This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/567
Muslims from US went to Canada attend radical Islamist event with speakers banned in US
April 27, 2005
MIM: Muslims with American citizenship who headed home from an Islamist conference billed as a venue for 'Reviving the Islamic Spirit' were stopped and fingerprinted by the Department of Homeland Security border agency when they returned .Several of them have joined with CAIR and the ACLU to file a lawsuit against the DHS with the intention of making it unlawful to detain Muslims returning from 'religous conferences'. As Dr.Daniel Pipes pointed out,the DHS stopped the Muslims upon there return because they had information that such conferences such as the one in Toronto,"may be used by terrorist organizations to promote terrorist activities, which includes traveling and fund raising."
A look at lectures by two of the conference's main speakers, Tariq Al Suweidan of Kuwait and Bilal Philips show that the radical Islamist agenda of event and leave no doubt that anyone attending the conference was correctly classified as an Islamist who could pose a potential threat to national security.
Excerpt from speech by Tariq Al Suweidan given at 2000 Young Muslims conference.
"Where are we headed?
Tariq Al Suweidan at ICNA event in 2000 - Kuwaiti cleric who is banned from the US was featured speaker at the recent Islamic Revival Conference in Canada
MIM: Conference speaker Bilal Philips, an unindicted co conspirator in the 1993 bombings who fled the U.S,. runs a school for Islamic studies in the UK. Phiips was also involved in the efforts of the now jailed former AMC head Abdulrahman Alamoudi, to convert US servicemen in Saudi Arabia to Islam. Philips lauded the effectiveness of public executions on his website.
Q. Is there any evidence in the Quran or Sunnah which supports the chopping of heads on Friday?
A. We were instructed to carry out the cutting of hands or heads, stoning people to death, lashing, etc. in public and the greatest gathering of Muslims, excluding the two Eids and Hajj, is on Fridays. It was the practice of the Prophet (pbuh) to gather as many people from the community to witness the implementation of the Islamic law.
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MIM: Young Muslims in Canada is the youth wing of ICNA and the equivalent of the Young Muslim group which is operating in the United States under the aegis of the Islamic Circle of North America and the Muslim American Society.YM stated aim is to 'establish Islam in Canada' and they believe that any means is permitted to acheive that end.
In the United States, the Young Muslims have been directly linked to Al Qaeda, Al Muhajiroun and individuals who have been arrested for plotting or involved in attacks against Israel and the US. ICNA is a Wahhabist group and is linked to WAMY - the World Association of Muslim Youth, which has it's North American headquarters in Canada.Terrorist organisations have made Canada into their North American headquarters because the laws allow them to operate and many of the conference speakers are banned from entering the United States.
Both ICNA and WAMY are on a list of 25 Muslim organisations which are linked to terrorism funding. ICNA was behind a recent conference in Canada which was called "Reviving the Islamic Spirit". Upon their return from the conference, many of the participants were fingerprinted and questioned at the US border. Several are suing the Department of Homeland Security. Should their suit be sucessful, the way would be paved for terrorists to utilize the cover of Islamic conferences to move between countries. As the information below will show, ICNA not only fundraises for Jihad, there speakers and members actively urge the overthrow of the United States and all Western governments in order to bring about the Islamisation of the West.
Anyone who attended the ICNA sponsored conference cannot feign ignorance. The speakers list was a who's who of radical Islam, which included well know Islamists 'scholars' who defend beheadings and call for Muslims to destroy the United States. Many of the speakers were banned from entering the United States because they are considered threats to national security. Anyone who attended the conference was showing their support for the radical Islamist agenda of ICNA and should have been treated as suspect.'
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American Border Secrets
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
April 26, 2005
What steps should Western border agencies take to defend their homelands from harm by Islamists?
In the case of non-citizens, the answer is simple: Don't let Islamists in. Exclude not just potential terrorists but also anyone who supports the totalitarian goals of radical Islam. Just as civilized countries did not welcome fascists in the early 1940s (or communists a decade later), they need not welcome Islamists today.
But what about one's own citizens who cross the border? They could be leaving to fight for the Taliban or returning from a course on terrorism techniques. Or perhaps they studied with enemies of the West who incited them to sabotage or sedition. Clearly, the authorities should take steps to find out more about their activities, especially given the dangerous jihadi culture already in place in many Western countries, including Canada.
This question arose in late December 2004, after a three-day Islamist conference, "Reviving the Islamic Spirit," took place in Toronto. The event, boasting a host of high-profile Islamist speakers such as Bilal Philips, Zaid Shakir, Siraj Wahhaj, and Hamza Yusuf, alarmed the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), America's new border agency.
Spokeswoman Kristie Clemens explained that her agency had information on how events such as the one in Toronto "may be used by terrorist organizations to promote terrorist activities, which includes traveling and fund raising." Ms. Clemens later added that the CBP has "credible, ongoing information that these types of conferences have been used and are being used by terrorist organizations to not only transport fraudulent documents but to mask travel by terrorists." Terrorists imagine, she pointed out, that if they travel in a large group, "we're going to be less restrictive and try to expedite the processing."
Her explanation hints at why the CBP decided to detain nearly 40 Muslims, many of them American citizens, as they returned to the U.S. by car from the Toronto conference. The travelers report they spent long hours at the border near Buffalo, N.Y., and none too pleasantly. One woman said she was asked whether the wire in her underwire bra was a weapon. Another, seven months' pregnant, reported that border agents lifted her blouse to make sure she really was pregnant. A third traveler quotes himself asking a border guard, "If I refuse to give my fingerprints, what will you do?" to which he got a terse reply: "You can refuse, but you'll be here until you do."
When Daniel W. Sutherland, officer for civil rights and civil liberties at the Department of Homeland Security, the CBP's parent organization, spoke in Buffalo earlier this month, he discussed the December episode. On principle, however, he neither justified nor condemned CBP's procedures. Rather, he only acknowledged that CBP did an "after-action review" and refined a few points. Mr. Sutherland placed the detaining of citizens into a larger context ("There are multiple pieces to that puzzle") and spent most of his time emphasizing the need for his department and Muslim groups to work better together.
He was right to remain discreetly uninformative. America finds itself at war with radical Islam not just in Afghanistan but in Buffalo, Boston, Boca Raton, and Baltimore. Controlling the border flow, therefore, has paramount importance. As a law enforcement agency, the CBP in this and other cases (notably that of Tariq Ramadan) should not divulge its exact reasons for excluding foreigners or detaining citizens. To do otherwise would compromise national security.
Which in turn probably explains why, last week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union – two organizations consistently hostile to American self-protection – goaded five of the detained travelers to sue the federal government on the grounds that they "were unlawfully detained, interrogated, fingerprinted, and photographed."
Two of the plaintiffs' demands have lasting implications: that the court declare the CBP had violated the travelers' rights and that it enjoin the CBP from "detaining, interrogating, fingerprinting, and photographing United States citizens who are Muslim because they are returning to the country after having attended religious conferences."
Were the plaintiffs to prevail in this case, attending religious conferences would instantly become the favored method for terrorists and other Islamists to cross the American border without hindrance. Such a malign implication means this lawsuit needs to be tossed out by the courts.
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http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/392
A Room Full of American Muslim Citizens" Kudos to the American border agency, now known as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, for the courage to stop returning participants from a three-day Islamist conference in Toronto. That event, titled "Reviving the Islamic Spirit," had a rogues' list of speakers and, according to the border agency's spokesperson, Kristie Clemens,
The conference poster. | |
We have ongoing credible information that conferences such as the one that these … individuals just left in Toronto may be used by terrorist organizations to promote terrorist activities, which includes travelling and fundraising. As the front-line border agency, it is our duty to verify the identity of individuals — including U.S. citizens — and one way of doing that is fingerprinting.
Participants at the conference who returned to the United States by land via Niagara Falls, N.Y. said they were detained for as long as six hours at the U.S. side of the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge and Rainbow Bridge on Dec. 25-26, or until they agreed to be fingerprinted. In the meantime, they were offered coffee and tea. Miriam Soliman, 20, a Brooklyn-born finance major at Pace University reports that a border patrol officer asked her whether the wire in her underwire bra was a weapon. "I refuse to be treated like this in my own country," she declared. One traveler, Galeb Rizek, 32, quotes himself asking a border guard, "If I refuse to give my fingerprints, what will you do?" to which he got a terse reply: "You can refuse, but you'll be here until you do."
Those who flew to the United States also had to endure interrogations by U.S. Customs officials before they boarded their planes at Pearson airport in Toronto. For example, the self-proclaimed extremist Hamza Yusuf, a keynote speaker at the conference, was detained and interrogated for several hours on Dec. 27 before being allowed to board a flight to San Francisco. "They asked me about the religion of my family and wanted to make photocopies of my notebook and other material," he later told a reporter.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, of course, finds this a villainous development and demands an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security. Nihad Awad, CAIR's long-time chieftain, complained in his usual pungent style: "The image of a room full of American Muslim citizens apparently being held solely because of their faith and the fact that they attended an Islamic conference is one that should be disturbing to all Americans who value religious freedom." Actually, as an American who defers to no one in his appreciation of religious freedom – and who has severely criticized the U.S. border service in the past – I am immensely relieved to see it showing some backbone. (December 30, 2004)
Jan. 24, 2005 update: Spokeswoman Kristie Clemens does some unpersuasive verbal dancing, as quoted in the Chicago Tribune: "Their religious belief had nothing to do with why they were asked to verify their U.S. citizenship. It's definitely not profiling, absolutely not." Instead, she said, was their attendance at the "Reviving the Islamic Spirit" conference that invited scrutiny.
We are aware that the vast majority of participants at this conference and others are legitimate, going for the right reasons. But we have credible, ongoing information that these types of conferences have been used and are being used by terrorist organizations to not only transport fraudulent documents but to mask travel by terrorists. They think that in a large group we're going to be less restrictive and try to expedite the processing.
Jan. 31, 2005 update: A month after the original episode, and the detainment issue remains alive, thanks to the efforts of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and its fellow-traveler, journalist Jay Tokasz of the Buffalo News. Tokasz – one of the most pro-Islamist reporters I have encountered in all my travels – provides more details and more complaints about the experiences of some forty Muslims at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge and the Peace Bridge on Dec. 26-27 on returning from the Islamic conference in Toronto.
This bellyaching (as it were) is really amazing. The United States is at war with radical Islam and Muslims must accept that this means they are subject to special scrutiny. It's unfortunate and it's temporary, but it is necessary, and the sooner Muslims come to terms with this reality and embrace it, for their safety as well as the country's, the better off all Americans will be.
By way of coda, the article contains a disturbing reminder that the U.S. government has not yet recognized Islamism as the enemy. Hassan Shibly recounts that border agents initially told him he was being stopped as part of a random check. "But when he stepped inside the Border Patrol offices, he noticed that the other people there were also Muslims who had been at the conference." This dishonesty, if it took place, is not good.
Feb. 8, 2005 update: News continues to trickle out about the events of late December 2004. Kevin Johnson reports in USA Today that U.S. border agents may have incorrectly detained the Muslims by misusing an FBI database for identifying violent gang members and terrorism suspects, the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File (VGTOF). This list has hundreds of names and includes "associates" of suspected terrorists and gang leaders. Federal guidelines do not permit "associates" to be detained or questioned at the border, only noted for possible future investigations.
April 5, 2005 update: Daniel W. Sutherland, in charge of civil rights and civil liberties at the Department of Homeland Security, traveled to the University at Buffalo and, in the words of reporters Jay Rey and Harold McNeil, spoke at length to about fifty people in a 90-minute forum about "the government's good intentions but said he was unprepared to address specifics of the incident." When it came to policy, he stated that "There are multiple pieces to that puzzle. If you're looking to me to give you the answers from A to Z on that, you're going to be disappointed." Sutherland did not say if the detaining and fingerprinting incident was right or wrong. He did explain that the DHS hopes to learn from the incident and forge stronger ties with Arab- and Muslim-Americans. "We don't know enough about Arabs, Muslims and Sikhs; We don't know this terrain very well."
Khalid Qazi, president of the local chapter of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which has been keeping this issue alive, said that despite Sutherland's inability "to give specific answers to pointed questions, the answers he gave us provide a road map for the future." In contrast, Basem Maddah, the husband of one of those detained, responded, "We just had a very nice sandwich with lots of lettuce and tomatoes, but where's the beef?"
Comment: It is good to see DHS hanging tough. Were it to concede a mistake in this instance, U.S. border security could suffer severely.
April 26, 2005 update: At "America's Border Secrets," I cover last week's court case against the DHS, brought by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union. Its implications are quite startling for U.S. security.
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MIM: The Islamic Circle of North America states that their agenda is to Islamise the West and that they "work in cooperation with a variety of Islamic organisations in the US & Canada".
http://www.youngmuslimscanada.org/about/
An Islamic organization working for and through the Muslim youth in Canada. Our aim is the establishment of Islam in North America in its entirety and comprehensiveness. We work towards the spiritual, moral, intellectual, and social revival of Muslim youth through Dawah (invitation to Islam), Tarbiyah (education & training), Tazkiyah (personal development), and community involvement and activism.
Our activities include youth study circles (halaqas), lectures and workshops, camps and sports events, a weekly Islamic mailing list (YMFN), online quiz competitions, a comprehensive online library, and one of the top rated internet websites.
We work in cooperation with a variety of Islamic organizations in US & Canada.
Click Here to view our Flash version.
If your answer is yes to any one of the questions then you need to consider Young Muslims Canada
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Our Goal
To seek the pleasure of Allah by following His guidance in our everyday life so that we may become the winners of this world and the life hereafter.
To achieve our goal we propose the following program:
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/567