Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Kumbaya In Texas With Jew Hating Pro Terror Muslims Omar Suleiman & Azhar Azeez
Kumbaya In Texas With Jew Hating Pro Terror Muslims Omar Suleiman & Azhar Azeez
Interfaith As Bad Faith: Muslims Who Came To Colleyville Exploited Terrorist Attack To Spin Narrative
January 20, 2022
MIM: Documented anti semites and terror supporters Imam Omar Suleiman and Azhar Azeez were whirling faster then dervishes on speed to spin the jihad attack on Jews in a Texas temple into a cynical show of kumbaya, practice damage conrol and spread disinformation such as "the attacker acted alone".
Two Muslims were arrested in the UK suspected of being involved in the plot and accomplices are being sought in the US.
Imam Omar Suleiman was a signatory of a letter which condemned ISNA for doing interfaith with the American Jewish Committee's Muslim Jewish Advisory Council which called the AJC " an Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian organization that has caused untold harm to Muslim Americans and Muslims around the world."
Azeez who was on the board of MJAC endorsed the campaign. (See letter and info below)
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"The rabbi and his family and the congregation understood right away that it wasn't the Muslim community that was attacking them. It was the Muslim community that was supporting them," Suleiman said. "This attacker was acting alone."
As rabbi was held hostage, his interfaith clergy colleagues gathered to help end the standoff
January 17, 2022 by Religion News Service
An interfaith group of clergy gathered at Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Community in Colleyville, Texas, to support law enforcement and the families of those taken hostage in the 11-hour standoff Jan. 15, 2022, at Congregation Beth Israel. Pastor Bob Roberts Jr. of Northwood Church in Keller stands far left next to Azhar Azeez; Rabbi Andrew Paley is at center front and Imam Omar Suleiman is behind him, wearing a Muslim head covering. Via Twitter
(RNS) — If there's a word that comes up repeatedly when friends discuss Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the rabbi who was taken hostage with three others at his Reform synagogue Saturday (Jan. 15), it's "kind."
"Kind doesn't begin to cover it," said Lindsey Weiss, who attended Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, since she was 11. "He's the nicest guy."
But it wasn't kindness alone that may have helped Cytron-Walker defuse a tense 11-hour standoff with a gunman who said he brought explosives to the synagogue. The rabbi, who has led the Reform synagogue of about 125 families since 2006, is also an interfaith champion with deep-rooted friendships not only among Christians but Muslims, too.
Those friendships were evident in the command center set up at Good Shepherd Catholic Community nearby, where a group of rabbis, imams and pastors helped FBI teams negotiate with the hostage-taker.
The team included Bob Roberts Jr., pastor of Northwood Church in nearby Keller and co-founder of the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network; Imam Omar Suleiman, president of Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and a columnist at Religion News Service; Azhar Azeez, a former president of the Islamic Society of North America; and Rabbi Andrew Marc Paley of Temple Shalom in Dallas.
"There's probably no one who can handle it better than (Cytron-Walker) because he gets a bigger picture than just his own tribe," said Roberts, who has known Cytron-Walker for 15 years. "That's how he lived his life in the public square — committed to his own faith but respectful of other people's faiths. "
Late Saturday, an FBI SWAT team breached the synagogue, killing the hostage-taker and freeing three of the people inside — a fourth person, an elderly man, had been released around 5 p.m. The suspect was identified as Malik Faisal Akram, a British citizen.
The incident was the latest to rock American Jews, many still scarred by a string of violent attacks at synagogues beginning with the massacre of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
It's unclear why the hostage-taker chose Congregation Beth Israel, located between Dallas and Fort Worth in a suburb with expensive homes and good schools. He apparently entered the synagogue as members were livestreaming Shabbat services. Akram could be heard ranting on the livestream before it abruptly cut off. The intruder was also heard demanding the release of a Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted of trying to kill U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan.
But Dallas-area Muslim community leaders took pains to dispel any notion that the synagogue was targeted because of any antipathy toward Islam.
"None of us are going to fall for the more nefarious narrative spun as a result of this," said Suleiman, referring to those who viewed the incident as portending hatred between Muslims and Jews.
"The rabbi and his family and the congregation understood right away that it wasn't the Muslim community that was attacking them. It was the Muslim community that was supporting them," Suleiman said. "This attacker was acting alone."
When Adena Cytron-Walker, the rabbi's wife, arrived at the command center set up at the Catholic church, she was warmly embraced by members of the Muslim community.
Adena Cytron-Walker has been her husband's partner on interfaith work. She is vice president of programs at the Multicultural Alliance, a Fort Worth organization that works toward "understanding and respect among all races, religions, and cultures through advocacy, conflict resolution, and education."
Friends described the couple as deeply committed to social justice on a range of issues, most especially interfaith relations.
One of those close friends, a Pakistani American, brought Rabbi Cytron-Walker's favorite food to the church — samosas, according to Suleiman.
That's not to say Jewish, Muslim and Christian relations are perfect in the larger Dallas-Fort Worth area, said Rabbi Nancy Kasten, chief relationship officer at Faith Commons, an interfaith organization in Dallas.
"There's not a lot of knowledge about Jews in the greater population and Muslims are at best mysterious and unfortunately feared and distrusted," Kasten said. "There are certain nexuses where people come together to do great interfaith work. I hope this incident will be an opportunity to deepen and broaden relationships between faith communities."
But the small synagogue led by Cytron-Walker was one that actively worked to improve relations among different faiths.
Friends of the rabbi and his wife, who met at the University of Michigan when they were both undergraduates there, say they were committed to "tikkun olam," a Jewish phrase translated as "repairing the world." The two were also champions of LGBTQ rights.
Charlie Cytron-Walker was long expected to be a leader in the Reform Jewish movement. As a teen he attended Kutz Camp in Warwick, New York, a training ground for Jewish youth interested in leadership roles in the Reform movement. (The camp has since closed.)
Cytron-Walker was on board of the Reform Jewish Youth Movement, representing Michigan, his home state, said Rabbi Emily Losben-Ostrov, who met him at the camp and later studied alongside him at rabbinical school.
"He would always say things like, 'That's swell,'" said Losben-Ostrov, rabbi at Temple of Israel in Wilmington, North Carolina. "He was funny and sweet. He is very smart, down-to-earth and would never make anyone feel less-than. He's an ally in every sense of the word, for every community."
On Sunday Cytron-Walker posted to Facebook: "I am thankful and filled with appreciation for
All of the vigils and prayers and love and support,
All of the law enforcement and first responders who cared for us,
All of the security training that helped save us."
https://pres-outlook.org/2022/01/as-rabbi-was-held-hostage-his-interfaith-clergy-colleagues-gathered-to-help-end-the-standoff/
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WASHINGTON (JTA) — An imam who has wished for the end of Zionism, called for a third Intifada and likened Israel to Nazi-era Germany delivered the opening prayer for a session of the US House of Representatives on Thursday.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/anti-zionist-imam-delivers-opening-prayers-in-us-house/
It seems that Omar Suleiman's theological views, which amount to a denial of Jewish history, color his political views. Like so many anti-Israel activists, Suleiman adamantly denies that anti-Zionism has anything to do with antisemitism. In the spirit of the interfaith activism he seems to endorse so warmly, he could perhaps consult some of the relevant material published by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who explains that "Anti-Zionism, denying Jews the right to their one and only collective home by misrepresenting Judaism, is the new antisemitism, every bit as virulent and dangerous as the old"
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Muslim leaders call upon ISNA to end its partnership with AJC & Muslim Jewish Advisory Council
Pro Terror Jihad Supporting Islamists "Peaced Off " By ISNA's Interfaith Dawah Push
July 21, 2021
In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. May peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad and his family
By News Desk| Published: 30th May 2021 2:55 pm IST
We, the undersigned Muslim activists, organizers, and scholars, write to call upon our brothers and sisters at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to end their partnership with the American Jewish Committee (AJC), an Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian organization that has caused untold harm to Muslim Americans and Muslims around the world.
Among other things, the AJC has praised anti-Muslim bigots like Daniel Pipes, Steve Emerson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali; since 2018, it has smeared Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and other Muslim Americans who support Palestinian freedom, spread Islamophobic tropes (including blaming the Quran for anti-Semitism), and repeatedly defended war crimes committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, including recent attacks on Gaza that killed over 200 Palestinians, including at least 60 children.
Despite this long history of anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Palestinian advocacy, ISNA partnered with the AJC in 2016 to establish a national Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC). Since then, the AJC has continued to spread Islamophobia and justify the murder of Palestinians while using the pretense of "interfaith dialogue" with ISNA to obscure its true identity as a harmful and hateful anti-Muslim organization.
Over the past five years, various Muslim American community members have privately and respectfully urged ISNA to end this harmful partnership. Although ISNA leaders have privately promised to do so on numerous occasions, they have failed to fulfill that promise time and time again. ISNA is still clearly listed as a co-sponsor and partner of the AJC on the anti-Muslim organization's website. Although we have literally given ISNA years to do the right thing, we can no longer maintain our public silence—especially given the horrific violence that the AJC supported against our Palestinian brothers and sisters over the past few weeks.
Given ISNA's ongoing failure to end its harmful partnership with the AJC, the signatories to this statement have resolved to do the following: we will not speak at the ISNA convention or any other ISNA events, support their efforts, or collaborate with them until they change course.
We once again urge ISNA leadership to clearly, immediately and publicly end their partnership with those who seek to harm our community so that we can once again work together for the betterment of our nation and people around the world. We urge our community to contact ISNA and encourage them to officially end their partnership with the AJC.
For additional details and background about this issue, please read the detailed fact sheet at the end of this document.
With thanks,
Imad Abboushi
Osama Abuirshaid
Sameera Ahmed
Aisha Al-Adawiya
Asra Ali
Maryam Amir
Mohsin Ansari
Zaynab Ansari
Nihad Awad
Hussam Ayloush
Ehsan Ali Baig
Naeem Baig
Hazem Bata
Hatem Bazian
Zahra Billoo
Jonathan Brown
Zahid Bukhari
Owais Dadabhoy
Abdulhafid Djemil
John Ederer
Ejaz Naqvi
Salah Eddin Elbakri
Basim Elkarra
Manal Fakhoury
Hazel Gomez
Khalid Griggs
Ayman Hammous
Mahmoud Harmoush
Md Dalouer Hossain
Altaf Husain
Suzy Ismail
Ayman Kabire
Wardah Khalid
Faryal Khatri
Hind Makki
Preacher Moss
Sara Mostafavi
Hadia Mubarak
Saleh Mubarak
Rami Nsour
Zeyn Patel
Sana Qutubuddin
Nakibur Rahman
Emad Sabbah
Alia Salem
Fatima Salman
Linda Sarsour
Ahmed Shaikh
Omar Suleiman
Shakeel Syed
Mustafa Umar
Osman Umarji
Suhaib Webb
FACT SHEET ON ISNA'S PARTNERSHIP WITH THE AJC
Brief History
ISNA announced the launch of a Muslim Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC), co-convened by ISNA and AJC in late 2016. The AJC is not an ally of Muslims. Among other things, the AJC has praised anti-Muslim bigots like Daniel Pipes, Steve Emerson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, targeted Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and other Muslim Americans who support Palestinian freedom, trafficked in Islamophobic tropes (including blaming the Quran for anti-Semitism in the Muslim community), and repeatedly defended war crimes committed by the Israeli government, including its recent attacks on Gaza that killed at least 60 Palestinian children.
Due to the AJC's terrible track record of promoting anti-Islamic bigotry and even giving awards to Islamophobes, numerous Muslim community members—including multiple signatories to this statement—privately urged ISNA in 2016 to reconsider the partnership with AJC. Azhar Azeez, president at the time, and other board members eventually pledged that ISNA would not continue working with AJC and that ISNA funds would not be used to support the work of MJAC.
Enough is Enough
Our community has tolerated ISNA's failure to decisively address the matter of the AJC since November of 2016. We have operated in good faith, expecting that the private assurances would result in an actual end to the partnership with AJC. However, even as we write this letter, ISNA leadership has failed to live up to its own promises regarding the end of its partnership with AJC.
Every day that goes by during which ISNA normalizes collaboration with the AJC, this anti-Muslim Zionist organization can continue to spread Islamophobia and justify the murder of Palestinians while using MJAC and the pretense of "interfaith dialogue" to obscure its true identity as a harmful and hateful organization.
Because there is no evidence that ISNA is ending or has ended its partnership with AJC, we are now addressing the matter publicly. We urge our community to join us in this call to hold ISNA accountable.
Source: Principled Interfaith
https://www.siasat.com/muslim-leaders-call-upon-isna-to-end-its-partnership-with-ajc-2143841/
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/7931
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New ISNA President Has Troubling Background:
Azhar Azeez Has Multiple Ties To US Muslim Brotherhood And Hamas Support Organizations
Azhar Azeez was born in HYDERABAD, INDIA and moved to US in 1995. He has a bachelors degree in Finance from the prestigious Osmania University and a Master's degree in business administration (MBA) and currently is pursuing his PhD in Islamic studies. For 13 years he worked for major US corporations such as General Electric, American General Life and Capital One. He currently serves as the senior National Director of Islamic Relief USA which is one of the largest Muslim charity in the world. He is a member of ISNA Executive Council since 2002 and was elected as the vice president of ISNA. in 2010. He currently heads as the President of the North Texas Islamic council which represent 35 Islamic Organizations in Dallas/Fort worth area. He is the founder and the past President of Islamic Association of Carrollton, Texas one of the large mosques in the suburbs of Dallas, TX.
Mr. Azeez's 2010 ISNA bio however, cited by the GMBDW when Mr. Azeez was elected as the ISNA VP, said that he was also a founding member and past President of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) –Dallas/ Fort Worth Chapter, a fact curiously omitted above. CAIR of course is well-known to be a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood and tied to the Hamas support infrastructure in the US while in 2011, the GMBDW reported on the Brotherhood ties of both Islamic Relief USA as well as its parent organization Islamic Relief Worldwide.
In addition, as late as 2011 Azhar Azeez was listed as a member of the Grassroots Leadership Advisory Council of the Freedom and Justice Foundation (FJF), a now defunct organization co-founded by Mohamed Elibiary, a Senior Fellow of the US Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council. Many of the other members of the FJF Advisory Council were known to be associated with the Islamic Association of North Texas (IANT) which operates the Dallas Central Mosque (DCM). Both the IANT and the DCM are known to be associated with the US Muslim Brotherhood and the Hamas infrastructure in the US including the now defunct Holy Land Foundations (HLF). A former FBI analyst has also written that the two of the Elashi brothers, later convicted of terrorism financing as leaders of the HLF, had personal ties to the DCM, one serving as a board member and the other active in an affiliated Islamic School. After the arrests of the Elashi's, the DCM hosted fundraising events for their legal defense. A 2005 report by the Center For Religious Freedom (CRF) found numerous examples of Saudi ideological material at the DCM (aka Richardson Mosque) Other members of the FJF Advisory Council were leaders of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), both organizations being important parts of the US Muslim Brotherhood.
A GMBDW profile, details ISNA's own history of ties to the US Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas as well as its history of fundamentalism, anti-semitism, and support for terrorism. ...
https://www.globalmbwatch.com/2014/08/28/isna-president-troubling-background-azhar-azeez-multiple-ties-muslim-brotherhood-hamas-support-organizations/
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