From article:
In 1986, MPAC was formed as a political action arm of one of the largest Wahhabi mosques in America, the Islamic Center for Southern California.
As the Center for Security Policy's Team B II report entitled "Sharia: The Threat to America" notes, "The founders of the Islamic Center for Southern California are Hassan Hathout and his brother Maher Hathout. The late Hassan Hathout was a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement. The two brothers Maher spent time in an Egyptian prison during the early days of the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities there, led by the Brotherhood’s founder Hassan Al Banna. MPAC’s own publication, The Minaret, has proudly called Hassan a 'companion of' and Maher 'a close disciple of' Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna."
Maher Hathout also founded and is currently a senior advisor for MPAC. He and others at MPAC also currently work for and maintain a close relationship with the Islamic Center of Southern California.
Hathout was also on the board of directors and a member of the American Muslim Council (AMC) from 1993 to 1997. AMC was founded by the al Qaeda financier and Hamas operative Abdurahman Alamoudi who is currently serving 23 years in prison for funding terrorist groups including al Qaeda.
Maher Hathout served on the AMC Board of Directors at the same time Alamoudi was serving as its Executive Director.
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Celebrating Ramadan at the White House [August 13, 2010]
Attendee: Mr. Salam Al Marayati, Muslim Public Affairs Council
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Islamist group, MPAC, attended White House meeting to announce SCOTUS nominee
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Islamist With MPAC a Participant in HSPI's Presidential Transition Taskforce (posted Nov. 07, 2009)
Nidal Malik Hasan, the Islamist who launched a dispicable shooting jihad against U.S. soldiers at Ft. Hood, was a Task Force Participant with the George Washington University's HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008-January 2009. Report at WND.
The objective of GWU's HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force was to act in an advisory capacity to the Obama Administation.
A list of Task Force Participants appears beginning on page 20 of their report. Hasan's name appears on page 29.
Safiya Ghoria, an Islamist affiliated with MPAC [Muslim Public Affairs Council], was also listed as a Presidential Transition Task Force participant. Her name appears on page 28 of the report.
Video below of Safiya Ghori addressing the Islamic Circle of North America on building a Muslim political network in America (see link)
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The New York Times' Grand Deception
"This brings us to the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and a feel-good anti-terrorism video it recently issued featuring nine imams earnestly explaining how religiously-motivated violence is misguided and contrary to the teachings of Islam. The video won praise from a senior member of Congress and unquestioning coverage in the August 1 New York Times. Even the Attorney General of the United States got snookered."
Beware the Messenger
MPAC has been front and center advancing the narrative for years. As we have previously documented, the organization:
"routinely speaks in defense of designated terrorist organizations, as well as individuals and charities that are supporters of terrorism; opposes U.S. counterterrorism measures as part of a consistent knee-jerk reaction claiming bias and discrimination behind law enforcement efforts; and reflects a blatant and conspiratorial anti-Semitism."
Its national spokeswoman [Edina Lekovic],was an editor of a student newspaper at UCLA which, in July 1999, described Osama bin Laden as a "great Mujahid (someone who struggles in Allah's cause)," and as a "freedom fighter and philanthropist." (See it here). This comment came after Al Qaida bombed American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, after it declared war against the United States, and after bin Laden issued a fatwa declaring it to be "an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it" to kill Americans.
But when it comes to the nine "diverse and highly respected Muslim American scholars and religious leaders" marched out for the video, each has a troubling record of making statements hostile toward the West and U.S. law enforcement or, like Hathout, of justifying terrorist acts, or working with groups which act in kind. It's going to take more than a slickly produced video to erase that history.
Among the Islamic leaders featured were:
* Suhaib Webb, the educational director for the Muslim American Society, a front for the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. In addition to the organization's ties to the Brotherhood, MAS leaders have praised Palestinians for choosing "the jihad way" to liberate their land and enthusiastically responded to calls for Hamas and Hizballah supporters. Or, as the Times report described MAS, "a grass roots group."
* Maher Hathout, a founding member of MPAC who has previously acted as an apologist for extremism and terrorism. In addition to justifying the Sbarro attack, in 1998, he repeatedly likened Hizballah to American revolutionaries. "The whole country keeps condemning Hizballah," he said in a speech at the National Press Club. "I disagree with them on other issues, but on the issue of fighting to liberate their land and attacking only armed forces, this is legitimate, this is an American value - freedom and liberty."
* Ihsan Bagby, a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky and a current or former board member of a number of Muslim Brotherhood-connected groups, including the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America. Both groups have roots in the Muslims Brotherhood and both were implicated in a Hamas-support prosecution. The FBI broke off routine communication in 2008 based on evidence in that case, which left open the question "whether there continues to be a connection between" CAIR leadership and Hamas terrorists.
* Mohamad Magid, the Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center in Sterling, Virginia and co-founder of the now defunct SAAR Trust. Magid has denigrated the assertion that genocide has been perpetrated in Darfur by his claim that the numbers of those murdered were grossly inflated and by poking fun at this modern day Holocaust.
* Zaid Shakir, a teacher at the Zaytuna Institute where he has expressed support for terrorism and jihad, said that western democracy and views on human rights are incompatible with democracy, and accused the United States of genocide.
* Jamal Badawi, a member of ISNA's Board of Directors who was individually listed in the Holy Land Foundation trial as an unindicted co-conspirator for his role as a fund raiser for Hamas. He also is listed in a telephone book of U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood members. Badawi also is a member of the Fiqh Council of North America. He has justified suicide bombing attacks as heroic.
* Hamza Yusuf, the President and chairman of the Zaytuna institute with a long history of anti-Jewish rabble-rousing and other extremist statements.
* Yassir Qadhi, professor at al Maghrib Institute and radical lecturer. Qadhi is major proponent of Holocaust denial and abject anti-Semitism
[Additional Info from article]
Maher Hathout, a founding member of MPAC
As mentioned earlier, Hathout blasts extremists who twist the Quran, "passing judgments that will make Islam and Muslims a very frightening phenomenon, which is contrary to the reality."
But, in addition to casting Hizballah as a legitimate resistance movement, his harshest invective is saved for the Israelis, who are, according to many of these speakers, engaged in the gravest of war crimes. At a 2000 "Jerusalem Day Rally" in Washington, D.C., Maher Hathout whipped up the crowd, saying:
"We did not come here to condemn the condemned atrocities committed by the apartheid state of Israel. Because butchers do what butchers do and because what is expected from a racist apartheid is what is happening now…You [US] have been manipulated. You are financing an apartheid state…They say Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. This is a lie. Israel is not a democracy, Israel is a theocracy, and is an apartheid state, against every fiber of the modern world."
Zaid Shakir
Shakir's video appearance sets up a striking contrast in message. He says that "Islam teaches a balance in all of our affairs, so it's not a religion that's amenable to extremism." Yet in a 1993 article entitled "Muslim Involvement in the American Political Process," Shakir explained that Islam presents an "absolutist political agenda:"
"The relevant point for Muslims is that Islam presents an absolutist political agenda, or one which doesn't lend itself to compromise, nor to coalition building. The Islamic world view presents the world as a place where there is a struggle between forces which are diametrically opposed to each other … Truth opposes falsehood. Allah's true din challenges the false beliefs and systems innovated by man. The Qur'an gives no indication that a compromise is possible between these forces."
In a December 2004 speech in Toronto, Shakir seemed to warn America that it must change or face God's wrath:
"Allah doesn't love oppressors. And less so here, but here it's relevant, but more so in my country in the United States. We have a responsibility to warn those in power. And that's Jihad. If you talk about jihad [Arabic] – the best jihad is a word of truth in the face of a tyrannical ruler. That if you don't stop this oppression, if you don't stop murdering people unnecessarily, if you don't stop erasing cities like Fallujah off the face of the earth, if you don't stop contaminating lands for the rest of possible life on this earth, with depleted uranium. This is a sinister, backdoor use of atomic weapons … And if these wrongs and many others aren't corrected you don't have to worry about al Qaeda … You have to worry about Allah."
Despite evidence that a cell of Muslim radicals carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, killing six people, Shakir argues that the accused conspirators were set up:
"Considering the available information, it is the view of some observers, that the WTC bombing was undertaken by Zionist forces to give proof to their allegations concerning the magnitude of 'Islamic fundamentalist' terrorism, and as a pretext to intensify their anti-Islamic propaganda campaign in the US media.
[ … ]
"The recent bombing of the World Trade Center (WTC), has produced anti-Islamic elements in this country and an opportunity to launch a vicious propaganda campaign against Islam and Muslims. This campaign has been so calculating that one immediately suspects it could not have arisen accidentally."
This theory appeared in the June/July 1993 issue of Inquiry, a magazine published by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operative Sami Al-Arian. The magazine frequently featured reports about the PIJ and other radicals.
During a 2005 sermon, "Jihad: Just War or Unjust Violence," Shakir argued that Hizballah's 1983 truck bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon as part of a peacekeeping force was not an act of terrorism:
"On the other hand, the bombing of Hizballah, Hizballah's bombing of the marine barracks in 1984 (sic) is viewed as one of the greatest acts of terrorism directed against Americans, until Oklahoma City, in history. But if we step back, who was targeted? Civilians? No, military personnel in a military installation in a war zone. And it's interesting to ask a question: If Hizballah owned a bomber, which they don't, and flew overhead and bombed the barracks, would it be described as terrorism."
Shakir invokes the Quran to criticize America's secular political system. In an article about Muslim involvement in the political process, Shakir cited Quranic verses (Al-Qur'an 5:44 and 5:47) to the effect that, "Whoever Rules (Judges) by Other than What Allah has Revealed They are Nonbelievers...Oppressors... Transgressors," specifically regarding Christians and Jews:
"As the Christians and Jews of this country have rejected the divine law and created their own secular system of rule, the legal and political system of America is sinful and constitutes open rebellion against Allah. For a Muslim to join with the Jews and Christians in this system is to join them in their rebellion against Allah. Allah explicitly orders against this."
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[Below is previous work I have posted on Zaid Shakir]
Eavesdropping on a Sunni Muslim Scholar Upon the Passing of One of Islam's National Leaders
FACES of ISLAM'S FUTURE?---Four Prominent Scholars
ZAID SHAKIR
Ricky D. Mitchell [Zaid Shakir] was born May 24, 1956 in Berkeley, California and was raised in the Atlanta and Hartford projects alongside six other children. He changed his name to Zaid Shakir when he converted to Islam in 1977. Today, he is one of the foremost Islamic scholars in the west.
It was while serving in the Air Force that he accepted Islam in 1977. He remained in the military for four years and received an accommodation medal for his dedicated service. He earned a BA in International Relations from the American University in Washington, DC in 1983. A summa cum laude graduate, Imam Shakir went on to receive his Masters in Political Science from Rutgers University where he was also a student leader.
While at Rutgers, he led a successful campaign for disinvestment from South Africa, and co-founded a local Islamic center, Masjid al-Huda. After a year of studying Arabic in Cairo, Egypt, he settled in New Haven, Connecticut and continued his community activism, co-founding Masjid al-Islam, the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative, and the Connecticut Muslim Coordinating Committee.
As Imam of Masjid al-Islam from 1988 to 1994 he spear-headed a community renewal and grassroots anti-drug effort, also accepted the position as Professor and taught political science and Arabic at Southern Connecticut State University. He served as an interfaith council Chaplain at Yale University and developed the Chaplaincy Sensitivity Training for physicians at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Shakir then left for Syria to pursue his studies in the traditional Islamic Sciences. For seven years in Syria, and briefly in Morocco, he immersed himself in an intense study of Arabic, Islamic law, Quranic studies, and spirituality with some of the top Muslim scholars of our age. In 2001, he was the first American graduate from Syria's prestigious Abu Nour University and returned to Connecticut, serving again as the Imam of Masjid al-Islam, and writing and speaking frequently on a host of issues.
In 2003, as a scholar-in-residence at Zaytuna Institute located in California, Shakir began to teach Arabic, Law, and Islamic Spirituality. And, in 2008, he co-founded the Berkeley, California - based Zaytuna College dedicated to the revival of Islamic Sciences and the preservation of traditional teaching methods.
He has continued his spiritual, academic and community work, speaking and writing extensively on religion, socio-political and race issues. Imam Shakir has been invited to lecture at several prominent universities including Stanford, UCLA, Berkeley, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers, and Temple University.
He is the author of the groundbreaking books Heirs of the Prophets and Scattered Pictures
Discover the Networks
Shakir is known for having expressed his desire to see the United States eventually become -- "not by violent means, but by persuasion" -- a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law. "Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country," he said.
In Shakir's view, Muslims cannot accept the legitimacy of the existing American order, because it "is against the orders and ordainments of Allah." "[T]he orientation of the Quran," he explains, "pushes us in the exact opposite direction."
Shakir also appears to embrace 9/11 conspiracy theories. In October 2007 he described the September 11th attacks as having "occurred under dubious circumstances that have yet to be thoroughly examined."
According to Shakir, American foreign policy has been hijacked by the military-industrial complex. In May 2009 he admonished the U.S. for its "pattern of demonization, destabilization, and the invasion of hapless Third World nations," saying that such aggression is always carried out under the guise of national interests. Among those he listed as victims of American "demonization" were Hugo Chavez, Manuel Noriega, Muammar Qadhafi, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.
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It's Jihad, Stupid: Three "Soldiers of Allah" Explain To The Politically Correct
Ricky D. Mitchell [Zaid Shakir] was born May 24, 1956 in Berkeley, California and was raised in the Atlanta and Hartford projects alongside six other children. He changed his name to Zaid Shakir when he converted to Islam in 1977.
Today, he is one of the foremost Islamic scholars in the west.
See important biographical files in Posts 434, 445, 447 on this thread:
African Colonial
See additional bio info on Shakir here:
Thread: African Colonial:Shakir bio
