 by Ryan Mauro Pajamas Media has a great article about a moderate Muslim organization called LIM in Norway that is reacting to the attack on one of the Prophet Mohammed cartoonists by organizing a demonstration for free speech.
The spokesperson, Sheikh Rehman, is challenging the Islamic Council of Norway to do the same, but says he thinks they won’t do it because they worry they will “lose face in the Muslim world.” Rehman even supports the publication of the cartoons, saying: Muhammed didn’t want to be depicted, because he didn’t want to be turned into a false god. When Muslims believe that depictions of the prophet insult him, then they are turning him into just such a false god. There should thus be no reason not to caricature him. I would go so far as to say that Muslim leaders are unqualified. The second article comes from the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.
Twenty imams that are patrt of the group published a fatwa on January 8 saying any attack on the U.S. or Canada is an attack on all the Muslims living there, and “Islam requires Muslims to stand up to this evil.” And there’s also this very important line in the fatwa: In fact, the constitutions of the United States and Canada are very close to the Islamic guiding principles of human rights and freedom. There is no conflict between the Islamic values of freedom and justice and the Canadian /US values of freedom and justice. Irfan al-Alawi and Stephen Schwartz in The Weekly Standard write about the All-India Ulema Mashaikh Board, and how the group’s secretary-general has called for Wahhabist control of the country’s Islamic institutions to be ended. They write that the majority of Sunni Muslims in India and Pakistan “are conservative but adhere to the spiritual Islam of Sufism.” He even puts a number on it, saying 80% of India’s Muslims practice Sufi traditions. World Threats 
 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. 
 April 23, 2009, 15:00 – 17:00
Palais des Nations, Geneva
Room/Salle XXV
Renowned Muslim experts from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America gather to consider how the implementation of universal human rights standards should be applied to racism and religious intolerance
UN Member States have agreed to the responsibility to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, but what is today’s reality? With the proliferation of xenophobia and the questioning of universal human rights standards, the world is witnessing increasing conflict and repression rooted in intolerance. The Hudson Institute presents a unique opportunity to hear a prestigious panel gathered from four continents to discuss the universality of human rights standards in the fight against racism and religious intolerance.
Zeyno Baran is the Director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Eurasian Policy. Formerly, Baran directed the International Security and Energy Programs at The Nixon Center and the Caucasus Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She was awarded the Order of Honor by Georgian President Shevardnadze, and has been a Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an Israeli Arab journalist and documentary filmmaker. He is the West Bank and Gaza correspondent for U.S. News and World Report and the Jerusalem Post, and has been the Palestinian affairs producer for NBC News since 1988.
Stephen Schwartz is the author of 20 books, including The Two Faces of Islam (translated into Bosnian, Albanian, Indonesian, and Farsi) and The Other Islam, both of which have gained wide readership in the Muslim world as well as in the West. He also worked as a consultant for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia.
Irfan Al-Alawi is a barrister in the U.K. and has a Ph. D. in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University, Cairo. He is currently Executive Director of the Islamic Heritage Foundation UK. He is a widely recognized historian of Mecca and Medina and co-author of an important work with Shaykh Yusuf Rifa'i.
Veli Sirin is a graduate in Islamic studies of the University of Bochum, he is a leader in the Alevi Youth Movement, a journalist and German Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism.
Tarek Heggy studied law at Ain Shams University in Cairo, followed by a degree from the International Management Institute of Geneva University. He taught law in Algeria and Morocco and went on to become Chairman of Shell Companies in Egypt. He has lectured at universities throughout the world.
Hudson Institute is a non-partisan policy research organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis that promotes global security, prosperity, and freedom.
For further information, please contact:
Zeyno Baran, +1-202-255-2073, zeyno@hudson.org
Vivian Hakkak, Press Officer + 41 78 740 2422 vh@span.chHudson Institute
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 The Federal Bureau of Prisons has tallied all the Islamic books and videos available to inmates and chaplains in federal penitentiaries and the list is worrisome. Stephen Schwartz, a convert to Islam who directs the Center for Islamic Pluralism, requested a copy of the government's 399-page inventory through the Freedom of Information Act. He found far more examples of radical texts and videos from extremists, including Wahhabi and Muslim Brotherhood scholars, than those advocating pluralism or moderation. You can find 280 copies of work from American-born South African imam Abdullah Hakim Quick, including what Schwartz calls "hateful attacks on Baha'is, as well as Ahmadis, a heterodox Muslim group, and titles like Muslims Under Siege and The Importance of Da'wa in Times of Crisis." The list includes 33 entries by Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Yusuf al-Qaradawi, another 30 entries covering writings by Brotherhood luminary Sayyid Qutb and 200 volumes by the Pakistani jihadist Abul Ala Mawdudi. This matters for two reasons, Schwartz writes: "Muslim extremists' openly stated intent to spread their ideology in prisons, and the Bureau of Prisons' own past reliance on Muslim chaplains trained in Wahhabi Islam. While no major acts of terror have been traced to recruitment in U.S. prisons, the tools necessary for extremist indoctrination remain, unaccountably, in place." Schwartz notes that the inventory grew out of concerns generated by past discoveries about the way Muslim prison chaplains were trained. Source: IPT Blog
 By Jay Tolson Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U. S. efforts to identify and support moderate voices within the Islamic world have been inconsistent and fumbling. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that the long-term success in fighting terrorism will depend far more on the result of Islam's own internal debate than on the outcomes of the fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan. To the extent that it can influence that debate, the next U. S. administration might consider paying closer attention to followers of the Sufi tradition, a mystical and philosophical current within Islam. ("Sufi" itself as a term may have derived from the Arab word for wool, in reference to the simple, rough cloak worn by early Muslim ascetics). In his new book, The Other Islam: Sufism and Global Harmony, Stephen Schwartz, a journalist and executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C., argues that Sufism "offers the clearest Muslim option for reconciliation between the Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds, as well as fulfillment of the promise that Islam shall be a religion of peace." U. S. News spoke with the author, himself a convert to Islam. Read more ...Source: U.S. News & World Report
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by Ryan Mauro
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