Posted on 03/26/2009 3:34:20 PM PDT by Cindy
SNIPPET: "For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate."
A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers.
And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) tracked down court records involving Bray and found a history of legal run-ins and deceit. Bray was no kid – he was born in 1950 and was more than 30 years old when he amassed at least three felony convictions during the 1980s. And, if his recollection of the timing of his conversion to Islam is accurate, it did not straighten him out. He had changed his faith years before becoming a felon."
(Excerpt) Read more at investigativeproject.org ...
Wonder if my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather owned his Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather?? He has been officially disowned.
Pray for America, Our Troops and obama’s Failure
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1015/mahdi-bray-voting-with-conviction
“Mahdi Bray: Voting With Conviction”
An IPT Investigation
IPT News
March 27, 2009
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=46196
“American Muslims to Obama: ‘Charity Begins at Home’”
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
SNIPPET: ““However, we feel it is just as important that the president gives serious consideration and outreach to the millions of American Muslims right here at home,” Bray said. “President Obama has visited houses of worship. He’s visited churches, he’s visited synagogues, but other than ‘yes we can,’ we say, ‘yes he can’ visit a mosque here in America.”
Bray said that if Obama visits an American mosque he would find people who support his presidency and who are concerned about issues like health care, jobs, energy and education.
He also claimed that federal law-enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice, unfairly target and prosecute American Muslims.
Bray called for Obama to end the federal policies put in place by George W. Bush that he said are “attacks on the American people’s civil rights and civil liberties, especially within the American Muslim community.”
Bray further said Obama needs to understand the people who are Americans and Muslims.
“He needs to come on down and have a relationship with the American-Muslim community and engage the American-Muslim community,” Bray said.
Other groups that are members of the task force include the American Muslim Alliance, American Muslims for Palestine, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Circle of North America, Muslim Alliance in North America, Muslim Student Association-National, Muslim Ummah of North America and United Muslims of America.”
I wonder if there's a list of all former SDS members out there... it looks to me like all Obama's backer groups have former SDS in their leadership...and as it happens, the Muslim Brotherhood folks do, too...
FEBRUARY 20, 2002 : (THE MUSLIM AMERICAN SOCIETY (MAS), A FRONT GROUP OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, IS SIGNATORY OF THE REFUSE & RESIST'S DOCUMENT----See NION, REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST PARTY LEADER CLARK KISSINGER {See THE "BLIND SHEIKH'S" LAWYER LYNNE STEWART} ) MAS was a signatory to a February 20, 2002 document, composed by the radical group Refuse & Resist, condemning military tribunals and the detention of immigrants apprehended in connection with post-9/11 terrorism investigations.
MAS strongly opposes the Patriot Act, which it says “strips away the fundamental checks and balances that safeguard many of our basic civil liberties,” and has “drastically infringed upon every American's rights by giving the government expanded powers to invade privacy, imprison and deport people without due process, and punish political dissent.”------ "MUSLIM AMERICAN SOCIETY (MAS)," www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org, Date: 10/23/2007 7:41:02 PM
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* Not In Our Name : An unsavory cast of fringe groups has also slimed its way into the “Free Lynne Stewart” sweepstakes. Refuse and Resist, a group headed by Maoist Clark Kissinger (also the leader of the anti-war group Not In Our Name), actively promotes Stewart. Kissinger is also a leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Other fringe communist groups supporting Stewart include Pravda, the World Socialist Website, the Committee to Support Revolution in Peru (an arm of Peru’s bloodthirsty “Shining Path” rebels) and International A.N.S.W.E.R (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)—the Stalinist sect at the helm of many recent anti-war protests. BR>---------- " Cheerleaders for Terrorism: Radical lawyer Lynne Stewart continues her support for Islamic terror ," By Erick Stakelbeck, FrontPageMagazine.com, Wednesday, June 17, 2003 posted June 18, 2003
MARCH 2003 : (MAS's 'FREEDOM FOUNDATION' EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MAHDI BRAY {SDS, MPAC, NCPPF, PIJ'S SAMI AL ARIAN} TESTIFIES AT SAMI AL ARIAN'S BOND HEARING ) In March 2003, [Mahdi Bray, executive director, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation & former member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)] Bray testified at the bond hearing of indicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami al-Arian, claiming responsibility for “mentoring [al-Arian] about the civil rights movement.”64 [64 USA v. Sami Al-Arian, Transcript of Bond Hearing, Tampa, Florida, March 25, 2003. ]
He also claimed that he and al-Arian were “kindred spirits” on the issue of Muslim political activism.65 [65 USA v. Sami Al-Arian, Transcript of Bond Hearing, Tampa, Florida, March 25, 2003]
MAY 2003 : (SAMI AL ARIAN MENTOR / MASFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MAHDI BRAY {See SDS, MPAC, PIJ'S SAMI AL ARIAN & OBAMA'S NEW MUSLIM OUTREACH COORDINATOR MINHA HUSAINI } RANTS AGAINST IRAQ WAR; HIS RANT IS INCLUDED IN PRESS RELEASE POSTED ON ANSWER WEB SITE) Through public statements and demonstrations, Bray has vehemently protested Bush administration policies in the War on Terror, claiming that they are injurious to innocent American Muslims.
For instance, in May 2003, Bray said:
The recent barbaric and illegal invasion of Iraq has emboldened the Bush administration in its actions to target the Muslim and immigrant community and to violate the rights of Muslims, immigrants, and all Americans with impunity. We must continue to forge a coalition of conscience to resist the Bush administration's belligerent and destructive policy which is the greatest impediment to global peace today.66 [66 MAS Press Release posted on International ANSWER’s website, May 13, 2003, http://www.iacenter.org/mas_2003.htm.]--- "A Troubling Influence - An Islamic Fifth Column penetrates the White House," by Frank J Gaffney Jr., FrontPageMagazine, 12/09/03
OCTOBER 2003 MID : (REPORT : SAMI AL ARIAN MENTOR / MASFF "COMMUNITY ORGANIZER" MAHDI BRAY {SDS, MPAC, PIJ'S SAMI AL ARIAN & OBAMA'S NEW MUSLIM OUTREACH COORDINATOR MINHA HUSAINI } HAS OVERSEEN THE TRAINING OF NEARLY 1000 ISLAMIC ACTIVISTS {COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS} BY THIS TIME ) Mahdi Bray, executive director, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.60 [60 “Guest CV: Mahdi Bray,” IslamOnline.net, http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Guestcv.asp?hGuestID=jD6a1X.] Bray, a former member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), is a leader of several pro-Islamist organizations in this country.His role typically is that of a coordinator for political activism.By mid-October of this year [2003], Bray had overseen the training of nearly 1,000 Islamic activists.61[61 “MAS Freedom Near to Reaching Goal of 1,000 Trained Activists,” Freedom Foundation Press Room, October 16, 2003, http://masnet.org/pressroom_release.asp?id=560. ]
******
Bray also served as the political director of another pro-Islamist group based in Los Angeles, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and as a founding board member of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom.62[62 See, http://www.ncppf.org/NCPPFstaffandboardpage.html. ]
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He [MAHDI BRAY] hosts a radio talk-show sponsored largely by – and reflecting the views of – Wahhabi Saudi Arabia.63 [63 “Muslim Radio a Workout for 1st Amendment,” Washington Post, December 4, 2001.]
SEPTEMBER 15, 2008 : (SPRINGFIELD, VA : OBAMA'S NEW MUSLIM OUTREACH COORDINATOR MINHA HUSAINI SPEAKS AT MEETING ATTENDED BY 2 OTHER OBAMA-AFFILIATED DEMOCRATIC PARTY WORKERS, MAS FREEDOM FOUNDATION EXEC DIRECTOR MAHDI BRAY {see WWP, SDS, IAC, ANSWER, HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH}, OBAMA'S FORMER MUSLIM OUTREACH COORDINATOR MAZEN ASBAHI, AND CAIR EXEC DIRECT NIHAD AWAD -- SEE HLF TERROR CHARITY INVESTIGATION) The Obama campaign’s Muslim outreach director participated in a meeting in mid September that was attended by several controversial Muslim activists, NBC News has learned. .....The Muslim outreach meeting On September 15, [OBAMA'S] newly named Muslim outreach director Minha Husaini spoke to a small group of Muslim leaders and potential Obama supporters at a hotel in Springfield, Virginia, several meeting participants and the campaign said. Two other Obama-affiliated Democratic Party workers joined Husaini and also spoke to the crowd. Some Virginia and Washington, D.C.-based Muslim activists and interested citizens attended, and flyers were passed out from “Arab Americans for Obama” stating Sen. Obama’s goals for achieving peace in the Middle East, protecting the civil liberties of Arab Americans and ending the war in Iraq. [snip]
One meeting attendee was Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society, several of the participants said. ...
The MAS [Muslim American Society] website describes [ Mahdi] Bray as an imam and “long time civil and human rights activist.” Bray’s critics say he has a history of defending terrorists. They point to a video of Bray at a rally in 2000, for example, in which he can be seen pumping his fist in the air in support of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
...In a 2004 interview, he [Mahdi Bray] called the Israeli assassination of a Hamas spiritual leader an “unlawful, cowardly and dangerous act of state-sponsored terrorism.”
Bray did not return a call requesting comment.
Also attending the meeting was Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is a Muslim-American civil rights group that has, as its website states, “consistently and persistently condemned terrorism and the killing of innocent civilians.”
Nonetheless, the group has many critics, especially in law-enforcement circles, and is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case.
...A second meeting participant speaking on condition on anonymity said he was stunned to learn that Awad and Bray had been invited to an event where Obama representatives would be present. The participant said Awad and Bray are considered politically “radioactive.” He said that some in the Obama group knew ahead of time that top CAIR officials would be in attendance--an allegation the Obama campaign disputes.
“Yes, when I knew they were coming it made me uncomfortable,” the attendee said. “There was some hope it wouldn’t get out” into the media, the attendee added. “There was some concern within the Obama camp that some of these people coming may be a political liability.”
Chicago-based lawyer Mazen Asbahi also attended the meeting. He is the Obama campaign’s former Muslim outreach coordinator, who abruptly resigned in August after the Wall Street Journal and websites that track fundamentalist Islam began questioning Asbahi’s involvement in an Islamic investment fund and various Islamic groups. (Excerpt) Read more at deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com ...
-------- "Obama concedes mistake over Muslim outreach meeting," Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer , [p]msnbc ^ | 10/10/08 Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 5:20:40 PM by mathprof
MAY 1, 2009 : (REPORT : [FORMER?] MAS' PRESIDENT ESAM OMEISH SEEKS TO RUN FOR OFFICE IN VA) Campaign Mum on MAS Ties, Radical Omeish Speeches The last time the public got a good look at Esam Omeish, he was resigning from a Virginia immigration panel, claiming that the posting of videos showing him praising Palestinians who chose "the jihad way" to liberate their land was part of a smear campaign against him.
Now Omeish is diving into the deep end of smear campaigns, offering himself as a candidate for a partisan legislative seat in Northern Virginia. Omeish is among four Democrats vying to win their party's nomination in District 35 in the Virginia House of Delegates.
According to his campaign website, Omeish would focus on health care, traffic congestion and education if sent to Richmond. The site emphasizes his Northern Virginia roots and his medical career. It borrows themes from Barack Obama's presidential campaign, including a logo emphasizing the letter "O" from his last name. Like Obama, Omeish also calls himself "a community organizer," who "has served on the board of a number of non-profit organizations."
Omeish actually ran a national religious organization, yet there's not one reference to the Muslim American Society (MAS) or his role as president anywhere on the campaign site. Neither is there any mention of Omeish's 2007 appointment by Gov. Tim Kaine to the Virginia Commission on Immigration.
Omeish no longer is listed as president on the MAS website, although it is not clear when his term may have ended or who succeeded him. MAS was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an 80-year-old Egyptian religious/political movement that seeks to make Islamic law, or Shariah, the controlling basis for society.
As a college student, Omeish was president of the Muslim Students Association at Georgetown University. Like MAS, the student association was founded by Muslim Brotherhood members in the United States. Omeish insists any Brotherhood connections are a thing of the past.But an examination of his speeches and sermons obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism shows Omeish repeatedly praising Hamas leaders and speaking of using his religion to transform American society.-----------INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT.org - IPT News: "MAS' ESAM OMEISH CAMPAIGN SEEKS VIRGINIA OFFICE Campaign Mum on MAS Ties, Radical Omeish Speeches" (May 1, 2009) )
Thanks for updating this thread piasa.
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