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Jersey Jihadists
FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | 1/31/05 | Joel Mowbray

Posted on 01/31/2005 12:55:27 AM PST by kattracks

Edited on 01/31/2005 1:10:41 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

When a family of Egyptian immigrants was murdered in Jersey City recently, the media’s response was to wring its hands about anti-Muslim bias. But the truth is more complicated, and reveals the media’s own bias--against America.

Anti-Muslim bias had nothing to do the killing of the Armanious family; they were Coptic Christians. It wasn’t the religion of the victims that concerned the press; it was the religion of the suspected murderers.

Over the weekend, the Associated Press wrote of the “dirty looks and shouted slurs” directed at Muslims in Jersey City following the slaughter of an Egyptian Christian man, his wife, and two young daughters, which many reports attribute to local radical Islamists upset about something the man wrote in an Internet chat room.

The AP followed in predictable fashion: “The strife is particularly distressing in light of efforts the area’s Muslim community made to reach out to other faiths and strengthen ties after the 9/11 attacks.”

What the AP conveniently ignored, however, was known and suspected radical activity in northern New Jersey's Muslim community.

The former imam at the El Tawheed Islamic Center of Jersey City, Alaa Al-Sadawi, was convicted in July 2003 of attempting to smuggle more than $650,000 in cash to the terrorist Global Relief Fund in Egypt in April 2002.

One of Al-Sadawi’s former mosque-goers was convicted last March of murdering in the name of Islam. Alim Hassan, then 31, killed his pregnant wife, her mother, and her sister on July 30, 2002. He reportedly stabbed the women more than 20 times each because they refused to convert to Islam. According to reports, Hassan prayed regularly at El-Tawheed.

Al-Sadawi and Hassan were hardly the first Muslims in the area, though, to appear on authorities’ radar.

Mohamed El-Mezain , the former imam at the nearby Islamic Center of Passaic County, which has close relations with El-Tawheed, worked with the Paterson-based mosque to raise funds for Hamas in the mid-1990s, according to an FBI memo drafted in November 2001 by the FBI’s assistant director of counterterrorism Dale Watson. El-Mezain, who is no longer affiliated with the Islamic Center, was never charged or arrested.

The FBI document, which served as the basis for the U.S. government shutting down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in December 2001, cited a “reliable” source in noting that “during a speech at the Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC) in November, 1994, Mohammad El-Mezain, the HLFRD’s current Director of Endowments and former Chairman of the HLFRD Board, admitted that some of the money collected by the ICPC and the HLFRD goes to Hamas or Hamas activities in Israel. El-Mezain also defended Hamas and the activities carried out by Hamas.”

El-Mezain also openly raised funds for Hamas, according to the FBI memo. After a speech at a Muslim rally in Southern California in the mid-90’s in which the keynote speaker urged attendees to “exterminate” and “finish off the Israelis,” El-Mezain asked for contributions and told the crowd that $1.8 million had been raised for Hamas in 1994 alone, according to the memo.

Radicalism at ICPC hardly seems to have subsided. The mosque in February 2003 hosted a lecture by Abdelhaleem Ashqar, long after he was identified by the FBI memo as a prominent Hamas figure.

Investigators in Jersey City have yet to announce the motive for the murder of the Armanious family. But if it turns out that the murder or murders were religiously-motivated Muslims, with whom will the media sympathize: those grieving for the victims or those who attend the same hate-filled mosques as the murderers? Is there any doubt?


Joel Mowbray is author of Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens America’s Security.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; US: New Jersey; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: armanious; coptic; koranimals

1 posted on 01/31/2005 12:55:27 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
which many reports attribute to local radical Islamists upset about something the man wrote in an Internet chat room.

How about:

"This is what our multicultural society has brought us: a climate of intimidation in which all sorts of goatfuckers can issue their threats freely."
-Theo Van Gogh

2 posted on 01/31/2005 1:06:17 AM PST by Critical Bill
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To: kattracks

Most certainly do agree-- the media bias to sheild Muslims, or homosexuals, or any identifiable group favored
by the left is older than the supposed heroic investigative journalism that exposed and deposed Richard
M.Nixon. It is a disease that is little different than HIV-AIDs -no matter how much we know about its' transmission
we will never see a day when the media will not promote
their vision of "knowing".It is like Communism -or any other disease of the mind we can only protect ourselves --
and hope the resistance will sustain us.


3 posted on 01/31/2005 2:52:43 AM PST by StonyBurk
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To: Salem; backhoe

"The FBI document, which served as the basis for the U.S. government shutting down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in December 2001, cited a “reliable” source in noting that “during a speech at the Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC) in November, 1994, Mohammad El-Mezain, the HLFRD’s current Director of Endowments and former Chairman of the HLFRD Board, admitted that some of the money collected by the ICPC and the HLFRD goes to Hamas or Hamas activities in Israel. El-Mezain also defended Hamas and the activities carried out by Hamas.”"


4 posted on 01/31/2005 2:55:00 AM PST by Susannah (www.bankingonbaghdad.com)
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To: kattracks

The MSM continues to bow before the demented belief system that spawns these psychopathic killers.


5 posted on 01/31/2005 3:22:50 AM PST by tkathy (Tyranny breeds terrorism. Freedom breeds peace.)
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To: kattracks
Thank you for this post, kattracks.

MSM may be being blamed for what in large part has been the determination of the combined local and Fed forces regarding what pc action they would take and who would take the fall.

It's damnable injustice.

"Joel Mowbray is author of Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens America’s Security"

It may be easy to tell whether State is at all influenced by its new head on this issue.
6 posted on 01/31/2005 5:14:07 AM PST by Spirited
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To: kattracks

What's mentioned is the tip of the iceberg. What is feared by the powers at be in NJ are "known unknowns", hiding in plain site in these communities, Jersey City, Newark, Passaic, Paterson, etc.


7 posted on 01/31/2005 7:24:44 AM PST by JerseyHighlander
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To: Susannah; SJackson; yonif; Happy2BMe; Simcha7; American in Israel; spectacularbid2003; Binyamin; ...
'Ping!'





If you'd like to be on or off this
Christian Supporters of Israel ping list,
please FR mail me. ~
  -  -
MikeFromFR ~
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)

Letter To The President In Support Of Israel ~
'Final Solution,' Phase 2 ~
Warnings ~
8 posted on 01/31/2005 8:19:23 PM PST by Salem (FREE REPUBLIC - Fighting to win within the Arena of the War of Ideas! So get in the fight!)
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To: Salem
Religion of Evil! Click the Pic!
Click the Pic

9 posted on 01/31/2005 8:24:17 PM PST by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: NYer; SJackson

Ping


10 posted on 02/01/2005 4:27:25 AM PST by Convert from ECUSA (tired of all the shucking and jiving)
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