Posted on 06/12/2002 8:59:59 AM PDT by xsysmgr
What do FBI director Robert Mueller and Rep. Cynthia "Bush Knew" McKinney have in common? On June 28, both will be guests of honor at a convention of the American Muslim Council.
Hassan Abdel Rahman, the PLO's man in Washington, will also be at the AMC convention. Other speakers at the four-day meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, will include Harvard graduate Zayed Yasin, who caused controversy early this month when he delivered a flamboyant commencement address on applying the concept of jihad to everyday life, and Rostum Al-Zoubi, the ambassador of terrorist-sponsor Syria.
Unfortunately, Mueller will not be at the convention to gather intelligence on militant Islam. Instead, the FBI director is scheduled to take part in a panel entitled "American Solidarity in Action" and later give a keynote address on "constitutional issues and the need for cooperation in the war on terrorism," says one FBI spokesperson. Mueller's appearance is yet another example of how the Bush administration, in its attempt to assuage fear and anger in the Muslim-American community, works with groups that sympathize with Islamic extremism. At a time when the FBI is the subject of heavy criticism for bureaucratic malfeasance in the months before September 11, Mueller's speaking engagement threatens to further erode the Bureau's credibility.
Though the American Muslim Council publicly denies support of suicide bombings and other terrorist operations, and is one of the few Muslim lobby organizations to support last year's bombing of Afghanistan, it nevertheless has a history of sympathy and support for radical Islam, as terrorism expert Steven Emerson reveals in American Jihad.
Formed as a tax-exempt lobbying organization in 1990, the American Muslim Council gained widespread notoriety in October 2000, when Abdurahman Alamoudi, its founder and former executive director, said the following at an anti-Israel rally: "I have been labeled by the media in New York as being a supporter of Hamas We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah."
Alamoudi's relationship with radical Islam didn't end in October 2000. According to the Associated Press, Alamoudi met with representatives of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and al Qaeda in Beirut in January 2001.
Under Alamoudi's leadership, the American Muslim Council operated as an umbrella organization for a group called "American Muslims for Jerusalem," which Emerson says "routinely invokes 'Zionist' conspiracies and has featured calls at its conferences for the killing of Jews." The AMC also served as the headquarters for the United States office of the Islamic Salvation Front, a militant group with ties to the global terrorist network.
Alamoudi's successors have not renounced his legacy of support for terrorism. One member of the Council's board of advisers was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying, "O Jews, the army of Mohammed is coming for you," and a former acting president is none other than the domestic terrorist H. Rap Brown, otherwise known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. Brown is currently serving a life sentence for murder.
In the past, the American Muslim Council called slavery in the Sudan a "sham," hosted a terrorist who plotted the overthrow of Jordan's Hashemite monarchy, and in 1999 gave an award to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, an Islamic Charity connected with Hamas whose assets were seized by the Treasury Department earlier this year. The AMC has since called the seizure "unjust."
The American Muslim Council "represents the most mainstream Muslims in the United States, and previous Bureau officials have addressed meetings of the group," says an FBI spokesperson. But when asked why Mueller would accept a speaking invitation from an organization that acts as a shill for terrorists, the spokesperson would not comment.
FBI= Famous But Incompetent.
You forgot this!.............FRegards
You forgot this alert!.............FRegards
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