Muslim threats against WND heat up

A leader of an Islamic group that warned WND to "moderate" its reporting on issues involving Islam because of the way Muslims may react is ratcheting up the pressure, telling a reporter today, "There's an easy and peaceful way in which people can come to terms based on common grounds of mutual respect and there's the other way and it's called silence."

The email came today from Faarooq al Mohammedi, who has said he is working on behalf of the Muslim organization called United Muslim Nations International organization.

He initially contacted WND with a warning to take "extra precaution when publishing religiously sensitive material or in creating religiously sensitive suspicions about peoples (sic) religious beliefs and practices."

He also warned in his original email that, "We would appreciate it if you could tighten your screening and moderation processes of articles to be published, any fake material published by WND will be taken as a breach of world news standards, religiously sensitive matters are to be based on solid and undeniable facts, failure to produce proofs of such published articles will give us no option but to bring about the complete removal of WND online as well as from the public in any print media."

Contacted by WND at a telephone number in Africa, Mohammedi could cite no specific issues with WND's reporting. Nor would he immediately provide information on how he has dealt with other media reports he's found objectionable.

Instead, he promised to respond to WND by email with documentation about those cases.

Today, he contacted WND again, but not to provide documentation he had promised.

"Before I send you an example of how we dealt with other media outlets regarding Islamophobic and religiously racist content I would like to share with you our latest message from the global caliphate to the Muslim world; I've taken the time to have it translated for you in the attached," Mohammedi's email said.

"You see … there's an easy and peaceful way in which people can come to terms based on common grounds of mutual respect and there's the other way and it's called silence," he continued.

"I hope you will take the time to try and extract the value and much needed understanding from this communication. I have referred the matter of monitoring WND and it's (sic) employees to our higher council of senior Ulama for instructions based on what we have found on the history of WND's online activities."

The attachment was a 23-page brochure promoting a worldwide Islamic caliphate. Called "The Global Islamic Civilization: The Power of a Nation Revived," it said, "People who follow Islam are divinely selected and guided by the Almighty Allah Himself, these people then form part of a great Islamic civilization, that are united as one nation. a universal empire, known as the Muslim Ummah."

The religious tract lauds the characteristics of true believers as humility, piety, honesty, loyalty, obedience, good conduct, peacefulness and morality. Those who fall outside of Islam are made up of "ignorance, arrogance, deception, faithlessness, disobedient, indecent conduct, war mongering."

"Can you imagine having leadership based on the implementation of the qualities of believers? Can you imagine a family, a community a city, a country, No! a nation! built on such a beautiful standard of character. It would be the most moral society on the face of the earth, it is such people that deserve full respect and honor, it is such people who not only deserve to rule the world, it is their right to rule the world."

WND Founder and Editor Joseph Farah, responding to the first email, said, "Isn't this interesting? This guy makes an indictment, but can provide zero evidence to back it up. Nevertheless, he is making sweeping threats about shutting down WND and enlisting the help of unnamed governments.

"This is why Americans who believe in free speech must never permit international agencies to be involved in policing the Internet. Nor can we afford to allow ourselves to be bullied into self-censorship and standards of 'political correctness' by special interest groups."

Pamela Geller, who writes at AtlasShrugs and long has waged battles against the encroachment of Islamic religious law in the United States, said while she was not familiar with the group, the methodology is common.

"The tactic is pure Islamic supremacist intimidation, a tried-and-true strategy that they employ frequently," she said. "They cannot answer us, so they try to shut us down."

Geller repeatedly has fought over the right to have ads criticizing Islam in the same locations as ads that promote Islam. She frequently has to go to court to get the same access that pro-Islamic organizations are freely granted.

Mohammedi told WND in the telephone interview that his concern is that publishing material he doesn't like "creates a problem on a global scale."

"Some people have different ways of reacting to different articles that are published," he said. "We're trying to prevent certain unwanted events from happening due to these publications.

"We need that (publication) to come to an end because if you want peace and stability around the world, you would need these things to come to an end as well."

While Mohammedi said the organization's website was not operating at this point, WND located a site that appeared to represent the organization.

The site states: "The true Muslim stands firm and strong against the Kufar (unbeliever), we the Mu'min will always defeat the Kufar and we have love amongst each other."

The site also said its headquarters is in Jerusalem and explained, "We are not only an organization on a path to unite the entire Muslim Ummah, we are an organization of international human rights as per the commandments/Shariah (Divine Law) of the almighty Allah in the blessed Holy Quran and as prescribed by the Sunnah (examples) of our beloved Nabi (prophet) Mohammed."

Links there lead to articles titled "The World under the Islamic Caliphate," "Hezbollah," the "Palestinian Liberation Organization," "Islamic Organization of North America" and others.