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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Terror U Part I and II - Florida Atlantic University - Siraj Wahaj and the Muslim Student Organisation's radical Islamist ties

Terror U Part I and II - Florida Atlantic University - Siraj Wahaj and the Muslim Student Organisation's radical Islamist ties

MIM press release urges FAU president Brogan to disallow use of campus facilities for radical Islamist event 1/22/05
January 21, 2005

Militant Islam Monitor Press

Release MIM urges Florida Atlantic University to disallow use of it's premises to unindicted co conspirator in 1993 WTC bombings Siraj Wahaj

1/20/05

MIM is calling on President Frank Brogan of Florida Atlantic University to deny the use of campus facilities to host Siraj Wahaj, an unindicted co conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombings, and an associate of Omar Abdel Rahman , who was jailed for orchestrating the attack. http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/382

The Muslim Student Organisation of FAU, presided over by Asmaa Metwally, is bringing Siraj Wahaj to speak at an event on Sat. January 22, at the Lifelong Learning Center on the university's Boca Raton campus. Last year Metwally attempted to bring neo Nazi William Baker to the FAU campus. http://bocanews2.accrisoft.com/index.php?src=news&prid=8268&category=LOCAL%20NEWS

The event is being co sponsored by the MAS youth group (The Muslim American Society ), an Islamist group which merged with the Islamic Circle of North America, and aims to Islamise the United States . Several affiliates of MAS and ICNA have been linked to terrorism. http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/216

Siraj Wahaj is a board member of the Council of American Islamic Relations(CAIR) which is a Saudi fronted front group for Hamas which was named as a defendant in a 9/11 terror lawsuit. http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/394

Wahaj has repeatedly called for the replacing the US government with an Islamic state and extolled the joys of martyrdom. In a taped speech Wahaj declared: "I see the demise of the Soviet Union as a sign for the American people that what happened in the Soviet Union will definitely happen in America unless America changes its course from the new world order and accepts the Islamic agenda". http://www.freeman.org/m_online/sep96/emerson.htm

Wahaj extolled the joys of martyrdom in this Jihad website entry: "No one who dies and go to Paradise is going to want to come back to this world, except a Martyr, a person who gave their life for Islam, for Allah, they will want to comeback to the earth and die ten more times in the way of Allah, because of the great gifts Allah has given them in Paradise."http://www.geocities.com/minutesage1/jihad.html

Wahaj often writes and speaks on the subject of martyrdom in Islam. Some of his works are entitled: "Are you ready to die ?" "The Blessing of Death ", "The easy way to Paradise - How to get there" .In addition to martryrdom Wahaj is a proponent of polygamy and has produced many tapes on the subject.

Several organisations which Siraj Wahaj is a member of, including CAIR and ISNA have been connected with terrorism funding. At a time when United States is currently waging a war on terror both at home and abroad it is a travesty that FAU university administration is allowing the Muslim Student Organisation to bring an unindicted co conspirator of the 1993 WTC bombings to their campus and use the Lifelong Learning Center auditorium as a venue.

Militant Islam Monitor is urging people to voice their concern to FAU President Brogan that Siraj Wahaj's appearance on campus is a threat to Homeland Security and to appeal to the FAU administration to disallow the use of their facilities and premises for the event . http://islamicbookstore.com/audio-lectures-speeches-single-tapes-imam-siraj-wahaj.html

Please contact FAU president Frank Brogan and voice your concern that Florida Atlantic University is allowing use of its campus as a forum to Siraj Wahaj ,who is an unindicted co conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Florida Atlantic University Office of the President

Administration Bldg., Room # 339 777 Glades Road Boca Raton, FL 33431

Tel: 561-297-3450 Fax: 561-297-2777 [email protected]

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

Text of progam :

FAU MSO Inspirational Youth and Educational Services M.A.S. Youth Group of South Florida Present:

Imam Siraj Wahhaj at FAU-Boca Saturday January 22nd, 2005 6:00pm-10:00pm

*Life Long Learning Auditorium for the Lecture *Live Oak Pavilion for the Dinner Students with FAU ID are free

Public $10 for lecture in advance, (or $25 at the door) Complimentary Dinner & Entertainment

For More Information: MSO FAU Students

Contact Asmaa Metwally @ 772-285-7206

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

MIM: The director of communications at FAU Aileen Izquierdo thanked MIM for the 'message about the scheduled appearence of Siraj Wahaj. It is reassuring to note that "the University is working with the Muslim Student Organisation fot make certain that appropriate security measures are in place for this event" (!)

Thank you for your message about the scheduled appearance of Siraj Wahaj at Florida Atlantic University. Mr. Wahaj was invited to come to FAU by the Muslim Student Organization, which is governed by the same rules that apply to all campus groups that wish to bring speakers to campus. Security must be addressed as a priority issue when the speaker and/or the subject matter are controversial and may provoke a heated response. The University is working with the Muslim Student Organization to make certain that appropriate security measures are in place for this event.

As a public educational institution functioning in the world's most successful democracy, Florida Atlantic University fully understands the importance of freedom of expression. Our democratic way of life stands as a model for the world precisely because the basic rights guaranteed by our Constitution are extended to everyone, regardless of the popularity or unpopularity of ideas an individual may espouse. Abandoning that standard would erode the very foundation of our democracy. Like most universities in the United States, FAU has a policy of non-interference in the selection of guest speakers by campus organizations except, as stated above, to require attention to security concerns. That policy remains in place in the current situation.

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

Terror U.


By Joe Kaufman
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 21, 2005

Prelude

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16714

One year ago, I wrote a piece exposing radical Islam within Florida Atlantic University (FAU). My goal was twofold: [1] to bring awareness concerning a growing problem within FAU [2] to push the university to take action so that this problem ceases to exist. Unfortunately, only the first part of my goal was accomplished, as FAU is continuing to allow radicals on its campus, the latest being this Saturday's (Jan.22, 2005) return engagement of potential co-conspirator to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Siraj Wahhaj.

The Enemy Thrives at FAU

In recent times, a fairly large list of Islamist radicals and/or those that sympathize with the Islamist cause have passed through the university.

This list includes professors that the university had itself hired to teach its students (two of which still teach there).

Professors such as:

  1. Mustafa Abu Sway, who was discovered to have had numerous ties to the terrorist organization HAMAS
  2. Khalid Hamza, who had used a Texas A & M internet forum to defend Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian
  3. Bassem Alhalabi, who was found guilty of exporting a $13,000 thermal imaging device to Syria
  4. Imadeldin "Imad" Mahgoub, who was featured on a panel discussion with HAMAS fundraiser Raed Awad

At least one FAU student, Syed Khawer Ahmad, was found to have played a role in the world of radical Islam. While Ahmad was attending classes at FAU, he was the webmaster of the homepage for the Islamic Society, the Palestinian group that spawned HAMAS.

The final bunch are those that were invited by the FAU Muslim Student Organization (MSO) to speak on campus. This is the same MSO that created two Islamic centers in Boca Raton, one of which houses two "religious leaders" that have been accused of having direct ties to terrorist organizations.

The guest lecturers included:

  1. Rafil Dhafir, the past Vice Chairman of the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), who was convicted of raising money for terrorist organizations through an Iraqi children's charity called Help the Needy
  2. Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan, the Executive Director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who is quoted as having pledged his support for the HAMAS and Hezbollah terrorist groups
  3. Kathy Kelly, the co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, who served time in a federal prison for trespassing onto the Ft. Benning military base in Georgia
  4. William Baker, who has been described by many as a "neo-Nazi" for his hate-filled writings and his involvement in a white-supremacist organization

Siraj Wahhaj

The most disturbing of all of those that have made their way to FAU's campus is yet another guest lecturer that the MSO invited to speak, the Imam of Masjid Al-Taqwa in Brooklyn, Siraj Wahhaj.

Wahhaj is best known for having his name on the list of potential co-conspirators in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, as compiled by the office of then-U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.

During the 1996 trial for the World Trade Center bomb plot, Wahhaj served as a character witness for the leader of the conspiracy, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. He testified that it had been an honor to host Rahman at his (Wahhaj's) mosque, and he described Rahman as a "respected scholar."

In addition, he called another convicted member of the bomb plot, Clement Rodney Hampton-El (a.k.a. Dr. Rashid), "one of the most respected brothers [of his congregation]."

It was around this time that Wahhaj was recorded in a speech he gave at a mosque as saying, "I see the demise of the Soviet Union as a sign for the American people that what happened in the Soviet Union will definitely happen in America unless America changes its course from the new world order and accepts the Islamic agenda."

Other statements Siraj Wahhaj has made include:

  1. About the United States government: "In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam."
  2. About Osama bin Laden's involvement in the September 11th attacks: "I'm just not so sure I want to be one of the ones who say, ‘Yeah, he did it. He's a horrible man.'"
  3. About the stoning of women accused of adultery: "If Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet Muhammad, then you stone them to death, because it's the obedience of Allah and his messenger -- nothing personal."

Wahhaj also speaks about the glories of jihad and martyrdom.

About killing oneself in the cause of Allah, he is quoted, "I once (had) heard the Prophet (PBUH) said, ‘When a Muslim dies as a Martyr, gives his life for the will of Allah, the pain that he suffers is like the bite of an ant.' I said, ‘Isn't this something, you mean I could die for Allah and all I would feel is the pain of an ant.' I said, ‘Yeah this thing is nice.' And you know something, brothers and sisters, I believe what Prophet (PBUH) said, ‘No one who dies and go to Paradise is going to want to come back to this world, except a Martyr, a person who gave their life for Islam, for Allah, they will want to comeback to the earth and die ten more times in the way of Allah, because of the great gifts Allah has given them in Paradise.'"

And he currently has audio tapes on sale affirming such beliefs, including such titles as: ‘Are You Ready To Die?,' ‘The Blessing Of Death!,' and ‘The Easy Way To Paradise – How To Get There.'

And he has tapes on sale extolling the virtues of polygamy, as well.

Wahhaj has served or currently serves on the boards of the following militant Islamist organizations: Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslim Council (AMC), and North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).

In addition, Wahhaj was also a longtime member of the Nation of Islam, the anti-Jewish, anti-white hate group headed by Louis Farrakhan. His name, while with the Nation, was Jeffrey 12X.

Radical Islam Continues at FAU

Wahhaj spoke at FAU, in April of 2003.

Wahhaj is now set to speak once again at FAU, this coming Saturday.

This last bit of information was derived via an e-mail that was sent out by the President of the FAU Muslim Student Organization (MSO), Asmaa Metwally, an individual whose name appears on an endorsement of a 2003 event put on by the rabidly anti-Israel group, the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM).

The e-mail states that the event is to be held in the Life Long Learning Auditorium of FAU. This is the same place where Wahhaj and all the other radicals previously spoke.

The e-mail also states that the event is being co-sponsored by the M.A.S. Youth Group of South Florida. The M.A.S. or Muslim American Society is an Islamist organization that publishes materials calling suicide bombings against Israelis "justifiable."

It's surprising that this event is even taking place. It was under Metwally's leadership that alleged neo-Nazi William Baker was also invited to make a return appearance/speech at FAU. However, the event was later cancelled after community pressure was placed on the school.

Why would FAU allow Wahhaj to speak? Is a potential bombing conspirator somehow better than a neo-Nazi?

Take Action!

FAU must stop this event and any further events like it from occurring. And an investigation must ensue upon the university and its policy of allowing Islamist fanatics to teach, study and give guest lectures there.

And furthermore, an investigation must ensue upon the FAU MSO itself… from its leaders, including Metwally, to its advisor, Rodney W. Desmond, who is a prodigy and past colleague of both Bassem Alhalabi and the previous advisor to the MSO, Khalid Hamza, to Desmond's own prodigy, Hanadi Kassem Saleh, who led an "educational study" entitled ‘University Students in Lebanon, Background and Attitudes,' which repeatedly refers to the Hezbollah terrorist organization as a "political party."

Until then, and only until then, this school will be known as ‘Florida Atlantic Terror University' or short ‘Terror U.'

Joe Kaufman is the Chairman of Americans Against Hate, an Investigative Researcher at The Klayman Law Firm, and the host of the Politics of Terrorism radio show. Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.

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

Siraj Wahaj biographical article reveals his ties to the Nation of Islam-Louis Farakhan,and convicted terrorists including Omar Abdel Rahman.

Excerpts:

"...The blind Sheik Abdel-Rahman, who became a celebrity in certain Islamic circles as he toured the U.S. in the early 1990s, gave a provocative lecture at the mosque. Standing before about 150 congregants, the sheik suggested that Muslims should rob banks to benefit Islam. Imam Wahhaj says he interrupted to point out that there were convicted felons in the audience, and the sheik, laughing, retracted the remark..."

"...The FBI soon figured out that two members of that network had worshipped at Masjid At-Taqwa: Sheik Abdel-Rahman and Mr. Hampton-El. In a Feb. 2, 1995, letter to defense lawyers in the landmarks-bombing case, then-U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named about 170 people as "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators." Imam Wahhaj was on the list, but was never charged. Ms. White declined to comment.

Five months later, the imam appeared as a defense witness in the landmarks-conspiracy trial, held in a packed Manhattan courtroom heavily fortified against possible terror attacks. The imam testified that it had been an honor to host Sheik Abdel-Rahman at Masjid At-Taqwa, and described him as a "respected scholar" known for having memorized the Quran. "He is bold, as a strong preacher of Islam, so he is respected that way," Imam Wahhaj testified..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

One Imam Traces Path of Islam in Black America

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/4820-.html

In the burgeoning world of Islam in America, Imam Siraj Wahhaj is a star. In 1991, he was the first Muslim ever to lead a prayer before the start of a session of the House of Representatives. Four years ago, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hosted him and other Muslim notables at a State Department banquet of lamb, lentils and saffron rice to break the Ramadan fast. One of the country's most popular Muslim preachers, he travels widely, extolling the Quran to large crowds at immigrant Islamic centers, conventions and universities.

But to his followers in Brooklyn's inner-city Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and elsewhere, the imam sometimes shows a different side. He has proclaimed that the "real terrorists" are the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. In another of his sermons, widely available for purchase on audiotape, he says, "In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam."

Few religious leaders of any faith could rival Imam Wahhaj's combination of militant notoriety and mainstream honors -- a mix that says much about the complexity of Islam in the U.S. today. Over the past few decades, two powerful currents have come together in America: the black-separatist movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the training of Muslims, including Imam Wahhaj, in programs financed by Saudi Arabia. Today African-Americans are thought to make up about 30 percent of the fast-growing Muslim population of six to seven million in the U.S. (The higher approximations of the black Muslim population would make it about 5.6 percent of the 36 million blacks in the U.S.)

Islam is gradually becoming a significant part of the nation's diverse social fabric. But since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it has become clear that a hard-edged and intolerant form of the religion has taken root here. As African-Americans embrace Islam in growing numbers, many are moving toward a more orthodox version influenced, in part, by Saudi Arabia's puritanical brand of Sunni Islam. These foreign ideas have combined with homegrown black experience to form a mindset that condemns alcohol and drugs and hails self-sufficiency -- but one that sometimes also stresses an unsettling hostility to American government and secular society.

Imam Wahhaj's journey from Brooklyn's public-housing projects, where he was raised a Baptist, to his position as one of the nation's most prominent Islamic clerics, mirrors the spiritual passages of many African-American Muslims. Their movement's beginnings can be traced to the stirrings of black nationalism in the early part of the 20th century, and before that all the way back to the 1600s, when Muslim slaves were imported to this continent from Africa. Throughout the generations, the black Islamic odyssey has a common theme: a search for an autonomous African-American identity in an often-hostile white society. For many black Muslims, conversion opens "the road back to virtues obscured by the forces of subjugation and injustice," writes Robert Dannin, an urban anthropologist at New York University, in his 2002 book, "Black Pilgrimage to Islam."

Imam Wahhaj wears a full beard, tending toward white, and the sort of loose-fitting tunic-and-trouser ensemble popular in Pakistan and India. Commanding as a lecturer, he mixes Baptist cadences with plaintive Arabic chanting. In private, he has a scholar's gentle demeanor and often carries thick religious texts under his arm. In sermons, he often denounces terrorism and encourages law-abiding behavior.

But he also praises Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric who visited the imam's mosque several years before he was was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to bomb New York City landmarks. While decrying the events of Sept. 11, the imam takes great pains to remain neutral about Osama bin Laden. He says the al Qaeda leader's videotaped boasting about the attacks may have been a media ruse: "I'm just not so sure I want to be one of the ones who say, 'Yeah, he did it. He's a horrible man.' "

He has told his followers that a society governed by strict Islamic law, in which adulterers would be stoned to death and thieves would have their hands cut off, would be superior to American democracy. Speaking of unnamed forces in the U.S. government and media, he has preached, "These people want the destruction of Islam."

With heightened concern about Islamic radicalism in the U.S., Imam Wahhaj has become a target of critics ranging from liberal Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, to conservative activist Daniel Pipes. Mr. Pipes wrote last year in his book "Militant Islam Reaches America" that the imam represents Muslims who "both despise the United States and ultimately wish to transform it into a Muslim country."

Others have praised Imam Wahhaj's involvement in his community. An array of framed civic commendations, including one from a black police organization, hang on the wall behind his desk. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz proclaimed this Aug. 15 "Siraj Wahhaj Day," in honor of his "lifetime of outstanding and meaningful achievement."

Imam Wahhaj was born Jeffrey Kearse and raised by his mother, who was a nurse, and his stepfather, a hospital dietitian. When he was 12 years old, he won an award for perfect attendance at his church and went on as a teenager to teach Sunday school. He was a talented artist, and regularly painted portraits of visitors to his family's Brooklyn home.

As a boy, he learned about discrimination from books, not experience. "We were kind of isolated from it," Imam Wahhaj says. "We lived in Brooklyn among African-Americans." To him, Martin Luther King's campaign for nonviolent change embodied the Christian ideal.

On April 4, 1968, 18-year-old Jeffrey Kearse was playing basketball at a recreation center near his home when word spread that Dr. King had been assassinated. "He was my hero. I went home crying," the cleric says. "When Martin Luther King was killed, that killed the dream." Afterward, he says, he went "looking for more militancy."

As he saw it, his options were to become a Black Panther or join the , a defiant black religious sect that had adopted some Muslim beliefs. He considered both as he enrolled at New York University on a partial scholarship and joined the basketball team. The team captain, Jerry 10X, belonged to the Nation of Islam and invited him to one of the sect's temples.

Mr. Kearse was particularly drawn to Malcolm X, who had broken with the Nation of Islam before his assassination in 1965. "Malcolm was bodacious," the imam says. "He was bold, courageous: 'Look at him, talking to the white man like that!' That's appealing to the African-American, when usually the African-Americans are bowing to the white man." In 1969, he joined the Nation and changed his name to Jeffrey 12X, because he was the twelfth Jeffrey in New York to become a member.

Like many black Muslims, Imam Wahhaj refers to his conversion as a "reversion" to Islam. Centuries ago, thousands of African slaves were pulled from tribes practicing varying forms of Islam and shipped to North and South America. Although their faith was submerged in slave-owners' Christianity, some elements remained. After emancipation, Islamic motifs surfaced in the rituals of black fraternal lodges and storefront religious organizations that rejected Christianity because of its association with slavery.

Founded in 1913 in Newark, N.J., the Moorish Science Temple of America adopted the Islamic crescent and star as one of its symbols. Members attached Arabic suffixes, such as "-El," to their names and greeted each other by saying "Islam." Founder Noble Drew Ali called for a return to Islam as a means of deliverance from racial oppression.

The Nation of Islam emerged two decades later in Detroit, attracting black migrants from the South. Its self-proclaimed messenger of God, Elijah Muhammad, taught his followers that whites were devils and that Christianity had helped enslave blacks. He urged them to seek economic independence and help rehabilitate drug addicts and criminals.

This message resonated with Jeffrey 12X, and he quit NYU to participate in the Nation's door-to-door businesses, selling fresh fish, bean pies and the newspaper Muhammad Speaks. "It wasn't the theology that attracted me to the Nation of Islam at all," Imam Wahhaj says. "It was the kind of do-for-self black pride." Still, he took religious classes from Louis Farrakhan, the controversial minister who was then supervisor of the Nation's New York operations, and rose quickly to become a minister himself, running Temple 7C in Brooklyn.

It was an article of faith among Elijah Muhammad's followers that he would live for generations to come. When he died in 1975 at age 77, "his teachings began to unravel in my mind," Imam Wahhaj says. He and thousands of other Nation of Islam members began to study the Quran. With the encouragement of Elijah Muhammad's son W.D. Muhammad, they spent the late 1970s groping their way toward the kind of orthodox Sunni Islam followed by most of the rest of the Muslim world.

That coincided with the move by Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's holiest sites, to step up its world-wide campaign to spread the harsh version of Sunni Islam favored by its rulers. Mounting oil profits in the 1970s fueled the expanded Saudi proselytizing, which escalated further in the 1980s in response to the perceived threat to Sunni domination from the Shiite Islamic revolution in Iran. Saudi-funded Islamic teachers began arriving in the U.S. just as black Muslims began exploring their faith.

Jeffrey 12X changed his name to Siraj Wahhaj, which means "bright light" in Arabic, and stopped painting portraits, in deference to the orthodox Muslim prohibition on depicting human images. In 1978, he traveled to Naperville, Ill., for religious training sponsored by the Saudis. His class of 50 African-American Muslims received 40 days of intense instruction on the Quran and the teachings of the original Prophet Muhammad.

Imam Wahhaj and four others from the program were chosen to travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for four months of advanced training in Islamic religion and law and Arabic. Awaking each morning before dawn, he walked to the mosque under a star-filled desert sky. He says he felt "absolute awe. ... I was on a spiritual high for four months." The first to arrive at class after prayers, he sat in the front row and taped every lecture.

He started his own mosque in 1981 in a friend's Brooklyn apartment. They moved the furniture from the living room to the bedroom so that 25 people could pray toward Mecca. Soon afterward, the congregation, known as Masjid At-Taqwa, bought an abandoned clothing store at a city auction for $30,000 and converted it into a mosque. The congregants had to chase away the junkies who were using the property.

Fighting drugs became one of the missions of Taqwa, which means "God consciousness" in Arabic. In January 1987, the imam led a group of his followers to oust crack-cocaine dealers squatting in a nearby building. The Taqwa group banged on the door, and Imam Wahhaj says he announced, "It's the Muslims. We're here to recover the property." Behind the door, he could hear someone say, "It's the Muslims. Don't do anything stupid."

The dealers promised to vacate, and the Muslims retreated to a car parked outside to wait. But instead of leaving, the drug dealers called the police, according to the imam. He and four of his followers were arrested on weapons-possession charges. A state court later dismissed the sole misdemeanor count of illegal possession of a knife filed against the imam.

About a year later, he led a series of well-publicized antidrug patrols that helped police put a dent in the crack trade in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The imam also maintains close relations with non-Muslim groups that protest police brutality. "He's very effective, particularly within the Muslim community and very respected in the community at large," says one activist, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, of Brooklyn's Pentecostal House of the Lord Church.

Masjid At-Taqwa occupies a large corner storefront, divided into spacious, windowless rooms painted green and beige. At well-attended Friday afternoon prayers congregants wearing do-rag stocking caps and Sean John sweatshirts mingle with those who wear finely embroidered Muslim caps and flowing robes of crimson and gold. About half are African-Americans. The others are immigrants from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Worshipers range from poor Brooklynites to the occasional celebrity, such as boxer Mike Tyson.

Also attending, according to the imam, is the occasional U.S. government spy seeking incriminating evidence against him. In the mid-1980s, a man he believes was a government agent offered to help the mosque obtain hand grenades. The imam says he sent him away.

Since the mosque's arrival 20 years ago, Islam has come to dominate the immediate neighborhood. Nearby are more than a dozen Muslim restaurants, food stores and bookshops, most run by immigrants. On the sidewalk, vendors sell body oils, incense and audiotapes of Imam Wahhaj's sermons.

The mosque operates on an annual budget of about $200,000, the imam says, raised from weekly donations by individuals, rent from its six commercial properties and occasional checks from predominantly immigrant organizations.

His own $44,000 salary comes out of that budget and sometimes is supplemented by honoraria of $1,000 or $2,000 for giving speeches, he says. He lives with his wife, Wadiyah, a legal secretary, in part of a three-family house in East Flatbush, a mostly African-American neighborhood. His eight children, some from a previous marriage, range in age from 12 to 32, and all but two daughters are observant Muslims.

Within the confines of his mosque, the imam preaches Islam as a faith of personal responsibility but one that is sometimes at odds with mainstream life in the U.S. He glorifies hard work, even if it means sweeping the streets, and exhorts the stream of black men who adopt Islam while behind bars to avoid crime, liquor and drugs. But his preaching also suggests a yearning for the religion as it was practiced centuries ago.

He has said of thieves and adulterers: "If Allah says 100 strikes, 100 strikes it is. If Allah says cut off their hand, you cut off their hand. If Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet Muhammad, then you stone them to death, because it's the obedience of Allah and his messenger -- nothing personal."

And to an audience of 75 mostly black women wearing Muslim head coverings at an Islamic conference in Orlando, Fla., he lectured recently that Islam condones a man's marrying up to four wives. He stressed that when this rule was introduced in the seventh century, it served as a restriction on arrangements involving even more wives per husband.

Mr. Wahhaj's views are well known in the Muslim community because he has a busy speaking calendar, and tapes of his sermons are readily available in Muslim stores, at Islamic conferences and on the Internet. Many of his beliefs -- such as his deep antipathy toward the U.S. authorities -- are echoed by other black Muslim clerics. "We don't trust the American government and the way that it does things and sets people up," says Al-Hajj Talib 'Abdur-Rashid, the imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, a large congregation in Harlem. Imam 'Abdur-Rashid points to slavery, generations of segregation and government investigations of Dr. King and other black heroes as the cause of the widespread skepticism.

Stephen Schwartz, author of "The Two Faces of Islam," a book published last year, blames Imam Wahhaj for spreading an extreme form of the religion known as Wahhabism. Embraced by the forebears of the current Saudi royal family, Wahhabism was named for Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, the leader of an 18th-century movement to re-create the religion of the 600s, as practiced by the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. Strict Wahhabis despise Western cultural and religious influences. Osama bin Laden and his followers adhere to a strain of this ideology.

"People like Wahhaj went from Nation of Islam to Saudi Wahhabism, and they preach those extreme views to their followers," says Mr. Schwartz, who says he himself has embraced a moderate version of Islam. "Wahhabism is hostile to all 'nonbelievers,' to secular society, certainly to American society, and it can fit with black radical thought."

In an interview in his tiny mosque office, Imam Wahhaj says that he isn't a Wahhabi and that the Saudi-funded programs he attended years ago were "definitely not what you would call Wahhabism." American Muslims, he says, "have never looked to Saudi Arabia for guidance, especially African-Americans."

He says he regrets the tone of some of his harshest comments about democracy. His anticipation of its collapse, he says, "is similar to a Christian saying eventually God's kingdom is going to come." He notes that "obviously, in the American context, we can't cut off the hands of thieves." He says that he hopes Americans one day will be persuaded -- not coerced -- to embrace Islamic law.

Still, over the years, Imam Wahhaj has welcomed some significant players on the militant Muslim scene into his Brooklyn mosque. Clement Hampton-El, an African-American Muslim who in the 1980s fought with the Muslim resistance against the Russians in Afghanistan, regularly worshipped at At-Taqwa upon his return to the U.S. He was sought out by young and old for his advice as an "elder in the community," says Imam Wahhaj.

The blind Sheik Abdel-Rahman, who became a celebrity in certain Islamic circles as he toured the U.S. in the early 1990s, gave a provocative lecture at the mosque. Standing before about 150 congregants, the sheik suggested that Muslims should rob banks to benefit Islam. Imam Wahhaj says he interrupted to point out that there were convicted felons in the audience, and the sheik, laughing, retracted the remark.

Imam Wahhaj's worlds collided when the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993. The FBI investigation of the bombing led to charges not only against the bombers but also a network of anti-American Muslims who planned to destroy the United Nations' headquarters, the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel and other New York-area landmarks.

The FBI soon figured out that two members of that network had worshipped at Masjid At-Taqwa: Sheik Abdel-Rahman and Mr. Hampton-El. In a Feb. 2, 1995, letter to defense lawyers in the landmarks-bombing case, then-U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named about 170 people as "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators." Imam Wahhaj was on the list, but was never charged. Ms. White declined to comment.

Five months later, the imam appeared as a defense witness in the landmarks-conspiracy trial, held in a packed Manhattan courtroom heavily fortified against possible terror attacks. The imam testified that it had been an honor to host Sheik Abdel-Rahman at Masjid At-Taqwa, and described him as a "respected scholar" known for having memorized the Quran. "He is bold, as a strong preacher of Islam, so he is respected that way," Imam Wahhaj testified.

The imam called Mr. Hampton-El "one of the most respected brothers" in his congregation. He also testified that he had met a third defendant, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, and that he had a favorable impression of a fourth, Ibrahim El-Gabrowny. All four were convicted and sentenced to prison terms.

In March 2001, the imam returned to the same court to testify as a religious expert at the trial of four Muslim extremists convicted in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa. He testified that holy war could never justify such bombings.

In July of this year, the New York Daily News in an editorial described Imam Wahhaj as "an unindicted co-conspirator linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing." The imam appeared to relish responding to the attack. "I had dinner with Secretary of State Albright -- after the list" of unindicted co-conspirators was circulated, he thundered in a sermon shortly after the editorial. "They know it's bogus!" Ms. Albright declined to comment through a spokeswoman.

The government has never offered evidence linking him to any terrorism, the imam said. "How am I linked? Tell me?" he bellowed, as members of his congregation nodded in agreement. "They have to get me like they got Malcolm (X), like they got Martin Luther King, like they got everybody else -- that's what they do!"

He would welcome the chance, he told his followers, to give his life to serve Islam. "If they kill me," he said, "don't be crying."



Some major events in the history of African-American Islam:

Early 1900s: Islam begins to emerge as an alternative to Christianity among African-Americans, some of whom are descended from Muslim slaves forced to abandon the faith.

1913: The Moorish Science Temple is founded in Newark, N.J., and promotes Islamic beliefs along with black nationalism.

1931: In Detroit, Wallace D. Fard starts the movement that would be known as the Nation of Islam, or the Black Muslims. His successor, Elijah Muhammad, expands the organization, stressing the evil of white people and the need for black self-sufficiency.

1960s: Black adoption of Islam accelerates in Northern cities, as a divide develops between Nation of Islam members and African-Americans practicing more orthodox Sunni Islam.

1965: Malcolm X, who had become the Nation of Islam's most prominent spokesman before breaking with the group to embrace Sunni Islam, is assassinated in New York.

1975: Elijah Muhammad dies, and his son W. D. Muhammad leads thousands of Nation of Islam members toward more orthodox Islamic beliefs. Louis Farrakhan leads another group, which retains the Nation of Islam name and gains considerable media attention in the 1980s and early 1990s.

1991: Imam Siraj Wahhaj becomes the first Muslim to give the opening prayer at a session of the House of Representatives.

1993: The investigation of the first bombing of the World Trade Center reveals that two men ultimately convicted in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up New York landmarks had worshipped at Imam Wahhaj's Masjid At-Taqwa.

1995: Imam Wahhaj provides supportive testimony for Omar Abdel-Rahman, the "blind sheik," who is later sentenced to life in prison for inspiring the landmarks bombing plot.

1999: Imam Wahhaj, invited as an official guest, attends a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner at the U.S. State Department.

2001: The imam provides testimony helpful to the prosecution in the trial of four terrorists convicted for their role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa.

2003: African-American Muslims are estimated at two million out of a total of about seven million Muslims in the U.S.

Florida Atlantic Terror University
By Joe Kaufman
FrontPageMagazine.com | February 19, 2004

Introduction

http://wwww.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12246

In the summer of 2002, a flyer vilifying Jews and Christians and threatening "confrontation and conflict" was circulated around the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) campus. It stated: "When we Arab-Muslim students came to America for study, we had no idea that we would be forced to mingle with Jew students and take instruction from Jew teachers. This is offensive to us since it is well known that the Jews are the most corrupt and violent people on Earth."

The flyer, which was put out by a group calling itself the Islamic-Arab Students Defense Committee, went on to list a series of demands addressed to the FAU administration:

"Separate Jew students from Muslim students. Jews should be taught only by Jew professors and instructors. Muslim students should not be forced to take education from Jews."

"Require Jew students to wear some sort of identification so Muslim students can avoid them socially. Indicate Jew professors in the university course listings."

"Remove Jew names from college buildings, such as the Friedberg Center."

"Refuse to accept donations from Jew sources for scholarships, programs, buildings, etc."

"Cease Jew-Zionist and Christian activities in the Breezeway, such as the Hillel desk, the Rabbi and the ministries. It is offensive to Muslims to be solicited by other faiths."

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which looked into the matter, deemed the flyer a "hoax," as no one admitted to having any knowledge of the offending group. [What's amusing (and foreboding) is that the ADL web page that discusses the matter, instead of being titled "Flier," was accidentally titled "lier Found at Florida Atlantic University a Hoax."]

According to the ADL, representatives of the FAU Muslim Student Organization (MSO) "strongly condemned the flyer and distanced themselves from its message" and said that "the message [ran] counter to everything the group [had] worked toward." But did it?

Part 1: Florida Atlantic Islamic Jihad

The website of the Muslim Student Organization (MSO) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is, at the moment, barren. All that's left is one line on the bottom of the page paying tribute to a past when the school could get away with overlooking that which threatens us all. The line reads, "founded by Drs Hamza & Alhalabi as a window to an innovative world of possibilities and imagination." But this window is now shattered with shards of glass that cut into the hearts of everyone that has ever suffered the effects of terrorism.

Mohammad Khalid Hamza and Bassem Abdo Alhalabi, while being the founders of FAU's MSO, also co-founded (through the MSO) the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR). Numerous reports have since come out exposing the ICBR's connection to extremism and hate, including having a website that featured links to terrorist charities and an essay that stated Jews "are known for their treachery and corruption throughout the world"… words eerily similar to the FAU hate flyer that stated "Jews are the most corrupt and violent people on Earth." (see above)

The radical connections of the ICBR have not skipped over either Hamza, Alhalabi or the MSO.

Recently, Khalid Hamza was one of the main speakers at the Texas Dawah Annual Conference, an event featuring "addresses broadcast from Riyadh by clerics who have praised holy war and Osama bin Laden."

Khalid Hamza used a Texas A & M University internet forum to defend Sami Al Arian. Al-Arian was taken into custody by the United States government for his role as the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, was found to have aided in the murder of Americans, and has in the past screamed "Death to Israel."

Hamza wrote (complete with anti-Jewish imagery), "[sic] technology advances were used but they weren't the reason behind the poisoning of people's minds, it is the power behind the media, the power that controls the american media and had been controlling it since early 1900s. for example, what happened to Dr. Sami Alaryan just recently… is unheard of in the 3rd world, but it can only happen now in US and only to the ones who do not belong to the power line."

Hamza was the author of a novel entitled The Veil, which was being heavily promoted on the FAU MSO website. The book is about a Muslim family living in Boca Raton. The first member of the family, as listed in the forward, is fittingly named Jihad.

Prior to being denied tenure from FAU for "misstating his qualifications on his resume and behaving unprofessionally in the classroom," Hamza was an advisor to the MSO. He took over for FAU Professor Imadeldin "Imad" Mahgoub, who served from '93 till ‘99.

Mahgoub, the President of Boca's Assalam Center, was featured on a panel discussion with Alhalabi and Raed Awad, the former fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, a Hamas charity that was closed down by the United States government. Awad is also said to be the imam responsible for dirty bomber Jose Padilla's conversion to Islam. The video of this panel event is found at FAU.

Under Khalid Hamza's "leadership and guidance," the group brought numerous radicals to speak at the university. This normally happened under the guise of an annual event called "Scholars' Night," which was originally founded by Hamza, in his words, "to help our community of learners to come together to better the world they live in."

On April 21, 2001, the MSO had its second annual Scholars' Night, an affair the MSO touted as featuring "several scholars, heroes and heroines." Of this event, Hamza declared, "Let us build in solidarity a world of peace and harmony; a world of humanity!"

One of the speakers representing that "peace, harmony and humanity" was the Vice Chairman of the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA) Rafil Dhafir, a man that now sits behind bars for raising money for terrorist organizations in the guise of an Iraqi children's charity called ‘Help the Needy.' [On November 16, 2002, Dhafir was also a featured speaker at a fundraiser for the ICBR.] He is quoted as saying, "The United States and England are vicious in their war with Iraq."

In a lecture entitled ‘Dealing with Non-Muslims,' Dhafir unequivocally states that "Muslims must not befriend Jews and Christians." In addition, Dhafir has said, "Islam has permitted female circumcision… and none has the right to forbid that what Allah, the Creator, has permitted." He claimed that those that call female circumcision "a form of genital mutilation" are practicing "misinformation."

Also speaking at this event was Kathy Kelly, the co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, an anti-war organization that fervently denounces the U.S. government, while cavorting with the enemy (including those that America has imprisoned). She describes the war on Iraq as "unjust, illegal, and immoral." Kelly is, herself, currently serving a three-month term in federal prison for trespassing onto the Ft. Benning military base in Georgia.

The contact for this event was David "Da'ud" Johnson, who at the time was the President of the FAU MSO. According to the FAU website, Johnson and Alvira Khan, the registrant and technical contact for the MSO website, make up the two highest ranking offices of the Boca Raton student government. Johnson as the Boca Raton Campus Senate Speaker, and Kahn as the Boca Raton Campus Governor.

Khan caused "outrage" on the campus, when she used her position -- with the help of her Chief of Staff Farid Hamidzadeh -- to appoint her political friends to university positions. This included the position of associate director of the campus trained escort service, which accompanies students around campus late at night. This action took away prior input into the position from the police department.

The MSO's fourth annual Scholars' Night was held on April 21, 2003. Khalid Hamza was listed as the contact for the event, and he acted as moderator for it.

One of the "scholars" was Siraj Wahhaj, a man named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Wahhaj, who is the Imam of Masjid Al-Taqwa in Brookyn and an advisory board member for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), testified as a character witness for convicted terror mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Wahhaj has been called "the ‘spiritual leader' of the Islamist Sudanese in America." (Yossef Bodansky, TERROR! The Inside Story of the Terrorist Conspiracy in America, 1994)

The next "scholar" was William Baker. Described by many as a neo-Nazi, Baker was the past Chairman of the racist and antisemitic organization, the Populist Party.

As Jonathan Calt Harris, in his October 2003 expose in Frontpage Magazine, explains it: "Baker has a long record of anti-Semitism; for example, his self-published 1982 diatribe, ‘Theft of a Nation,' called for the dismantling of the ‘Zionist State.' In a 1983 speech to the racist Christian Patriot Defense League in Missouri, Baker referred to the Reverend Jerry Falwell as ‘Jerry Jewry' (for his friendliness to Jews), and his disgust at traveling to New York City, getting off the plane to meet, ‘pushy, belligerent American Jews.'"

Another speaker was Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan, the Executive Director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. As a Board Member of the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Khankan renounced his group's support for then Senatorial Candidate Hillary Clinton, after she refused to accept the endorsement, and sent out a press release calling her opponent, Congressman Rick Lazio, a "racist" and "bigot."

Khankan has declared that "‘Jihad' is known in the West as waging holy war, which is utter nonsense." Yet, at an anti-war rally held in Washington, D.C., where a previous speaker "called for the overthrow of the U.S. government," Khankan addressed the protesters by stating, "I bring you salaams and greetings from the Mujahadeen at CAIR." In Yossef Bodansky's book, BIN LADEN: THE MAN WHO DECLARED WAR ON AMERICA, Mujahadeen is defined as "Those who wage the jihad; Islam's holy warriors." At another anti-war rally, Khankan was a featured speaker along with Sami Al Arian.

On numerous occasions, Khankan has refused to acknowledge that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the attacks on 9/11. And on a live chat hosted by ABC News, when asked the question, "What happened that these terrorists hate us so much?" Khankan answered that it was the United States' own fault. He stated, "I believe that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Look at what our government has done overseas to other countries."

In the November 15, 2001 edition of The Advocate, Ghazi Khankan stated the following: "We don't support Hamas and Hezbollah just to support them. I look at the issues. The reason there is a Hamas and a Hezbollah is that the Israelis have terrorized the poor Palestinian people for the last 53 years." When discussing possible Hamas targets, Khankan is quoted as saying, "Those who are below 18 should not be attacked."

Through CAIR, Khankan helped set up the Emergency Family Fund to raise finances, including legal funds, for families of possible terrorist detainees, whom the United States has taken into custody. This was done in association with other groups, including the Islamic Circle of North American (ICNA), which "openly supports militant Islamic fundamentalist organizations, praises terrorist attacks, issues incendiary attacks on Western values and policies, and supports the imposition of the shar'ia." (Steven Emerson, American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, 2002)

The Scholars' Night events took place right inside the university, in the Barry and Florence Friedberg Lifelong Learning Center Auditorium on FAU's Boca Raton campus. [Interesting that the only building mentioned in the FAU hate flyer is the Friedberg Center.]

Bassem Alhalabi, the other co-founder of the MSO, was charged with exporting a $13,000 thermal imaging camera to Syria. The Department of Commerce (DOC) restricts the export of the camera to foreign countries. The device is used to produce heat-sensitive images of buildings, landscapes and ground areas. According to the DOC report, "thermal imaging cameras are controlled for export to Syria for national security, regional stability, and anti-terrorism reasons." Alhalabi claimed his brother wanted it, so that he could search for gold. The sentence he received was a one-year denial of export privileges.

Alhalabi was a colleague of Sami Al Arian's at the University of South Florida, and according to his resume, wrote various publications with Al Arian around the time that Al Arian was beginning to set the groundwork for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in America. Alhalabi gave Al Arian as a reference, when he sought employment at FAU.

Another person that Bassem Alhalabi wrote publications with is Hussam Jubara. Along with Al Arian, Jubara co-founded the ICP (Islamic Committee for Palestine a.k.a. Islamic Concern Project), a think tank that solicited funds for the express purpose of assisting families of suicide bombers. Alhalabi admits to having worked for Jubara and states that he is a "close friend." Jubara was indicted by a federal grand jury on three counts of lying on immigration forms.

FAU's connection to the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad should raise suspicions. The school's relationship to Hamas should raise hell.

Part 2: Florida Atlantic Hamas

The year was 1998. A charity was set up, through the Florida Department of Corporations, using the designation Health Resource Center for Palestine (HRCP). The corporation transmittal letter was written in the name of Lamyaa M. Hashim, a well-traveled poet, journalist and all-around Islam activist who was to be the Chairman of the group. On January 14, 1999, the letter was amended as "Health Resource Center for Palestine, Inc. C/O SYED AHMAD."

Syed Khawer Ahmad, prior to getting involved with the HRCP, was taking courses at FAU. He was so proud of this fact that he created (and preserved) a web page on his personal website dedicated to his school. The link to the page (www.gate.net/~sahmad/fau.htm) states, "Visit FAU – Yep, My School in South Florida." But that wasn't the only page he made for his site.

Another page he created was devoted to the Islamic Society (Al Jamiya Al Islamiya) a.k.a. Islamic Association, the largest charitable foundation in the Gaza Strip. Ahmad's page (www.gate.net/~sahmad/islamic_association.htm) was, at the time, the official website to the organization.

The content on the page, at first glance, looks very amiable, if not commendable. It discusses a summer youth camp run by the foundation that includes "Educational activity, Sports, Arts, Fun & Entertainment, Scout & Civil [sic] defence, Field trips and even Marine trips…" And it gives details about Islamic Society orphan sponsorship and kindergartens.

There are messages on the page from the Director of the Islamic Society, Ahmad Bahar. He states that the goal of the camp "is to prepare an intellectual future generation," and the kindergartens "open for the child horizons of [sic] bright and flourishing future."

The page contains things that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, warm enough to make the donations they're asking for ("We greatly appreciate your cooperation and generosity.") Then you lift the veil and find out what evil lies behind!

In the beginning of 2001, the Islamic Society created two new websites, one for its main headquarters in Gaza City (www.jislamia.org), which replaced Syed Ahmad's site, and one for its Nusirat location (www.islam-society.org).

On the main site, before it was shut down in June of 2002 [the Nusirat site is still up at its new location www.islamso.org], it contained on its homepage a picture of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Yassin founded the Islamic Society in 1976. That's eleven years before he founded the Hamas terror organization, to which he is currently the spiritual leader.

In a letter of request for funds, written by Yassin and found on the site, Yassin states [cleaned up English], "Islamic society in Gaza strip is a radical benevolent society," and it serves Palestinians in many fields, including "care of martyrs' families." He ends the letter by stating, "Allah is the greatest, so we in Jihad (holy war), Rebat (strength through fear) request from all sincere Moslems -- in and out of Palestine -- and all brothers in Islamic Ideology to help and support their brothers in Islamic society, in order to help and support our patient people in this crisis." And he signs it, "Your Brother Al sheekh / Ahmad Yasein Established The Islamic Organizational Resistance / HMAS Palestine."

The current head of the Islamic Society is, as stated previously, Ahmad Bahar. Bahar is also a leader in Hamas. It is not surprising then to find out that he, "along with masked armed men affiliated with the Qassam Brigades," the military wing of Hamas, "took part in the funeral procession of Reem Saleh Al-Rayashi who blew herself up at the Erez crossing to the north of Gaza Strip," killing four and wounding ten others. The camps and kindergartens that Bahar runs are, in reality, training grounds for future suicide bombers.

On the Islamic Society website, one finds various pictures of disturbing images taken from their 2001 kindergarten graduation ceremony. They include children dressed in military fatigues brandishing and aiming rifles and burning Israeli flags. One picture is of a child made to resemble Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, while reciting a speech made by the terrorist leader. And another is of a girl raising her red ink stained hands, "in imitation of the terrorist murderer who raised his bloodstained hands after the lynch of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers in Ramallah."

At the graduation, the children acted out a series of plays, one of which had the children pledge their "duty to revenge the blood of the shahids (martyrs) and to continue the resistance and the Intifada."

The ceremony ended with a speech made by Bahar. In the speech, he praised suicide bombers, including Mahmud Marmash, a member of Hamas who blew himself up in the Sharon Mall in Netanya, killing five and wounding 74. In Bahar's words, Marmash "blew up the conquerors in Netanya."

On the Islamic Society website, you will find a link to what was then the official website of Hamas (www.palestine-info.org). You will find a photo (in the site's "Sport" section) of a soccer team posing for a team picture, holding a painting of a martyr. You will find how much money it takes for the Islamic Society to carry out "goat sacrifices." And you will find a summary of the foundation's activities, which include:

"Distributing about $60,000 to injury and martyrs families and some food boxes"

"Making fast breaking meals for martyrs families"

"Making Respecting party for martyrs families in beach camp… and other areas in Gaza… every martyrs family was given $1000 and gave some prizes as martyrs picture"

In February of 2002, Syed Ahmad removed two pages from his website. One was the Islamic Society page noted previously and one was the homepage for a non-profit organization established by the Islamic Society called Dar-ul-Qur'an Al-Karim (www.gate.net/~sahmad/daralquran/).

However, one page Ahmad did not remove was the homepage for the Sanabel Asthma-Allergy Society a.k.a. Sanabel Charitable Society (www.gate.net/~sahmad/sanabel.htm). According to the page, Sanabel was established in 1992 as "the first and only allergy-asthma society in Gaza."

Listed on the page as the "Representative in the USA" is Lamyaa Hashim, the Chairman of the Health Resource Center for Palestine (HRCP), and the center's name, address and e-mail is given as the "USA contact" for the Gaza charity.

In a report published in October 2003, the HRCP is said to have closed down due to its ties to the terrorist organization Hamas, which probably includes the HRCP's past affiliation with the Hamas front Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP). The HRCP website, which has in the past admitted to raising money for "shuhada" (martyrs), states that it was closed down for "unforeseen reasons."

Of course, none of this would matter much to someone who was creating Hamas related websites. While Syed Ahmad was with the HRCP, he took on many tasks, including that of Secretary, Treasurer and Webmaster. In May of 2002, Ahmad gave up his jobs as Secretary and Treasurer to Karina "K.A." Rahim, who also was a student at FAU.

On October 14, 2000, Rahim found herself at a rally in Miami where Israeli flags were burned and where "pro-jihadi slogans" were chanted, "such as ‘We don't want negotiation, with jihad we'll claim our nation,' and ‘With jihad we'll claim our land, Zionist blood will wet the sand.'"

In addition, the Imam of the ICBR, Ibrahim Dremali, told the crowd "not to be sad for those who were martyred and to not be afraid to die for what they believe in." Rahim, herself, had what to say at the rally. She stated, "I think what the Israeli Jews are doing is a crime against humanity. They [the Israelis] need to get out of that land [Palestine]."

This information is found in an article written for www.islamonline.net, a site that "publishes religious/legal opinions in support of suicide bombings" and a site that has sponsored a live internet chat with Hamas leader Ahmad Yassin. After negative press, some of the material found in the article was deleted. The piece was written by Lamyaa Hashim (under her alter ego "Um Ahmad").

Syed Ahmad was a Director for the HRCP, up until the charity's dissolution on April 18, 2003. And Syed Ahmad was also a Director for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, from its inception in 1998 till April 30, 2002.

Question: What has come of Syed Ahmad, following his departure from the HRCP and ICBR?

Soon all was quiet at FAU. Talk about Professors Hamza and Alhalabi (see Florida Atlantic Terror University Part 1) had died down, and Syed Ahmad was little more than an afterthought. But something happened to change all that.

On October 3, 2003, Matty Cohen, the Deputy Consul General of Israel stationed in Miami, sent out a letter conveying the fact that one of FAU's professors was tied to Hamas. It stated, "I can confirm to you that Dr. Abu Sway is known as an activist in the framework of the Hamas organization."

The information reached Middle East expert Daniel Pipes, who promptly followed it up with an article exposing the professor to the public. Indeed, there was and is much to expose.

In 1998, Mustafa Mahmoud Abu Sway was the co-editor of the book ‘Islam in Focus,' which is distributed by Amana Publications, a company that publishes a Koran -- whose editor was raided by the FBI -- that describes Jews and Christians with such incendiary terms as "arrogant," "illiterate," "cursed" and "treacherous."

Abu Sway is not only an editor, but an author as well. In a recent essay he wrote, entitled ‘Said Nursi and the People of the Book,' Abu Sway works diligently to explain and expound upon the statements made by "religious scholar" Bediuzzaman Said Nursi.

Abu Sway undoubtedly holds a fondness for Said Nursi, stating in the introduction that Said Nursi's ideas are "attractive." And Abu Sway describes him as being like that of a prophet, where his ideas "hold up a light to the future."

Some of Said Nursi's "attractive" and "futuristic" ideas that Abu Sway chose to highlight in his essay are as follows:

"The Dajjal (Islamic Anti-Christ) will draw his main strength from the Jews. The Jews will follow him willingly… both Dajjals will win the assistance of a secret Jewish society which nurtures a terrible desire for revenge on Islam and Christianity…"

"And there is no question, after it [Judaism] has been purified of corruptions, of Judaism acting together with Christianity in the future… As for the second group [Christians], being overcome by the power of anger they become aggressive, and abandoning the precepts of religion they fall into sin and wrongdoing. Like the Jews in their obduracy."

"It is because of these fearsome rules governing the destiny and character of this nation [Jews] that the Qur'an acts so severely against them. It deals them awesomely punishing slaps."

"These two statements of the Qur'an directed at the Jews, comprise the two fearsome general rules, that that nation hatches plots in human social life with their trickery, which shake human society… and through usury and compounded interest, made the poor clash with the rich, and caused the banks to be founded, and amassed wealth through wiles and fraud; so it was again that nation who, in order to take its revenge on the victors and governments under which it always suffered deprivation and oppression, was involved in every sort of corrupting covert organization and had a finger in every sort of revolution."

"For the Jews, who have been persecuted by every state, gathered in large numbers in Germany in order to take their revenge. Then, due to the important role he played in the founding of the revolutionary communist party, the terrible Trotsky, who was a Jew, took over the leadership of the Russian Army, then the government after the famous Lenin, who had trained him, and they [the Jews] set fire to Russia and laid waste whatever it had achieved over a thousand years."

"In the human kingdom, the Jews have clung to the world more greedily and have loved its life with more passion than any other people, but the usurious wealth they have gained with great efforts is merely illicit property over which they exercise temporary stewardship, and it benefits them little. It earns them, on the contrary, the blows of abjection and humiliation, of death and insult, that are rained down on them by all peoples."

"He it is Who sent His Messenger with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion predicts with complete certainty that ‘the religion which the Noble Messenger brought would triumph over all religions'… The future confirmed this prediction, with the sword of Islam extending from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west... It is Islam that will be the true, and spiritual, ruler over the future."

In the course of the essay, Abu Sway, who seems in agreement with everything Bediuzzaman Said Nursi states, makes his own opinions known:

"The Qur'an addresses the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] saying: ‘O People of the Book! O People of the Book!' Bediuzzaman did the same. It seems that the Qur'an addresses the People of the Book in this way because they are the people who are in most need of its guidance."

"If considered analytically, it is seen that Said Nursi expressed views similar to those of other Islamic scholars, for he believes that the Jews have been the object of Divine wrath and chastisement because of the corruption they have caused on the face of the earth. As for their stand on the Palestine question, it is tied to Zionist ideology. In reality this is corruption of another sort. For which reason most people are expecting the Jews to again be chastised. For up to the present, Divine wisdom has never delayed in meting out chastisement. In the above passage, Said Nursi is indirectly criticizing the Jews, because the Arabs are more numerous and possess more land. However, in my opinion, while referring to the future of the Muslim Umma, these words hint that he wants Muslims to make wide preparations in order to foil the enemies' plans."

In 2001, Abu Sway co-wrote a seventh-grade school textbook for the Palestinian Authority entitled ‘Kitab Al-Tarbiyah Al-Islamiyyah, whereby Jews are portrayed as the enemy. He writes, "The Jews adopted a position of hostility and deception towards the new religion. They called Muhammad a liar and denied him, they fought against his religion in all ways and by all means, a war that has not yet ended until today, and they conspired with the hypocrites and the idolaters against him and they are still behaving in the same way." (Kenneth R. Timmerman, PREACHERS OF HATE: Islam and the War on America, 2003)

Furthermore, in the textbook, Abu Sway states a fundamental position of Hamas: "If the enemy has conquered part of its land and those fighting for it are unable to repel the enemy, then Jihad becomes the individual religious duty of every man and woman, until the attack is successfully repulsed and the land liberated from conquest..." In another passage, he writes: "These noble verses prove the virtue of jihad... and warn against evading a jihad in the path of G-d… and warn Muslims not to defy His word nor refrain from jihad." And "This religion will defeat all other religions and it will be disseminated, by Allah's will, through the Muslim Jihad fighters." And "Martyrdom is when a Muslim is killed in the path of G-d... A person who dies thus is called a ‘martyr'... Martyrdom for G-d is the hope of all those who believe in G-d and have trust in His promises... The martyr rejoices in the paradise that G-d has prepared for him."

In a debate concerning the motives of suicide bombers held on September 17, 2001, Abu Sway said that there are verses in the Koran which "clearly state that there is a place in heaven for… martyrs."

On April 28, 2000, Abu Sway participated in a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event, entitled ‘The Evolution of Islamic Movements in the Arab World,' along with Jordanian Abdul Latif Arabiyat. Arabiyat is the president of the Shura Council (the legislative body) of the Islamic Action Front (IAF). According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the IAF is "an Islamist party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas" and "articulates support for terrorism vocally and actively." The IAF "hailed the June 1, 2001 Tel Aviv suicide bombing that killed 20 Israelis, most of them teens, as a ‘heroic martyrdom operation.'" About the videotape the Bush Administration released showing Osama bin Laden gloating over the September 11th attacks, Arabiyat flippantly asks, "Do the Americans really think the world is that stupid to think that it would believe that this tape is evidence?"

From 1997 till 2002, Abu Sway is documented as participating in a series of PASSIA dialogues and roundtable discussions with various terrorists, including Hamas leaders Sheikh Jamil Hamami and Sheikh Hassan Yousef (who is currently in prison). Others that Abu Sway participated with included:

Muzaffar Iqbal ("These Jews are absolutely devoid of any respect for the faith and religion of others. But it should not surprise anyone, since they learn such abusive and dirty tricks from their own SCRIPTURES, which are filled with shameless stories of incest and pornography…")

Fatah leader Hatem Abdel-Qader ("If we have the choice of an Israeli presence or Hamas in Gaza, of course we would choose Hamas or any other Palestinian faction.")

Grand Mufti Ekrima Sabri ("The younger the martyr, the greater and the more I respect him… I talked to a young man who said, ‘I want to marry the black-eyed women of heaven.' The next day he became a martyr. I am sure his mother was filled with joy about his heavenly marriage. Such a son must have such a mother.")

Waqf director Adnan Husseini ("We'll not let Jews, Christians on Temple Mount.")

Al Aqsa mosque director Mohammed Hussein ("We, as Moslems, are serious about protecting the Haram as-Sharif. We will not allow any non-Moslems here.")

Mahdi Abdul Hadi ("If we do not want to lose everything, we must send a message to the Israeli public that we are in favor of a peaceful solution. If this does not happen, we will all become Hamas…")

On June 5, 2002, ABC News Nightline held a forum in which Abu Sway acknowledged that there is an acceptable "darker interpretation" of the term "jihad," a definition "used by militant Muslims to justify everything from the battles against the crusaders to the mujahideens' first Afghanistan war against the Soviets." Abu Sway stated, "We have to admit that at one point it is permitted for Muslims to have self-defense and this is the equivalent of a ‘Just War' in Christian theology."

At a 2002 interfaith conference, Abu Sway "remarked, to audible gasps from Jews in the audience, that he wished the state of Israel ‘would disappear'" and that "Islamic law proscribes war against any nation in dar-el-islam, land once occupied by Moslems, including Spain and Israel."

In a report published in September 2003 by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) entitled ‘Healing the Holy Land,' Abu Sway is quoted as saying, "When traditional Muslims find themselves as a minority in society [in Israel or Western countries], their aspiration is to restore or establish sovereign majority status. To imagine shared sovereignty or dual sovereignty is not being faithful to Islamic tradition." The report goes on to say, "For Abu Sway, the idea of two states existing side by side is unrealistic… He advocates a single state, governed in accordance with Islamic principles…" Abu Sway calls this a "utopian position."

This position is not out of the ordinary for someone like Abu Sway who, in a March 2003 interview with the Islamic Broadcasting Network, claimed that Al Jezeera, also known as "Jihad-TV," was more "fair" in its coverage of the ‘war on terrorism' than Fox News!

In December of 2003, Abu Sway participated in a Chicago conference that was organized by the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), two organizations said to have ties to Hamas.

In a July 2003 interview of Abu Sway done by the MAS – an interview where he admits that he was at the al Aqsa mosque "the first day of the new Intifada" – Abu Sway again discusses his dream of an annihilated Israel. He states that he "wishes to reclaim the holiness of the land" and that even though the Arab gambling casino in Jericho "almost exclusively destroys the lives of Jewish families," even then he "cannot accept it Islamically." He declares that it is his belief that "the future rule has to be a post-Zionist entity."

In the same interview, Abu Sway described Israeli self defense as "state terrorism" and then touted the Hamas line that "ultimately, if one targets the military forces of the occupier, then I don't think that it is terrorism." In an interview with Islam Online, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, stated, "My brother, certainly we don't target women, children or the elderly in our operations. But the ‘Mujahed' goes out to find a concentration of soldiers and military men, whether in civilian or military clothes and attack them. This is our first and last target…"

And in the interview, Abu Sway repeated an often told lie that Arabs were driven out of Israel in 1948. He states, "What I hope for the future is to see the Palestinians going back to their homes from which they have been uprooted, from which they were driven by force in 1948." From BATTLEGROUND: FACT & FANTASY IN PALESTINE, by Samuel Katz, "The Arab refugees were not driven from Palestine by anyone. The vast majority left, whether of their own free will or at the orders or exhortations of their leaders, always with the same reassurance – that their departure would help in the war against Israel… Their victory was certain, they claimed, but it would be speeded and made easier if the local Arab population got out of the way. The refugees would come back in the wake of the victorious Arab armies and not only recover their own property but also inherit the houses and farms of the vanquished and annihilated Jews."

This was certainly a big lie… but not as big as the one Abu Sway would later tell when he made the claim that he has "no connection to Hamas."

As reported by Daniel Pipes and Asaf Romirowsky in January of 2004, according to Israeli sources, Abu Sway:

was a board member and raised funds for two Jerusalem-based Hamas-related organizations shut down by the Israeli government, the Heritage Committee and the Foundation for the Development of Society.

has worked with the Palestinian "Charity Coalition" that includes such organizations as Al-Aqsa Foundation of South Africa and France's Comité de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens, both known Hamas fund-raisers which have had their assets frozen by the American government.

is connected to Sheik Ra'ed Salah's Islamic Movement in Um al-Fahm, Israel, 14 members of which were arrested in May 2003 for Hamas fundraising.

Florida Atlantic University has claimed that it has not ignored the situation concerning Mustafa Abu Sway. The school insists that it has asked the State Department to investigate the matter, and it cannot be said enough just how serious this matter truly is. However, with all the radicals that have either been hired by FAU or have passed through the school, one would think that FAU itself should not be ignored.

Joe Kaufman is the Chairman of Americans Against Hate. You can visit the group's website, at www.americansagainsthate.com. And you can view all of Joe's archived articles, at www.joe4rep.com.



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