(This is a repost of a story from the old Blogspot blog that got lost in translation):
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A story I read today by by Jordy Yager in The Hill struck a nerve with me. There was a quote by “honest” Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR {Council on American Islamic Relations} an organization that has been listed as an un-indicted co-conspirator in a terrorist funding case. Excuse me, the organization has not been indicted but numerous of its founding members and leaders have. The leadership of CAIR reminds me of a weird carrousel of replaceable puppets, each fretting and strutting their way across the stage until finally hung with legal ropes of their own manufacture.
At the very end of the story, which was about Congressional suspicion that CAIR has been intentionally placing interns on key Congressional commitees came this quote:
“ “plant[ing] “spies” within key national-security committees in order to shape legislative policy… specifically focused on the House Homeland Security Committee, Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee…
“If an organization is connected to or supports terrorists [and] is running influence operations or planting spies in key national security-related offices, I think this needs to be made known,” Hooper replied to this: “God forbid American Muslims take part in the political process and exercise their rights, I suppose they’re going to investigate the Muslim Staffers Association next.”
If these people weren’t so hate-filled, it would be laughable, but unfortunately they have an audience and, given their positions, it’s going to get picked up by the hate blogs.”…”
Now if I did not spend as much wordage as I do chastising those on my own side who let emotion rule common sense I might think Mr. Ibrahim was talking about me. But I do take a bit of offense at someone who seems to have nothing but venom for any who disagree with him to call anyone “hate-filled”. Especially when HIS advice to any Muslim approached by the FBI for info regarding Radical Islamists is that they should refuse to speak without a lawyer and notify CAIR. Recently they have added a new [rule] advisement; tell the truth. It seems that the FBI is being especially mean to Muslims who lie through their teeth even if they don’t have “hot” info. They charge them with lying to the FBI, go figure! Just because Martha Stewart can go to jail for it doesn’t mean it should be like, a LAW, you know!
Well if you get the impression that Mr. Ibrahim is not a person I would trust to babysit my niece you are on the right track. But even the un-trusted can be reliable. When you judge people by their fruit over time you will start to see patterns. Sometimes those patterns can reveal much more than the subject would like.
This is the case I feel with Mr. Hooper’s flippant and rhetorical question about the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association being the next to be investigated.
Long ago I noticed that the most fanatical of partisans, Left or Right, tend to portray their enemies as doing, with great malice, exactly the things that reality shows the partisan to be doing. This is most blatantly obvious whenever we hear fundamentalist Muslims rave about the horrific, planned and globe-dominating action plans of “The Jews”. Whenever I listen to these rants I look about to find the group they are referring to. Who could it be that is doing these kind of things? Each time I go around the global community and come back…to the very people doing the ranting. If you want to know what is in the mind of Radical Islam listen to the most fanatical Imam raving about Israel. That rant will accurately reflect their own attitude and action plan toward the Jews instead of visa versa.
I decided to take MR. Hooper at face value and see where it led. Join me for the ride, you will find Dramamine in the glove box.
Let us examine the paragon that Mr. Hooper seems to feel is as above reproach as CAIR itself:
Congressional Muslim Staffers Association (CMSA) has a facebook page that say this about the organization: The Congressional Muslim Staffers Association (CMSA) is composed of Muslim staffers in the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Library of Congress, Congressional Budget Office, and the Capitol Hill Police.CMSA’s goal is to effectively represent the Islamic faith and the Muslim American community to Representatives, Senators, Congressional Staff, and other government organizations and officials. CMSA seeks to promote the active participation of Muslim Americans in U.S. public affairs, contributing to and strengthening American pluralism, multiculturalism, and democratic institutions. The Association’s membership and programs reflects the diversity of Muslim Americans and the plurality of thought and interests within the community.CMSA organizes and cosponsors the following types of Congressional briefings / informational programs and activities:1. Public and International Affairs Briefings2. Religious and Cultural Events3. Professional Development and Social Networking4. Community Outreach and Engagement
Well that seems innocent enough I guess even though personally I find it in bad form for ANY subset of society to be directly organizing the staffers of Congress for ANY political agenda. I just did a quick online search and the ONLY Congressional staffer’s organizations I find are…the Muslim Congressional Staffers Association and one other:
The Black Republican Congressional Staff Association (BRCSA) is a group of current and former African-American Congressional staffers for Republican Congressmen & Senators on Capitol Hill. The mission of the Black Republican Congressional Staff Association (BRCSA) is to be a viable resource for the black congressional community on Republican ideals.
The second group seems to be oriented in the opposite direction as the first. The first wants to shape policy of all of Congress while the second wants to be a resource used by Black Republican Congressmen. One is preaching to congress (and taking a paycheck) while the other is listening for questions. Next we jump to the MCSA’s website:
As-Salaamu-Alaykum! Welcome to the official website of the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association (CMSA). “Representing Muslim Americans on Capitol Hill since 2006!”
On the About page we find this:
The Congressional Muslim Staffers Association(CMSA) is a chartered organization within the United States House of Representatives, established in 2006. CMSA is a non-dues paying membership association open to any Congressional employee who defines his- or herself as “Muslim”, regardless of their race, gender, school of thought, personal level of “religiosity”, and country of origin. Members can be employees of any office, committee, or department within the House of Representatives, Senate, Library of Congress, Congressional Budget Office, Congressional Research Service, and the Capitol Hill Police Department. Any Muslim Congressional employee is considered a CMSA member regardless of their level of participation or the degree that they publicly identify themselves as “Muslim”.
Hold the phone Gracie! The first bit about membership being open to anyone who self identifies as Muslim sounds egalitarian and inclusive to beat the band. But what is this at the end?
EVERY “Muslim” Congressional employee is considered a member EVEN IF THEY DO NOT “PUBLICLY” IDENTIFY AS A MUSLIM??? Is that in the mind of the executive council of the CMSA or in the eyes of Congress?
Moving on to the web site’s description of the Executive Board:
CMSA is governed by a five-member Executive Board composed of a President, Vice-President, Program Coordinator, Information Technology Manager, and Secretary. Each Executive member has one vote when determining the Association actions, positions, and programs. The Executive Board can establish committees and appoint Ex-Officio Board members who assist in the planning and managing various Association initiatives and programs within a given term year. Ex-Officio members do not have voting privileges in Board decisions. Members of the Executive board: 1) Assad Akhter, President 2) Moon Yousif Sulfab, Vice President 3) J. Saleh Williams, Program Coordinator 4) Mouaz Moustafa, Communication Director 5) Diala Jadallah, Community Outreach Coordinator
It seems from the latest info I can find that the CMSA has ONE Republican member (or one that registers as a Republican) in order to qualify as a “non-partisan” organization. Let us look at the members of the board:
The president, a past VP Assad Akhter seems from his quotes to be as bland as oatmeal but was president when CMSA co-sponsored the “Muslim” Inaugural Fete with such guests as Imam James Yee, a former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo Bay who was charged with treason but released after it was realized that a trial would cost more in exposed classified info than it was worth and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) — who was introduced by fellow Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) as “the pride of Islam and the pride of the United States Congress”.
Am I naïve or are there Christian and Hindu and Jewish and Black and Hispanic inaugural fetes every four years? I imagine not, Rep. Ellison said this in an interview before what seems to be the first Muslim Inaugural Fete; “I hope there would be this event regardless of who is president. The idea is that no matter who is in the White House, all communities need to be active and engaged in this government.”
It will be interesting to see if they continue the “tradition” if the next President is a Republican. Next we have the VP Moon Yousif Sulfab, who seemed to not exist on the web until I realized his name is actually “Elmamoun Yousif Sulfab”. At that point I found that about his only footprint is as a member of the Sudanese American Community Development Organization. The SACDO website is almost exclusively in Arabic but seems to be an organization for networking and supporting in various ways Sudanese immigrants.
J. Saleh Williams the Program Coordinator is associated with the Rumi Forum an interfaith organization named for an Islamic proponent of tolerance from the 13th century. Nothing to be alarmed about as far as I can tell. In fact he might just be one of the good guys.
But then again, looking at Mouaz Moustafa the Communications Director we see that he made this comment at Haaretz.com about an article on Shimon Peres accusing Iran of seeking nuclear weapons:
Haaretz Service and Reuters: Peres: ‘Devious’ Iran hiding nuke ambitions Talkback Title: Peres the reason Nukes are in the ME Name: Mouaz Moustafa City: Washington State: District of Columbia really!! Peres is the one talking about nuclear weapons!!! Iran has the right to have peaceful nuclear power, and Israel must not mention nuclear weapons unless it is ready to destroy its stockpile”
It seems Mr. Moustafa thinks a regime that delights in predicting the day when it will annihilate Israel seeks something called “Peaceful Nuclear Weapons”. This man seeks to influence Congress on terrorism policy?
What else has Mr. Moustafa been up to? Well he signed the guestbook of Qabba’a a website dedicated to networking Palestinian “refugees” to the nth generation:
Posted by soccermouaz on APRIL-1-2009 ID#=72707 Assalamu alaikum, My name is Mouaz Moustafa, born in damascus Syria, my family are all from beautiful Qabba’a there are no words to explain my emotion, every day of my life i have had a vacant spot in my heart because nowhere feels like home to me other than Palestine, I cannot wait until i return to that beautiful village in the north of Felastine.
He seems just a tad close-minded but, I can’t find anything that is any more inimical than plain foolishness. He is not even a devout Muslim from the images on his MySpace page. Other than a reflexive anti-Israel stand he seems intelligent in his writing. He needs a bit of work in producing a good sentence but then he writes as well as many native English speaking college grads these days. But I have to ask myself, can someone so partisan that he refers to Northern Israel as Northern Palestine be a reliable voice for Congress to heed? Or objective enough to represent Muslims that do NOT agree with him?
Last on the Executive Committee is Diala Jadallah the Community Outreach Coordinator. Her bio at The Hala Foundation reads:
Diala Jadallah Diala is presently doing research at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington, DC. She has a BA in Integrative Studies with concentration in International Studies from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. She worked in the Women’s Studies Research & Resource Center at George Mason, and her area of academic concentration is gender studies. She also served as a Congressional Intern in the office of US Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).
The site explains its goals:
LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM OVERVIEW The bulk of the work performed by the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation is the Leadership training program aimed at young Arab-American professionals around the United States. The Leadership Training Program is designed to create a network of highly trained, informed and focused young Arab-American professionals equipped to take on the advocacy and organizational efforts required for community leadership in cities and states around the country. The criteria for selection are young people who have finished their education and are already working in their respective professions and who have demonstrated leadership qualities and a commitment to Arab-American concerns.
Now the part that I highlighted would not bother me much if Diala was not Community Outreach Coordinator for an association claiming to speak for every single Muslim that works for Congress; an association whose stated goal is influencing Congress regarding Muslims. This girl has been trained to be a partisan for a race-based organization with clear political goals. She cannot even pretend to be an objective voice for American Muslims of all nationalities and levels of “religiosity”.
The Hala Maksoud that the foundation is named for was a prime mover in re-presenting the Arab version of Israel’s history. A version almost devoid of historical fact when discussing the Muslim actions in that history. I think that if I were a Muslim of any political stripe other than Ms. Jadallah’s I would be even more worried about her “representing” the generic Muslim than I am now.
Other than this all she seems to have done is answer the phone for Rep. Kucinich on every Leftist issue known to man from impeaching Pres. Bush to an immediate ceasefire and opening of the borders for Gaza during the recent Israeli counter-offensive.
I do not know if Honest-Ibe dragged this group out in the open because they link to a Shi’a Muslim information site, or if he just is trying to get attention off of himself but, I do find the MCSA to be a bit troubling in their stated mission given the blatantly partisan - if not racist – nature of the associations of the members in charge of “communication” and “outreach”.
The information site itself is a piece of work given that it is the sole Muslim Info link provided by an association that claims to speak for all Muslim Congressional employees. One of the most popular links is the one for Islamic Law. This link leads to a page with ONE article:
Islamic Lawspick by Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani Views: 145368 Laws on cleanliness, prayers, fasting, hajj, transactions, marriage, and other topics. According to the risalah of Ayatullah Ali al-Husayni Al-Sistani
Now I browsed this article for a while. Frankly it is about as fundamentalist and, to Western eyes, radical as anything you hear from Iran. The section on temporary marriage contains a paragraph detailing how if a man allows his wife to suckle another “wife” [i.e. an infant] the first wife becomes forbidden to him as a sexual partner.
Many of the other “laws” are just as incomprehensible to a Western sense of “justice”. Yet this is the ONLY source of Islamic law provided by the ONLY source of Islamic information on the web site of a group claiming to influence Congress in their views on how to deal with Muslims in and out of America.
I may be a bit paranoid but I find that disturbing. It gets worse when we look at a search of this site for “apostate”:
Searched for: apostate Search Al-Islam.org Library Descriptions Search (1 Results)Searched Al-Islam.org Library Resource Descriptions Apostacy in Islam by Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi Views: 11023 This book first explains the view about faith in God and whether or not Islam can be forcefully imposed on others; then comes the Islamic view on the choices a person has after he has willingly joined the Islamic faith. Next, the discussion on the issue of apostasy and its two categories; followed by the religious sources for the punishment of an apostate. The treatise ends with a discussion on some Qur’ãnic verses and some relevant issues about minorities in the Muslim countries.
Again we get a single source of information. It has this to say about an apostate from Islam:
“The Prophet of Islam emphasized the same point when he said, “Every child is born with the believing nature (al-fitra), it is his parents who make him into a Jew or a Christian.” … If a person is raised in a society which protects his soul from the impurities of atheism (kufr) and polytheism (shirk), or if a person is shown the Right Path and accepts it willingly — can such a person reject the Islamic faith? Is he allowed to apostate (become murtad) and renounce Islam? Can he declare that he does not believe in God or Prophet Muhammad or the Day of Judgement? Once a person enters into the fold of Islam, the rules change. As soon as you become a Muslim by your own choice, you are expected to submit yourself to Allãh totally and completely. … Once a person becomes a believer, he surrenders the right of making decisions to Allãh and the Messenger: “No believing man and no believing woman has a choice in their own affairs when Allãh and His Messenger have decided on an issue.” (33:36) Even the question of apostasy, irtidãd or deserting of one’s faith, for a Muslim, is a religious (shar`i) issue and even in this issue he is governed by the laws of Islam. And Islam clearly says: No! You cannot become an apostate. After coming into the fold of Islam, rejection of the fundamentals is not tolerated. … On the issue of openly rejecting Islam, Islam cannot just stand aside and see one of its followers going astray. It would allow discussions to understand and solve the problems, but not allow its followers to lower themselves from the sublime status of “surrendering to the will of Allah–Islam” to the status of those “who have hearts but do not understand, ears but do not hear, and eyes but do not see.” … Why does Islam not allow apostasy? Apostasy or irtidãd in Islam is equal to treason. The Western world limits treason to political and military terms. … In Islam, the concept of treason is not limited to political and military aspects; it also has a spiritual and cultural dimension to it. In the Islamic order of sacredness, Allah, then the Prophet, and then the Qur’ãn occupy the highest positions. Tawhid, nubuwwa, and qiyãma form the constitution of Islam. Just as upholding and protecting the constitution of a country is sign of patriotism, and undermining it is a form of treason – in the same way open rejection of the fundamental beliefs of Islam by a Muslim is an act of treason. Apostasy, i.e., the public declaration of rejecting the fundamentals of Islam, has also negative influence on the Muslim society; it is indeed a major fitna. And that is why Islam has prescribed harsh punishment for irtidãd.
This seems to directly contradict CAIR when they say that Rifqa Bary is in no danger for apostasy because only HISTORICALY did Muslims think of it as treason, say during the life of Mohammed. This article seems to feel that it is a universal ideal not a historical relic and to be enforced until Judgment Day.
It goes on:
It must be emphasized that the irtidãd that we are discussing here involves open rejection, without any force and with full realization of what one’s statements or actions imply. If a Muslim has a genuine doubt on an Islamic matter, that process of doubting does not automatically classify him as a murtad.…
As long as he is still in state of doubt, the punishment of irtidãd is suspended.[6] A murtad must fully realize the implications of his open rejection and what it means–casting doubt on the truth and honesty of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the Messenger of God. The punishment prescribed by the shari`ah for apostasy is death.
Even the terms used by the shari`ah for apostates give the idea of treason to this whole phenomenon. …
· A former kãfir who became a Muslim and then apostates (murtad milli), he is given a second chance: if he repents, then he is not to be killed; but if he does not repent, then he is to be killed. · But one who is born as a Muslim and then apostates (murtad fitri), he is to be killed even if he repents. It is important to understand that in case a murtad fitri repents, Allãh may accept his repentance and he may be forgiven in the hereafter, but he still has to go through the punishment prescribed for his treason in this world.[7]
This punishment is only applicable in case of apostasy by men; in case of women, the punishment is not death but life imprisonment. And if such a woman repents, then her repentance is accepted and the punishment is lifted.
In writings of some of the Sh`iah jurists, one gets the sense that the punishment of murtad is to be implemented only in dãru ‘l-Islãm (i.e., the Muslim world), and that if the murtad flees to dãru ‘l-kufr (i.e., the abode of kufr), then he is not to be pursued.[8]
I would have to assume that the Executive Committee of the CMSA knows where it is sending people interested in information about “Islam”. I would have to also assume they approve of the 4th most popular article, about Islamic Law, on that site as well as the al-islam.org stance on apostasy.
I would like to know how they can reconcile all this with the claim that they represent the interests of, how did they put it again? Oh yes:
any Congressional employee who defines his- or herself as “Muslim”, regardless of their race, gender, school of thought, personal level of “religiosity”, and country of origin.
I am still not sure why Mr. Hooper of all people felt a need to bring these people to bloggers’ attention but it just might do some good if a closer look was taken at the actual activities of this association by someone on the scene.