This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/610
May 15, 2005
This is fairly indicative of the crowd a couple hours in, although this is just the left front side of the plaza
A few Jews showed up and seemed to get along well with the Muslims
MIM: Here is an account by photographer Jason Sager who took these pictures:
"...I was a bit disappointed when I arrived, having expected to see at least a hundred people. (Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism president Kamal Nawash estimated "12-1200" attendees in his permit application, according to this Post preview story about the rally and Nawash.) My estimate is 50 were there, actually in the plaza and not sitting on the perimeter. (Again, this was 90 minutes after the scheduled start.) A few counter-activists showed up, but as far as I could tell, weren't bothering anyone...for a while (see below). Most of the attendees were white, but not by much. Nawash isn't very popular with the official Muslim leaders in the DC area, but I can't think of anyone they'd support who presses Muslims to unequivocally condemn terrorism, leaving behind the occasional rationalizations and guilt trips..". http://www.gregpiper.com/archives/003900.html
Few dozen Muslim march vs Million Muslim March
MIM: The poster for the March Against Terror reflects the hype and misrepresentation which one has come to associate with the FMAT. This photo of what appears to be 'the Million Man March' was meant to imply that DC was about to experience ' a Million Muslim March'. According to the FMAT website:
"...The Free Muslims Coalition (FMC), a national Muslim organization with 13 chapters world wide, is proud to announce that 70 organizations have sponsored the first ever Muslim led March Against Terror. Approximately 20 of the 70 organizations are Muslim, Arab or Middle Eastern..."
According to Nawash, his group is having a hard time gaining members because; "...The clever adoption of the Palestinian cause has made it difficult for peaceful Muslims to attack terrorist organizations such as Islamic Jihad and HAMAS..." Nawash also believes that Israelis are perpetrators of terrorism who are essentially to blame for the attacks against them.
In a blatantly false statement Nawash makes the bogus claim which any reading of the Koran will refute :
"...The Islam we represent respects other religions and we know that God loves Christians and Jews just as much as he loves Muslims.
Nawash then glosses over what he calls 'horrors committed in the name of Islam" and has pompously set himself up as the absolver and redeemer of Islam .
"...To those Christians and Jews who watch horrors committed in the name of Islam, we say please don't make your final judgment about Muslims and Islam..."
He then pretentiously and disingenuously asserts that,"....We recognize that we have to clean our own house and we have begun..." http://www.thedeadhand.com/blogs/jscroft/archive/2005/05/13/1479.aspx
Nawash should start by cleaning his own house at FMAT which includes board member Ray Hanania, a rabid anti semite and conspiracy theorist, whose most recent article appeared in Al Jazeera, and asserted that;
"...In a way, you have to blame Americans like former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and media bigots like Sean Hannity and Daniel Pipes for the moral corruption that drives many of the abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan..." http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/May/14o/Koran%20Story%20Exposes%20Myth%20of%20American%20Democracy%20and%20Morality%20By%20Ray%20Hanania.htm
As for Nawash himself, his law office, is housed in the same building as the MSA and WAMY, an Al Qaeda and Hamas funding front, and is nearby the Dar Al Hijrah mosque where he worships and solicits clients. The Dar Al Hirjah mosque was described by Paul Sperry in his book "Infiltration", as being a Wahhabist funded hub of terrorism, which included abetting the 9/11 hijackers. So Nawash's grandiose proclamation that Muslims need to "clean our own house" and we have begun" ...is just another example of his pathological dissembling.
MIM: Nawash not only admits by default that most Muslims support the use of terror as a legitmate political weapon, and the fact that less then 30 Muslims showed up on a Saturday afternoon in DC to March against terrorism which garnered supported from mostly non Muslims, speaks for itself .Out of 15 announced speakers, 35 participants, many of whom were non Muslims, answered the call for Muslims to take a public stand against terrorism. The FMAT engaged in deception by publishing two lists of endorsers, and announcing that 70 groups endorsed the event. According to one report, the speakers used the opportunity to rail against CAIR, the Council of American Islamic Relations, with whom they claim to be vying for power as to who is the legitimate voice of the Muslim community in America.
(Convienently forgotten was the fact that the opportunistic FMAT did align with CAIR last year to get media mileage by making a show of opposing a radical Saudi textbook at a Wahhabist school).
The FMAT March Against Terror, turns out to be more about internicine Muslim strife then about terrorism, which proves, that ex terrorist lawyers, like Nawash, (who lied about his association with convicted terrorist supporter Alamoudi), was being more then 'economical with the truth' about the support he had for his Free Muslims Against Terror march.
One blogger took scepticism to the next level and speculated that the Free Muslims Against Terror could actually be an Al Qaeda suicide bombing squad who could use the 'peace march' as cover in order to detonate themselves at strategic points in the Capitol. http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$33856
"...Jason speculated on what if this was a plot to pull off an attack against the United States? What if, say, 300 Muslims show up - and let's say 100 of them are strapped with bombs. They move throughout the Federal Triangle individually and cautiously, avoiding local security and police as much as possible. Next, at a signal, or certain time, they detonate, one by one, possibly being set off manually and also via remote celluar phones..."
"...The wildest thoughts may come up on events like this, and some may appear to be laughable at first. But then again, the idea that someone would fly loaded jet aircraft into buildings were never seriously given much thought. It's usually ideas like this one that are guffawed at or tossed to the side as being impossible. No one could come up with such a terrible plot.
No one except maybe Al-Qaeda..."
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MIM: The poster above showing millions of marchers is typical of the dissembling employed by the FMAT. This picture carried the captin ' No shoving please' . Of the 'several dozen' people who were reported to have shown up, at least 95% were non Muslims.
MIM: As was to be expected ex terrorist lawyer Kamal Nawash's FMAT and his much hyped "March Against Terror" in D.C. attracted less then 50 people, many of them non Muslims. The group also claimed that 70 endorsers, and to have lined up major media coverage of this event. A Google search of ' March Against Terror 'reveals one article about the event by the 'local' paper in Washington. Kamal Nawash, who boasted of people saying "he had been sent by God" and calling him "The Muslim Martin Luther ",tried to play down the debacle by blaming the non attendence on "jealousy" and used the phony excuse that his coreligionists ...are recent immigrants to the country who don't understand America and have no idea how to live in this country". Nawash's self serving lies are only superceded by his megalomania. Unwilling to admit that no one takes him or his group seriously, he pontificated ; "that extremists and the leaders of established Muslim organizations have been "an obstacle every step of the way."
"They're saying we're small and insignificant," he said. "If that's the case, how come they're so worried about us? Why are they talking about us? Why are they spending so much time writing press releases and attacking us? If we're so small and insignificant, then just ignore us. But they're scared, because we're breaking their monopoly over our community."
The FMAT would have attracted a larger and far more vocal crowd by proclaiming a rally to protest the actions of a fellow Muslim who was reported to have stuffed pages of a Koran in a Gitmo toilet.
'Free Muslims Against Terrorism' march draws few in Washington
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050514/ts_alt_afp/usislammuslimsdemo_050514231702&printer=1
Sat May 14, 2005
A march in the US capital organized by the Free Muslims Against Terrorism group, whose members seek to promote democracy while rejecting the use of radical Islam, drew only a few dozen supporters.
"Our numbers might not be big today but our hearts are, and we are not going to give up," said Kamal Nawash, president of the group, who promised bigger crowds at next year's demonstration.
The group claims to gather together "American Muslims and Arabs of all backgrounds who feel that religious violence and terrorism have not been fully rejected by the Muslim community in the post 9/11 era."
At the podium set up at Freedom Plaza here two streets away from the White House, Nawash told the Muslims and few Christians present, "the war on terror is also ultimately an ideological battle ... not a battle between Islam and the West but between Muslims and Muslims."
Rather, it is a battle "between modernist Muslims who believe in freedom, democracy and pluralism and those who want to bring us back to the 14th Century."
On its web site, the group prior to the protest had asked supporters to, "join us in sending a message to radical Muslims and supporters of terrorism that we reject them and that we will do all we can to defeat them.
"We also want to send a message of hope to the people of the Muslim world and the Middle East who seek freedom, democracy and who reject radical Islam that we are with them and that we will do all we can to support them," it said.
Invited along with Muslims and Arabs to the march were Jews, Christians, and people of other faiths.
Local group leads march against terror
by Tarron Lively
http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20050514-112609-7748r.htm
A local Islamic group led a rally in the District yesterday afternoon against terrorism, which organizers said was just the beginning of their crusade against extremists.
About 50 people converged on Freedom Plaza for the "March Against Terror," an event organized by Free Muslims Against Terrorism, supporters of freedom and democracy in the Middle East and the entire Muslim community.
"We have to be honest; we have a problem with extremism, and the Muslim leadership in this country has totally failed us," said Kamal Nawash, leader of the year-old organization.
"While [the leaders] themselves don't support terrorism, they share the ideology of the terrorists, which is this delusion about creating a theocratic Muslim state. ... We're here to offer an ideological challenge to extremism and the ideology that causes extremism and terrorism."
Mr. Nawash, 35, a Palestinian-born lawyer who has become a U.S. citizen, is a former candidate for the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates. He and his organization, which promotes a secular interpretation of Islam, has generated a national profile in the past year by participating in hundreds of radio and television interviews.
More than 70 groups signed on in support. Speakers at the event said it was a success despite the sparse attendance. Mr. Nawash had hoped more than 1,000 people would attend.
"It starts with just a few people, so I'm not worried about the number" in attendance, said Mr. Hashim El-Tinay, founder and president of the Salam Sudan Foundation. "It's more about the quality of leadership."
Aldo Leiva, director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said terrorism is a human problem, not a Muslim, Christian or Jewish problem.
"Together, we can solve it," he said.
Some Muslim groups have criticized Mr. Nawash, questioning whether his cause is motivated by his political agenda. He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Virginia offices. Others say his actions stereotype and discriminate against American Muslims.
Mr. Nawash said the criticism is steeped in envy of his organization's status.
"Unlike [extremist groups], we are able to communicate with mainstream America," he said. "Most of them are recent immigrants to the country who don't understand America and have no idea how to live in this country. We're a Muslim group that's well-received by mainstream America, and they're jealous of it. So they're making every accusation in the book."
Mr. Nawash said that extremists and the leaders of established Muslim organizations have been "an obstacle every step of the way."
"They're saying we're small and insignificant," he said. "If that's the case, how come they're so worried about us? Why are they talking about us? Why are they spending so much time writing press releases and attacking us? If we're so small and insignificant, then just ignore us. But they're scared, because we're breaking their monopoly over our community."
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MIM: John Rudolph takes scepticism of the FMAT to the next level with article in the Augusta Free Press and relates that his carpool buddy "... Jason speculated on what if this was a plot to pull off an attack against the United States? ..."
World According To
John Rudolph
http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$33856
My friend and I carpool together to work. Jason is a smart guy. He keeps up with current events, the situation in the Middle East, and follows the news releases of Anti-CAIR and the writings that I submit to The Augusta Free Press.
Equipped with a good imagination, when he told me this at first, I was skeptical. We discussed it this morning again, and the more I thought about it, the more I speculated that it could be possible, but imagine the probability that it will; the odds are very high, I know - but what if?
But the "what ifs" are what really make us think, and this is one I wanted to share with those who may be concerned about this sudden maneuver to make people think that there is a Muslim group out there that is actually dead set against Islamist terrorism.
Last week, he had discovered the news about the Muslim march against terror, which will be held May 14 in the Federal Triangle, Washington D.C. Jason speculated on what if this was a plot to pull off an attack against the United States? What if, say, 300 Muslims show up - and let's say 100 of them are strapped with bombs. They move throughout the Federal Triangle individually and cautiously, avoiding local security and police as much as possible. Next, at a signal, or certain time, they detonate, one by one, possibly being set off manually and also via remote celluar phones.
Mass confusion erupts at the Federal Triangle as human bombs detonate. One goes off in the center of the crowd. Another detonates next to the Ariel Rios Federal Building (the post office) and causes mass casualties and structural damage. Another goes off in front of the Department of Commerce and another detonates under the columns of the Mellon Auditorium, causing considerable casualties and irrepairable damage to the building.
Another one down the street detonates in front of the doors of the Department of Justice. More human suicide bombers detonate themselves, one by one until all of them go off. Police wouldn't know how to handle the carnage, let alone point out the bombers individually. It would lead to mass chaos.
It's a horrific scenario, but at the same time, it's a deadly, well-thought-out plot.
So why could something like this happen?
The wildest thoughts may come up on events like this, and some may appear to be laughable at first. But then again, the idea that someone would fly loaded jet aircraft into buildings were never seriously given much thought. It's usually ideas like this one that are guffawed at or tossed to the side as being impossible. No one could come up with such a terrible plot.
No one except maybe Al-Qaeda.
What a way to strike. A brilliant plot indeed! It would cause mass panic, for one. Those suicide bombers that strike out over in Israel? Let's say that this might be the first time for Americans to get a taste of these attacks. Very well thought out. And, if orchestrated carefully, it might indeed become the deadliest attack on U.S. soil. It would strike at the heart of America - "the very heart of the beast," as the Islamists would say.
Let's speculate this for a moment. The best way to get to the enemy is to declare yourself on their side. Create a fake splinter group of Muslims that delcare themselves on America's side. Give them a name. Make the public believe that they are trustworthy and they want to march against terrorism. Throngs of people will want to come out to check it out.
Isn't it rather odd that, all of a sudden, a Muslim group that appears out of nowhere decides to launch a march against terrorism?
Isn't it more odd that, Kamal Nawash, the same man who defended someone who ended up behind bars in federal prison for terrorist charges, is organizing this march against terrorism? Nawash's past actions are highly questionable. This could merely be a ruse to help get Nawash into public office, and he tried that in vain back in 2003. But then again, it could be a much bigger plot. Nawash is discussed in Paul Sperry's book, Infiltration. This book is currently at the top of my required reading list. If you haven't gotten it yet, you are missing out.
I have interviewed Kamal Nawash via phone with questions about this march. He avoided my questions via e-mail regarding his legal defense of Abdurahman Alamoudi, who is now behind bars. Nawash even told me that he's against CAIR, and "wants to get rid of them." More on that in an upcoming article I am about to have published. I found it extremely odd that this man would denounce CAIR in such a way. I guess that's supposed to make me believe that he's on my side.
But I don't trust Nawash. Check out this document that is a sworn affadavit that Nawash signed in reference to him defending Alamoudi. I found this on the Paul Sperry Web site: www.sperryfiles.com/images/8-7.jpg.
So who are these Muslims that suddenly want to come out of the closet and admit that they're against terrorism? They're not apostates, this is for sure. So why now are they appearing?
And why is this coming, after nearly four years of silence from the Muslims, that they declare themselves against Jihad against the West?
The Federal Triangle is an area that contains many important government landmarks. Excellent choices for massive attacks.
Imagine the possibilities.
And, so far, CAIR isn't having anything to do with the march. Repeated calls to the communications office of CAIR got me nowhere. Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper didn't want to talk to me, even though I relayed my question through one of his colleagues - "what is CAIR's opinion on this march?"
I left my number for Hooper or anyone to get back to me on this. Nada. Not even a negative reply.
So if there is a terrorist plot involved, CAIR gets to wipe their hands clean - this would be a big plus on CAIR's behalf. "we were against this march from the onset," Hooper would beam with glee on Fox News after the carnage over at the Federal Triangle.
I would hope that those addressed in this message will pay heed. I would hope that extra security, bomb sniffers and all the necessary equipment are in place for this march. A cunning, well-planned-out plot may be underway.
Let's not forget what bin Laden said - the next attack will be even more deadly than the first, and this march could become something other than just a few Muslims showing up trying to show the world that they're against terrorism.
Consider this scenario very carefully before you judge it as mere specualtion.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/610