CONSPIRACY THEORIES, TERROR SUPPORT FOUND IN ISNA CONVENTION LITERATURE
Right Side News
eland-security/conspiracy-theories-terror-support- found-in-isna-convention-literature.html
Aug 28 2009
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) engages in frequent
interfaith programs with Jewish groups and has been embraced warmly
by the Obama administration as a contact point for the American
Muslim community.
In those circles, ISNA presents an open and progressive face of Islam
that is led by a woman, Ingrid Mattson.
Literature available at ISNA’s annual convention last month in
Washington, however, offers a far different vision.
Books and pamphlets obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism
from ISNA’s July national convention feature numerous attempts
to portray U.S. prosecution of terrorists and terror supporters
as anti-Muslim bigotry; dramatic revisionist history that denied
attacks by Arab nations and Palestinian terrorists against Israel;
anti-Semitic tracts and hyperbolic rants about a genocide and holocaust
of Palestinians.
Previously, the IPT exposed hate speech during a conference panel that
featured a call for "more jihad" along with slurs against Jews and
gays and a defense of the terrorist group Hizballah as an innocent
player subject to incessant Israeli onslaught.
ISNA made no comment about pro-Hizballah comments by author Cathy
Sultan, who said she could "see no reason why Hezbollah should not
remained armed." It feigned ignorance about invited speaker Warith
Deen Umar’s radicalism and bigotry, even though his book was available
at the convention and is excerpted on Umar’s own website.
ISNA’s pre-convention vendor statement demanded that all literature
at its bazaar "must be pre-approved in writing by ISNA, in ISNA’s
sole and absolute discretion. Book selling vendors must complete
enclosed form providing inventory of the literature to be sold at
ISNA." [Emphasis added]
Among the works that met approval from "ISNA’s sole and absolute
discretion" were:
The Palestinians’ Holocaust: American Perspectives by Mauri’
Saalakhan. The book is a collection of essays, including some by
Saalakhan, which include comparisons between Nazi concentration camps
and Gaza; claims that the genocide in Darfur is both exaggerated and
a product of Israeli provocation and that the "Jewish-Zionist lobby"
in America is so pervasive, it even controls Keith Ellison (D-MN),
the first Muslim elected to Congress.
Leaflets condemning the Hamas-support convictions of the Holy
Land Foundation and five former officials in November along with
the convictions of the Fort Dix 5 on charges of conspiring to kill
U.S. soldiers and the ongoing prosecution of alleged Al Qaeda terrorist
Aafia Siddiqui.
Reprints of letters from Hamas leaders Mousa Abu Marzook and Ahmad
Yousef stating the terrorist group’s positions toward the United
States and its refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
In The Palestinians’ Holocaust: American Perspectives, an introduction
say the book "features a myriad of diverse voices, whose individual
and collective observations will no doubt underscore why the plight
of the Palestinian people must be seen as a genocide and present
day holocaust!"
Picking up that theme, Professor Francis A Boyle describes his visit
to the Dachau concentration camp. The town of Dachau was so close to
the death camp, he writes, that it was impossible to believe residents
didn’t know about the mass murder taking place inside. Boyle had the
same reaction as he traveled through the West Bank and Gaza in 1986
"in order to investigate Israel’s atrocities and war crimes against
the Palestinians." He claims that Israel and the United States
"are striving to consummate a Middle East version of the Munich
Pact that will sell out the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination."
In a later chapter, "The Zionist Footprint in Iraq, Somalia, and
Sudan," Saalakhan blames Israel for the U.S. invasion of Iraq:
"How does Israel factor into the equation? It is a known fact that
Israel has a strong presence in different parts of the continent
– especially in the Horn of Africa. It is also a well known fact
that Israel – like the Islamophobes at the highest levels of the
U.S. government – desire nothing more than controlled chaos in the
Muslim world. This was the first thought that came to this writer’s
mind when Ethiopia (and the U.S.) attacked Somalia in December 2006."
On page 221, in the chapter "Target Iran," Saalakhan writes of the
pleasure in meeting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but:
"The Zionists and their supporters have made him into a lightning rod
for controversy since his public statements on the holocaust and the
State of Israel."
Saalakhan even called out U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who works closely
with ISNA and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
an organization so rooted in Hamas-support that the FBI has cut off
communication with it. Of Ellison, Saalakhan writes:
"He is has a fairly progressive legislative history, however, on the
Arab-Israeli conflict he has not shown himself to be much different
from other American politicians; which is to say, the Jewish-Zionist
lobby has its inordinate influence within his office as well. (We
pray that this will soon change.)"
When American law enforcement and federal prosecutors go after alleged
terrorists and their financiers, that’s due to Israeli influence,
too, according to Saalakhan. In a chapter called "Israel’s Reach
Into America’s Judiciary: The Holy Land Foundation Trial," Saalakhan
writes that the 2001 Treasury Department order effectively shutting
down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) for
Hamas support came with ulterior motives:
"Solely because the humanitarian relief that this organization had
consistently brought to the needy people of Occupied Palestine was
construed as ‘funding terrorism’ against the state of Israel."
A flyer from the Muslim Legal Fund of America similarly cast HLF as
an innocent supplier of humanitarian aid to needy Palestinians and
condemned the HLF conviction, demanding "this un-American & Unjust
Verdict [that] must be appealed."
In fact, the defendants were charged with violating American law
prohibiting support for terrorist groups, including Hamas. Evidence
from the trial showed the men supported Hamas’ activities and were
part of a broader effort to support Hamas with "media, money, men
and all of that." Other evidence shows the defendants knew that the
Palestinian charities where HLF routed more than $12 million were
controlled by Hamas.
The Palestinians’ Holocaust was one of several books and pamphlets
at the ISNA conference espousing conspiracy theories that portrayed
the defendants as victims of a government out to get Muslims.
An essay by Laila Al-Arian, daughter of Palestinian Islamic Jihad
board member Sami Al-Arian, was distributed which lamented the
"chilling effect" the HLF verdict would have on the Muslim community:
"With its propaganda-like quality, the evidence was clearly intended
to provoke an emotional response. For example, jurors were repeatedly
shown videos of grisly suicide bombings that none of the defendants
were in any way connected to, or accused of planning."
Jurors did see the bloody aftermath of Hamas attacks. But they also
saw repeated examples of the defendants praising such violence,
and even acting it out.
ISNA was included on a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the case
and evidence showed that HLF used ISNA bank accounts to route money to
the Middle East. Similarly, HLF board member Jamal was individually
listed as an unindicted co-conspirator for his role as a fund raiser
for the defunct HLF.
Similarly, a flyer from the "Fort Dix 5 Support Committee" argued the
five men convicted of conspiring to attack Fort Dix and kill soldiers
were victims of government entrapment. The men were convicted, the
flyer said, because "the tactics and strategies of the prosecution
in these cases have stretched legal concepts beyond the point where
a fair trial is possible."
The defendants were arrested as they met with the informant to buy
M-16 and AK-47 rifles to use in their planned attack.
Similarly, accused Al Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui is also
portrayed as a victim of the U.S. government’s abuse of Muslims. For
example, literature from the Muslim Legal Fund of America ("MLFA")
distributed at the conference sought donations for Siddiqui’s defense
fund. Siddiqui is charged with plotting to kill American soldiers
and federal agents in Afghanistan and has been found competent
for trial. 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed allegedly
told interrogators that Siddiqui was an Al-Qaeda accomplice and
facilitator. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence
asserts that Siddiqui was also tied to Pakistan Al-Qaeda operative
‘Ammar al-Baluchi. He gave her orders to travel to the U.S. to help
facilitate other Al-Qaeda operatives entry into the U.S. in order to
carry out terror operations and married her shortly thereafter in 2002.
The MLFA claimed that she was a "Victim of the ‘Global War on Terror’"
and alleged that she had been abused in custody.
Likewise, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) distributed copies
at the conference of its new 19-page booklet, "Seeking an Elusive
Peace: Keys for Successfully Advancing Middle East Peace." MPAC does
not describe suicide bombing as acts of terrorism but as a military
tactic, and accuses Israel of deliberate ethnic cleansing. Palestinian
violence against Israel and criticism of that violence was akin to
criticizing Native American attacks on white settlers, the booklet
argues:
"Palestinian use of violence cannot be understood without reference
to this basic historical fact. The conventional American view is
analogous to criticism of Native American assaults on White settlers,
while ignoring their underlying dispossession."
That, along with Salaakhan’s book, is among the attempts to cast the
Palestinians as victims of a holocaust or genocide. The Nazi Holocaust
sought to eliminate European Jewry and succeeded in killing 6 million
Jews. The Armenian genocide left 1.5 million Armenians dead among a
population of 2.5 million people.
According to the Israeli peacenik group B’Tselem, 4,608 Palestinians
were killed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian territories
between September 2000 and March 2008. Another 67 were killed within
Israel. Meanwhile, the Palestinian population of the West Bank has
increased more than fourfold and the Arab population inside Israel
sixfold. The Arab population of Gaza is more than 15 times larger
than in 1949. See here.
The ongoing Darfur conflict has had an estimated toll of 400,000 deaths
from direct bloodshed, disease and starvation and the displacement
of 2.5 million people. That, too, Saalakhan writes, is Israel’s fault:
"It is a known fact that Israel has a strong presence in different
parts of the continent – especially in the Horn of Africa. It is also
a well known fact that Israel – like the Islamophobes at the highest
levels of the U.S. government – desire nothing more than controlled
chaos in the Muslim world. This was the first thought that came to
this writer’s mind when Ethiopia (and the U.S.) attacked Somalia in
December 2006."
Despite all this conspiratorial, anti-U.S. dogma, the State
Department’s web portal continues to function as
a veritable PR machine for ISNA, publishing monographs and posting
articles like this, this, this and this, in which ISNA officials are
treated as if they represented a mainstream organization analogous to
the Anti-Defamation League, the U.S. Catholic Conference or the NAACP.
Ahmed Mohamed’s August 20 story on the same State Department
site is the latest example. It promotes "Journey into America," a
film which premiered July 4 at the Islamic Film Festival at ISNA’s
convention. (President Obama praised the book and DVD as a "wonderful
gift.")
In a panel discussion which followed the film, ISNA President
Ingrid Mattson said "Journey into America" was "refreshing" and
would dispel irrational fear that many Americans have about radical
Islamists organizing at mosques: "There are many Americans who are
really frightened of what might be going on behind the doors of the
mosques. So to get in and to hear what is in those people’s minds,
it takes away the strangeness of it."
The true measure of character is determined by what is said and written
when people think no one is paying attention. The literature promoted
at last month’s convention shows we may not really seeing what goes
on behind closed doors with ISNA.
——————–
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) is a non-profit
research group founded by Steven Emerson in 1995. It is recognized
as the world’s most comprehensive data center on radical Islamic
terrorist groups. For more than a decade, the IPT has investigated the
operations, funding, activities and front groups of Islamic terrorist
and extremist groups in the United States and around the world. It
has become a principal source of critical evidence to a wide variety
of government offices and law enforcement agencies, as well as the
U.S. Congress and numerous public policy forums. Research carried out
by the IPT team has formed the basis for thousands of articles and
television specials on the subject of radical Islamic involvement in
terrorism, and has even led to successful government action against
terrorists and financiers based in the United States.