The Islamic Society of America bills itself as an organization that believes “that Muslim Americans are a positive force in society through their work for spiritual and civic engagement in the U.S. and beyond.”
Sounds nice.
Here’s the rest of the story with a peek at what went on in the group’s annual national convention last week – way under the media’s radar.
There were thousands in attendance in Chicago to listen to speeches claiming President Trump wants to put Muslims in concentration camps and that convicted Muslim terrorists are actually victims of frame-ups.
“And we know from our experience that unless we have laws in place … and we [know they have done this] with other communities, that they’re going to send us to concentration camps,” charged Zahra Billoo, the San Francisco director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
In the past she has urged Muslims to “build a wall of resistance” between themselves and U.S, law enforcement, equated Americans in the Israeli army with ISIS terrorists and accused the FBI of fabrication terrorist threats for public consumption, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
She was joined by former CAIR official Cyrus McGoldrick who spoke out in support of convicted terrorists: “… [Some] of them are our leaders. Some of them are our youth, who were entrapped, some people were framed – I’m talking about Imam Jamil Al-Amin, I’m talking about Tarek Mehanna, I’m talking about Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. A number, hundreds, hundreds of leaders who, and Muslims who are in prison right now. And we forget them, we forget them. No one’s talking about that at this convention. We need to do more.”
Jamil Al-Amin is a Black Panther formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who was convicted in 2002 for killing a Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff’s deputy who tried to serve an arrest warrant. Tarek Mehanna was convicted in 2011 for conspiring to provide material support for al-Qaida and lying to federal investigators. After traveling to Yemen seeking training in order to then fight U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Mehanna returned to the United States where he posted al-Qaida recruitment videos and other documents online. Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT-trained neuroscientist, represents the most extreme case McGoldrick cast as “political prisoners” to his ISNA audience. Afghan security officers detained her in 2008, finding “handwritten notes that referred to a ‘mass casualty attack'” and a list of New York landmarks. During subsequent interrogation, Siddiqui, known as “Lady al-Qaida,” managed to grab a soldier’s M-4 rifle and open fire. She allegedly shouted, “I’m going to kill all you mother**kers!” and “Death to America.” Before executing prisoners James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Kayla Mueller, ISIS offered their release in exchange for Siddiqui.
ISNA played a key role in convincing former FBI Director Robert Mueller to purge FBI training materials dealing with Islam. Former ISNA President Mohamed Magid served on President Obama’s Homeland Security Advisory Council. During the Obama administration, ISNA representatives met with then President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, and ISNA hosted then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson at its convention last year. ISNA’s congressional allies include people like U.S. Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va.; Keith Ellison, D-Minn.; Andre Carson, D-Ind.; U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; and U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Another speaker, John Morrow, who teaches at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana and directs the Covenants of the Prophet Foundation, charged the CIA with support jihadi groups in an effort to spread anti-Muslim hatred.
“How do you ensure that the public continues to support the War on Terror, which is really a war on Islam and Muslims?” Morrow asked. “By means of terrorist attacks, by means of false flag operations, that way the eternal endless war of the globalist totalitarian fascists continues unabated to the pleasure of big brother, or as we know him in Islam, the one-eyed liar. The philosophy is clear. Keep the focus on fear.”
“This is the same narrative that ISIS jihadist recruiters use to lure disaffected Muslims into becoming terrorists,” wrote Steve Emerson of the IPT.
Prominent Muslim activist Linda Sarsour falsely asserted that white supremacists were a bigger terror threat in the United States than Muslims.
“I will not be on a national platform condemning terrorism as a Muslim,” Sarsour said. “I will only condemn terrorism as a human being because that’s the only place that we should be condemning terrorism, because terrorism should never be framed as a conversation that should be just had with Muslims in a country where white supremacists have killed more people since 9/11 than Muslims have.”
Sarsour also accused the Trump administration of being an “authoritarian racist regime” that needed to be resisted.
“I hope, that when we stand up to those who oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad,” Sarsour said. “That we are struggling against tyrants and rulers, not only abroad in the Middle East or on the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America. You have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House.”
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
|
