Islam In The United States

[HisDaughter]

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.

I'm hangin' on Brother!    

[Soldier4Christ]

Somalis Warn Nebraska Mayor over Remarks...

Somalis try to silence mayor of Grand Island, NE and, if they succeed, you will be next!

Boy does this make my blood boil!    Do you remember last Wednesday that the New York Times actually published a front page story about the multicultural tension in Grand Island, NE in the wake of Muslim prayer demands and the subsequent firing of Somalis at the Swift meatpacking plant there? 

The mayor of Grand Island expressed to the Times that the presence of so many Somalis in town made her and others uncomfortable.   Well that is the truth, and it is happening in every town in America where large numbers of Somalis have arrived.

Does it surprise anyone to hear now that Somali COMMUNITY ORGANIZER Mohamed Rage (we’ve heard from him before) says, “She is not fit to be mayor.”

Actually I am not surprised, but outraged by this overt ploy.  This isn’t just because he is angry with this mayor, this is to send a message to any mayor or elected official anywhere in America that you better not speak the truth!
GRAND ISLAND —

An Omaha Somali leader is asking Mayor Margaret Hornady to recant comments she made in a national publication that he says are discriminatory.

In a story that appeared Thursday in The New York Times, Hornady suggested she had difficulty adjusting to the sight of local Somali women in Muslim headdresses.

Hornady said that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it “gives some of us a turn.”

Seeing the Somali’s traditional dress reminds her of Osama bin Laden and the attacks on the U.S., she said, adding that she knows it sounds prejudiced and that she’s “working very hard on it.”

Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, condemned the comments Friday and said he is trying to reach the mayor to address his concerns.

Rage said such comments are inappropriate for a leader, and the city’s Somali community has reacted with shock.

“She’s not fit to be a mayor,” he said.

[Shammu]

An Omaha Somali leader is asking Mayor Margaret Hornady to recant comments she made in a national publication that he says are discriminatory.

Just as Mohamed Rage can voice his opinion, so can Mayor Margaret Hornady. That's whats known as "Freedom of Speech."

With the muslims though, they want control, so they can do as they please....... That includes putting down "Freedom of Speech".

“She’s not fit to be a mayor,” he said.

That's "Freedom of Speech", if they can't learn the laws of the United States, and Nebraska law, then they need to go back to Somali. 

[Soldier4Christ]

They are just like the liberal communists in this aspect ... free speech is only free for them ... all others must stay silent.

[Shammu]

They are just like the liberal communists in this aspect ... free speech is only free for them ... all others must stay silent.

Then they need to

[Soldier4Christ]

FBI agents detail searches in Fort Dix plot trial

FBI agents say they found ammunition, smoke bombs and an Army base map when they searched the homes of five men charged with plotting an attack on Fort Dix in New Jersey.

In the second day of testimony in the trial of the five suspects, the government called federal agents to describe what was discovered in the home of each man.

Authorities say they did not find guns in any of the suspects' houses — though four were found under the bed of a sixth man who was charged in connection with the case.

The sixth man has pleaded guilty to weapons charges but is not among the five foreign-born Muslim men accused of plotting an attack on the Army post. The attack was never carried out.

[HisDaughter]

Toy giant promoting Islam?
OneNewsNow - 10/24/2008 4:00:00 AM
Some concerned parents have contacted the Mattel toy company with allegations that one of its dolls utters words which promote Islam.

The Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo dolls are manufactured by Fisher-Price, which is part of the Mattel toy empire. However, a number of parents contacted the company when they heard the doll say these words: "Islam is the light."
 
While the doll appears to utter "Islam is the light," the company denies that is actually what it is programmed to say. Mattel insists that Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo features realistic baby sounds, including cooing, giggling, and baby babble, with no real sentence structure. The toy company claims the only scripted word the doll says is "mama."
 
Mattel also contends that because the original sound track is compressed into a file that can be played through an inexpensive toy speaker, actual sounds may be imprecise or distorted. Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, is skeptical about Mattel's explanation.
 
"It does seem to be saying, 'Islam is the light.' I don't think too many people would argue with that, so I think they're being a little disingenuous," Markell points out. "And this is not a healthy thing to be putting out in the marketplace when we're in a war on terror, and little children are so susceptible to the messages they hear -- even from a doll -- then to take them into the school and talk about them. So yeah, this is a serious thing."
 
Mattel admits the doll makes a sound that may resemble the words "night," right," or "light." To avoid any potential misinterpretation, they have eliminated that segment of the sound file from future production.

[Soldier4Christ]

Somalis will sue Swift and the Mayor is next, or so they threaten!

This is an update of our now extensive coverage (54 posts in this category) of the Somali meatpacking conflicts in Greeley, CO and Grand Island, NE.   (Hat tip:  Janet)   CAIR agitators are in Grand Island collecting stories from fired workers in preparation for their upcoming discrimination suit against the meatpacker.  From KHAS-TV:

Members of a Muslim advocacy group [CAIR] said they will be filing discrimination claims against the JBS Swift Meat Packing Plant in Grand Island. It all stems from a prayer dispute between Somali Muslim workers and the company last month.

Chicago based [Chicago seems to be the epicenter of all things bad] representatives from the Muslim Advocacy Group were in Grand Island Tuesday and earlier Wednesday morning.

The group met with Somali residents to address the prayer dispute that left many Muslim workers jobless after they walked off the job repeatedly in protest.

Representatives from the American–Islamic Relations said they plan to file more than 20 discrimination claims against the company.

One of those discrimination claimants had this to say:

“Every person who came from Africa, we came here to find a better life. We could not find that better life and it is very stressful life,” said Ismail.

Really Ismail, more stressful than life in that hell-hole Somalia?   You know what we say!

These malcontents are trained well aren’t they?  Watch the film that comes along with this article because this charming Ismail goes on to call the Mayor of Grand Island a terrorist when all she implied is that after 9/11 all the Somali refugees in town made her a little nervous.

Abraham [the agitator] said they are also disappointed in Mayor Margret Hornady’s remarks in the New York Times. Hornady said that after the 9–11 attacks the headdress many Somali women wear quote “gives some of us a Turn.”

“To condone bigotry the way that she did through her comments we think is just so ignorant we think she should rescind her comments, issue an apology and reach out to the Somali community to try to create understanding,” Abraham said.

But even an apology will not cut it for Guled and the Somali community.
Ismail said they plan to take action against the mayor as well.

Really Ismail (the bully), on what grounds will you sue?  Or, what other “action” do you have in mind?

[nChrist]

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

    

I used to suffer with multiple personalities, but we're doing fine now. I can be someone different every day and eliminate boredom. In fact, we've all become good friends now, even though the guy on Tuesday has temper tantrums and throws fits.

[Shammu]

Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law
Nov. 4, 2008
By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

The U.S. Treasury Department is submitting to Shariah --- the seditious religio-political-legal code authoritative Islam seeks to impose worldwide under a global theocracy.

As reported in this space last week, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert Kimmitt set the stage with his recent visit to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf states. His stated purpose was to promote the recycling of petrodollars in the form of foreign investment here.

Evidently, the price demanded by his hosts is that the U.S. government get with the Islamist financial program. While in Riyadh, Mr. Kimmitt announced: "The U.S. government is currently studying the salient features of Islamic banking to ascertain how far it could be useful in fighting the ongoing world economic crisis."

"Islamic banking" is a euphemism for a practice better known as "Shariah-Compliant Finance (SFC)." And it turns out that this week the Treasury will be taking officials from various federal agencies literally to school on SFC.

The department is hosting a half-day course entitled "Islamic Finance 101" on Thursday at its headquarters building. Treasury's self-described "seminar for the policy community" is co-sponsored with the leading academic promoters of Shariah and SCF in the United States: Harvard University Law School's Project on Islamic Finance. At the very least, the U.S. government evidently hopes to emulate Harvard's success in securing immense amounts of Wahhabi money in exchange for conforming to the Islamists' agenda. Like Harvard, Treasury seems utterly disinterested in what Shariah actually is, and portends.

Unfortunately, such submission - the literal meaning of "Islam" - is not likely to remain confined long to the Treasury or its sister agencies. Thanks to the extraordinary authority conferred on Treasury since September, backed by the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the department is now in a position to impose its embrace of Shariah on the U.S. financial sector. The nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Treasury's purchase of - at last count - 17 banks and the ability to provide, or withhold, funds from its new slush-fund can translate into unprecedented coercive power.

Concerns in this regard are only heightened by the prominent role Assistant Treasury Secretary Neel Kashkari will be playing in "Islamic Finance 101." Mr. Kashkari, the official charged with administering the TARP fund, will provide welcoming remarks to participants. Presumably, in the process, he will convey the enthusiasm about Shariah-Compliant Finance that appears to be the current party line at Treasury.

As this enthusiasm for SCF ramps up in Washington officialdom, it is worth recalling a lesson from "across the pond." Earlier this year, the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, provoked a brief but intense firestorm of controversy with his declaration that it was "unavoidable" that Shariah would be practiced in Britain. Largely unremarked was the reason he gave for such an ominous forecast: The U.K. had already accommodated itself to Shariah-Compliant Finance.

This statement provides an important insight for the incumbent U.S. administration and whomever succeeds it: Shariah-Compliant Finance serves as a leading edge of the spear for those seeking to insinuate Shariah into Western societies.

Regrettably, SCF is not the only instrument of the stealth jihad by which Shariah-promoting Islamists are seeking to achieve "parallel societies" here and elsewhere in the West. The British experience is instructive on this score, too. Her Majesty's government has allowed the establishment of at least five Shariah courts to hear (initially) family law cases. Polygamists in the U.K. can get welfare for each of their wives (as long as all the marriages beyond the first were performed overseas).

Thus far, we in this country may not have reached the point where evidence of this sort of creeping Shariah is so manifest. But Treasury's accommodation to SCF demonstrates that we are on the same trajectory - the one ordained and demanded by the promoters of Shariah, one to which we serially accommodate ourselves at our extreme peril.

After all, the object of Shariah is the supplanting of our government and Constitution, through violent means if possible and, until then, through stealthy ones. Islamists, having secured footholds via their parallel societies, inevitably use those to extend their influence over Muslims who have no more interest in living under authoritative Islam's Shariah than the rest of us do. Inexorably, it becomes the turn of non-Muslims to accommodate themselves to ever more intrusive demands from the Islamists. It is known as submission, or dhimmitude.

Soon - possibly as early as this Wednesday - the Treasury Department and the other federal agencies will be taking orders from representatives of Barack Obama or John McCain. It may be that the outgoing administration's determination to advance the Islamist agenda via "Islamic Finance 101," and what flows from it, may be the first, far-reaching policy decision inherited by the new president-elect. If he does not want to have his transition saddled with an implicit endorsement of submission to Shariah, the winner of the White House sweepstakes would be well-advised to pull the plug on Thursday's indoctrination program and the insidious industry it is meant to foist on the "policy community," our capital markets and our country.

Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If this is the case during a so called "Republican" administration, how much worse during a Democrat administration??

Especially a "Christian" president who has an islamic background and strong ties to radical islam??

And let's not forget his ambitions with the UN................

[Soldier4Christ]

YES, THEY CAN

Senator Barack Obama became President-elect on the uplifting, if inexact, slogan, "Yes, we can."  This week, there is growing evidence that people who have in mind doing away with the presidency of the United States - and all other aspects of our secular, democratic and constitutional form of government - are similarly convinced of their inevitable success. Judging by the sheer audacity of their agenda, "Yes, they can" would appear an apt description of the prospects for the Saudis and other champions of the totalitarian program they call Shariah.

In the run-up to an emergency summit outgoing President George Bush has called to address the now-global financial crisis, the oil-rich Islamists of the Persian Gulf led by Saudi Arabia have not only established that their petrodollars are indispensable to any solution. They also seem to have secured the Bush Administration's acquiescence to the sinister strings attached to any bail-out of the West in which they might participate. 

Specifically, the Saudis and their friends want the United States to join those, particularly in Europe, who have accommodated themselves to Shariah.  No, we are assured, they aren't taking about the brutal theo-political-legal code that features such barbaric practices as beheadings, floggings, stonings, amputations, female genital mutilation and mysogeny more generally.

All they want, those in the know insist, is for Washington to encourage Wall Street - more and more of which is owned by the U.S. government - to embrace Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF). A Treasury Department seminar convened last week depicted SCF as nothing more than a kind of socially responsible investing vehicle that respects Muslim religious beliefs by eschewing interest-bearing transactions and those involving pork and "sin" stocks. So, what's the big deal? The Catholics, Methodists and Jews have their funds, why not the Muslims?

What makes the Shariah-Compliant Finance gambit both a big and troublesome "deal" is that, unlike these other religious traditions, Shariah's adherents are pursuing a global theocracy. They believe they must impose their agenda on everybody else, religious and secular alike, using violence if necessary. And SCF is explicitly described by leading practitioners as a complement to violent holy war: "financial jihad" and "jihad with money."

In other words, there is no such thing as free-standing Shariah-Compliant Finance. According to all of the recognized authorities and institutions of Islam, Shariah is a unified, indivisible program to which all faithful Muslims must adhere comprehensively. 

Not surprisingly, therefore, the Saudis & Co. are not simply seeking to insinuate Shariah-Compliant Finance into our capital markets. They are also advancing the creation of a parallel Shariah-governed society through various other means.

One of these techniques will be in evidence when the Saudi monarch himself convenes a meeting in New York City in the hope of imposing Shariah blasphemy laws worldwide. In light of the stated, and seemingly benign, purpose of the so-called "Culture of Peace" event hosted by King Abdullah at the United Nations - namely, promoting interfaith understanding and tolerance, numerous world leaders, including President Bush, will be present. Never mind that Saudi Arabia is arguably the most intolerant nation on earth, a fact even some in the Bush administration have acknowledged.

The real reason attendance at the King's séance is going to be impressive, of course, has more to do with the hope that petro-largesse will flow to those who ingratiate themselves to the House of Saud. Abdullah appears confidently to have signaled that, if the West plays ball on the "Culture of Peace" agenda, the Saudis and their fellow Islamists will be constructive at what might be called the subsequent "Culture of Money" meeting in Washington.   

What will the answer be when the Islamists insist that free speech must not allow the slander, libel or defamation of Shariah, or other aspects of their faith?  If the European Union and the United Nations Human Rights Council have already accommodated themselves to this demand, why should we object?  So what if, by so doing, we would effectively thereby be precluded from talking about - or even understanding - the Islamist threat we face, to say nothing of eviscerating the First Amendment?  As the Treasury Department can attest, we need the money.

Unfortunately, this is no time for us to be diminishing awareness throughout the Free World of the various, grave dangers we face from adherents to Shariah's seditious program. London's Sunday Telegraph reported this weekend that a classified British government assessment has concluded that there are "some thousands of extremists in the U.K. committed to supporting Jihadi activities, either in the U.K. or abroad."

Such extremists are said to be engaged in attack planning in the United Kingdom "either under the direction of al-Qaeda, or inspired by al-Qaeda's ideology of global Jihad" (read, Shariah).  They may inflict "mass casualties" and constitute a "severe" threat to the Government Security Zone (including the Houses of Parliament and key executive offices) in the heart of London.

At such a moment, a federal judge in Oregon has held the law criminalizing material support for terror is unconstitutionally "vague." Taken together with the other manifestations of our capitulation, is it any wonder the champions of Shariah are convinced that "yes, they can" have their way with us?  Who will disabuse them of this terrifying notion?  We can, but will President-elect Obama lead the way?

[Soldier4Christ]

Tens of Thousands of Somalis in US Illegally...

Unbelievable!  Take note citizens of welcoming towns like Ft. Morgan and Greeley, CO,  or not so thrilled towns like Postville, IA, Shelbyville, TN, and Grand Island, NE, the US State Department has confirmed that tens of thousands of Somalis have entered the US illegally through the US Refugee Admissions (P-3 family reunification) Program, possibly for as long as 20 years.

We had reported in August that random DNA testing demonstrated that 80% of those seeking entry into the US from African countries (mostly Somalis) were not related to those they claimed as relatives.  In light of that shocking revelation, the program was temporarily suspended.   A fact sheet, published today by the State Department, fills us in further on details of this outrage.

95% of immigrants using this program are from Africa.  36,000 alone came in the years since 2003 and as high (or higher!) than 80% of those are most likely here illegally.   So much for all the volag administrators telling the folks in these towns being swamped by Somalis that their new neighbors have been thoroughly screened by Homeland Security!   How do you screen someone when you don’t even know who they are?

Rumor has it that many of these illegal aliens bought their way into the US by purchasing Affidavits of Relationship on the streets of Nairobi.  (see the fact sheet for more on AOR’s)

So what I would like to know now is,  are we going to prosecute (and deport) the tens of thousands who have come to the US illegally for the LAST 20 YEARS?   According to this fact sheet, the next step is up to the Department of Homeland Security (in the Obama administration).

Convenient huh, the State Department has known about this fraud for months but only reports the details now when it is too late for the Bush Administration to do anything about it.

Here are selected portions of the State Department’s bombshell fact sheet:

Q: What is this program?

A: A “Priority Three,” or “P-3 ” designation grants access to the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) to individuals of certain nationalities who are claimed as a parent, spouse, or minor child by certain legal residents in the United States. Priority One and Two applicants are granted access to the program through a referral by UNHCR, a U.S. Embassy or qualified NGO, or special direct registration programs based on the individual’s vulnerability and/ refugee characteristics. Being granted access to the program is only the first step, however. DHS must determine that an applicant, regardless of priority, is a refugee under U.S. law and is otherwise admissible.

Access to the USRAP based on family ties has been available to various nationalities since the 1980s. In recent years, applications to the P-3 program have been overwhelmingly African – primarily Somalis, Ethiopians and Liberians – accounting for some 95% of the P-3 applications.


Q: Why did the US decide to conduct DNA testing of some nationality groups applying for resettlement in the US?

A: The Departments of State and Homeland Security jointly decided to test a sample of refugee cases due to reported fraud in the P-3 program, particularly in Kenya.


Q: What is the rate of fraud that has been discovered?

A: The rate of fraud discovered varies among nationalities and from country to country, and is difficult to establish definitively as many individuals refused to submit DNA samples. We were, however, only able to confirm all claimed biological relationships in fewer than 20% of cases (family units). The remainder contained at least one negative result (fraudulent relationship) or refused to be tested.


Q: What measures will be taken against the thousands of refugees who have come into the United States through the P-3 program in the last 20 years?
 
A: That is a question for the Department of Homeland Security.


Q: Why did you only conduct DNA testing in Africa?

A: We began in Africa because African P-3s have accounted for more than 95% of P-3 refugee arrivals worldwide in recent years. In addition, we received frequent reports – which were correct, as it turned out – that there was widespread fraud in the program there.


Q: How many relatives of refugees or asylees have come from Africa to the US via the P-3 program in recent years?
 
A: Since October 1, 2003, some 36,000 people have arrived from Africa through the P-3 program.


Q: How many P-3s were admitted to the United States, from elsewhere in the world, in recent years?
 

A: Since October 1, 2003, some 400 people have arrived from other parts of the world through the P-3 program.

[Soldier4Christ]

Arizona Muslims Dismiss AK-47 Shooting Incident as 'Good Time'

Ariz. Muslim leaders face increased FBI scrutiny
Monitoring grew after charity probe, 2 incidents

The FBI has sharpened its scrutiny of some Phoenix-area Muslim leaders because of their links to two controversial incidents and a federal probe into the financing of terrorist groups.

No Arizonan has been accused of supporting terrorist groups or actions. However, a Mesa man was charged with lying to the FBI during the financing investigation.

The events that triggered the stepped-up scrutiny were the federal probe into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas; a target-shooting episode in Phoenix this year involving a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of rounds from AK-47s and other guns; and the high-profile removal in 2006 of six Arizona-bound imams from a jetliner after passengers and crew complained of their behavior.

Although some Islamic leaders say they understand the scrutiny, they also view it as another sign that innocent Muslims unjustly fall under suspicion because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"Whoever did Sept. 11, go after them and see who they are. I'm not going to pay for them. I'm not going to be guilty," said Marwan Sadeddin, one of the Valley imams who sued US Airways after being removed from a jetliner in Minneapolis. Like the others, he was questioned by FBI agents after the incident, in addition to being questioned about the arrested Mesa man.

The FBI is monitoring the family and community ties among Valley residents involved in the jetliner, shooting and charity probes, said John Lewis, who runs the FBI's Arizona office.

"All of these things come on our scope," said Lewis, the agency's former head of counterterrorism operations.

The FBI routinely watches communities and groups that show patterns of radicalism seen in terrorism cases in the U.S. and Europe; those include radical Islamic theology, anti-Western political rhetoric and fundraising tied to terrorist groups.

Lewis declined to discuss any details of the agency's monitoring activities.

The only Arizonan arrested by the FBI is Akram Musa Abdallah of Mesa. He was indicted by a grand jury in August on one count of lying to FBI agents. The government contended in court documents that Abdallah falsely told agents he had not raised money in the 1990s for the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity that President Bush shut down in 2001.

Five founders of the Texas-based charity are on trial in Dallas on charges of steering $12 million to Hamas after the U.S. declared it a terrorist group.

M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix physician and Muslim who founded an organization to counter radical Islamic teachings, said Abdallah's arrest, the target-shooting episode and what he says are the imams' extreme views bear vigilance.

"You can't help wonder where this is going," he added.

Target shooting

Shortly before noon on a sunny Sunday in March, two Toyota SUVs rolled to a stop along a dirt road in north Phoenix.

About 20 young Muslim males climbed out, armed with assault rifles, a shotgun, a sniper rifle and handguns. The location near Happy Valley Road and 51st Avenue is a desert recreation site for off-road motorists, hikers and bikers, dozens of whom were enjoying the spring-like weather.

For more than an hour, the shooters blasted away at a granite rock and empty cans in front of a hill.

Officials estimate the fusillade totaled 500 to 1,000 rounds. Some shooters left before police arrived and detained 10 adults and five boys, including an 11-year-old.

The young men and boys told officers the weapons belonged to their parents. They said they were not aware it was illegal to use firearms in the residential area.

Six were arrested and charged with felony weapons violations in Maricopa County Superior Court. Among them were the 20- and 21-year-old sons of two imams at Phoenix-area mosques, as well as the 20-year-old son of Abdallah.

Phoenix police then notified the Arizona Counter Terrorism Center, a clearinghouse for intelligence, and the case was referred to the FBI, Lewis confirmed. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was called to trace the guns, its Arizona chief said.

Soliman Saadeldin, brother of one of the imams on the jetliner and a board member at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, was not surprised by the reaction.

"Twenty Muslims? Of course the FBI, the CIA and the White House would be worried," Saadeldin said.

Valley Islamic leaders were furious at the youngsters, he added, knowing how the incident might be perceived.

"I'm one of those who got mad at them. (But) they went over there just to have fun shooting. ... It's showing off more than anything else," Saadeldin said.

He described the target shooting as merely bad judgment by a group of young guys out for a good time.

The Abdallah case

The FBI's scrutiny of Abdallah came to light in January 2007, when agents raided his Mesa house and loaded what a neighbor said was two vans full of evidence.

Court records show that Abdallah, a 54-year-old Palestinian, denied during interrogation that he had been a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation during the 1990s, when the Islamic charity could still legally receive donations.

At the time of the raid, federal investigators were pursuing a criminal case against the foundation based on allegations that it had channeled money to Palestinian terrorists. The organization had been banned after the 9/11 attacks.

The Abdallah case points to the FBI's continued interest in Arizonans who have raised money for any charity suspected of supporting militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

For many years, several mosques in Phoenix and Tucson legally raised money for the Holy Land Foundation, which was the largest Muslim charity in the United States.

Islamic civil-rights groups argue that Muslim Americans donated to the charities to support hospitals and orphanages in the West Bank and Gaza. Although Hamas and Hezbollah have organized attacks against Israeli civilians, their humanitarian missions are central to Palestinians' fight for survival, civil-rights groups say.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

The federal government charged the foundation's leaders with raising $12 million for Hamas. The first trial in Dallas ended in October 2007 with a deadlocked jury, a stunning setback for the government's biggest-ever terrorism financing case. A new trial has gone to the jury.

Abdallah is not a witness or defendant in that case. But as the FBI looked into Holy Land Foundation contributions, he was indicted in August on one count of lying about the fundraising to federal agents. An FBI tactical squad swarmed into a northwest Phoenix cafe to arrest him. Abdallah pleaded not guilty and was released without bail. No trial date has been set.

Abdallah, a naturalized citizen who arrived in the country in the late 1970s, did not return calls.

His 20-year-old son, Saiaf, is one of the half-dozen suspects facing felony charges from the target shooting. The younger Abdallah declined to comment except to say, "In the past five to six years, Muslims have been falsely accused of many things."

Controversial imams

The saga of the six traveling imams touched off a national controversy and attracted federal scrutiny. Much of the focus has been on the group's spokesman, Omar Shahin.

Shahin, who lives in Phoenix and presides over the North American Imams Foundation, led the Arizona delegation of six imams to its conference in Minneapolis in 2006. After boarding the return flight to Phoenix, passengers and crew reported that the men chanted loudly to Allah and spoke angrily about President Bush and America's war in Iraq.

All six imams were handcuffed and later interrogated, then released with no charges. US Airways banned the men from future flights.

Shahin led a news conference to condemn prejudice against Muslims. The imams later sued the airline, airport police and an FBI agent, claiming they had been degraded and humiliated unlawfully. US Airways officials have said they acted appropriately. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Shahin's involvement was one factor that drew the FBI's attention to the case and intensified its interest in Muslims' activities in Arizona.

A strident scholar of Islamic law and prolific charity fundraiser, the 47-year-old Shahin had been under the FBI's microscope before but has never been accused of wrongdoing.

In the late 1980s, Shahin served as imam at the Islamic Center of Tucson, where he headed a Muslim youth group. The mosque was a hub for adherents to the radical Wahhabi school of Islam, some of whom later became important aides to Osama bin Laden in the al-Qaida terrorist group.

Weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Shahin, a Jordanian-born naturalized citizen, said he did not believe Muslims were responsible for destroying the World Trade Center and questioned the accuracy of the FBI's list of hijackers.

While in Tucson, Shahin raised money for the Holy Land Foundation before the group was outlawed. He also was a fundraiser for the Illinois-based KindHearts Foundation, which the government shut down last year for alleged support of Hamas.

According to tax records, Shahin was a paid employee of a third charity, the Michigan-based Life and Relief Development Inc. In September 2006, FBI counter-terrorism agents seized $134,000 in cash from the home of the charity's founder as part of a fraud case related to the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. The charity remains open.

Shahin has served as a Muslim community liaison with the FBI and the Phoenix police. A book released by Shahin last year advocated that Muslims living in Western society follow a strict version of conservative Sharia law.

"A Muslim must try his best to abide by the rulings of Sharia whenever possible as much as he can. He should not allow himself to be liable to those western laws that contradict the clear-cut Islamic rulings," Shahin wrote.

Throughout the book, Shahin quotes an extremist Islamic scholar who studied under the man widely credited with inspiring al-Qaida. The scholar was a speaker at Holy Land Foundation events, prosecutors in the Dallas case said in court this year. They showed jurors photos of the man with Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and in videos preaching to kill Jews.

Shahin declined to comment in detail on his writings, the jetliner incident or the fundraising case. He is the father of one of the young men arrested in the Phoenix target shooting, Oday Shahin, 20. Another imam stopped in Minneapolis, Mahmoud Sulaiman, 51, a Syrian native, also has a son who was at the scene of the target shooting but was not arrested, a Phoenix police report stated.

Shahin and his son share other connections with people involved in events that drew the FBI's interest. Omar and Oday Shahin work with a third imam from the plane, Didmar Faja, a 28-year-old Albanian, at a conservative Islamic school in south Phoenix. Saiaf Abdallah, son of Akram Abdallah, accused of lying to the FBI, also works there, and his mother is a board member.

Shahin declined to comment except to say that his son's target-shooting arrest is "no big deal" and to caution against drawing unfair conclusions. "All I want to say is there is no connection between these things."

Civil libertarians, Muslim advocates and Valley imams all point out that even extreme political views don't equate to potential violence.

Marwan Sadeddin said the nation is teeming with Americans who hate President Bush's policies. So why can't he despise U.S. support for Israel, condemn terrorism and love America at the same time?

"The foreign policy is wrong," Sadeddin said. "That's my personal opinion. That doesn't mean I'm going to try to change it by force. I'm using my constitutional right to think the way I like."

[Soldier4Christ]

Arab Students at UC Berkeley Disrupt Israel Event, Attack Jews

Arab students disrupted a pro-Israel event at the campus of the University of California at Berkeley Thursday night, unfurling a large Palestinian flag in front of a crowd of hundreds of supporters of Israel who were enjoying a pro-Israel hip-hop concert. The event was sponsored by the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group.

The Arab students unfurled the large flag on a balcony above the outdoor site where the concert was taking place, inciting a provocation right in front of the concert-goers, who were enjoying the event as part of the campus' Israel Liberation Week. Several Jewish concertgoers went into the building to ask the Arabs to remove the flag – but were viciously attacked, with one male concertgoer knocked down from a blow on the back of his head, witnesses said.

College alumnus Gabe Weiner, who was helping run the concert, was assaulted by the leader of the anti-Israel group, Husam Zakharia, who also attacked one of the performers, Yehuda De Sa. The fight was finally broken up by John Moghtader, a senator in the UC Berkelely student organization. Police were called in and arrested Zakharia along with others from his group, charging them with battery. Witnesses said that the Arab students shouted anti-Semitic curses and epithets throughout the incident, calling the Jews “Nazis” and “dogs,” and threatening to kill them. According to one witness, as many as 20 anti-Israel students participated in the attacks.

In a statement, the Zionist Freedom Alliance said “we call on state officials, the President of the University of California, the Chancellor, the Dean of Students, faculty, and the student body to take a unified stand against the continued harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students on this campus, particularly by members of Students for Justice in Palestine,” the anti-Israel group whose leaders began the incitement and attacked the concertgoers.

Pro-Israel students at UC Berkeley have long complained of the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic harassment they have been subject to. Tikvah, a Jewish student group at the college, displayed on its web site numerous examples of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic graffiti, with anti-Israel elements defacing property with their screed. Jewish students complained that the only media coverage given to the event, in the Berkeley campus newspaper, was one sided. “Funny how the battery citation against Husam of SJP isn't even mentioned [in the article], and the comment which purports to be from an objective bystander is actually from one of the top people in Students for Justice in Palestine,” commented Ariel, one of the concertgoers.

Meanwhile, the anti-Israel group is planning to file a petition to remove from office Moghtader, who tried to break up the fight.