MUSLIM HATE AT MOSQUES
WASHINGTON -- The American government is demanding that Saudi Arabia account for its distribution of hate material to American mosques, as the State Department pressed Saudi officials for answers last week and as the Senate later this month plans to investigate the propagation of radical Wahhabism on American shores.
The flurry of activity comes months after a report from the Center for Religious Freedom discovered that dozens of mosques in major cities across the country, including New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, were distributing documents, bearing the seal of the government of Saudi Arabia, that incite Muslims to acts of violence and promote hatred of Jews and Christians.
A Washington-based group that is part of the human rights organization Freedom House, the Center for Religious Freedom also found during its yearlong study that the Saudi-produced materials describe democracy and America as un-Islamic. They instruct recent Muslim immigrants to consider Americans as enemies and the materials urge new arrivals to use their time here as preparation for jihad. The documents also promote the version of Islam officially embraced by Saudi government and several of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, Wahhabism, as the only authentic Islam.
In response to the Freedom House report and as part of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 sponsored by Senator Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee - of which Senator Specter is chairman - will be holding hearings into the hate materials on October 25, a spokesman for the senator, William Reynolds, said yesterday.
The Accountability Act, introduced in June, says its purpose is "to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure fully Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents." The legislation is highly critical of the House of Saud for its support of terrorist activity and cites the January Freedom House report as evidence of the kingdom's complicity in the spread of radical Islamist ideology. As part of the
Accountability Act, Senator Specter has in the past held Judiciary Committee hearings into Saudi financing of terrorism and Saudi Arabia's role in injecting ideology into textbooks for Palestinian Arab schoolchildren.
Many of the details of the Judiciary Committee hearing later this month, Mr. Reynolds said, are still being arranged, including a final witness list. In the meantime, the committee expects testimony from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom House, and terrorism experts. The committee will press to determine whether the Saudi government has taken steps to stop the distribution of the materials, and will cull from witnesses recommendations to prevent their future dissemination, Mr. Reynolds said.
Also demanding answers about the hate materials is the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Karen Hughes. During a high-profile trip to the Middle East last week, Ms. Hughes said American representatives had addressed the propagation of Saudi hate material in America during private meetings with government officials.
In a State Department briefing held en route to Ankara, Turkey, from Saudi Arabia last Tuesday, Ms. Hughes was asked why she had raised the issue that day during a public meeting with Saudi journalists, becoming the first American official to do so publicly. "We had been raising the issue privately," Ms. Hughes said, "and as part of raising difficult issues that we need to discuss, I felt it was appropriate." The undersecretary did not elaborate on the results of the private meetings, but the degree to which Saudi Arabia is making efforts to stop the propaganda will be a subject of the Senate hearings, Mr. Reynolds said.
Requests for comment from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia yesterday were not returned.
By Meghan Clyne
New York Sun
Senate to probe Saudis' jihad propaganda
Demands accountability for spreading 'hate' through U.S. mosques
Posted: October 6, 2005
WorldNetDaily.com
As the Senate prepares an investigation, the U.S. State Department is demanding Saudi Arabia account for its distribution of hate-filled, jihad propaganda through American mosques.
The developments are based on a yearlong study by a Washington human-rights group asserting the government of Saudi Arabia is disseminating propaganda through American mosques that teaches hatred of Jews and Christians and instructs Muslims that they are on a mission behind enemy lines in a land of unbelievers.
The 89-page report by Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques," concludes the Saudi government propaganda examined reflects a "totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite to violence."
The report says the fact it is "being mainstreamed within our borders through the efforts of a foreign government, namely Saudi Arabia, demands our urgent attention."
In response to the report and the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings Oct. 25, the New York Sun reported.
The Accountability Act, introduced in June by Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sharply criticizes the Saudi regime for its support of terrorist activity and, citing the Freedom House report, its part in spreading the radical Wahhabist ideology shared by Osama bin Laden and the 9-11 attackers.
The act's purpose is "to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure fully Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents."
Specter has held Judiciary Committee hearings into Saudi financing of terrorism and Riyadh's role in injecting ideology into textbooks for Palestinian Arab schoolchildren, the Sun said.
The hearings this month likely will include testimony from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom House and terrorism experts, said William Reynolds, a spokesman for Specter.
The State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Karen Hughes, also is demanding answers from the Saudis, the New York paper reported.
In a visit to Saudi Arabia last week, Hughes raised the issue in private meetings with government officials. She also referred to it publicly in a meeting with Saudi journalists.
"We had been raising the issue privately," Hughes explained, "and as part of raising difficult issues that we need to discuss, I felt it was appropriate."
Reynolds said the degree to which Saudi Arabia is making efforts to stop the propaganda will be a subject of the Senate hearings.
In March, 15 senators responded to the Freedom House report with a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding the Bush administration take stronger action against Riyadh.
Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, were among the signers of the letter, which called for the U.S. to define its relationship Saudi Arabia more clearly.
Schumer stated: "It is a massive contradiction that a country we call an ally could be both so regressive in their own country and so brazen in its propagation of anti-American, anti-women, anti-Semitic books, publications, and practices. American security is undermined as the Saudi government exports these hateful commodities to millions beyond its borders, planting the seeds for new generations of terrorists and totalitarian Wahhabi leaders."
Collins said the report "raises some disturbing concerns about the spread of extremist materials in American mosques and Islamic centers."
"If we are going to win the war on terrorism, these types of actions cannot be tolerated," she said. "It is important that the Saudi Arabian government join us in this fight and stop supporting the spread of ideologies that promote hatred and intolerance around the world."
The Freedom House report cited samples of more than 200 books and other publications from American mosques used to educate its members that preach a "Nazi-like hatred for Jews" and "promote contempt for the United States because it is ruled by legislated civil law rather than by totalitarian Wahhabi-style Islamic law."
One highlighted document, distributed through the Saudi Arabian Embassy's Cultural Department in Washington, is a fatwa against the taking of American citizenship by Muslims and thereby "acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways."
Expert: Saudis have radicalized 80% of US mosques
Mainstream US Muslim organizations are heavily influenced by Saudi-funded extremists, according to Yehudit Barsky, an expert on terrorism at the American Jewish Committee.
Worse still, Barsky told The Jerusalem Post last week, these "extremist organizations continue to claim the mantle of leadership" over American Islam.
The power of the extremist Wahhabi form of Islam in the United States was created with generous Saudi financing of American Muslim communities over the past few decades. Over 80 percent of the mosques in the United States "have been radicalized by Saudi money and influence," Barsky said.
Before the 1970s, she explained, "Muslim immigrants who came to the United States would build a store-front mosque somewhere. Then, since the 1970s, the Saudis have been approaching these mosques and telling them it wasn't proper for the glory of Islam to build such small mosques."
For many Muslims, it seemed the Saudis were offering a free mosque. However, Barsky believes for each mosque they invested in, the Saudis sent along their own imam (teacher-cleric).
"These [immigrants] were not interested in this [Wahhabi] ideology, and suddenly they have a Saudi imam coming in and telling them they're not praying properly and not practicing Shari'a [Islamic law] properly." This Saudi strategy was being carried out "all over the world, from America to Bangladesh," with the Saudis investing $70-80 billion in the endeavor over three decades.
Barsky, who heads the AJC's Division on Middle East and International Terrorism and is the executive editor of Counterterrorism Watch, said this means that "the people now in control of teaching religion [to American Muslims] are extremists. Who teaches the mainstream moderate non-Saudi Islam that people used to have? It's in the homes, but there's no infrastructure. Eighty percent of the infrastructure is controlled by these extremists."
The same is true, Barsky said, of many of the mainstream Muslim organizations in America. Many of them are "pro-Saudi and pro-Muslim Brotherhood organizations."
As examples, she listed three important groups: the Islamic Society of North America, which "supports the Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi regime;" the Islamic Circle of North America, which "is composed of members of Jamaat e-Islami, a Pakistani Islamic radical organization similar to the Muslim Brotherhood that helped to establish the Taliban;" and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), "founded in the 1980s by pro-Hamas activists."
The problem is most acute when it comes to interfaith relations. When advising colleagues on interfaith work with their Muslim counterparts, Barsky tells them "to proceed with caution, [since] some of the [extremist] organizations have concluded that interfaith dialogue is a good way to spread the ideology."
Indeed, despite instructions given in Saudi embassy literature - and available in many mosques throughout the country - which blast Jewish and Christian "corruption and immorality" and teach Muslims that "the only way to survive is to have no contact with the infidel Christians and Jews," these organizations reach out to Jews and Christians.
Barsky explained that interfaith dialogue gives such organizations a public legitimacy that their ideology would deny them if they expressed it outright.
"So there's a problem," Barsky concluded, "with knowing who these people are, who is really moderate. [These organizations] come to the Jewish community to talk about interfaith, while they still teach anti-Western and anti-Christian doctrines to their followers. Some of the leaders have even condoned suicide bombings in Israel and against American armed forces."
Her advice to American Jewish organizations who want to take part in interfaith activities: "Take time to learn who they are and what they're saying. It's more complicated than just respecting each other."
As for finding true moderates in the American Muslim community, Barsky said such organizations "have quite a way to go before they will have the level of organization" displayed by the extremist organizations. "So there's a moderate voice that hasn't been heard. But it's starting to be heard, and that's because of the anger over [organizations such as] CAIR claiming the mantle of leadership."
For example, organizations such as the Arizona-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy and the Washington-based Center for Islamic Pluralism are both new and "have gathered under their umbrella a number of moderate organizations."
As for combatting Islamic radicals in America, Barsky thinks Americans need to change the way they think about Wahhabi Islam.
"The United States has a hard time understanding the extremists' ideology. Americans don't like to interfere in the religion of other people. But the reality is that this isn't religion, but a politicized radical ideology. It's very dangerous," she warned, adding that the people who are being taught this ideology are prime targets for recruitment by terror organizations.
"If we don't understand that [these groups] are dangerous," she concluded simply, "we're going to suffer the consequences."
Norway: Muslim Violence May Curtail Oslo Mosque’s Funding
Tuesday 7 March 2006
We described the undignified brawling at the Markazi Jamaat Ahle Sunnat mosque in the district of Gronland, Oslo, at the Friday evening prayer meeting on March 03. In this fighting, the imam of the mainly Pakistani congregation, Malik Mohammad Raza, was attacked and injured. Knives and bats were used in the fighting, leading at least three people to be hospitalised.
Yesterday, we mentioned that police had taken five people into custody, in connection with the violence, which had also involved a local politician from the Labour party, Khalid Mahmood.
Mahmood claimed that he had been a victim in the attack, and had been injured, though police reported that there was no evidence to support his claim. The imam said that Khalid Mahmood had been one of the men who had attacked him.
Today, Aftenposten reports that the administrator of Oslo and Akershus County has warned that the financial aid which the mosque receives from the state may be curtailed.
The County Governor’s office made a statement on national television, saying that if illegal activities are linked to the mosque, it could lose its funding from Norwegian tax-payers.
Last year, the Markazi Jamaat Ahle Sunnat received the equivalent of $211,000 in state funding.
Aftenposten states that financial support to religious institutions is usually only withdrawn if human rights abuses can be demonstrated.
As we reported in November last year, Karita Bekkemellen, the Norwegian Equality Minister said that mosques in Norway which supported wife-beating, such as the World Islamic Mission in Gronland, Oslo, led by Syed Ikram Jilani, could have their funding withdrawn.
The fighting at the Markazi Jamaat Ahle Sunnat mosque, which has a congregation of at least 5,000 appears to be the result of squabbles between different factions within the mosque, struggling for control of the finances.
MONITOR THE MOSQUES
June 06, 2006
On June 2 and 3, Canadian law enforcement in Toronto arrested 17 Muslim
men for planning terrorist attacks on Canadian targets. The leader of the group,
Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, recruited young Muslim males by speaking at Al-Rahman
Islamic Center for Islamic Education, a storefront mosque in Mississauga.
Law enforcement officials across the globe are
searching for suspects connected to the Toronto 17; American law enforcement has
already discovered at least two terrorism suspects who spoke with members of the
Canadian terrorist cell.
In May 2004, London authorities arrested hook-handed, one-eyed imam Abu Hamza
al-Masri. The United States immediately filed charges against al-Masri and asked
that Britain expedite him for trial. Among other terrorist acts, the indictment
charged al-Masri with attempting to set up a terrorist cell in Oregon. Al-Masri
was also linked to terrorists Zacarias Moussaoui, who was involved in the Sept.
11 plot, and Richard Reid (a.k.a. Tariq Raja and Abdul Rahim), the shoebomber.
Al-Masri was the imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, where he used his
pulpit to recruit terrorists and preach hate.
In September 2002, American law enforcement arrested six members of a larger
terrorist cell in Buffalo, New York. All six were young Muslim men, and all six
had attended terrorist training in Afghanistan. The leader of the group, Kamal
Derwish, had recruited all six arrested members by speaking at his local mosque
in Lackawanna. All six men pled guilty to terrorism charges.
Mohammed Atta, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, used a mosque in Hamburg, Germany
to network with potential recruits, including Ramzi Binalshibh, who would act as
a coordinator for the attacks. Two of the potential Sept. 11 terrorists, Nawaf
al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, hooked up with an imam at Rabat Mosque, Anwar
Aulaqi; Aulaqi would later aid al-Hazmi and Mihdhar's replacement, Hani Hanjour,
in relocating east as Sept. 11 approached.
Mosques across the globe have provided material aid to terrorist groups ranging
from al-Qaeda to Islamic Jihad to Hezbollah to Hamas. Muslim terrorists use
mosques as networking sites and often as recruitment centers for future
terrorist comrades. There is no doubt that law enforcement should be heavily
scrutinizing the membership and administration of mosques. Doing so before Sept.
11 could have prevented that catastrophe, just as scrutiny of a small, seemingly
insignificant storefront mosque may have prevented major terrorist attacks in
Canada. Muslim terrorists are, above all, religious. They will attend mosques,
even if only to pray. Forget racial profiling -- monitoring mosques is simple
common sense.
Leaders in the Muslim community don't seem to get it. "People are suspicious and
there's anger," complains Aly Hindy, imam at the Toronto-based Salaheddin
Islamic Center in Scarborough. "We are being targeted not because of what we've
done, but because of who we are and what we believe in."
No doubt this is true to some extent. But that is the difference between
prevention of crime and after-the-fact investigation of crime. For attempts to
remain attempts, suspects must be stopped in the inchoate processes leading up
to attacks. Prevention is undoubtedly the only option if civilized nations wish
to preserve their citizenries from the sadistic barbarism of our enemies.
Monitoring mosques is the simplest and most effective way of preventing
terrorist attacks. Many imams are trustworthy; many mosques are clean.
Nonetheless, law enforcement must pursue a strategy of "trust, but verify."
Lives depend on it.
Ben Shapiro, 21, is a graduate of UCLA and a student at Harvard Law School. He
is also the author of the recently published "Porn Generation: How Social
Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future" as well as the national best seller
"Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth."
Musharraf bans sale of hate literature
NDTV Correspondent
Friday, January 12, 2007 (Islamabad):
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has directed security
agencies to check the misuse of religious places in spreading hatred.
Musharraf ordered a complete ban on the sale of hate literature outside mosques
and banned the use of loudspeakers in mosques other than for Azaan prayers.
Musharraf said that the menace of terrorism could be eliminated only by ensuring
that the religious seminaries are not exploited for agitational activities.