Posted on 04/04/2003 2:19:52 AM PST by JohnHuang2
[Editor’s Note: We received this memo from students at UCLA. The author of the memo is unknown, but its contents have been checked with the students who attended some of the events and with experts in this area.] UCLA’s Radical Islamist Front
During the past several years the UCLA Muslim Student Association (MSA) has acted in collaboration with a number of Islamic groups and individuals. The MSA operates both on campus and off. They organize events featuring militant speakers, co-sponsor events and conferences with radical Islamic groups, and co-sponsor fundraisers for killers and Islamic radicals. In addition, they use their publication, Al-Talib, to disseminate their radical, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel views.
On October 22, 2000, a viciously anti-Israel protest took place at the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles. This hate-filled rally, ostensibly a protest against "Israeli aggression," was organized by two UCLA students, Arif Shaikh and Ahmed Shama. Shaikh is a UCLA graduate student of Arabic and Shama is a past president (president at the time of this rally) of the UCLA Muslim Student Association. On the official rally notification e-mail sent by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the e-mail addresses of both students are listed as contacts for further information. In fact, Shama’s UCLA student e-mail was listed: ashama@ucla.edu.
At the rally anti-Semitic statements and shouts of "Death to Israel!" and "Death to Jews!" were commonplace. (Ed. note: a video was attached to the memo) "Victory to Islam! Death to the Jews" could also be heard from Shama, the MSA president and rally co-sponsor. He also stated: "Our solution is simple. We are not simply anarchists . . . . Our solution is the establishment of justice by Islamic means. That is the only solution to this Israeli apartheid." Shama criticized Israeli/Palestinian peace talks, saying:
"When we see negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is a racist Zionist, and on the other side is Yasser Arafat, who used to be a so-called "Arab activist," but is now a racist Zionist, being mediated by Bill Clinton, who is a racist Zionist. And Hosni Mubarak, I am Egyptian, Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt, who is a racist Zionist. And King Hussein II of Jordan, who is a racist Zionist. When we see that a peace process is being negotiated between Zionists, mediated by Zionists, controlled by Zionists, and being portrayed in the media by Zionists, we come and we condemn all of you. We don’t care about your background, we don’t care which language you speak, we don’t care about what religion you claim to hold. Because you are racist Zionists. And we will not accept their definition of peace. I will not accept their definition of Islam. We will define Islam the way that the Prophet, peace be upon him, defined it."
Not satisfied with just rhetoric, Shama himself burned an Israeli flag while a jubilant crowd chanted "Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews, the army of Mohammed is coming for you," and "Death to Israel, victory to Islam."
One speaker, Sohail Shakry, president of MSA West, quoted Hizbollah Secretary General Sheik Nasrallah:
"If we look at the situation the past 52 years, the biggest impediment to peace has been the existence of the Zionist State of Israel. Since the existence of this state, we have had wars, conflicts, killings, massacres. If we really want true peace then we must see that it goes with the elimination of the Zionist entity in the middle of the Muslim world."
Another speaker was Hussam Ayloush, a member of CAIR-Southern California region. Besides ranting over the "racist" practices of Israel and over "our tax dollars used to kill the innocents of Palestine," Ayloush pleaded for the rally participants to send money to help the "victims and orphans." He suggested sending money to the Holy Land Foundation, which is a known associate of terrorists and is on the United States list of terrorist supporters. In fact, the United States government froze the assets of the Holy Land Foundation in December 2001 due to its support for terrorist activity. On September 14, 2000, U.S. Agency for International Development ("USAID") notified HLF that due to national security concerns it has been removed from the list of USAID’s registry of organizations eligible for funding. In the notice, USAID included a copy of a letter from the office of the under secretary of state, dated August 30, 2000, which stated:
"I believe you [USAID] are aware that the Department of State has had some concerns about this organization [HLF]. The Department has now determined that the continuation of this relationship is contrary to the national defense and foreign policy interests of the United States. Accordingly, I request that USAID take all necessary steps to terminate this relationship immediately." Organizing On-Campus Events
On May 20, 2001, UCLA hosted a conference, co-sponsored by the UCLA MSA, called "The Israeli Palestinian Crisis: New Conversations for a Pluralist Future." Among the radical Islamic organizations that participated in the event and sent speakers to this conference were the Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, MPAC. Nihad Awad, the founder and executive director of CAIR, in a speech delivered at Barry University in March 1994, made the statement, "…after I researched the situation inside and outside Palestine, I am in support of the Hamas movement…."[1] In May 2000, Rafiq Jaber, a member of CAIR’s Board of Directors, signed a press release regarding the Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon: "
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) claims to represent American Muslims and describes itself as "a public service agency working for the civil rights of American Muslims, for the integration of Islam into American pluralism, and for a positive, constructive relationship between American Muslims and their representatives." In reality, MPAC is a radical Islamic organization that openly defends terrorist groups such as Hizbollah. Salam Al-Marayati, MPAC’s executive director, wrote the following in 1999:
"Hezbollah organized the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 killing 241 marines, the largest number of American troops killed in a single operation since the end of the Vietnam war. Yet this attack, for all the pain it caused, was not in a strict sense, a terrorist operation. It was a military operation, producing no civilian casualties -- exactly the kind of attack that Americans might have lauded had it been directed against Washington's enemies." [1] [2]
This so-called "pluralistic" conference featured statements that can only be classified as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. Israel was declared to be a terrorist state and a classic example of racist apartheid. Salam al-Marayati decried the use of American weapons and tax dollars that finance Israeli aggression. Dr. Riad Abdel Karim, a member of the aforementioned CAIR, devoted his speech to painstakingly equating Zionism with South African apartheid. (Ed.: A full transcript of this event was attached) Rashid Khalidi, a noted Arab professor in Chicago, defended the current intifada. Mahmoud Ibrahim, a professor at Cal Poly Pomona, inferred that the actions of the Israeli army are the same as those actions that the Jews endured during the Holocaust.
The UCLA MSA sponsored the on-campus "Palestinian Freedom Week" from May 30-31, 2002. Among the featured speakers was the aforementioned Hussam Ayloush, Executive Director of CAIR-Los Angeles.
Radical Speakers Invited to UCLA by the MSA
UCLA MSA consistently invites radical Muslim speakers who call for the death of Jews and even the death of America. Two such examples are Imam Abdul-Alim Musa, Imam of Masjid al-Islam in Washington, D.C. and Hatem Bazian, a university professor at Berkeley. This will become evident as their names are repeatedly mentioned in the report. In fact, the two spoke together at UCLA on January 21, 2001. Imam Musa has a long track record of making anti-American, anti-Semitic statements, and Bazian is not shy to call for the death of Jews. Bazian stated the following in May 1999:
"And the aya (passage) actually talks about the Jews entering the Masjid again and so they’d be entering again and then they’ll be defeated, in the Hadith, the Day of Judgment will never happen until you fight the Jews. They are on the West side of the river, which is the Jordan River, and you ‘re on the East side until the trees and the stones will say, Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him! And that’s in the Hadith about this, this is a future battle before the Day of Judgment."
At the January 21, 2001 event titled "Shaping Our Perspective: Our Role in a Changing World," sponsored by MSA UCLA, Imam Musa stated: "If you were to say that the Soviet Union was wiped off the face of the earth . . . people would have thought you were crazy, right? The people of Afghanistan didn’t have the intellect or historical knowledge to know that they wasn’t supposed to wipe out the Soviet Union, is that right? . . . We saw the fall of one so-called superpower, Old Sam is next."
On April 13-15, 2001 UCLA hosted the 3rd annual MSA West Conference. Among the confirmed speakers were Imam Musa and Imam Muhammad al-'Asi from Washington D.C. Imam Al-Asi, a radical anti-Semitic Shiite cleric who supports the Iranian regime and the militant Islamic movement in genera[1][4], regularly vocalizes anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli sentiment. On February 21, 2001 Muslim students at the University of California at Irvine invited Al-Asi to speak. The statement below encapsulates the virulently anti-Semitic nature of his speech:
"You have the Jews who are blind and deaf and dumb, who cannot see the same forms of racism, or discrimination, of oppression that is institutionalized and implemented by one of their own; and that is the Israeli, Zionist government in Tel Aviv… Discrimination, if it is against a gentile, is not objectionable; but anything that happens against a Jew becomes a Holocaust…Where is the courageous Jew who can come out and say Israel is as fascist as the most fascist of Europe? Israel is a racist as Apartheid could ever be."
"…In the meantime, the Zionist-Israeli lobby, referred to by the Jews themselves as the Jewish lobby in this country, is taking the United States government and the United States people to the abyss. We have a psychosis in the Jewish community that is unable to co-exist equally and brotherly with other human beings. You can take a Jew out of the ghetto, but you cannot take the ghetto out of the Jew."
Al-Asi not only vocalizes his anti-Semitic feelings, but also has vocalized anti-American sentiment as well. In 1994, Al-Asi appeared in Steven Emerson's PBS documentary Jihad in America, saying that "if the Americans are placing their forces in the Persian Gulf, we should be creating another war front for the Americans in the Muslim world -- and specifically where American interests are concentrated. In Egypt, in Turkey, in the Indian subcontinent, just to mention a few. Strike against American interests there."[1][5] In a speech at a New Black Panther Party rally carried on C-Span 2, Al-Asi said that "the twin evils in this world are the decision makers in Washington and the decision makers in Tel Aviv." He also defended Bin Laden by saying that " Israeli Zionist Jews" were behind the Sept. 11 attacks.[1][6] Al-Talib, the UCLA Muslim Student Association publication
Al-Talib, the UCLA Muslim Student Association publication, is no exception to the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel trend that is so prevalent at UCLA. Examples below demonstrate how the writers and editors support Islamic radical groups, and even support Jihad as a means to an end. Support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is non-existent, as is the very recognition of Israel as a sovereign, legitimate state. Al-Talib featured a cover story titled "The Spirit of Jihad"
An editorial by the Al-Talib staff venerates Osama Bin-Ladin:
"When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid (someone who struggles in Allah’s cause) Osama Bin-Ladin as a ‘terrorist’ we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter; someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah’s cause and speak out against oppressors. We take these stances only to please Allah."
On Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, Usama Bin Laden’s spiritual leader who extolled the virtue of "jihad and the rifle alone" as a means to an Islamic state (November 2000):
"We pray that Sheik Azzam’s dream of a true Islamic state comes true."
Al-Talib featured another cover story tilted "Philippines: the forgotten Jihad" in the September 2001 issue. In it, the author laments the "targeted distortion" of Islamic terrorist groups like Abu Sayyaf and even attempts to explain the negative distortion:
". . . Abu Sayyaf are actually beneficial for the United States because they give the United States a reason to be in the Philippines. After all, America is just helping the government get past its nasty Muslim problem, nothing else."
It is important to know that the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, was at that time holding an American couple hostage (several of their previous hostages have been decapitated), receives material and financial assistance from Usama Bin Laden. In the same article, Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright are referred to as "the butcher of Baghdad" and "his henchwoman," respectively. Al-Talib
The report has a section devoted to "the resistance movements against Zionist aggression." Hamas and Hizbollah, two of the most notorious Islamic terror organizations which have appeared on the United States’ list of designated terror groups since 1995, are lauded as heroes fighting Israeli occupation. Totally ignoring all the innocent American and Israeli blood on the hands of these terror groups, both are described as noble, quality social welfare providers.
The report also contains several articles on different subjects, all of which demonize and disparage Israel, such as:
* "Israeli" Apartheid: the chilling facts
* Zionist Torture Exposed
* Examples of "Israeli" Human Rights Violations
* "Israel’s" Nuclear Weapons: proof of their relentless terror
* Stop U.S. Foreign Aid to "Israel" Now
The February 2002 edition of Al-Talib contained an advertisement for a March 2 MSA West-sponsored event honoring "The Legacies of Hassan Al-Banna and Malcolm X." Hassan Al-Banna was the founder of the radical Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
In a December 19, 2001 AP article entitled "University support for alleged terrorism affiliates sparks debate", written by Don Thompson, Al-Talib publisher Mohammad Mertaban commented on the freezing of assets of Islamic charities tied to Hamas and Bin Laden:
"If it goes to families of those who have died in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I don’t see anything wrong with that. I don’t understand how people can label Palestinians terrorists."
Mertaban, when asked his views on suicide bombers in Israel, stated, ""We're in no position to condemn a suicide bombing because none of us has experienced what they've been through under 53 years of oppression."[1][7]
In an article titled "Son Takes Over, As Assad Dies After Years Of Reigning in Syria" in the June 1999 edition, the Al-Talib author refuses the existence of the State of Israel when he wrote:
"Yet with Hafez al-Assad’s death, Bashar is believed to be more intransigent to peace talks with "Israel" (Occupied Palestine), not necessarily because of additional malice towards "Israel" but because he lacks the power to make the necessary concessions with the historic enemy without earning the enmity of hard-line factions in Damascus."
Aside from their overt apologia for terrorists, over the years Al-Talib has, and continues to, print numerous anti-Jewish articles. Attached are pages from various Al-Talib issues that compare Zionism to apartheid and venerate Hamas and Hizbollah as "freedom fighting organizations."
Co-Sponsoring Events and Fundraisers for Murderers and Terror Supporters
Just two days before the events of September 11, on September 9, 2001 UCLA’s Al-Talib magazine co-sponsored a benefit dinner titled "Justice for Imam Jamil Al-Amin" at UC Irvine. Imam Al-Amin recently was convicted of murdering an Atlanta police officer while being arrested. Among the speakers were the aforementioned Imam Musa and Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, who is well known for many anti-Semitic statements which he recently recanted [1][8] At this particular event, Yusuf made the following remarks concerning the fate of America;
". . . They were ungrateful for the bounties of Allah and so Allah caused them to taste fear and hunger. That is one reason and, I would say, that this country is facing a very terrible fate. The reason for that is that this country stands condemned. It stands condemned like Europe stood condemned for what it did. . . . This country {America} unfortunately has a great, a great tribulation coming to it. And much of it is already here, yet people are too to illiterate to read the writing on the wall."
Imam Musa also voiced disparaging remarks about America, such as:
"You think Zionism and Palestine is the only dictatorial power in the world. We’re telling you about apartheid right here in America. Not an apartheid of the 1960s, but an apartheid right now today."
"When you fight Old Sam, you are fighting someone that is superior in criminality and Nazism. ‘Cause everyone knew the Nazis are criminals. Isn’t that right? They’re murderers. Superior to British colonialism. Out and out groups, huh? But the American criminalizer is the most skillful oppressor that the world has ever known."
"I don’t mean to give you a bad picture of America, I’m only giving you a realistic picture of America. I’m giving you the America that we know. Don’t say you know more about America . . ."
"Imam Jamil coined a phrase, and that phrase meant this: ‘If you don’t give us justice. If you don’t give us equality. If you don’t give us our share of America. If you don’t stay out of our way and leave us alone, we’re gonna burn America down."
"We're gonna live the American dream. We're gonna live happily ever after. But I've got news for you brother and sisters, you came to America and America is the most criminal government in the world (Allahu Akhbar) along with the Zionists. And eventually you're gonna to have to struggle here whether you like it or not."
"That's the way America survives. It is superior to-- you know British colonialism--but America is superior to British colonialism. They beat the British at everything. Isn't that right? They are a better colonizer, a better murderer, a better killer, a better liar, a better thief, a better infiltrator, than old, than old British. This is America that we know."
On March 24, 2002, shortly after Imam Al-Amin was convicted of murder, the UCLA MSA co-sponsored another event in his support. On the e-mail announcement were "many facts pointing to Imam Jamil’s innocence."
On February 10, 2001 the UCLA MSA co-sponsored another fundraiser for the Defense Fund of Ahmad Chaudhry held at Mt. San Antonio College. Chaudhry has been convicted of attempted murder for an assault on two of his college roommates in San Bernardino County. Among the speakers were CAIR’s Hussam Ayloush (mentioned and quoted further into the report).
On November 18, 2000 there was an UMMA Free Clinic Fundraising Dinner in Los Angeles at the Sequoia Conference Center. Featured speakers included Shayk Hamza Yusuf and Imam Siraj Wahaj. On the e-mail notification for the event, a UCLA student group e-mail address, umma@ucla.edu, was listed as a contact for more information.
The speaker Imam Siraj Wahaj, a member of CAIR’s Board of Advisors, was listed as a potential unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing case (List of unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators in United States versus Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel Rahman, Mary Jo White, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, February 2, 1995). He is the imam of the al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, where he provided a platform for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. He later served as a defense witness for the Sheik in the World Trade Center bombing trial. In September 1991, Wahaj stated the following:
"…And he [Allah] declared ‘Whoever is at war with my friends, I declare war on them.’ Who is a friend of Allah? [He chants a passage in Arabic] Allah. Your true friend is Allah, the messenger, and those who believe. Americans and Canadians. Hear it well. Hear what I’m telling you well. The Americans are not your friends, hear what I’m telling you, hear it well. The Canadians are not your friends, hear what I’m telling you, hear it well. The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah, the Messenger and those who believe. These people will never be satisfied with you until you follow their religion. They will never be satisfied with you…"[1][9]
Additional examples of UCLA MSA collaboration with extremist Islamic groups and individuals include:
According to UCLA’s school newspaper, the Daily Bruin, the Muslim Student Association proposed a resolution at an Undergraduate Student Association Council meeting, the text of which condemned violations of Palestinians' human rights by the Israeli government.
The resolution asked the council to take a stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East. The resolution included requests that USAC "condemn political Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination" and "condemn the institutionalized discrimination and oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli government." -- Daily Bruin
On August 17, 2000 Ghaith Mahmoud of the Muslim Student Association West, UCLA, spoke at an anti-sanctions of Iraq rally at the Democratic National Convention. At the rally, protestors lined a narrow sidewalk through which the thousands of delegates had to pass to return to their hotels. The demonstrators lining this gauntlet chanted slogans denouncing Gore and Bush for being guilty of genocide in Iraq and racist executions in the United States.
On May 19, 2000 CAIR sponsored a lecture in Los Angeles titled "The Life of Malcolm X the Living Martyr" at the Sabiqun Store/Musalla in Palms. On the MSA e-mail announcement of the lecture, two UCLA student e-mail addresses were listed as contacts for more information: arif@ucla.edu and ashama@ucla.edu. This is a further link between CAIR and UCLA.
On May 3, 2000 the UCLA Muslim Student Association, along with CAIR, sponsored a protest of an Israeli Independence celebration at the Hollywood Palladium.
On April 9, 2000 a fundraiser for the defense of Jamil Al-Amin was held at the Culver City Veterans Memorial Complex. Once again, the contact person for more information on the e-mail announcement was the UCLA student and MSA President Ahmed Shama.
On August 27, 1999 the UCLA MSA, CAIR-Southern California, MPAC and others sponsored a Protest Against the Use of Secret Evidence in Los Angeles at the Federal Building on Wilshire. Among the speakers, yet again, were Abdul-Alim Musa and Hussam Ayloush, CAIR.
ENDNOTES:
[1] Statement by Nihad Awad, at a panel discussion, "The Road to Peace: the Challenge of the Middle East," Barry University, March 22, 1994.
[2] "IAP President Statement Regarding Israeli Withdrawal from Southern Lebanon," distributed on the IAP-Net e-mail list serve, May 24, 2000.
[3] Salam Al-Marayati, "A Position Paper on U.S. Counter-terrorism Policy," June 1999
[4] Al-Asi on a program produced by Crescent International entitled "Jihad in American or Crusade Against Islam" from 1995: "Let me say that Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and the Islamic Resistance in the Occupied Lands are part of a general Islamic revitalization, political-military re-instatement in the arena of the world, that is not confined to the Occupied Lands and that strictly belongs to the general Islamic condition throughout the world."
[5] Fingerhut, Eric. "Islamic Center called unfit dialogue partner." Washington Jewish Week. Nov. 8, 2001
[6] Ibid
[7] Tsai, Peijean. "Students reflect on current situation in Israel." Daily Bruin Online, May 9, 2002.
[8] Washington Post, October 2, 2001 "…the Jews would have us believe that G-d had this bias to this little small tribe in the middle of the Sinai desert and all the rest of humanity is just rubbish. I mean that is the basic doctrine of the Jewish religion and that’s why it is a most racist religion, it really is…", Hamza Yusuf, 1995 ISNA Convention
[9] September 28, 1991—From a videotape at a conference featuring speaker Siraj Wahaj titled: "The Afghanistan Jihad"
Unbelievable! As Anton Chekhov noted, "Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something."
Thanx mad bookmarked and emailed
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