New York: Moderate Muslim wife beheader says the beheading was justified because his wife was mean to him

Muzzammil Hasan: Islamic supremacist wuss. Note the typical Islamic supremacist shifting of blame and responsibility to the victim.

This was mentioned in this post, but this story highlights it, and it is worth highlighting this absurdity: "NY man accused of beheading claims he was battered," by Carolyn Thompson for The Associated Press, January 22

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The founder of an Islam-oriented television station who is accused of beheading his wife was abused by her for years, according to his lawyer, who said Friday he will pursue a defense combining that justification as well as psychiatric claims.

Defense attorneys' claims that Muzzammil Hassan was victimized by his wife drew a blunt response from District Attorney Frank Sedita after a hearing Friday.

"He chopped her head off," Sedita said. "He chopped her head off. That's all I have to say about Mr. Hassan's apparent defense that he was a battered spouse."...

"The spouse was the dominant figure in this relationship," attorney Frank Bogulski said outside the courtroom. "He was the victim. She was verbally abusive. She had humiliated him."

Nancy Sanders, a former news director at Bridges TV, was skeptical of the abuse claim, noting the stocky Hassan stood over 6 feet tall and "filled a doorway," while Aasiya was slender and several inches shorter.

"I never ever heard her disparage him in the workplace at all," Sanders said. "It just did not seem to be in her nature. She was very gentle."...

A comment at the Houston Chronicle's posting of this AP story sums up Hassan's defense: "I heard that even to the end the wife was abusing him. For example, the bones in her neck gave him some bad scratches while he was hacking her head off."

With thanks to JihadWatch

New York Dems: We Can't Afford KSM Trial

by Mark Impomeni

Last Friday, nineteen members of the New York Congressional delegation put their names to a letter to President Obama in advance of the upcoming trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his co-conspirators in lower Manhattan.

In the letter, the nineteen representatives, all Democrats, request inclusion of a special line item in the president’s 2011 budget request to “fully reimburse the City of New York for all security and other expenses related to providing a safe and secure trial.”

The letter expresses the members’ support for hosting the trial in New York City, but takes note of the burden that will be placed on the New York City Police Department, the community surrounding the federal courthouse, and the budgets of the City and State of New York.

“The trial of KSM will require an unprecedented amount of security, both to protect the judicial proceedings at the Courthouse and the surrounding area,” the representatives write. “Without full federal reimbursement, the costs of providing security for this trial will significantly compromise the NYPD’s efforts to prevent crime and terrorism, and further burden the budgets of New York City and New York State, both of which are already reeling from the severe economic downturn.”

Rep. Michael McMahon is leading the reimbursement effort on the House side. McMahon also joined Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) earlier this month in calling on the president to provide funds for New York City in connection with the trial. McMahon was elected last year to represent Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, an area that had been continuously represented by a Republican since 1981.

McMahon supported Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to hold the trial in New York City, telling Politico in November, “It’s time to move forward and bring these animals to justice.” That tough talk has given way to concerns about security, “emotional trauma,” and costs as the trial grows closer. All are factors that Democrats largely brushed off when the Obama administration’s decision was announced two months ago.

One reason for the change of heart among New York Democrats could be a groundswell of opposition both locally and nationally to holding the trial blocks from the site where nearly 3,000 Americans died in the attacks.

On the national level, HUMAN EVENTS and the influential conservative community website RedState.com have joined forces to sponsor a petition drive calling for the trial to be moved out of the civilian court system. The petition has garnered over 80,000 signatures to date. Prominent New York Republicans Rep. Peter King, gubernatorial candidate and former Rep. Rick Lazio, former governor George Pataki, and the former representative of McMahon’s district, Vito Fossella.

Lazio told HUMAN EVENTS the decision to hold the trial in New York was “unacceptable and irresponsible,” and said that McMahon’s letter was misguided.

“It’s fine to seek reimbursement, but that doesn’t get to the real issue,” he said. “The fact that the cost of security is projected to be over $200 million of additional spending speaks to the seriousness of the risk to downtown New York City. Republican or Democrat, people understand that it is an outrage to have the trial for this terrorist mastermind held in downtown New York, a place that has already suffered great trauma as a result of [Khalid Sheikh Mohammad’s] actions”

Lazio was also critical of his potential opponents in the governor’s race, Governor David Paterson, and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, for not doing more to block the trial. He said that Paterson’s public opposition to the trial was “ineffective,” saying that the governor needs to be, “a relentless opponent of having these trials down town.”

“Governor Paterson should have been much more outspoken from the start, not just in terms of money, but in terms of the jeopardy created unnecessarily for the people of downtown New York City,” Lazio said.

But Lazio saved his most stinging criticism for Cuomo, who has not taken a public position on the trial. “I find it puzzling that the chief law enforcement officer in the state has been absolutely mum on this,” he said. “How [does Cuomo] expect to be chosen to a position of leadership without taking a stand on issues important to New Yorkers?"

One local effort is taking place in lower Manhattan’s Community Board 1, which is represented by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, one of the Democrats that signed McMahon’s letter.

Marc Ameruso, Assistant Secretary of Community Board 1, led a vocal group of residents at last month’s meeting in specifically asking the board to withhold its support for holding the trials in the area. The resolution was ultimately tabled, but not before about a dozen residents of the overwhelmingly Democratic area spoke passionately about their fear and anger at the Obama administration’s decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his 9/11 co-conspirators back into their community.

Mr. Ameruso had strong words for Nadler, saying his signing of McMahon’s letter was politically motivated. “It’s ironic that Mr. Nadler acknowledges that this neighborhood will have to be locked down, that we will have to relive the experience of September 11th, but yet he is willing to put his constituency through this nightmare,” Ameruso said. “He’s throwing his constituents, of which I am one, under the bus.”

Ameruso vows to reintroduce his resolution at this month’s board meeting. He said that he hopes his resolution along with the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day will, “wake people up.” “Holding this trial in lower Manhattan puts all of us in danger,” he said.

Human Events

MASH Latest Recipient of the Dhimmi Award: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Awarded for their intention to NOT show Islamic Art and pictures of the Prophet Muhammad.

'Jihad' jitters at Met

Is the Met afraid of Mohammed?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art quietly pulled images of the Prophet Mohammed from its Islamic collection and may not include them in a renovated exhibition area slated to open in 2011, The Post has learned.

The museum said the controversial images -- objected to by conservative Muslims who say their religion forbids images of their holy founder -- were "under review."

Critics say the Met has a history of dodging criticism and likely wants to escape the kind of outcry that Danish cartoons of Mohammed caused in 2006.

"This is typical of the Met -- trying to avoid any controversy," said a source with inside knowledge of the museum.

The Met currently has about 60 items from its 60,000-piece Islamic collection on temporary display in a corner of its vast second-floor Great Hall while larger galleries are renovated. But its three ancient renderings of Mohammed are not among them.

"We have a very small space at the moment in which to display the whole sweep of Islamic art," said spokeswoman Egle Zygas. "They didn't fit the theme of the current installation."

But it's not certain Mohammed will go on display when the Met finishes its $50 million renovation in 2011.

Three years ago, the Met changed its "Primitive Art Galleries" to the "Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas" for the sake of political correctness, said author Michael Gross, author of "Rogues' Gallery," a book about the Met.

Just recently, it decided its highly anticipated "Islamic Galleries" will be given an awkward new name ahead of the 2011 opening.

Visitors will stroll around rooms dedicated to art from "Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia," according to a museum press release.

Islamic art expert Kishwar Rizvi said the Met -- which has one of the world's best Islamic collections -- has nothing to fear from Mohammed.

"Museums shouldn't shy away from showing this in a historical context," said Rizvi, historian of Islamic Art at Yale University.

Rizvi said it was "a shame" the museum dropped the word Islamic from the title.

"It's cumbersome and problematic to base it on nationalistic boundaries," the historian said.

NYPost

Man is arrested in NY city terror bomb probe

A MAN linked to a former New York food-cart worker now charged in an al-Qaeda bomb plot crashed his car while fleeing investigators.

The New York Post reported today a source said Adis Medunjanin, who is on the US government's no-fly terror watch list, made a dash yesterday from the home that investigators have been watching for months.

The investigators pursued him, but 25-year-old Medunjanin, a Bosnian immigrant who reportedly accompanied alleged terror bomb plotter Najibullah Zazi on a trip to Pakistan in 2008, sped off down a major freeway.

Earlier in the day, the feds had picked up his passport for reasons that remain unclear, sources said.

Near Manhattan's 20th Avenue, Medunjanin crashed into another car and tried to run away, but FBI agents tackled him, sources said.

Medunjanin was not seriously injured and was in police custody, but charges against him have yet to be released.

"We are getting a disgraceful runaround by law enforcement," said Medunjanin's attorney Robert Gottlieb, who denied his client was on a watchlist.

"He's not a terrorist. If he's on the list, they've got the wrong person," he said.

A source said it was unlikely Medunjanin would be charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

News.Com

New Islamic Mosque at Ground Zero?

Laura Ingraham discusses new mosque being built near Ground Zero.
Her guest is Daisy Khan, Executive Director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, about her husbands (Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf) plans to build a Mosque very close to Ground Zero.

Mysterious Group Buys Building Next to Ground Zero For Mosque

Jim Hoft

A mysterous Muslim group with unknown sponsors has purchased a building steps away from Ground Zero.
Hudson New York reported:

An identified group with unknown sponsors has purchased building steps away from where the WorldTrade Center once stood — to turn it into potentially one of the largest New York City mosques.

At the moment the building, the old Burlington Coat Factory, already serves as a mini-mosque: an iron grill lifts every Friday afternoon for a little known Imam leading prayers a few yards away from where Osama Bin Laden’s airborne Islamist bombers killed nearly 3000 people back in 2001.

The Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, told the New York Times — which put the story on its front page Wednesday — that he has assembled several million dollars to turn it into ‘’an Islamic center near the city’s most hallowed piece of land that would stand as one of ground zero’s more unexpected and striking neighbors.’’

The 61-year-old Imam said he paid $4.85 million for it — in cash, records show. With 50,000 square feet of air rights and enough financing, he plans an ambitious project of $150 million, he said, akin to the Chautauqua Institution, the 92 Street Y or the Jewish Community Center.

The origins of such monies are unexplained; neither are the countries or entity advancing such huge donations.

Most US mosques, including many in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx are funded directly or indirectly by Saudi Arabia the country to which 15 of the 19 hijackers who bombed the World TradeCenter belonged.

The UAE, Qatar and Iran are other major sponsors across the USA.

With thanks to Gateway Pundit

Muslim student accused of stabbing Jewish prof

A Muslim anthropology graduate student is being charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Jewish professor at Binghamton University in Vestal, New York.

The victim is Richard Antoun, 77, professor of Middle Eastern studies and the author of "Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements."

The man in custody is Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, 46-year-old Saudi national.

The attack took place Friday afternoon when the student entered the professor's office and stabbed him, according to an eyewitness. Campus police tackled the assailant to the ground, while emergency service workers rushed to Antoun's side.

University President Lois DeFleur issued the following statement Friday: "This afternoon, in an act of senseless violence, the Binghamton University community lost one of its long-time faculty members. ... Our hearts go out to the Antoun family and we will provide them with as much assistance as we can in this time of sorrow."

New York Gov. David Paterson also released a statement about the victim: "He touched the lives of many students and was respected by his colleagues. Though he will be missed on campus, he will live on in his writing, his research and his students, whose lives he forever changed."

Antoun received a doctorate from Harvard in 1963 and joined the Binghamton faculty in the early 1970s. He was "a sociocultural anthropologist who has conducted research among peasants in Jordan, urbanites in Lebanon, peasant farmers in Iran and migrants in Texas and Greece," according to the univerrsity's website. He retired in 1999 as professor emeritus.

"He dedicated his life to trying to understand the people of the Middle East," the professor's sister Linda Miller, of Holden, Mass., told the New York Times. "He never said an unkind word to anyone in his life. "Miller’s husband, the Rev. David J. Miller, said that Antoun had been married to his wife, Rosalyn, for 17 years and had a son, Nicholas, 40.

WND

Protesters Slam Holding 9/11 Trial in N.Y.

Several hundred people rallied in the rain near Manhattan's federal courthouse complex to protest the plan to put major terrorism suspects on trial in New York.

The demonstrators, including 9/11 families and their supporters, gathered in Foley Square, just blocks from the site of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

They say a New York trial could again make the city a terrorism target.

Last month Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the U.S. would put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison on trial in a federal civilian court in New York City.

Anger at the Obama administration ran hot in the crowd. One person held up a sign calling Holder "disgraceful and despicable." Another sign said "Obama/Holder ... Jihad from within."

Supporters of the 9/11 Never Forget Coalition say the five defendants should face a military tribunal instead.

A "statement of support" for the rally, posted on the coalition's Web site and signed by actors Robert Duvall, Brian Dennehy, Jon Voight, Danny Aiello, Robert Davi, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Ben Stein, states that Holder's decision to try key figures in the September 11 attacks in a civilian court in New York City is "a travesty of our justice system" that puts the national security of the United States of America at risk.

The signers said the trial would give the defendants a platform "to spew their propaganda and hatred to the world from a courthouse just blocks from Ground Zero.

"We stand with 9/11 families, New York City's first responders and the U.S. military who will be forced to cope with the consequences of this dangerous decision if it is not reversed," the statement said.

Addressing the crowd, Dennehy said he didn't believe the men deserved "normal constitutional protections."

Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter whose son, also a firefighter, died on 9/11, said he believed the U.S. has been in a state of war since the attacks, and that a military tribunal was therefore the appropriate venue for justice.

"They deserve a fair trial in a military tribunal, not on our soil," he said. "Guantanamo is where it should be."

But other victims of the 9/11 attacks disagreed.

Lorie Van Auken lost her husband at the World Trade Center. She said in an interview before the rally it was fitting that the accused answer charges a short walk from where the twin towers once stood.

John Feal lost half his foot at Ground Zero. He told the N.Y. Daily News, "If you’re afraid of terrorists, then they’ve already won." He said trying the defendants in New York was "poetic justice."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., says military commissions have a poor track record when it comes to trying terrorism suspects. He expressed confidence that U.S. prosecutors can win a conviction in a regular, civilian court.

CBS

New Tape Shows Terror Training on U.S. Soil

Click here for my latest article for Pajamas Media, this one about how as part of Christian Action Network’s ongoing investigation into Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of the Americas’ presence on U.S. soil, I have received a videotape from a reliable source of members of the group training on American soil.


We believe it took place at Islamberg in Hancock, New York.

I’ve also received recordings of gunfire from a neighbor near Islamville in York, South Carolina.

Please do what you can to spread this story to other blogs, message boards and media. This is important, frightening news and we need to fight to have it covered and not lost in the barrage of Tiger Woods and Afghanistan news.

World Threats

NEW YORKERS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: “WE WILL FIGHT YOU ALL THE WAY!”

What: 9/11 Never Forget Coalition Press Conference. Details to be provided on December 5^th rally protesting the NYC based trial of 9/11 conspirators

LOCATION 100 yards east of Castle Clinton at Battery Park Gardens Restaurant.
When: November 24, 2009 ­ 12:00 noon

Who:

- Representative Pete King (R, NY)

- Debra Burlingame, co-founder 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America

- Tim Brown, founder TheBravest.com

- Andrew C. McCarthy, former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern
District of New York and prosecutor in the trial of the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing

- Peter Regan, Active FDNY, 2 Tour Iraq War Vet, 9/11 Family member

The 9/11 Never Forget Coalition, a diverse group of 9/11 victims, family members, first responders, active and reserve members of the military, veterans, and concerned Americans, is holding a November 24^th press conference to discuss the details of their December 5^th rally protesting the plan to bring the 9/11 terrorist conspirators to trial in New York City.

The Coalition formed to fight the decision of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to try the 9/11 co-conspirators in New York City’s federal court, effectively giving war criminals the same rights as American citizens while endangering the safety of all New Yorkers.

Two weeks ago, we sent a letter signed by 300 family members of 9/11 victims to the President, Attorney General and Defense Secretary Robert Gates asking them to reverse course.

The letter has now been signed by over 120,000 Americans and is posted at http://www.keepamericasafe.com.

At the November 24^th press conference, leading organizers of the Coalition will give details on a large rally which will be held on December 5^th in New York City to protest the plan to bring terrorist detainees to trial in civilian courts.

Debra Burlingame, founder of 911 Families for a Safe and Strong America, said “We chose to hold it on Thanksgiving Week in the hope that our fellow Americans will join us in sending our prayers and messages of thanks to our troops and first responders, who will bear the brunt of these dangerous decisions made in Washington.

Our rally on Saturday, December 5 will tell Attorney General Eric Holder, President Barack Obama and their supporters in Congress: We will fight you all the way! ”

With thanks to Atlas

Charles Krauthammer on the perverse logic of Attorney General Eric Holder

Travesty in New York

For late-19th-century anarchists, terrorism was the "propaganda of the deed." And the most successful propaganda-by-deed in history was 9/11 -- not just the most destructive, but the most spectacular and telegenic.

And now its self-proclaimed architect, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, has been given by the Obama administration a civilian trial in New York.

Just as the memory fades, 9/11 has been granted a second life -- and KSM, a second act: "9/11, The Director's Cut," narration by KSM.

September 11, 2001 had to speak for itself. A decade later, the deed will be given voice.

KSM has gratuitously been presented with the greatest propaganda platform imaginable -- a civilian trial in the media capital of the world -- from which to proclaim the glory of jihad and the criminality of infidel America.

So why is Attorney General Eric Holder doing this? Ostensibly, to demonstrate to the world the superiority of our system, where the rule of law and the fair trial reign.

Really? What happens if KSM (and his co-defendants) "do not get convicted," asked Senate Judiciary Committee member Herb Kohl. "Failure is not an option," replied Holder. Not an option? Doesn't the presumption of innocence, er, presume that prosecutorial failure -- acquittal, hung jury -- is an option? By undermining that presumption, Holder is undermining the fairness of the trial, the demonstration of which is the alleged rationale for putting on this show in the first place.

Moreover, everyone knows that whatever the outcome of the trial, KSM will never walk free. He will spend the rest of his natural life in U.S. custody. Which makes the proceedings a farcical show trial from the very beginning.

Apart from the fact that any such trial will be a security nightmare and a terror threat to New York -- what better propaganda-by-deed than blowing up the courtroom, making KSM a martyr and turning the judge, jury and spectators into fresh victims? -- it will endanger U.S. security. Civilian courts with broad rights of cross-examination and discovery give terrorists access to crucial information about intelligence sources and methods.

That's precisely what happened during the civilian New York trial of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.

The prosecution was forced to turn over to the defense a list of 200 unindicted co-conspirators, including the name Osama bin Laden. "Within 10 days, a copy of that list reached bin Laden in Khartoum," wrote former attorney general Michael Mukasey, the presiding judge at that trial, "letting him know that his connection to that case had been discovered."

Finally, there's the moral logic. It's not as if Holder opposes military commissions on principle.

On the same day he sent KSM to a civilian trial in New York, Holder announced he was sending Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, (accused) mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole, to a military tribunal.

By what logic? In his congressional testimony Wednesday, Holder was utterly incoherent in trying to explain. In his Nov. 13 news conference, he seemed to be saying that if you attack a civilian target, as in 9/11, you get a civilian trial; a military target like the Cole, and you get a military tribunal.

What a perverse moral calculus. Which is the war crime -- an attack on defenseless civilians or an attack on a military target such as a warship, an accepted act of war that the United States itself has engaged in countless times?

By what possible moral reasoning, then, does KSM, who perpetrates the obvious and egregious war crime, receive the special protections and constitutional niceties of a civilian courtroom, while he who attacked a warship is relegated to a military tribunal?

Moreover, the incentive offered any jihadist is as irresistible as it is perverse: Kill as many civilians as possible on American soil and Holder will give you Miranda rights, a lawyer, a propaganda platform -- everything but your own blog.

Alternatively, Holder tried to make the case that he chose a civilian New York trial as a more likely venue for securing a conviction. An absurdity: By the time Barack Obama came to office, KSM was ready to go before a military commission, plead guilty and be executed. It's Obama who blocked a process that would have yielded the swiftest and most certain justice.

Indeed, the perfect justice. Whenever a jihadist volunteers for martyrdom, we should grant his wish. Instead, this one, the most murderous and unrepentant of all, gets to dance and declaim at the scene of his crime.

Holder himself told The Post that the coming New York trial will be "the trial of the century." The last such was the trial of O.J. Simpson.

Washington Post

New York Premiere of “Inside Islam, What a Billion Muslims Really Think “(screening reveals so much more….)

We must not let these propaganda films go unchallenged. We Must NOT be SILENT!

Unity Productions, the co-producer of this documentary, at first look seemed to be the typical ‘progressive’, building-bridges liberals promoting Islam. However, after the screening, with a bit of research there were a few surprises. The New York screening on November 10, 2009, was at the Scholastic Auditorium ( described on-line as “combining corporate design and (and corporate sponsors) style with a touch of schoolhouse whimsy…”

So now we have the venue, but the title, “Inside Islam:What a billion Muslims Really Think”, was really all we needed to lure us downtown, to the wrong address thanks to the ticket agency, but in the company of other lost-patrons we managed to find our way to the screening . Thought this was going to be a quick evening, in and out, just another documentary promoting Islam (that misunderstood Religion of Peace).

The synopsis: Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, a new documentary film from Unity Productions Foundation, explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world’s first major opinion poll, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization.

Some thoughts we had regarding the film as well as statements made at the talkback :

The Gallup poll said no one they interviewed used the Quran as a reason for 9-11.

Terrorists hate us for our Freedom. Frustrated because they have no power only fear. Hate us because we meddle. They just want a Democracy. Unrelated to religion. Dislike that we treat them like children (referring to Iraq) When 9-11 happened Bloomberg’s Commissioner, Fatima Shama, and the female narrator in the film, Dalia Mogahed said they were so fearful the perpetrators might be Muslim.

Dahlia, also happens to promote Sharia (…says it’s misunderstood)

John Esposito had a lot of face time as well (director of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal center for Muslim-Christian understanding at Georgetown University.)

Fatima Shama was so thankful for Bloomberg’s administration and the diversity; the tolerance; his good example. Shama also quoted Obama (who had been at Ft. Hood that day) “No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor” . This of course brought self-congratulatory applause from the audience (which was white, Jewish, western-dressed Muslims, a few hijabs and blacks.) It seemed at a glance like more of the black women were in hijab compared to the others.

Vets and PTS were mentioned…of course….related to Ft. Hood. Stress of war…

LOTS of children through out the film. Always in prayer groups (a circle) reading happily the Quran

KKK, IRA, McVeigh…always get mentioned as examples of all religions and countries have terrorists

M.E.C.C.A. is an outreach organization in midtown Manhattan for Christian to Muslim converts (oh, my)

Change the Story, Intersections, something called 20,000 dialogues were all about talktalktalking. We can make peace happen if we would just talk. Talking means we would learn there is no reason to fear Muslims or Islam.

The review of the screening in Chicago was actually critical

BTW, the talk-back had implied they would be taking questions from the audience. That was so NOT on their agenda. An hour of tedious patting on the back from the producer and the director, Rob Gardner (Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain, Egypt: Quest for Immortality) on making this important film and then after about 15 minutes of let’s pretend that we’re finally taking questions (NOPE) back to long-winded speeches from the panelists. After about 80 minutes of this, we’d heard enough.

Here’s some info on the panelists:

Keynote Speaker

Alex Kronemer, Executive Producer & Co-Founder of UPF (bio)

The bio makes no mention of the fact that he’s a Muslim convert (which he goes in to detail here) but he made no mention of this during the talk-back.

Panelists

- Rev. Robert Chase - Intersections International and Change the Story.net

Intersections, is a new justice-based global initiative of the Collegiate Church of New York. Previously, Chase served as Director of Communication for the 1.2 million member United Church of Christ. (an apologist for Christianity)

- Shamil Idriss – Soliya has merged with the UN–established Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund.

Soliya on the Middle East

Our mission remains the same using new media technologies to foster cross-cultural understanding and the thousands of young alumni and volunteers who give life to our programs in 25 countries.

Mr. Idriss served as Executive Director of the Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund which merged with Soliya in 2009.On video re the Alliance of Civilizations:

In 2005 he was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Deputy Director of the Alliance of Civilizations. He served on the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders and as COO of Search for Common Ground, a global conflict resolution organization. He is a member of the WEF’s Young Global Leaders and of the ASMA Society’s Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow.

- Fatima Shama - Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. As Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Commissioner Shama currently serves as Senior Education Policy Advisor in the Mayor’s Office, where she previously served as the Health Literacy and Language Access Coordinator.

Born in the Bronx to immigrant parents – her mother is Brazilian and her late father was “Palestinian” – (as she spoke….she was all about The Hair…no hijab for this one)

- Moderator – Zeba Iqbal - Muslim Public Affairs Council NYC. She is the Vice-Chair of CAMP International (Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals). Additionally, she was the conference manager for CAMP’s 2008 and 2009 conferences.

Found this interesting article she wrote about being Muslim and unmarried here>>

Click after click on the computer took us through the sponsors, the producers, the speakers (the film) and revealed a web of organizations deeply embedded in our schools and colleges. Ft. Hood has exposed, again, how seriously this indoctrination (this one-sided propaganda) has corrupted our schools, our libraries, our media and our military.

And just this week Columbia and Princeton have reinforced this one-sided non-critical revisionist view of the Islamic World History by refusing outright and shamelessly canceling last-minute the appearance of an “unapproved” speaker, Nonie Darwish.

Her list of ‘dangerous’ speakers includes(amongst many others) Geert Wilders, David Horowitz and Robert Spencer , who was assaulted this week while speaking at NYU.

(For the latest outrageous cancellations and assaults of these reputable and respected critics of Islam, go here> )

This screening and its sponsors’ have reinforced how critical our timing is with this relentless RE-’education’ of the West the doors to transparency are creeping shut. And those present at this screening are a microcosm of the machine that is responsible. We must not cease to expose Islam and to challenge these Islamic Revisionist lies.

Their man is in the White House so they confidently intimidate with accusations of hate-speech. Sadly, this censorship combined with our own self-censorship has gone deadly as the murders at Ft. Hood have revealed.

They own the message, for now, but we must NOT relent. Look for this film. It’ll be on PBS in February and probably in our schools and our libraries. FIGHT BACK . The books , their speakers and the films must be challenged. Demand the right to be heard. Our future depends on it.

Much more at the Silent Majority

H/T: David F.

Groucho jihad fails at NYU

By Robert Spencer

Earlier this evening I spoke at NYU on a panel with Elan Journo. I had just started explaining the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism when a young man in the middle of the audience stood up and started yelling and refused to be quiet.

When the security guards went over to start moving him out of the room, they left a side door by the stage unsecured -- and sure enough, the yelling guy turned out to be a diversion.

Two other young men rushed in that side door and threw pies at Elan Journo and me. They hit Dr. Journo on the shoulder but missed me altogether, as I had jumped aside when I saw them coming.

Of course a pie in the face is a staple of American comedy going back to the Marx Brothers (by far my favorite Marxists), but this was no joke.

In the first place, it is yet another manifestation of Leftist thuggery, antipathy to the freedom of speech, and alliance with the global jihad; it also shows yet again the degeneration of our nation's universities into propaganda mills in which those with opposing views are hounded out or intimidated into silence. (And then there is this.)

As we continued the event with pie splattered all over the curtain behind us, it was a vivid object lesson in how much free inquiry threatens the Left, and created a nice backdrop for our discussion of the Organization of the Islamic Conference's war on free speech, which is, of course, intended to enable the global jihad to advance without challenge.

Here is an eyewitness account of what happened from the audience's perspective (thanks to Pamela).

Thanks to JihadWatch

Gov changes his mind: Sept. 11 trial in NYC a bad idea

The government's plan to put Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks on trial in Manhattan is a bad idea, Gov. Paterson said today.

"This is not a decision that I would have made," Paterson said when asked about the upcoming federal trial. "Our country was attacked on its own soil on Sept. 11, 2001, and New York was very much the epicenter of that attack."

Paterson made the comments following an appearance in East Harlem -- contradicting what he said Friday, which was that he favored the trial being held in the city.

"It's very painful. We're still having trouble getting over it," he added. "We still haven't been able to rebuild that site and having those terrorists tried so close to the attack is going to be an encumbrance on all of New Yorkers."

In contrast, Paterson told WPIX/Channel 11 News that the Obama Administration's decision to try the detainees in New York is a decision he supports.

"I do not understand why they decommissioned [the detainees] from serving or being tried on Guantanamo Bay but that's a decision that the federal government made and our job is to help them," Paterson told PIX News. "We will cooperate to the full extent that we can."

NYPost

Iran Slams U.S. Moves to Seize Muslim-Owned Properties

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Sunday denounced as 'disgraceful' U.S. moves to seize four mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a Muslim nonprofit organization suspected of Iranian links.

Ali Larijani said the moves show that President Barack Obama's slogan for change was deceitful and he was no different from his predecessor George W. Bush.

"Extension of sanctions and restrictions against Iran for another year by the American president and the blocking the accounts and assets of the Alavi foundation in America is a real disgrace," he told parliament.

"After a year of empty speeches and slogans, the behaviour and conduct of this president in practice is no better than the actions of his predecessor," Larijani added, in his speech broadcast on radio.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors on Thursday filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story Manhattan office tower.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which the U.S. government has accused of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb, charges Iran has denied.

Obama has offered to engage Iran in dialogue with the hope of reducing tension over the country's nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon but Tehran maintains is peaceful.

Obama said Sunday that time is running out for Iran to sign on to a deal to ship its enriched uranium out of the country for further processing.

Iranian politicians have rejected the proposed deal but the government says it is still considering it.

"The recent actions of this country (U.S.), presenting unimportant and irrational proposals in the nuclear issue which they have called just and fair, all indicate that the alleged change was nothing but a deceitful symbol aimed at deceiving naive politicians," Larijani said.

FoxNews

City blocks are locked & loaded

Call it the fortress of steel.

When the murderous 9/11 Gang of Five finally lands in New York for trial, they'll face an impenetrable wall of security -- with five times the normal number of US marshals flooding lower Manhattan and a ring of marksmen watching their every move, sources said yesterday.

National Guardsmen will be placed at major transportation hubs while the NYPD will close off subway entrances near the federal courthouse and intensify bag searches throughout the system, the sources said.

Marshals will be shipped in from out of town and snipers placed on roofs nearby the courthouse, where a death-penalty trial is likely.

Nearby streets will be shut off to motor vehicles in all directions.

One source described the likely cost of all the extra measures as "tremendous."

When the Islamist fanatics behind the plot that left 3,000 Americans dead are moved from their cages in Guantanamo Bay to the Big Apple -- which could be as soon as a month from now -- they will likely arrive by private plane, sources said.

Bound, gagged and blindfolded, mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his crew will get their first taste of American justice when they land in the middle of the night at Stewart Airport, outside Newburgh.

Under the strictest security, they will then likely be put on a helicopter and delivered to a jail near the scene of their heinous crime.

The trip will mirror what the al Qaeda thug behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef -- Mohammed's nephew -- went through after he was arrested.

During his journey to New York in 1995, FBI officials lifted Yousef's blindfold as they passed over the Twin Towers to show him they were still standing.

"They wouldn't be if I had more money," Yousef chillingly replied.

Federal prison officials have yet to decide whether they will place al Qaeda animals Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd Al-Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmad Al-Hawsawi and Waleed Bin Attash together in isolation at the Metropolitan Correctional Center or split them up, sending some to the federal pen in Brooklyn, the sources said.

Either way, they will be placed in solitary confinement and allowed no contact, aside from their lawyers.

Once the trial grows close, they will all be placed at MCC and possibly moved in and out of the courthouse through underground tunnels.

Despite the massive security detail, former federal prison guard Louis Pepe -- who was permanently injured in a 2000 stabbing by Osama bin Laden aide Mamdouh Mahmud Salim -- said that it was not enough and that the trial should not be here in the first place.

"It's going to happen again," said Pepe, who suffered brain damage and was paralyzed on his right side after Salim stabbed him in the eye with a sharpened toothbrush while awaiting trial for the 1998 African embassy bombings.

"They want to kill people. They want jihad. They want to become martyrs. That's all they want. That's what they did to me."

He said that federal prisoners are still allowed to have toothbrushes and other items that could be turned into weapons.

"They are still stupid," he said. "They still give them these things."

Officials also are prisoners to political correctness by allowing Muslim prisoners out of their handcuffs to pray, he said.

"They can't say anything -- they have to pray," he complained.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration last night said that it is considering shipping an unknown number of Guantanamo detainees to a near-empty federal prison in Illinois, about 150 miles west of Chicago.

NYPost

New Yorkers cry for 9/11 plotters' executions

Outraged New Yorkers said yesterday that admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorists deserve to be put to death -- and some even volunteered for the job.

"Kill them without a trial. Just a bullet in the head and say goodbye. Why waste taxpayer money?" said Thomas Pland, 70, a truck driver from Astoria, Queens.

"If they want me to do it," he added, "I will."

Mike Keane, owner of O'Hara's Restaurant & Pub a block from Ground Zero, said: "They should have taken care of them in Guantanamo Bay. Hang them there. It would have been quicker and easier."

But first, he added, "we should waterboard them a little more."

Families of 9/11 victims slammed the White House for affording the mass murderers the same legal rights as Americans, instead of prosecuting them as foreign enemies in military tribunals.

"I'm a hundred thousand percent against this move. They're war criminals!" said retired firefighter Joe Holland, whose son, Joseph III, a commodities trader, died in the World Trade Center's north tower.

"This is crazy. This is insane. They're going to make a mockery of the whole court system 10 blocks away from the World Trade Center. They're going to scream for holy war in America."

Peter Gadiel, head of 9/11 Families for a Secure America, fumed, "I never thought we could have gotten a worse president than George Bush. But we got one.

"The president wants a circus? He should hold the trial in Lafayette Park at the White House. That makes as much sense," added Gadiel, whose son, James, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee, died on 9/11.

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was piloting one of the hijacked jets, called the upcoming trials in the city a "travesty."

"This is going to make us look like fools in the Muslim world," she said.

But retired firefighter James Riches, whose firefighter son, Jimmy, died on 9/11, said he would give President Obama the benefit of the doubt -- for now.

"Hopefully, we're doing the right thing. But if this all goes awry, I'm going to hold Obama and his Justice Department responsible," Riches said.

Views were mixed among downtown workers.

Katelyn Collins, a 24-year-old legal assistant from Brooklyn, said: "I want to see justice firsthand. I pass Ground Zero every day and see the destruction -- a giant hole in the ground."

In the political world, Republicans blasted the decision, while Democrats backed it.

"I will believe until the day I die that Sept. 11 was an act of war and not just another criminal act," former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. "This confirms my worst expectations for the Obama administration, that they would be in denial with regard to the danger of Islamic terrorism."

Rep. Peter King (R-LI) said, "This is as bad of a decision as any president has ever made."

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan), whose district includes Ground Zero, said trying the 9/11 plotters near the scene of the crime is poetic justice.

"New York is not afraid of terrorists, we want to confront them, we want to bring them to justice, and we want to hold them accountable for their despicable actions."

NYPost

Feds move to seize 4 mosques, tower linked to Iran

NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered. Nor was a call to the Alavi Foundation.

It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.

The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli.

Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.

The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.

"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques' leaders had no immediate comment.

Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Md. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.

The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, Calif.

The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.

The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.

Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI.

The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program and its arrest of three American hikers.

But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.

"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."

Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.

The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah.

In 2007, the United States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed sanctions against various other Iranian businesses.

Source: AP

Jerusalem dedicates 9/11 monument

"All the feelings that we've been through came back to me, tears simply fell from my eyes," said Miriam Avraham, who lost her daughter Alona in the New York City World Trade Center attack eight years ago.

Abraham attended a ceremony dedicating a new Jerusalem monument in memory of the victims of the September 11 attack on the United States.

The monument, which was designed by artist Eliezer Weishoff at an estimated cost of NIS 10 million ($2.6 million) is nine meters high and is made up of a waving American is transformed into a memorial flame. This is one of the only monuments outside of the US that features the names of all the 2,980 victims of the attacks as well as their home countries. Five Israelis are among the dead.

Weishoff began thinking of a way to honor the memories of the terror attack's victims eight years ago. He originally thought of designing a medallion. After receiving then Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert's blessing and the approval of environmental organizations, the sculptor contacted the Jewish National Fund and built the monument together with the JNF.

"The concept was a burning torch with the American flag waving with its folds creating the upward flow of lines," Weishoff explained, "I made sure that the New York City municipality sent us a piece of the ruins from the Twin Towers and we planted it as a basis for the statue itself."

This is not the first time Weishoff's work is dedicated to terror victims. He also designed the monument commemorating the three women killed in the Apropo coffee house bombing in Tel Aviv in 1997.

The Jerusalem monument is not the only one in Israel dedicated to the victims of September 11. Rishon Lezion, Ness Ziona and Beersheba all have monuments commemorating the victims.

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Source: YNet