By Hillel Zaremba
The tragic events of April 15 have justifiably reignited public concern about the nature and extent of domestic Islamist radicalization. Because the surviving bomber has beenĀ Ā Mirandized by the Obama Department of Justice, it may be years before we know exactly what or who prompted Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to take the lives of innocent Americans. However, there is enough evidence to indicate that the mosque with which they associated may have played a role in their descent into depravity. And if their mosque somehow influenced them in this fashion, do other mosques in America present a similar danger?
WhatĀ we know about the marathon bombers is that āThe mosque attended by the two brothers (the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center-Cambridge [ISBCC]) ā¦has been associated with other terrorism suspects [and] has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Bostonā¦ā
Both mosques are affiliated with theĀ Muslim American Society (MAS) an American arm of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB ), the group that spawned Hamas and al-Qaeda and which seeks toĀ Ā curtail civil liberties in Egypt andĀ Ā impose Sharia on all.
None of these disturbing signs from Boston, which critics had pointed out for years, had any effect on the way these mosques were treated by those who run the Bay State. To the contrary, ISBCC was the recipient of tax-payer generosity in the form of a bargain-basement sale price on prime real estate for its new home as well as formal displays of friendship fromĀ Gov. Deval Patrick andĀ Mayor Tom Menino.
Nor were prominent spiritual leaders of Boston concerned by statements of intolerance cloaked in the garb of āreligious expression.ā When Charles Jacobs, head ofĀ Americans for Peace and Tolerance, brought inflammatory remarks by of one of the mosqueās leaders to the publicās attention, he was savaged by the Boston interfaith community, includingĀ 70 area rabbis.
Is such willful blindness unique to Boston or Massachusetts? Sadly, it is more likely that such attitudes are par for the course in every major American city with a sizable Muslim population. It certainly is the case in Philadelphia.
There are approximately 40 mosques in the City of Brotherly Love and its surrounding suburbs, as well as active branches of Brotherhood affiliates like CAIR and MSA, many of which are warmly welcomed by theĀ Mayorās Office of Faith Based Initiatives (MOFI), as well as a prominent local NGO, the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia (ICGP). No one in either office has apparently sought to inquire just whom they are partnering with.
āWe donāt have to endorse you to work with youā stated MOFIās interim director, Reverend Malcolm Byrd, when asked if he vetted his constituent Muslim groups. He explained further that one ought to ātrust the government to have the objectivity and integrity to scope out involvement with a community.ā
Tell that to the families of 29-year old Krystle Campbel or 8-year old Martin Richard who lost their lives to the Boston bombers.
Abby Stamelman Hocky, ICGPās executive director, sounded a similar tune. Despite being presented with sourced documentation of some of her Muslim partnersā disturbing actions and pronouncements, the author was assured that if I really knew the leaders of these groups, I would be convinced they were, in truth, moderates.
To illustrate the dangerous naivetĆ© that pervades the cityās elites, let us examine just one of the mosques that feels at home in Philadelphia, the Quba Institute (QI).
QI grew out of anĀ organization founded by an African-American convert to Islam named Muhammad Ezzaldeen, who spent time in Egypt in the 1930s at precisely the same moment when Egyptian Hassan al-Banna was establishing the globalĀ Muslim Brotherhood. Ezzaldeenās group eventually grew into, and was renamed, the International Muslim Brotherhood, Inc. (IMB ) in Philadelphia in 1949.
Is this shared name just a coincidence?
In the late 1960s, the Philadelphia-based IMBĀ forged partnerships with the Muslim Student Associations [MSA] of local Universities. The MSA is, according to aĀ document seized by authorities and entered into evidence in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing trial, one of the Brotherhoodās 29 likeminded āorganizations of our friendsā sharing the common goal of teaching Muslims āthat their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and āsabotagingā its miserable house by their hands … so that … God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.ā
QI/IMB hasĀ boasted about its association with two Brotherhood luminaries: Abu Sulaiman and Hassan Turabi. Saudi-born Abdul-Hamid Abu Sulaiman (var. āSulaymanā) is a founding member of the MBās intellectual beachhead in the U.S., the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). From 1973-1979, he was the Secretary General of the Saudi-basedĀ World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) which publishes anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and anti-Shiāah literature; as the executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, put it: āWAMY [is] the Saudi equivalent of the Hitler Youth: a hate-mongering, ultra-extremist group.ā
The other Brotherhood bigwig associated with QI/IMB, Hassan Turabi, helped bring the National Islamic Front (NIF) to power in the Sudan and, once installed in power, established Sharia as the law of the land by force. Turabi was both a champion of Saddam Hussein and a longtime mentor, friend, and host to Osama bin Laden during his stay in Sudan.
According to Oliver Revell, the FBI’s former top counterterrorism official, āanybody who brings in Hassan Turabi is supporting terrorists.ā
We do not know exactly when QI/IMB hosted Sulaiman and Turabi and perhaps current leadership has turned over a new leaf, making past connections irrelevant. Perhaps not.
Qubaās current spiritual leader and CEO,Ā Anwar Muhaimin was born in the U.S. but grew up in Wahhabi-dominated Saudi Arabia with his brother, Anas (also an imam). When the brothers returned to America, they opened QI as a full-time non-public, non-licensed day school (pre-K-8)Ā eligible to receive public funds through the school district of Philadelphia.
The brothers have a reputation for moderation within the local ādialogueā community yet in a (now scrubbed) February 2010 Facebook posting, Anwar Muhaimin favorably cited anĀ Ā article which dismissed claims that Anwar al-Awlaki was a terrorist, months after it had become clear that the Fort Hood massacre perpetrated by Major Nidal Hasan had been inspired in part by Awlakiās teachings and correspondence. A few months later, in July 2010, the imam spoke up for reporter Octavia Nasr, whose support for Holocaust-denying and suicide bombing booster Ayatollah Fadlallah led to her dismissal by CNN. Other Facebook postings include condemnation of the Peter King congressional hearings on radical Islam (March 2011), characterization of researcher David Yerushalmi as a āWhite Supremacistā (April 2011) and letting his Facebook āfriendsā know that āNationalists pose [a] bigger threat than al-Qaeda.ā
Should we then take seriously brother Anas Muhaiminās mystified reaction to the March 2010 arrest of Sharif Mobley, who grew up and studied at QI/IMB? Mobley was arrested in Yemen for ties to Anwar al-Awlaki and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. American law enforcement officials said they had been keeping their eyes on him for some time. When questioned by reporters, AnasĀ declared that he had āstrongly discouraged him from going to Yemen. I told him Yemen was very, very unstable.ā
Muhaiminās protestations of puzzlement sound strikingly similar to thoseĀ Ā uttered by ISBCCās leaders after the Boston bombings. In the face of public revulsion and subsequent media scrutiny, mosque leaders profess to be as clueless as the next guy as to where these young men could have picked up their ideas. Perhaps they need to take a closer look at their own teachings.
An older version of the QI/IMB mosqueās website is illustrative. Patrons of Masjid Quba are told to āspecifically reject terrorism as method for forwarding any Islamic or Muslim causeā but there is one important caveat: QI/IMBās members can engage in jihad al-saif (armed warfare) āin the context of self-defense or guarding the sacred, holy lands of Islamā (authorās emphasis).
What constitutes the āsacred, holy lands of Islamā is open to some interpretative leeway. Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhoodās Palestinian branch considers the entire state of Israel āsacred, holy lands of Islam,ā legitimating its murderous attacks on innocent civilians on that basis. Osama bin Laden justified his attacks against the U.S. because he viewed the American presence in Saudi Arabia as an infidel occupation of āof the Two Holy Places.ā
WeĀ now know that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev viewed his crime as standing up for Muslims all over the world (āWhen you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslimsā). In the Islamist view, all Muslims are part of a universal ummah and any action taken against Muslims anywhere becomes a provocation for retaliation by a fellow-Muslim anywhere else.
Which view dominates in the confines of the Quba Institute or the other Muslim worship centers of Philadelphia and other American cities? Do Muslims in these places truly learn to consider their fellow citizens as brothers and sisters regardless of their faith? Or do they adhere to their prophetās injunction ā āO you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends!ā (Qurāan 5:51)
When asked to help apply Justice Brandeisā ādisinfectant of sunshineā to all area faith-groups by asking them to open their doors, sermons and curricula to public scrutiny, Philadelphiaās Interfaith Center demurred, citing more pressing issues. Whether an examination of what is taught and preached in area mosques would produce a greater sense of comfort or its opposite remains to be seen. But greater transparency is long overdue, and may help ensure that there will be fewer Tsarnaevs lurking in our midst.
For the record, in April 2010, Muhaimin responded favorably to anĀ article repudiating al-Awlaki by fellow Philadelphian Abu Laith Luqman Ahmad.
Hillel Zaremba is associate director ofĀ Islamist Watch,
a project of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, which seeks to
combat the ideas and institutions of non-violent Islamism in the United
States and throughout the West.
Boston Bombings: Coming to a City Near You?
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