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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > America's Mainstream Web Terrorist - web designer Mazen Mokhtar helps ICNA and Al Qaeda

America's Mainstream Web Terrorist - web designer Mazen Mokhtar helps ICNA and Al Qaeda

October 8, 2008

On April 24, 2007, Egyptian-born Mazen Moein Mokhtar was arrested at his North Brunswick, New Jersey home, charged with failing to file tax returns and filing false tax returns. While the charges, on their face, weren't related to terrorism, Mokhtar's terror-filled past suggested that there was more to the indictment than just taxes.

One of the tax years in question was 2000, where Mokhtar failed to report nearly $90,000 in net income. That year he had received a gross income of over $162,000 through his computer consulting business, Mindcraft. One of the jobs he undertook in 2000 was the creation of a website, minna.com, which corresponded to the name of the group both it and Mindcraft's site were registered under, Minna International Corporation. "Minna" possibly alluded to an individual who resided at the same North Brunswick address as Mokhtar, Meena Shah.

Shortly before and after the September 11th attacks, an English language website, qoqaz.net, a.k.a. Jihad in Chechnya, was raising funds and recruiting fighters for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The site was a project of Azzam Publications, an organization named for Osama bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam. The Arabic companion to the site was qoqaz.com, which exists today as alqoqaz.net. "Qoqaz" connotes Chechnya's Caucasus Mountains, where Al-Qaeda-related mujahideen fighters have warred against Russian military forces.

Because of the nature of the website, qoqaz.net was predisposed with producing "mirror sites" or replicas of itself, so that, in the aftermath of an attack such as 9/11, if one site was shut down by authorities, others would be able to continue to raise funds and recruit fighters for the cause.

Babar Ahmad, the London-based director of qoqaz.net, is currently in custody in England awaiting extradition to the United States to face terrorism charges. According to law enforcement, Ahmad recruited Mokhtar to create these mirror sites, one of which was Mokhtar's minna.com.

Aside from its connection to Al-Qaeda, Mokhtar's Minna site also contained a portal to the Palestinian Information Center, a.k.a. the official website of Hamas, a group that Mokhtar has held many strong feelings for. From 1992 to 1996, on an internet newsgroup forum, Mokhtar spoke openly about his support for the terrorist organization, as well as suicide bombings.

Concerning Hamas, he stated:

• "One of the reasons of my support for Hamas is that they have very high moral standards."
• "I have read the [Hamas] covenant. I support the covenant…"
• "Hamas's path is the only path in the history of the Palestinian struggle against Israel that has produced results, and the results are impressive, I must say."
• "[T]he operations of HAMAS are heroic."
• "In any action of mass self defense, there is the possibility that some innocent people will die... I have enough trust in Hamas to feel that no one is killed before being identified as a collaborator."

About suicide bombings, he said:

• "Yes, [suicide bombing is allowed], assuming that the targets are legitimate (and the suicide bombing is a sacrifice, not a suicide.)"
• "[Blowing yourself up is not considered suicide], because it's an effective method of attacking the enemy and continuing jihad… These are not people committing suicide because they are fed up with life, these are people who are sacrificing their lives for Allah."

Mazen Mokhtar's actions with regard to Al-Qaeda and Hamas are unconscionable, yet mainstream Islamic groups which purport to be against terrorism have openly embraced him.

In August of 2004, Magdy Mahmoud, speaking as President of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ), described Mokhtar to the Washington Post as "a wise man in the community, a humble man."

Mokhtar has spoken at events sponsored by the Muslim Students Association (MSA), Young Muslims (YM), and the Muslim American Society (MAS). Indeed, Mokhtar worked for MAS as the Youth Director for its New Jersey chapter. As well, he has been an imam at the New Brunswick Islamic Center (NBIC), a.k.a. Masjid Al-Huda, and he has been involved with the North American Imams Federation (NAIF).

Now, following his 2007 arrest, he has resurfaced – on a video for Why Islam (WI), an outreach or dawah project run by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). The video, titled ‘Why Islam Introduction,' was released at the end of July and is currently being featured on the homepage of WI's Sacramento, California chapter website. The objective of the video, much like the group that created it, is to bring non-Muslims to radical Islam through deceitful means.

In the video, which also features "unindicted co-conspirator" of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing Siraj Wahhaj [whom Mokhtar's Al-Huda mosque co-sponsored a speech for just three weeks after 9/11], Mokhtar is pictured sitting at a desk, staring at a computer screen. Given Mokhtar's website troubles, it's interesting that WI would choose this scene for him. Of course, just having Mokhtar in the video shows the true face of WI.

In July of 2005, CAIR, MSA, MAS, ICNA and a large list of other American mainstream Muslim organizations and Islamic centers endorsed a religious ruling or fatwa against terrorism. But the document was a lie – a scam meant to fool the American public into believing that these groups truly were and are against terrorism.

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