Feisal Abdul Rauf accused of embezzlement

Feisal Abdul Rauf -of Park 51 / ground zero mosque fame has been sued for embezzlement of donations. A reminder on who Mr. Rauf is:

Mr. Rauf has been close to the US establishment for a number of years now, serving as a US State Department Muslim representative during both Bush and Obama regimes. Abdul Rauf is as much of a "good Muslim" that anyone get without actually giving up Islam. Yet, even as "good" of a Muslim Abdul Rauf is, he is just not good enough for the US establishment, and he has been effectively abandoned in the "ground zero" mosque Islamophobic controversy.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rauf continues to serve the State Department on his latest tour of sheikhdoms and monarchies (i.e. US allies and puppets) to talk about all of the rivers of milk and honey that can be found in America - all for Muslims (rhetorically speaking/sarc. alert) . Abdul Rauf is apparently a Sufi Imam, according to some web sources, it is unfortunate those who are on the beautiful path of Tasawwuf should fall for such an obvious fraud.

The head of a proposed mosque that was to be built near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York City was sued on Tuesday and accused of squandering millions of dollars in donations on lavish lifestyle perks for himself and his wife.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by several donors, accuses Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf of diverting $167,000 from private donations and $3 million from the Malaysian government for his personal use.

The money was intended for the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, two non-profits founded by Rauf aimed at educating the public about Islam and combating anti-Islam sentiment, the lawsuit said.

Rauf used the money to pay for vacations, real estate, entertainment, a luxury sports car and other gifts and lavish lifestyle perks for himself and his wife, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit also accused Rauf of falsifying the two groups' tax returns for several years to conceal fund transfers and sources.

The donors are seeking $25 million in damages.

What is the American Islamic Leadership Coalition?

Briefly the group is a collection of Native Informants/House Moslem/Arabs who seem to have made it their business to openly attack and report anyone who takes a dissenting postion against US policies. They made baseless allegations against Imran Khan during his recent visit to North America, resulting in his detention and interrogation by US immigration. Craig Murray has a good write up exposing this group:

The American Islamic Leadership Coalition followed this up with a press release with the notably un-Islamic contact name of Gregg Edgar of Gordon C James Public Relations.

From Wikipedia on Gordon C James: James grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and moved to Iowa in 1969 where he served several years in the Iowa National Guard. James worked in the real-estate management business in Des Moines, renting space to presidential candidates in town for the caucuses. In 1978, he met and rented space to former President of the United States George H. W. Bush (then Ambassador Bush).[1] After the 1988 election James worked as Lead Advance Representative at the White House for two years under President George H.W. Bush and Director of Invitations and Ticketing for the 51st Presidential Inaugural Committee.[2] James was also employed as deputy director of events for the 54th and 55th Presidential Inauguration.[3] In 1990 he founded the public relations firm Gordon C. James Public Relations. In 2004, James was employed by former U.S. Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to improve U.S. public relations in Iraq during the transition of governments.[4] For more than five months he served as the Director of Advance and Special Events in the Office of Strategic Communications and Director of the Presidential Palace Studio for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq. While there he advised Ambassador Paul Bremer and was responsible for coordinating the Ambassador’s relations with Western and Pan-Arab media outlets and produced several events including the signing of the Tal (Iraq’s Declaration of Independence) and 100 Days to Sovereignty, the countdown to the transfer of power from the CPA to newly founded Iraqi government.[5] In 2004 James assisted in several political stops with the Bush-Cheney campaign and in 2005, he was employed as lead advance representative for President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton’s tour of the Tsunami-hit regions of Indonesia.[6] James has traveled to five continents as a lead advance representative for President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.

There are some Muslims in the American Islamic Leadership Coalition. In Phoenix with Gordon C James is M Zuhdi Jasser, of Syrian origin but for eleven years a medical officer in the US Navy. And the AILC has another interesting Syrian, leader of “The Reform Party of Syria”, Farid Ghadry.

The AILC website includes the quote: “Gossip is he is the next president of Syria” Ghadry lives in Washington and is the author of such fascinating blog posts as “Israel Builds for Nobel Prizes, Arabs are Suicide Bombers”.

Like the Quilliam Foundation in the UK, doubtless the AILC has hoovered up plenty of public funds for its useful work for the security services. BUt the idea that it genuinely represents a strand in Islamic thinking is ludicrous. It is marvellous what being an establishment shill can do for your media profile though. Zuhdi Jasser addressed his largest mass rally of supporters – highly optimistically estimated by the media as three dozen – in a New York rally in support of NYPD’s controversial surveillance and agent provocateur operations against Muslims. Rather than laughing at it, the tame mainstream media covered it infinitely better than they cover anti-war rallies 1,000 times larger, and portrayed it as a genuine sign of Muslim community support for the surveillance. Just as none of the mainstream media reporting the current Imran Khan story – most of whon quote the AILC – say anything about who the AILC really are. What do people working in the mainstream media think the purpose of their existence actually is?

Al Qaeda in Syria --- are "moderate" Muslims having a change of heart?

Remember Ed Husain? No? Well just click on the link... The guy was one of the most vociferous voices against "extremism" amongst Muslims and interpretations of Islam. The dude teamed up with the British government to create a "moderate Islam" outfit (check the link above for more information). These days he is a senior fellow with the Council of Foreign Affairs.

[More on Ed Husain here: Ed: With Friends like these

Ed Hussain: from Ineptitude to Inadequacy ]

So here is his recent piece on Syria - where he acknowledges that Al Qaeda is part and parcel of the western backed bloodshed now taking place in the region:

For Syrian opposition soldiers, the al-Qaeda fighters are welcome Arab and Muslim volunteers, mujahideen, religious brethren who call themselves Jabhat al-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Shaam (Front for the Victory of the Levantine people), among other names. Not since the days of the Afghan jihad against the Soviets has global jihadism found this rare combination of native Sunni Muslim hospitality, a powerful cause, available cash, eager Arab support, Western acquiescence, and the constant arrival of young Muslims to fight under its banner to create an Islamist government. While exact numbers of jihadist fighters are hard to come by, it is a fact that in every crucial battle of the last three months, from Aleppo to Homs to Deir al-Zor to Damascus, al-Qaeda has been prominent.

OK so, by now it is common knowledge that the western backed "uprising" includes Al Qaeda... this is known and acknowledged by everyone (maybe excepting some Obama loving liberals, who cannot imagine that Obama would be supporting this nefarious extremist outfit... remember the chants of USA USA USA - when they repeatedly lauded themselves for the assassination of OBL? LOL! Little do they bother to realize that new OBLs are being created with US/NATO backings...)

But here is the interesting part, while Ed Husain (The great champion of "moderate Islam" - anti-extremist etc. etc. ) acknowledges the role of Al Qaeda here is how he comes to terms with real true extremism (not the bogus nonsense he was spouting in Britain):

There are no easy options in Syria. We cannot credibly ask the FSA to jettison its bravest fighters (Al Qaeda) while we refuse to send Western troops.

Really...? "we" (US/Western backers) cannot demand FSA to stop including Al Qaeda in its ranks? Really....? Al Qaeda? (Fact is that there would be no FSA without Al Qaeda, but that requires another analyses in another place).... And lets continue:

Al-Qaeda’s and the West’s interests merged in Afghanistan against the Soviets; Will they do so again in Syria? And will our common enemies — Hezbollah and Iran — hold this unmentionable alliance together after Assad?

Oh my... Have to hand it to Ed Husain he is telling the truth here... indeed the west's interest and Al Qaeda's interest have indeed merged in Syria! The great upholder of human rights has merged its interests with some of the most rotten extremist and sectarian terrorists: Al Qaeda. And all that Ed Husain (the great "moderate") do is close with a whimper:

No, because that same history teaches us not to ride the al-Qaeda tiger: It will soon enough turn on liberal Arabs, the West, and Israel. In Syria, with or without Assad, the only certain result will be the presence of al-Qaeda’s offshoots. We are yet to grasp the consequences of this reality.

No, Ed Husain it is you, you may not have grasped that reality, many of us have fully grasped this reality: That Al Qaeda and the extremist terrorism and sectarianism is a western imperialist creation, and that they will be used again and again to inflict massive damage on independent Muslim nations. And in the same vein - "moderate" "progressive" types, such as yourself, are also an output of that same production line - just the flip side of the coin. You see, now "moderate" "progressives" are soon to go out of style - as the flip side of that same coin once again become allies of the people you been hangin' out with... What will you do? Muslim "leaders" are already beginning to line up to join up ... will you, O' great moderate, join up with 'em?

Electronic Intifada exposes House Moslem Shahed Amanullah

"Shahed (Amanullah) currently serves as Senior Advisor for Technology for the US Department of State, working on digital diplomacy projects in the Office of the Special Representative to Muslim Communities Worldwide, which reports directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

 Mr. Amanullah is one of a number of self styled "leaders" who do not represent anyone, nor are they in touch with Muslim sentiments, but have been hand picked by the US State Department as advisors on Muslim affairs. Mr. Amanullah is also the founder of the online rag AltMuslim.

 "Hours after The Guardian announced it had dumped Joshua Treviño, a Senior Advisor at the US State Department (Shahed Amanullah) publicly defended the disgraced columnist, despite the fact that Treviño had openly called for, and gloated over, the murder of US civilians and called for acts of desecration offensive to Muslims in a series of controversial tweets."

 This is Shahed Amanullah's tweet wherein he calls Joshua Trevino his friend (could you imagine a senior advisor at the US State Department calling a Muslim, who made such statements about Jews or Christians, his or her "friend?") The guy would be fired before he could say tweet.

"The writings of my friend @jstrevino (Joshua Trevino) deserve to be engaged, not suppressed..." (Shahed Amanullah of altmuslim - and Senior Advisor at the US State Department reporting directing to Hillary Clinton).

"How long would Amanullah last at the State Department if he urged “engagement,” with Reverend Jeremiah Wright or Minister Louis Farrakhan, Americans whom President Obama has publicly rejected and denounced?

Indeed, Obama even had an American, Anwar al-Awlaki, and his 16-year old son,extrajudicially executed, for the elder al-Awlaki’s views."

Click here to read more

Anti-Palestinian/Islam Pakistani proggie/housie wants Pakistan-Israel "friendship"

The proggies/housie type Muslims don't restrict themselves to just pontificating on why they think Islam is a backward religion. They are essentially pawns of imperialism, and being enamored with the "west" - they also advocate relations with the aparthied/zionist entity of "israel" ... essentially what they advocate is for Pakistan and other Muslim countries to become absolute colonies.

This article, advocating "israel"-Pakistan relations, is written by, one, Pirzada Hasaan Hashmi - who

"is a political activist and a spokesperson for IHRP (Interfaith Harmony for Religious Peace). He tweets @shanihashmi"

Writer is Founder of COMPACT a Think Tank On Media ,Peace & Culture , Spokesperson of IHRP(www.ihrp.net) , blogger, political & Anti-extremism activist from Pakistan, Working on ground level for Interfaith Harmony in Pakistan

brown sahibs

While I don't know or care much for Pakistani cricketer-politician Imran Khan, this book review of his autobiography does give an insight into the brown sahibs - who make up the bulk of proggies-housies of South Asian backgrounds:

The liberal and left factions in Pakistan also reprogrammed themselves after the end of the Cold War. Under Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistan People’s Party, once left-leaning, anti-imperialist, sought legitimacy in Washington and quickly embraced its neoliberal program to open the economy to Western capital. If the formerly liberal and left leaning forces completed this metamorphosis with little difficulty, this is not entirely surprising. Even when they proclaimed socialist ideals or employed anti-imperialist rhetoric, the thinking of the politically dominant classes in much of the Islamicate had been shaped by an Orientalist narrative. After the Western powers had destroyed or marginalized the traditional learned classes – judges and jurisprudents trained in Shariah, theologians, physicians, engineers, architects and artists – this created space for the emergence of new intellectual classes that were beholden to their colonial masters.

More often than not, they were secular and nationalist in their politics, and, following their Orientalist mentors, they blamed Islam for their backwardness; as a result, even when they paid lip service to Islam, they were determined to exclude it from their political discourse. In keeping with their colonialist thinking, they affected Western styles and mannerisms but did little to acquire the institutions, sciences and technology that were the motors of Western power and prosperity. It is no exaggeration to assert that these new elites – despite their nationalist rhetoric – felt closer to their colonial masters they had replaced than to the people they claimed to lead.

In Pakistan, different factions of the ruling elites – who variously claim to be ‘nationalists,’ ‘liberals’ or ‘leftists’ – strenuously lobby the Americans or the British to gain power or to keep it. They outbid each other in sacrificing vital national interests; they never tire of proclaiming that the nation’s economic salvation depends on attracting foreign investment; they have backed unconditionally America’s so-called war on terrorism; they oppose the Afghans’ right to free their country of foreign occupiers; they cheered when General Musharraf used Pakistan’s military to fight Pakistanis who aided the Afghans; they privately assure the Americans that – despite their public stance – they stand firmly behind the deadly drone strikes against ‘targets’ inside Pakistan. Disregarding Pakistan’s Islamic sensibilities, a tiny minority of ‘secularists’ in Pakistan want to impose Western sexual mores on Pakistan; they have campaigned to abrogate the nation’s laws against blasphemy, not prevent its abuse or mitigate its penalties; they refuse to defend the rights of Muslim minorities in Western countries; they support America’s demands to shut down the madrasas in Pakistan but have long supported a colonial system of education for the elites that uses syllabi and exams designed in Cambridge.

“Today our English-language schools produce ‘Desi Americans’ – young kids who, though they have never been out of Pakistan, have not only perfected the American twang but all the mannerisms (including the tilt of the baseball cap) just by watching Hollywood films.” In imitation, poorer children too are deserting the state-run Urdu schools to attend poorly staffed English medium schools run out of apartments but carrying exotic labels. Some are named after Catholic saints, in a tawdry attempt to bask in the prestige of Christian missionary schools. Others carry more hilarious names. One school, less inclined to borrow the halo of Catholic saints, calls itself, Oxford and Cambridge Islamic English-Medium School.

deconstructing housie - proggie Asra Nomani

in her article for The Daily Beast, Asra Nomani writes an article which implies that the orphaned children of Pakistan are being recruited by Al-Qaeda as future suicide bombers. Her answer to this problem? To undo the “antiquated, shortsighted, and regressive stricture that makes adoption illegal [within Islam].” This focus on Islam as a problem for adoptive parents who supposedly want to help the orphans of the world is quite loaded, and needs to be deconstructed on two levels, first in terms of the historical and economic/political function of adoption, and second in terms of linguistic and theologic use/misuse of the term.

Read more here 

liberal muslim imperial alliance - the strange case of Nafisa Haji

"Pakistani-American" author, with extensive family in Pakistan, gets tour of Pakistan via US Embassy in Pakistan to learn more about Pakistan! Right, so now the US Embassy gets to present Pakistan... not all that surprising, given that the country's liberal-elites have a colonized mind.

From sometime now, the US state department has been sending wannabe House Muslims (housies) to Muslim countries to spread the gospel of Americanism. The message that the housies bring is basically that America is really pretty good (just ignore the latest killings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Syria etc etc... ) They do this thorough meetings with the liberal - elites, students etc. of the respective Muslim majority countries - and then report back their findings and success stories to the US State Department.   In the war on Muslims and Islam, this is the soft propaganda aspect.  This site, over the years (with some lapses due to time constraints) has attempted to document this arm of the war - while exposing the individuals and groups who partake in this propaganda effort.

 Saba Mahmood has describes this effort:

"Taking the U.S. government’s current project to reshape and reform Islam on a global scale as my focus, I want to think about the place of the secular in relation to the current strategies of domination pursued by the United States. As I will show, over the last two years, in addition to its military “war against terror,” the United States has embarked upon an ambitious theological campaign aimed at shaping the sensibilities of ordinary Muslims whom the State Department deems to be too dangerously inclined toward fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. As such, it is the ideological arm of an otherwise military campaign to subdue and discipline the vast population of Muslims who, in their religious beliefs and lifestyles, are judged to be the recruiting ground for more extremist and fundamentalist forms of Islamic opposition to U.S. strategic interests and what are now loosely termed “Western values.” In this elaborate undertaking, the U.S. government has found an indigenous ally in the form of moderate or liberal Muslims who, in the opinion of State Department planners, are most open to a “Western vision of civilization, political order, and society.”

A recent recruit to this effort has been author Nafisa Haji, who has written two novels depicting Muslim lives - especially focused on Southern Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh etc.) A "sufi" affiliated with the International Association of Sufism http://ias.org/ Ms. Haji, recently took a trip to Pakistan at the invitation of the US Embassy in Pakistan! Here is her own press release:

Nafisa Haji, Pakistani-American author of “The Writing On My Forehead” and recently published “The Sweetness of Tears”, has just returned from a visit to Pakistan at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan. In Karachi, Nafisa attended the Karachi Literature Festival, where she led a Creative Writing Workshop and participated on a lively authors' panel moderated by Dr. Marilyn Wyatt, wife of U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter. From Karachi, Haji went on to Lahore and Islamabad, visiting and speaking at universities and colleges, engaging with Pakistani students who helped to dispel stereotypes about Pakistan and Pakistanis with their eager engagement with the world and the challenges their nation faces. Haji says the visit was eye-opening on many levels, affording her a broader and deeper perspective of Pakistan, far more optimistic than the usual headlines imply. In addition, she was impressed with the cultural and diplomatic efforts of the State Department staff she met with, admiring the hard, behind-the-scenes work they do in a challenging part of the world.

So let's see, Nafisa Haji went to Pakistan at the behest of the US Embassy, so that Pakistani students could dispel stereotypes about Pakistan? This is of-course, plain nonsense, Ms. Haji has extensive family in Pakistan, she has mentioned this in her interviews, and she was able to do a significant amount of research in that country for her books because of her family. And she needed to have stereotypes dispeled on a trip sponsored by the US State Department/US Embassy in Pakistan? This is ludicrous, to say the least.

And praise for the efforts of the US state department, in a country that the US  has been engaged in almost daily killings? All of that she encapsulates in what she describes as "challenging part of the world." The stories of mothers, children, wives, husbands, men and women killed by the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, brushed aside with the word "challenging."

These trips are not organized for what Ms. Haji claims, rather they are organized for the purpose that Ms. Mahmood has identified above, and so that the United States is presented in a softer light by such housies, in a way that diminishes the impact of the relentless wars that the empire has been waging. A way to even further disconnect the liberal-elites, and so-called "open minded" "free thinkers" individuals from the mass of Muslims. Not to say that the liberal - elites and "free thinkers" need any assistance in becoming disconnected, they already live in a different world. But it does serve to reinforce, and create a false sense that the US war policies are pretty OK.

Nafisa Haji ‏ @nafisahaji: Mabrouk #Libya!! People of #Tunisia and #Egypt, look what you started! Your turn, #Syria,#Bahrain,#Yemen! Last stop, #Saudi! Allaboard!

It is interesting to see how an opportunistic "sufi" ended up supporting a reactionary NATO allied group to take over of Libya. Like other liberal imperialists, while she may oppose war and violence led by Republicans, she, apparently has no problem supporting such wars and violence if they are led by liberal Democrats.  The above is a tweet from August 21st, 2011 expressing her support for the NATO led violent takeover of Libya - including a bombing campaign that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Libyans that Ms. Haji has chosen to ignore. This kind of hypocrisy is what liberal-housie-Muslims are made up off...

Who Is Husain Haqqani? *** Re-post

(Reposted given current events ... originally posted nearly three years ago... if only people had paid attention to this nefarious dude then...)

 The new Pakistan People's Party (US puppet) regime in Pakistan has nominated Husain Haqqani as the new Pakistan ambassador in Washington.

The question is whose interest is Haqqani going to represent?

Mr. Haqqani, is co-chair of Hudson Institute’s Project on Islam and Democracy" and a scholar with Hudson's Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World.

The Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World, launched in January 2006, is a think tank established at the Hudson Institute by Hillel Fradkin, a neocon and a signatory to a Project for a New American Century letter to the President equating the Palestinian Authority with Al Qaeda.

Click here for the center's web site that is full of the usual neo-con type rants with an "intellectual" and "academic" face.

Haqqani has also been a guest speaker at Zionist outfits, such as the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs (JINSA), and at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's policy conference in March of 2007.

At the time when Daniel Pipes was nominated by Bush as member of the Board of Trustees of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) -- Mr. Husain Haqqani wrote an op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal to support his nomination, declaring Pipes as a respectable scholar of Islam and the Middle East.

Haqqani is co-founder with Stephen Schwartz (a good friend of Daniel Pipes), of the Institute of Islamic Progress and Peace (IIPP), an organization set up a couple of years ago "to fight Islamic extremism."

"

In December 2004 he (Stephen Schwartz) was touring with Husain Haqqani, a neocon connected Pakistani. In an article Schwartz was described as being the "executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Islamic Progress and Peace (IIPP)." "

"There's a silent Muslim majority internationally and in the U.S. that does not agree with the extremists who have taken control of many of the nation's mosques, say Schwartz and Haqqani. They are touring the U.S. in an effort to promote the IIPP, a new non-profit organization to combat Muslim extremism in the U.S."

Speaking in a meeting organized by the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland Haqqani said that Muslims throughouit the world are suffering from "judaphobia" and that the Saudis are drilling this into them. He said that 800 out of 1,200 American mosques are controlled by Wahabi extremists.

He also criticized the American Muslim leadership for making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "as the core" issue; the core issue, according to Haqqani is Muslim backwardness. He said Edward Said was wrong to insist that the Jewish-Arab relations changed with the creation of Israel. "That’s not true. Pumping in hatred changed it," Haqqani claimed.

I don't think I need to say more.

***This blog entry is a modified version of an item that appeared on Angry Arab's blog - that was attributed to "A top expert on Pakistan, who does not want to be identified" - I did the "fact checking," found the web links, and added some additional information.

Moderate / Proggie / Housie Muslim patron accused of rape.

via Press TV

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of King Abdullah, has landed in hot waters as a Spanish court reopens a three-year-old rape case against him. The court started a probe into allegations that the Saudi multibillionaire raped a model on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea in August 2008, according to a ruling seen by AFP Wednesday. The case concerns Prince Talal, who is being asked to respond to a complaint of sexual assault against him by a model who was 20 at the time. The prince denied the allegations and said he only heard of them on Tuesday. A May 24 ruling by a court in the Balearic Islands said the complainant, who was not named, believed a drug was added to her drink in a nightclub on the island after she met the Saudi prince. A judge in the Balearic island of Ibiza in May 2010 had ordered the case closed for lack of evidence, but the provincial court of the Balearic Islands overturned that ruling on May 24 and a court in Ibiza on July 27 reopened the proceedings to formally request assistance from the Saudi authorities to take a statement from the accused. The 56-year-old prince has holdings in Citibank and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Forbes magazine lists him as the 26th richest person in the world with assets of $19.6 billion.

For prior posts on this "prince" click here and here The "prince" is basically a patron of "moderate" "proggie" and housie type Muslims - especially at Harvard University - the current individual to carry the title of: Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life is, one, Malika Zeghal.

Petition and open letter to Mona Eltahawy

Click here to view and sign petition/open letter.

Mona Eltahawy, we ask sincerely and with all due respect, that you publicly and categorically respond to those communities which you claim to represent or belong to and respond to the following:

(a) Make a clear and categorical statement in which you explicitly outline and detail your position on the Palestinian-led global BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement. As a public personality (and activist), your reluctance to state a position one way or the other is irresponsible and politically problematic, leaving us with no choice but to judge based on your behavior. We have a right and a necessity to know categorically whether or not you support the BDS call and movement.

Please state whether or not you support this movement, and explain your normalization with the State of Israel in relation to the broad-based and grassroots call by the majority of Palestinians for a boycott - by all conscientious individuals and institutions - of all Zionist Israeli institutions, public or private, that are responsible for and complicit in the ongoing occupation and siege of Palestine.

(b) Retract your statement in which you allege that the 25th January uprising had nothing to do with Israel and the US. Acknowledge the overwhelmingly visible presence of solidarity with Palestinians and anti-Israel banners and signs, as well as those in resistance and opposition to US-led imperial control, alliance with Mubarak and exploitation of the region. Apologize publicly for the irresponsible actof making such a misleading, inaccurate and unauthorized statement.

Zionists throw an Iftar dinner

Many so-called "large" housie Muslim organizations who the Muslim community in the US have stated do not represent them, were NOT invited to the Ifter dinner thrown by Mr. Obama.

However, some of these groups did get an invitation for the Zionist iftar dinner:

The evening's 65 guests include prominent Muslims and Jews, such as Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies at American University; Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the founding rabbi of the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., and the New York Synagogue in Manhattan; and Abdullah Antepli, the Muslim chaplain at Duke University.

UPDATE: At 11:04 p.m., the Israeli Embassy released a partial list of guests to the iftar. They included Paul Monteiro, Associate Director, White House Office of Public Engagement; Dennis Ross, National Security Council; Victoria Nuland, Spokesperson, Department of State; Suzan Johnson Cook, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom; Congressman Eliot Engel of New York; Ghait Al-Omari, American Task Force on Palestine; and Omer Bajwa, Yale University.
Talib Shareef, imam of Masjid Muhammad mosque in Washington, D.C. and president of the Muslim-American Military Association, lead prayers during iftar.

Notably absent from the guest list were representatives of the largest Islamic groups in the U.S., such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). A spokesman for Mohamed Magid, the president of ISNA, said he was invited but had a conflicting event. A spokesman for the national CAIR office said that a representative of the group was not invited. In addition, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a Democrat who is the first Muslim elected to Congress, was invited but was unable to attend because of an injury, according to an embassy official.

So, the list of attendees is not complete, probably some of the housies want to stab the Muslim community in the back in secret

on tweeter now a Mona El Tahawy parody account

Follow on tweeter:

Mona El Tahawy
@MonaETahawy
I'm huge in Tahrir Square, really. Parody Account

"I will not praise nor depreciate #FlagMan's actions officially/publicly as I must leave my media appearance options open."

see also Ikhras's latest post on this native informant: Mona el Tahawy and the Transnational Fulul al Nidham

a Mona Eltahawy update

Mona Eltahawy has been extensively covered on this site (you can search her name here) ... just an interesting update to see what she has been up to lately. As readers of this blog are aware Mona Eltahawy is a supporter of Zionism. More recently with the events in Egypt, she has become a media darling - and she has made wild claims misrepresentating the nature of the events there - specifically around Zionism.

As many will be aware, today #flagman took the zionist flag down from the "embassy" in Cairo ... and replaced it with the Egyptian flag. This event has widely celebrated all over the Arab and Muslim world as an act of creative resistance.

So, here is what Mona Eltahawy "retweeted"

Elazul Elazul
by monaeltahawy
FYI: "Flagman"'s Action is illegal, and means we (Egypt) are liable under international law for Breach. It's also an Act of War. #2Wrongs

Ali Abunimah tweeted in response to a Mona Eltahawy tweet:

OMG @monaeltahawy really worried about "legality" of #flagman's action. Did she ever care about "legality" of Israeli massacres? Shameless!

and here is what Mona Eltahawy, not having any substance to respond to Abunimah's astute observation, tweeted back:

@avinunu What's shameless is your bitchiness. You sound like a shrill diva. Woman up, grow some ovaries and stop trying to pick a fight

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan Mubarak, and here is a listing of sell outs who attended last year's Iftar Dinner, as the US regime continued its bombings and occupation of Muslims.

via: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/13/expected-attendees-white-house-iftar-dinner

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release August 13, 2010
Expected Attendees at the White House Iftar Dinner

This evening, the President will continue a White House tradition of hosting an Iftar celebrating Ramadan in the State Dining Room. This is the second Iftar hosted by the President. The Iftar is the meal that breaks the day of fasting, when Muslim families and communities eat together after sunset.

Below is a list of some of the expected attendees at tonight’s White House dinner celebrating Ramadan:

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

The Honorable Andre Carson, United States Representative (Indiana 7th)
The Honorable John Conyers, United States Representative (Michigan 14th)
The Honorable Rush Holt, United States Representative (New Jersey 12th)

COMMUNITY MEMBERS

Ms. Saleha Abedin
Mr. Ahmed Ahmed
Dr. Akbar Ahmed, American University
Mrs. Anila Ali, Council of Pakistan American Affairs
Mr. Bill Aossey, Midamar Corporation
Mrs. Fatema Bayat
Mr. Salam Al Marayati, Muslim Public Affairs Council
Rev. Chloe Breyer, Interfaith Center of New York
Mr. Hasan Chandoo, Oppenheimer & Co.
Ms. Sarah Darwish
Dr. Mahmoud Eboo, Aga Khan Council of the United States
Mr. Walter Edwards, Harlem Business Council
Mrs. Sana Fadel
Mr. Imad Hussain
Mr. Hassan Jaber, Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services
Mr. Muhammad U. Khan
Ms. Saaliha Khan
Imam Mohamed Hag Magid, All Dulles Area Muslim Society
Mrs. Shahnaz Masumi
Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Islamic Society of North America
Mr. Farooq Mitha
Ms. Dalia Mogahed, Director, Gallup Center for Muslim Studies
Mr. Mohamedraza Moledina
Mrs. Shabnum Moledina
Mrs. Laila Muhammad
Ms. Naheed Qureshi, Muslim Advocates
Mrs. Ranae Quraishi, Muslim Public Service Network
Ms. Intisar Rabb, Boston College
Dr. Jane Ramsey, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
Ms. Nadia Roumani, American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute
Mrs. Sally Steenland, Center for American Progress
Ms. Sadaf Syed
Mr. Mustafa Tameez
Mr. Ibrahim Vajzovic, United Bosnian Association
Mrs. Sara Najjar Wilson, Arab American anti-Discrimination Committee

ADMINISTRATION MEMBERS

The Honorable Dan Poneman, Deputy Secretary of Energy
The Honorable Ron Sims, Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Ms. Huma Abedin, Deputy Chief of Staff, Department of State
Mr. Mustafa Javed Ali, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Mr. Arif Alikhan, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development, Department of Homeland Security
Mr. Mazen Basrawi, Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Department of Justice
Technical Sergeant Sabrina Marie Bullock-Labaran, U.S. Air Force
Sergeant Major Agha Jalil Durrani, U.S. Army
Ms. Rehana Hakeem, Department of State
Chaplain Abdullah Hulwe, U.S. Army
Mr. Rashad Hussain, U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference
Mr. Adnan Kifayat, Department of Treasury
Ms. Sehreen Noor Ali, Department of State
Ms. Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, Department of State
Ms. Hannah Rosenthal, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Department of State
Mr. Irfan Saeed, Department of Homeland Security
Lt. Commander Abuhena Saifulislam, U.S. Marine Corps
Mr. Osman Shinaishin, National Science Foundation
Mr. Kareem Shora, Department of Homeland Security
Mr. Shaarik Zafar, National Counter Terrorism Center

DIPLOMATIC CORPS

Mrs. Shamim Jawad, Spouse, Embassy of Afghanistan
His Excellency Yashar Aliyev, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan
His Excellency Akramul Qader, Ambassador of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
His Excellency Roble Olhaye, Ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti
His Excellency Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt
His Excellency Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See
Her Excellency Meera Shankar, Ambassador of India
His Excellency Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida’ie, Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq
His Excellency Erlan A. Idrissov, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan
His Excellency Avni Spahiu, Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo
His Excellency Ali Suleiman Aujali, Ambassador of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
His Excellency Aziz Mekour, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco
Her Excellency Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al Mughairy, Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman
His Excellency Ali Bin Fahad Faleh Al-Hajri, Ambassador of the State of Qatar
His Excellency Adel A.M. Al-Jubeir, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia
His Excellency Husain Haqqani, Ambassador of Pakistan
His Excellency Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak, Ambassador of the Russian Federation
His Excellency Habib Mansour, Ambassador of Tunisia
His Excellency Ilhomjon Tuychievich Nematov, Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan
His Excellency Abdulwahab A. Al Hajjri, Ambassador of the Republic Yemen
His Excellency Ufuk Gokcen, Ambassador and Permanent Observer, Organization of the Islamic Conference
The Honorable Deitan Mish, Chargé d'Affaires at Interim of the Republic Albania
The Honorable Ali Alaoui, Chargé d'Affaires at Interim of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
The Honorable Tesfaye Yilma Sabo, Chargé d'Affaires at Interim of Ethiopia
The Honorable Salman Al Farisi, Chargé d'Affaires at Interim of the Republic of Indonesia
The Honorable Walid Rahman J. Al Hadid, Chargé d'Affaires at Interim of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
The Honorable Noraini Hamid, Chargé d'Affaires at Interim of Malaysia
The Honorable Bello Ringim, Economic Minister, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
The Honorable Suleyman Gokce, Chargé d'Affaires at Interim of the Republic of Turkey
The Honorable Dominick Chilcott, British Chargé d'Affaires at Interim

(neo) conning the Shi'a Muslim community in the US

Two good recent articles on the neo-con infiltration of the Shi'a Muslim communities in the United States:

1. The Secret War: The Zionist Spy and the Formation of the Shia-Con

In a recently published tell-all book, Is it good for the Jews?: the Crisis of America's Israel Lobby, neocon Stephen Schwartz describes how some Shi'a clerics and leaders from inside the US were groomed and promised positions of power and clout if they openly accepted and indoctrinated the Shi'a masses into accepting the neocon agenda. These Shi'a clerics and leaders were referred to as "Shia-Cons" by US government officials and were funded and supported by the neocon movement months before the Iraq war. Lawrence Anthony Franklin, was instrumental in nurturing groups such as the Universal Muslim American Association (UMAA) which lead to the formation of other Shi'a groups.

UMAA:Whose Tune Are You Singing?

In addition to the questionable endorsement of Daniel Pipes from at least one member of UMAA’s management, UMAA provided a platform in 2003, for the very master-mind behind the war on Iraq, namely the then U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz was one of the first officials to push for an invasion of Iraq, immediately in the aftermath of 9/11, and less known to the public is that he was also investigated for passing classified documents to Israel through an intermediary in AIPAC. Although in recent times, UMAA has attempted to distance itself from the event; their formal response has been a weak apology at best....

curiouser and curiouser

One seriously has to wonder at not only Feisal Abdul Rauf's reactionary politics, but also his judgement on who he chooses to hang out with, and who ends up supporting such a project! We might not know the specifics of what Mr. Rauf had in mind when he first thought up Park 51, but we can get a good idea by looking at some of his supporters.

Ameena Meer formed an organization "Muslims for Peace" to raise funds for the Park 51 project, and here is what she was raising funds for:

As for the charges against Imam Feisal, as someone who listened to his new-agey-self-searching qutbahs over the past 15 years, they were down to a word, spiritual and reassuringly apolitical. He never failed to remind us to be grateful for being American Muslims.

Really? Mr. Rauf is "apolitical?" Of-course he is not, he just refuses to discuss US imperialism, he has no problem with being political, so long as he is opportunistically serving the US regimes (both Bush and Obama).

we need the points of view of all Muslims who are open to dialogue, from Hamza Yusuf and Reza Aslan,Irshad Manji, Parvez Sharma, El-Farouk Khaki and anyone else who wants to make peace with his or her faith.

All of whom are supporters of empire at best, with some of 'em outright anti-Islam and anti-Muslim (yes I count Hamza Yusuf as a pro-empire figure.) Where does she get the idea that (aside from Hamza Yusuf) those others want to make "peace" with Islam? They are already at peace with their pro-empire/zionist faith!

And then there is this:

The director of the "Amityville Horror" remake says he's been subjected to a real-life nightmare courtesy of an ex-wife who duped him into thinking he was a dad -- for 17 years.

It wasn't until Andrew Douglas took a paternity test last year that he learned Ameena Meer had conned him into thinking he was the father of her daughter, court papers say -- and now he wants his ex to pay through the nose for the heartbreaking lie.
He's suing her for $671,991 in damages -- the amount he has paid in child support over the years -- as well as legal costs for their 1999 divorce, and an unspecified amount in punitive damages.

Meer, the head of Muslims for Peace, an organization that has been collecting donations for the mosque near Ground Zero, denied intentionally misleading her ex. "Of course I didn't lie," she said.

how rats flee a sinking raft

While reading Ikhras's post on Hussein Ibish I thought just how ironic the whole Park 51 situation has become. Hussein Ibish, as regular readers of this blog might remember, was one of the original founders of the Progressive Muslim Union North America (PMUNA) and a search of this blog will turn up numerous entries on his antics.

But at the time, six years back, many of the proggies were quite happy with Feisal Abdul Rauf (although, I've not been able to find any specific references of Ibish lovin' Rauf - if someone does, please leave that info. in the comment section.)

Here we have an article by Raheel Raza of the reactionary statement issuing mill Muslim Canadian Congress written in November of 2004 on the founding of the PMUNA (I refuse to link to their website, but a google search will turn up references).

I went to NYC ostensibly to attend the launch of the Progressive Muslims Union of North America and I got there two days early. My hosts in Manhattan are part of a group that had decided that through science and technology, Ramadan and Eid can be predicted in advance so that Muslims can begin and end together. The decision was for a Sunday Eid and they invited me to join them at the Eid prayer and celebration.

We drove to the Dorral Arrowood Convention Center in Rye Brook New York where the auspicious event was arranged by ASMA (American Sufi Muslims Association). 300 men, women and children prayed together in the great Ballroom – yes, side by side with no partition. These people have broken away from the traditional mosque culture (where usually women are relegated to another area) because they want to offer prayers with their families, friends and loved ones, and they took another bold step by inviting an Imam of their choice. And what a brilliant choice!

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a dynamic man with a vision as large as his heart. Author of a new book titled “What’s Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims in the West”, he was educated in England and Malaysia and has a degree in Physics from Columbia University. Founder and CEO of the American Sufi Muslim Association (ASMA Society) and Imam of Masjid Al-Farah, a mosque in New York City, twelve blocks from Ground Zero, he has dedicated his life to building bridges between Muslims and the West and is a leader in the effort to build religious pluralism and integrate Islam into modern American society.

Regarded as one of the world’s most eloquent and erudite Muslim leaders, Imam Feisal is a charismatic public speaker and has appeared in national and international media such as CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS and BBC. He has been quoted in the New York Times, New York Daily News, Jerusalem Post, and Associated Press.

The Imam’s sermon could have been easily accepted in a church, synagogue or temple as he spoke about two kinds of religion – good and bad. He talked about Islam with a small “i” and said it means submission to God by anyone: Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist. This must have sat well with John Bennet, a lone Buddhist in the congregation who heads Imam’s Feisal’s Cordoba Initiative. Imam Feisal is the architect of the Cordoba Initiative, an inter-religious blueprint for improving relations between America and the Muslim world and pursuing Middle East peace. As a tireless advocate for an ecumenical solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he has impressed his vision on US lawmakers and administration officials, most recently as member of the National Inter-religious Initiative For Peace in Washington DC.

Young people surrounded the Imam after the sermon but the surprise did not end there for me. Following the prayer, there was brunch and live music – some enthusiastic families also indulged in a bit of ‘bhangra’. I was also astounded to see the Imam’s wife does not cover her head. Daisy Khan leads women in prayer at their mosque and is involved in interfaith dialogue at an international level. Upon my questioning, she said “I’ve done my own ijtihad (research and reasoning) and found that modest dress is what is required so I believe this is fine for me.” Wow, I felt I had found the ‘progressive’ Muslims.

And now she has this to say about Abdul Rauf:

"A hundred million dollars can help people sell their souls" (3:26)

who's who on Council of Foreign Relations

The Council of Foreign Relations is a pro-empire "think-tank." Its membership includes such imperial luminaries as:

Dick Cheney
Condoleezza Rice
Paul Wolfowitz
Robert M. Gates
John D. Negroponte
Richard Perle
Leslie Gelb
Colin Powell
Alice Rivlin
Madeleine Albright
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Henry Kissinger

The CFR Religious Advisory Committee includes some interesting Muslim names:

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Salam Al-Marayati, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Los Angeles, CA

Reza Aslan

Eboo Patel

Eboo Patel has joined the ultra Zionist (and I mean that in all of its negativity) ADL organization that is now supposedly going to be taking on anti-Muslim issues - yeah right. Eboo Patel has previously hooked up with war criminals, so this step is not much of a surprise.

Park 51: A manufactured controversy

While I think the article below accurately analyzes the geopolitical aspect of this manufactured controversy, I would caution readers with regards to other aspects, because it relies too heavily on reporting done by Asra Nomani who, as regular readers of this blog will remember, is not exactly a credible source, and herself has a background in manufacturing controversies (she was one of the main forces around the Amina Wadud led Friday prayers manufactured controversy.)

Asra Nomani:

"If not america, where else? America has a history of bringing human rights to the world, of bringing social justice to the world. It is obviously from america that muslim women should do this."

It could be that Feisal Abdul Rauf and his friends (that includes Asra Nomani) may be looking for a scapegoat in this affair, and may use the developer, who initially paid for the site, as an excuse to back out.

The plot hatched maybe thick, but Muslims should focus on opposing Islamophobia, and at the same time raise issues about the legitimacy of "leadership" exercised by Abdul Rauf, his wife Daisy Khan, and their circle:

The entire ‘911’ Mosque controversy has been made into world news by CNN and other select media. The US head of the military command in Afghanistan, General Petraeus got into the fray with a plea to the Florida pastor not to burn Korans, a move which naturally led several other wanna-be preacher bigots to say they too planned to burn Korans on the ninth anniversary of the World Trade Center event. The President, Barack Obama, got into the act by praising the building of the mosque as a symbol of Americans’ religious freedom and tolerance.

At the end of the day it all fuelled a “Clash of Civilization” tension across America, and had the convenient effect, whether the mosque is built on the site or not, of reinforcing the US Government version of the collapse of the World Trade towers on September 11, 2001, namely that the destruction was carried out by two commercial hijacked jets being deftly rerouted into the two towers. And that the Boeing jets had been allegedly hijacked by 19 Arab students, armed only with paper box cutters, who had just been trained at a Florida flight school to fly small Cessna-size private planes. By keeping alive the myth of the “Second Pearl Harbor,” as George W. Bush once called 9/11, perhaps some people such as Barack Obama or General Petraeus hope to keep attention on the need for US military occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, or even spreading the war beyond Afghanistan.

Tariq Ramadan opposition to Park 51 - for the wrong reasons

Tariq Ramadan, interviewed on Democracy Now expressed his sympathies for the bigot Islamophobes and recommended against the Park 51 project from going forward:

So, in my position, if this is a symbol—and we have to listen to this collective sensitivity of the Americans after what happened in September the 11th—is to say, look, on that, we can understand. We are not accepting anything which has to do with, you know, a free Muslim zone, but we should listen to what is said and what is felt.

Ramadan's position is confused, to say the least, and anyone listening and/or reading the transcript can see that obviously enough. Essentially what he says is that while Muslims should continue struggling for our rights, we must also try to understand Islamophabia, and not thread on this "collective sensitivity." It is like saying to the attacker: "I'm so sorry I hurt you with my presence, let me go ahead and move back to the back of the bus" an apology for being Muslim.

And it is also very similar to Feisal Abdul Rauf's statement:

Muslims need to understand and soothe Americans who fear them, the imam said; they should be conciliatory, not judgmental, toward the West and Israel.

All the time we are supposed to ignore the horrendous crimes committed against Muslims by the US/British regimes.

Ramadan at the close of the interview does mention that the Park 51 project is supported by the US State Department, but this is, of-course, not the reason for his opposition.

I think that I would just take—you know, something which is to consult the community. I think that it was a project on his own he was going to have and supported by the State Department, supported by other religious communities, and there is a lack of internal communication. I think that this is where the problem started.

To understand this position, we would like to remind our readers that Tariq Ramadan is not all that different from Feisal Abdul Rauf: Ramadan was an advisor to the criminal Blair regime and serves a similar function as that of Rauf. The difference is that Ramadan did (at one time) have a significant following in Europe, Rauf on the other hand focused almost all of his energies on acting on behalf of the US regimes.

IF the Park 51 project should go ahead at its present location, it needs to be inclusive of the Palestinian, anti-war, and other social justice groups. And Feisal Abdul Rauf, being a US regime's spokesperson, should be removed from any and all leadership positions. Opposition to Park 51 should not be based on lending a sympathetic ear to bigotry.

Park 51 CIA connections

An interesting article on the Park 51 project's advisory board member's CIA connections, nothing surprising but a good read:

...one of the earliest backers of the nonprofit group, the Cordoba Initiative, that is spearheading the Ground Zero mosque, is a 52-year-old Scarsdale, New York, native named R. Leslie Deak. In addition to serving on the group's board of advisors since its founding in 2004 by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Deak was its principal funder, donating $98,000 to the nonprofit between 2006 and 2008. This figure appears to represent organization's total operating budget—though, oddly, the group reported receipts of just a third of that total during the same time period.

Leslie Deak's resume also notes his role as "business consultant" for Patriot Defense Group, LLC, a private defense contractor with offices in Winter Park, Florida, and in Tucson. The only names listed on the firm's website are those of its three "strategic advisers." These include retired four-star General Bryan "Doug" Brown, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command until 2007, where he headed "all special operations forces, both active duty and reserve, leading the Global War On Terrorism," and James Pavitt, former deputy director for operations at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he "managed the CIA's globally deployed personnel and nearly half of its multi-billion dollar budget" and "served as head of America's Clandestine Service, the CIA's operational response to the attacks of September 11, 2001."

Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid on Park 51

Eid Mubarak to all conscientious brothers and sisters.

Imam Talib, in an interview with Illume Magazine correctly points out:

“The way that this whole issue (Park 51) is playing out is the result of what I call a failed strategy on the part of Arab and southern Asian Muslims to be accepted into American society or assimilated into American society and a successful strategy on the part of the status quo [and] ruling class on the other hand.” Abdur-Rashid believes that the failed strategy of Arab and southern Asian Muslims was in not promoting a dialogue with African-American Muslims once they arrived in America, especially after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and the Immigration Act of 1965.

“An important part of their assimilation strategy has been to put an immigrant face on Islam in America,” said Abdur-Rashid. “Many of the immigrants who have come here have been financially well off. This has enabled them to found influential national organizations as they pursue a strategy of empowerment. All immigrants want to be empowered; all immigrants want to be part of American society. They’ve worked to put an immigrant face on Islam in America.

“As these immigrants have come here, two things have happened. One is that their goal has been to assimilate into White America, since we all know there are two Americas. And the America that these southern Asian and Arab immigrants have strived to assimilate to is not the America you and I are sitting in right now,” said Abdur-Rashid. “In doing this, the fact is that they came to this country and, for the most part, ignored the presence of African-American Muslims. [They] made no attempt to link with us, work with us, dialogue with us.

“Up until the past couple of decades, when you said Islam and Muslims in America, people have always thought about African-Americans. All of the famous Muslims in America up until this decade have been African-Americans who have had a tremendous impact on American society. Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. The list goes on.

“It’s failed not because these same Muslims had ill intent towards African-Americans; it was because they didn’t know the territory,” Abdur-Rashid continued. “They underestimated the underbelly of American society and the role that racism toward people of color has always played in American society. After Sept. 11, their artificial white privilege was revoked and they just became another kind of nigger in America. And the status quo started treating them like that.”

Imam Talib has made an important point, that just one or two other African - American Muslim leaders have also raised in recent months, most notably Imam Musa who has called for a move away from cathedral Islam in the US and towards a Re-Africanization of Islam in the US.

However, I would add that this business of assimilating into the worst aspects of the US is not just an immigrant Muslim phenomena, post 9-11, and even pre-9-11 African-American Muslims also embarked on this project. I need not go into those details in this blog entry, but I'm sure Imam Talib is not unfamiliar with this trend.

The question is whereto from here? The alphabet soup Muslim groups, given their dismal track record, have obviously failed in providing a clear response to the hate filled Islamophobia we have witnessed recently, and contrary to the blabber from Feisal Abdul Rauf, a Muslim community center is *not* about to solve our concerns. But the controversy has succeeded in exposing the failure of this liberal/pro-regressive strategy of hooking up with the US State Department and becoming representatives of the Bush/Obama regimes.

What we need is a serious re-think not only on part of the immigrant Muslims, but also non-immigrant esp. African - American Muslims. This re-think is not all that complicated, and does not really require millions of $$$ spent on conferences (aka "halal" dating venues) - what is needed is a refocus of Muslims, in the US, on Islam, on social justice, on oppressed communities, focusing our energies on the horrendous situation in poor neighborhoods throughout the US - African-American, Latinos, Asians, and even poor Whites., a situation made dramatically worse because of the economic depression. And Muslims must put our fears aside, and also focus our energies on stopping the US empire's continued war crimes against our sisters and brother Muslims all over the world.

If Muslims had our act together, and were not into becoming the next great thing on Wall Street, or the US State Department, or spending energy on thanking people who don't care a hoot about Muslims perhaps we would have been on the forefront of organizing communities to withstand the robber baron thefts. Unfortunately, we are far behind, and there are not even a bare handful of Muslim groups that are involved in such serious, and Islamically required work. Instead, we have to contend with the likes of State Department designed "dream Muslims" who are nothing more than a distraction.

Inshallah, the events of these past few months, and the sincere prayers of our sisters and brothers will bring about a much needed change.

Moderate Muslim smokescreen- Dream Muslim

In fact, Abdul Rauf, who has been employed by the FBI to give sensitivity trainings and by US State Department to tour the Middle East and facelift the crumbling US image abroad, is described by supporters as a “dream Muslim.” Fareed Zakaria, the hawkish pundit affiliated with The Council on Foreign Relations, went so far as to return the medal given to him by the Anti-Defamation League after the ADL voiced its disapproval of the Center and its founder.

“Dream Muslim” is an interesting designation, especially as Abdul Rauf was unknown to the majority of the Muslim Americans before Park 51. His career has been more devoted towards ambassadorship of Islam, particularly to government circles, than outreach to Muslim Americans themselves.

If the soul of “moderate” Islam is the issue at hand, there is something amiss in designating as representative, an individual possessing little equity with the 10 million-strong demographic of Muslim Americans. According to Zakaria, Feisal Abdul Rauf, “has spent years trying to offer a liberal interpretation of Islam” and “argues that America is actually what an ideal Islamic society would look like because is it peaceful, tolerant and pluralistic.” Equating Islam with an America whose roots lie paradoxically in imperialist Protestant evangelicalism and Enlightenment god-abandonment, is hardly reassuring.

Meanwhile, the alphabet soup of Muslim and Arab organizations, in the US, continue their appeasement. They have obviously not learnt even an iota of a lesson from this manufactured "controversy." Ikhras reports:

Park51 continues to serve its house function; leading Muslims away from the urgent priorities of opposing the occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine and shifting Muslims’ attention to pleading for recognition from the empire and expressing gratitude for its acknowledgement of their legal rights. A number of recent examples on how the Arab-American and Muslim-American “leadership” encourages the Arab and Muslim communities to ignore Zionist politicians’ war crimes and thank them for consenting the establishment of an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan.

and now hybrid Muslims

Here is Governor David Paterson latest comment around the Park 51 debacle:

“This group who has put this mosque together, they are known as the Suffi Muslims. This is not like the Shiites,” Paterson said. “They’re almost like a hybrid, almost westernized. They are not really what I would classify in the sort of mainland Muslim practice.”

It might be easy to just dismiss Paterson's comment as just another piece of ignorant nonsense coming from an uneducated US politician. BUT such a characterization would not take into account the context within which these remarks were made, and the fact this dividing up Muslims as "good" and "bad" Muslims is something that Feisal Abdul Rauf himself has encouraged.

Feisal Abdul Rauf's self image marketing has included an almost Obamasque distancing of himself from many Muslims who in fact are struggling for peace and justice. But just as Obama has not entirely succeeded in his denial of being a Muslim, so too Feisal Abdul Rauf has not been able to entirely shed the "radical Imam" image, no matter how hard he tries to play to the tune of the US State Department.

If one looks at the list of "friends" on the Cordoba Initiative - they do not list a single Muslim or Islamic group, all of them are either Jewish (the liberal Zionist type) Christians, Buddhists, and some secular groups. This attempt to run away from the Islamic character of the center only ends up feeding the Islamophobia, because it reveals Feisal Abdul Rauf and his project's growing discomfort with being Muslim, which is exactly the purpose of the Islamophobic campaign against the mosque. This is just one reason why Abdul Rauf is the wrong person to head up such a project.

There is another group called Stop Islamophobia - that includes a variety of peace and justice groups, along with Arab and Muslim groups. it is strange (but not surprising) to say the least, that the Cordoba Initiative fails to list a single one of these supporters on their web site!

If the Park 51 Mosque / community ctr. (whatever) is to go ahead, then it must expand - and include within it more representative Muslim groups, Palestinian groups, anti-Zionist Jewish groups, and anti-war groups. Such an expansion would bring a clear reflection of the needs of Muslims in the United States, along with providing a much needed venue where peace, social justice, and anti-war groups can organize against the US wars on Muslims. (Swimming pools etc. are all fine and well, assuming that climate change does not bring a massive shortage of water in New York City.)

Of-course, the Islamophobes will go nuts for a while, but in the long run, such an effort will only benefit Muslims, because it will show the US establishment forces, that we Muslims are not about to play into the "good Muslim" game. However, i have serious doubts that Feisal Abdul Rauf, and Daisy Khan are up to such a task. This project needs to be removed from the hands of individuals, and given to the larger Muslim communities - including us all in all of our diversities - where those struggling for Palestine will not be excluded because the project leader is a self-proclaimed supporter of the "state of Israel."