by Alyssa A. Lappen
ACT for America | Aug. 17, 2010
Feisal Abdul Rauf, born in Kuwait in 1948, boasts of his issue from an “Egyptian family steeped in religious scholarship.” 1 He presents himself as a Muslim moderate. 2 Yet Feisal Rauf’s Muslim Brotherhood provenance, radical by definition, is as authentic as it gets.
Evidence of family, and direct Rauf Muslim Brotherhood connections
Rauf’s father Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf (1917-2004), was an Egyptian contemporary of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) founder Hassan al-Banna.
Rauf’s father studied and taught at Islam‘s closest equivalent to the Vatican — Al-Azhar University — beside Hassan al-Banna, perpetuating the pious family tradition of radicalism.
In 1948, Rauf’s father fled Egypt, during its first MB crackdown; Feisal was born in Kuwait. 3
In 1965, Feisal’s father left Malaysia for New York City to stealthily buy two thirds of an E. 96th Street block for an Islamic “personal trust,” revealing its $1.3 million Islamic money from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Libya only after construction of the MB mosque began in 1984. 4
Likewise, 46 Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) nations funded the $17 million Islamic Cultural Center, only after its 1992 opening did Rauf’s father reveal that funding source or admit his long-term plans for discriminatory Muslim-only housing for the Islamic complex. 5
Rauf’s father named Feisal as a permanent trustee of the MB mosque.
Under Feisal’s permanent trusteeship, ICC employed Al-Azhar imam Muhammad Gemeaha. A week after fleeing the U.S. on Sept. 28, 2001 he stated, “only the Jews” could have perpetrated 9/11; Allah says Jews “disseminate corruption in the land,” spread “heresy, homosexuality, alcoholism, and drugs.” Americans would exterminate Jews like “Hitler did” if they knew.
ICC then hired Al-Azhar envoy Omar Saleem Abu-Namous. He too saw no “conclusive evidence” that Muslims committed the atrocities, but rather saw Muslims as innocent victims. 6
At Perdana Global Peace Organization, an MB, Hamas and al-Qaeda affiliate, Rauf is second in command to antisemitic former Malaysian P.M. and Islamic law advocate Mahathir Mohamad, 7 who in Nov. 2002, incited global anti-West financial war as a “jihad worth fighting for.” 8
On May 7, 2010, Rauf himself stated, “Some people say … Muslims … attacked on 9/11…” 9
In 2001 on 60 Minutes, Rauf called U.S. policies “an accessory to the crime that happened,” and said, “In … the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.” 10
Rauf wants to impose sharia in the U.S. His 2004 book, What’s Right with Islam, is translated into Malay as the Call from the WTC Rubble. 11
In Dec. 2007 Rauf promoted the book at a [Bandung, Indonesia] Hizb ut Tahrir (HT) meeting. 12 Banned in Germany since 2003 and outlawed in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, among other places — the organization is ideologically akin to the MB.
In the fiscal year ended Jun. 30, 2009, Feisal’s ASMA accepted at least $1.3 million, including $576,312 from Qatar,13 whose government stands accused of funding international terrorism, has long harbored terror financiers, and for decades hosted Muslim Brotherhood spiritual chief Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Rauf is quite friendly with Qaradawi, a large, founding shareholder in terror-funding al-Taqwa Bank who champions sharia law, wife beating and suicide bombing. 14
Rauf concluded in the Washington Post, shortly after President Obama’s June 2009 Cairo speech, that he’d challenged Muslims to “Live up to the tenets of our religion, embrace Shariah law as conceived by the Prophet, and see what happens.” 15
Rauf seeks more U.S. legal “leeway” for sharia — to put Muslims above the law — by
[Inviting] voices of all religions to join the dialogue in shaping the nation’s practical life, [and allowing] religious communities … to judge …according to their own laws. 16
On Dec. 9, 2007, Rauf said in Arabic to Sa’da Abdul Maksoud of the Hadi-el-Islam website, that current, unjust governments, “do not follow Islamic laws.” He advocates establishing sharia
“in more [ways than one] … through a kingdom or a democracy, [so long as the] fundamentals of Shariah [exist, with standards of Muslim scholars] required to govern. …to organize … relationships between government … and the governed.” 17
In March 2010, also in Arabic, Rauf stridently denounced interfaith discussions. “I don’t believe in interfaith dialogue,” he said in an article that highlighted his statement in its headline. 18
Rauf’s Manhattan ASMA offices at 475 Riverside Drive occupy the suite next door to Council of American-Islamic-Relations (CAIR) of NY; its national parent is the U.S. arm of the MB terrorist group, Hamas, and an unindicted coconspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror financing case in which the organization and five officers were convicted.19
At the Jul. 13, 2010 New York Landmarks hearing on the fate a 152-year-old wrought-iron era building where a piece of jet fuselage fell through its roof on 9/11 — CAIR-NY executive director Zaed Ramadan supported destroying the structure opposite Ground Zero to build Rauf’s 15 story mosque, a monument to Muslim victory to tower above the memorial site. 20
Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan in 2009 both refused to sign a Freedom Pledge to protect former Muslims from the death sentence sought by most sharia interpretations for Muslim apostates. On Oct. 20, 2009, Former Muslims United asked ASMA’s executives to pledge to
“renounce, repudiate and oppose any physical intimidation, or worldly and corporal punishment, of apostates …, [however] that punishment may be determined or carried out by myself or any other Muslim including the [apostate’s] family, community, Mosque leaders, Shariah court or judge, and Muslim government or regime.” 21
Rauf’s 2000 and 2004 books both laud sharia and envision implementing it in the U.S. — and “rejuvenating” the Islamic spirit of 14th century jurist Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah and his 18th century heir Muhammad bin Abdul al-Wahhab. Rauf also lauds purported “modernists” Jamal al-Dinal-Afghani (d. 1897) and Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) who revered Wahhabis, Ibn Taymiyyah and like Rauf pretended sharia … with perennial jihad and countless strictures on non-Muslims and women … compliments Western ideas like those in the U.S. Bill of Rights. 22
Rauf also authorized two mainstay MB organizations, the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to produce “a special non-commercial edition” of his 2004 book promote “proper [Western] understanding of Islam…” 23
Rauf’s ASMA in 2004 established the purportedly liberal Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow. 24 Its liberal faces are largely overwhelmed by sharia devotees like al Qaeda supporter Yasir Qadhi, 25 CAIR-NY community affairs director Faiza N. Ali — who co-authored CAIR’s fallacious “denunciation” of a superb 2008 NYPD report on homegrown jihadists — and CAIR-NY community organizer Debbie Almontaser, who once ran the city’s Khalil Gibran Academy. 26
Since at least 2006, Rauf’s U.S.-based Cordoba Initiative has partnered with Gallup Organization and “Sunni and Shi’a scholars from Morocco to Indonesia” to create “an Islamic legal benchmark for measuring ‘Islamicity’ of a state” — sharia index—for official, state, public and press use in the “Muslim and Western worlds.” He initiated the project, funded by Malaysia and many other nations in the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). 27
A key sharia index board member, Jasser Auda, doubles on the academic council at the U.K. the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) office and in summer 2010 taught with Muslim Brotherhood heavies—e.g. former ISNA leadership development head Louay Safi, IIIT v.p. and NAIT founding general manager Jamal Barzinji and Minaret of Freedom head Imad Ad Deen Ahmad, present at the Beirut terrorist convention in January 2001. No mistaking their intent.
Attended school in U.K. And Malaysia
Rauf attended grammar and high school in the U.K. and Malaysia, according to his biography. He probably arrived in America in 1965, at 17, when his father moved to New York City from Malaysia to plan and head the Islamic Cultural Center on 96th Street (built in the mid-1980s). 28 Rauf obtained a bachelor’s of science in physics at New York’s Columbia University. 29 In 1971, the family moved to Washington D.C., where Rauf’s father headed the Islamic Center completed in 1957 on Massachusetts Ave. 30 (His father, buried in Suitland, Md.’s for-profit Washington National Cemetery, also founded four Malaysian Islamic studies programs — an Islamic college in Klang, the Islamic Studies department at Malay University, an Islamic Studies School at University of Malaya — and finally International Islamic University of Malaysia.) 31 Rauf’s key sharia index pals also frequent Malaysia.
Instructed by a master dissembler, Feisal Rauf had long planned to further develop his father’s U.S. Islamic expansionism. In 1990, Rauf opened the tiny al-Farah Mosque at 245 West Broadway downtown. Area residents didn’t notice it until 2006, when the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) suddenly refused to license a new bar on the block and began yanking others’ liquor licenses too. 32
In Rauf’s 2004 book he stated, “American Constitution and system of governance uphold the core principles of Islamic law.” The U.S. Constitution is sharia-compliant, and U.S. “political structure is sharia-compliant,” since Muslim jurists over the centuries have “defined five areas of life” to be protected by Islamic law — life, mind, religion, property, and family, which the Constitution and U.S. laws protect. Rauf’s seeks to seduce Americans into accepting sharia on Islamic terms.
This too explains Rauf’s ties to Malaysia — a sharia state with a heavy MB presence that his father shaped. It has an official Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM) to promote “advancement of Islamic affairs,” formulate “policies for the ADVANCEMENT of Islamic affairs in the country and to safeguard the sanctity of the aqidah and the teachings of Islam.” (Emphasis in original.) 33
Described in one Asian report as an Egyptian citizen living in the U.S., as journalist Alyssa A. Lappen observed in May 2010, Rauf’s assertions like those of his father before him
“merely fulfill the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine of flexibility — adapting to each and every environment in which the brothers eventually hope to force Islamic law upon the masses. Rauf’s claims starkly represent taqiyya, the Islamic practice of deception, to further theocratic and essentially fascist Islamic advances. And the additional “leeway” Rauf seeks for intra-community religious-law enforcement is a thinly veiled attempt to impose sharia more widely in the U.S., in direct contravention of the U.S. Constitution. 34
Rauf’s early U.K. education and familiarization with American values and popular culture made him an acutely adept practitioner of taqiyya. 35 Indeed, sharia inhibits all kinds of freedoms, especially for women and non-Muslims. Islamic law protects only the lives, minds, religion, property and families of Muslims — not those of all peoples of all faiths, as Rauf pretends. 36
Furthering Islamic gains
To further North American Islamic gains, Rauf in 1997 established the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). His Kashmir-born interior-designer wife, Daisy Khan, has run it since 2005. 37
Khan’s uncle Faroque A. Khan is a trustee at the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and ISNA’s Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) subsidiary. 38 In July 2006, Faroque Khan gave the IMANA keynote in Beijing. He touted both Rauf’s books, which seek a clean, pure Wahabbi brand of sharia. Until at least 2006, Faroque Khan also chaired Westbury’s Islamic Center of Long Island, an affiliate of the MB Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). 39
Rauf then cultivated new influence spheres. In about 2002, Rauf began lecturing on Islam at the 750-acre southwestern New York Chautauqua Institution (CI), a 136-year-old non-profit. CI Religion director Joan Brown Campbell took Rauf under her wing. Under a convenient “Abrahamic” faiths rubric to cover Rauf’s radical Islamic agenda, Campbell named him prospective head for a CI Muslim house, planned by Rauf’s new tax-free 501(3)c organization, Muslim friends of Chautauqua. He also befriended former British nun Karen Armstrong, a devotee of Islam, 40 who in 2002 promoted the Muslim Brotherhood, as if the father of all Islamic terror groups was a progressive charity. She said,
“[it] set up a wonderful welfare program before it was suppressed. … factories where Muslims could work, had time for prayers, had vacation time, insurance, [learned] labor laws, [provided] clinics, they taught people how to treat sewage, drainage, and it was always the religions response to try to help modernity to give to the ordinary people the benefits of modernity in an Islamic setting that made sense to them and made things more balanced.” 41
In 2003, Rauf allied with Denver’s Aspen Institute (AI) leaders, including its former executive director and four-term Aspen mayor John S. Bennett. In 2004, when Rauf established ASMA’s radical Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, he and Bennett also co-founded Cordoba Initiative in Aspen, purportedly to “improve” Muslim-West relations. 42 Rauf gets funding from many liberal organizations, including Gloria Steinem’s Ms. Foundation. The Carnegie Corp. under Iranian Muslim immigrant Vartan Gregorian, in 2008 gave $300,000 to ASMA and $800,000 to AI for “Islamic understanding.” 43
Defying purported intentions
Even in English, however Rauf has often contradicted his conciliatory pretense. “The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians,” Rauf told the Sydney Morning Herald in March 2004. He added that terrorism will end only when the West acknowledges the harm it has done to Muslims.
“[I]t was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets.” 44
But the West’s strictly defensive World War II role invoked no religion. And Rauf ignores continuous 7th through 16th century Islamic attacks on non-Muslim peoples throughout the Mid East, Africa, Europe, central Asia and India. And Daisy Khan glossed Rauf’s insults in a Dec. 2009 Fox interview. 45
While he frequently insults the West and the U.S., however, true to Muslim Brotherhood form, Rauf also happily expands his Islamic outreach at U.S. government and taxpayers’ expense. Since ASMA registered itself with the IRS as a “church,” it thus acquired doubly beneficial tax-exempt status, in that churches need not file annual 990 tax forms ordinarily required for non-profit groups.
Worse, both Rauf and his wife since at least January 2009 have worked for the U.S. State Department, which has also funded at least one radical ASMA Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow meeting. 46 In August 2010, news broke that the State Department had hired them both as envoys to the Islamic world. Rauf was then already in Malaysia, and planned to remain abroad until completing a State Department-funded Middle East tour — with stops in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar. 47 Despite White House and State Department denials, moreover, London’s Arsharq Alawsat reported in Arabic that Rauf might use the U.S.-funded travel to raise money for his Ground Zero mosque. 48
Indeed, Saudi Arabia founded the OIC in 1969 to promote the “struggle for Islam,” and served as its chief sponsor since. The OIC charter includes all Muslim Brotherhood principles, foremost to spread sharia worldwide. Headquarters remain in Jedda, pending “liberation of Jerusalem.” In 1973, the OIC established the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) “according to the Islamic sharia principles” — and thus launched the petrodollar-based Islamic financing market to stealthily spread Islam and sharia worldwide. 49 “[A]n Islamic organization must serve God…and ultimately sustain…the growth and advancement of the Islamic way of life,” writes Nasser M. Suleiman in “Corporate Governance in Islamic Banking.” 50 Obviously, with sharia principles in mind, 46 OIC member states secretly funded the 1984 construction Rauf’s father orchestrated of New York’s Islamic Center.
Like his father, Rauf may also get major Saudi funding: In February 2001, the IDB established the U.S. dollar denominated Awqaf Properties Investment Fund (APIF) to “develop and invest in accordance with … Islamic sharia [principles], in Awqaf real estate properties … in [IDB] member countries … and Islamic communities in non-member countries.” (emphasis added) Financing applications go — where else? — to Saudi Arabia, which has worked tirelessly for decades to advance Islamic communities in non-Muslim nations — predominantly the U.S. 51
The MB seeks to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law (sharia), and impose Islam and sharia law worldwide. Most North American MB organizations, including Rauf’s, avoid widely publicizing their aim. But the HT at a July 2009 suburban Chicago Khalifah conference openly promised to replace capitalism with Islam and sharia. 52 Rauf’s December 2007 appearance with HT in Kuala Lumpur is not surprising, given his early, and often-stated desire for a wholesale shift to sharia law, by any means.
Cordoba’s real meaning
For those knowledgeable in Islamic history, the name of Rauf’s Cordoba Institute telegraphs his deceptiveness. Cordoba (also the name for Chautauqua’s proposed new Muslim house) ruled the Islamic Caliphate for most of Spain from Tariq ibn Zayid’s 711 invasion through 1248. Cordoba controlled some Spanish regions until their full liberation in 1492. Neither the Umayyads (who ruled monolithically until about 1031), nor the vicious Almoravids (who swept over the Atlas mountains into Spain in 1080), ruled non-Muslims so kindly. Islamic harshness varied, but remained ever-present. Rauf blatantly whitewashes the brutal Islamic history in Spain. While others also purvey this historical falsehood, Muslim rule in Spain never remotely approached the mythic beneficence Rauf pretends. 53
Muslims have traditionally destroyed the worship houses of virtually every other faith. Islam plundered tens of thousands (if not 100,000s) of Christian churches and monasteries, synagogues and holy Jewish holy archaeological sites, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Sikh and other temples and retreats. To advance jihad, Islam then claimed them all as “mosques,” forever Muslim. That’s what Rauf really wants at Ground Zero, to proclaim Islamic victory.
NOTES:
1 Feisal Abdul Rauf biography, http://asmasociety.org/about/b_rauf.html (viewed 4/28/2010).
2 Feisal Abdul Rauf biography, http://asmasociety.org/about/b_rauf.html (viewed 4/28/2010).
3 Profile of Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf.
4 George Goodman, “Ground broken for Islamic Center,” New York Times, Oct. 28, 1984,
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/28/realestate/ground-broken-for-islamic-center.html?&pagewanted=print (viewed 5/10/2010); Islamic Cultural Center of New York, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Cultural_Center_of_New_York
(viewed 5/9/2010); Hashim, “Islamic scholar Tan Sri Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf Dies,” ibid.
5 Goodman, ibid.; David Dunlap, “A new mosque for Manhattan for the 21st century,” New York Times, Apr. 26, 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/26/arts/architecture-a-new-mosque-for-manhattan-for-the-21stcentury.
html?pagewanted=print (viewed 5/10/2010).
6 Daniel J. Wakin, “New head of mosque wants proof,” New York Times, Nov. 2, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/02/nyregion/a-nation-challenged-the-imam-new-head-of-mosque-wants-proof.html (viewed 5/19/2010).
7 “Agenda,” Perdana Global Peace Organization, Nov. 25, 2009, http://www.perdana4peace.org/agenda.aspx?x=3
(viewed 7/10/2010); Jim Hoft, “Arrested Gaza flotilla ‘peace activists’ are al-Qaeda & Muslim Brotherhood members; have
record of radicalism,” Big Government, June 2, 2010, http://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/06/02/arrested-gaza-flotillapeace-
activists-are-al-qaeda-have-record-of-radicalism/ (viewed 6/10/2010).
8 Gamal Essam al-Din, “Financial jihad,” Al-Ahram Weekly, Nov. 21-27, 2002, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/613/ec2.htm (viewed 7/19/2010, as cited by Alyssa A. Lappen, “Financial Jihad,” Human Events, 9/22/2005, http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=9235, (first viewed 9/22/2005).
9 Lappen, “The Ground Zero Mosque Developer: Muslim Brotherhood Roots, Radical Dreams,” Pajamas Media, May 14, 2010, http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-ground-zero-mosque-developer-muslim-brotherhood-roots-radicaldreams/?
singlepage=true (viewed 5/14/2010).
10 Lappen, “The Ground Zero Mosque Developer: Muslim Brotherhood Roots, Radical Dreams,” Pajamas Media, ibid.
11 Lappen, “Ground Zero mosque developer,” Pajamas Media, ibid.
12 http://hizbut-tahrir.or.id/2007/12/27/imam-masjid-al-farah-new-york-city-konstitusi-as-sesuai-syari%E2%80%99ah/
13 American Society for Muslim Advancement Financial statement, fiscal year ended Jun. 30, 2009, p. 8, http://www.asmasociety.org/about/asma_audit_2009.pdf (viewed 5/10/2010), as cited by Gadi Adelman, “Exclusive: Spitting in the Face of Everyone Murdered on 9/11,” Family Security Matters, May 10, 2010, http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6177/pub_detail.asp (viewed 5/10/2010).
14 ASMA Financial statement for year ended Jun. 30, 2009, p. 8, http://www.asmasociety.org/about/asma_audit_2009.pdf , ibid, as cited by Gadi Adelman, “Exclusive: Spitting in the Face of Everyone Murdered on 9/11,” Family Security Matters, ibid, http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6177/pub_detail.asp.
15 Feisal Abdul Rauf, “Obama’s challenge to the Muslim world,” Washington Post, Jun. 5, 2009, http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/2009/06/obamas_challenge_to_the_muslim_world
.html (viewed 4/26/2010).
16 Lappen, “Ground Zero Mosque Developer,” Pajamas Media, ibid.; Spencer Ackerman, “Religious protection,” The New Republic, Dec. 12, 2005, http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/religious-protection (both viewed 5/14/2010); Feisal Abdul Rauf, What’s Right with Islam: a New Vision for Muslims and the West, (New York: HarperOne, 2004) p. 86.
17 Walid Shoebat, “Ground Zero Imam: ‘I Don’t Believe in Religious Dialogue’,” Pajamas Media, May 27, 2010, http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/ground-zero-imam-i-dont-believe-in-religious-dialogue/?singlepage=true (viewed 5/27/2010); see also “Separation of Church and State,” Hadielislam.com, Dec. 9, 2007, as translated by Google, http://www.hadielislam.com/arabic/index.php?pg=articles/article&id=12025 (viewed 6/10/2010).
18 Shoebat, ibid; see also “The Separation of Church and State,” Hadielislam.com, Dec. 9, 2007, ibid.
19 Lappen, “Ground Zero mosque imam’s radical connections,” Family Security Matters, Jul 16, 2010, http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6766/pub_detail.asp (viewed 7/16/2010).
20 Robert Spencer, “Hamas-linked CAIR leader charges Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mega mosque opponents with ‘Islamophobia’,” Jihad Watch, Jul. 14, 2010, http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/07/hamas-linked-cair-board-member-chargesislamic-
supremacist-ground-zero-mega-mosque-opponents-with-is.html (viewed 7/14/2010).
21 Lappen, “Peace, tolerance and freedom? No way,” Family Security Matters, Jul. 16, 2010, http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6726/pub_detail.asp (viewed 7/16/2010).
22 Andrew G. Bostom, “Behind the Mosque,” New York Post, Jul 29, 2010, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/behind_the_mosque_yXUJDCpszRLF9dG1heLU1H?CMP=OTCrss&
FEEDNAME= (viewed 7/29/2010).
23 Andrew McCarthy, “Rauf’s Dawa from the World Trade Center rubble,” National Review Online, Jul. 24, 2010, http://article.nationalreview.com/438616/raufs-dawa-from-the-world-trade-center-rubble/andrew-c-mccarthy (viewed 7/24/2010).
24 “CountertERRORism Policy: MACLC’s critique of the NYPD’s report on Homegrown radicalism,” Nov. 20, 2008, http://maclcnypdcritique.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/maclc-report/ (viewed 7/10/2010); “Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, Copenhagen-Denmark ’06, conference report,” ibid.; “Meet the MLT,” http://www.muslimleadersoftomorrow.org/about/search_mlts/83fd6847bcddfcb922a27f6542e126830/
http://www.muslimleadersoftomorrow.org/about/search_mlts/83fd6847bcddfcb922a27f6542e1268350/
http://www.muslimleadersoftomorrow.org/about/search_mlts/83fd6847bcddfcb922a27f6542e12683100/
http://www.muslimleadersoftomorrow.org/about/search_mlts/83fd6847bcddfcb922a27f6542e12683150/
http://www.muslimleadersoftomorrow.org/about/search_mlts/83fd6847bcddfcb922a27f6542e12683200/
http://www.muslimleadersoftomorrow.org/about/search_mlts/83fd6847bcddfcb922a27f6542e12683250/
http://www.muslimleadersoftomorrow.org/about/search_mlts/83fd6847bcddfcb922a27f6542e12683300/ (all, 5/12/2010).
25 “Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, Copenhagen-Denmark ’06, conference report,” ASMA, Jul. 2006, http://www.asmasociety.org/mlt2006/FullReport.pdf; Mona Eltahawy, “Backstory: what it means to be Muslim,” Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 16, 2006, http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0816/p20s01-lire.html; “Yasir Qhadi explains Ilmfest,” Mujahideenryder.net, Sept. 8, 2009, http://www.mujahideenryder.net/2009/09/08/sh-yasir-qadhi-explains-ilmfest/ (all viewed 5/10/2010).
26 Lappen, “Ground Zero mosque imam’s radical connections,” ibid.; Chuck Bennett & Jana Winter, “City principal is ‘revolting’,” New York Post, Aug. 6, 2007,
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/item_UerzwvF7fcSQY8YOP1ln4K;jsessionid=C3994B0112D76311258585CA2D
EE1713; Stephen Schwartz, “CAIR vs. the NYPD,” Weekly Standard, Apr. 11, 2008, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/968cekhc.asp?pg=1 (viewed 6/10/2010).
27 Rasha Elass, “Shariah index will rate countries’ Islamic law,” National, Jul. 21, 2009, http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090721/NATIONAL/707209836&SearchID=73390571805898 (viewed 5/11/2010).
28 Rauf bio, http://asmasociety.org/about/b_rauf.html, ibid.; Islamic Cultural Center of New York,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Cultural_Center_of_New_York (viewed 5/9/2010).
29 Rauf bio, http://asmasociety.org/about/b_rauf.html, ibid.; Profile of Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf, ibid.
30 Islamic Center of Washington, Wikipedia, ibid.
31 Salmy Hashim, “Islamic scholar Tan Sri Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf Dies,” Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency, Dec. 12, 2004, http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/bernama-malaysian-national-newsagency/
mi_8082/is_20041212/islamic-scholar-tan-sri-dr/ai_n51486662/ (viewed 5/4/2010); Jaclyn Ling-Chien Neo, “Anti-God, anti-Islam and anti-Quran’: Expanding the range of participants and parameters in discourse over women’s rights and Islam in Malaysia,” Pacific Basin Law Journal, Vol. 21:29, 2003, p. 69, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID753226_code491760.pdf?abstractid=753226&mirid=1 (viewed 5/7/2010).
32 Glassman, “West Broadway bars facing license ban.” Tribeca Trib, Mar. 31, 2006, ibid.
33 Department of Islamic Development Malaysia, Portal, http://www.islam.gov.my/english/jakim.html (viewed 5/27/2010).
34 “Taqiyah,” Dictionary of Islam, http://www.answering-islam.org/Books/Hughes/t.htm, as cited by Lappen, ibid.
35 Ikhwan website, http://www.ummah.net/ikhwan/ (viewed 6/4/2008); The Muslim Brotherhood charter calls on members to sidestep attention through their long-established “flexibility” strategy — muruna in Arabic. To spread Islam, a basic requirement of shari’a or Islamic law, MB adherents also routinely practice concealment, known alternatively as either taqiyya or kitman. See also Warner MacKenzie, “Understanding Taqiyya: Islamic principle of lying for the sake of Allah,” Apr. 30, 2007, http://www.islam-watch.org/Warner/Taqiyya-Islamic-Principle-Lying-for-Allah.htm (viewed 5/16/2010).
36 al-Mawardi, The Laws of Islamic Governance; Reliance of the Traveller
37 “Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf,” chairman, Cordoba Institute, http://www.cordobainitiative.org/?q=content/staff-bios (viewed 5/11/2010).; Daisy Khan biography, http://www.asmasociety.org/about/b_dkhan.html (viewed 5/12/2010).
38 Stephen Suleiman Schwartz, “A mosque grows near Brooklyn,” Weekly Standard, 7.26.2010, http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/articles/mosque-grows-near-brooklyn (viewed 7/16/2010);
39 Faroque Ahmed Khan, “Approaching modern technology challenges through the traditions of Ibn Sina,” Annual Convection of the Islamic Medical Association of North America, Beijing, China, Jul. 25-28, 2006, http://www.fimaweb.net/main/medicalethics/ibnsina.doc (viewed 7/19/2010).
40 Chautauqua Institute website pages, (viewed 5/14/2010).
41 Quotation in Chautauqua institution panel, summer 2002.
42 American Society for Muslim Advancement Financial statement for period ended Jun. 30, 2009, p. 9, http://www.asmasociety.org/about/asma_audit_2009.pdf (viewed 5/10/2010).
43 “Carnegie Corp. contributes to deeper understanding of Islam, Muslim societies; $10 Million initial investment part of comprehensive strategy to enrich public dialogue,” Ascribe Newswire, Apr. 7, 2008, http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgibin/
behold.pl?ascribeid=20080407.082243&time=09%2025%20PDT&year=2008&public=0 (viewed 7/12/2010).
44 Frank Walker, “We must act to end jihad: imam,” Sydney Sun-Herald, Mar. 21, 2004, http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/21/1079789939987.html (viewed 4/5/2004).
45 Bat Ye’or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity, ibid; Andrew G. Bostom, Legacy of Jihad, ibid.
46 “Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Founder, Cordoba Initiative; Daisy Kahn, Executive Director, American Society for Muslim Advancement; Sayyed Mirza, Project Manager, Reframing Perceptions of Islam and Muslims, East West Center;
and Omar Amanat, Entrepreneur,” U.S. State Dept. press release, Jan, 20, 2009, http://2002-2009-fpc.state.gov/67976.htm47 Claudia Rosett, “Further travels of Imam Feisal,” Forbes, Aug. 6, 2010, http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/06/imamfeisal-
ground-zero -mosque-opinions-columnists-claudia-rosett.html (viewed 8/6/2010).
48 Jeff Earl and Brendan Scott, “Feds funding Ground Zero imam’s Mideast trip,” New York Post, Aug. 10, 2010, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/feds_funding_zero_imam_mideast_trip_OTq9dmoHpxbaKvJbB4VLGM (viewed 8/10/2010); Howard LaFranchi, “Is Ground Zero mosque imam best choice for diplomatic mission to Mideast,” Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 11, 2010, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0811/Is-ground-zeromosque-
imam-best-choice-for-diplomatic-mission-to-Mideast (viewed 8/11/2010).
49 “Principles of Operation, Islamic Development Bank,” http://www.isdb.org/irj/go/km/docs/documents/IDBDevelopments/Internet/English/IDB/CM/Projects/OperationsPrinciples.
html (viewed 5/27/2010). Was stated with slight difference, at “Islamic Development Bank,” Organization of the Islamic Conference, http://www.oicun.org/articles/22/1/Islamic-Development-Bank/1.htm (accessed 8 Oct. 2007), as cited in Lappen and Rachel Ehrenfeld, Chapter 28, “Shari’a financing and the coming Ummah,” Jeffrey H. Norwitz, ed., Armed Groups: Studies in National Security, Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency (Newport: Naval War College, 2008), pp. 389-404; see also https://www.alyssaalappen.org/wp-content/uploads/sharia-financing-and-the-coming-ummahby-
ehrenfeld-and-lappen.pdf and http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=31374 and
http://www.rightsidenews.com/homeland-security-archives/jihad-economics-and-islamic-banking.html (last viewed 5/20/2010).
50 Nasser M. Suleiman, “Corporate governance in Islamic banks,” http://www.al-bab.com/arab/econ/nsbanks.htm (last viewed 6/20/2009).
51 “Awqaf Properties Investment Fund (APIF),” IDB, http://www.isdb.org/irj/go/km/docs/documents/IDBDevelopments/Internet/English/IDB/CM/About%20IDB/Specialized%2
0Funds/AWQAF%20Properties%20Investment%20Fund/APIF.html; “Application procedure for projects financing under APIF,†IDB, http://www.isdb.org/irj/go/km/docs/documents/IDBDevelopments/Internet/English/IDB/CM/About%20IDB/Specialized%2
0Funds/AWQAF%20Properties%20Investment%20Fund/Projects%20Financing/How%20to (both viewed 5/27/2010).
52 “Hizb Ut-Tahrir: Shariah Takes Precedence over U.S. Constitution,” IPT News, July 20, 2009, http://www.investigativeproject.org/1100/hizb-ut-tahrir-shariah-takes-precedence-over-us, (viewed May 13, 2010).
53 Richard Fletcher, Moorish Spain, University of California, 2006, 2nd ed., 206 pp.
According to three important contemporary reports Fletcher summarizes, — one “crucial administrative document from the Islamic side,” some small “archaeological evidence” and the “Chronicle of 754,” an anonymous Christian narrative in Latin — after 711 Arab raids laid waste to “several provinces,” Tariq ibn Zayid’s army followed with fully equipped legions, who in 712 murdered Roderic of Spain.
North Africa’s governor then executed all Toledo’s prominent nobles (causing the Bishop to flee), devastated the countryside and perpetrated further destruction and mass murder in Zargoza and the Ebro valley. Upon returning to the Umayyad seat of power in Damascus, he transported innumerable enslaved Visigoth lords, and all their gold and jewels.
By 715, the next governor, Abd al-Aziz, conquered provinces throughout Iberia. Documents and archaeological excavations corroborate the arrival of Toledo’s Bishop in Rome and signs of 8th century devastation beside coins dated 711 to 713. In his April 713 treaty, Abd al-Aziz promised Theodemir lordship over, and free Christian practice throughout, seven southeastern towns. For this Abd al-Aziz extorted from Theodemir stiff annual head taxes of one silver dinar per person, all the region’s wheat, barley, unfermented grape juice, vinegar, honey and oil, and an inviolable promise not to help enemies of Spain’s Islamic conquerors.
From 718 through 720, As-Samh handed all Visigoth monarchy holdings to Arab Muslim governors, and gave all the less fertile land to the North African Berber Muslims. His generosity brought 150,000 to 200,000 Arab and Berber soldiers to Spain to usurp its wealth.
After the 750 Abbasids defeat of the Umayyads, in 762, the Islamic caliphate moved from Damascus to Baghdad. In 756 the Umayyad Abd al-Rahman escaped the Abbasid Caliph al-Saffah (“shedder of blood”) and established a rival Umayyad empire that ruled Spain until 1031. But the Umayyads continued to wreck havoc on Spain. Emir al Haken (796-822) kept a palace cavalry of 2,000 and a standing army of 60,000. In 805 alone, he crucified 72 people. In 818, he leveled Cordoba’s southern suburb. The military governors of the Umayyads’ three Spanish regions were constantly at war. In 884, for example, Burgos was destroyed “to its foundations.”
Even the reputedly enlightened Abd al-Rahman III (912-961) brutalized the population. At the Cordoba palace alone, he owned 3,750 slaves on his death in 961. On July 26 in 920, a Pyrenean monk at San Juan de la Pena recorded a slaughter in Valdejunquera, southwest of Pamplona. In 920, a three month campaign culminated on July 25 with a siege of the Muez castle. All “combatants” were “put to the sword,” including over 500 “counts and knights.” While returning to Cordoba, general al-Nasir totally destroyed many other villages too. The poet Ibn Abd Rabbihi later wrote the invaders left Osma “like a blackened piece of charcoal.”
In 976 Almanzor or Al-Mansur (“the victorious”) took power. In 977 he campaigned with his general against Leon.
Some 56 campaigns followed in Almanzor’s rule alone. In 985, he sacked Barcelona and the San Cugat del Valles monastery. In 987, he plundered Coimbra (now in Portugal). In 995, he imprisoned the count of Castile, and destroyed Carrion and Astorga. In 997 he attacked Santiago de Compostela. In 999 he destroyed Pamplona and in 1002 flattened Roija and San Millan de la Cogolla monastery. Almonzor raided Catalonia in 1003; Castile in 1004; Leon in 1005; and Aragon in 1006. Almanzor himself described all war on Christians as Jihad. Christian subjects said he was “seized by the Devil.”
In the 11th century, Morocco’s Almoravids crossed the Atlas mountains, conquered its plain and then conquered Spain — which they ruled from 1080 until Fernando liberated most of the peninsula in 1248. “[N]othing can stand in their way,” wrote the Muslim historian Ibn Kahldun of Almoravid religious and military fervor, “for their outlook is the same and the object they desire is common to all and is one for which they are prepared to die.” Thus in 1148 alone, the Almohads massacred 100,000 Jews in Fez, 120,000 Jews in Marrakesh and wrecked devastation and death throughout Spain, from Seville to Tortosa.
In 1148, Jewish physician and philosopher Maimonides fled Cordoba’s Almohad persecution with his family disguised as Muslims. He found asylum in Fatimid Egypt. Arabs and Muslims had “persecuted us severely, and passed baneful and discriminatory legislation against us,” he later wrote. “Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase, and hate us as much as they.” Maimonides’ 1172 Epistle to the [persecuted] Jews of Yemen that forced conversions they reported from Yemen, the Berbers had similarly forced upon Jews across the Maghreb and Spain. He described Mohammed as “the Madman,” despairing that the sole objective of his “invented … well known religion,” was “procuring rule and submission….”
All Articles, Poems & Commentaries Copyright © 1971-2021 Alyssa A. Lappen
All Rights Reserved.
Printing is allowed for personal use only | Commercial usage (For Profit) is a copyright violation and written permission must be granted first.
