This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2714
February 9, 2007
Accusers In Guilford Case Ready To Throw In The Towel?
By Beila Rabinowitz and William A. Mayer
February 8, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - With possible deportation looming over Osama Sabbah, Faris Khader and Omar Awartani, the trio's attorney - Amiel Rossabi - signaled at a staged event sponsored by the Marxist Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project that he might want this matter to just go away, expressing the desire to have the accused and the accusers get together in a reconciliation type meeting.
And who could blame him?
The Greensboro Police Department has dropped any further investigation of the West Bank student's claims, and will bring no charges, a clear indication of the weakness of the accusers claim, which was sworn out through a highly unusual Magistrate proceeding.
Of greater concern from their standpoint, it is now clear that both Mr. Khader and Sabbah have a history of violent confrontation that could well undermine their veracity in court on the current matter. Additionally, the photographs taken of one of the defendants, Michael Six clearly show the raised belt buckle shaped welts caused, according to Mr. Six by an enraged Faris Khader during the attack.
Amiel Rossabi - past president of the North Carolina ACLU - is the latest attorney of record for the West Bank students, he took over the case from Seth Cohen, the NC ACLU's general counsel. A spokesman for the organization stated that though we "still talk to him [Rossabi] fairly regularly" he stressed "that's not one of our cases."
Mr. Cohen is, however the lead attorney in the ACLU's lawsuit to allow the Qu'ran to be recognized in North Carolina's judicial proceedings.
The events at Guilford have shown that screaming "hate crime" on a crowded campus generates sympathetic media, a fact that the Islamists at the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] are well aware.
Serving the demi-god of multiculturalism, University of North Carolina students with no connection to or understanding of the events have jumped on the "victimized Palestinian" bandwagon as an opportunity to promote their "America is racist" agenda.
At that school, students held a vigil and circulated a petition calling for Guilford College to "acknowledge the incident as a hate crime" with one demonstrator pontificating into the omnipresent television camera that " We have to stand for tolerance everywhere on all college campuses."
But tolerance is a one way street in these affairs.
As we have previously written, Guilford College's Quaker ethos and its connection to the Ramallah Friends school make it no ordinary campus. As a result, the confrontation which occurred between members of the football team and the three West Bank students must be evaluated within such a context.
Osama Sabbah, Faris Khader and Omar Awartani are not simply isolated "foreign students" at risk, but rather three of many former Friends School students from Ramallah and children of privilege who have been brought to Guilford over the years to continue their education while allowed to promote the Ramallah school's pro-jihadist anti-Israel agenda either with the full support of the college's administration and faculty or at very least with its acquiescence.
The feeder school relationship between Guilford and the Ramallah Friends school is not happenstance. It is one of the key projects of Max Carter, Guilford's Quaker chaplain whose personal relationship with the Ramallah school goes back 30 years, it being the institution at which Mr. Carter performed alternative service in the 1970s as a conscientious objector.
In 2004 Guilford faculty members, including Carter traveled to Israel [these visits occur frequently] and visited the Friends School. The trip was sponsored by the FUM - Friends United Meeting which funds and runs the school.
"Rabbi" Jonathan Malino a professor of philosophy at Guilford College posted a "Daily Journal of Israel - Palestine Trip" and reported that the group spent time with families of students.
Malino noted that they met with the mayor of Bir Zeit Antone Saad whose son Yaqoub would be attending Guilford with his friend Faris next year [presumably referring to Faris Khader].
The group also ate in several Ramallah establishments owned by the family of two Guilford students Nadine Khoury [a pizzeria] and a Lara Rukab [an ice cream parlor].
One of the high points of the trip was attending a rally presided over by terrorist Yasser Arafat and which took place at his Muqtada compound in Ramallah. In his journal Malino appears star-struck and accepting of the radical Palestinian viewpoint of the conflict with Israel:
"Monday, July 12 Worked 8 a.m-3 p.m. in blistering heat. 5:30 p.m. Attended large meeting with Arafat in the Muqata. The meeting was part of a conference of El Bireh expatriates, with 3-4,000 participants, mostly from the U.S. Muhammed's son, Sharif's drum corps performed. Lots of Orthodox clergy in elaborate garb. Speeches by mayor, and others and then rousing speech by Arafat. "Next year in al-Quds (Jerusalem)" repeated over and over again. No trembling lip. Kept trying to fix his medals which weren't on straight. Like a cartoon character that came to life off the funny pages, or a live version of the Israeli character on Partsufim. Lots of v-signs. Compound full of rubble, rusted cars etc. As we left, prime minister Abu Ala and others drove into the compound for a meeting with Arafat to report on their meeting with U.S. representatives of the administration, Hadley and Abrams. 8:30 p.m. meeting with Ghassan Katib, journalist and minister of labor in PA. Discussed wall and the battle within the Arab community. U.S. dismissal of UCJ ruling reinforces those who oppose pursuing the conflict through law rather than violence. Clear data on the radicalization of the population in past three years due to poverty, lack of hope in political process, and Israel's continued regular use of violence through incursions, etc. Poverty is result of unemployment due to home demolitions, destruction of infrastructure, roadblocks, and checkpoints all of which raise the cost of doing business and disrupt all aspects of daily life, including economic life." [source http://www.guilford.edu:80/about_guilford/news_and_publications/releases/malino_journal.html
Malino also met with 'Palestinian' officials such Sari Nussibeh [appointed by Arafat to head Al Quds University] and Ghassan Khatib [member of the communist PPP, the Palestinian People's Party, a high ranking minister in the PA and a Friends School trustee].
Within the year some of the same individuals who met with the Guilford group in Ramallah were invited to a conference with Malino as the facilitator, posing questions such as, "does violence help expedite the peace process?"
The two day seminar at Guilford was entitled "Voices from Palestine and Israel, Living for Peace in the Holy Land". Among the speakers were the above referenced Sari Nussibeh, the president of Al Quds University.
There is nothing moderate or peaceful about Al Quds University or Sari Nussibeh. The University is a known Hamas stronghold which has been raided and closed down by Israel due to terrorist activities, Al Quds boasts an Abu Jihad Center for Prisoner Affairs [Abu Jihad = father of Jihad] which glorifies the imprisonment by the Israelis of Khalil A Wazir a Fatah founder and Al Quds alum.
Former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheik Ikrima Sabri, a staunch supporter of child suicide bombers proclaimed that "the younger the martyr the more I respect him." Sabri is an Al Quds coordinating board member.
Nussibeh is also no slouch when it comes to pro-terrorist sentiments. He appeared on an Al Jazeera television broadcast together with Khalid Maschal the Hamas leader and Umm Nidal the mother of a suicide bomber. He called martyrdom operations, "a form of resistance" and said, referring to Umm Nidal that "All respect is due this mother."
Each day that the relationship between Guilford College and the Ramallah Friends school continues to exist calls into question the institution's dedication to the Quaker ideal of pacifism.
The erosion of the pacifist philosophy has bled into the campus' curriculum, with some of Guilford's classes now finding common cause with the "Palestinian resistance," a decidedly violent affair.
Notes Tamara Asad who hails from "Jerusalem, Palestine."
"It was so interesting being with so many different people, who had so many different experiences, in all of my Guilford classes. One of my favorite classes was Voices of Liberation with Shelini Harris. I'm from a place of extreme religious conflict, and I'm on what is considered the side of resistance, which may explain why the course appealed to me so much. This was a class where the students had many different mentalities and perspectives, which made the class really powerful. It was really inspiring for me, and definitely helped me see how I can do to help down the road for my people, my country. I took a lot away from that class." [source http://www.guilford.edu/campus_community/profiles/alumni/asad.html]
While the hate crime hoax perpetrated by the school's three students from Ramallah has become a textbook study in mass hysteria fueled by innuendo and perverse multiculturalism, examination of this issue reveals that hate has indeed become part of Guilford College's persona. However, this is a hate that is countenanced at the highest levels of the institution and one which will continue until Guilford severs its entirely inappropriate ties with the Ramallah Friends school and ceases all outreach to that institution's students.
http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=guilford2807.htm
MIM: Notes:
The trip to Israel and Ramallah chronicled by 'Rabbi' Jonathan Malino was sponsored by the FUM "Friends United Meeting" They give their address as 101 Quaker Hill Drive in Richmond Indiana and are the primary source of funding for the Friends School in Ramallah. http://www.fum.org/worldmissions/ramallah.html\
The FUM address is also on the website for the Friends School in Ramallah-Al Bireh http://www.palfriends.org/fbs/profile.asp
THE SCHOOLS
The Friends School is located in the twin towns of Ramallah and El-Bireh, approximately 10 miles north of Jerusalem. The elementary school is located in a 3.4 acre, tree-shaded campus of the Friends Girls School near the heart of old Ramallah. It presently has over 500 girls and boys in the lower kindergarten to grade six classes. The secondary school is located on the beautiful 10 acre campus of the Friends Boys School in El-Bireh. It presently has over 400 boys and girls in grades 7 to 12.
The School is governed by a local Board of Trustees in partnership with the owners, the Friends United Meeting of Richmond, Indiana, USA.
Note: The co-leaders of the trip were Joseph Malino Professor of Philosophy at Guilford College -Max Carter – Director of the Campus Ministry, Guildford College
Jane Carter- Middle School Math Teacher at New Gardens Friends School.
In his account of the Guilford trip to Ramallah Joseph Malino and the others met with Said Zeedani and his wife Raja. Saad is the assistant to Sari Nussibeh and a philosophy professor at Al Quds University , His wife Raja, is a producer with Middle East Broadcasting and was formerly chief translator of the Palestine Press Services aka the Palestinian National Authority State Information Service .
The PPS stated aim is to "counter Zionist propaganda …with a goal to removing the occupation."The IPC website is replete with posters of Yasser Arafat and Arabs attacking Israelis.
In 2005 Saad and Raja Zeedani were invited by Joseph Malino and Max Carter to be speakers at the Voices for Palestine colloquium at Guilford.
The colloquium was funded by ‘Guilford College organizations and the Guildford Initiative on Faith and Practice. They also received a grant from the Lilly Foundation.
Part of the colloquium took place at Guilford College and other parts were held at the New Garden Friends Meeting school where Max Carter's wife is a teacher.
Saad Zeedani stated that "violence deliberately targeting civilians could be defined as terrorism but argued that "justified violence, targeting military institutions could provide ‘more urgency to a solution'. He recited canards proporting to show Palestinians in Israel were discriminated against adding "We live in a state for Jews.."
His wife Raja Zeedani's background contradicts his claim entirely. Her family moved from the West Bank to Jerusalem in 1987 where she grew up worked alongside Jews and won an award for her management of the Hyatt hotel .She was educated in Jewish schools . Nonetheless Zeedani disingenuously termed the Arab Israeli fighting an issue of a clash between "colonizer and colonized." And told the group "My head is Israeli my heart is Palestinian.."
Both Zeedani and her husband are Israel citizens and moved to Ramallah so their children could attend the Friends School.
There was a discussion with students afterwards to discuss their ‘biases concerning the conflict'.The students included Joseph Malino's son David (who studies at UNC) and Guilford student Maisa Zeedani (the daughter of Saad and Raja Zeedani.)
According to a report of the colloquium ended with a 'propaganda session' with "Said Zeedani leading a small group discussion .The conversation stemmed from Zeedani's experiences as a Palestinian."
'Rabbi' Malino summed up the colloquium's purpose as "connecting Guildford's core values and the community outside."
Guilford Chaplain Max Carter gushed: "What Malino has done here ought to be used as a model to make the dynamic of learning open to the community."
"Students were incorporated into this brilliantly." This is what colleges are about,learning,"
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2714