February 24, 2011
By Janet Levy
In the first chapter of The West's Last Chance (2005), Washington Times Editor Tony Blankley presents a fictional account of a neck-and-neck political race in 2007 America. Entitled "The Nightmare Scenario," the chapter portrays a presidential candidate, facing polls that indicate an even race and rationalizing to seize an opportunity and secure his dreams for high office. In the heat of a political rally with a Muslim American audience clamoring for shariah law, he capitulates to their demands.
In 2005, when the book was published, U.S. political pandering to American Muslims was already an established reality. Since 9/11 and continuing today, our government bends over backward to avoid even a hint of negativity toward the purveyors of Islamic doctrine whose very mission is to destroy us. Pandering to Islam has reached epidemic proportions and threatens our very existence as a free society.
This dangerous trend began immediately after 9/11 when President George W. Bush reached out to Muslims, repeating the hollow-sounding mantra that Islam is a religion of peace. This occurred despite prima facie and doctrinal evidence to the contrary. Given that Muslims following the revered Koranic path of jihad had perpetrated (and continue now) the vast majority of worldwide terrorist attacks, the president's message was incongruous with reality. Of course, the silence was deafening from the Allah hu-Akbar ("Allah is Great") corner, which instead focused on fears of burgeoning Islamophobia rather than shared anguish over the loss of life and destruction or condemnation of the hijackers' martyrdom operation.
In 2001, following the deadliest attack on American civilians in history and with Muslims worldwide engaging in victory celebrations (including even inside the FBI translators office, per former FBI agent Sibel Edmonds), Bush visited a local mosque with hijabed female government officials and began the American "tradition" of Iftar, or, participation in the meal ending Ramadan fasting. Further, he retained close, visible ties to Saudi leaders despite common knowledge of their funding of radical American mosques, their training of the majority of American imams in extremist ideology and the reality that 17 of 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
Beginning with the Bush administration and zealously expanded under Obama, descriptive language identifying the enemy by name was expunged from the official government lexicon. Bush repeatedly emphasized, "America is not and never will be at war with Islam."
With his global war on terror (GWOT) nomenclature, Bush began the practice of referring to a strategy -- terrorism -- as the United States' archenemy as if it were unrelated to Islam and Muslims. In 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano went beyond this camouflage attempt to infamously coin the term "man-caused disasters" as a euphemism for "terrorism," foregoing all descriptors that referenced Islam. This further muddled the threat by conflating criminal acts by the mentally disturbed to acts of terrorism.
Immediately upon taking office, Obama displayed unusual deference to the Muslim world by giving a speech at Cairo University to which the Muslim Brotherhood was invited, phoning Fatah leader Abu Abbas and granting an interview to the Arab network Al-Arabiya. Especially noteworthy, was Obama's unprecedented bow to Saudi King Abdullah and his directive to NASA to improve relations with the Muslim world and boost their self esteem regarding Muslim scientific achievements. Obama conducted a policy of "engagement" with the Iranian regime while Iran pursued nuclear weapons and suppressed true democratic protests over a rigged election. While visiting Turkey, Obama praised a fundamentalist Islamic regime that had endorsed a terrorist operation to supply weapons to Hamas in Gaza. Recently, it was announced that the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which spent $60 million to elect Obama and whose then president was the most frequent White House visitor in 2009, is being investigated for ties to Hamas. Obama reportedly has a close relationship with SEIU founder Wayne Rathke of ACORN fame and even appointed a former SEIU attorney, Craig Becker, to the National Labor Relations Board.
Despite the fact that Islam is in a permanent state of war with all non-believers as outlined in the Koran and confirmed by 67% of its contents, our government's pandering to the purveyors of Islamic doctrine has reached epidemic proportions. Contrary to the popular mythology advanced by many politicians, there is no "hijacking" of a great religion by a small group of radicals taking place across the globe. As Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogen said in 2007 while disparaging the Western-manufactured term "moderate Islam," "These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that's it."
Reminiscent of Tony Blankley's fictional account, flagrant increases have occurred in the number of questionable Muslims holding positions of power in the U.S. government as well as the number of alliances between American politicians and Muslims with ties to terrorist entities and organizations endeavoring to Islamicize the West. This is particularly concerning in light of recent Muslim-Brotherhood's major participation in inspired uprisings in Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia and Sudan, plus the recent Hezb'allah coup in Lebanon. Further, a newly published report by the Center for Security Policy (CSP) in Washington D.C. ("Shariah: The Threat to America") found that "nearly every major Muslim organization in the United States is actually controlled by the MB or a derivative organization."
The CSP report further states that the Muslim Brotherhood is the most important entity promoting Islamic supremacy, Shariah law and the caliphate. Its mission in the West is sedition or dismantling the constitutional republic, "not peaceful assimilation and co-existence with non-Muslim populations," the report said.
Yet instances of dangerous alliances abound. In 2004, then-New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine and Representative Bill Pascrell, both Democrats, spoke at an annual meeting of the American Muslim Union (AMU). Co-sponsors included unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas terrorist financing trial, such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR); the Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC), whose co-founder and former imam, Mohammad El-Mezain, defended Hamas and admitted raising funds for the terrorist group; and the Dar-ul-Islah Islamic Center, co-founded by Waheed Khalid, who had defended the activities of Hamas. The link between AMU, these organizations and the elected representatives extends beyond the 2004 meeting. Several of AMU's current and former directors held leadership positions at the ICPC and AMU's president, Mohamed Younes, serves on the ICPC Board. Younes has held fundraisers for Representative Pascrell and personally contributed to his political campaigns.
At the 2007 annual AMU meeting, guest of honor Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was introduced by a leader from CAIR's New Jersey chapter. Menendez praised AMU's work and offered "the power of his office" as well as his "hand in friendship" to the organization. Representative Pascrell and Governor Corzine were also in attendance as guests of honor. At the same 2007 meeting, Rep. Pascrell recounted with pride his recent trip to Ramallah to visit Yasser Arafat, the father of modern terrorism, who endeavored to destroy the state of Israel.
In 2007, then-Virginia Governor Tim Kaine appointed Esam Omeish, former Muslim American Society (MAS) president, to the Virginia Commission on Immigration. This appointment occurred even though in 2000, Omeish, who acknowledged Muslim Brotherhood influence in the MAS, had been caught on tape by terrorism expert Steven Emerson's Investigative Project for Terrorism, proclaiming his support for Hamas and Hezbollah and calling for jihad against Israel. The investigative project also revealed that Omeish had ties to the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque that harbored 9/11 terrorists. When this information was made public, Omeish was forced to resign from the post.
In 2010, when the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque held its annual fundraising dinner, special guests listed on the program included Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA), Senator James Webb (D-VA) and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. After receiving a briefing paper about the mosque's ties to terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, and its connection to several terrorist acts from the Center for Security Policy, all but Congressman Connolly declined the invitation to attend. The Dar Al-Hijrah mosque had harbored at least three of the 9/11 hijackers. Its former imam, Anwar Al-Awlaki, is credited with being the mentor for Major Nidel Hasan who murdered 13 Americans at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, as well as the spiritual coach for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the attempted Christmas Day bomber on Northwest Flight 253.
U.S. Representative Keith Hakim Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to Congress, caused quite a stir in 2007 when he departed from congressional custom and took his oath of office on the Koran instead of the Bible. The use of the Koran, a scripture that calls for worldwide Muslim conquest and proclaims the inferiority of non-Muslims, caused Representative Virgil Goode (R-VA) to issue a statement that the action represented a threat to "the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America...." Ellison attended the Hajj in Mecca, which according to his office was funded by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. As part of the $13,350 trip, the Minnesota Congressman listened to a Saudi cleric call on participants to renounce capitalism in favor of shariah law. According to Islamic terrorism expert Steven Emerson, Ellison, who regularly attends CAIR functions, has received contributions from donors with Muslim Brotherhood connections, as well as a North Virginia think tank suspected of being part of a terrorist financing network. Recently, Ellison raised objections when Peter King, the new chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, stated he would hold investigations into the "radicalization" of American Muslims.
Recently, the nomination by New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie of AMU general counsel Sohail Mohammed for a Superior Court judgeship shed light on the extent of Islamist ties in that state's government and the special interest pandering for political support and campaign contributions. Previously, as the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Christie, along with other prominent New Jersey officials, had thwarted U.S. government attempts to deport Mohammed Qatanani, the imam at the largest mosque in New Jersey. This was after Qatanani had admitted a Hamas member and was charged with raising money for the terrorist group. Christie's nominee, Sohail Mohammed, who has defended suspected terrorist detainees, had been Qatanani's attorney. Christie went so far as to attend a Ramadan dinner at the mosque where the terrorist financing took place. He has also been a vocal supporter of what has been referred to as the "victory mosque" at Ground Zero.
Many other examples exist that illustrate the connection between Islam and U.S. politicians, all of grave concern. For example, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) -- a past assistant to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) and former State Senator Larry Shaw (D-NC) -- pledged support for CAIR. According to David Gaubatz and Paul Sperrry, authors of "Muslim Mafia," internal notes from CAIR meetings referred to Van Hollen's promise to support CAIR's agenda, including promoting Islamic curricula in public schools. Further, Gaubatz and Sperry contend that Congressman John Conyers, whose district contains active Hamas, Hezb'allah and Muslim Brotherhood operatives, worked with CAIR to stop FBI counterterrorism measures and pushed the "End Racial Profiling Act" to ban all profiling of Muslims. In 2009, CAIR elected then-North Carolina State Senator Shaw as their Board Chairman. A year earlier, Shaw had accompanied CAIR officials on a trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah. At the meeting, the King praised Islam as the world's greatest religion and decried those with concerns about Islamic violence.
These examples of Islamist or Muslim Brotherhood influence and infiltration in Washington are by no means exhaustive. Unfortunately, they represent the tip of the iceberg and are far from an innocuous-appearing brush of multi-culturalism. It is just a small leap from the current situation to the scenario described by Tony Blankley in "The West's Last Chance" wherein political and financial support is traded for concessions to replace our constitutional republic by a caliphate under shariah law. As more and more politicians and government officials are seduced by the influence peddling of Muslims seeking to Islamicize the United States, shariah law could very well be used as leverage for attaining political office and the caliphate could become a tragic reality in America.
