Posted on 12/21/2005 5:16:29 AM PST by SJackson
A controversial Islamic lobby group has issued a "travel advisory" for Muslim U.S. citizens attending a conference in Canada this weekend or participating in the upcoming pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, says it's concerned the travelers will be "singled out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials for special security checks and fingerprinting based solely on their attendance at both religious events."
As WorldNetDaily reported, the New York Civil Liberties Union is in court to stop the Department of Homeland Security from detaining interrogating, fingerprinting and photographing American citizens at the border because they attended the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference in Toronto in December 2004. This year's conference begins Friday.
Federal officials argue such conferences have been used to provide cover for pro-terrorist operatives.
CAIR itself is a spin-off of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for Hamas. Several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.
The pilgrimage, or Hajj, will take place in the second week of January. About 10,000 American Muslims take the journey each year in fulfillment of one of Islam's "five pillars."
CAIR created a "Civil Rights Hotline" and a downloadable border incident report form for Muslims who believe their constitutional rights have been violated by border personnel.
"Americans of all faiths should be free to travel without fear of being singled out based solely on their religious practices or associations," said Arsalan Iftikhar, legal director for CAIR.
Iftikhar said CAIR is asking travelers to the conference and participants in the Hajj to download the incident report form and "keep it handy for the return trip to the United States."
The conference, held annually in Toronto since 2003, is billed as promoting a strong message of building friendships and alliances between Muslim and non-Muslim communities. This year, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is expected to give a speech.
But as WND reported, conference has featured controversial Muslim speakers and attendees, and U.S. officials say such events have been used in the past to provide cover for pro-terrorist operatives.
The two-day conference in January 2003 advertised Sheik Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais as the main speaker. The previous year, al-Sudais, the chief cleric of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, reportedly prayed to Allah to "terminate" the Jews whom he called "the scum of humanity, the rats of the world, prophet killers ... pigs and monkeys." The sheik also has characterized Jews as "evil," "evil forefathers," a "continuum of deceit," and full of "tyranny" and "treachery."
The same conference featured Zulfiqar Ali Shah, the former president of the Islamic Circle of North America, an organization linked to Jama'at-I-Islami, a fundamentalist Pakistani group that calls bin Laden the "hero" of the Islamic world and raises millions of dollars for global jihad.
Some writers and commentators, such as Daniel Pipes, a specialist on Islam, have supported the U.S. government policy, arguing it's a matter of national security. Controlling the border flow, he said, is absolutely necessary and of "paramount importance."
It is a load of crap. The US border control will not photograph and finger print US citizens or Green Card holders not matter what religion they belong to. They will only do it to visitors to the US.
It is a load of crap. The US border control will not photograph and finger print US citizens or Green Card holders not matter what religion they belong to. They will only do it to visitors to the US.
Not the first time CAIRs pronouncements have been characterized that way, correctly.
You reap what you sow CAIR.
(No Muslim's = No Muslim terrorists)
This might be a golden oppertunity to do a little extra background checking on those who might have slipped through the cracks. Sounds like they're trying to bait the BP.
Remember this discussion last year FRiends? I think it's interesting that the Conference in Toronto STARTS on Friday (12/23), and ends when? Christmas Eve? Christmas Day? Christmas Day Celebrated (Monday)?
Whatever, they'll be a skeleton crew at the border...and perhaps more opportunity because of last year's tempest: N.Y. Muslim group held at border
Remember the "thread that refused to die", and all the good FRiends that got banned during it (fastattacksailor, Broadsword, and Nesher to name a few...)?
That was a fierce thread! I salute banned cyberheroes Broadsword, Fastattacksailor and Nesher.
What a great last minute method to pump up their stats of "anti-islamic" incidences before the end of the year.
I can already see the overblown theatrics and artificially induced hysteria at the border now... Abdul H. reports he had to wait longer than a Jew at the border, Ali K. was "humiliated" by having his car searched, and Rafidah S. was profiled and suffered the "oppression" and humiliations a kuffar glancing at her face and lingering too long when they wondered if the little they could see matched her ID pic, Jamal M. had his suspiciously large and heavy koran opened by a pork eating inspector, etc, etc....
Remember the "thread that refused to die", and all the good FRiends that got banned during it
Yes, I always will. Those brave crusaders for the truth may have been banned gone, but will never be forgotten.
The Islamic enemy of freedom must be stopped. Everyone here knows that. But keeping it on this site only serves to enrage us. Preaching to the choir so to speak. What I do is take the fight outside. Once a week I find a liberal blog or discussion group and enter into debate, or soap box lecture.
I urge all of you to do the same. Most LBJs (Liberal Bastard Jackoffs) can not be convinced even when presented with the facts of 1400 years of history. However, if we bring the battle to them, there is the chance of converting them. Thru rote if necessary. Even Coco the Ape can learn by force feeding.
At the very least, as we loose more and more ground, when their children come home from school with a bruised forehead from praying in History Class, when they finally see the storm envelope them, and they grow a pair and take up arms, they will know the enemy.
I'd be brokenhearted beyond measure if all those pilgrims opted to stay in mecca, and never return to the US or Canada.
No I wouldn't.....BWAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAA!!!!
{was a sarcasm tag really needed for that thought?}
A.A.C.
"The Final Crusade has commenced - time to send all the opposing team members back to their own damn bench and call it a hajj!"
CNS NEWS.com: "ISLAMIC GROUP CALLS FOR USE OF KORAN TO TAKE OATH" by Melanie Hunter (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "An Islamic civil rights and advocacy group is calling on North Carolina judges to allow people to use the Koran when taking an oath, saying the use of the Bible exclusively represents "an inappropriate state endorsement of religion." The request by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) comes after Guilford County judges said they would not allow use of Korans in their courtrooms.") (June 21, 2005)
CNS NEWS.com: "FREE KORANS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" by Susan Jones (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Over the weekend, CAIR held a conference in the Washington area on the causes and remedies of "Islamophobia and anti-Americanism."") (May 17, 2005)
Merry Christmas to absent FRiends.
Lol, yes i remember it :)
Maybe this travel advisory is good, it will discourage the Muslims from entering the US.
You left out Chemist Geek! ;-)
Obviously, you have not been keeping up with current events...or even from last year. From April 24, 2005, NY Daily News:
Asmaa Elshinawy, 20, is an American citizen, a New Yorker and a teacher's aide at a preschool in Park Slope.-- and discussed on FR in several threads, like http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1390322/posts and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1311164/posts!
But last December, coming home from a trip to Canada, she was made to feel like a criminal.
Elshinawy is a Muslim, and she had attended an Islamic youth conference in Toronto with other Americans who share her faith.
Apparently that made her a terrorism suspect, prompting U.S. border officers to detain her and dozens of others who also had been in the Toronto conference. For more than six humiliating hours, they all were interrogated, photographed and fingerprinted.
When the ordeal was over, not a single one was charged with any crime [...]
Apologies to Former Dodger for replying to his post...I hadn't realized it was him and I did not intentionally violate his request for me not to reply to him.
"Everyone here knows that. "
Welcome to FR -
Given time, I think you'll find that your statement is inoperative ... that there are many here who seem to enjoy keeping themselves ignorant, no matter what the subject.
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