Monday, November 24, 2008

Guilty on all Counts -The Holy Land Foundation Retrial

DALLAS (AP) — A Muslim charity and five of its former leaders were convicted Monday of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, finally handing the government a signature victory in its fight against terrorism funding.

U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis announced the guilty verdicts on all 108 counts on the eighth day of deliberations in the retrial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the nation's largest Muslim charity. It was the biggest terrorism financing case since the attacks of Sept. 11.

  • The convictions follow the collapse of Holy Land's first trial last year and defeats in other cases the government tried to build.
  • President George W. Bush had personally announced the freezing of Holy Land's assets in 2001, calling the action "another step in the war on terrorism."
  • After Monday's verdict, family members showed little visible reaction until the jury left. Several women sobbed loudly.

"My dad's not a criminal!" one nearly inconsolable woman said loudly. Court personnel told the family to calm her down, and as family members rushed her out of the courtroom, she said, "They treated him like an animal."

Ghassan Elashi, Holy Land's former chairman, and Shukri Abu-Baker, the chief executive, were convicted of a combined 69 counts, including supporting a specially designated terrorist, money laundering and tax fraud.


Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted of three counts of conspiracy, and Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted of one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization. Holy Land itself was convicted of all 32 counts.
A sentencing date hasn't been scheduled.

  • Holy Land was accused of giving more than $12 million to support Hamas. The seven-week retrial ran about as long as the original, which ended in October 2007 when a judge declared a mistrial on most charges.
  • Holy Land wasn't accused of violence. Rather, the government said the Richardson, Texas-based charity financed schools, hospitals and social welfare programs controlled by Hamas in areas ravaged by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
  • The U.S. designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1995 and again in 1997, making contributions to the group illegal. Government officials raided Holy Land's headquarters in December 2001 and shut it down.
  • Prosecutors labeled Holy Land's benefactors — called zakat committees — as terrorist recruiting pools. The charities, the government argued, spread Hamas' violent ideology and generated loyalty and support among Palestinians.

It was a "womb to the tomb" cycle, prosecutor Barry Jonas told jurors during closing arguments last week.

Holy Land supporters told a different story.

  • They accused the government of politicizing the case as part of its war on terrorism, while attorneys for the foundation said Holy Land's mission was philanthropy and providing much-needed aid to the Middle East.
  • They reminded jurors that none of the zakat committees are designated by the U.S. as terrorist fronts, and that Holy Land also donated to causes elsewhere, including helping victims of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

"No one here is engaging in acts of terrorism," Theresa Duncan, attorney for former Holy Land chief executive Shukri Abu Baker, said during closing arguments.

A chaotic courtroom scene ended last year's original trial, which lasted nearly two months and kept jurors deliberating for 19 days. But they deadlocked on many counts, and when a judge polled the panel about other verdicts, some disavowed their vote.

The confusing finish led U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish to declare a mistrial, and leaders of the defunct charity rushed outside to celebrate.

  • Observers last year panned the government for presenting a bloated case too complicated for jurors to follow.
  • Prosecutors responded this year by dropping nearly 60 charges in the trial and tightening their narrative to jurors, even offering a kind of road map to help the panel follow the money.
  • But nearly 15 boxes of evidence wheeled into court on a flatbed still impressed the size of the case, as did the more than one hour that Solis needed to read aloud the indictment.

Full Article from the AP

Call for CAIR Day Proclamation to be Rescended

CAIR is being challanged on their American Sharia victory of getting having an American Day named after them.

-Ahmed Haenni



We call on you to rescind the Proclamation you signed declaring November 15, 2008 "COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS (CAIR) DAY."

  • By signing the document, you ignored a number of troubling facts regarding CAIR. * CAIR was founded in 1994 by operatives from the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which at the time was the American propaganda wing of Hamas, producing terror training videos for Hamas and publishing the Hamas charter in different languages.
  • CAIR was created as being a part of the American Palestine Committee, which at the time was led by the global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook.
  • CAIR has had a number of representatives involved in terrorism, who were convicted and/or deported for various criminal activities.
  • CAIR is currently named by the U.S. Justice Department as a co-conspirator for a federal trial dealing with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas.
  • CAIR-Florida representative Jawhar Sadallah Badran was recently caught on video stating his support for Hamas. CAIR's National Executive Director once did the same.
  • Keep in mind, Hamas is on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). And while it is not illegal to verbalize one’s support for Hamas, it is immoral and offensive to do so, and it is as well immoral to legitimize any individual or group who does so.
  • We understand that you have signed this Proclamation for "CAIR Day" every year for at least the past four years.
  • We ask that you take the opportunity to end this trend immediately by withdrawing this most recent Proclamation.
  • To ignore this would be to ignore the worst of hatred and extremism. We urge you to rescind the Proclamation immediately. Sincerely,

Would the removal of the DAIR day slow the American Sharia proccess? -you are welcome to comment.

-Ahmed Haenni


The Rest @ Atlas Shrugs

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Islamis is to Blame for Islam's Persuectuion - Dr. Sami Alrabaa

Islamism is a Socio-Political Virus says Dr. Sami Alrabaa October 12 2008 Dr. Sami Alrabaa

at the Erupean News Website.

-Is this one a real Muslim?

-Ahmed Haenni

Islamists and their backers have a shallow and uncivilized“ideology” which cannot stand up to any rational thinking. It does not offer any alternative to any social, political, or economic order which mankind has thus far has known.

It exclusively incites to hatred, violence, and discrimination against women and followers of other faiths. It is even an over statement to say it is bankrupt.

Bankruptcy usually applies to someone who has possessed something and then lost it. Islamism, including numerous passages in Shari’a and the Koran, is a destructive mindset. It is a socio-political virus.

However, without oil and suicide bombing Islamists would be roaming the Arabian Peninsula, the birth place of Islamism, and perish from hunger. Petrodollars and Wahabism, a wild irrational version of Islam, are nurturing Islamism and Muslim terror. Koran schools across the globe stuff young brains with hatred against the rest of the world. Students at these schools are taught that they are the “real Muslims”.

Ridding the world of the “infidels” is their primary religious obligation. In return for blowing up themselves in crowded places they are promised paradise and an eternal prosperous life among 72 young virgin pretty women of their choice.

Now, when you scrutinize Islamism on the ground, you find out that its backers, in particular in the Arab world, focus on the following:

For Islamists, women are the source of all evil. They (men) primarily associate women with sex and only sex. Therefore, women must cover every part of their body when they are outside their homes. Women are seductive, Islamists allege. If they expose any part of their body, men would be distracted and their lust is tirred, which is eventually “sinful”.

An Islamist told me that when he is in Europe he sees so much flesh and hence his lust dwindles. At home in Saudi Arabia, he has much more sexual lust. He figures out all kinds of beauty under women’s clothes in the street. He rushes home to pour his lust in his wife. And that is more exciting.

- According to Islamists, women must be ready for intercourse at any time the husband wishes so.

Your wives are a tilth for you, so go into your tilth when you like, and do good beforehand for yourselves, and be careful (of your duty) to Allah, and know that you will meet Him, and give good news to the believers.” (Sura 2, verse 223).

During menstruation, however, men should keep away from women; they are filthy. The Koran says:

It (menstruation) is a discomfort; therefore keep aloof from the women during the menstrual discharge and do not go near them until they have become clean; then when they have cleansed themselves, go in to them as Allah has commanded you; surely Allah loves those who turn much (to Him), and He loves those who purify themselves.” (Sura 2, verse 222).

Women, according to Islamists and the Koran, are, in general, unclean creature. After a Muslim has washed and prepared himself for prayer, he should not touch a woman. She tarnishes his cleanliness. Therefore, “pious” Muslims never shake hands with women.

O you who believe! do not go near prayer until you have washed yourselves; and if you have touched women, and you cannot find water, betake yourselves to pure earth, then wipe your faces andyour hands; surely Allah is Pardoning, Forgiving.” (Sura 4, verse 43).

For Islamists, even the woman’s voice is “’aura” (a sexual organ). A woman on Saudi radio and TV, for instance, is not allowed to be interviewed by a man. Also a woman should never tell her name in public. Therefore, she is, for example, “um Muhammad”, (the mother of Muhammad), or “um Ali”.

In a public place an Islamist walks a couple of feet ahead of his wife or close female relatives, covered from head to toe. He wants to signal to passers-by, these are my women, do not look at them. They are mine. Thus women are not only sex objects, they are also a piece of property.
Islamists demand that a woman’s face should never be photographed. Women of Islamists in Kuwait are allowed to have their hotos on the driver’s license with a dark black face cover. The majority of them are usually reckless drivers and no police dare stop them to take them to task.
Islamists in several Arab and Muslim countries have succeeded in forcing sex-segregation at schools and universities. That is the case in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Malaysia, Iran, and Pakistan. Bosnia and Kosovo are also introducing this system.

Women as witnesses, according to Islamists, are unreliable. Therefore, the testimony of two female witnesses are required to equal that of one male witness in Shari’a courts (Sura 2, verse 282). Further, Women are entitled to inherit only half a portion of that of a man (Sura 4, verse 176). For many men at the Arab Gulf, the brain of a woman is “too small”; it is half the size of that of a man.

Also, Islamists encourage forcing minor girls to marry. The youngest was 8 years old whose father forced her to marry a 57-year-man in Sana’a, the Yemen Times reports (October 10, 2008). As some human rights organizations protested, a local judge defended the case by analogy; the Prophet Muhammad married Aisha, one of his wives, as she was 9 years old.
Men and women, in most Arab oil rich countries, are not allowed to hug or kiss each other in public, at the airport, for instance, when they welcome relatives and friends back from a journey or say farewell to them. For weeks now, Islamists in Kuwait have been condemning a 14-year-old girl who kissed a singer in a family wedding party in a hotel in Kuwait city. Some of them called the girl a “whore” and demanded punishing her and her parents.

Another triviality of Islamists is the ad nausea repetition of “peace and prayers be upon him” every time the name of the Prophet Muhammad is mentioned. It is a must. Otherwise, you are not “pious” enough”.

A real Muslim, for Islamists, is the one who practices Islam to the letter. Muslims are not allowed to use their left hand when they eat or drink. It is the one which one uses to wash their ***.

According to Islamists, a Muslim should never donate an organ, heart or kidneys for example, to a non-Muslim. Ali Gumaa, the grand mufti of Egypt and the Islamist fanatic, Yousef Al Qaradhawi, approved of that on Al Jazeera TV (February 16, 2008).

Freedom of speech is also forbidden, according to Islamists. You are not allowed to question anything in the Koran, Hadeeth, or Shari’a. These scripts are sacred.

Books that criticize certain Islamic practices are also forbidden. The “evolution theory” is also banned from all schools in the earlier mentioned countries. Even the “One Thousand and one Nights” is forbidden in many Arab countries. Some Islamists preach, the Koran is the only book that is worth of reading. It has got everything you need to know.

This is reminiscent of what the second Caliph, Omar Ibn Al Khattab did with the Library of Alexandria in the 7th century, the greatest and most precious at the time. Before burning the Library down, he said, “If it contains books which preach what Islam advocates, then it is superfluous. If it doesn’t, then it should be destroyed.” And it was.

Music, for Islamists, is also haram (forbidden). It is a Western fad. It is noise. A good Muslim listens only to recorded recitations of the Koran.

Political “parties” is “hizb” (fragmentation) and as such are forbidden in the Arab Gulf countries. In Kuwait there is a parliament, but parties are forbidden. Saudi Arabia rejects democracy all together. It is un-Islamic. Shura (consultation) is the Islamic alternative. This is one of the reasons why the Al Saud are vehemently sticking to Shari’a. It justifies their absolute despotic rule.

Besides, Islamists reject all secular constitutions and secular laws. They advocate that the Shari’a is the best constitution on earth. It is the law of Allah.

Islamists also reject religious pluralism. Any other faith than Islam is fake. The Saudis and the Turks, both led by Islamists, enjoy religious pluralism in the West. But in their own countries, no churches, synagogues, or temples are allowed to be built.

In addition, until now, no-Muslims are not allowed to enter Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. They are “holy places” and only Muslims are allowed to visit them.

Islam is the only religion in the world that declares Muslims who convert to other faiths apostates and sentences them to death. Islamists enforce this with death fatwas. This is a gross violation of a basic human right which the UN Charter prescribes and all Arab and Muslim countries ratified.

For Islamists, people who satirize Islamic symbols are declared satanic/heretic and deserve the death penalty. The Muhammad-Cartoons are a case in point.

Every time a hurricane hits the USA, the Islamists rejoice. They propagate, that is the curse of Allah on the “infidels”. As the tsunami hit South East Asia, Nabeel Al Awadhi claimed in an article for the Kuwaiti Al Watan daily (April 2006), “The tsunami hit more infidels than Muslims.” In’ the same paper, Waleed Al Tabtaba’i concluded (October 5, 2008) that the recent international financial crisis is Allah’ chastisement for the people who deal with riba (usury).” Rajab Al Banna, a columnist with the Egyptian daily, Al Ahram, alleges (May 26, 2007), “Western charity organizations are not interested in humanitarian aid. Their ultimate aim is proselytizing Muslims and help them convert to Christianity.”

As you can see, the Islamists find always a “rational” explanation to events in the world.
The Islamist dogma is void and anti-human. But thanks to petrodollars, lack of genuine democracy and freedom of speech in the Arab and Muslim world – which for decades has been ignored by the West for geopolitical and economic interests – and thanks to relativists in their cozy offices, Islamism is thriving and Islamists are emboldened.

School textbooks in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Indonesia, for example, are still teaching hatred and violence against people of other faiths. According to the latest UN Education Report (2007), these books are funded by Saudi Arabia. And no body dare touch on that. Governments and individuals are intimidated. It is allegedly an internal matter, and justified as freedom of belief. This is perverse. Violating basic human rights has nothing to do with freedom of belief.
The USA and the European Union know all that, yet they have not undertaken concrete measure to ban these toxic textbooks. There must the war on terror begin. Islamists are illiterate in terms of common sense and human civilized coexistence. They are outlaws who need to be re-educated and integrated in our civilized world.

It is very important to distinguish between ordinary Muslims and Islamists. The majority of Muslims around the globe are peaceful people, more or less religious like all followers of other faiths whether they are Christians, Jews, Hindus, or Buddhists. Every human being must have the right to believe in whatever they deem appropriate, including Islamists. But nobody has the right to IMPOSE his beliefs on other, oppress them, discriminate against them, and terrorize them, as Islamists are doing every day.

The so-called Mutawa’s, religious police in Saudi Arabia, are empowered to force all women to cover their bodies from head to toe, even 5-year-old girls. Pedestrians during prayer times are forced to go the mosque and pray, sometimes even non-Muslims are forced to do so. Women who travel by taxi alone are accused of adultery. Both the woman and the taxi driver are imprisoned and tortured. In Gaza, Basra/Iraq, south Lebanon, and Iran no woman is allowed to walk in a public place without a hijab (headscarf). In most Egyptian towns, women without a headscarf are denigrated and treated as prostitutes.

More and more governments in the Middle East, for example, in Egypt, Syria, Kuwait, Pakistan, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen, and Iraq are allying themselves with Islamists in a bid to appease the latter. Demonizing the West would partially appease the Islamists and essentially debilitate the demand for democracy in these countries.

The problem is not Islam; it has existed for 1400 years and will still, realistically speaking, exist. The problem in the 21st century is the Islamists. They have hijacked both Islam and moderate Muslims. The resources of these thugs must be dried out and this is the responsibility of all of us. We must not be intimidated by them under any circumstances. They are a socio-cultural virus that must be eradicated by all means.

Finally, a colleague told me, Islam is sick. And its disease is called Islamism. The world community must fight this devastating disease, this Black Death. It is disrupting peace and stability in the whole world. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, an Italian Islam expert said several times, “The Americans should have invaded Saudi Arabia, instead of Iraq. It IS the source of all evil.” I would add Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE.

The Islamist establishments in these countries and their media are fostering Islamism. All these regimes proclaim that they are friends of the West, but at the same time they fund and support Islamism. It is, however, clear that America and the West at large would not want to antagonize these regimes for well-known geopolitical and economic considerations.

Sioux Falls Islamic Center Expanding By Private Donation

Muslims Immigrating to Sioux City

-Ahmed

Muslim community members broke ground Friday on a second building in the city that will allow more space for a growing Islamic community to hold religious and community events."This will be a resource to provide a familiar place to go for those who come here and are adjusting," said Asif Zabih, Islamic Center president.The two-story, 10,000 square-foot Islamic Center at 1600 W. Seventh St. will serve as a soup kitchen, Mosque, medical clinic, Saturday school, day care and community hall.

"We hope this center will build a bridge of understanding between the Muslim faith and others," said Qadir Aware, a member of the Muslim community.

The center also will handle weddings, funeral services and family counseling. All of the services are provided by volunteers and are free for anyone in the community, Zabih said.

  • It is being funded by four years of private donations and will cost $500,000, Zabih said.
  • The expected completion is within a year.
  • The current Islamic Center at 1909 E. 6th St. has become too small for its growing population in Sioux Falls, Zabih said.
  • Volunteers teach 80 children at the center's school, and Zabih. Many more are expected at the new one.
  • Members say the 1,200 square-foot building can barely accommodate worshippers during Friday prayer or Eids, which are Muslim holidays.

There are 2,000 people from the Islamic community living in the city, Zabih said. About 400 of them are active members of the Islamic Center.

In 2004, the population of Muslims in Sioux Falls was 1,100.
Reach reporter Elizabeth Reiss at 331-2326.

Source

Argus Leader

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Central Asia Institute

Central Asia Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pennies for Peace PRograms.

Note Program Locations

Fremont Muslims Vote Against Gay Marriage in California

American Muslims in Fremont backed Senator Barack Obama’s push for the Presidency, but not his advice to vote no on Prop 8.

Voters of the Muslim faith in Fremont said they were in favor of Proposition 8, the ballot measure that eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry, on the advice of their mosques and because of their traditional values.

Mosques such as the Islamic Center of Fremont urged their members to vote for Prop 8. “If there is something against the religion, then we’re going to vote in one way, particularly for Prop 8.
Muslims are supposed to vote Prop 8 yes,” said Mohammad S. Akhtar, who is originally from Pakistan and is a board member at the Islamic Center of Fremont, the second largest mosque in Fremont.

Sam Saleh, a store owner who is originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, said that the prayer leader at his mosque had told members to vote yes on Prop. 8 during the Friday sermon. Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day, but Friday prayers are usually the busiest at mosques, equivalent to Sunday service at church.

Asked why he thought same-sex marriages should be banned, Saleh said: “I have children. God created one man, one woman. I can’t go against God. That’s the way I think is right and everybody in the Muslim community voted yes.”

Tariq Masood, an insurance agent originally from Pakistan, said gay marriage “should be stopped” and that God condemned nations that condoned homosexual behavior. He also suggested that homosexuality was to blame for earthquakes and other natural disasters.
Before he went out to cast his ballot on election day, Masood asked a Muslim friend over the phone for last-minute advice on whether voting yes or no on Prop. 8 meant a vote to stop same-sex marriage and was reassured in his decision.

Mimi Najati, owner of a beauty salon in Centerville who is originally from Afghanistan, said her husband, like the Muslim community in general, was against gay marriage. But she said she would have voted against Prop. 8, if she had remembered to register on time. “I’m not supporting gay marriages but if somebody likes to marry they should be given the right to do so,” she said.

“We as human beings should be given freedom of choice, nobody should be against that. It’s not our business what somebody does. It’s not going to hurt anybody so why should we be against it?”

The Rest @ the 510 Report

Monday, November 03, 2008

Can this be Real Sharia?

When a rape victim, who attempts to tell the Sharia authorities what happened, is stoned byt the very Sharia court she hoped would protect her.

Is this real Sharia? I look forward to your reposnse.

-Editor


A 13-year-old rape victim in Somalia was stoned to death last week after being accused of adultery in breach of Islamic law, Amnesty International said, citing her father and other unidentified people.

Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was killed by a group of 50 men in a stadium in the southern port of Kismayo on Oct. 27 in front of 1,000 spectators, the London-based human rights group said in an e-mailed statement on Oct. 31.

Yusuf Abdi Mohamed, who witnessed the execution, told Bloomberg News on Oct. 28 that Duhulow was a 23-year-old woman who had confessed to adultery.

"She had in fact been raped by three men and had attempted to report this rape to the al-Shabaab militia, which controls Kismayo,'' Amnesty said. `

"It was this act that resulted in her being accused of adultery and detained. None of the men she accused of rape was arrested.''

  • Somalia is in its 18th year of civil war and hasn't had a functioning central administration since the ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
  • Violence has escalated since Ethiopian troops helped Somalia's United Nations-backed government oust the Islamic Courts Union militia from southern and central parts of the country in January 2007.
  • Last week's stoning was the first such execution in Kismayo since the Islamist al-Shabaab movement captured the city in August and established Shariah courts.
  • Shariah law operates under a code of Islamic principles first established in the Arab world by the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century.
  • Amnesty said that some of the Somali journalists who earlier reported Duhulow was 23 had said this age was an estimate based on her physical appearance.
  • Sheikh Hayakalah, the Sharia court judge, said in remarks broadcast on Radio Shabelle, a Mogadishu-based broadcaster, that Duhulow had officially confirmed her guilt and was ``happy with the punishment under Islamic law.''
  • ``In contradiction to this claim, a number of eyewitnesses have told Amnesty International she struggled with her captors and had to be forcibly carried into the stadium,'' Amnesty said.
  • The organization said al-Shabaab has created a climate of ``extreme fear'' within the areas the militia controls in Somalia.
  • To contact the reporter on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
  • Last Updated: November 3, 2008 03:42 EST

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Shia to attack Sunni Web Sites?

Egypt: Sunni scholars sanction 'electronic Jihad'

Cairo, 16 Oct. (AKI) - Attacking American and Israeli websites by hacking and sabotage is allowed under Islamic law and is a form of 'Jihad' or holy war, top Muslim scholars have decreed. The religious edict (fatwa) issued by a committee from the highest authority in Sunni Islam,

Egypt's Al-Azhar University in Cairo, was published on the website of the Islamist Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement on Thursday.

"This is considered a type of lawful Jihad that helps Islam by paralysing the information systems used by our enemies for their evil aims," said the fatwa."This Jihad is not different from the armed one. In fact, it might be more important if you consider the global dimensions of the Internet. Whoever wins this war will become the strongest in the realm of information," the fatwa continued.

The Muslim Brotherhood praised the fatwa, which comes in response to dozens of questions from radicals asking to be allowed to destroy Israeli and United States websites.

Last week, the news website of Dubai-based Arabic TV network al-Arabiya was attacked by suspected Shia hackers, who posted a burning Israeli flag to the site.Beneath the flag, a message in Arabic and English read: 'Serious Warning - if attacks on Shia websites continue, none of your websites will be safe.'

The Rest @ Adnkronos