 One of the most visible leaders of an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist militia in Somalia spent a year in Toronto ingratiating himself into the Somali immigrant community as a convert to Islam.
Omar Hammami – known to followers as Abu Mansour "Al-Amriki" (the American) – ate at Somali restaurants and prayed in Somali mosques.
He married a Toronto woman of Somali origin and had a daughter with her.
Then, after learning Somali ways, he left to join the Horn of Africa's top terror group, Al-Shabab, to wage Islamic jihad and recruit other foreign nationals to the cause, say former friends and relatives speaking publicly of the terrorist's Toronto connections for the first time.
"He betrayed us," says a former friend who worked with Hammami at a Weston Rd. pizzeria. "For a man to be saying that, Islamically, it is okay to be killing innocent people – and yesterday you fed him bread and welcomed him into your houses – it kind of shatters you."
Five ethnic Somali men disappeared from Scarborough this fall, all friends believed recruited into Al-Shabab. Three are said by family associates to have since phoned home from Somalia. No direct connection to Hammami is known but in the Somali community his Internet postings are notorious.
On a 2008 recruitment video, referring to one of his dead fighters, Hammami says, "We need more like him.
"So if you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbours, anyone around, to send people like him to this jihad, it would be a great asset for us."
A least 20 young men have left Minneapolis, Minn., for Al-Shabab in the last 18 months. One of them is confirmed to have blown himself up with a car bomb in the Somali port town of Bosasso. Five others are said by relatives to be dead.
Other young men have left from Boston, Columbus, San Diego and Seattle. Others have joined from Australia and the United Kingdom.
The suicide bomber who killed three government ministers and at least 16 others at a graduating ceremony for doctors and engineers last month in Mogadishu was recruited from Denmark.
Hammami himself is said to have been wounded in fighting late last year.
Al-Shabab's stated goals are to take power from the fragile government backed by African Union troops and turn Somalia into an Islamic state friendly to Al Qaeda. Ultimately, its leaders say, the aim is to establish a global Islamic state.
"We are striving to establish the Islaamic Khilaafah from East to West," Hammami writes in an Internet posting of Jan. 8, 2008, "after removing the occupier and killing the apostates."
For Torontonians, al-Shabab recruitment presents another terrifying possibility: A fanatic returns to explode himself in a crowd.
Or as RCMP Commissioner William Elliott put it in October: "The potential follow-on threat is Somali-Canadians who travel to Somalia to fight and then return, imbued with both extremist ideology and the skills necessary to translate it into direct action."
Omar Hammami is 25 years old. He grew up in Daphne, Ala., just outside Mobile.
His mother is Baptist by religion. His father is Shafik Hammami, a Syrian-born engineer with the Alabama transportation department and president of the Islamic Society of Mobile. Reached by phone last week, he refused comment.
Although Hammami grew up Baptist, he converted to Islam in the late 1990s while attending Daphne High School.
"He had tons of friends," fellow student Shellie Brooks told Fox News four months ago, "and of course things changed a bit when he converted because his beliefs changed."
In September 2001, Hammami had just started computer science studies at the University of South Alabama – and been elected head of the Muslim Student Association – when Al Qaeda launched its suicide attacks on the United States....
Read it all here. 
 It's not too late: you can still send Rifqa a Christmas card, and the CAIR Grinches have failed to prevent her from receiving them. Pamela has the address here. "Magistrate rules that runaway doesn't have to sit down with parents," by Meredith "Hijab" Heagney for the Columbus Dispatch, December 22 (thanks to Pamela, who has more details here). The magistrate in the Rifqa Bary case ruled today that the 17-year-old who ran away from her Columbus home in July does not have to sit down for mediation with her parents. There were several issues resolved today at the hearing in Franklin County Juvenile Court, including: * Mediation. Magistrate Mary Goodrich said issues now being discussed would best be resolved with individual counseling instead of group mediation. That could be a bad break for Rifqa, if she is forced to see a Muslim counselor, as she has been pressured to do. * Third-party messages. Bary's parents don't want her to receive any cards or letters directly, and had filed a motion that any messages first go to Franklin County Children Services. Omar Tarazi, the family's attorney, withdrew that motion today. He should never have filed it. A CAIR lawyer trying to withhold Christmas cards from a little girl could be more damaging in the long run to this unsavory group than its unindicted co-conspirator status in a Hamas terror funding case. * Rifqa's mental health. Assistant County Prosecutor Chris Julian said that a counselor was trying to determine whether 17-year-old, whose full name is Fathima Rifqa Bary, has post-traumatic stress disorder. What? Post-traumatic stress disorder? Is just anyone and everyone getting that these days? In July, Rifqa ran away and moved in with two pastors -- a married couple -- in Orlando, Fla., whom she had met on the Internet. Rifqa said her father, Mohamed Bary, had threatened to kill her for leaving Islam -- the family religion -- for Christianity. Authorities in Florida and Ohio could find no credible threat to her safety, and she returned to Franklin County on Oct. 27 and has been living in a foster home.... Authorities in Florida and Ohio wouldn't know a credible threat to her safety if a man were holding a scimitar to her neck. With thanks to JihadWatch
 What sweet, loving parents they obviously are. How wonderfully they will treat her if the dhimmi Ohio authorities order her to be returned home. "Parents of Rifqa Bary ask court to hold her in contempt to force her to attend counseling sessions with Muslim counselor," from The Jawa Report, December 18 (thanks to Pamela, who has more here): ...and the counselor they demand she attend filed an affidavit in support of Rifqa being held in contempt! The next episode in the legal battle between Muslim-turned-Christian convert Rifqa Bary and her allegedly abusive parents will occur next Tuesday in an Ohio courtroom.
As I reported last Friday, one of the issues that will be heard by the court is a motion by the CAIR-appointed attorney to the Bary parents demanding that all Christmas cards sent to Rifqa be banned, and any cards she has already received be seized. On Monday, we provided clear evidence of CAIR's backstage handling of the media in this case. Another issue next week will be another motion filed by the Bary parents asking the court to hold Rifqa in contempt for refusing to attend counseling sessions with a Muslim counselor. Amazingly, the counselor that the Bary parents are attempting to force her to see filed a affidavit supporting the parents' motion to hold Rifqa in contempt of court. How could this counselor be remotely neutral? But wait a second - haven't all the media stooges in this case, from Meredith "Hijab" Heagney of the Columbus Dispatch to Michael Kruse of the St. Petersburg Times, insisted that the Bary family intends to respect Rifqa's Christian faith? Haven't these media stooges repeated assurances from the Bary parents that Rifqa has nothing to fear from returning home?... Her parents have defamed Christians who have attempted to help their daughter flee their abuse; they have filed criminal charges against Rifqa accusing her of being a delinquent; and now they ask the Ohio courts to ban and seize Rifqa's Christmas cards and to force her to see a Muslim counselor that has demonstrated his own partiality.
What this long sequence of events clearly shows is that Rifqa Bary has much to fear from being returned to her parents and that they have no intention to honor her personal religious choices.... With thanks to JihadWatch
 Due to logistical and scheduling difficulties, we are forced to postpone the Rifqa Rally that had been scheduled for December 22. We will set a new date soon, and will be praying for Rifqa and keeping you informed of new developments.
 A few weeks ago Pamela Geller started an initiative to have people send Christmas cards to Rifqa Bary, the girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled from her Ohio home in fear for her life, and is now in foster care in Ohio while authorities decide whether or not she is going to be returned home to the father who she says threatened to kill her. Christmas cards -- who could object? Only someone whose heart is three sizes too small -- like an attorney from the unsavory and thuggish Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations. "CAIR Attorney Demands Ban and Seizure of all Christmas Cards sent to Rifqa Bary (Bumped)," from the Jawa Report, December 11: In a stunning development in the ongoing legal saga of Muslim-turned-Christian convert Rifqa Bary, the parents' attorney, Omar Tarazi, filed a motion with the Franklin County courts last week moving to ban on all Christmas cards being sent to Rifqa through her attorneys, and demanding the seizure from her of all Christmas cards that she might have already received.
And yet her parents still make representations to the media that they intend to honor and respect her Christian faith, while their attorney files sealed motions stating that Christmas cards are "dangerous to her health and safety". This news and a copy of the motion were provided to me from a source inside CAIR, who noted that CAIR has raised funds for the Bary's legal jihad to have the courts return the 17 year-old to her allegedly abusive Muslim family.... The court will hear Tarazi's motion for the ban and seizure of all of Rifqa's Christmas cards on December 22nd. And we will be there as well. Thanks to JihadWatch
 Christian hoteliers accused of insulting a Muslim guest for wearing the hijab and berating her for her beliefs were dramatically cleared this afternoon. Benjamin and Sharon Vogelenzang denied using threatening, abusive or insulting words which were religiously aggravated against white British Muslim convert Ericka Tazi, 60.
District Judge Richard Clancy, who heard the case in the absence of a jury, told the couple that religion and politics was the 'tinderbox which set the whole thing alight and it would appear because of strongly entrenched positions that is what has happened here'. Explaining his reasons for dismissing the case, he said Mrs Tazi's claim that she was verbally attacked by the couple for up to an hour had not been borne out by other prosecution witnesses, who suggested that any discussions lasted around seven minutes.
Judge Clancy also highlighted Mrs Tazi's use of language. When describing how she was provoked by the couple about her hijab she used words to the effect of: 'Would you prefer it if I got my tits out?'
He said: 'I mention this because when I read that together with what she said about 'them taking the piss' it doesn't quite form the same religious view that was put to me on the stand'.
Judge Clancy said: 'I'm not satisfied on the facts that this case has been made out.'
His decision was greeted by prolonged applause from the couple's supporters in the public gallery.
Outside, Sharon Vogelenzang told reporters: 'We've been found innocent of any crime. It has been a very difficult nine months and we are looking forward to rebuilding our business and getting on with our lives.
'We would like to thank all those who have supported us, our family, our friends, our church and Christians all around the world, and non-Christians.
'And as Christmas approaches we wish everybody peace and goodwill.'
Mrs Tazi told the court yesterday that she was left traumatised after being insulted by the couple while a guest at The Bounty House Hotel in Aintree, Liverpool, on March 20.
She said they laughed at her when she came down wearing a hijab on her final day at the hotel and shouted at her, saying her Islamic dress was a form of bondage and that she had provoked an argument by wearing it.
Mrs Tazi, who converted to Islam when she married a Muslim 18 months ago, was staying at the hotel while she attended a pain management clinic at Aintree Hospital for her fibromyalgia.
She claimed Mr Vogelenzang called the prophet Mohammed a murderer and a warlord and likened him to Saddam Hussein and Hitler.
But the couple denied her version of events and claimed Mrs Tazi told them Jesus was a minor prophet and that the Bible was untrue. More at Mail Online H/T: WomenAgainstSharia
 So says Pamela Geller in an interview with Jamie Glazov of FrontPage magazine today on the Rifqa Bary case -- the girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and then fled her home in fear for her life. Everyone is watching to see what happens to Rifqa. She has become a test case for everyone.
The Muslims, the Islamic supremacists, want to prove that a young girl cannot break free, cannot break out of their web, even in America.
More importantly, it is a case being watched by every subjugated Muslim dying to break free of the shackles of Islam.
If Rifqa can do it and is protected, so can they. This is why it is so critical that she be broken by the Islamic machine. It's a test case for free people, and for America also. Will American courts knuckle under to Islamic intimidation and implement Sharia provisions for the isolation of female apostates?
Will we stand up and defend religious freedom? Do Muslim girls in the same situation as Rifqa have any hope? Rifqa's case will show the answer. Read it all. With thanks to JihadWatch
 Salah Sultan, formerly of the Noor Mosque in Columbus, Ohio, (before he himself was barred from entering the United States), and Anwar al-Awlaki, Nidal Hasan's jihadist imam, led a Hajj trip together in 2002. Patrick Poole, who has done superb research work on the Noor Mosque, has the details here (thanks to Pamela). Yet we are told that Rifqa Bary won't be in any danger, as a convert from Islam to Christianity, if she is returned to her father, who attends this mosque and who she says threatened to kill her. The willful ignorance of the authorities on the Rifqa Bary case continues, despite mounting evidence that the girl is in grave danger.
Do join us for another Rally for Rifqa on December 22 in Columbus.
That's the day of her dependency hearing, and she could be sent back to her family. The only thing we can do is continue to shine a light on her situation and the questionable actions of the authorities involved. Join us.
And ask your favorite "conservative" blogs why they're saying nothing about this poor girl, who has become a symbol of religious freedom -- and our declining national will to preserve it. With thanks to JihadWatch
 International pressure sometimes works. Some unexpected good news in an update on this story: "Freedom for imprisoned Christian 'apostates,'" by Chelsea Schilling for WorldNetDaily, November 19 After millions of prayers and numerous petitions from around the world, two Iranian women jailed for no other reason than being Christian were released from a Tehran prison today. Maryam Rustampoor, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, were imprisoned for 259 days - since March 5. They were repeatedly told to recant their faith and that they would be executed as "apostates," solely because they are Christians. But now Open Doors USA has confirmed the women have been released from the notorious Evin prison with no bail, a rarity for Christians released from prison in Iran. [...] Compass Direct News noted that the women may still face charges of proselytizing and "apostasy," or leaving Islam. An Iranian source told Compass the Iranian government faced intense public pressure for imprisoning the women. "It was from the international pressure, and also the government couldn't handle it anymore," said the source. "Already their detention was illegal. At the same time, the government wasn't ready to prosecute them for apostasy. They already have many headaches. They cannot handle everything." According to Facebook groups that support the women, Rustampoor and Amirizadeh had been participating in religious gatherings and handing out Bibles prior to their detention. Iranian security officials searched their apartments in March, confiscated their Bibles and arrested them. As WND reported, Rustampoor and Amirizadeh appeared before a court in Iran and were charged with "crimes of apostasy, and propagation of the Christian faith." In a display of raw courage, they told a government prosecutor that not only are they Christian, it is up to God, not a bureaucrat, to whom He talks. According to Elam, a dramatic part of the hearing came when they refused to deny their Christian faith. They explained that God had convicted them through the Holy Spirit. "It is impossible for God to speak with humans," Haddad, a deputy prosecutor identified only by his surname, stated. "Are you questioning whether God is Almighty?" Amirizadeh asked him. To which Haddad then replied. "You are not worthy for God to speak to you." "It is God, and not you, who determines if I am worthy," she said. Haddad earlier had asked if the women were Christian. "We love Jesus," they replied. "You were Muslims and now you have become Christians," Haddad stated. "We were born in Muslim families, but we were not Muslims," the women said. The deputy prosecutor asked about their regrets, and they said, "We have no regrets." "You should renounce your faith verbally and in written form," he warned. They refused.... With thanks to JihadWatch
 By Dr. Ellis WashingtonEvery Muslim is not a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim. ~ Dr. Zakir Naik, president, Islamic Research Foundation When I first started writing for WorldNetDaily, almost three years ago, I wrote “Is Islam compatible with a republic?”
My thesis then was to use the Constitution, reason, history and philosophy out of the Judeo-Christian traditions of intellectual thought, including Natural Law, to state authoritatively why Islam is not compatible with a republic. Why? Because Islam contains none of the essential components of what philosopher Booker T. Washington called the “fundamentals of civilization.” What are some of the fundamentals of civilization? - Belief in God (the moon god, Allah, is a very different entity);
- veneration of the intrinsic value of all life;
- the rule of law;
- A written constitution based on truth, equity, liberty and morality;
- laws that don’t discriminate based on race, creed, wealth, gender or national origin;
- Freedom of religion.
These are just a few of the fundamentals of civilization Islam under Shariah law has no conception of and utter contempt for. Islam is not compatible with a republic. Last Monday I drove down to Columbus, Ohio, to attend a rally for the 17-year-old Christian convert, Rifqa Bary, who was tricked to come back from Florida where she had fled in mortal fear.
She returned to her native Ohio to attend a juvenile court hearing that may force her to move back with her family, who are devout Muslims from Sri Lanka. Rifqa fears that her father will perform an honor killing upon her for “blasphemy against Islam” because of her conversion to Christianity. Brigitte Gabriel combats politically correct notions about the “religion of peace” in “They Must be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How we Can Do It” The event was organized by my friend, Florida radio host and publisher Pamela Geller. One of the speakers, Nonie Darwish, also a Christian convert from Islam, made this profound statement: This [Islam] is not religion. It has nothing to do with religion. Religion is a relationship with God. … Islam is a relationship with the State. Islam is a one-party, totalitarian system. It’s a one-party State that will not allow you to speak. And it will kill anybody who challenges or questions. Islam is not compatible with a republic. Last Tuesday the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ordered Lynne Stewart, a convicted terror-coddling civil-rights lawyer, to begin serving her prison sentence. Stewart, 69, was convicted over four years ago, in February 2005, of conspiracy and providing and concealing material support of terrorism for her actions in smuggling messages from “blind sheik” Omar Abdel-Rahman to his followers in the Islamic terror group Gama’a al-Islamiyya. As irony would have it, last week President Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, brought five terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be tried in a criminal court in New York. This act is tantamount to treason and is essentially overturning 230 years of American constitutional law and over 400 years of common-law traditions by permitting enemy combatants caught on foreign territory waging war against American soldiers to have full constitutional rights rather than being speedily tried by a military tribunal. Last year I wrote a book, “The Nuremberg Trials: Last Tragedy of the Holocaust,” on this very issue of coddling extreme war criminals and clogging up our criminal courts with people as irredeemably wicked as the Nazis, who, after World War II, should have all been tried by a military (not an international) tribunal and summarily hanged in the public square as a lesson to future would-be dictators that the civilized world means business. More at WesternFront America
 Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qaddafi gave a lecture on Islam to more than 100 young Italian women on Sunday night, encouraging them to convert and telling them it was false that Islam discriminated against women. Qaddafi, in Rome for the United Nations World Summit on Food Security, told the women that Christ came for the Jews, but that Mohammed came for everyone, according to Italian press reports. Libyan officials used an agency that provides hostesses for conferences to advertise for Italian women between the ages of 18 and 35 to attend the talk, held at the Libyan embassy in Italy. The women were told to dress modestly, with no miniskirts and no plunging necklines. At the end of the lecture Qaddafi gave each woman a copy of the Koran, and took their names, telling them they would be invited for a vacation in Libya. Foxnews
 An Australian is trapped with her children in Saudi Arabia while her husband languishes in jail, both victims of a campaign by her former husband. Rick Feneley and Tim Elliott report. At first glance Jennifer Birrell is a free woman living a privileged life in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. "It's a weird prison," she concedes. "A big house with a pool and a nice new car, all behind massive concrete walls that no one can see inside of. That's the prison. So I live here with my maid and my kids and my driver." But here the 33-year-old Muslim convert is trapped, unable to obtain an exit visa to return to Australia, and with no right to visit her husband, Mohammed Ahmed Nagi, in jail. Also 33, he has been held in the Malaz prison for more than 15 months. He has another 21 months to serve. He has endured 200 lashes, 50 at a time, and will be subjected to 100 more. Why? The couple's hellish predicament – detailed in Birrell's pleading letter to the Saudi king – rests on several flimsy pieces of paper, all wielded by her abusive former husband.
This is the Yemeni man she married in Australia in 1998 and who fathered three of her children, all Australian citizens.
They moved to Saudi Arabia in 2004, but she fled from him two years and three months ago, fearing for her life, after he allegedly threatened to kill her and bashed her three times with a candle stick, caving in her forehead. Among his pieces of paper was an old mobile phone bill. He had her account redirected to him while they were separated, and he took the bill to police in July last year, five months after he granted her a divorce in court. By now Birrell's colleague Mohammed Nagi had offered to become her guardian, or mahram.
In accordance with Muslim custom, he had asked her father's permission and they married in June last year, in accordance with Sharia law, at the Egyptian embassy in Riyadh.
Their marriage certificate was legalised in the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Saudi Ministry of Justice. After all, the law in the kingdom requires a woman have a male guardian. Read more at SMH H/T: David F.
 BERLIN — Authorities have identified a 27-year-old German convert to Islam as an Al Qaeda associate suspected of traveling to Afghanistan and planning to attack German targets. The report could fuel concerns about European converts being recruited by Islamist terrorist groups for attacks. The Federal Criminal Police Office confirmed a Spiegel Online report Sunday that it had posted notices across Afghanistan warning that the Kazakhstan-born ethnic German, identified as Jan Sch., may plan attacks on German military or civilian institutions in Afghanistan. The German-language posters included a description of the suspect and his picture. They were put up at German military bases and civilian institutions, security check points, embassies and the international airport, according to Spiegel. Jan Sch., who is also known as Hamza, has only recently traveled to the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Spiegel reported. He left Germany in 2004 to study Arabic in Saudi Arabia. However, he was seen in his hometown of Saarbruecken several times after his departure from Germany. According to the report, Jan Sch. allegedly is an acquaintance of Fritz Gelowicz, a member of an alleged radical Islamic terrorist cell whose plot to attack U.S. targets in Germany was foiled by authorities in 2007. Spiegel also wrote that the criminal office warns of several other German extremists who supposedly have traveled to Afghanistan in recent months. Jan Sch. "is said to be one of the intellectuals of the German Islamist radical scene, who is often asked for advice. This makes him a possible leader in the eyes of the terrorism investigators," Spiegel Online wrote. FoxNews
 The dead gunman, army major Hassan Malik, was believed to be a recent convert to Islam and was soon to be deployed to Iraq.
The army major is believed to have been a doctor on the military base who specialised in mental health. Military officials held two other soldiers in custody on the Soldier Readiness Centre at Fort Hood, the world's largest base, but it is not clear at this stage if they were connected with the violence. It is believed that shooting may have started during a graduation ceremony attended by large numbers of young military personnel, and could have been the work of a lone gunman. Soon after the shooting rampage, which occurred at 1.30pm Texas time, about 500 military personnel performed a security sweep of the base to prevent any further violence and to check for further suspects. Some of those killed are believed to have been shot at point-blank range with handguns, with the shooter or shooters reloading multiple times.
US President Barack Obama described the shootings as tragic and sent his condolences to the families of those murdered. "This is a horrific outburst of violence," he said. The President broke from a prepared speech to the Tribal Nations Conference in Washington to say there had been a tragic shooting in Texas but details were unclear. "What we do know is that a number of American soldiers have been killed and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence," he said. "My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded, and with the families of the fallen, and with those live and serve at Fort Hood. "Theses are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times give, their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis. "It is difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil. The President said he had spoken to Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and he would receive a constant stream of updates. "We are working with the Pentagon, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, all to ensure that Fort Hood is secure and we will continue to support the community with the full resources of the federal government. "In the meantime I would ask all Americans to keep the men and women of Fort Hood in your thoughts and prayers. "We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident and I want all of you to know that as commander in chief there is no greater honour, but also no greater responsibility for me than to make sure that extraordinary men and women in uniform are properly cared for and that their safety and security when they are at home is provided for."
Congress today held a moment of silence to honour the dead victims in the Fort Hood shootings. Source: The Australian
Evidently a convert to Islam, and an apparent jihad attack has taken place at Ft. Hood. [Robert here:] Twelve dead, thirty wounded in what was apparently an attack coordinated between two or three gunmen -- belying the post-traumatic stress syndrome spin playing out in the mainstream media. If this turns out to be a jihad attack, watch for the President to caution against "backlash" and "Islamophobia." Source: JihadWatch
 By Robert Spencer This could result in her being able to get asylum in the U.S. -- or it could end up causing her to be sent back to Sri Lanka, where she could be murdered or institutionalized. Rifqa Bary Update: "Rifqa Bary's Family Risks Deportation," by Pamela Geller for Newsmax, October 19: Last Tuesday there was yet another hearing for Rifqa Bary, the girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled to Florida from her family in Ohio after saying that her father threatened her life. It was agreed that Ohio has jurisdiction in her case. That means Rifqa is ultimately to be returned to Ohio, but not so fast: the Florida court maintains emergency jurisdiction.
And Florida Judge Daniel Dawson is firm: Rifqa will not be returned to Ohio until the family's immigration status is cleared up. That could take awhile. On Wednesday at my Web site AtlasShrugs.com, I broke the story of the immigration papers of Rifqa's father, Mohamed Bary, running exclusive documentation exposing his immigration status. He is in the United States illegally, and he has committed perjury to stay here. That explains why for several months the attorneys for Rifqa Bary's parents have been promising to produce but failing to deliver their immigration documents. Judge Dawson even threatened Mohamed Bary's lawyer, Shayan Elahi, with contempt of court last week for continuing to fail to produce them. The Barys were given 10 days before they will be held in contempt of court. My money says they are going to say the documents are lost. But they are not lost. They are damning. Mohamad Bary has sworn entirely contradictory things in his two applications to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. He has claimed that he entered the country illegally around 1981 or 1982, and that he lived here five years -- a claim he had to make in order to qualify for the old Reagan-era immigration amnesty of the 1980s, for which he did belatedly apply. But Mohamed Bary was not here in the 1980s. We know that because he himself said so in a different immigration filing. In an application for temporary entry into the United States, he claimed that in the three years before his application, he had lived outside the U.S. for at least one continuous year. This contradicted his amnesty application, in which he claimed that he had resided continuously inside the United States since on or before Jan. 1, 1982. He could not have lived outside the United States for one year during the same time period in which he had claimed to be living continuously inside the United States. He maintained these contradictory claims as necessary elements to file his applications under the differing statutes -- one governing the issuance of an entrance visa, the other governing the granting of amnesty for continuous illegal presence. He obviously committed perjury. Source: JihadWatch
 The Florida pastor who helped a 17-year old girl who fled from her home, fearing her Muslim parents would kill her for converting to Christianity, told MyFoxOrlando.com that he is hopeful the runaway will be able to stay in Florida even though a judge ruled she must return to Ohio. "We expected Ohio would get jurisdiction... that's just the legal way it is," Paster Blake Lorenz told MyFoxOrlando.com. "But we are excited there is still a possibility she could stay in Florida, if the legal documents are not presented with her immigration. So you never know...maybe they don't have them." Before the girl gets sent back, florida Judge Daniel Dawson said he needs immigration papers proving her status in the U.S. and proof from the state of Florida that she can continue her virtual schooling and receive credit in Ohio. Lorenz claims he and his wife have been operating under the belief that Bary's parents may not be able to produce the required documents. Bary's family came from Sri Lanka, and Lorenz said Rifqa did not think they would look for her for fear their immigration status would be revealed. They eventually did report her as missing, and Lorenz has since felt pressure from law enforcement and some segments of the public. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
 Last month the Orlando family court overseeing the Rifqa Bary case released a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that claims that they found no evidence to support her claims of abuse despite the father’s explicit admission to the primary incident that prompted her to flee (picking up her laptop and threatening to hit her with it) and a policy that prohibited the FDLE investigators from looking into any allegations of abuse that occurred in her home of Ohio, namely all of them. But we were contacted by a source close to Rifqa’s family who made statements that calls into question the FDLE’s bogus findings and provides evidence that the Bary family home is not so safe and secure as the lamestream media cheerleading for her return has led to believe. Our source, who is a member of the Central Ohio Islamic community and is close to the Bary family, claims that Rifqa Bary’s older brother, Rilvan, has repeatedly bragged about providing specific information on Rifqa’s Florida foster family to San Francisco-based Islamic stalker-blogger Davi Barker (whose email is themuslimagorist@gmail.com for anyone who is curious), who claimed in one post that he knew Rifqa’s present location and issued this veiled threat: I'll tell you one thing reader... if she's not safe in Ohio, she's not safe in Florida. All it took was a little creative Googling and I was able to determine the likely address where she's staying*... But I digress. Since Rifqa is currently in state custody and living with a Florida DCF-approved foster family, her location is confidential. Read more here,,,, Source: The Jawa Report
 Please keep the heat on. Here's the latest missive from Christ's office. Thank you for contacting Governor Charlie Crist
Thank you for contacting Governor Charlie Crist and sharing your
concerns about Ms. Fathima (Rifqa) Bary. The Governor asked that I
respond on his behalf.
Ms. Bary is safe and comfortable, currently living in a foster home.
Her case is proceeding through the juvenile court system. Ms. Bary's
court-appointed representative, known as a Guardian Ad Litem, has filed
a Petition for Dependency, seeking to have Ms. Bary declared a ward of
the State of Florida. Legal counsel from the Florida Department of
Children and Families is present at every proceeding to protect the best
interests of the child, and Governor Crist's General Counsel is closely
monitoring the case.
At the most recent hearing, Judge Daniel Dawson ordered Ms. Bary and her
parents to participate in mediation in hopes of reaching some
understanding and agreement about this difficult situation. The
mediation is scheduled for early October. Ms. Bary's parents have filed
legal documents seeking to dismiss the Florida case and have proceedings
moved to a court in Ohio. The motion is pending and the trial court has
not made a decision.
Please be assured that Governor Crist and the Florida Department of
Children and Families will take an active role to protect the best
interests of Ms. Bary.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact Governor Crist.
Sincerely,
Warren Davis
Office of Citizen Services
Free people, please keep the heat on. This is America, fight for Rifqa, fight shariah law Source and with thanks to Atlas.
 DECATUR, Ill. — The day before he was arrested Thursday on charges of plotting to blow up the federal building in Springfield, Michael C. Finton was working as a fry cook at Seals Fish & Chicken in this old factory town deep in the Illinois cornfields. Federal prosecutors say the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield. Ill., was a target of a bombing plot uncovered by F.B.I. agents posing as low-level operatives for Al Qaeda. Michael C. Finton said the bombing would be a “historic occasion,” court papers say. Tall and red-haired, Mr. Finton, 29, was known among co-workers as cheerful and polite, but unwavering when it came to religion and politics. He was especially critical of what he regarded as permissive society. “He didn’t like America very much,” said Mariam Fadel, 18, who works the counter at Seals. “He didn’t think it was strict enough. He thought we needed more rules, so that people would behave.” She recalled him talking about a troubled childhood that included running away from foster care. He also spoke of hopes to leave the United States someday, she said, and settle in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Finton went by the nickname Talib Islam (student of Islam). The authorities say he had converted to the Islamic faith while in an Illinois prison from 2001 to 2006, serving a sentence for aggravated robbery and aggravated battery. Acquaintances say he had been living in Decatur, about 40 miles east of Springfield, for perhaps three years. On a MySpace entry, Mr. Finton listed his hometown as Visalia, Calif., in the Central Valley, and claimed he attended high school in Warren, Mich. In the entry, he wrote of self-loathing before he found Islam.
“Everybody liked me, yet I hated myself,” he wrote. “People thought I was smart, and reasonably good-looking, but to me, I was a moron, and a freak.” Read more here,,,, Source: NYTimes
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One of the most visible leaders of an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist militia in Somalia spent a year in Toronto ingratiating himself into the Somali immigrant community as a convert to Islam.
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