PA demands apology from cleric who called for stoning Abbas

KHALED ABU TOAMEH
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday demanded a public apology from one of the most prominent Islamic scholars, who called for stoning President Mahmoud Abbas to death.

Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said that if it is proven that Abbas had instigated Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip, he must be stoned.

"During the debate raised over the UN's Goldstone Report that accused Israel of war crimes against Gaza, there were reports that Abbas encouraged Israel to launch its attack," Qaradawi said in a Friday khutba (sermon) at the Omar bin al-Khattab mosque in Doha, Qatar.

"There also were reports that he foiled a vote on the report by the UN Human Rights Council," he said, calling on the Arab League to investigate the matter.

"If it is proven that Abbas instigated the Israeli war against Gaza, he deserves to be publicly stoned in Mecca because this would be a betrayal on his part," he added.

Qaradawi emphasized, however, that he was not issuing a fatwa, or Islamic religious decree, against Abbas. He said his appeal was aimed at prompting the Arab League and other Arab and Islamic groups to launch an inquiry into Abbas's alleged involvement in the war.

PA Minister for Religious Affairs Mahmoud Habbash strongly condemned Qara-dawi's statements against Abbas and demanded that he publicly apologize to the Palestinians for insulting their president.

Habbash accused Qaradawi, who is a Qatari citizen living in Doha, of exploiting his status and the podium offered him in mosques for incitement and slander.

The PA's official news agency, Wafa, noted that Qaradawi was the one who had issued fatwas allowing Hamas to kill innocent Palestinians in theGaza Strip. The agency said that the scholar was being ungrateful to Abbas, who was the one who found him a job in Qatar when the PA president was a senior government official in the emirate.

JPost

Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi Explains His Objections to Muslim-Christian Interfaith Dialogue

Following are excerpts from a sermon by leading Sunni cleric Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, who heads the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS). The sermon aired on Qatar TV on October 30, 2009.

To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2267.htm.

To view the MEMRI TV page on Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi, visit http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/589.htm .

"No Pope Has Ever Apologized to the Muslims for What Happened To Them in the Crusader Wars"

Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi: "We halted this Islamic-Christian dialogue. We were preparing for the third summit, when the new pope came into office and delivered his famous speech, affronting Islam, the Prophet of Islam, the Koran, the Islamic nation, and the history of Islam, without justification and without any preliminaries. He alleged that the Prophet Muhammad did not make any contribution other than spreading Islam by the sword. This is an utter lie.

"Therefore, we, in the International Union of Muslim Scholars, demanded, on more than one occasion, that he apologize, in one way or another, or else we would halt the dialogue with the Vatican. Indeed, I'm sad to say, the man did not utter a word of apology. Even if some Muslims tried to say it's enough if he says I-don't-know-what... He did not say anything straightforwardly.

"The Vatican apologized to the Jews, who said that Christ was a liar, that he was the son of a prostitute, that his mother was not a virgin, and that he was fathered by Joseph the carpenter. They absolved the Jews, who organized and took part in his killing. They exonerated the Jews of the spilling of the blood of Christ.

"No pope has ever apologized to the Muslims for what happened to them in the Crusader wars, which were hostile wars. They came to our countries from Europe, and did what they did in the nine Crusades. Therefore, we have halted our dialogue with these people, with the Vatican."

"We Recognize Christianity... But These [Christians] Do Not Recognize Us"

"Let me tell you, with regard to the Christians, in general, there is a problem, which I raised at the third conference, held in Doha, as well as at the interfaith dialogue conference in Mecca, convened by the Saudi monarch a year and a half ago.

"I said: Brothers, the problem is that [although] we recognize Christianity, and we recognize Christ, his holy book, and his religion... A Muslim's faith is not complete unless he believes in this, because it is incumbent upon him to believe in every book that was sent down and in every prophet who was sent [by God]. 'And what was given to Moses and Jesus and other prophets from their Lord - we make no distinction between any of them, and to Him do we submit.'

"But these [Christians] do not recognize us. [They say]: “Muhammad was a liar. The Koran is a fabrication. They created the Koran and attributed it to Allah.'

"These things have practical implications. We were at a conference in Cairo, called The Christians of the Middle East. I wanted to say, in the closing statement: 'The people of the divine religions agreed...' But [the Christians] said: 'Stop!' I asked: 'What is it?' They said: 'We do not recognize Islam as a divine religion. It is not a divine religion.' They agreed to say all kinds of things, but not that Islam is a divine religion. I wanted to include another sentence, about 'Godly values.' They said: 'No, we do not recognize Islamic values as being Godly. They are human values, brought by a guy who claimed to be a prophet.' I exploded and said: 'So what are we convening for? If you do not recognize our religion and our values as divine, what are we meeting for? Go away.' And I left the meeting."

I Cannot Find "One Practical Thing That These Conferences Have Achieved for the Benefit of the Islamic Nation"

"Brother, there is a problem with our dialogue with these people, who look at our Prophet, our Koran, and our nation this way, while we flock to them, and do not achieve a thing. Give me one practical thing that these conferences have achieved for the benefit of the Islamic nation. I cannot find a thing."

MEMRI

“The Matrix” Meets the Muslim Brotherhood

by Ryan Mauro

The producer of the blockbuster trilogies “The Matrix” and “The Lord of the Rings,” Barrie Osborne, is now working on a $200 million movie about the founder of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed.

Helping to guide the project is Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, a radical Muslim Brotherhood theologian.

One quick look at this so-called “moderate” should raise serious questions among those investing in Osborne’s film and spark a call to boycott should his involvement continue.

Osborne describes his film as “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam.”

He has chosen to use the Qatar-based Alnoor Holdings production company, which has decided to have Sheikh al-Qaradawi “oversee all aspects of the shoot,” according to The Guardian.

If Osborne’s goal is to combat anti-Muslim bigotry and portray a positive image of Islam, then the influence of al-Qaradawi on the film will only do the opposite.

Al-Qaradawi is only a bit less radical than Al-Qaeda. He has repeatedly expressed support for Hamas, a terrorist group that was birthed from the Muslim Brotherhood organization to which he belongs.

The Israelis believe he has directly financed Hamas by donating $21 million to a “charity” knowing that it’d be used to help the group buy land. In November 2008, the Treasury Department blacklisted a network of charities called the Union of Good for acting as fronts for Hamas. Al-Qaradawi serves as the group’s president.

He was condemned by the Islamic Council of Norway and imams in Denmark and Sweden in February of this year after the Middle East Media Research Institute translated remarks he made the previous month.

“The only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life in martyrdom,” he said.

Read more at FPM

Dar Al-Hijrah Official's Deception on Awlaki

When a former imam from his mosque praised Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan as a "hero," Dar al-Hijrah outreach director Imam Johari Abdul Malik took to the airwaves to criticize the remarks and cast them as surprising:

"Let's be clear when Anwar Al Awlaki was at Dar Al-Hijrah, he was articulating the same message that I articulate today in Dar Al-Hijrah, a very open, a very engaging, a very community wise and contemporary understanding of the faith within the framework of its traditionalism."

But a look at Awlaki's statements and connections during his time at the northern Virginia mosque shows that, at best, Malik's characterization was misinformed as to the facts.

While at Dar Al-Hijrah, a mosque with a history of leadership tied to terrorists, Awlaki made statements that endorsed terrorism and defended the 9/11 hijackers.

Awlaki participated as a scholar in a forum of the popular Islamist and Yusuf al-Qaradawi-linked website, Islamonline.net, the week after the 9/11 attacks. In it, he tacitly endorsed terror against Israeli civilians and denied that any Muslim extremists were a threat to Americans:

"There is no Muslim who advocates killing American civilians. We haven't heard that before. If you are talking about Palestinians fighting in Israel, these are freedom fighters fighting an illegal occupation. Muslims have never targeted American civilians."

That's an odd claim, since it had been more than three years since Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa saying that "to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it."

In the same Islamonline chat, Awlaki also expressed doubt that Muslims were behind the 9/11 attacks:

"The evidence coming out is perplexing. You have a right to be confused. It appears that these people were victims rather than hijackers. It seems that the FBI went into the roster of the airplanes and whoever has a Muslim or Arab name became the hijacker by default." [Emphasis added]

Furthermore, in a Washington Post forum in November 2001, Awlaki defended the Taliban movement and accused America of rushing into war in Afghanistan. At the time, the Taliban had been openly supporting Al Qaeda. Al-Awlaki argued:

"The Taliban repeatedly said: show us the evidence and we will turn over whoever is guilty with the crime. The US should have given them the benefit of the doubt."

Johari Abdul Malik, who has taken the lead in defending Dar Al-Hijrah and Awlaki, has his own record of radical statements. At a 2001 conference hosted by the Islamic Association of Palestine, a component of a U.S.-based network of Hamas-supporters, Malik called for attacks against Israeli infrastructure to show Muslim displeasure with Israel's treatment of Palestinians:

"I am gonna teach you now. You can blow up bridges, but you cannot kill people who are innocent on their way to work. You can blow up power supplies… the water supply, you can do all forms of sabotage and let the world know that we are doing it like this because they have a respect for the lives of innocent people."

Malik has called for Islamic supremacy in America, as he did in a November 2004 Friday Khutba, or sermon:

More at IPT

Still extreme

As has been pointed out here before, the idea that the Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala is a reformed character who now espouses moderate and liberal attitudes was always risible.

Now he himself has helpfully provided fresh evidence that the very opposite is the case. On the Islamist website Islam Online, he has again supported the Muslim Brotherhood religious authority Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who supports human bomb attacks against both Israelis and coalition forces in Iraq, not to mention the execution of homosexuals and other similarly fanatical positions. Bunglawala writes:

It is very unfortunate that Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has been barred from visiting the UK since early 2007 by the British government, following pressure from pro-Israeli lobbies.

Sheikh Al-Qaradawi is an Islamic scholar who commands huge respect among millions of Muslims worldwide. As a regular past visitor to the UK, he would consistently urge British Muslims to shun all forms of extremism and to focus their energies on ensuring that their children excelled in education.

His long experience of dealing with youths influenced by extremist and takfiri ideas (ideas involving accusations of backsliding from Islam) would surely have been a valuable asset in the struggle against Al-Qaeda-inspired propaganda.

In fact, the only extremism Qaradawi has opposed is activity which is tactically counter-productive -- such as bomb attacks in Britain -- to the goal of Islamising the west. As Alexander Hitchens observes on the Standpoint blog:

We should be under no illusions here: anyone who still feels that they need to defend or praise this man should be considered, at best, an apologist for murderous antisemitism and Islamic extremism.

These people represent a fringe opinion that is slowly, but surely, being defeated by the voice of the (previously) silent majority. As well as having formulated the authoritative fatwa which provided the religious justification for Hamas suicide bombings, Qaradawi recently told viewers of al-Jazeera that his only regret about the Holocaust is that it wasn't done at the hands of ‘the believers’:

‘Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them - even though they exaggerated this issue - he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.’

The disturbing fact is that, after a short period out in the cold during the tenure as Communities Secretary of Hazel Blears -- one of the few politicians who understands what is at stake here -- the MCB has now been brought back into the counsels of Whitehall through the patronage of the current Communities Secretary John Denham and the Justice Secretary Jack Straw. As Hitchens observes of Bunglawala:

Here we have a Muslim who excuses and praises an Islamist Holocaust promoter, and still finds himself in a position where he may yet act as an advisor to the government on extremism.

This is presumably what the government means when it invites us to admire its ‘anti-racist’ credentials.

Melanie Phillips

Tories investigate their own Muslim website

By Richard Eden

Officials were trying to contact the man they had employed to create the Conservative Muslim Forum's website to ask why it features chunks of text from IslamOnline, which was established by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was described as "dangerous and divisive" by David Cameron.

"That particular piece you mention, about charity, was, indeed, lifted from a website, but they can't tell for sure which one," says a spokesman for the Tories. "It is reasonable to assume that it is from the website [IslamOnline]. It should have been attributed."

The spokesman points out that the passage was "in line with mainstream Muslim thought".

Al-Qaradawi, who helped set up IslamOnline in 1997, has been banned from America since 1999 and from Britain since 2008 because of his extremist views.

In 2003, he expressed his support for suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, which he called a "necessary Jihad". He is held to be the unofficial leader of the Muslim Brotherhood by a number of informed authorities.

The Conservative Muslim Forum was established in 2005 to increase the Tories' understanding of Muslim issues and encourage Muslim involvement in the party.

Telegraph

Brief Update: Fort Hood Shooter's Former Imam had Terrorist Ties

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 online

Scholars 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.

Source: Sultan Knish

Multiculturalists diminish 'rough beast' ravaging Islam

By RORY LEISHMAN

Among post-modern multiculturalists, it's commonplace to suppose that all cultures are of equal moral worth. Salim Mansur, professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario, emphatically disagrees.

In an illuminating collection of essays entitled Islam's Predicament: Perspectives of a Dissident Muslim, he maintains Islam is afflicted with "a terrible malady," which "reflects the irreparable breakdown of the civilization's centre . . . which at one time in history was co-equal, if not briefly superior, to Christendom."

Paraphrasing William Butler Yeats, Mansur contends that Islam is in the grips of a "rough beast" that has let loose anarchy upon the world. He traces the problem back to the earliest days of Islam, when perverse Muslim rulers renounced the peaceful teachings of the Qu'ran by slaughtering each other in a bloody struggle for political power following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632.

"The Prophet's immediate family members were the most conspicuous massacre victims," writes Mansur. "Ever since those early blood-lettings, Muslims have been the primary victims of Muslim violence."

That's still all too evident in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. Within the past week, Islamist suicide bombers have killed more than 240 Muslims in three massive blasts -- the first two in Baghdad and the third in Peshawar.

Mansur charges that while Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaida network are "the modern faces of the beast" set loose in Islam, "Muslim intellectuals and religious leaders such as Tariq Ramadan and Sheikh al-Qaradawi serve the beast as apologists and propagandists." That's disturbing.

Qaradawi is no minor figure. Mansur explains that for Sunni Muslims, he is "the face of institutionalized Islam. He is the closest to what might pass for a titular head of Muslims akin to the Pope. Qaradawi's words, now broadcast by television network al-Jazeera, are taken as authoritative pronouncements of Islam."

In a sermon broadcast earlier this year on that Arabic news network, Qaradawi declared: "Oh Allah, take the Jews, the murderous aggressors. Oh Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people . . . . Oh Allah, do not spare one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one."

Ramadan is hardly less prominent than Qaradawi. A Swiss-born Arab Muslim academic, he has taught at the University of Fribourg, Oxford University and Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In 2004, he was offered a tenured position at Notre Dame, but could not take up the post because he was barred entry to the United States.

Read more here,,,,

Source: LFP

Les multiculturalistes ne veulent pas voir la « bête sauvage » qui ravage l’islam, par Rory Leishman

Chez les multiculturalistes postmodernes, on estime le plus souvent que toutes les cultures ont la même valeur morale. Salim Mansur, professeur de science politique à l’université du Western Ontario, n’est absolument pas d’accord.

Dans une série d’essais éclairants intitulée Islam's Predicament: Perspectives of a Dissident Muslim (Le piège de l’islam : perspectives d’un musulman dissident), il affirme que l’islam souffre d’une « terrible maladie » qui « reflète l’irréparable destruction du centre de cette civilisation... qui, à une époque de l’histoire, a été l’égale de la chrétienté, et peut-être même brièvement supérieure ».

Paraphrasant William Butler Yeats, Mansur avance que l’islam est aux mains d’une « bête sauvage » qui a semé l’anarchie sur le monde. Il fait remonter le problème aux origines de l’islam, lorsque des dirigeants musulmans pervertis ont renoncé à l’enseignement pacifique du Coran en s’entre-massacrant dans une lutte sanglante pour le pouvoir politique après la mort du prophète Mahomet en 632. Lire la suite...

Source: Ifpress (Traduction par Poste de veille)

Life of Muhammad to be filmed, but don’t expect to see him on screen

In Hollywood terms, it was the greatest story almost never told - until now.

With Middle Eastern money becoming an increasingly powerful cog in the global entertainment industry, it was perhaps inevitable that, sooner or later, someone would embark on a mega-budget epic about the life of the Prophet Mohammed.

That moment has arrived thanks to a wealthy Qatari media company which has put together a team featuring a crack Hollywood producer and a Muslim cleric who is banned from visiting Britain to bring the project to life.

Plans for the $150million English-language biopic were announced at the close of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar on Sunday. The narrative will run from the years before the Prophet’s birth through to his death but there will be one conspicuous break from conventional biopic methods: in accordance with Islamic tradition the film will not represent the Prophet himself or direct members of his family.

A source close to the project said that Mel Gibson’s hugely successful (and gruesome) crucifiction film The Passion of the Christ had proved that there was a demand for religious-themed entertainment.

Barrie Osborne, a producer on the Lord of the Rings films and The Matrix optimistically envisages the film as a device that can help “bridging cultures”.

However, the press conference held to unveil the project demonstrated the risks inherent in any attempt to package the “true story” of the Prophet’s life for a global audience today.

Alnoor Holdings, a media company that has created a $200million film production fund to invest in Hollywood and international projects, has hired the cleric Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi as their lead theological consultant for the film.

Sheikh al-Qaradawi is one of the Sunni Islam’s most high-profile theologians thanks to his popular slot hosting a television show on al-Jazeera. He is admired by many moderate Muslims and was recently described by the government’s senior counter-terrorism official as “one of the most articulate critics of al-Qaeda in the Islamic world”.

He is also a highly controversial figure who was refused entry to Britain last year because of his views. He has reportedly condoned the Holocaust, supported the stoning of homosexuals and praised suicide bombers in Iraq, not to mention telling an interviewer that he considered Shia Islam a heretical branch of the faith.

According to the Gulf Times newspaper he told journalists in Doha that the film was a response to “the crusader-styled distortion of Islam [that] continues to influence [the] world population today.”

“I will say we Muslims have not exerted sufficient efforts to correct the fake tales as Christians have used [in] the media. The life of the Prophet Muhammad is richly documented from the cattle he raised to the weapons he used to his private life.”

The Qatari Tribune, which was also present, said that he described the world in milder language as a small village where people must know each other better and learn about other religions.

“We think that our religion is universal. Unfortunately, many people do not know about Islam and have misconceptions about it.”

Read more here,,,,

Source: Times Online

Book Review: Wafa Sultan: Allah’s Apostate Cassandra

by Andrew Bostom

On Tuesday, October 13, 2009, an ominous interim decision was reached in the case of 17 year- old Sri Lankan native, and Christian “apostate” from Islam, Rifqa Bary. Rifqa fled her Ohio community—notably, the radicalized mosque she was compelled to attend, which revealed and condemned her apostasy.

She sought refuge in Orlando, Florida, when Muhammad Bary, Rifqa’s father threatened to murder the young Muslim woman apostate—the consensus draconian punishment for “unrepentant” apostasy from Islam sanctioned by all major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, Sunni and Shiite alike, to this day.

(For irrefragable examples, see these contemporary Sunni rulings by Al Azhar University, in Cairo, Egypt, the Mufti of Lebanon, and IslamonLine [here; here], website of the mainstream, immensely popular Muslim Brotherhood cleric, and Al Jazeera personality Yusuf al-Qaradawi, as well as this Shiite legal opinion published in Kayhan International, an official organ of the Islamic Republic of Iran).

Pending determination of her parent’s immigration status—extant public access documentary evidence revealed by investigative journalist par excellence Pamela Geller indicates they are illegal aliens—Florida judge Daniel Dawson has ordered that Rifqa Bary be returned to Ohio under the jurisdiction of an Ohio court.

It is a bitter irony that Tuesday, October 13, 2009 also marked the US release of Syrian-born psychiatrist Wafa Sultan’s book “A God Who Hates”—the vigorously argued jeremiad written by our era’s most courageous and insightful secular Muslim woman.

Sultan is currently forced to lead a clandestine existence here in America, due to the repeated, ongoing death threats she receives for her own “apostasy,” including those “inspired” by a Yusuf al-Qaradawi appearance on Al-Jazeera television when he proclaimed, “…this woman had the audacity to affront all that is sacred—the entire Islamic nation, its past, its present, and its future. She had the audacity to affront the Prophet, the Koran, and Allah. She even said that Allah prattles in the Koran. She did not omit anything sacred.”

More than two decades before Wafa Sultan’s Al-Jazeera television debate with a Muslim cleric ignited an international firestorm, she traced her own transformative “intellectual shock” to reading two books by Saudi writer and freethinker Abdullah al-Qasimi, who fled his native country after being (predictably) condemned to death for “apostasy/blasphemy.” Regarding al-Qasimi’s criticism of Islam, Wafa Sultan observes that he,

…attacked Islam…in such a way as to make the closed mind stop and really think. He was an original and creative writer with an excellent command of Arabic. His style was enjoyable to read and easy to understand, and it led his readers almost imperceptibly to the point where they could not help but agree with him, at least privately. The fact that he was from Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, gave him another kind of authenticity.

Read more, and source,,,Andrew Bostom

H/T: Atlas

EGYPT: Cleric calls for 'Friday of anger' against Al Aqsa violations

The head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, is urging Egyptians to turn this Friday into a nationwide day of anger against the "Israeli practices at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem."

The Qatar-based cleric flew to Egypt from Doha on Monday to deliver a speech at the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo, where he condemned the Arab governments' silence towards the "violation of Al Aqsa's holiness" by Israeli settlers and occupation forces.

Tensions erupted in the area known as Al Haram Al Sharif to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews last week when a group of non-Muslims entered the compound, which is the third holiest venue in Islam and the most important in Judaism.

While Israeli authorities said that the group was composed of French tourists, Palestinians believed that they were Israeli extremists entering the mosque in celebration of the Jewish Sukkot festival.

Further confrontations took place Sunday as tens of Palestinians entered the mosque overnight amid rumors that larger numbers of Israelis will be allowed to enter the mosque, before Israeli forces shut down the holy site.

Muslims under 50 years old were later banned from praying inside the mosque and on Monday, thousands of Jewish worshipers prayed at the Western wall below Al Aqsa for religious celebrations.

Qaradawi, who is well-known for his controversial fatwas, urged all Egyptian clerics to dedicate Friday prayer speeches to showing solidarity with Al Aqsa and asking Muslims to gather for peaceful protests afterward.

Read more here,,,,

Source: LATimes

Rifqa Bary, Islam, Muslims, Shar'iah, and Apostasy (Part Two of Two)

by M. Zuhdi Jasser
Read part one of this article here.

On July 26, 2008, our American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) was kindly invited to the Noor Islamic Cultural Center (NICC) in Hilliard by their director, Hany Saqr, to give a talk on any subject we wished. I asked to speak to them about "Upholding our Islamic Responsibility: Countering the Ideologies that Fuel Terrorism."

Take a look at short video excerpts (Part I, Part II) of my talk to the Noor mosque, selected with some relevance to the subject of reform and apostasy. While our hosts were very cordial, polite, and gracious, we first found it very interesting that there was virtually no publicity about our visit – which was in stark contrast from previous speakers.

They also completely avoided any media acknowledgment of our visit and message. AIFD worked to generate our own publicity of the event with an extensive pre-interview with the Columbus Dispatch.

But interestingly, despite the reporter's keen interest, the Dispatch never attended the talk or published any parts of the interview only posting an announcement of our visit. One cannot help but be suspicious of what influenced their absence particularly for a newspaper which has in the Bary case given more than adequate inches to the Noor Center's and CAIR-Ohio's side of the story. Interestingly, the Dispatch itself has had epiphanies about CAIR as Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) recently pointed out on the floor of the House:

CAIR has waged a campaign to intimidate and silence anyone who raises alarms about the dangers of Islamic extremism. CAIR's rationale is that discussions of Islamic extremism lead to animosity not just toward those who twist Islam into a justification for terrorism but toward all who practice Islam. CAIR's concern is understandable, but its response is unreasonable. The group acts properly when it hammers home the point that only a small number of Muslims support religiously motivated violence and that targeting law-abiding Muslims is wrong. Where CAIR errs is in labeling anyone who discusses Islamic terrorism a bigot and hatemonger, an Islamophobe, to use CAIR's favorite slur.

Also note that even in Mr. Saqr's introduction of me there was no real endorsement of our ideas but rather, a statement about the value of debate.

In fact, opening a debate on reform with Muslim communities is our intention but before, during, and after our visit, there was absolutely no acknowledgement on their website or in their mosque literature about our visit. It was almost as if they checked the box of inviting an anti-Islamist and could go back to the comfort of their foundational Islamism and promotion of the likes of Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi.

In fact, in direct feedback from some who attended the talk, I was told "that the new Islamic ideas of modernity were a welcome outlook but I should have refrained from direct criticism of Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, since he is so respected by many of the congregants."

And some Muslims wonder what the real impediments to reform are? If these global Muslim Brotherhood icons cannot be criticized frankly and openly as I did in my visit to Noor, reform will never become a reality.

The work of Patrick Poole locally has exposed documentation of NICC leadership connections to official Muslim Brotherhood leadership structure in the West and to Al-Qaradawi. These speakers at Noor have previously raised concerns of their ideological mindset: Salah Sultan, Ahmed Al-Akhras, Christopher Paul, Khalid Yasin, Siraj Wahhaj, and Wagdi Ghoneim.

If Muslims cannot acknowledge as I did, publicly with the Noor audience, that Qaradawi and these other contacts of theirs are examples of deep seated moral corruption in the highest order, then Islamic scholarship will continue to be driven into the ground by Islamist apologists.

Islamists will always compromise real moral clarity for an Islamist set of ethics in which the ends justifies the means (terrorism) and the Islamic state takes precedence over the secular system (Muslim supremacism).

Read more here,,,,,

Source: M. Zudhi Jasser

Al-Qaradawi Center for "Moderation"

In an amazing bit of irony, a Qatari government fund is creating the Al-Qaradawi Centre for Islamic Moderation and Renewal, named after leading Sunni scholar and self-proclaimed "Mufti of martyrdom operations" Yousef Al-Qaradawi. Its director claims that the center will direct its "moderation" towards "politicians and economists," train imams, and show the "huge difference between terrorism and jihad."

Yet all of these stated goals directly contradict Al-Qaradawi's statements in support of terrorism, his desire to overthrow capitalism, and his position as a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Director Hasan Khalifa is a professor of Comparative Religion at Cairo University and a great admirer of Al-Qaradawi. He stated that the organization "would direct its works at politicians and economists to help them promote moderation in their respective areas." Read more ...

Source: IPT News

Yusuf al Qaradawi
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

Qaradawi's Extremism Laid Bare

On January 30, 2009 excerpts of a speech by Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi were aired on Al-Jazeera. In the speech, Qaradawi made vicious remarks about Jews, inciting Muslims to put Jews in “their place” as Hitler had done, in revenge for Israeli actions in Gaza several weeks prior:

“Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.”

Such vitriol is nothing new for Qaradawi. At a “Gaza Victory Rally” in Doha, Qatar two days earlier, which was attended by Hamas Political Chief Khalid Mishaal, he gave a speech saying that “martyrdom is the greatest wish of a Muslim,” and that the “resistance must continue.” Qaradawi concluded by praying for the opportunity before his death to kill a Jew, “The only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. Praise be to Allah.”Read more ...

Source: IPT NewsYusuf al Qaradawi
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

New U.S. Office of Muslim Brotherhood News Portal Interviews U.S. Congresswoman

In one of its first public interviews, the new Washington D.C. Bureau of Islam Online (IOL), the Internet news portal associated with global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, has published what was described as an “exclusive interview” with Congresswoman Eleanor Homes Norton (D-DC) concerning alleged discrimination against Muslims at U.S. airports. According to the IOL report:

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton believes discrimination against Arabs and Muslims at US airports has reached a critical point and needs urgent investigation and remedy. “I’m fed up and the American people are fed up of American citizens and others who are legally here being treated as if they were terrorists; simply when they do what the rest of us do like board a plane, with small children,” she told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview. Norton has asked for a hearing over the removal of nine members of a Muslim family, including two children, from a domestic flight to Orlando, Florida, on January 1 after some passengers overheard them chatting about the “safest” seats in the plane. Read more ...

Source: The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report
H/T: Family Security MattersEleanor Holmes Norton
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award

Islamonazi Yusuf al Qardawi: "Allah Imposed Hitler Upon the Jews to Punish Them - Allah Willing, the Next Time Will Be at the Hand of the Believers"

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.

To conclude my speech, I’d like to say that the only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. Allah’s mercy and blessings upon you.

Source: MEMRI
H/T: Weasel ZippersYusuf al Qaradawi
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

Prominent Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi, Banned in U.S., Opens Washington D.C. Office of Islamist News Organization, Says It (IOL) Is "The Jihad of Our Era"

On December 27, 2008, the Islamist news organization Islamonline.net (IOL), which is overseen by prominent Sunni sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, announced that it had opened an office in Washington, D.C. Following is information about the new office, and about Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's connection to it:

IOL "Aims to Contribute to Projecting Much-Needed True Image of Muslims"

According to the announcement, the new Washington office, located in the National Press Building, was opened "in an effort to reach out to its wider audience and larger readership."

IOL English managing editor Muhammad Zidan said, "This new office stands as a step forward in realizing part of the aims and objectives of IOL - that is, promoting awareness about important events in the Arab, Muslim and larger world, in addition to providing services to Muslims and non-Muslims in several languages." Read more ...

Source: MEMRI

World Top Islamic Leaders Write Open Letter to Obama Demanding he end all US "Injustices" Against the Muslim World, Blame 9/11 on the Mossad

CAIRO - A galaxy of Muslim scholars thinkers, political activists and academics have penned an open letter to US President Barack Obama urging him to begin his reign by remedying injustices inflicted on Arabs and Muslims for peace to prevail and America to restore its image.

It listed the injustices that need to be alleviated in order to end hostilities and promote peace in the world.

"the resistance in some Muslim countries is a result of the aggression, injustice and tyranny practiced or sponsored by the United States, and such resistance is not the cause of violence and terrorism as some circles in America like to claim. Therefore, if such resistance troubles you and you wish peace to spread over, you have to end occupation and return to the peoples their rights and sovereignty.

"... the events of the 11th of September 2001 were nothing but fabricated drama by some influential forces in America in coordination with Israeli Mossad. They have done all that in order to find a reason to trigger the third world war that they have already planned for and decided its goals and targeted fields."

The signatories include Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), Rashid Al-Ghannoushi, Secretary General of Al-Nahdha Movement in Tunisia, Qazi Hussein Ahmad, leader of Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami, and Ali Sadruddin Al-Bayanoni, head of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood.

Source: Islam online
H/T: Weasel ZippersAli Sadruddin Al-Bayanoni
Qazi Hussein Ahmad
Rashid Al-Ghannoushi
Yusuf al Qaradawi
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

Qaradawi back in the news

If one listens to the promoters of Shariah-Compliant Finance, one gets the distinct impression that it is completely innocuous, even benevolent. The “scholars” who make the decisions about shariah compliance are made to seem like wise old men who sit around and do nothing but pray for peace all day long.

The reality is somewhat different.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a case in point.

Qaradawi is one of the most prominent scholars involved in the promotion of Shariah-Compliant Finance worldwide. His list of credentials is long indeed:

• President of the European Council for Fatwa and Research in Ireland
• President of the Union of Good charity in Saudi Arabia
• Founder and President of Islamonline.com
• Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Islamic American University
• Founder and President of the International Association of Muslim Scholars

Qaradawi is also a member of the Shariah advisory boards of several financial institutions. Read more ...

Source: Shariah Finance Watch