Free Republic

In an editorial column published on 18 December, the editors of The Toledo Blade point out that capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden would not defeat Al Qaeda and capturing or killing Mullah Omar would not defeat the Taliban. They are correct in this but their notions do not go far enough. The fact of the matter is, Al Qaeda and the Taliban could cease to exist tomorrow and the U.S. and Western civilization would still face a Jihadist threat...

Malcom Forbes must be spinning in his grave. His namesake publication’s web site has published an article which basically promotes a financial and economic system which by its very nature seeks to replace capitalism and our free enterprise system. In fact, the article reads less like journalism and more like a press release from a public relations firm. And like such press releases and “advertorials,” it completely ignores much of the reality surrounding Shariah Finance.

Over the years, Islamic jihadist terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam have targeted mass transit systems around the world. No doubt because of this history, security authorities in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada are taking appropriate measures to guard against such an attack, especially during the upcoming Olympic Games to be held there. The transit police in Vancouver are planning on using specially-trained bomb-sniffing dogs to detect explosive devices in the Vancouver transit system. So what does a local Muslim leader in Vancouver, Shawket Hassan, have to say about all this? He is “worried” about bomb sniffing...

This morning while we were going through our email we came across a notification of a comment on one of our old blog postings here on TTB. The posting that prompted the comment was our commentary on Barack Obama’s speech directed toward the leaders and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran back in March: The commenter dubbed himself “Mahdi,” which we think highly presumptuous on his part, but we suppose every man is entitled to his own delusions.

Fresh off her national “Louisiana Purchase” outrage, Sen. Mary Landrieu has a full dance card back in New Orleans over the next few days. Her companions for the Crescent City one-night stands on the calendar are, shall we say, interesting. On Saturday, Landrieu is set to give the welcome speech at a rather out-of-the-mainstream event – this time, she’ll be addressing the New Orleans premiere of Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. So as we can see, Landrieu is largely supporting a propaganda film in making her appearance and speech at Saturday’s premiere. And her neighbors at the...

This Saturday, 5 December, Senator Mary Landrieu is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at an event co-sponsored by two groups that have been tied to Jihad by the Justice Department: the Muslim Students Association and the Islamic Circle of North America. The Muslim Students Association and ICNA were both listed as unindicted co-conspirators by the Justice Dept in the largest terrorism financing trial in US history...the Holy Land Foundation Trial, in which defendants were convicted on all counts and sentenced to 65 years in federal prison. During that trial, in documents uncovered by the FBI and stipulated to by...

There is mounting evidence that the global Jihadist insurgency is fully entrenched in the USA. After the Fort Hood massacre news services seem divided between those hell-bent-for-leather on denying that it was a case of anything other than a persecuted loner “snapping” and those who proclaimed it the first “terrorist” attack on US soil since September 11th. Both were wrong. Over the last 12 months alone, we have been provided with a stack of evidence of the Jihadist insurgency inside America. Americans have largely ignored this evidence, or at least failed to “connect the dots.” I decided to go back...

It is essential that we find out how extensive Nidal Malik Hasan’s ties to other Jihadists went. Of this there can be no doubt. But we must refrain from entering into a debate on what amounts largely to semantics about whether or not the Fort Hood massacre was an act of “terrorism.”

Yesterday the US attorney’s office in Manhattan moved to seize assets of a non-profit foundation tied to Iran. Among those assets are four mosques in New York, California, Maryland and Texas, 100 acres of land in Virginia and a 36-story building at 650 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Much of this activity centers around the ties of the foundation, the Alavi Foundation, to Bank Melli. We have written extensively on Bank Melli here on SFW. It has been, for the past three years in a row, the largest Shariah-Compliant financial institution in the world, according to the UK periodical “The Banker”...

"The shooting incident which was executed by the Muslim American soldier Nidal Malek Hasan, against the American soldiers at Fort Hood base in the state of Texas last Thursday, and caused the death of 13 and injury of 38 [soldiers], has caused fright and trance and enormous fears within the military and civil circles in America.” “Some of the Western organizations and media sources say—regarding the factors that made the American soldier Nidal Hasan carry this attack—it might be caused by psychological illness and stress, which spread amongst the soldiers in the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it is...

Barrie Osborne, part of the Oscar-winning team behind the Lord of the Rings films, says the new production 'will educate people about the true meaning of Islam' Producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad. Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad's life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it...

If one were to believe what many on the Left in America say, the inmates at the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are nothing but innocent pilgrims and goat herders who all ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The latest is a distinguished gentleman named Yousef Mohammed al Shihri. This innocent shepherd (we’ll call him “Yo Mo” for short) was no doubt improperly incarcerated by the evil American empire after being snatched from his benevolent wanderings in beautiful, picturesque Afghanistan several years ago.

Even more concerning, was the presence of the “Interests Section of Iran” – a country that does not have an embassy in the U.S., since the countries have long cut off diplomatic relations. The “Interests Section of Iran” is the de facto diplomatic representation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United States. And therefore any gifts from the “Interests Section” to CAIR – say, a donation to a fundraiser – would constitute a gift from the government of Iran.

A German publishing house has decided not to print a novel about an honor killing out of fear it could be read as an insult to Muslims. Duesseldorf-based publishing house Droste said Tuesday it had canceled the printing of a murder mystery because it contained anti-Islam passages that may have caused a backlash. Droste took the decision after Gabriele Brinkmann, the author of the book "To Whom Honor is Due," refused to change several passages that defamed the Koran. "We are a publishing house that for the past three generations has issued critical and educational books," Felix Droste, the head...

[Note: John D. Guandolo is a 12 ½ year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At the request of the Center for Security Policy, he prepared an assessment of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s (FDLE) investigation of the Ohio-based parents of former Muslim Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old apostate from Islam who has sought refuge in the state of Florida. The FDLE report is provided here, and is available as searchable text for the first time, below his analysis. The significant errors and omissions that Mr. Guandolo and other experts have found in this FDLE investigation show a...

Earlier today, we posted a link to an article which mentioned that Kuwait Islamic Bank had entered into a joint venture with Colorado-based real estate company UDR. We were curious as to what, if any, restrictions were to be imposed on the real estate properties in which Kuwait Islamic Bank invested here in the United States, so we made an inquiry via UDR’s “contact us” form on the company’s web site. The company was quick to reply as, within minutes, we received a phone call from Dave Messenger, CFO of UDR. I asked Mr. Messenger two questions:

If ever there was evidence of the sinister nature of Shariah-Compliant Finance, it can be found in Iran. Iran is the world’s foremost terrorist-sponsoring nation, a country which sponsors Hezbollah, HAMAS and Al Qaeda. Iran also supports the Taliban with weaponry in their fight against NATO forces in Afghanistan. And it is common knowledge that Iran is the principle supplier and training ground for insurgents in Iraq. On top of all this, Iran is working feverishly on nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Oh, and there is one other thing about Iran which you should know: Iran dominates Shariah-Compliant Finance.

The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Richard Holbrooke, says that Taliban militants are receiving more funding from their sympathisers abroad than from Afghanistan’s illegal drug trade. Mr Holbrooke says: “More money is coming from the Gulf than is coming from the drug trade to the Taliban.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8187893

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQG8PIqLp7k

A former FBI special agent told law enforcement and Homeland Security personnel that a network of Islamic organizations are working to incrementally implement Islamic law in the United States. During a presentation at the Bedford County Emergency Management Agency, former FBI agent John Guandolo briefed members about groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which he claims is working with other Islamic groups to slowly implement Shariah, also known as Islamic law, which encompasses all areas of life. Guandolo worked in the FBI since 1996, including nine years as a member of its SWAT team. After 9/11, he worked in the...

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global Jihadist political organization which has been especially active in Great Britain in recent years. The organization is banned in Germany and has been declared a terrorist organization. Now they are emerging in the USA:

During his White House years, William Jefferson Clinton - someone Sonya Sotomayor might call a "white male" - was dubbed by an admirer in the African-American community "America's first black president." Applying the standard of identity politics and pandering to a special interest that earned Mr. Clinton that distinction, Barack Hussein Obama would have to be considered America's first Muslim president. This is not to say, necessarily, that Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim, any more than Mr. Clinton actually is black. After five months in office and most especially after his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however,...

“For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.” President Barack Hussein Obama We’re still shaking our heads in disgust over Obama’s pledge to ease the scrutiny on zakat payments to Islamic charities in the speech he delivered in Cairo. For readers who don’t know, zakat is one of the fiver pillars of Islam and it is a required tithing from all faithful Muslims who are able to donate. Charities...

A Remembrance rally was held yesterday for the soldiers who were gunned down Monday by a Muslim. Here is a first person account: Secure Arkansas organized a rally in remembrance of the first terrorist attack since 9/11. Pvt. William Long was killed and Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula was wounded by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad). Channel 11 was the only TV crew out there with a camera, and the AR Dem Gazette sent a reporter and a photographer. The event had several speakers who did a wonderful job. Video footage of them will be uploaded soon. However, the most shocking part of...

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who reportedly studied jihad with an Islamic scholar in Yemen, shot Private William Long and Private Quinton I. Ezeagwula. Long died from his wounds. Will these two soldiers killed/wounded by the Jihadist in Little Rock get Purple Heart awards?

US President Barack Obama deceitfully sought to knit together Christianity, Judaism and Islam in his speech in Cairo Thursday, grossly misrepresenting the latter religion with a smile on his face and earnest sincerity in his voice. The American leader, who has Islamic roots and professes to be a Christian, was in Cairo seeking "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world." To establish "common ground" and find what he was looking for, Obama asserted "the truth" that America and Islam ... share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all...

Against the backdrop of President Obama's insistence on proceeding with closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility despite rising opposition from American citizens and their elected representatives, the Center for Security Policy (CSP) has announced the release of the latest in its Occasional Paper Series, Keep Gitmo Going: The case for retaining the vital detention and interrogation facility at Guantánamo Bay. The white paper identifies the national security, public safety, and legal and economic challenges associated with closing Guantánamo and transferring detainees to the United States or to foreign custody. Anywhere from 10-20 percent of the nearly 500 detainees released from...

Today, in federal court in Dallas, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis sentenced the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five of its leaders following their convictions by a federal jury in November 2008 on charges of providing material support to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas, and David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. All defendants are presently in federal custody. “Today's sentences mark the culmination of many years of painstaking investigative and prosecutorial work at the federal, state and local levels....

This week, CNN and Money magazine ran an article focusing on the role of faith in the personal finances of certain families. In the article which they published which deals with a Muslim family, we have discovered a whole slew of questions with regard to matters outside of personal finance which, not surprisingly, the lapdogs at CNN and Money totally overlooked, or perhaps ignored. The article is about the Saroya family from Pakistan who have settled in Minneapolis

05 May 2009 "Do you know that the majority of the leaders of organizations that got us into the global financial crisis are graduates of the top business schools in the world?" asked Dr. Tommy Weir, Managing Director of the EM Leadership Center and a specialist on Leadership Development for emerging markets, at the Saudi HR Summit "Retaining Your Key Talent," in Jeddah, on Tuesday, May 5th. Dr. Tommy challenged the audience asking whether the top tier western academic institutions are producing the right type of leaders and whether we should continue to rely on the same leadership approach. He...

Regular readers of SFW know that we have attempted to cover the activities of Islamic charities which have been found to have ties to terrorist organizations. We’ve built up an archive of such accounts in recent months. This is especially worrisome with regard to Shariah-Compliant Finance because of the system of zakat, which requires Shariah-Compliant institutions to facilitate tithing to approved charitable organizations. We need to make it clear that there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that ties between Islamic charities and terrorist organizations is actually widespread. That may seem like a strong statement, but when one...

QUESTION: On Saudi Arabia. Do you have an official comment yet on the eight-year-old bride seeking a divorce? MR. WOOD: Yeah. You know, this – you know, child marriage is a clear and unacceptable violation of human rights in our view. And as you know, Nina, U.S. officials at all levels frequently raise with the Saudi Government our human rights concerns, especially those dealing with, you know, children and child marriages. So I’d also note that the case has sparked a lot of outrage within Saudi society and the NGO community. So they will probably bring a lot of pressure...

In the wake of the brilliant rescue by US Navy SEALs of a US hostage held by Somali pirates over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has sounded a decidedly defeatist tone unbecoming his high office, but rather typical, unfortunately, of his own philosophy. Gates says that there is basically no solution to the piracy problem because there are too many pirates, too many ships to protect and the ocean is too big. We find it startling that the US Navy, working with key NATO allies, such as the British and French, couldn’t make piracy a very hazardous and...

All too frequently, an article will appear in the news media extolling the virtues of “Islamic” finance as a way to protect wealth from the ravages of the current financial crisis. When we first came across a recent article in the Sacramento Bee, we figured that we had another case of this and were prepared to make a rather pedestrian posting about how Shariah-Compliant Finance has not in fact been the safe haven that some of its promoters maintain. But as we dug deeper into the article, the more we realized that it contained clues to a much larger puzzle....

You will recall a recent blog (here) where we detailed how a small community bank run by a young Yale graduate, Stephen Lange Ranzini, decided that he would take his newly acquired little bank into Shariah-compliant finance. So, he retooled his bank and turned it into one of the country's biggest offerors of Shariah-compliant mortgages. He also set up Internet bios of himself and gave interviews praising himself as the "youngest bank holding company president in the USA". Unfortunately (and we should have predicted this since he graduated from an ivy-league school), he is both an idiot and, it appears,...

Today I want to extend my very best wishes to all who are celebrating Nowruz around the world. This holiday is both an ancient ritual and a moment of renewal, and I hope that you enjoy this special time of year with friends and family.

The Coalition for Security, Liberty and the Law - an informal team of organizations and experts that join forces to support the U.S. Constitution from threats, foreign and domestic - noted with interest the following statement issued Tuesday by the so-called American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections: A coalition of major national Islamic organizations today announced that it is considering suspending outreach relations with the Federal Bureau on Investigations, citing recent incidents in which American mosques and Muslim groups have been targeted. The press release circulated by one of the participating "national Islamic organizations," the Council on...

Grover Norquist is a conservative activist and the president of Americans for Tax Reform. He is also well-known in Washington D.C. circles as a friend of Islam. Since the 1990s he has held weekly “Wednesday meetings” in which he briefs fellow conservatives and helps plot strategy for the Republican party. But yesterday it was Mr. Norquist’s turn to be briefed. A few days ago I wrote about John Kerry’s speech on the Senate floor touting the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project. Yesterday Mr. Norquist’s group was briefed by Vin Weber, a member of the leadership group of the same U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project....

In 2002, former CIA director R. James Woolsey called the war on terrorism “World War IV.” To this day, we believe that this name is far more appropriate than any other name we have seen or heard. Why? Because “World War IV” is descriptive and accurate. Militant Islamists are conducting offensive Jihad around the world to impose Shariah and eventually re-establish a caliphate. These Jihadists are far from homogenous and often at odds with one another, however, they are united in their hatred of the West. An example of one forgotten theater in this war is Thailand. Southern Thailand has...

Terrorism and Jihad is Topic for Ascension GOP Roundtable Christopher Holton, Vice President with the Center for Security Policy, a Washington DC-based national security think tank, will be the featured speaker at the Ascension GOP Roundtable, sponsored by Ascension Republican Women. The Roundtable is scheduled for Thursday, March 19th at Noon at Frank's Restaurant, 17425 Airline Hwy. in Prairieville. (11:30: Registration and socializing) For the past 5 years, Holton has focused primarily on terrorism and Jihad as director of the Center's Divest Terror Initiative and Shariah Risk Due Diligence Project. Recently, he completed a "train the trainer" course in educating...

Though it has received a great deal of attention in the media and from Hollywood celebrities, the issue of Sudan is not entirely clear to many Americans. Many do not realize how Sudan is ruled and the nation's role in Jihadist terrorism. Over the past few years, the Islamic Republic of Sudan has been justifiably targeted by a grassroots divestment movement for the genocide that it has committed against its own people. Unlike famine and drought, genocide does not simply happen due to forces of nature. Genocide is committed.

The hopelessly clueless and biased staff at Newsweek has decided that it’s time we realized that radical Islam is a fact of life and just something we have to learn to live with…

"Ahmad Niazi is a gentleman, a scholar, a devoted father. But make no mistake, he is also a terrorist," Montielh said. Montielh also claims Niazi threatened to blow up shopping centers like South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island, to "fight the infidel," meaning the United States. "If malls are attacked and bombs are exploding, people won't go spend their money," Monteilh said. "People will remain in fear and stay home."

Cotabato City, Philippines - Six people, including an 8-year-old girl, were killed in an attack triggered by a land conflict in the southern Philippines, a provincial police chief said Friday. Senior Superintendent Robert Kiunisala said three gunmen barged into the house of the victims Thursday in a village in Tupi town in South Cotabato province, 990 kilometres south of Manila.

Two days ago we linked to an article about financial giant HSBC’s continued and growing embrace of Shariah-Compliant Finance. Today we would like to elaborate on HSBC’s connections in this area by focusing on the firm’s close ties to a creepy Mufti who has no business being associated with any respected Western financial institution. HSBC has one of the most extensive Shariah advisory boards in the entire financial services industry. But our focus today is on the name atop HSBC’s Global Shariah Advisory Board: Muhammad Taqi Usmani. To be sure, Usmani is one of the most prolific Shariah scholars in...

The report would probably seem preposterous if it weren't for the fact that Team Obama already waived sanctions on Syria and is considering opening travel to Cuba. It's like watching Carter on Speed. This latest news comes from the February 18, 2009 edition of Geostrategy Direct (subscribers only): Snip The officials said the new Obama administration of has decided to end sanctions against Iranian government agencies or companies that aid Teheran's missile and nuclear program. The officials said Israel has been informed of the new U.S. policy. "We were told that sanctions do not help the new U.S. policy of...

(Taken from posted articles and commentary at Shariah Finance Watch http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/). What is Al Qaeda's goal? Shariah. How far do the Jihadis want to go to impose Shariah? You be the judge. The whole purpose of Jihad is to see Shariah imposed as the only rule of law. Linked below is an article from The Pakistani Observer. It is poorly translated and roughly written, but it gets that one vital point across: http://pakobserver.net/200902/14/Articles05.asp What exactly is the Al-Qaeda? What is their motive? What do they want since they are not seeking territorial gains, than what are they trying to establish....

An upstate TV exec who set up a channel promoting Muslims as peace-loving people was stressed about his failing business in the days before he allegedly chopped off his estranged wife's head, a friend of the couple said today. ..... Hassan, who founded Bridges TV in 2004 to counter anti-Islam stereotypes following 9/11, turned himself in to cops Thursday in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park. Police later found his beheaded wife in the TV studios.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A suburban Buffalo man who founded a cable TV station to promote better understanding of Muslims in the U.S. has been arrested on charges he beheaded his wife. Orchard Park police arrested Muzzammil Hassan, 44, on Thursday for investigation of second-degree murder, The Buffalo News reported. Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Her body was found at his business, Bridges TV.