LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Washington Times | October 20, 2006

One must read Susan Estrich and Harvey Silverglate’s letter in response to our Monday Op-Ed as being a product of their duty as attorneys to zealously advocate for their client, Emadeddin Z. Muntasser (“Financing jihad: did he or didn’t he?” Wednesday). They incorrectly accuse us of having “uncritically lifted” our arguments “out of the Department of Justice playbook” and accepting the U.S. government’s “deeply flawed misunderstanding of…fundamental Islamic principles,” but the narrow advocate’s view they themselves take ignores important aspects of those fundamental principles and betrays their own limited understanding.

Ms. Estrich and Mr. Silverglate contradict themselves. Their letter argues that jihad means “‘utmost effort’ or ‘struggle’ to promote and defend Islam.” Yet, in their motion to dismiss the federal indictment against Emadeddin Z. Muntasser and Muhamed Mubayyid, former directors of Boston’s Care International, they specifically reference certain warlike aspects of jihad. They (and their legal team) write, “the giving of zakat (alms) is required of all Muslims as one of the five pillars of Islam, and the Koran is commonly (but not universally) interpreted to include the mujahideen as one of the eight recipients of zakat.”

The Islamic religious obligation to conduct jihad is universally recognized. The authoritative 19th-century Dictionary of Islam, [available online, p. 243] defines jihad, as “The duty of religious war (…a duty extending to all time) [which] is laid down in the Qur’an.” Continue reading “Care International and misinformation” →

Letters to the Editor
WashingtonTimes.com | October 18, 2006

“Those who cannot remember the past,” as George Santayana taught us, “are condemned to repeat it.” Likewise, when governments seek to rewrite history, citizens and non-citizens alike are exposed to the dangers that accompany official revisionism. A recent opinion column in this newspaper demonstrates these lessons all too clearly. The United States Department of Justice has indicted a Boston businessman, Emadeddin Z. Muntasser, our client, for his involvement in the 1980s and early 90s in a Boston-based Muslim charity that, the indictment alleges, was involved in supporting Afghan mujahideen engaged in pursuing jihad. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen (“Jihadists and Jews,” Op-Ed, Monday) would have readers of this newspaper believe that in asking the federal court in Massachusetts to dismiss this indictment on constitutional grounds, we are seeking to establish that the First Amendment’s speech and religion protections apply to what the authors term “a now-defunct Boston-based al Qaeda front organization” that engages in support of a terrorist organization that advances “holy war against the United States.” Continue reading “Financing jihad: did he or didn’t he?” →