 By Dr. Hamad Al-Majid The Iranian media chorus wishes to mislead the Arab and Islamic world into believing that the Saudi Arabian military conflict in its southern border region with the Huthi insurgents is nothing more than a sectarian conflict against the Zaidi Shiites.
According to Iranian publications and "Iranized" media, such as newspapers and Arab satellite channels, Saudi Arabia's defense of its national borders is being portrayed as a Salafi or Wahabi conflict against the oppressed Huthi Shiites. It does not require a lot of effort to disprove this and expose those who are promoting such false information as Saudi Arabia has been fighting a fierce war against extremists, takfiris, and terrorists, all of whom are either followers or ideological supporters of the Al Qaeda organization. These groups are undoubtedly cloaked in the Salafi ideology, however despite this the "Salafi" Saudi Arabia has not shown them any mercy, and has not hesitated to pursue and destroy them, both physically and ideologically.
This is because these groups have stepped over the line and threatened the country from within by targeting Saudi Arabia's security headquarters, economic infrastructure, and also its political figures.
Only a tiny minority of those with low self esteem in the Sunni Salafi Saudi Arabia sympathies with those who raise these Salafi slogans. Those who follow this ideology are psychologically troubled, and if they were free to do as they pleased, they would ultimately end up attacking one another, in the same way that fire consumes itself when it runs out of fuel. The Huthi insurgents and the Salafi takfirist terrorists are equally threatening. The former picked a quarrel in Saudi Arabia's border region and sent in armed fighters to infiltrate the Saudi interior, while the takfirists are comprised of psychologically disturbed [Saudi] citizens who want to destabilize the country from within. More at Asharq Alawsat 
 Hasan attended prayers regularly when he lived outside Washington, often in his Army uniform, said Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Md. He said Hasan Malik was a lifelong Muslim.
"I got the impression that he was a committed soldier," Khan said. He spoke often with Hasan about Hasan's desire for a wife...
Nothing stood out about Hasan as radical or extremist, Khan said.
"We hardly ever got to discussing politics," Khan said. "Mostly we were discussing religious matters, nothing too controversial, nothing like an extremist."
Was Khan doing nothing more than talking to Hassan about his wife hunt? Faizul Khan is not just some Imam. He is on the board of directors of ISNA, the Islamic Society of North America. ISNA's links to terrorist are extensive and well known.The Islamic Society of North America is a Wahhabi Islamist group co-created by Sami Al Arian, of the Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Islamic Jihad. Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz describes ISNA as "one of the chief conduits through which the radical Saudi form of Islam passes into the United States."
According to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, ISNA "is a radical group hiding under a false veneer of moderation"; "convenes annual conferences where Islamist militants have been given a platform to incite violence and promote hatred" (for instance, al Qaeda supporter and PLO official Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi was invited to speak at an ISNA conference); has held fundraisers for terrorists (after Hamas leader Mousa Marzook was arrested and eventually deported in 1997, ISNA raised money for his defense); has condemned the U.S. government's post-9/11 seizure of Hamas' and Palestinian Islamic Jihad's financial assets; and publishes a bi-monthly magazine, Islamic Horizons, that "often champions militant Islamist doctrine."
Adds Emerson: "I think ISNA has been an umbrella, also a promoter of groups that have been involved in terrorism. I am not going to accuse the ISNA of being directly involved in terrorism. I will say ISNA has sponsored extremists, racists, people who call for Jihad against the United States."
Emerson further reports that "In September 2002, a full year after the 9/11 attacks, speakers at ISNA's annual conference still refused to acknowledge Bin Laden's role in the terrorist attacks." That's who we're playing with here and Faizul Khan is not just a member, he's on the Board of Directors and held down a major Saudi funded mosque in Washington. Khan was also the Administrator and Assistant Director of Rabita, the Muslim World League. The Muslim World League is one of the larger Saudi funded Islamist groups. MWL promotes Wahhabism, the extremist form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. In the 1980s, the League's Pakistan office was run by Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood and brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden.
Khalifa was the co-founder of the Benevolence International Foundation and he helped to finance Operation Bojinka, a foiled 1995 plot that would have simultaneously detonated bombs aboard eleven U.S.-bound airliners, blowing them up in mid-flight over the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.
In addition, two members of an al Qaeda sleeper cell based in Boston worked at MWL's Pakistan office.
One worker, Nabil al-Marabh, number 27 on the FBI's list of wanted terrorists, was arrested by federal agents in Detroit shortly after 9/11; it was reported that he "intended to martyr himself in an attack against the United States." The other operative, Raed Hijazi, was apprehended and tried in Jordan on charges that he planned to blow up a hotel filled with Americans and Israelis on New Year's Eve in 2000.
In his book The Two Faces of Islam, Stephen Schwartz reports: "In 2000, the Muslim World League (a provider of funds to Osama bin Laden) hosted 100 prominent American Islamic personalities on hajj [a pilgrimmage to Mecca]. They were accompanied by a delegation of 60 Latin American 'academics and specialists.' All expenses for the latter were paid by Prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to the United States." After all this it's certainly possible that Faizul Khan and Hassan Malik did nothing but chat about Hassan's search for a wife, but considering the overview of the kind of extreme Wahhabi groups we're dealing with here, it is entirely possible that Imams like Khan helped shape Hassan Malik's radical Islamist worldview. Especially since it dates back to his time in Maryland, rather than being the product of army frustrations, as the media spin is attempting to portray it as. Nidal Hassan had written onlineScholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that "IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE" and Allah (SWT) knows best. One wonders who exactly those scholars were.
 Roee Nahmias
An Iranian cleric called over the weekend for a radical change in Muslim prayer practices, urging followers to no longer pray in the direction of the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The cleric, Ahmed Alam al-Hadi, told worshipers that Muslim states such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq have been taken over by infidels, urging them to turn instead to the holy city of Mashhad, located in Iran.
"The Hijaz lands (Saudi Arabia) had fallen victim to the Wahhabis, Iraq is occupied by the infidels, and the city of Mashhad is holy, so it alone can serve as the prayer direction for Muslims," he said.
The imam noted that about 800,000 foreign visitors arrive at Mashhad annually, as well as roughly 20 million Iranians. Hence, he claimed, the city already serves as a spiritual and religious center for Muslims and had been that way for hundreds of years.
According to a report by Iran's news agency Fars, the cleric urged Iranian authorities to reinforce their interest in Mashhad and rebuild the town's infrastructure, while also transferring government institutions and universities to the city.
 The tireless Islam scholar and anti-Islamist Dr Patrick Sookhdeo of the Barnabas Fund has written a must-read article in the Fund’s current newsletter which, if his analysis is correct, provides a real chink of light in these dark times. He suggests that the Islamist orthodoxy which has had the Muslim world by the throat is beginning to crack under pressure from reformist Muslims around the world, particularly within Britain. He writes: Recent months have seen a number of unexpected and extremely encouraging statements coming out of the Muslim world.
Respected, mainstream Muslim leaders in a variety of countries have voiced opinions which are at odds with traditional, conservative Islam.
They have challenged aspects of shari‘a and are calling for a liberal, modernist, enlightened Islam compatible with Western norms. Perhaps the most significant of all is a comment by a group of British Muslims calling for an end to the apostasy law and for full freedom in all religious matters. A small minority of marginalised Muslim progressives has been bravely defying traditional and Islamist pressures by reinterpreting Islam in a way compatible with modern concepts of secularity, individual human rights, religious freedom and gender equality. However, recently some significant cracks seem to be forming within the mainstream Islam.
Important mainstream leaders are coming out against long-held key traditional views and Wahhabi-Salafi doctrines and practices, openly supporting ideas compatible with modernity.
It would seem that the reformist teachings of Ahmad Khan (1817 - 1898) and Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849 -1905), which had been suppressed, are now resurfacing within mainstream Islam. As some experts on Islam have always been saying, ‘the really decisive battle is taking place within Muslim civilization, where ultraconservatives compete against moderates and democrats for the soul of the Muslim public.’ Of particular importance, writes Sookhdeo, is a paper that has just been published by several prominent British Muslim academics and religious leaders: Read more here,,,, Source: Melanie Phillips
 August 11 | By Bob Unruh Four Christians working in Somalia to provide services to orphans have been executed by beheading by al-Qaida-linked interests who told their families that is the penalty for apostasy. The report on the outrage comes from International Christian Concern which said the executions happened sometime after the kidnapping of the Christians on July 27, but it only discovered the tragedy recently. The organization identified the Christian orphanage workers as Fatima Sultan, Ali Ma'ow, Sheik Mohammed Abdi and Maaddey Diil. They had been kidnapped in the coastal Somalian town of Merca, about 50 miles from Mogadishu. According to ICC, al-Shabaab, an Islamic extremist organization, claimed responsibility, and confirmed the Christians were killed when they refused to renounce their faith in Jesus. The ICC report said it was on Aug. 4 when a junior al-Shabaab militant notified the families of the victims the four were beheaded for apostasy. ICC said the militant described the Christians as promoters of "fitna," a Muslim term for religious discord. The militant continued that the families would not even be given the bodies, "as Somalia does not have cemeteries for infidels." The ICC quoted one eyewitness, who said, "All the four apostates were given an opportunity to return to Islam to be released but they all declined the generous offer." The ICC report confirmed the four Christians had been working for a local non-governmental organization that helps orphans in southern Somalia. A Somali church leader who monitors the persecution against the Somali church described the latest beheadings as a desperate attempt to "purify" Somalia by eliminating all Christians from what the al-Qaida-linked terror group considers an Islamic Republic. But the church leader, whose identity was withheld, said such murders will only serve to launch more house-churches. ICC described al-Shabaab as "a radical Islamic organization fighting to establish an Islamic state in Somalia and enforce Wahhabi/Salafi Islam, an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam practiced by the Taliban and al-Qaida." Read more here..... Source: WND
 Click on a picture to launch the image galleryBy Walter Mayr Radical Muslim imams and nationalist politicians from all camps are threatening Sarajevo's multicultural legacy. With the help of Arab benefactors, the deeply devout are acquiring new recruits. In the "Jerusalem of the Balkans," Islamists are on the rise.The obliteration of Israel is heralded in a torrent of words. "Zionist terrorists," the imam thunders from the glass-enclosed pulpit at the end of the mosque. "Animals in human form" have transformed the Gaza Strip into a "concentration camp," and this marks "the beginning of the end" for the Jewish pseudo-state. Over 4,000 faithful are listening to the religious service in the King Fahd Mosque, named after the late Saudi Arabian monarch King Fahd Bin Abd al-Asis Al Saud. The women sit separately, screened off in the left wing of the building. It is the day of the Khutbah, the great Friday sermon, and the city where the imam has predicted Israel's demise lies some 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) northwest of Gaza. It is a city in the heart of Europe: Sarajevo. Read more ...Source: Spiegel
A massive brawl that occurred between Croat and Muslim students in the Bosnian city of Mostar is blamed on Wahabis, suggests the report by the NGO Croatia Libertas.
“It is about groups that have a radical interpretation of Islam and influence the youth. The attacks have spread on all high schools in Mostar,” says Leo Plockinic, representative from Croati Libertas.
Plockinic says that the organized Wahabis are armed with light weapons.
Police spokeswoman Lejla Trivun said that 5 teens have been arrested over the weekend.
She said that on Sunday evening students gathered on both sides of the Boulevard, a street that demarcates Croatian and Islamic part of Mostar. Youngsters were gathering rocks with an intent to start the violence.
Wahabis have been involved in a string of attacks across Bosnia. Croatians have been targeted in particular. Last week, two Wahabis sought to enter a Catholic church at wee hours seeking to “silence” the church bells. Source: Serbianna
 George Mason University (GMU) announced yesterday the receipt of a $1.5 million gift from IIIT to establish an endowed Chair in Islamic Studies at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at GMU. According to a GMU press release, "the gift will allow Mason to build on the rich Islamic culture present in its diverse student body, faculty and surrounding communities and develop a full, multidisciplinary program that encompasses research, teaching and outreach." Professor Jack Censer, dean of CHSS, thanked IIIT for the gift and said that the gift will "facilitate more teaching and scholarship in an area that the university has already identified as a spire of excellence." Professor Maria Dakake of the selection committee for the Chair expressed gratitude to IIIT for the gift and said that "it is coming at an important time in the life of our program." Dr. Jamal Barzinji, Vice President of IIIT, signed the agreement on behalf of IIIT on September 18, 2008 at the headquarters of IIIT in Herndon, Virginia. AT the signing Dr. Barzinji said that "the study of Islam within the context of global human civilization is essential to an understanding of the critical issues of our time; and IIIT is proud to help Mason lead the way in studying Islam as a living phenomenon contributing to the advancement of ideas and ideals of our times." Read more ...Source: Militant Islam Monitor
 When Yasser Arafat received the Nobel Prize, should Jews worldwide have rioted, issued fatwas demanding his murder and posted rewards for his execution? After all, Arafat was a self-acknowledged terrorist, complicit in the deaths of thousands of innocent Israelis, Jordanians, Lebanese and assorted others, including his own not-so-innocent followers who often fell out of Arafat’s inconsistent favour. When the Wahhabi version of the Word of God is absolute, when the radical Muslim world (now dominant and in ascendance) countenances no alternative views, no variations of subjective interpretation and mandates death for such apostasy, then the knighting last summer of Sir Salman Rushdie does indeed smack of provocativeness. But how many prizes and decorations have been given to Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Who in the West should honestly not be provoked by this lauding of these foul-mouthed gangsters, of an Iranian president who denies the Holocaust and demands the extermination of Israel, the only fully fledged democracy in the Middle East? Should not every Holocaust survivor and family, every Israeli, every freedom-loving individual everywhere be taking to the streets? Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
The terminology we use to describe our enemy in the war on terror matters a lot. A spirited debate is underway among specialists and in the press. An op-ed published Monday in the New York Times entitled "What do you call a Terror(Jihad)ist?", by P.W. Singer and Elina Noor, attempts to defend the recent State Department memo advising government personal to refrain from using theologically-laden terms-"jihadi," "mujahidin," "caliphate," "Islamo-fascism," "salafi," "wahhabi," "ummah"-when describing Islamic radicals and their motives. Instead, generics-"terrorists," "extremists"-should suffice. Read more ...Source: American Thinker
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