Recruiting for jihad openly in Windy City suburb?
Pro-Terror Group to Meet in Chicago Suburb
by Steven Emerson July 10, 2009 http://www.investigativeproject.org/1088/pro-terror-group-to-meet-in-chicago-suburb
Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international movement seeking to re-establish an international Islamic state - or Caliphate - and to indoctrinate Muslims into supporting jihad, wants to step up its recruitment efforts in the United States. On July 19, the group, whose alumni include 9/ 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and suicide bombers, will hold a conference titled "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in Oak Lawn, Ill, a Chicago suburb.
For decades, Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) has operated covertly, holding these Khalifa (Caliphate) conferences in the United States under the name of front organizations. But that has begun to change. Last fall, the group issued a leaflet in its own name urging Muslims to boycott the U.S. elections. The group just released this video promoting the July 19 conference. According to the conference website, the program includes a question-and-answer session and two panels; one entitled "Capitalism is Doomed to Fail," the other "The Suffering Under Capitalism."
The conference initially was scheduled for the Aqsa School in Bridgeview, Ill. But the school withdrew, claiming Hizb ut-Tahrir officials "misrepresented themselves." An official said the group approached the school in late April claiming it wanted to hold a bazaar-type event in July that would involve selling traditional food and clothing. School officials said that when they learned the real purpose, they cancelled and refunded the group's deposit.
While solid numbers are difficult to come by, there is little question that Hizb ut-Tahrir's worldwide membership has grown substantially since the September 11 attacks, says Madeleine Gruen, a senior analyst with the NEFA Foundation. In 2003, estimates of HT membership ranged from 10,000 to 100,000 people worldwide. Today, by contrast, the group (currently active in more than 40 countries) has approximately 100,000 members in Indonesia alone and "many thousands" more around the world, Gruen told IPT News.
In the United States, Hizb ut-Tahrir's following is estimated at no more than a few hundred. The decision to hold this month's conference under its own name is a sign that the group is preparing to raise its profile. Once that is achieved, Gruen adds, its cadres are supposed to establish "an Islamic government and military" in order to take Hizb ut-Tahrir's message to the world.
HT seeks to fuse an ideology combining orthodox Islam, Marxist-Leninist economics, anti-Semitism and opposition to Western democracy into a political program to bring back the Caliphate. Despite its public rhetoric about nonviolence, Hizb ut-Tahrir has "precisely the same ideology and objectives" as al Qaeda, Gruen told IPT News. And HT has a much larger membership base to recruit from, she added.
While it refrains from carrying out terrorist actions itself, Hizb ut-Tahrir glorifies jihadism and excoriates the terrorist organization Hamas as being too soft on Israel. In a leaflet posted on its website July 1, HT said that if the Caliphate were in existence, all of "Palestine" would be rid of "the usurpation of the Jewish occupiers" and brought "to the fold of the Islamic state."
HT was founded in 1952 in Bayt al-Maqdis, a Jordanian-occupied suburb of Jerusalem, by Sheikh Yaqiuddin Al-Nabhani, a man whose philosophy had been shaped by the Muslim Brotherhood. After he concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood was too moderate, Al-Nabhani formed Hizb ut-Tahrir. After its involvement in failed coup attempts in Egypt and Jordan, HT was banned throughout the Middle East. It moved to Western Europe, and after the fall of Soviet Communism the group spread into Central Asia.
HT is obsessed with the purported evils of the United States, President Obama and the capitalist system. A look at its website found articles with titles like "Bailouts and bonus culture shows [sic] the corruption of democracy;" "Obama Offers Sugar-Coated Poison for the Region!" (a recap of the President's recent visit to the Middle East); and "G20 Leaders attempt to salvage the last vestiges of Capitalism." A common theme is that Muslims in Pakistan should not join with the U.S. military in fighting against the Taliban. "Fighting Muslims is a great evil, which only benefits America," reads one typical entry on the HT website.
A posting entitled "Obama's words will not hide America's ugly face of Colonialism" said of the President's speech to Muslims in Egypt last month:
"Although this appears a seemingly positive gesture towards the Muslim world, the actions of his government appear every bit as ruthless as the Bush administration. [Obama] differs only to the extent that, unlike Bush who spoke with frank hatred, he uses 'soft power' and personal charm to cover his intentions."
Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesmen have emphasized that their organization does not engage in terrorism. They claim the U.S. and Pakistani governments seek to suppress the group because they fear its advocacy of "justice" for Muslims.
Critics say the argument is a sham. "The freedom and justice HT seeks by overthrowing democracy can often only be attained through violence," said Zeyno Baran, senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Eurasian Policy in July 2008 testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
In her testimony, Baran added: "HT is not likely to take up terrorism itself. Terrorist acts are simply not part of its mission. HT exists to serve as an ideological and political training ground for Islamists. And I have called them a 'conveyer belt to terrorism.' "
Terrorists who have been members of Hizb ut-Tahrir include Al Qaeda's Mohammed; Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, who was originally a member in Jordan; Hambali, head of the East Asian-based terror group Jemaa Islamiya, and Asif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, who were recruited by Hamas to carry out suicide bombings at a Tel Aviv seafront bar. Read more about HT's record as a "conveyor belt" for producing terrorists here.
In a June 2001 article in its publication Al-Waie, Hizb-Ut-Tahrir issued a fatwa on suicide attacks which said that "all ways and means which a Muslim uses to kill unbelievers is [sic] permitted as long as the enemy unbeliever is killed." It is acceptable to "blow yourself up amongst their military encampments or blow yourself and them up with a belt of explosives."
HT has been banned in Turkey and Germany for distributing literature that includes incitement to hatred and violence against Jews. In a paper for the Manhattan Institute, Gruen pointed to one leaflet distributed by the group titled: "And Kill Them Whenever You Find Them, and Turn Them Out From Where They Have Turned You Out." It stated that:
"Jews are a people of slander. They are treacherous people who violate oaths and covenants. They lie and change words from the right places. They take the rights of the people unjustly, and kill the Prophets and the innocent."
The leaflet then encouraged martyrdom operations against Jews.
Despite the incendiary message, law enforcement's hands are tied when it comes to a group like Hizb ut-Tahrir, said Bob Blitzer, who formerly headed the FBI's counterterrorism efforts. "Preaching violence is not enough reason to arrest anyone," he said. "Law enforcement is probably aware of this group and is checking them out" to the extent that it can under the law.
The danger is that as a result of exposure to HT's extremism "someone on the edge gets radicalized and takes it to heart and commits a violent act," Blitzer said.
That doesn't mean the government is powerless. Given that Hizb ut-Tahrir conferences typically include sympathizers from numerous countries, federal homeland security officials should expect supporters of the group to try to enter the United States in order to attend the Khalifa Conference, Gruen said. The United States Code bars from the United States any alien who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization."
But in the past the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (the federal agency chiefly responsible for stopping foreign supporters of extremist groups from entering the United States) has been asleep at the switch when it comes to HT. In 2007, Hizb ut-Tahrir had a booth right next to the Department of Homeland Security at a conference sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America - a Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization that was an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal government's successful prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
Dan Vara, a former attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida, has been at the forefront of many key enforcement matters involving counterterrorism and counterintelligence. He says ICE has ample legal authority to prevent Hizb ut-Tahrir's foreign supporters from entering the United States.
"I would rake them over the coals on these issues" related to HT's support for the Taliban and advocacy of Hamas violence, Vara said in an interview.
For example, Section 1182 of the United States Code allows consular officers or the attorney general to bar from the United States "any alien who endorses or espouses terrorist activity or support of a terrorist organization." That section also provides that "Any alien whose entry or proposed activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is inadmissible."
Hizb ut-Tahrir has a right to peacefully assemble and discuss whatever ideology it chooses. U.S. law enforcement, however, has a right to invoke the law and prevent foreign Islamists seeking to attend the conference from entering the United States.
A holy war is brewing in Virginia, where a controversial Islamic school is seeking permission to expand its campus and a group of residents is going all out to stop it.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing Monday night to consider a proposal to expand the campus of the Islamic Saudi Academy, a Saudi-owned college preparatory school.
Critics of the plan point to former students of the school who have been convicted in a plot to assassinate former President Bush, and more recently, arrested for trying to board an airplane with a seven-inch kitchen knife.
And others say they oppose the move to expand the school for one reason only:
"We're opposed to the operation of the Islamic Saudi Academy because it teaches and practices Shariah law," said James Lafferty, chairman of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force (VAST). "Shariah law is anti-constitutional and we feel that it is the ultimate improper land use here in the state where the Constitution was created."
Lafferty said his organization is a coalition with roughly 10 other groups that oppose the land-use expansion. By teaching Shariah law, Lafferty says, the school replaces the U.S. Constitution with a "very backward and barbaric" rule of law.
Founded in 1984, the Islamic Saudi Academy seeks to "enable students to excel academically while maintaining the values of Islam and proficiency with the Arabic language," according to its Web site.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the school's valedictorian in 1999, was convicted in November 2005 of joining Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush. He was later sentenced to 30 years in prison.
More recently, Raed Abdul-Rahman Al-Saif, who reportedly graduated from the school in 2003, was arrested last month at a Florida airport when he allegedly tried to board a plane while in possession of a seven-inch kitchen knife.
Details of the proposed expansion remained unclear, but the proposal seeks to expand the school's grounds from 20 acres to 34, county officials told FOXNews.com. Calls to the school were not immediately returned.
Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity announced at the beginning of Monday night's hearing that no vote would be taken and that the record would be kept open to allow comment from those not in attendance.
Any vote on the proposal will occur — at the earliest — during the scheduled next board meeting on Aug. 3, Merni Fitzgerald, director of public affairs for Fairfax County, told FOXNews.com late Monday.
A total of 46 people have indicated they plan to speak during Monday's hearing, Fitzgerald said.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532801,00.html
This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," July 14, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GLENN BECK, HOST: Welcome back. Remember the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County, Virginia? No? Really?
It's a Saudi-owned college preparatory school that uses textbooks with passages that extol jihad and martyrdom, call for victory over one's enemies and say the killings of adulterers and apostates is justified.
It's fantastic.
They have been some great kids that have gone to the school. The 1999 valedictorian joined Al Qaeda. There he is, right there. He was sentenced to 30 years — see him smiling, he's a nice guy — 30 years in prison for trying to assassinate President Bush.
• Video: Watch Beck's interview
Now, the school is looking to expand the size of their campus. But the town, all these hate-mongers in Virginia, they just — all right, sure, nobody has been showing them, you know, what's in the textbooks or anything.
James Lafferty opposes the school's expansion. He is the chairman of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force.
James, you hate-monger you. OK. So, their valedictorian, you know, wants to kill the president and he joins Al Qaeda. But it's not like they have had another student that's gone wild and — oh, wait, they have.
JAMES LAFFERTY, VIRGINIA ANTI-SHARIAH TASK FORCE: I guess that's...
BECK: No, it's Raed Abduhl-Rahman Alsaif. Do we have his picture? Do we know about him? What did he do?
LAFFERTY: Are you asking me, Glenn?
BECK: Yes. Do you know?
LAFFERTY: He was the — he was the one who was arrested at the Florida airport last month. He carried a seven-inch butcher knife in his carrying case with him as he attempted to get on the plane.
BECK: I mean, you could have forgotten the seven-inch butcher knife. I mean, sometimes, it happens. You're like at the airport and like, oh, crap, I took my butcher knife.
LAFFERTY: That's right.
BECK: How about the principal? I mean, he seems like a good principal there?
LAFFERTY: No, the principal also had some problems.
BECK: What?
LAFFERTY: He — a young 5-year-old girl reported to him that she was being abused by her father. And he followed Shariah law and took the little girl and returned her to the abusive father and then said to the father, "You better get her under control."
Now, in Virginia, that's against the law.
BECK: So, it's a different culture, OK?
LAFFERTY: Well, this is — the Virginia law says that when we get reports like that, we report them to the police and usually somebody gets arrested. In this case, the little girl got turned back over. Ultimately, the Fairfax County police came in and arrested the principal.
BECK: You know, I have been following this school for about three years now, and gosh, I haven't been able to get anybody from the State Department to help us out on any of the textbooks or anything else. Nobody in the State Department wants to look into this. It's weird, because this is getting a lot of Saudi money, right?
LAFFERTY: It is. It is. The State Department focuses on diplomacy. And, I think, what President Reagan one time said, maybe we need an American desk over there to get them to listen to the people of the United States.
BECK: Right.
LAFFERTY: They just don't — they don't care about these issues.
BECK: Can we bring up the map of — let's just show where this school is, and it's — do we have the map of the — here it comes. There it is.
Oh, my gosh! Look how great this is. It is so close to the capital.
LAFFERTY: It is.
BECK: Fantastic.
LAFFERTY: It's very near Washington.
BECK: Yes, why would anybody worry about that?
You apparently got a call from a teacher. You claim you got a call from a teacher. What happened?
LAFFERTY: Well, the teacher said that they were going to — she was going to send us some material. And one thing that she mentioned was that there was an illustration in a textbook for ninth graders which showed that under Shariah law when you're punishing someone, you can —you should remove their hands or their feet.
And it was a diagram that showed you exactly where to cut. It was like one of those things in the butcher shop where you see the cow in different parts. These were hands and feet and it just showed you the places to cut.
BECK: Well, if you're going to cut somebody's hands off, you might as well do it the right way.
LAFFERTY: Well, in ninth grade, that's really important.
BECK: Right. But we actually don't know if that's from — actually from this, because we can't get a hold of any of the — they won't let anybody have the textbooks or anything.
LAFFERTY: That's right. They don't — we've never see seen a complete set of the textbooks.
BECK: OK.
LAFFERTY: We've been through exercises with them where we said that we object to one part or another.
BECK: Yes.
LAFFERTY: And what they usually do is just rip the page out.
BECK: Yes, well, that's going — yes, that's going to work.
OK. So, last night, there was this big meeting. And are they going to expand?
LAFFERTY: Well, it looks that way. It looks like it's headed that way. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors only wants to talk about whether or not they cut the grass and whether or not they have appropriate number of parking spaces.
BECK: Weren't you actually — you were in this school at one time, were you not? Because you did a film on.
LAFFERTY: I was. I was. I worked at the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and I was an appointee of President George Herbert Walker Bush there.
BECK: OK.
LAFFERTY: And I went down to help produce a video on discrimination against people wearing certain type of religious articles or garb.
BECK: That's cool. So, did you find that they were open-minded?
LAFFERTY: Well, it was interesting. During the time I spent there, they had many questions about the protections that the federal government provides.
BECK: Right.
LAFFERTY: And they walked me through the school. And I noticed on these world maps that they had in the classrooms, there was one country that was missing, Israel.
BECK: Hmm. That's weird. Must have been an oversight.
OK. Thank you very much. We'll talk to you again.
We're going to follow this story tomorrow and as long as we can, unless we just get mired in the sand and they don't do anything, like the government usually doesn't.
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Urgent call: Stop the Islamic Saudi Academy expansion tonight!
Yesterday and today I have received the following notice from many people. It is a call to Christians, but every free citizen -- Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, whatever -- in the Fairfax County area ought to attend this meeting and try to stop the expansion of this Sharia school.
There is a serious issue related to radical Islamic Wahabbists gaining a greater foothold in Fairfax/Fairfax County.On Wednesday March 18th, at 8:15pm there will be a very important Fairfax County Planning Commission meeting to hear from the public about the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA)’s request to expand their Shariah based school.
The ISA wants to replace the current building on the property with a very large two-story structure which will give them 10 times the square footage they have presently. There will be a place to meet and pray for student use only—this will be a mosque.
Please read further --- then ACT and PRAY.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), founded, funded, and controlled by the Saudi Government, seeks to expand its school in Fairfax on Popes Head Road. Currently the ISA has two locations, an upper grade school near Ft Belvoir/Mt Vernon and a lower grade school in Fairfax. The Wahabbists want to consolidate all 900 (and growing) students at the Fairfax location.
At the center of the controversy are the school’s curriculum and the crimes committed by those who attended or worked at the ISA:
Ismail Selim Elbarasse served as an accountant at ISA for 14 years before he was arrested for videotaping bridge structures including the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in August, 2004. On the day of his arrest, he was also named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” for laundering money on behalf of the American affiliate of Hamas.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali , an ISA valedictorian, is serving a thirty-year prison sentence for providing material support to Al-Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President G.W. Bush.
Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, Director General (Principal) ISA, was arrested by Fairfax police in June, 2008 for obstruction of justice and failing to report a case of child sexual abuse involving a five year old girl at the Popes Head campus. Al-Shabnan was fined $500.
§ Mohammed El-Yacoubi and Mohammed Osman Idris, were denied entry into Israel when authorities there found El-Yacoubi carrying what the FBI believed was a suicide note linked to a planned martyrdom operation in Israel.
There is a pattern of anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian activity at the Islamic Saudi Academy. The curriculum sanctions murder against Jews, adulterers, homosexuals, and converts from Islam—for all other Americans these would be considered crimes.
Each time the ISA gets caught and there is a new flare-up over the hate taught at the ISA, the school “fixes” the curriculum a little. In anticipation of this zoning request, Planning Commission hearings and then the full Board hearing , the ISA has once again claimed they have altered their textbooks. However, while the Islamic Saudi Academy deleted some of the most contentious passages from the texts, copies provided to The Associated Press show that enough sensitive material remains to fuel critics who claim the books show intolerance toward those who do not follow strict interpretations of Islamic Shariah.
Associated Press story on Islamic Saudi Academy ---
Because this school is operated by the Saudi government, it teaches from the Wahabbist Saudi texts provided by the Saudi Ministry of Education. Just as an American school overseas teaches “American” curriculum such as the Revolutionary War, our Presidents and major holidays--this school teaches Wahabbist curriculum.
The Saudi Ministry of Education texts have taught young people that peaceful coexistence with so-called “infidels” is unattainable and that violence to spread Islam is not only permissible, but an obligation. It encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion; they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the other.
Just a Glimpse of What is Taught
15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11th were Saudi--educated in schools just like the ISA with Wahabbist curriculum.
· Islam teaches that Jews are apes, the keepers of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christian infidels of the communion of Jesus.
The Saudi Ministry of Education texts have taught young people that peaceful coexistence with so-called “infidels” is unattainable and that violence to spread Islam is not only permissible, but an obligation. It encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion; they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the other.
It is permissible for a Muslim to kill an apostate (a convert from Islam), an adulterer, or someone who has murdered a believer intentionally: “He (praised is He) prohibits killing the soul that God has forbidden (to kill) unless for just cause…” Just cause is then defined in the text as “unbelief after belief, adultery, and killing an inviolable believer intentionally.” (Tafsir, Arabic/Sharia, 123)
Jihad in the path of God – which consists of battling against unbelief, oppression, injustice, and those who perpetrate it – is the summit of Islam. This religion arose through jihad and through jihad was its banner raised high. It is one of the noblest acts, which brings one closer to God, and one of the most magnificent acts of obedience to God.
· When is battle jihad in the path of God? … To fulfill an order from God,sacrifice in His path, spread the creed of monotheism, defend the realms of Islam and Muslims, and raise up the word of God. This is jihad in the path of God.
· Jihad continues until the Day of Resurrection.
Read here for more detailed info on the ongoing problem of this Shariah based school
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=3342
Jihad, K- 12 http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=6090
CBN story on the ISA http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/558880.aspx
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2206&Itemid=46
What You Can Do!
Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity, (Republican) who represents Fairfax, seems to be working to help this school--as are most others. We need people to come and speak ---and to pray-we need prayer warriors. Last year we worked on this issue but the focus was the Islamic Saudi Academy upper grade school in Alexandria and the renewal of their lease for the old Mt Vernon High School. Darci Nelson testified--and did a good job.
Again, we need people to attend. Most who attend can just be a presence and pray. Those who like to testify can do so. My husband Jim and I will help with testimony preparation. Last year, when I registered to testify I was the only one. When we arrived (grp of 5) we were well out numbered. Jim was viciously attacked by Chairman Connelly (now Congressman) who repeatedly accused him (and the rest of us) of slander.
Wahabbists are colonizing many areas of Northern Virginia. America’s history can be described as waves of immigrants coming to our shores seeking liberty and freedom. The Wahabbists come to America and immediately conspire to reduce our liberty and freedom and impose their brutal Islamic Shariah law—and using our very laws against us to do this. This is the difference between them and other immigrants.
This is major spiritual warfare. Please consider attending. Yes, 8:15 pm is late. But it is vital to have Christians attend. Let me know if you can stand with us by
1.) Testifying
2.) Attending and prayingHearing held here
Government Center
12000 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/locatmap.htm
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