 by Cinnamon Stillwell In the wake of the horrific attack at the Fort Hood military base in Texas earlier this month, and the mounting evidence that the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was motivated by Islamist beliefs, the media has turned to Middle East studies "experts" for enlightenment. Instead, what the media, and, by extension, the American public, has received are the moral relativism and obfuscation that too often meet any effort to address Islamism or jihadism in an intellectually honest manner. Writing for the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog, John Esposito, professor and founding director of the Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, extends his long tradition of issuing apologias for radical Islam by conflating Hasan's actions with "extremists" of all religions.
In the process, he professes ignorance as to why there might be suspicion directed towards Islam in the wake of 9/11, the worst Islamic terrorist attack in U.S. history: Why this common tendency and double standard towards Islam and Muslims post-9/11? We judge the religion and majority of mainstream Muslims by the acts of an individual or an aberrant minority of extremists.
Yet, when Jewish fundamentalists kill a prime minister or innocent Palestinians or Christian extremists blow up abortion clinics or assassinate their physicians, somehow the media is capable of sticking to all the facts and distinguishing between the use and abuse of a religion. Having written this post while news of Hasan's fanatical leanings and possible terrorist connections was still developing, Esposito warns against a "rush to judgment" that might, as he puts it, "negatively impact the American public's perception of Islam."
Heaven forbid Americans start to suspect that Islam itself contains the seeds for Islamism. Contrary to popular belief, this awareness need not implicate all Muslims. Rather, it asks the faithful to address Islamist violence and aggression by implementing theological and cultural reform. Esposito continues the moral equivalency and non sequiturs in a later "On Faith" post: No major faith, including the five major world religions I have studied and taught, threatens the safety and security of the U.S. or its citizens. Religious extremists of any faith are a threat but they should be treated as any other extremists, religious or non-religious. Yes -- but the 14, 374 terrorist attacks worldwide over the past eight years weren't perpetrated at random by members of diverse world religions. They were executed by radical Muslims, every one. Ingrid Mattson, professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, director of the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies at Hartford Seminary, and president of the Islamic Society of North America, is well-known for expressing her own Islamist sympathies. This may be why, in a November 8, 2009 New York Times article, Mattson made this clumsy attempt at obfuscation: I don't understand why the Muslim-American community has to take responsibility for him. The Army has had at least as much time and opportunity to form and shape this person as the Muslim community. Arguing that the U.S. military was responsible for cultivating Hasan's Islamist beliefs is laughable.
So is the idea that the Muslim-American community bears no responsibility. After all, the "community" includes radical clerics such as Anwar Al-Awlaki, the former spiritual leader of the Virginia mosque Hasan attended (and who has since praised Hasan for the attack), along with organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose sole purpose is to intimidate into silence anyone who connects Islamic terrorism with Islam. Read more,,,, Source: Middle East Forum 
 More than 100 religious leaders gathered Wednesday in Geneva for a two-day conference entitled "The Impact of King Abdullah's Inter-Religious Dialogue Initiative in Disseminating Human Values." Many of the listed "conference participants," however, are tainted by troubling resumes of anti-Semitism, empathy for radical Islamist ideology and support for terrorist organizations. The conference organizer, the Muslim World League (MWL) is alleged to have connections to Al Qaeda. Reports detail how MWL has provided Islamic militants, including Osama bin Laden and his followers, with financial[i] and organizational[ii] help. MWL's U.S. offices have been raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into a network of Virginia-based Islamic charities and corporate entities suspected of having ties to terrorist groups. Also, MWL leaders have made statements in support of suicide bombings and published anti-Semitic articles. Perhaps the most disconcerting participant listed to attend King Abdullah's conference is William Baker – an anti-Semite with neo-Nazi connections. Baker claims that he met with the now U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Hizballah during the Lebanon hostage crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s. While Hizballah was not yet designated at this time, Baker was hanging out with an organization that was kidnapping foreign nationals in Lebanon and holding them hostage – foreign nationals that were largely American and European. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 John Esposito has enjoyed substantial respect in his role as a Georgetown University professor of Religion and International Affairs, specializing in Islamic studies, as well as the founding director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service. But whether he deserves that respect is put in serious doubt when assessing his cozy ties with radical Islamists and his repeated defense of their ideology -- a relationship that is detailed in a newly issued report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). The report acknowledges Esposito's impressive pedigree as an award-winning professor, an author of more than 30 books, a consultant for the Gallup polling organization and an expert on Islam frequently called upon to brief government agencies including the State Department, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and various branches of the military. But it determines that his "outspoken defense of radical Islam calls his reliability as an objective academic and impartial educator into question." Read more ...Source: IPT NewsJohn Esposito
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 By Jonathan Schanzer A California nonprofit dedicated to "teaching about Islam & Muslims" at U.S. high schools and college campuses features a board of advisors that is stacked with some of the most controversial activist professors in the field of Middle Eastern studies today. The imprimatur of these scholars may signal a troubling shift toward the support of proselytizing efforts and the further unraveling of Middle East Studies in America. The board of Islamic Networks Group (ING) is a veritable Who's Who of Islamist apologists and activists. Leading the list is John Esposito, the founding director of the Saudi-funded Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He famously stated that the suicide-bombing Hamas organization engages in "honey, cheese-making, and home-based clothing manufacture." Joining Esposito on the ING board is Sherman Jackson of the University of Michigan, who was a trustee at the North American Islamic Trust and worked with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), both un-indicted co-conspirators in the U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation. Read more ...Source: The American Thinker
By Jonathan Gelbart Georgetown University Professor John Esposito is the media’s favorite go-to man for questions about Islam. As the founding director of the Saudi-financed Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, he is also notorious for downplaying radical Islam. Stanford University hosted his latest round of apologetics on May 13. Esposito, who spoke at Stanford last year, was on campus to promote the film version of his recent book (co-authored with Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies), Who Speaks For Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. He was joined by the film’s executive producer, Muslim convert Michael Wolfe. The 55-minute film claims to present the results of the “largest, most comprehensive study” of Muslim opinion ever done. The crowd’s political leaning were evident in the audible hisses that greeted the cinematic image of former President George W. Bush. A question and answer session with Esposito and Wolfe followed the screening. Don Emmerson, director of the Southeast Asia Forum at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford and an affiliated scholar with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, was the first to offer up a challenge. Emmerson pointed out a question posed in the film, “Do you believe a woman should be allowed to work in any job she is qualified for?” is answered affirmatively by large majorities of Muslim men and women, but that the film never clarifies for what exactly the respondents believe women to be qualified. Thus, Emmerson concluded, “No quality control is evident in either the film or, if I may say so, in the book.” Esposito had no response. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineJohn Esposito
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 The appointment of one of John Esposito’s protégé to Obama’s advisory council is further evident of the increasing role of Esposito in the Obama administration. The White House has announced that one of two Muslim members appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is Dalia Mogahed, a protege of John Esposito, perhaps the best known academic supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and with strong ties to Saudi Arabia. The Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships was formerly known as the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States . Ms. Mogahed, who was born in Egypt and lived in the U.S. since the age of 5, is the executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and the co-author of a book with Dr. Esposito suggesting that majority of the world’s Muslims support some form of democracy. Dr. Esposito is also a member of the Gallup Center along with Ahmed Younis, previously a National Director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. In 2003, Ms. Mogahed was identified in 2003 as the Outreach Coordinator for the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh (ICP) whose co-founder recently lost a DOE security clearance and whose Imam will probably be deported on immigration violations. Ms. Mogahed is the daughter of Elsayed Mogahed, an Egyptian immigrant who is a former engineering scientist at the University of Wisconsin and director of the Islamic Center of Madison (ICM). The website of the ICM links mainly to U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations and Souheil Ghannouchi, the President of the Muslim American Society (MAS), was ICM Imam and President for several years. The MAS is part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and closest to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Read more ... Source: Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily ReportDalia Mogahed
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
By Douglas Farah First, a note updating my pessimistic view of the Somali pirate hostage taking. I stand corrected, and thank the Navy Seals and others who carried out the rescue operation. Well done! But, as the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report (free subscription required) makes clear, the news is not all good. The Muslim Brotherhood legacy organizations have recently made tremendous strides in occupying positions of influence within the Obama administration, at the same time the FBI and other law enforcement officials have move to cut ties to the very same organization. The MB has only one political agenda – its own. Its organizations strongly backed George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 (remember the famous picture of Bush hugging the al Arian family?). Hoping for friendlier pastures, the groups switched their support to the Dems in ‘08. So far, it appears to be paying off. Big time. The architect is Dr. John Esposito, a long time defender of the MB and the head of the Saudi-financed Georgetown University Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Read more ...Source: FSM
 Why is our Secretary of State scheduled to speak at a conference given by a group whose leading lights are closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood?According to the website of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to give the keynote address at the organization’s 10th annual conference on May 5th. Also scheduled to attend the conference as a panelist and//or moderator is Dr. Kemal Al-Helbawy, a leader in the global Muslim Brotherhood who has defended the terrorist targeting of Israeli children and who in 1996 was denied entrance into the U.S.  CSID was founded in 1998 largely by the efforts of Georgetown University academic Dr. Esposito who, during the 1990s, had served in the State Department as a “foreign affairs analyst.” Many members of the early CSID board were associated with the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), the American Muslim Council, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). For example, past CSID board members included Jamal Barzinji and Taha Al-Alwani, both important Brotherhood leaders who are closely associated with the now defunct SAAR Foundation, still under investigation by the U.S. government. Both Barzinji and Al-Alwani helped to establish many of the most important U.S. Brotherhood organizations. The current CSID Vice-Chair, Antony Sullivan, has many ties to U.S. Brotherhood groups including the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), the United Association for Studies and Research (USAR), and the Circle of Tradition and Progress (COTP), a group whose other founding members included Youssef Qaradawi, the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood. From its inception, CSID has argued that the U.S. government should support Islamist movements in foreign countries and has received financial support from the National Endowment for Democracy and the United States Institute of Peace. Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report Source: Read more ...
First Place (6 points):
Jimmy Carter / State Department
Third Place (5 points):
The FBI
Fourth Place (4 points):
British Government / Harvard University / Jacqui Smith / John Esposito / YouTube
Ninth Place (3 points):
ACLU / BBC / EEOC / Noah Feldman Source: Muslims Against Sharia Blog
 The Investigative Project has reported on significant gaps in knowledge about the global Muslim Brotherhood on the part of Georgetown academic John Esposito, perhaps the best known U.S. academic supporter of the Brotherhood. According to the report Esposito, testifying in the retrial of the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case, was unaware of the connections between the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Holy Land Foundations, and Hamas and was unable to recall his last meeting with CAIR even though it was only three months ago: …on cross examination, Esposito either didn’t remember or didn’t know about documented links between HLF and other groups he has worked with and Hamas. One of those groups is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). When asked by defense attorney Nancy Hollander if he was familiar with CAIR, Esposito described it as a “religious-oriented mainstream group” that worked on issues of discrimination against Muslims. He confirmed he had over a period of time met with senior CAIR officials, including Nihad Awad, Ibrahim Hooper, and “another person based in California in the Bay area.” That person, he later said, turned out to be CAIR co-founder and chairman emeritus Omar Ahmad. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF case. In his cross examination by federal prosecutor James Jacks, Esposito said that he had attended a handful of CAIR events in the past 15 years. But he struggled to identify the last time he attended a CAIR event. It was three months ago in Dallas, Jacks said. He’s also scheduled to speak at a CAIR fundraiser in Tampa later this month. Although Esposito was a featured speaker at the Dallas event in August, he said he was unaware that the funds raised at the event went to the Muslim Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit group set up to raise money to pay defense attorney’s fees in the HLF trial. That wasn’t his only appearance at a Dallas CAIR event. A year earlier, Esposito offered his wholehearted support for CAIR and its wishes to see the defendants set free in the HLF case, “Let me begin by saying that CAIR is a phenomenal organization….The main reason I decided to come was because of how I see the situation with regard to both the Holy Land Fund and the way government recently handled the situation and also to show solidarity not only with the Holy Land Fund, but also with CAIR.” Read more ...Source: Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report
 DALLAS - When officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) spoke of jihad, or the need to support Palestinian mujahideen, they weren't necessarily endorsing violence. And when they praised Hamas and brought in leaders of the designated terrorist group to speak at fundraisers, they weren't necessarily providing support. That was the message John Esposito, a Georgetown University professor of Religion and International Affairs and director of the university's Saudi-funded Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding told jurors in HLF's terror support trial Monday. Esposito was called as an expert witness to explain that some of the strident language jurors have heard coming from Holy Land officials may have a different, more benign meaning. The men are accused of illegally providing millions of dollars to Hamas through a series of Palestinian charities. Donating to charity is sacred in Islam, one of the five pillars of the faith, Esposito said. But on cross examination, Esposito either didn't remember or didn't know about documented links between HLF and other groups he has worked with and Hamas. One of those groups is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). When asked by defense attorney Nancy Hollander if he was familiar with CAIR, Esposito described it as a "religious-oriented mainstream group" that worked on issues of discrimination against Muslims. He confirmed he had over a period of time met with senior CAIR officials, including Nihad Awad, Ibrahim Hooper, and "another person based in California in the Bay area." That person, he later said, turned out to be CAIR co-founder and chairman emeritus Omar Ahmad. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsJohn Esposito
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
By Robert Spencer An announcement from Esposito's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University: Is There a Role for Shari'ah in Modern States? Oct 23 2008 9:30am-5pm Location Leavey Center GU Conference Center Access This event has been marked as open to the public.
Description
--- 9:30am ---
Opening and Welcome: John Esposito
Keynote: Noah Feldman
--- 10:45am ---
Panel 1: Rethinking Islam? Myths and Realities of Islamic Law
Asifa Quraishi, 'Women and Shari’ah in Modern Law' (TBC)
Sherman Jackson, 'Can Shari'ah be Reformed?'
Jonathan Brown, 'Shari'ah Meets Reality: Giving Fatwas in Egypt'
--- 12:15pm ---
Break for Lunch
--- 1:30pm ---
Panel 2: The Appeal of Shari'ah in Modern Muslim Politics & State Building
Clark Lombardi, 'Shari'ah and Constitution Making' (Egypt, Indonesia, and Afghanistan)
Intisar Rabb, 'The Shari'ah Clause in Modern Constitutions'
Nathan Brown, 'Shari’ah and Constitutional Reform' Read more ... Source: Dhimmi WatchJohn Esposito
Noah Feldman
Latest recipients of The Dhimmi Award
 Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMSU) will be hosting a conference on October 23 that asks the loaded question: “Is There a Role for Shari'ah in Modern States?” The Saudi-funded ACMSU and its founding director, John Esposito, one of the foremost apologists for radical Islam in the academic field of Middle East studies, have certainly been doing their bit to make the idea more palatable. The Saudi prince for whom ACMSU was named has been pumping millions of dollars into Middle East studies at Georgetown, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and beyond, and as the case of Esposito demonstrates, it magnifies the voices of scholars with a decidedly uncritical bent. As a result, ACMSU analysis regarding Sharia (or Islamic) law tends to focus not on its injustices (amputation, stoning, hanging, honor killing, punishment for blasphemy, execution of apostates, persecution of non-Muslims, sanctioned wife-beating, female genital mutilation, and so on), but rather on repackaging it in ways that will appeal to Western sensibilities. The concept of a more “moderate” version of Sharia law that is compatible with democracy is at the forefront of this effort. While it’s difficult to predict exactly what will take place at the upcoming ACMSU conference, the fact that Esposito will present the opening remarks provides considerable insight into the politics of the event. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineJohn Esposito
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
By Erick Stakelbeck If you want to influence habits, experts will tell you to target young people. Current polls show that many Americans have a negative view of Muslims, especially since the 9/11 attacks. Now the Saudi royal family is trying to change that. They are going to visit some of America's top universities to get their message out. President Bush was all smiles during a traditional "sword dance" with members of the Saudi royal family in January. But the Bush administration has crossed swords with the Saudis in recent years over their support of radical Islam worldwide. The Saudis' image worldwide took a major beating when it was revealed that a majority of the 9/11 hijackers hailed from the royal kingdom. "Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter of suicide bombers and terrorists in the history of humankind," said The Institute for Gulf Affairs' Ali Al-Ahmed. Read more ...Source: CBN News
A $20 million gift from a Saudi Arabian prince to a Georgetown University academic center has not affected its scholarly work, Georgetown's president said in response to questions from a U.S. congressman. Since receiving the $20 million from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in 2005, "all activities of the Center have been conducted in the most appropriate manner, and with no outside interference of any kind," Georgetown President John J. DeGioia wrote. U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), wrote to DeGioia Feb. 14, saying he was concerned about Prince Alwaleed's gift to Georgetown's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (which was renamed in the prince's honor) and the affect it had on research. Has anyone at the Center conducted research critical of Saudi educational or human rights policies? Wolf also asked whether the money fueled any of the school's training of current and prospective U.S. Foreign Service personnel. Read more ...Source: The Investigative Project
This fact makes the LA Times scratch its venerable head in puzzlement. I mean, doesn't everybody know that poverty causes terrorism, and only the desperate, uneducated and easily led join jihadist groups? Of course, we have documented here for years that the opposite is the case, and just yesterday Saudi pseudoacademic shill John Esposito admitted it himself: "The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims." But it never seems to get through to the clueless, indifferent, PC-addled mainstream media. Read more ...Source: LA Times H/T: Jihad Watch
Dhimmi Saudi-funded academic John Esposito has praised Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradawi as a "reformist," and here he is reforming, saying that it is wrong to calls today's Jews apes and pigs. (Actually, there is nothing reformist about this -- it is a mainstream and venerable Islamic position, as I explain in this segment of my Blogging the Qur'an series.) It would be wrong to call them names, you see, but not wrong to murder them. "Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, Recently Barred from the U.K., Reiterates His Position on Suicide Bombings and Declares: Jews Are Not the Offspring of Apes and Pigs," Read more ...Source: MEMRIH/T: Jihad WatchYousuf Al-Qaradhawi
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 By Patrick Poole In December 2005, Georgetown University announced receipt of a $20 million gift to endow the school's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, after whom the Center was renamed. The Center's director, John Esposito, has been known for his vigorous apologetics for Islamic extremism, authoring several books prior to the endowment's announcement dismissing the global influence of extremist Islamic ideology. Under Esposito's oversight, the Center has also developed questionable ties to individuals and organizations directly involved in Islamic terrorism. One example of these ties is the joint conference held by the Center with the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR) in July 2000. By that time, UASR had long been identified as the political command for HAMAS in the United States, and Esposito's co-chair for the conference was then-UASR executive director Ahmed Yousef, who fled the country in 2005 to avoid prosecution and currently serves as the spokesman for the HAMAS terrorist organization in Gaza. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
By Cinnamon Stillwell Georgetown professor John Esposito, director of the Saudi-financed Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding has a reputation as an apologist for radical Islam. And it's one he lived up to with a Stanford University speech last week titled, "Dying for God? Suicide Terrorism and Militant Islam." Esposito claimed that Islamic terrorism grows primarily out of a sense of political and economic grievance and, of course, "occupation" on the part of "neo-colonial powers." This spin allowed him to deflect responsibility for Islamic terrorism to the West while negating the need for self-reflection among Muslims. When an attendee asked him why no other impoverished or oppressed group around the world resorts to suicide bombings, Esposito stonewalled for several minutes before giving one of the few straight answers of the night: "I don't know." Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineJohn Esposito
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, center, is seen with Georgetown president John J. DeGioia and John Esposito in this 2005 photograph. The prince gave Esposito's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding $20 million.By Steven Emerson A U.S. congressman is asking Georgetown University about its academic scrutiny of Saudi Arabia and its use of $20 million donated by a Saudi prince in 2005. U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) wrote to Georgetown President John DeGioia Thursday, saying he was concerned about how the money was being spent at the university's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Of particular concern, Wolf said, was the university's role in training current and prospective U.S. foreign service personnel. "The Saudi government continues to permit textbooks to contain inflammatory language about other religions," Wolf wrote. "Restrictions on civil society and political activists continue to be pervasive. No changes have been made to the underlying legal authority relating to non-Muslim worship that the Saudis have relied on to enforce these rules. The Saudis have cleansed their own country of religious liberties by severely restricting public religious expression to their interpretation and enforcement of wahhabism." Wolf's letter seeks assurances the Georgetown center "maintains the impartiality and integrity of scholarship that befits so distinguished a university as Georgetown." Read more ... Source: IPT News
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Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
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by Cinnamon Stillwell
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