Former Bengali Muslim on Islamic Sermons and "Capitol 9/25"

Why Muslims Chose the Capitol Hill Lawn to Pray to Allah?
By Mohammad Asghar on 10/01/09 • Categorized as Criticism of Islam

Capitol in Washington, D.C. is the House of the United States’ Legislative Branch of Government. It is known as Congress, which consists of two parts: the House of Representatives, and the Senate. This Congress makes laws and studies problems that affect the well being of the American nation. In other words, it is a vital and effective organ of the American government. Abolish or cripple the Congress, there will be no democratic government in the United States!

On 25th of September, 2009, about 3,000 Muslims gathered on the lawn of the iconic Building of the Capitol to offer their Friday (Juma) prayer to Allah. The organizers of the congregation had expected 50,000 Muslims to be in attendance, but their expectation did not come true due, reportedly, to lack of publicity.

In my understanding, there are at least 15 mosques in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. Muslims have been offering their daily and Juma prayers at these mosques ever since they were constructed. This being the fact, one must wonder why Muslims chose the lawn of the Capitol Building last Friday to offer their prayer to Allah!

To solve the puzzle, and to find out the truth, we will need to know what prayer, if any, was offered to Allah and what sermon, also known as khutbah, the leader (Imam) of the Friday prayer had delivered to the congregation of the Muslims.

Khutbah was introduced by the Prophet of Islam. His khutbah contained words of exhortation, instruction and important announcements, including those pertaining to raid and war preparations, to his followers.

Following his tradition, Imams have been delivering khutbahs to the Muslims’ congregations all over the world. Their khutbahs are vastly different from those delivered by Muhammad. Unlike the Friday congregation of the time of Muhammad, the present-day congregations may include the presidents, prime ministers, high government and military officers, doctors, professors and scientists of the Muslim countries as well as the illiterate, but militant Muslims.

Read more: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/10/01/why-muslims-chose-the-capitol-hill-lawn-to-pray-to-allah/

Spencer: Islam on Capitol Hill: A Missed Opportunity

I was at the much-ballyhooed event last Friday, and here is my report in Human Events today:

The organizers of the "Islam on Capitol Hill" event last Friday came only about 47,000 people short of their goal of bringing 50,000 Muslims to Washington to pray in front of the Capitol building. Although the event received a great deal of publicity, it didn't receive the backing of the leading American Muslim advocacy groups -- the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council - and apparently that was enough to keep it from drawing Muslims to Capitol Hill in the numbers the organizers would have liked.

Nonetheless, the event went on, peacefully, under skies that initially threatened rain but then turned brilliantly sunny. Still, it was a huge missed opportunity for American Muslims, and not just because the turnout was far smaller than expected.

Organizer Hassen Abdellah had explained before the event that it was designed "to show we are not terrorists, but that most of us Muslims here love America and abide by its laws." And it took place against a backdrop of a sharp increase in violent jihad activity in the United States. In the week leading up to the Islam on Capitol Hill prayer meeting, two Muslims, including an imam, were arrested for their alleged roles in an elaborate plot involving numerous other Muslims in New York City and Denver, who were evidently planning a major jihad attack at a sports stadium.

Another Muslim, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, was arrested after placing an inert car bomb at a 60-story office tower in downtown Dallas. Yet another Muslim, an American convert who calls himself Talib Islam, was arrested for plotting to blow up the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield, Illinois.

All that in one week. If the Islam on Capitol Hill event was really supposed to show that Muslims were not terrorists, wouldn't it have been a good opportunity to denounce those jihad plots and the Islamic doctrines of warfare and supremacism that inspired them in the first place? For these were not just plots to sow undifferentiated mayhem, but were specifically Islamic jihad plots developed by Muslims who believed that the violence they unleashed would advance the cause of Islam.

Dallas plotter Smadi explained his intentions in fervently expressed Islamic theological terms: "I truly say it that my dream is to be among God's soldiers, first for the support of Islam and my beloved Sheik Usama [bin Laden], may God give him long life....I am ready for the Jihadi life....Victory is coming, is coming to defeat the Romans [i.e., Christians] and for the destruction of the Jews. God is Most Great. We shall attack them in their very homes. Brother, by God, we shall attack them in a manner that hurts, an attack that shakes the world." Likewise Talib Islam spoke to a man whom he did not know was an FBI informant about his desire to wage Islamic jihad and bring down the U.S. government.

But Hassen Abdellah, asked on the morning of the prayer meeting to denounce these plots, demurred, saying that the event was not meant for denunciations. Yet Brooklyn imam Abdul Malik, who preached the sermon at the gathering, found ample time to denounce the immorality of American popular culture and indulge in several oblique denunciations of Christianity. He emphatically recommended Islam as the cure for America's ills - and this was a political prescription, not solely a religious one. I spoke to several Muslims at the event; all said they'd like to see Islamic law, Sharia, come to the United States - a sentiment rife with political implications that remain a matter of indifference on the part of officials sworn to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution.

Islam on Capitol Hill was supposed to show that Muslims are not terrorists.Yet not a word was said at the event about the Muslims arrested for terrorist activity that same week, or any assurances given that the assembled Muslims were working to root out this problem from the Islamic community.

What's more, the Islamic terrorists' stated goal is the imposition of Sharia, with its denial of free speech and legal equality, and that seemed to be just fine with most of those who prayed Jummah prayer on Capitol Hill on Friday.

It was hardly a comforting message to give to free Americans.

Source: JihadWatch

The U.S. Capitol and Islam's Endless Jihad

By Alan Caruba

On Monday, September 28, Jews around the world will celebrate Yom Kippur, fasting and seeking to begin the new lunar year with a clean slate. The holy day is traditionally celebrated after one has paid debts and sought forgiveness for any wrongs.

For the Israelis, in 1973, it included having to go to war after a sneak attack by Syria and Egypt.

It is not a coincidence that the Muslim month of Ramadan occurs during this same period. Muhammad borrowed a lot of Judaism, but he brought to his new religion some decidedly Arab traits and one of them was intolerance.

When a Jewish tribe residing in Arabia refused to acknowledge him as the prophet of Allah, he had all the men executed and the women and children sold into slavery.

When Muslims captured Jerusalem, Judaism’s and Christianity’s most holy city, they chose a site sacred to Jews to build a mosque, al Qud, on the Temple Mount. In Islamic mythology, it is the site where Mohammad ascended to Heaven to meet his fellow prophets after flying to Jerusalem in a dream. There is no indication he ever set foot in Israel, nor is Jerusalem even mentioned by name in the Koran. One of the reasons for the Crusades was to restore Jerusalem to its rightful owners.

In a fashion that Jews and Christians can never quite understand, Islam insists that it is the only religion that should be practiced on the planet. While it gives lip service to Judaism and Christianity because the two faiths have a holy book, it holds Hinduism, Buddhism, and other faiths in complete contempt for lack of a similar scripture.

Americans should pay attention when, on Friday, September 24, some in the American Islamic community hope to bring together up to 50,000 Muslims to surround the U.S. Capitol for Jummah prayer, otherwise known as their Sabbath, celebrated on Fridays, just as Jews do.

The Capitol celebration will be led by Sheikh Ahmed Dewider, a Manhattan cleric who reportedly once said that “through the domination of Islam and its ideas, the White House will change” and expressed the hope that someday the White House would become the Muslim House.

According to The New York Times, the main organizer of the event, Hassen Ibn Abedellah, was “the most aggressively combative of the lawyers” representing the terrorists who staged the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Abdellah has claimed that Zionists “control the government, the politics, the economy, and the media in the U.S.”

Thus, the Friday event will be led by men who are both anti-Semitic and who harbor dreams of turning America into a Muslim nation subject to Sharia, Islamic law.

Occupied elsewhere, President Obama will not be able to participate, but he was also too busy to participate in the National Day of Prayer, acknowledging it with a perfunctory proclamation. Busy as he is, he did host a White House dinner celebrating what he called “The Holy Month of Ramadan” and recently issued a proclamation at the end of Ramadan which concluded with an Arabic blessing.

I suggest Friday’s Capitol event is part of Islam’s endless jihad against all other faiths and reflects its ambitions for the United States of America.

Editor’s Note: Our thanks to the American Family Association for their contribution to this commentary.

Source: Alan Caruba

Islamic rally on Capitol clouded by organizer's terror ties

By Drew Zahn

As an anticipated 50,000 Muslims prepare to descend on Capitol Hill for "A Day of Islamic Unity" this Friday, several blogs and online news sources have spotlighted the history of the movement's leader and his ties to terrorists in the U.S.

As WND reported, one of the key organizers is Hassen Abdellah, an attorney from Elizabeth, N.J. Abdellah formed part of the legal team that defended four men in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, including Mahmud Abouhalim, who was convicted and sentenced to prison.

During the trial, the New York Times described Abdellah as "by far the most aggressively combative of the lawyers in the case."

The case, as well as Abdellah's other legal associations, has raised eyebrows online.

"Who's behind 'Islam on Capitol Hill?'" asked popular blogger and frequent TV talk show guest, Michelle Malkin.

Malkin then quoted Andrew Walden of FrontPageMagazine.com, who published an extensive look at the Muslim rally's organizers, including a reminder that Abdellah also defended Numan Maflahi, a man who in 2004 was accused by prosecutors of being tied to al-Qaida and sentenced to five years for lying to investigators during an investigation of terrorism financing.

"Of course, everyone is entitled to legal representation," commented Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, "but Abdellah's choice of clients is … interesting."

Spencer also pointed out Abdellah represented Mahmud Faruq Brent, a Muslim cabdriver in Baltimore who pled guilty in April 2007 to attending a jihad terrorist training camp in Pakistan and conspiring to provide material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba foreign terrorist organization.

Building on the Islamic interest in Obama's inauguration, when Muslims claimed in a magazine that "It's our time," the event planners are calling for 50,000 Muslims to attend the event on the National Mall on Friday.

Repeated on each page of the rally's website is the phrase "Our time has come."

According to New Jersey's Star-Ledger, Abdellah confirmed the idea of the event germinated after Obama's inaugural speech, then was reinforced by the president's address in Cairo, Egypt, months later.

In Cairo, Obama carried a greeting from "Muslim communities" in America, complained how Muslims had been "denied rights and opportunities," and stated, "I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam at places like Al-Azhar that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's renaissance and enlightenment."

Besides crediting Islam with significant responsibility for the development of civilization in Europe, Obama also said Muslims have served similarly in America.

"And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States," Obama said. "They have fought in our wars. They have served in our government. They have stood for civil rights. They have started businesses. They have taught at our universities. They've excelled in our sports arenas. They've won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building and lit the Olympic torch. And when the first Muslim American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same holy Quran that one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, kept in his personal library."

"For the first time in my lifetime," Abdellah told the Star-Ledger. "I heard someone of his stature speaking about Islam and Muslims not in an adversarial sense, but in the sense of being welcome and acknowledging we are integral citizens in the society – that we're gainfully employed, we're educated.

"He said he had his hand open to the Islamic world," Abdellah said. "The Islamic world wants to open their hand and shake it."

Now, the D.C. rally's website proclaims its objective is to "invite the Muslim communities and friends of Islam to express and illustrate the wonderful diversity of Islam. We intend to manifest Islam's majestic spiritual principals as revealed by Allah to our beloved prophet Muhammad (PEACE BE UPON HIM) of Arabia. Likewise, we intend to inspire a new generation of Muslim to work for the greater good of all people. We shall serve all people, regardless of race, religion or national origin."

Scheduled events during the rally include offering Muslim youth tours of the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court and chanting the Athan on Capitol Hill.

The Athan, a Muslim call to prayer, contains several repeated refrains such as (loosely translated) "Allah is the greatest," "I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah" and "I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."

Source: WND

Clash Over 'Islamization' at DC Muslim Prayer Rally

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

A new organization dedicated to fighting what it sees as an encroaching Islamic takeover of the U.S. is set to launch later this month with a gathering in Washington, D.C. - on the same day as a massive Muslim prayer rally in the U.S. capital.

The Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) group has declared its mission to be educating Americans "about the threat that Islamic doctrine and those who support it present to our freedoms, and the future of our democracy and country."

The organizers call themselves "scholar warriors/ideological warriors in the cause of American freedom and Constitutional government," as well as in "the defense of... our society of liberty, knowledge, and human decency."

SIOA believes that political Islam is opposed to American values of "freedom, tolerance, or human rights." They seek to raise the issue of what they call "brutal, misogynist" Islamic law and jihad in America, because "tolerance for ideologies that are opposed to our principles of individual freedoms and our Constitution is indefensible," the group declares in its online manifesto.

A recently-released film, The Third Jihad, warns that radical Islam is working on a non-violent, cultural takeover of the United States.

"We are now in a new phase of a 1,400-year-old jihad against the kafirs (all non-Muslims everywhere); we are not prepared to meet the threat," SIOA says. "[I]gnorance about Islam, its doctrine and purposes is a moral and ethical failure whose consequences can be nothing short of national extinction."

The official launch of the SIOA is slated for September 25, 2009, at an as-yet unknown venue in the U.S. capital. The timing and location appears to be far from coincidental.

A massive Muslim prayer gathering is planned for for the same day in front of the Capitol building. Spearheaded by the Elizabeth, New Jersey Dar-ul-Islam Mosque, organizers are expecting 50,000 people to attend the first-of-its-kind national event. The gathering will be limited to prayer, according to Hassen Abdullah, president of Dar-ul-Islam.

SIOA sees the event as a "big-budget... soft jihad," fought through "marketing and cultural/ideological warfare." D.L. Adams of SIOA wrote of the planned Muslim prayer gathering, "It is impossible to see this event as anything but what it is, taqiyya (sacred deception), jihad (endless universal war against the unbelievers), and dawa (conversion)."

The SIOA's own event is planned to conclude with a "saunter" around the streets of Washington DC, on the day of the Muslim prayer rally, in order to "engage in conversations with our fellow citizens who might happen to be there on the same day on matters of moment."

However, more confrontationally, the SIOA website calls for "every protest of this takiya-jihad-dawa event... [to] include some component of donkey, dog, and women." The reason for this unusual suggestion is made clear on the SIOA site as well: Muslim doctrine, according to the SIOA, says that "Islamic prayer is nullified if a dog, a woman, or a donkey are present."

At the same time, the SIOA promotional literature for the organizational launch emphasizes, "We are an entirely non-violent organization. Our sauntering is planned to be more a polite conversational engagement rather than a demonstration." Organizers "look forward to a pleasant several hours chatting with our fellow Americans in the Capitol on the issue at hand."

Speakers at the SIOA launch are slated to include expatriate Egyptian activist Nonie Darwish, Islam scholar and author Robert Spencer, journalist Pamela Geller, and Christine Brim, Senior Vice President for Policy and Program Management at the Center for Security Policy.

Source: INN

Obama inspires Islamists' D.C. prayer rally

Muslims who are working to stage the "Our Day Has Come" day of prayer at the U.S. Capitol have discussed views that include an Islamic takeover of the White House, from where they say President Barack Obama is providing their inspiration.

Building on the Islamic interest in Obama's inauguration, when Muslims claimed in a magazine that "It's our time," the event planners are calling for 50,000 Muslims to attend the 4 a.m. event on the National Mall on Sept. 25.

The organizer is Hassen Abdellah, who leads a Elizabeth, N.J., mosque, and two special guests for the event, according to the website, will be Sheik Muhammad Jebril and Sheik Ahmed Dewidar.

According to the website, Jebril's degree is in Islamic Law and he learned the Quran by the age of 9.

According to blogger Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs, Jebril specializes in Shariah law and served as the imam of an extremist mosque in Cairo starting in 1988.

Likewise, the prayer day website reported Dewidar studied law at the University of Alexandria and took a master's degree in Shariah. He moved to the United States to lead a Muslim community in New Jersey and later established the Islamic Center in Manhattan.

Atlas Shrugs reported Dewidar's comments about Islam and the White House were captured by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

In the interview, Dewidar talked about sermons he'd heard that "Muslims should march on the White House…"

The interviewer asked for an explanation.

"One cleric said in his sermon: 'We are going to the White House, so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will become into the Muslim house,'" he said, according to the MEMRI report.

Dewidar denied that this was a plan for a physical occupation of the building.

"They say that through the domination of Islam and its ideas, the White House will change," the report quotes Dewidar saying.

Atlas Shrugs also cited Dewidar's comments for a Muslim Brotherhood website that American society is controlled by Jews.

On an Arabic website, he also hinted that the American government may have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

His translated comments include, "Whether or not these events were planned, or pinned on the Muslims, or something else – [it] provided an opportunity for [the American government] to legislate dubious laws that restrict the growth and presence of Islam in the U.S," Atlas Shrugs reported.

Organizers themselves have credited Obama's advocacy for Islam for their inspiration.

"The organizers say that it was Obama's inauguration speech in January and his speech broadcast from Egypt in June that gave them the idea for this prayer gathering on Capitol Hill," wrote Geller.

While he praised Islam during his inauguration, Obama elaborated during his speech in Egypt months later.

He carried a greeting from "Muslim communities" in America, complained how Muslims had been "denied rights and opportunities," and stated, "I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam at places like Al-Azhar that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's renaissance and enlightenment."

Besides crediting Islam with significant responsibility for the development of civilization in Europe, Obama also said Muslims have served similarly in America.

"And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States," Obama said. "They have fought in our wars. They have served in our government. They have stood for civil rights. They have started businesses. They have taught at our universities. They've excelled in our sports arenas. They've won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building and lit the Olympic torch. And when the first Muslim American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same holy Quran that one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, kept in his personal library." Read more here ...

Source: WND