Islam In The United States

[Soldier4Christ]

'Jesus was a Palestinian,'
claims U.S. history text
Study: American public school books
have 'same inaccuracies' as Arab texts

A new study reveals that if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to criticize the nation of Israel before the United Nations, he could use American public school textbooks to do so.

"It is shocking to find the kind of misinformation we discovered in American textbooks and supplemental materials being used by schools in every state in the country," said Dr. Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and a co-author of the study.

"Elected officials at every level should investigate how these offensive passages are creeping into our textbooks. Presenting false information in the classroom undermines the very foundation of the American educational system," he said.

Tobin teamed with insititute research associate Dennis Ybarra for the study, titled, "The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion." The five-year effort, which looked at 28 prominent history, geography and social studies textbooks, reveals American public school students are being loaded up with indoctrination about Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the Middle East, to the cost of Christianity and Judaism and the benefit of Islam.

The study also supports other assessments of U.S. texts on which WND has reported.

According to an earlier report from the American Textbook Council, history textbooks throughout the U.S. schooling system promote Islam.

The new study by the IJCR found more than 500 erroneous passages in the books, including one textbook that charged that early Jewish civilization contributed little to the arts and sciences.

An excerpt from "World Civilizations," by Thomas Wadsworth, for example, said, "Excepting the Old Testament's poetry, the Jews produced very little of note in any of the art forms ... There is no record of any important [early] Jewish contributions to the sciences."

The level of outrageousness grew: "Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus," claims "The World," by Scott Foresman.

"The textbooks tend to be critical of Jews and Israel, disrespectful about Christianity, and rather than represent Islam in an objective way, tend to glorify it," said co-author Ybarra. "To teach children, for instance, that Jesus was a Palestinian and de-emphasize his Jewishness does a disservice to Christians and Jews as well as anyone who cares about historical accuracy."

The institute analyzes issues such as racial and religious identity, philanthropy and higher education. Its full report is available at TroubleWithTextbooks.org, where all 28 books that came under its review are listed.

The organization said its study revealed textbooks include routinely negative stereotypes of Jews, Judaism and Israel. For example, Israel is blamed for starting wars in the Middle East and Jews are charged with deicide, and the problems are rife through the three mega-publishers that have deep enough pockets to get approval and publish a textbook in the major states of Texas and California.

"The 'Trouble with Textbooks' is a very important book not only for Jews but for the entire Christian community," said Rev. John J. Keane, ecumenical officer for the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. "This volume is an excellent tool for anyone who is interested in balanced information that is fair and reliable concerning Judaism, Christianity and Islam."

The authors found textbooks that stated or suggested:

    * Jesus was a "Palestinian," not a Jew.

    * The Arab nations never attacked Israel. Arab-Israeli wars “just broke out,” or Israel started them

    * Arabs nations want peace, but Israel does not

    * Israel expelled all Palestinian refugees

    * Israel put the Palestinians in refugee camps in Arab lands, not Arab governments

    * Palestinian terrorism is nonexistent or minimal

    * Israel is not a victim of terrorism, or terrorism against Israel is justified

    * U.S. support of Israel causes terrorism, including 9/11

    * The intifadas were children’s revolts not involving adults or terrorism

They also found that Judaism and Christianity are treated as matters of believing, while Islam is treated as a matter of fact. In the glossary of "World History: Continuity and Change," the Ten Commandments are described as, "Moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God Yahweh on Mount Sinai." But the same glossary states as fact the Quran is a, "Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God."

The study found, "Islam is treated with a devotional tone in some textbooks, less detached and analytical than it ought to be. Muslim beliefs are described in several instances as fact, without any clear qualifier such as 'Muslims believe.  . . .'"

Likewise, the Islamic empire of the Middle Ages was "a time of unqualified glory without blemishes," and Muslims "always tolerated Jews," unlike their Christian counterparts. The texts use terms such as "stories," "legends" and "tales" to talk about Jewish writings.

"If the president of Iran wants to blast Israel at the U.N., he can use American textbooks to do so," Tobin concluded.

The earlier ATC report took two years to study textbooks, and its author, Gilbert T. Sewall, found the problems regarding Islam "are uniquely disturbing."

"History textbooks present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security," the ATC report said."Islamic activists use multiculturalism and ready-made American-made political movements, especially those on campus, to advance and justify the makeover of Islam-related textbook content."

"Particular fault rests with the publishing corporations, boards of directors, and executives who decide what editorial policies their companies will pursue," the report said.

One of the executives for a text critiqued by ATC, Bert Bower, founder of TCI, told WND at the time not only did his company have experts review the book, but the state of California also reviewed it and has approved it for use in public schools.

"Keep in mind when looking at this particular book scholars from all over California (reviewed it)," he said.

One of the experts who contributed to the text, according to the ATC, was Ayad Al-Qazzaz.

"Al-Qazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes," the ATC review said. "Al-Qazzaz also co-wrote AWAIR's 'Arab World Notebook.' AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an opaque, proselytizing 'non-profit organization' that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools."

[Soldier4Christ]

Islamic takeover of U.S. already under way
Expert warns 'mainstream media' providing 'talking points' of Arab countries

An expert on terrorism is warning the United States should be fighting Islamization, which she believes already is under way. And author Brigitte Gabriel should know: She watched it happen in her native Lebanon.

"Lebanon used to be the only majority Christian country in the Middle East," Gabriel told radio talk show host Andrea Shea King in a recent hour-long interview "Most people today do not know that. We were the majority, the Muslims were the minority, but as the years went by, the Muslims became the majority because of their birth rate, but also because of our open-border policy.

"We welcomed everyone into our country," Gabriel said, and people didn't realize that the "minority," the Muslims in the society, "was not tolerant" and "did not believe all people were equal."

"They tried to impose their way of thinking on us, and they succeeded," she said.

The result, Gabriel said, was that a radical terrorist organization tied to Islam, Hezbollah, now rules in Lebanon.

As WND reported, Gabriel is fearful that terrorists believe now is the time to strike at America, while it is distracted by financial tension and election turmoil. She expressed the concerns during an interview with KSFO's Barbara Simpson, when she also discussed her new book, "They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It

Gabriel's new interview with King is available on BlogTalkRadio.

She noted it's been seven years since the Sept. 11, 2001, act of war on U.S. soil by Islamists, but America is falling to Islam's attack, and the battle already is far advanced.

"They do not need to fire a single bullet to destroy us," she said. "They are taking over our country culturally, just like they have taken over Europe."

She said Islam is being taught across the U.S. as part of world history courses for seventh graders.

"A three-week course is teaching students to memorize and recite Islamic prayers and verses from the Quran," she said. "Students have to adopt Islamic names, fast for a day to experience Ramadan, the holiest of Islamic religious holidays, and write about their experience as a Muslim at the end of the program. The exercises during the class include encouraging students to incorporate Arabic phrases such as Allahu Akbar in their speeches, and for students to imagine they were meeting disciples on a pilgrimage to Mecca. This is a state-approved curriculum, using state-adopted textbooks that have been part of the instructional program in California for over a decade."

WND reported this week that a new study shows U.S. textbooks provide "information" such as that Jesus was a Palestinian and the nation of Israel imposes terrorism on others but is not a victim a terrorism.

"Now it is being rolled out nationwide. One book I discuss in particular is 'Across the Centuries,' published by Houghton Mifflin. The Muslim Council on Education has been busy working with the State Department of Education and America's top three publishers who …are literally rewriting history," Gabriel said.

"'Across the Centuries' is a staple in the State of California. This textbook is at best, a well of misinformation. It is 558 pages long and covers the 1500 years from the fall of the Roman Empire and the French Revolution. The text includes 55 pages devoted to Islam, seven pages noting the Middle Ages in Europe, and six pages of Christian history. The chapter on the Byzantine Empire received only six pages. The chapter on Islam accounts for 10 percent of the text, while Christianity and Judaism are almost entirely absent," she said.

"This is public education approved by the State Board of Education nationwide! Our students are being indoctrinated into Islam in our public schools and we don't even have a clue! How can this be allowed to be taught in public schools in America? Most people do not know about it because it is flying under the radar!" she said.

At the university level it's worse, she said.

"What's been happening for the last 16 years, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states ... because of the money coming from the oil, they have been pumping millions of dollars into our universities appointing Arab professors who are anti-American, anti-Israel, who have been basically brain-washing our students into believe we are the problem," she said.

"The children, who have been educated in American universities for the last 16 years, have graduated and are now working ... not influenced ... by our patriotic education as Americans, but they have been influenced by Arab thinking ... [and] hatred based on revenge," she said.

"The writing is on the wall. Who would have thought that Shariah would come to Harvard University with regulated women-only gym hours? That an imam in Des Moines, Iowa, gave an opening prayer at the 2007 Iowa Legislature's opening session in which he called on Allah to give victory over those who disbelieve? Muslim taxi drivers in Minnesota who refuse to pick up passengers carrying alcohol? The first Islamic public school, the Kahlil Gibran Academy, that opened in 2007, funded by tax dollars! American colleges designating Islamic prayer rooms on campus for use by Muslims only!" Gabriel said.

"Those of us who come from the Middle East and see what's happening in the U.S. ... shake our heads in amazement," she said, calling her book a warning. "We are coming up to a very important election. This is the time we need to understand what is at stake, why our voice counts, why we need togo out and vote. This is the time to make a difference before it is too late," she said.

She said that's why besides her book, she's launched the ActForAmerica.org website.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

"We launched this out of American Congress for Truth as our activism and political lobbying arm because I realized talking by itself is only wasting hot air and is entertainment. Action is the only way that's going to make a difference," she said. "History reveals that the apathetic give way to the passionate, the complacent are subdued by the committed. ACT for America.org is mobilizing people all over the country and giving them the tools to resist the Islamic infiltration in our society on every level: schools, governments, universities and corporations.

"Our work is vital in educating the American public about what is happening behind the scenes," she said.

"I encourage people to go to our website Act for America.org. I know we have citizen action training seminars coming up in Kansas City and in Indianapolis within the next two weeks. Sign up and attend them if you are in those areas. And check where we have chapters across the country and either join a chapter, or if there's no chapter in your community, sign up to lead one. Organized power at the grass roots level trumps the voices of political correctness," Gabriel said.

"The radical Islamists promised to destroy us, and as you know from the recent war in Lebanon, that country is now nearly Islamic," she said.

"We are not waiting for this phenomenon to occur here in the war against Islamofascism. We are not simply hoping for spontaneous grassroots eruptions that may or may not come. We are making it occur by organizing grassroots chapters and supporters across America. We will force elected representatives to choose. To align themselves with the grassroots voices of America or the voice of political correctness."

Gabriel was born and raised in Lebanon. When she was 10, her home was bombed by radical Islamists. She spent two and a half months in a hospital with injuries, and then she survived with her parents for seven years hidden in an underground bomb shelter, subsisting without electricity or heat on a meager diet of rice, lentils and tufts of grass that grew outside the shelter. She crawled beneath sniper fire for sips of water from a nearby ditch.

Those who have lived through such experiences are horrified at Americans' attitudes, she said.

"I have two guests staying with me, also from Lebanon, who ran to Israel for their lives when Israel withdrew out of Lebanon. And this is their first trip to America. I took them to New York and to Washington, D.C., last week and we were walking around and they were stunned at the gullibility of Americans. I took them to an air show this past week and they saw Muslims in our military. They looked at me in utter shock and said, 'Do Americans know these same Muslims would turn their guns against their fellow Americans, military men and women in the same tents, and kill them in the name of Islam? What is America thinking?'" Gabriel said.

"We are not only fighting a military jihad, we are fighting a cultural jihad and we need to wake up. We are as much at war with the cultural jihad as we are with the military jihad," Gabriel said.

"Islam is coming to America while we are asleep at the wheel and only focusing on al-Qaida attacking us militarily. The Muslims are taking us over culturally and remember, they don't even have to fire one bullet," she said.

Gabriel's book, according to "American Jihad" author Steve Emerson, is "riveting, compelling and spellbinding. This is a must read for the entire American public."

"A compelling and captivating personal story with a powerful lesson about threats to freedom in our time," said R. James Woolsey, director of Central Intelligence from 1993-1995.

"There is a threat. We must do something about it. We must stop them," Gabriel said.

Earlier, in an interview with WND columnist Larry Elder published in two parts, "Because they hate," and "Because they hate, part 2," Gabriel said al-Qaida already is inside the U.S., as is Hezbollah.

"We estimate thousands have already been smuggled into America. ... Hamas is here. ... They have cells in over 40 states. ... We also need to reform our immigration and visa programs. We need to monitor who is coming into our country and why. ... We need to increase human intelligence. … I want everyone who fits the terrorist profile to be profiled. We have men between the ages of 16 and 40 who have committed terrorist acts around the world in the name of Islam. They are not little old ladies from Ohio with blue hair. They are not children going to Disney World on their Easter vacation," she said.

Elder asked: "What happens if a Democrat wins the 2008 election?"

"We are doomed. Our enemies want the Democrats to win. This last election, jihadist websites were playing victory songs and declaring the Democrats are our allies in the war against America," she said.

[nChrist]

'Jesus was a Palestinian,'
claims U.S. history text
Study: American public school books
have 'same inaccuracies' as Arab texts

A new study reveals that if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to criticize the nation of Israel before the United Nations, he could use American public school textbooks to do so.

"It is shocking to find the kind of misinformation we discovered in American textbooks and supplemental materials being used by schools in every state in the country," said Dr. Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and a co-author of the study.

"Elected officials at every level should investigate how these offensive passages are creeping into our textbooks. Presenting false information in the classroom undermines the very foundation of the American educational system," he said.

Tobin teamed with insititute research associate Dennis Ybarra for the study, titled, "The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion." The five-year effort, which looked at 28 prominent history, geography and social studies textbooks, reveals American public school students are being loaded up with indoctrination about Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the Middle East, to the cost of Christianity and Judaism and the benefit of Islam.

The study also supports other assessments of U.S. texts on which WND has reported.

According to an earlier report from the American Textbook Council, history textbooks throughout the U.S. schooling system promote Islam.

The new study by the IJCR found more than 500 erroneous passages in the books, including one textbook that charged that early Jewish civilization contributed little to the arts and sciences.

An excerpt from "World Civilizations," by Thomas Wadsworth, for example, said, "Excepting the Old Testament's poetry, the Jews produced very little of note in any of the art forms ... There is no record of any important [early] Jewish contributions to the sciences."

The level of outrageousness grew: "Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus," claims "The World," by Scott Foresman.

"The textbooks tend to be critical of Jews and Israel, disrespectful about Christianity, and rather than represent Islam in an objective way, tend to glorify it," said co-author Ybarra. "To teach children, for instance, that Jesus was a Palestinian and de-emphasize his Jewishness does a disservice to Christians and Jews as well as anyone who cares about historical accuracy."

The institute analyzes issues such as racial and religious identity, philanthropy and higher education. Its full report is available at TroubleWithTextbooks.org, where all 28 books that came under its review are listed.

The organization said its study revealed textbooks include routinely negative stereotypes of Jews, Judaism and Israel. For example, Israel is blamed for starting wars in the Middle East and Jews are charged with deicide, and the problems are rife through the three mega-publishers that have deep enough pockets to get approval and publish a textbook in the major states of Texas and California.

"The 'Trouble with Textbooks' is a very important book not only for Jews but for the entire Christian community," said Rev. John J. Keane, ecumenical officer for the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. "This volume is an excellent tool for anyone who is interested in balanced information that is fair and reliable concerning Judaism, Christianity and Islam."

The authors found textbooks that stated or suggested:

    * Jesus was a "Palestinian," not a Jew.

    * The Arab nations never attacked Israel. Arab-Israeli wars “just broke out,” or Israel started them

    * Arabs nations want peace, but Israel does not

    * Israel expelled all Palestinian refugees

    * Israel put the Palestinians in refugee camps in Arab lands, not Arab governments

    * Palestinian terrorism is nonexistent or minimal

    * Israel is not a victim of terrorism, or terrorism against Israel is justified

    * U.S. support of Israel causes terrorism, including 9/11

    * The intifadas were children’s revolts not involving adults or terrorism

They also found that Judaism and Christianity are treated as matters of believing, while Islam is treated as a matter of fact. In the glossary of "World History: Continuity and Change," the Ten Commandments are described as, "Moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God Yahweh on Mount Sinai." But the same glossary states as fact the Quran is a, "Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God."

The study found, "Islam is treated with a devotional tone in some textbooks, less detached and analytical than it ought to be. Muslim beliefs are described in several instances as fact, without any clear qualifier such as 'Muslims believe.  . . .'"

Likewise, the Islamic empire of the Middle Ages was "a time of unqualified glory without blemishes," and Muslims "always tolerated Jews," unlike their Christian counterparts. The texts use terms such as "stories," "legends" and "tales" to talk about Jewish writings.

"If the president of Iran wants to blast Israel at the U.N., he can use American textbooks to do so," Tobin concluded.

The earlier ATC report took two years to study textbooks, and its author, Gilbert T. Sewall, found the problems regarding Islam "are uniquely disturbing."

"History textbooks present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security," the ATC report said."Islamic activists use multiculturalism and ready-made American-made political movements, especially those on campus, to advance and justify the makeover of Islam-related textbook content."

"Particular fault rests with the publishing corporations, boards of directors, and executives who decide what editorial policies their companies will pursue," the report said.

One of the executives for a text critiqued by ATC, Bert Bower, founder of TCI, told WND at the time not only did his company have experts review the book, but the state of California also reviewed it and has approved it for use in public schools.

"Keep in mind when looking at this particular book scholars from all over California (reviewed it)," he said.

One of the experts who contributed to the text, according to the ATC, was Ayad Al-Qazzaz.

"Al-Qazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes," the ATC review said. "Al-Qazzaz also co-wrote AWAIR's 'Arab World Notebook.' AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an opaque, proselytizing 'non-profit organization' that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools."

I sincerely hope that everyone reads this thread. You need to become informed about what is already happening and has happened under our very noses. READ THE FACTS AND PUT THEM TOGETHER.

[Soldier4Christ]

Fisher-Price Doll and the Devil

A talking doll produced by Fisher-Price has started showing up on store shelves. This doll giggles and coos and then says "islam is the light". Customers walking by that have heard it were shocked saying they couldn't believe a doll would say such a thing.

Target has already started removing the doll from its stores -- and Fisher-Price said its hasn't had any complaints. If you have the doll, you can get a refund.

[Soldier4Christ]

Vision-4-Freedom

Brooklyn:Lawsuit Happy Muslim Busted With Terror Literature

For years I have telling people in the United States to look towards the United Kingdom to see what is coming our way in regards to Islam. It is obvious that suing organizations in the name of their religion and obtaining terror literature are common plays out the Islamic game plan. Just about a week ago I reported about the UK Muslim who is suing a supermarket because he had to handle alcohol while working there. This past weekend Brooklyn Muslim Hisham Khaleel, 35 was busted with fake id's, terror literature and he has a past history of suing organizations in the name of religious discrimination. No matter what part of the world you look at, the Islamic community brings us the same problems. Lawsuits, death threats and terror plots. When will the world wake up?

__________________

Authorities busting a suspected ID thief in Brooklyn stumbled upon a possible terrorist nest full of al Qaeda news clippings, chemical manuals and weapons literature, sources told The Post yesterday.

Cops made the disturbing find Thursday evening after a landlord found the photocopied IDs inside the apartment of a former tenant on Classon Avenue in Prospect Heights and dialed 311.

The tenant, Hisham Khaleel, 35, had been evicted.

Responding officers found 13 copied licenses, all of which appeared to belong to customers from the Vanderbilt YMCA on East 47th Street in Manhattan, where Khaleel worked briefly as an unarmed security guard.

They also found news clippings about al Qaeda, literature on chemical purchasing and processing, an owner's manual for a Beretta handgun, a reference guide for modern airplanes, a video on rifle-shooting fundamentals and a sniper's manual.

Cops also uncovered lab glassware catalogs and a book, "Hostile Planet: The Essential Guide to Surviving Natural Disasters, Pandemics and Terrorist Attacks."

Khaleel's former co-worker Pierre Andre Leonard, 35, said the suspect worked for six months on the 3-11 p.m. shift.

"He didn't hang with the crew," he said, adding that Khaleel seemed to disappear one day.

Khaleel was awaiting arraignment last night in Brooklyn Supreme Court on charges of criminal possession of stolen property and unlawful possession of personal identification.

However, sources said the materials found in the apartment had piqued probers' interest, and a full-scale investigation was under way.


According to federal court filings, Khaleel has been a frequent - if unsuccessful - litigant.

A 2005 lawsuit against the staffing company Metro One Loss Prevention Services alleged that he had been discriminated against on the basis of his Egyptian background when he was let go.

The suit was dismissed, as was a nearly identical claim against the US Postal Service, where Khaleel worked from 2001 to 2004.

[Soldier4Christ]

Police detonate suspicious backpack at mosque
Former resident is charged with criminal trespass and making a terroristic threat.

Austin police detonated a backpack Sunday afternoon after a man left it at the North Austin Muslim Community Center and claimed it contained explosives.

About 2 p.m., Azzam Baytie, 46, broke into the center, at 11900 N. Lamar Blvd., where several volunteers were cleaning up after Saturday's Eid al-Fitr carnival marking the end of Ramadan, said Majad Ahmad, vice president of the center's executive committee.

Baytie, a former resident at the mosque who had been issued a criminal trespass warning in the past, started shouting and became violent, Ahmad said.

When he was asked to leave, Ahmad said Baytie refused, dropped a backpack on the ground and held up a copy of the Quran and what he said was a remote that could detonate bombs inside the backpack.

Police arrived soon after and took Baytie into custody without a struggle, Austin police Detective James Mason said.

Mason said Baytie later told police that the backpack contained a laptop computer, but the bomb squad was called out to the scene as a precaution. The squad detonated the backpack safely after police shut down Lamar Boulevard for several blocks north of Braker Lane. Mason said it was unclear whether the backpack contained explosives.

"I'm hoping it was a fake," Ahmad said.

Baytie was charged with criminal trespass and making a terroristic threat, according to Travis County Jail records. His bail has not been set yet. Mason said Baytie is Lebanese, but his citizenship status was not known Sunday.

Ahmad said Baytie had stayed at the center, where he had created disturbances.

"Everyone is a bit freaked out, but the mosque is open," Ahmad said, adding that nothing like this has happened there before. "This is a new one."

Recognizing that houses of worship may attract people with mental and emotional problems, the Police Department and the Travis County sheriff's office recently have led workshops on how religious leaders can deal with people who disrupt services or harass members.

In January, leaders from the mosque, including the former imam, Mohamed-Umer Esmail, attended a crisis intervention training seminar conducted by the sheriff's department and the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization.

[Soldier4Christ]

Empire State Building Shines Green for Muslim Holiday

For the second year, the Empire State Building will shine its world-famous tower lights in green on Tuesday, September 30 and Wednesday, October 1, 2008 for its annual celebration of Eid-al-Fitr, the “Festival of Fast-breaking,” which marks the end of Ramadan. The lighting for Eid is an annual event in the same tradition of the Empire State Building’s yearly lightings for Christmas and Hanukah. The Empire State Building’s tower lights are world renowned for celebrating different nationalities, holidays, parades, and events of importance to the world.

Honoring islam in fear that their building might meet the same fate as the Twin Towers?

[Soldier4Christ]

Anti-Muslim attack called bogus
Student lied to cops in Elmhurst, officials say


A Muslim student who said a masked gunman assaulted her after he wrote anti-Islamic slurs in a women's restroom at Elmhurst College was arrested Friday after an investigation concluded the attack never happened.

A week after the case roiled the small college, Elmhurst Police Chief Steven Neubauer said Safia Jilani, 19, of Oak Brook had been booked on a felony charge of filing a false police report, which is punishable by 1 to 3 years in prison.

Jilani reported Oct. 9 that the man beat her with the gun in the college's science center, authorities said. Anti-Muslim graffiti was written on the wall, similar to a threat written on the same student's locker the previous week.

But there was no gunman, according to a joint statement from Elmhurst Police, the college and the DuPage County state's attorney's office.

"The totality of all the evidence, and interviews with staff and students at the college . . . concluded that this incident never happened," Neubauer said, although he would not elaborate.

College spokesman Charles Henderson said the college would have no further comment. Messages left at Jilani's home and with her lawyer were not returned.

On campus Friday, Rocio Zapata, 26, a senior business administration major, said she had been fearful after the report.

"I'm appalled," Zapata said. "I don't understand why someone would make such a horrible accusation like that."

Richie Palys, 18, a freshman jazz studies major, said he could not make sense of Jilani's arrest.

"We had a rally," he said. "People cried over what happened, and her best friends gave speeches for her. I don't even know what to believe anymore."

[Soldier4Christ]

Christian Charity Offers Sharia Finance Plan...

Muslim Home Buyers Forbidden by Their Religion to Pay Interest, Turn to Christian Charity

Mohamed Nurhussien faced the usual challenges of a low-income worker trying to buy a home, with one big difference: As a Muslim he was forbidden by his religion to pay interest.

The 54-year-old Eritrean immigrant with five children thought his only option was to save enough money to purchase a home outright, with cash earned from his job at a security company.

Then he heard about Habitat for Humanity. For some Muslim immigrants like Nurhussien, the Christian homebuilding charity that offers zero-interest loans has become a real godsend.

"The way Habitat deals fits exactly to our requirements," said Nurhussien, who bought a home earlier this year from the northern Virginia chapter of the group. "It's not free. It is no interest. It's good for me and whoever has the same belief."

In northern Virginia, a majority of 12 families who bought condominiums at the local Habitat's latest development, including Nurhussien, are Muslim. In Nashville, local Habitat executive director Chris McCarthy said the city's large population of Muslim Kurdish immigrants has embraced the nonprofit. Over 10 percent of the group's mortgage holders are Kurdish.

And Muslim leaders are responding by offering labor to build homes, financial support and more to Habitat. Since 1976, the nonprofit has offered homes based on people's need, their ability to pay and their willingness to help build the houses and attend classes on topics such as budgeting.

Habitat homes also help fill a void in the U.S., where Islamic loans for strict Muslims are not widely available, said Samuel Hayes, professor emeritus of finance at the Harvard Business School and an expert on Islamic finance.

Intermediaries often buy homes, then sell them to Muslim families with a markup that reflects a reasonable rate of return for the money that sellers have tied up in the property, Hayes said.

"It's comparable to a mortgage with the interest rate built in," he said.

The difference may seem minor, but to many Muslims, it is an important distinction because they believe God knows the difference, he said.

Even when Islamic loans are available, not all Muslims consider it a true solution.

"Always people have doubts," Imam Johari Abdul-Malik said.

"Some say, 'It just still looks like interest to me,'" he added.

The director of outreach at the Dal Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., first realized how many Muslims in his area were buying Habitat homes when a Presbyterian minister friend invited him to a fundraising breakfast for the nonprofit last year.

"So many people in the promotional film that were building homes were Muslim," Abdul-Malik said. "I said, 'Wait a minute. Something's wrong with this picture. Churches are stepping in and building Habitat homes for Muslims. We're not going to stand by and not help build homes for others.'

"It really put a bee in my kufi."

So Abdul-Malik began organizing meetings with Habitat representatives in local mosques and community centers. He wants Muslims to do more than just volunteer to build homes. The idea is to increase Muslim presence in Habitat leadership.

He foresees Muslims speaking out to support Habitat when it faces opposition to a new development. He also hopes Muslim contractors will donate in-kind services. And this year he's bringing a group of his own to the fundraising breakfast.

Local Habitat affiliates throughout the country are independent but work within a common framework. Race and religion are not considered when offering the homes, which sell for an average of $60,000, so no figures are available on how many Muslim families live in the houses. But some affiliates across the country reach out to Muslim groups while others do not.

Habitat of Northern Virginia has built 50 homes in 15 years and has a goal of building the next 50 in five years, said its executive director, Karen Cleveland. She said she is pleased with the growing Muslim involvement in the nonprofit and heartened by the response to the meetings Abdul-Malik organized.

"We had never had any mosques or Muslim community centers sponsor a house before," she said, but now Abdul-Malik is organizing a coalition to do just that.

Habitat Nashville has built or rehabilitated more than 350 homes since 1985, and this year, the group plans build 42 new and rehabilitate five, said McCarthy. She said she's proud of the diversity of local Habitat neighborhoods and that little racial or religious tension is apparent among Habitat families. Most Muslim families even happily accept the Bible that U.S. Habitat groups traditionally give to new homeowners along with the keys.

Avdal Wasman fled from Iraq in 1997 as a refugee and bought a Habitat home in Nashville in 2003. He first heard of the group from a friend, but Wasman said his wife told him it was too good to be true.

He was scared to sign a contract because several people had warned him to be cautious about signing any documents in the United States. But today, Wasman is a member of his community's homeowners association and one of Habitat's biggest boosters.

Wasman downplays any special value of Habitat to Muslims, saying the nonprofit helps all sorts of people. But he does acknowledge that the no-interest loans are a "good point for Muslim people."

Nurhussien said in Habitat "you see the spirit of one caring for the other and people working for the benefit of humankind."

"Regardless of whether the organization started as a Christian, Muslim or Jewish organization, it doesn't matter."

[Soldier4Christ]

Holy Land insider testifies

A former Holy Land Foundation representative told jurors Friday that the defunct Richardson charity openly collected money on behalf of the Palestinian militant group Hamas before the U.S. designated it a terrorist group in 1995.

He testified that Holy Land organizers went underground with their fundraising once Hamas was banned.

Mohamed Shorbagi, 44, also conceded that his testimony was part of a plea agreement to shave decades off his prison sentence.

Last year, the former Muslim prayer leader in Georgia received more than seven years in federal prison for supporting Hamas through his work with Holy Land.

Mr. Shorbagi also admitted bilking his former employer, a wealthy Palestinian rug manufacturer, of almost a quarter-million dollars.

Frequent whispers of "he's lying" could be heard from among Holy Land supporters packing the courtroom Friday as the soft-spoken former imam described how Holy Land was a front group for Hamas.

Prosecutors hope his testimony will help them prove that the five defendants funneled more than $12 million to Hamas by sending money to Palestinian charities, known as zakat committees, that the government contends are Hamas-controlled.

The U.S. outlawed all support for Hamas in 1995 after accusing it of sponsoring suicide bombings to disrupt peace negotiations in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mr. Shorbagi did not testify at least year's Holy Land trial, which ended in a hung jury.

The admitted Hamas supporter gave what prosecutors called the first inside account of Holy Land's actions.

The Gaza native, who moved to America when he was 18, told jurors that the Islamic groups and zakat committees that Holy Land funded overseas were controlled by well-known Hamas members.

He testified that in the 1990s, several of the defendants attended closed-door meetings in the U.S. with senior Hamas political leaders who implored them to commit to "economic jihad" to further resistance against the Israelis.

After 1995, Hamas was rarely mentioned during Holy Land's fundraising pitches at Islamic festivals, he testified.

In 1998, Mr. Shorbagi said, he attended a Holy Land meeting in Dallas at which defendant Shukri Abu Baker, Holy Land's CEO, told attendees that the foundation was taking steps to work with the United Nations, rather than sending aid money through Islamic, Hamas-controlled counterparts.

"Was the Holy Land Foundation still supporting the same organizations" after 1995? asked prosecutor Jim Jacks.

Yes, Mr. Shorbagi replied.

On cross-examination, Linda Moreno, attorney for Holy Land co-founder Ghassan Elashi, got Mr. Shorbagi to admit that he never visited the zakat committees he testified were under Hamas control.

She then had him describe the deplorable conditions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

He testified they were crammed into refugee camps, surrounded by Israeli checkpoints, and denied food and water. He said Holy Land bought school supplies and food for these families, provided medicine for their understocked hospitals and financed the drilling of water wells.

His testimony continues Monday.

[HisDaughter]

Muslim Home Buyers Forbidden by Their Religion to Pay Interest

Oh for crying out loud!  Well gee, maybe you just can't buy here then.  And shame on us for helping them to buy here.
I wonder if I could claim the same thing?  Do you think?  But no....we'll be paying their interest for them!  Why don't we just scratch off all the names on our Declaration of INDEPENDENCE and write out a new deed to the country that we are GIVING THEM ANYWAY!!!

I'm going to have to ask my doctor for some anti-depressants....

[Soldier4Christ]

lol ... Maybe you can qualify for the Habitat for Humanity loan. What I can't figure out is how do they qualify for them. Most of them are making quite a bit of money especially when you tally up all of the income for each household. They must not be reporting income for all household members.

[HisDaughter]

lol ... Maybe you can qualify for the Habitat for Humanity loan.

In my case it would be the "Hbitat for Insanity" loan, because that's where I'm headed!

[Soldier4Christ]

No, No, No, we don't want that. There are enough insane people in this world. 

Just hang on to Jesus, sister and know that He is going to fix it all.