Hearing set in terror-linked divorce trial

Hearing set in terror-linked divorce trial
Federal court to consider preliminary injunction against state judge

A hearing has been scheduled before a federal judge on a request for a temporary restraining order against a Tennessee state judge handling a divorce case that has been linked by testimony to terrorism.

The order was signed by Jean Lee, the case manager in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, and confirms the hearing on a request by Rosine Ghawji for an order concerning Donna Fields, a state judge handling Ghawji's divorce action, will be before U.S. District Judge Samuel H. Mays Jr. on Thursday.

The court filing is seeking federal court intervention because Mrs. Ghawji is seeking a divorce from her husband because of his ties to terrorism, and alleges the state judge violated her civil rights, including placing her under "house arrest" as part of that case.

The case, as WND has reported, involves Rosine Ghawji, a Christian woman who reports her husband, Maher Ghawji, has boasted of being a radical Islamic and has defined the future for their two sons, ages 14 and 18, as being "good Muslims or dead."

The federal civil rights action alleges violations of the First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendments by Judge Fields. Specifically the case seeks an order preventing Fields from continuing the proceedings in the divorce dispute or taking any action or enforcing any order in that case.

The need is urgent, the filings state, because "if this Court declines to grant the PLAINTIFFS' Motion for Preliminary Injunction, the DEFENDANT, in light of the DEFENDANT's prejudice and prejudgment of the case will very likely enter judgment in the Divorce Case awarding child custody to the Husband, thereby subjecting the PLAINTIFFS to possible harm, bodily injury, death and/or terror."

The case outlines her statements connecting the divorce case to the dark world of terror support, and outlined how her husband, "on the pretext of the Order … broke into Rosine's home, of which she has exclusive possession."

Court documents outline the evidence of terror links in the case:

* Mrs. Ghawji, at the FBI's instructions, for a period of time wore a wire and reported on any indications her husband was supporting terrorism.

* Mrs. Ghawji said her husband has boasted of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most radical organizations of Islam.

* Joe Kaufman, who has run an anti-terrorism organization for years, noted that both of the Ghawji sons have, in e-mails and other communications, told friends their father was planning to take them to Syria against their will, and one noted that his grandfather has promised to beat him up when he arrived there.

* The husband's brothers, Haitham, is "set forth in the U.S government's evidentiary proffer for convicted terrorist Enaam Arnaout," a former director of the Benevolence International Foundation, a group whose core mission reportedly is to help Al-Qaida.

* Mrs. Ghawji has said her husband's brother once bragged "we got them" when an explosion at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia killed 19 Americans.

* Mrs. Ghawji has said her husband had an affair with a spokeswoman for the Islamic Society of Central Florida, a group that tried to sponsor a fundraiser featuring Siraj Wahhaj, who is on the U.S. Attorney’s list of potential co-conspirators to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

* Mrs. Ghawji also has reported she spent hours waiting for her husband while he was in meetings at a mosque occupied by blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, now serving a life sentence in the SuperMax prison in Colorado on accusations he helped in the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings in New York.

* She's also reported that on Sept. 11, 2001, a few hours before the terrorist attacks, her husband's brother send an e-mail announced some of his friends were coming to the U.S., and they should be made to feel welcome.

The original court complaint explained how Maher Ghawji repeatedly had told his sons "he would be proud if they blew themselves up for 'Allah' as such action would constitute a glorification of their lives."

The husband also threatened to assassinate his wife if she opposed his desire to train his sons as radical Muslim extremists and told his wife for as little as $1,000, he would "hire a 'hitman' in Memphis' black community to kill her," court filings show.

The threats included one incident in a Value City department store in Memphis, when the husband took a sword displayed for sale and was, "pressing it against Rosine's neck, simulating slashing her throat, and telling her 'that's what [he] would like to do with that sword,'" the document reveals.

All of that relates to the divorce case because, court papers allege, the state divorce court judge "stated that she did not believe that Rosine had been truthful," then sealed court records when the wife presented proof of her claims. "The Defendant then warned Rosine that if she ever disclosed the contents of the affidavits to [her sons] that she would be thrown in jail."