This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4023
July 21, 2009
AG Eric Holder Visits Saudi Funded Radical Da'wa Mosque
By BEILA RABINOWITZ
July 21, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On Thursday July 16 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder paid a low-key visit to the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation Omar Center for Cultural and Educational Outreach in Los Angeles [aka, the Umar bin Al Khattab Mosque].
The foundation's name denotes a da'wa institute dedicated to "outreach" [Islamic code word for proselytizing Islam] and is listed on Saudi King Fahd's website as one of the mosques he finances [see, http://www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com/main/m460.htm]
According to the Los Angeles Times, Holder's meeting lasted approximately an hour during which he delivered prepared remarks and took questions.
The mosque's website [http://omaribnalkhatab.org/Culture/Educators/index.htm ] reveals its Wahhabist da'wa roots and that it is dedicated to spreading Islam.
Under the web heading, "A Guide To School Boards, Superintendents, Administrators and Educators In Assisting Them to Explain and Discuss with Students How Islam Condemns Violence and Terrorism. An Islamic Perspective on Violence, Killing & Terrorism," we find the following:
"Jihad is a religious duty...jihad is required to protect the faith against others, it can be performed using anything from legal, diplomatic and economic to political means. If there is no peaceful alternative, Islam also allows the use of force, but there are strict rules of engagement." [source, http://omaribnalkhatab.org/Culture/Educators/JihadMyth.htm]
The stated mission of Ibn Al Khattab Foundation is a classic exposition of da'wa techniques:
"To consistently practice the tenets of Islam...to elevate the general level of public consciousness and awareness of Islamic social and cultural values; to provide services to the general community, irrespective of religion, that will aid in improving the cultural, social and intellectual quality of life of its residents; to foster ways to participate with others in the community who have similar goals and objectives and in general to promote activities that do not compromise the goals and objectives of Masjid Omar Ibn al Khattab Foundation" [source, http://omaribnalkhatab.org/Culture/OurMission.htm]
AG Holder's ill-considered visit to this radical, Saudi dominated mosque is a domestic continuation of Obama's dhimmi Cairo speech [see, http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=obamaid=6.4.09%2Ehtm, Obama's Muslim World Address In Cairo Examined] and another sign that this administration has no qualms about countenancing phony "engagement" or "interfaith" efforts by some of the worst elements of the Islamist community. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=holder7.21.09%2Ehtm
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MIM: The mission statement of the Omar Center for Cultural and Educational 0utreach
Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Foundation
To consistently practice the tenets of Islam and to uphold and reinforce Islamic value as illustrated in the holy Quran and the Sunnah of prophet Muhammad (pbuh); to provide Islamic religious and education services to the followers of the religion of Islam; to elevate the general level of public consciousness and awareness of Islamic social and cultural values; to provide services to the general community, irrespective of religion, that will aid in improving the cultural, social and intellectual quality of life of its residents; to foster ways to participate with others in the community who have similar goals and objectives and in general to promote activities that do not compromise the goals and objectives of Masjid Omar Ibn al Khattab Foundation as outlined in this statement and the charter of the organization.
The Challenges to Islam in Los Angeles
An Assessment of Needs - A Statement of Goals
The provision of services to the general community that address the outstanding needs in the City of Los Angeles for shelter, welfare, employment and job training, youth training, education and basic human needs. http://omaribnalkhatab.org/Culture/OurMission.htm
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MIM: Information about the Omar Ibn Al -Khattab Foundation.
The Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Foundation is a masjid, a mosque and it was built under the auspices of a program initiated by the late Saudi King Fahd [source, King Fahd's website, http://www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com:80/main/m460.htm] which has spent an estimated $45-80 billion worldwide to construct Wahhabist influenced mosques.
The Omar Ibn Al-Khattab masjid is not alone in this distinction, as the King Fahd Mosque in LA was also constructed under the same program. Most of these radical mosques are held in an Arabic trust - a waqf - by the North American Islamic Trust [NAIT] a Saudi dominated entity [created by the Islamic Society of North American, ISNA, an organization also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF prosecution] crafted to impose an additional layer of Wahhabist religious conformity. It is believed that approximately 80% of U.S. mosques are so held.
Clarifying this relationship between the Saudis and American mosques, an announcement on the Saudi Embassy website states:
"Prince Abdulaziz Ibn Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz, Minister of State and Cabinet Member, yesterday opened in Culver City, a western suburb of Los Angeles in California, the newly-completed King Fahd Mosque, work on which began in April of 1996. The mosque, costing SR 8.1 million (U.S. $ 2.16 million), was financed entirely by private donations from Prince Abdulaziz, who contributed over one million dollars for the purchase of the land, and from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz." [source, http://www.saudiembassy.net/1998News/News/IslDetail.asp?cIndex=1496]
The Saudis have used this historically unprecedented mosque building program as a form of religious imperialism, intent on spreading the most radical form of Islam throughout the United States.
The Omar Ibn Al-Khattab mosque has spawned the Omar Center for Science and Technology, the Omar Academy, the Pontifex Media Center, the Omar Center for Social and Cultural Relations and the Omar Scholars Fund, a structure designed to conduct da'wa or Muslim conversion efforts.
Most of these programs are shadowy, with little in the way of a paper trail available to assess how and to what end they are organized, however the Pontifex Media Center has been involved in creating documentaries and interviews with Islamists including a key Tunisian disciple of the Muslim Brotherhood, Rashid Ghannouchi.
"Interview with Sheikh R. Ghanouchi "Director: Abdul-Wahid,Salah." Pontifex Media Center..."A Call For Democracy in Tunisia: Interview with Rachid Ganouchi, Leader of the Renaissance Party" Director: Salah M. Abdul-Wahid. Pontifex Media Center." [source, http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ajurado/reg2.cgi]
Ghannouchi, a British resident, considers America an "enemy of Islam." The following commentary occurred after the U.S. expelled Saddam from Kuwait during the Gulf War.
"Ghannouchi not only denounced King Fahd of Saudi Arabia for the "colossal crime" of inviting the U.S. to deploy forces, he also fully justified Saddam's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. Ghannouchi compared Saddam to Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, the 11th-century Almoravid ruler who forcibly unified the Muslim principalities of Spain in order to wrest them from Christian domination. According to Ghannouchi, the Muslims now faced "Crusader America," the "enemy of Islam," and Saddam had taken a necessary step toward unity, "joining together two Arab states out of twenty-two, praise be to God."1 Although other Islamists criticized Saudi Arabia, none embraced Saddam as fervently as Ghannouchi." [source, http://www.geocities.com/martinkramerorg/Ghannouchi.htm]
Pontifex has also produced similar materials in support of the "National Front for the Salvation of Libya" a Muslim Brotherhood influenced group led by Libyans in exile, who are seeking to impose a theocracy in place of Qadhafi's secularist totalitarian rule. [see, http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?issue_id=3277]
"Interview with Dr. Muhammed El Meghariaf (Secretary General of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya) Inteview conducted by: Salah M. Abdul-Wahid. Pontifex Media Center" [source, http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ajurado/reg2.cgi]
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3393
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Eric Holder makes quiet visit to meet with Muslim Americans
July 17, 2009
Los Angeles Times
-- Paloma Esquivel in Orange County
Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. made a well-publicized visit to Los Angeles this week to announce stimulus grants to help fight drug trafficking and to help the victims of domestic violence. But in a quieter event not announced to the news media or public, Holder stopped at a mosque to meet with Muslim American youths.
"The point was to engage the Muslim community here in Los Angeles and make sure they understand this administration's commitment to work with that community," Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
The relationship between the Muslim American community and the department has come under increasing strain. This year, a coalition of the nation's largest Muslim organizations issued a statement demanding that the Obama administration address FBI actions, including what they described as the "infiltration of mosques," the use of "agent provocateurs to trap unsuspecting Muslim youth" and the "deliberate vilification" of one of the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organizations.
Thursday's meeting was at 4 p.m. at the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation, a mosque and community center near USC, said Dafer Dakhil, the foundation's director. It lasted about an hour, during which Holder gave prepared remarks and answered questions from an invited audience of about 200 people ages 18 to 33.
Questions posed at the event covered such topics as concern about law enforcement profiling of Muslim Americans, the sanctity of mosques, hate crimes and the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, Dakhil said.
"The attorney general got to meet face to face with a generation of Muslims born and raised in this country," he said. "He didn't have to depend on what he reads in the papers or what his staff tells him. He got to see them face to face. . . . I don't believe that ever took place in the previous administration."
-- Paloma Esquivel in Orange County
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MIM: Dr. Daniel Pipes' blog on Saudi funded organisations and institutions in the United States and abroad.
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/01/saudi-supported-mosques-and-islamic-research
Wondering which American organizations the king of Saudi Arabia favors financially? The answer is not hard to find. Just go to www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com and see it all conveniently laid out, in English at that. Here is the page on mosques in the United States which King Fahd supports:
Dar al-Salam Institute
Fresno Mosque in California
The Islamic Center in Colombia, Missouri
The Islamic Center in East Lansing, Michigan
The Islamic Center in Los Angeles, California
The Islamic Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey
The Islamic Center in New York
The Islamic Center in Tida, Maryland
The Islamic Center in Toledo, Ohio
The Islamic Center in Virginia
The Islamic Center in Washington
The Islamic Cultural Center in Chicago
King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles
The Mosque of the Albanian Community in Chicago
South-West Big Mosque of Chicago
Umar bin Al-Khattab Mosque in Los Angeles
And here is the page on "Islamic Research Institutes supported outside the Arab/Islamic world"
American University of Colorado
American University in Washington
Arab World Institute, Paris, France
Duke University, North Carolina
Howard University, Washington
Institute of the History of Arab and Islamic Science, Frankfurt, Germany
Johns Hopkins University, Maryland
Middle East Institute, Washington
Shaw University, North Carolina
Syracuse University, New York
Comment: This listing is limited to causes personally favored by King Fahd. If one were to look at broader Saudi support, for example via the North American Islamic Trust, it would be far more extensive. For a start, see the listing of mosques, Islamic centers, academic chairs, and Islamic schools in a long article in the Saudi newspaper Ain-Al-Yaqeen on March 1, 2002. (January 24, 2005)
Comment: This listing is limited to causes personally favored by King Fahd. If one were to look at broader Saudi support, for example via the North American Islamic Trust, it would be far more extensive. For a start, see the listing of mosques, Islamic centers, academic chairs, and Islamic schools in a long article in the Saudi newspaper Ain-Al-Yaqeen on March 1, 2002. (January 24, 2005)
Feb. 4, 2005 update: Responding to an inquiry from a concerned alumnus about the nature of the "Islamic Research Institute" at Johns Hopkins University, a university official replied to him today:
I have not found an "Islamic Research Institute" or comparable entity at Johns Hopkins, either in the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences or at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), so I am not familiar with what is referred to at that website [a reference to http://www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com/main/m330.htm]. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has supported professorships in the School of Medicine and in SAIS. As you may know, Prince Bandar graduated from SAIS with a Masters in International Public Policy (MIPP) in 1982.
So, what exactly is the Saudi king doing at Johns Hopkins? Anyone in the know is urged to write me.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4023