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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > CAIR : 'Moderate friends of Terror' perpetrates anti terror fatwa hoax with terrorist cleric Muzammil Siddiqui

CAIR : 'Moderate friends of Terror' perpetrates anti terror fatwa hoax with terrorist cleric Muzammil Siddiqui

Media fails to questiion anti terror fatwa and expose CAIR and Figh Council's support for suicide bombings and terrorism ties
July 28, 2005

MIM: The phony condemnation of terrorism by Muslim groups can be explained by the fact that terrorism is never mentioned in the Koran - it's called Jihad instead.

MIM: Iqbal Sacranie explains why Muslims cannot be expected to reject terrorism in an article by Melanie Philips.

"...There is no such thing as an Islamic terrorist. This is deeply offensive..."
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/000988.html

MIM: A reader in the UK expounded:

"...The logic is this: if it is a terrorist act, the perpetrator cannot be a true Muslim; if the perpetrator is a true Muslim, it cannot be a terrorist act. Thus redefined, Islam can pose as a religion of peace but support violent jihad (not "terrorism") against its opponents..." http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/000989.html



http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=cairfatwa%2Ehtm

Terror Friendly Organizations Issue Fatuous Fatwa Against Terror

July 28, 2005 – San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews - In a preemptive media broadside designed to deflect the monsoon of public criticism that will soon engulf the organization on August 1, when Ghassan Elashi – Texas board member of CAIR – is sentenced in Dallas on 21 Federal terrorism counts, the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] today joined with the Fiqh Council of North America in issuing a sham ruling that in essence can be reduced to the non-controversial statement that "terrorism is not a good thing."

The brazen nature of such terror friendly groups issuing a fatwa on terrorism, is further underlined by the fact that the former chairman of Fiqh Council of North America, Taher Jaber Al Alwani is according to numerous media reports the number 5 unindicted co-conspirator in the current Sami Al Arian terror trial [taking place in Florida] and whose organizations have been raided by Federal authorities as part of the ongoing investigation into the domestic funding of terrorism.

The current director of the Fiqh Council is Muzammil Siddiqui [former director of the Islamist orgainzation ISNA - Islamic Circle of North America]. Siddiqui has additional responsibilities within the Islamist network, serving as the US Director of the Muslim World League.

Item - FBI Raids Muslim World League Offices Friday July 22, 2005

"FBI and Homeland Security agents raided the Northern Virginia office of a Saudi-based charity that has been under scrutiny for possible terrorist ties and detained one of its employees on immigration charges, officials said yesterday.

The Muslim World League office in Falls Church had also been searched in 2002 in a dramatic series of raids of Muslim organizations in Northern Virginia." - Raid Targets Islamic Charity in Falls Church - Mary Beth Sheridan - Washington Post, July 26, 2005

More about the Fiqh Council and Alwani, a little later:

"On Thursday, July 28, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will hold a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to release a fatwa (Islamic religious ruling) against terrorism and extremism. The fatwa is being issued by the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) and endorsed by major U.S. Muslim groups.

Representatives of the Fiqh Council, an association of Islamic legal scholars that interprets Muslim religious law, and leaders of several leading American Muslim organizations will take part in the news conference. (The term "fiqh" refers to Islamic jurisprudence.)" - CAIR Newsletter July 27, 2005

CAIR's participation in this farcical fatwa lends the effort the overall look and feel of bad satire, having already had three of its members convicted on federal terror related charges, and an additional individual who is an advisor to their board - strongly linked with the first [1993] World Trade Center bombing.

CAIR's terrorist connections: Ghassan Elashi, founding board member of CAIR's Texas chapter and businessman, convicted of terrorism-related charges on April 14, 2005. According to AP "Ghassan and Bayan Elashi and their company were found guilty of all 21 federal counts they faced...and are to be sentenced Aug 1...each count carries a...10-year prison sentence."

Bassem Khafagi former director of Community Relation for CAIR, plead guilty to bank and visa and has been deported to Egypt.

Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, a former communications & civil rights specialist for CAIR, according to AP, "Royer...admitted helping members of the conspiracy join the militant Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks...[he] pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting use of a firearm in a crime of violence and aiding and abetting the carrying of an explosive during commission of a felony. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison."

Siraj Wahhaj, CAIR advisory board member named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman bomb plots by US Prosecutor Mary Jo White; Rahman is serving a life sentence.

Fiqh Out

Taha Jaber Al-Alwani is the director of the Fiqh Council of North America - the organization which issued the above noted "fatwa."

Alwani is also an officer in/and/or directs the Safa Group of companies which include the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Graduate School of Islamic & Social Sciences, Heritage Education Trust and other entities [over 100 in total].

Mr. Alwani has been under investigation for at least 10 years by the Federal government. His organizations and personal living quarters were raided in a 2003 joint-terrorism strike [Operation Greenquest] spearheaded by the US Treasury Department.

Operation Greenquest was designed to destroy the US based terrorist funding infrastructure through identification, disruption, prosecution and dismantling of the terrorist funding networks.

[For those doubting the need for and the effectiveness of the Patriot Act, these coordinated raids in various localities were made possible by that 2001 law. Because of the Patriot legislation rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure now permits warrants to be issued by a Federal magistrate judge in any district in which activities related to terrorism may have occurred, even for property outside the district.]

According to the Dept. of Treasury, these raids - "initiated 859 financial investigations involving suspected terrorist financing and referred 1,109 leads on potential terrorist financial activities…[this]…resulted in 47 arrests, 28 indictments, and the seizure of $7.3 million."

Yet we now have the central figure in that raid now issuing a fatwa on terror.

Introduced as evidence in the filing needed to get the warrant for the raid on Alwani's Virginia companies, special agent David Kane proffered to the Alexandria court a letter of support from Alwani to none other than Sami Al Arian.

Mr. Al-Arian is currently on trial in Florida for running a domestic jihad support and funding network for the terrorist groups, Palestinian Islamic Jihad [PIJ] and Hamas.

"60. I have found information indicative of a conspiracy between Safa Group individuals and Sami Al-Arian to support and fund terrorists and terrorist groups including HAMAS and PIJ. A most striking example is a letter seized during the 1995 search warrants, from a central figure in the Safa Group, Al-Alwani at IIIT to Al-Arian."

‘Honorable brother, I think we do not need to affirm that we consider you as a Group, you and brother Mazen [al-Najar] and brother Khalil [Shikaki, brother of PIJ founder Fathi Shikaki] and brother Bashir [Nafi ] and Brother Ramadan [Shallah, present head of PIJ] and Sheikh Abdel Aziz [Odeh, a founder and spiritual leader of the PIJ], a part of us and an extension of us, and us part of you and extension of you also, we never experienced any doubts about that since we knew you and we will continue like that.

61. Al-Alwani continued:

And the matter of the financial support was never the basis of our relationship, for our relation added to the brotherhood of faith and Islam is an ideological and cultural concordance with the same objectives and all of your institutions are considered by us as ours, and they receive all the attention, and I explained to you the circumstances the institutions of your brother go through, and despite which we can truthfully say that we gave your institutions or our institutions that you manage more attention than institutions we manage by ourselves, because you are in an important positions without a doubt, and you deserve from us and our likes all cooperation, God willing'" - US Dept of Justice Search Warrant, Operation Greenquest.

According to the "Manifesto of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad" which was found on Arian's computer, PIJ rejects - "...any peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause, and the affirmation of the Jihad solution and the martyrdom style as the only choice for liberation." That document characterized the UN as - "is a supercilious tool to pass the plans of the Great Satan America."

The groups that Al Alwani was so fervently supporting in his letter to Al-Arian - Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - were added to President Bush's Executive Order 13224, the United States official terrorist manifest on October 12, 2001. - Executive Order 13224 assignees

Additionally, In October 1999, a confidential asset of the FBI, who has provided reliable information in the past, furnished the Washington Field Office of the FBI a copy of a fatwa signed by Al-Alwani at some point between December 1988 and November 1989, proclaiming the "truth by the powers invested in us by Allah, that Jihad is the only way to liberate Palestine."

So what is going on here?

Organizations up to their necks in terror associations engaging in a supremely insulting sleight-of-hand called takiyya [Quranic approved strategic lying] betting on the come line that the media will play their usual multicultural role and merely pass it along - wink-wink - sans analysis.

But there is so much more...

In some way I feel that PipeLineNews had a hand in planting the fatwa seed in CAIR's spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper's head which today flowered in Washington DC's Press Club so grotesquely.

On the morning of Thursday July 22, 2005 at 7:45AM PST we had a long conversation with Mr. Hooper.

We discussed a number of issues which will be covered in a later piece, the following transcript is relevant and verbatim, as we promised Hooper it would be.

PipeLineNews - What would your response be to call for a fatwa against Osama bin Laden or Mr. Zarqawi?"

Hooper: "I have no problem with that."

PLN: "Are you calling for one right now?"

Hooper: "The whole concept of the fatwa has been misinterpreted by many people, in the public perception it has come to mean a death sentence but that is not what it is at all...It could be more in this country compared to an attorney general's opinion...you have a specific legal question anything from can you have this land zoned to matters of state all it says is it's a legal opinion by recognized Muslim scholars...The British Muslim community has issued a fatwa condemning terrorism, condemning extremism..."

PLN: "There are fatwas that do call for the death of people such as the one that was issued against Salmon Rushdie. The question is, since that is a part of Islam, since those types of fatwas, those types of religious pronouncements can be issued, would you call for that type of a fatwa?

Calling for the death of Osama bin Laden?"

Hooper: "You are arguing from a false premise, that fatwas are a death sentence and that is not the case, in fact the world was outraged that there was a death sentence that was against Salmon Rushdie...they should have been...now you called for a similar one...that's a bit of a contradiction."

PLN: "So you're calling for Osama Bin Laden's death?"

Hooper: "Give me a break."

PLN: "So you are not willing to call for a fatwa calling for the death of Osama bin Laden?...The question goes to the core of what CAIR stands for."

Hooper: "The penalty for murder in Islam is death..if someone is convicted of murder the death penalty could be applied, no problem with that."

PLN: "You're unwilling to answer the question Mr. Hooper, are you willing to call for the death of Osama bin Laden?"

Hooper: Click...end of conversation.

What can be gathered from this?

Hooper had an opportunity to simply state that terrorism was so egregious, so antithetical to Islam that it was appropriate to support a fatwa calling for the death of Osamma bin-Laden, that Muslims should turn him and people like Zarqawi over to authorities, but he refused, on numerous occasions.

He refused because his organization and those associated with it in today's cruel game are merely engaging in an elaborate public relations lie.

The ugly reality is that Islamists have a different conception of truth than other people do.

Radical Muslims look at the world in a unique way.

To them if the cause is justified in their twisted thinking, then any avenue to attain that goal is just.

What else would motivate two organizations - CAIR and the Fiqh Council of North America - with the types of associations just hinted at above, engage in such obvious subterfuge?

At some point today's stunt must be seen for what it is - a charade, a freak-town side show in which the geek bites off the head of the chicken while the barker standing by denies that it happened.

That is what you saw at the National Press Club today, there is no less harsh, nor more accurate way to talk about it.

--------------------------------------

MIM: This is the CAIR press release announcing the phony anti terror fatwa :

MEDIA ADVISORY -

U.S. MUSLIM RELIGIOUS COUNCIL TO ISSUE FATWA AGAINST TERROR
CAIR to release English, Arabic, Urdu radio versions of anti-terror PSA

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 7/27/05) - On Thursday, July 28, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will hold a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to release a fatwa (Islamic religious ruling) against terrorism and extremism. The fatwa is being issued by the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) and endorsed by major U.S. Muslim groups.

Representatives of the Fiqh Council, an association of Islamic legal scholars that interprets Muslim religious law, and leaders of several leading American Muslim organizations will take part in the news conference. (The term "fiqh" refers to Islamic jurisprudence.)

WHAT: Release of Fatwa Against Terror and Extremism/Release of CAIR Radio Anti-Terror PSA
WHEN: Thursday, July 28, 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: National Press Club (13th Floor), Murrow Room, 529 14th Street NW, Washington, D.C.
CONTACT: CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: [email protected]

At Thursday's news conference, CAIR will also release radio versions of its 30-second "Not in the Name of Islam" television public service announcement (PSA) in English, Arabic and Urdu. The PSA campaign ties into CAIR's "Not in the Name of Islam" online petition drive designed to disassociate the faith of Islam from the violent acts of a few Muslims. To view the television PSA, go to: http://www.cair-net.org/video/psa.ram

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, has 31 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. To read CAIR's Mission, Vision Statement and Core Principles, go to: http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=About

- END -

CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: [email protected]; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: [email protected]

NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a journalist's window to the American Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called ISLAM-INFONET, receive news releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on issues of importance to our society.

To SUBSCRIBE to or UNSUBSCRIBE from ISLAM-INFONET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/islam-infonet/

-----

CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: http://www.cair-net.org/

----

MIM: This information about Siddiqui's terrorism ties comes from the Northeast intelligence network.

http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/finance.asp

Muzamil Siddiqi

Muzzamil Siddiqi is former president of the Islamic Society of North America and the director of the Islamic Society of Orange County. As a member of the North American Fiqh Council, he also serves on the Shari'ah Advisory Board of Amana Funds (see below). His profile as the ISNA website says the following:

Dr. Siddiqi received his BA in Islamic & Arabic Studies from the Islamic University of Medina, Saudi Arabia in 1965. He later went on to complete a degree in Comparative Religion at Harvard University in 1978. Currently, Dr. Siddiqui works as an Educator and Religious Director of the Islamic Society of Orange County where he has served since 1981.

Presently, Dr. Siddiqi is serving as a member of the ISNA Majlis Ash-Shura and the Fiqh Council of North America. He has also served as chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee and has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the National American Islamic Trust (NAIT) for the past six years. As a member of the Executive Board of Majlis al-Shura of Southern California, Dr. Siddiqi has organized and participated in several national and international Islamic conferences on Sirah, Fiqh and Da'wah. Because of his devotion to the preservation of Islam in America, he has organized numerous training programs for Muslim adults and youth. He also lectures on Islam and interfaith dialogue in North America and abroad.

Dr. Siddiqi has authored books on Hajj & Umra and Ramadan. He has published many academic papers and articles in encyclopedias and journals as well as his weekly column in Pakistan Link. Since 1982, he has provided Qur'an commentary in a weekly radio program.

Dr. Siddiqi served as the president of ISNA from 1996 - 2000.

Dr. Siddiqi, originally from India, now resides in Fountain Valley California.

FrontPage Magazine, in an article published December 9, 2003, had the following to say about Siddiqi:

In September 2001, when Siddiqi met twice with Mr. Bush, he was president of the Board of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). This Saudi-funded organization is, as will be discussed below, used by the Muslim World League (MWL) to finance and exercise control over most of the mosques in the United States. Siddiqi's ties to Saudi Arabia are even deeper.

Before heading up ISNA, Siddiqi was previously a top figure in the MWL itself, whose American headquarters was raided in March 2002 on suspicion of ties to terrorism during the U.S. government's Operation Green Quest. He has also served as the Chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee of the Muslim Students Association (see below) in the United States and Canada. In addition, he is a member of the Fiqh Council, another raided entity.

Despite these troubling connections to Islamist causes and organizations, someone got the White House to call on Siddiqi to represent the Muslim faith in the inter-religious prayer service for the 9/11 victims that was held at the National Cathedral on September 14, 2001. As syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer noted afterwards, Siddiqi could not bring himself to condemn terrorism in remarks delivered to a worldwide audience, as well as four Presidents and hundreds of dignitaries

Kenneth Timmerman wrote the following about Siddiqi in an article published March 19, 2004, in Insight Magazine:

Siddiqi has accompanied visiting Saudi officials from the Muslim World League on fund-raising tours across America, and is listed on its Website as the organization's official representative in the United States. Offices of the Muslim World League in Herndon, Va., were raided by a federal antiterrorism task force in March 2002 because of suspected ties to al-Qaeda.

During an anti-Israel rally outside the White House on Oct. 28, 2000, Siddiqi openly threatened the United States with violence if it continued its support of Israel. "America has to learn ... if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come. Please, all Americans. Do you remember that? ... If you continue doing injustice, and tolerate injustice, the wrath of God will come." By "injustice," he meant U.S. support for Israel.

Siddiqi also has called for a wider application of sharia law in the United States, and in a 1995 speech praised suicide bombers. "Those who die on the part of justice are alive, and their place is with the Lord, and they receive the highest position, because this is the highest honor," he was quoted as saying by the Kansas City Star on Jan. 28, 1995.

-----------------------------------

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2002-03/22/article20.shtml

MIM: The Figh Council was also raided in connection with operation Greenquest

Other groups that were raided included the FIQH Council of North America, a non-political religious organization which gave a religious ruling in October in support of Muslims joining the U.S. anti-terror effort, the Muslim World League, the International Islamic Relief Organization, and twenty-two other groups, including those mentioned above, some of which shared office space with each other.

------------------------------------

MIM: Muzammil Siddiqui spoke at this Islamic Relief fundraiser. The group has offices in Birmingham UK and Burbank California and according to Michelle Malkin, has received a 50,000 from an Al Qaeda operative in the UK. At the fundraisers Siddiqui equated 9/11 with Muslim deaths due to the war in Iraq and explained that Muslims were the real victims worldwide.

Show of Support for Islamic Relief

at Fundraiser

By Fakhr Ahmad

Buena Park: The Islamic Relief on Saturday night witnessed a great outpouring of support and participation of Muslim community of all shades as it raised a whopping over US $200,000 at the fund-raising dinner held at the Sequoia Conference Center.

The donations from the attendees came in the shape of few dollars to as high as $10,000 pledges, raising the amount to over $100,000 within half-an-hour, while a single unknown southern California businessman pledged to match the $100,000 figure, raising the total amount to over $200,000.

"The amount raised is far greater than our expectations. We are very much pleased to see the confidence of our American Muslim community in us," said Anwar Khan, an international fund raising coordinator of Islamic Relief.

The UK-based, Islamic non-governmental organization (NGO), which began with a donation of just 20 British pence in 1984, has now grown into a gigantic humanitarian setup with offices in the United States, the UK, Europe, Asia and Middle East and with over $9 million operations in Africa, Palestine, India and Kashmir ranging from education, health, water and sanitation, family development projects to emergency projects.

The dinner began with an update on Palestine in a video, followed by a welcome introduction.

After maghrib prayers, Faisal Hamouda, a leading Islamic Relief volunteer from Chicago, delivered the keynote speech. Hamouda spotlighted the importance of charity and how prophet Mohammad (PBUH) helped the needy.

Hamouda was followed by the Chairman of Islamic Society of Orange County, Dr Muzzamil Siddiqui.In his speech, Siddiqui referred to a recent 9/11 ceremony at Ground Zero, where guests of honor narrated the names of each and every 3,024 victims who perished when the Twin Towers crashed down. But Dr. Siddiqui observed that since last year's 9/11 tragedy, more than 10,000 children have died in Iraq, 6,000 were killed in India, thousands died in Kashmir and over 30,000 innocent citizens of Afghanistan were killed during bombardment by US planes. He was saddened that there had been little international sympathy for the victims in the Islamic world.

"Do you remember the bombed wedding party in Afghanistan, where dozens died? Do you remember the name of the groom? Do you remember the name of the bride? Do you know the names of the relatives of the bride? Or do you remember the names of the relatives of the groom? Who will remember them?" asked Dr. Siddiqui.

Siddiqui said a brother should feel the pain of his brother the same way as he feels his own. He reminded the audience of the sufferings of Muslims all over the world.

"Islam is not a parochial religion. We should be caring for the whole humanity and believe in the brotherhood for each other," he said.

Following Siddiqui's speech, a video was shown, projecting Islamic Relief's clinics in Bangladesh, Palestine and Chechnya.

The fund-raising was conducted by Anwar Khan. He narrated how a dying boy and his family in Chechnya anxiously awaited the arrival of a team of Islamic Relief doctors with hope but the team reached him too late.

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