Islam in Conflict in Cleveland

Muslims in Cleveland have, by calling for the removal of Fawaz Damra, demonstrated that they have had enough of the politicization of their faith, and deserve the support of all Americans. Their action may mark a necessary turning point in our country's recent history.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An historic series of events is taking place in the largely-hidden world of Islam in America, and in a place many people would consider unlikely: Cleveland, Ohio.

The incidents in question involve Imam Fawaz Damra, 41, a Palestinian-born religious officer of the Islamic Center of Cleveland -- described as the biggest mosque in Ohio.

In December 2003, Imam Damra was arrested on a federal indictment for seeking U.S. citizenship illegally. The indictment (available here), charges that in 1993, when he first sought naturalization, he failed to disclose his affiliation with a number of Islamic extremist groups. These included the Al-Kifah Refugee Center, an operation linked to al-Qaida, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He also denied ever engaging in incitement or other hateful activities based on race, when in reality he had advocated lethal terrorism against Jews.

In addition, money raised in Imam Damra's mosque went to the Holy Land Foundation, which the federal authorities have closed as a Hamas front. (I have elsewhere called it the Holy War Foundation). Damra has been associated with former University of South Florida professor Sami al-Arian, who has also been indicted as a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Indeed, Damra has been described as an unindicted coconspirator in the Al-Arian case.

Following his arrest, Imam Damra pled not guilty and was released on $160,000 bail.

In a recent visit to Cleveland, I had the opportunity to gauge reactions to the Damra indictment among some unlikely interlocutors: leaders of the local Jewish community who had participated with the imam in interfaith activities.

Much of an unsavory nature about imam Damra had already been disclosed in the wake of September 11, 2001, when a video in which he threatened and insulted Jews was broadcast on television. But Damra then apologized for his remarks, and thereafter worked mightily to cultivate an image of moderation.

Jewish leaders nevertheless expressed shock to learn that the imam with whom they had engaged in extensive dialogue was charged with al-Qaida involvement.

The sincerity of the Cleveland Jewish leaders in seeking interfaith civility with the city's Muslims cannot be doubted. But even more interesting about the Damra case is that it has brought about a significant split within the Islamic Center.

Members of the mosque's board of trustees suspended Damra after the indictment was handed down. He rejected the suspension, and his opponents appealed for support to the civil authorities. At one point, police from the community of Parma were called to the mosque to assure order when Damra appeared, although no violence occurred.

However, resolution of the controversy between Imam Damra and his critics was deferred until next month by a compromise under which he could continue to perform marriage and funeral services, but could only preach in the mosque on alternate Fridays in February -- Muslim collective prayer occurs on Friday afternoon.

Final disposition of his situation now remains in the hands of the mosque's general assembly.

But to emphasize, the real story in Cleveland is less the exposure of an extremist imam, than the willingness of mosque congregants to stand up and call for his removal.

Islam in America suffers from the domination of radical leaders, grouped in organizations I have called "the Wahhabi lobby" -- mainly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Authoritative sources in the Muslim community have long argued that up to 80 percent of the main mosques in America are controlled by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which has been targeted for a tax investigation by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as a probable recipient of funds from outside the U.S. -- i.e. from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

ISNA and the mosques it controls work day and night to maintain ideological dominance over Muslims in America, in the interest of Wahhabism -- the official Saudi sect, which preaches hatred and violence against non-Wahhabi Muslims, who are the vast majority in the U.S. and in the Islamic global community or ummah. A similar group, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) functions among Pakistani-American Muslims to enforce conformity to jihadist ideology.

This does not mean 80 percent of Muslims in America are radicals, They are not. But even after September 11th, Muslims in America were reluctant to stand up and challenge the virtual dictatorship of the Islamist ideology. This was not because of sympathy for Wahhabism, but because of more complex sociological issues.

Immigrant Muslims come to America to escape Islamist radicalism, and are shocked and intimidated to discover the extent of extremist influence in their community. Most of them would never have believed, in the countries from which they came, that the American authorities would permit an Islamist conspiracy to take control of their faith on our shores.

Further, they are naturally concerned that if they openly oppose extremist influence, their relatives in their countries of origin, as well as their families right here, will suffer threats and worse, since it is not unheard of for dissident Muslims in America be killed.

But the two-and-a-half years since September 11th have begun to wear down the habits of submission and conformity that have been drilled into American Muslims. An understandable fear of government sanctions and a simple weariness with having the jihadist ideology on their backs has finally induced some Muslims to step forward.

I recently obtained a letter from mosque congregants in Cleveland that plaintively, but eloquently, expressed the dilemma facing the local Muslims. The authors, whose names cannot be disclosed, wrote, "our community is being tested to its limit. May Allah help us all in this time of turmoil… In September of 2001 when issues surfaced with the media and Imam Damra, there was a great deal of dissent and upheaval about the retention of Imam Damra as the Imam of the Center… The Board decided to retain the Imam and as a result a great deal of tension and upheaval occurred within our Community… On Tuesday, January 13, 2004, Imam Damra was arrested at his home and indicted… After the presentation and discussion the joint Boards voted 10 to 4 to ask Imam Damra to take a voluntary paid leave of absence until his legal issues are resolved. Imam Damra rejected the decision and the Board was then forced to place Imam Damra on an involuntary paid leave of absence. The decision to ask the Imam to temporarily step down was a difficult one for the Board to take, and when it was defied we were left with no alternative but to seek legal recourse."

Most Muslims came to America seeking economic opportunity, security, and a better education for their children. Most of them want the chance to become real Americans, to affirm their loyalty and to participate according to the rules that govern the country as a whole. They should be assured of that chance. Muslims in Cleveland have, by calling for the removal of Fawaz Damra, demonstrated that they have had enough of the politicization of their faith, and deserve the support of all Americans. Their action may mark a necessary turning point in our country's recent history.

Stephen Schwartz is a frequent TCS contributor. He last wrote for TCS about "when are terrorists not terrorists?"

"Immigrant Muslims come to America to escape Islamist radicalism, and are shocked and intimidated to discover the extent of extremist influence in their community (here in the United States).

Most of them would never have believed, in the countries from which they came, that the American authorities would permit an Islamist conspiracy to take control of their faith on our shores.

Further, they are naturally concerned that if they openly oppose extremist influence, their relatives in their countries of origin, as well as their families right here, will suffer threats and worse, since it is not unheard of for dissident Muslims in America be killed."

That's right folks, the benefits of unchecked and carte blanch immigration just keep on rolling in . .

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Radical Islam's 'plan'
to take over America
Arab-American author outlines secret
20-year strategy to undermine country

Posted: August 4, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

9. Accelerate Islamic demographic growth via:

Massive immigration (100,000 annually since 1961).

Use no birth control whatsoever – every baby of Muslim parents is automatically a Muslim and cannot choose another religion later.

Muslim men must marry American women and Islamize them (10,000 annually). Then divorce them and remarry every five years – since one can't legally marry four at one time. This is a legal solution in America.

Omar Ahmad

Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

President & CEO of Silicon Expert Technologies, he is a Palestinian who grew up in a refugee camp in Jordan.

" Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant...The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth,"
-Omar Ahmad

Ibrahim Hooper

CAIR spokesperson

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future...But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that.

"CAIR does not support these groups publicly."
(when asked about CAIR's record of supporting Hamas, Hizbullah and other official terrorist groups)

-Ibrahim Hooper

What they're saying about "Onward Muslim Soldiers" - An expose of militant Islam.

The FREEPERS Guide To Islamic Terror Websites - CYBERTERRORISM (And It's Sponsors)

Islamic Extremism: A Viable Threat to U.S. National Security
An Open Forum at the U.S. Department of State, January 7, 1999
Transcript of presentation by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.org/bin/site/wrappers/default.asp?pane_2=content-extremism_inamerica_unveiling010799

(snip)
On behalf of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, and many, many Muslims – because I cannot speak on behalf of all Muslims, as many non-profit organizations in America do. Immediately when something happens in the Middle East or that region they send media alerts saying they are speaking on behalf of the whole Muslim community, which is completely incorrect. So on behalf of many Muslims, I will say that it is an opportunity to address you and to give you the authentic, traditional voice of Islam. It is a voice of traditional Islam, which is moderation and tolerance and love – loving and to be loved – and living in peace with all other faiths and religions.

(snip)

Moreover, what we are interested in in the United States. I’d like to say that there have been many non-profit organizations established in the United States whose job is only to collect money and to send it, as you know – most of you know – to send it to extremists outside the United States. This is a big dilemma that is facing us here, because you don't know where the money is going, and it is more than hundreds of millions of dollars that have been sent to extremist parties in the Middle East and the Far East, as well as Afghanistan and the Caucasus now. Our sources say that many, many millions of dollars have been collected and sent. They send it under humanitarian aid, but it doesn't go to humanitarian aid. They say that it is to help the people of this country or that country, and they show on television and on their flyers that they are delivering it to help homeless people or poor people. Yes, some of it will go to homeless people and poor people but the majority, 90 per cent of it, will go into the black markets in these countries and buying weapon arsenals.

I know this from my home country of Lebanon where we used to receive a lot of aid from the United States and United Nations. As soon as the aid arrived in Lebanon, you could see a little bit go to the public and the rest would be sold in the black market. For a box that costs more than $100, you can go and buy it in the black market for less than $20. All this money, that came under humanitarian aid, they resell so you cannot trace it, they go back and buy weapons with it to fight and to spread extremism under the name of Islam.

The second issue that United States has to look on within, for security, is the fact that there are many Muslim organizations that claim to speak on behalf of the Muslim community but that in reality are not moderate, but extremist. They hijacked the mike, or they were elected because they are good speakers, but they give a wrong idea about Islam. Always we see them in the media criticizing and complaining and sending action alerts and media alerts and showing people that we do not accept this or we reject that.

Like, for example, with the recent issue of Iraq. The Islamic Supreme Council sent a statement that there are victims in Iraq and there is bloodshed in Iraq, but it is a matter of national security to stop Saddam Hussein from running the country, and it is not a Muslim issue. When everyone was saying from the Muslim community that it is a Muslim issue, we stood fast and we stood alone to say that it is not a Muslim issue but that it is a political issue. Saddam Hussein is a communist in his background. He is of the socialist Ba'ath party, which does not believe in religion. It is secular and does not believe in religion. Anyone who has a beard or anyone wears a turban will be put in prison within a day. This is the mentality of this kind of regime. So it is not a Muslim issue, it's a political issue. It's a Muslim issue when you are hurting the people, and you are hurting a whole community as if we were to say that we are fighting the Iraqi people. But the policy was not to fight the Iraqi people. The policy was to fight a tyranny that was running Iraq. That's a big difference. So we stood up and we said this and we have received a lot of criticism from the Muslim community. But we want to advise the American community and we want to advise our government, our congressmen, that there is something big going on and people are not understanding it.

The third major problem that is now going on is that you have many mosques around the United States and there is not an organized government or policy to look over the mosques like in Muslim countries where you cannot open a mosque by yourself, and you cannot open a charity by yourself. It has to be done according to the structure of the Islamic religion. That's why in the Muslim countries, you cannot find extremist ideology. As soon as you find the extremist ideology they kick them out and bring in traditional Islamic scholars. The extremist ideology comes from the street so the extremists don't know what they are talking about. So they form small circles in different homes or different basements or in different areas and they begin to brainwash the people. That's why we find this kind of movement is becoming big now, especially when the idea is that we have a struggle between us and the United States. "United States is not supporting us," "United States is supporting someone else," they find that United States is not supporting Afghanistan, as Congressman Rohrabacher said. The United States supported Pakistan, the United States supported Egypt, the United States supported PLO and the peace treaty, the United States supported Saudi Arabia, the United States supported Kuwait. The United States is supporting whomever they can, but sometimes it is out of reach that they can support everyone. So they cannot be blamed. The United States cannot be blamed for something that they cannot control.

The most dangerous thing that is going on now in these mosques, that has been sent upon these mosques around the United States – like churches they were established by different organizations and that is ok – but the problem with our communities is the extremist ideology. Because they are very active they took over the mosques; and we can say that they took over more than 80% of the mosques that have been established in the US. And there are more than 3000 mosques in the US.

So it means that the methodology or ideology of extremist has been spread to 80% of the Muslim population, but not all of them agree with it. But mostly the youth and the new generation do because they are students and they don't think except with their emotions and they are rebellious against their own leaders and government. This is the nature and psychology of human beings. When we are students in university or college we always fight the government, whether they are right or wrong, we have to attack the government. This is how they have been raised.

In this way we see that the extremist ideology, and this is the fourth danger, is beginning to spread very quickly into the universities through the national organizations, associations and clubs that they are establishing around the universities. Most of these clubs – they are Muslim clubs and the biggest is the national one – are being run mostly by the extremist ideology that they do not understand other than to say that America is wrong and they are right. You can find this on the Internet; you can find it everywhere on homepages and websites that they are against the United States. This is where we don't know how far it goes, and how far it is out of hand. This might affect the whole university system in the United States. Through the universities there will be the most danger. If the nuclear atomic warheads reach these universities, you don’t know what these students are going to do, because their way of thinking is brainwashed, limited and narrow-minded.

This is what I want to say to you, to present to you from within the Muslim community. We want to tell you that the Muslim community as a whole is innocent from whatever extremism and extremist ideology is being spread around the world. I don't know if there is time or not, but I know that to go in detail on how extremism evolved would take a lot of time, so I’ve tried to summarize as much as possible. I'd like to tell you that extremism , when a person has been brainwashed, demands that a person doesn't think, even if his father or his mother or his brother tells him to stop, he has to go to do what he has been asked to do. That's why there are 5000 suicide bombers being trained by bin Laden in Afghanistan who are ready to move to any part of the world and explode themselves. They are very sophisticated, they can buy anything they need locally and then put it on and explode themselves.

The problem of extremism is a big danger, and it can be solved if the West better understands Islam and builds bridges with the moderate Muslims, the traditional Muslims. This way, the Muslim community will eliminate the extremist threat from within. Otherwise, media, television, newspapers, and the leadership will not understand that there is a difference between extremists and Muslims. They have to begin a dialogue with Muslims from around the United States, and they have to have good advisors. What I am seeing, unfortunately, are those that are advising the media, or advising the government are not the moderate Muslims. Those whose opinion the government asks are the extremists themselves. Those that have been quoted in the newspapers, in the magazines, in the television, in the media are the extremists themselves. You are not hearing the authentic voice of Muslims, of moderate Muslims, but you are hearing the extremist voice of Muslims. That's why they are getting a wrong idea, because the extremists are very well supported, are very well affiliated with outside regimes that have sponsored them with billions of dollars to be active in the United States. They have been successful in doing that so the media does not listen except to them. I am even hearing that there are advisors to many congressmen, to many senators, to many organizations that are supporters of extremism and not moderate Muslims.

More can be found at
The Islamic Supreme Council of America presents
Unveiling The Controversy
http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.org/bin/site/wrappers/default.asp?pane_2=content-extremism_inamerica_unveiling

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