: Mahdi Bray: Just a country Muslim from Norfolk, Virginia

Hugh Fitzgerald of Jihad Watch examines the two faces of Muslim activist Mahdi Bray: as folksy, ecunemically-minded, civically-oriented representative of the Muslim community (to dupe non-Mulsims) and radical Islamicist (to fellow Muslims).


Mahdi Bray

Bray, an American convert to Islam, has championed Omar Abu Ali, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, and Ali Al-Timimi, all of whom have been discussed here on Northern Virginiastan. He is a confirmed speaker for the fundraiser for Abu Ali and Abdulhaleem Ashqar to be held May 22 at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel in Tysons Corner.

Like our old buddy Shaker Elsayyed and Sayyid M. Syeed, Bray is a consummate multi-tasker, playing prominent roles in several Muslim organizations. He also uses his status to worm his way into other areas of influence:

"Imam Mahdi Bray is a long time civil and human rights activist. He is currently the Executive Director of the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation, and the President of the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO). He also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and the Interfaith Alliance, and also on the Advisory Board of the American Muslim Council and Muslim Public Affairs Council. He is a Washington, DC, Television and Radio Talk-Show Host.

He has served as a major consultant and a political advisor to Bonner & Associates, Washington’s largest grassroots lobbying firm, the National Center for Housing Management, Alexandria City Redevelopment & Housing Authority, Community Relations Department, The City of Norfolk, Virginia, Department of Community Improvement, and the Independent Voter League. He has also served as a Political Advisor and Strategist, to several national, state, and local political campaigns. He is also the author of, ‘The Masjid (Mosque) Voter’s Guide’ and ‘The Political Guide for Masjid (Mosque) Activists.’"

Of particular interest here are the Washington, DC Muslim Community connections:

Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation

Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) - no postal address supplied; I found it interesting that Afeefa Syeed's Al-Fatih Academy is listed as a member - another indication that she cannot plead ignorance concerning the centrality of dawah to Islam.

Washington, DC, Television and Radio Talk-Show Host - he hosts a radio program The Crescent Report

Bray is also the contact for the "National Islamic Prison Foundation" (NIPF) - a website for NIPF could not be readily found.

HAMAS preparing for terrorist attacks in the U.S.?

Daniel Pipes writes that HAMAS is preparing for terror attacks in the U.S. in his article Hamas vs. America, and among the evidence he provides is the arrest of Ismail Selim Elbarasse for capturing details of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on video last year.


Ismail Selim Elbarasse

Northern Virginiastan has reported on Ismail Selim Elbarasse (who lives in Annandale) on several occasions - search the blog. It is intriguing that Ismail Selim Elbarasse was arrested for videotaping the details of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Bridge the weekend immediately after he was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment of Musa Abu Marzook (a former resident of Falls Mosque, er, Falls Church), Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah, and Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Alexandria for fundraising for HAMAS (refer to UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. Marzook, et al.), Surely the motorists on a weekend getaway who observed the suspicious behavior of Elbarasse and his wife and notified authorities could not have been aware of that fact.

"Rejoice today but cry for eternity"

Read the article by Abu AbdirRahman concerning Ali Al-Timimi's conviction on his defense committee website altimimi.org:

"Those rejoicing today’s unjust verdict are ruining their hereafter by exchanging this world for the next – whether they claim to be believers or not - by transgressing upon the innocent believers for the sole reason that they proclaim “Our Lord is Allah.” These “rejoicers” should also know that a day will come when this moment of rejoicing will turn into distress. This apparent victory is not everlasting. Did you not pay heed to the statement of Allah, And so are the days. We give to men by turns, that God may test those who believe (3:140). So the disbelievers will have their day but so will the believers who rely upon none other than God and seek his reward."

Echoes of how Sayyid M. Syeed threatened Sherrie Gossett of Accuracy in Media, but these sorts of threats permeate the Qur'an.

The mailing address for the defense committee is:

Al-Timimi Support Committee
P.O. Box 1758
Centreville, VA 20121
USA

The Zip code corresponds to the Clifton Annex Post office at 13826 Braddock Rd Ste B, Centreville, VA 20121-2400

No contact name is provided.