Jihad in the U.S. -- Oh, yes, it's underway here too...

[Snowden]

"Virtual Jihadi" video game challenges players to kill President Bush

"'The game itself is not an act of terrorism,' said one protester. 'But it simply promotes it.'" Indeed: there is freedom of speech and there is incitement to murder. A cartoon of Muhammad harms no one, although there are those who chose to consider themselves harmed by it, and think that it gives them a license to commit murder. This video game, on the other hand, encourages the murder of a living human being. Yet no one will be particularly concerned about this, while attempts to limit free speech because of the cartoons continue.

"Artist's Video Game Challenges Players To Kill President," from KNBC, July 16 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

CHICAGO -- An artist's video game that is being exhibited at a free-speech exhibit in Chicago challenges players to kill the president.

The video game is part of a "confrontational art" exhibit by Chicago-based artist Wafaa Bilal.

In the 3-D game, "The Night of Bush Capturing; A Virtual Jihadi," players are sent on a mission to kill President George W. Bush.

Bilal, 42, said his art is a personal attempt to deal with the deaths of citizens in the country of his birth. The artist said his brother died in Iraq in 2004 from a U.S bomb.

The game is part of the Freedom of Speech exhibition at FLATFILE Galleries. It runs until Aug. 22.

The game was scheduled for exhibition in March at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., but school administrators shut it down after less than a day, according to a TimeOutChicago blog post.

"The game itself is not an act of terrorism," said one protester. "But it simply promotes it."
In a statement on its Web site, FLATFILE said, "censorship of any artistic expression is wrong, and (FLATFILE) proudly supports the right of its artists to show their work regardless of political content and previous censorship."...

Sure. It isn't as if anyone drew a cartoon of Muhammad in this exhibit. That would be crossing the line, now, wouldn't it?



Jihad Watch: "Virtual Jihadi" video game challenges players to kill President Bush

[Snowden]

Obama vows to get Osama (at the expense of Iraq)



"Blessing" Obama (yes, that's what "Barack" means in Arabic), who believes that radical Islam is a product of failed US foreign policy, reacts to rumors that jihadis are flocking to Afghanistan. "Obama Urges Increase in U.S. Forces in Afghanistan on 'Face the Nation'," by Dan Balz for the Washington Post, July 20:

Calling the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent," Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama urged the Bush administration Sunday to begin building up U.S. forces there to combat the growing strength of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.


In his first interview since arriving in Afghanistan on Saturday, Obama said on CBS's "Face The Nation" that conditions now warrant reducing the number of troops in Iraq and shifting them to Afghanistan.

"I think we have to seize that opportunity. Now's the time for us to do it," Obama said. "If we wait until the next administration, it could be a year before we get those additional troops on the ground here in Afghanistan and I think that would be a mistake. I think the situation is getting urgent enough that we've got to start doing something now."

Obama sought to use his time in Afghanistan to underscore his criticism that the Iraq war has distracted the United States, repeating his belief that the Bush administration had made a key mistake in failing "to finish the job here."

Obama said the goal of U.S. policy should be a stable Afghanistan and the disabling of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. "Losing is not an option when it comes to al-Qaeda and it never has been," he said, "and that's why the fact that we engaged in a war of choice when we were not yet finished with that task was such a mistake."

Dhimmi Watch: Obama vows to get Osama (at the expense of Iraq)

[Snowden]

California: Member of jihadist cell targeting military sites and other "infidel" interests sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison


Note the origins of the plot in the California prison system in the 1990s. What precautions are in place to keep that from happening again? Gregory Patterson Update. "Homegrown U.S. terrorist sent to prison," from UPI, July 21:

SANTA ANA, Calif., July 21 (UPI) -- A California terrorist who plotted to wage war against the United States was sentenced Monday to more than 12 1/2 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Gregory Patterson, 24, of Gardena was part of a domestic terrorist cell that intended to wage jihad, or holy war, against U.S. military facilities, as well as Israeli and Jewish targets and "infidels," the U.S. Justice Department said.

Another member of the cell, Levar Washington, 30, was sentenced to 22 years in prison last month. The men had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last December to conspiring to wage war against the United States.

The man who organized the terror cell -- Kevin James -- also has pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced Feb. 9.

A fourth alleged member -- Hammad Samana -- has been found unfit to stand trial and is receiving psychiatric care at a federal prison facility.

James created Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh while in California's New Folsom Prison in 1997. Washington and Patterson conducted about a dozen armed robberies of gas stations to get money for the group's planned attacks in the Los Angeles area, Justice Department officials said. Their targets allegedly included the Los Angeles airport, the Israeli consulate, Army recruiting centers and a military base at Manhattan Beach, prosecutors said.

Jihad Watch: California: Member of jihadist cell targeting military sites and other "infidel" interests sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison

[Snowden]

NYC: Siraj Wahhaj, unindicted co-conspirator in '93 WTC bombing, to appear in planned pro-Islamic subway ad blitz for Ramadan


As the ads say, you deserve to know. "Train-ing Day for Jihadists: Muslim Subway Ads Have Terror Tie-In," by Jeremy Olshan for the New York Post, July 21 (thanks to Awake):

Allah board!

An Islamic group plans to blitz 1,000 subway cars with advertisements this September in a campaign being promoted by a Brooklyn imam whom federal officials have linked to a plot to blow up city landmarks.

The group says its mission is to explain the true nature of Islam to non-Muslims who believe the religion is bent on acts of violence - but Siraj Wahhaj, the inflammatory imam who appears in a promotional YouTube video for the project, has defended convicted bomb-plotters and called the FBI and CIA the "real terrorists."

US Attorney Mary Jo White even named Wahhaj one of 170 unindicted co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the thwarted plan to blow up a slew of buildings.

"In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing, and the only thing that will remain will be Islam," Wahhaj said in one of his sermons.

He also said: "if only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate."

The stark, black-and-white ads of the Subway Project promote Islam with the goals of clearing up long-held misconceptions about the faith and reaching out to those interested in becoming Muslim, according to the Islamic Circle of North America, the group behind the campaign.

The Islamic Circle of North America has been named in "a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is bent on waging "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

Timed to run during the month of Ramadan, the ads come in pairs, reading "Q: Prophet Muhammad?" or "Q: Islam?" and the corresponding answer is always "A: You deserve to know."

Those interested in knowing more are directed to call (877) WHY-ISLAM or to visit whyislam.org, which provide literature that teaches and proselytizes about the faith.

The group insists it is not looking to transform subway cars into the "G-had train."

"Anyone who looks at this ad objectively can see that it is not preaching anything," Azeem Khan, the group's assistant secretary general, told The Post. "There is a lot of Islamaphobia out there. We provide people with a chance to speak with an actual Muslim who is informed."

Wahhaj, imam of Al-Taqwa mosque, is a former member of the Nation of Islam and was the first Muslim to give an invocation at the House of Representatives.

Formal charges were never filed against him by White, although he did serve as a character witness for the defense in the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, "the blind sheik" who is now serving a life sentence for his role in plotting the 1993 WTC bombings.

In the promotional video for the Subway Project, Wahhaj is the first to speak.

"Every day in this city, some 4.9 million people ride the subways - that is a lot of people," he says. "Imagine them seeing the word Islam. Imagine them seeing the word Muhammad."
The MTA confirmed that the group has signed a contract for the ad campaign but would not comment further.

UPDATE: Promotional video on YouTube.



Jihad Watch: NYC: Siraj Wahhaj, unindicted co-conspirator in '93 WTC bombing, to appear in planned pro-Islamic subway ad blitz for Ramadan

[Snowden]

Pakistan: Madrassa ignores deportation order for female American student


"Yes we have received the deportation orders but we will not hand her over"

How many more "Karachi Kids" are there? "US American girl's fate hangs in balance in Pakistani madressa," from Deutsche Presse-Agentur, July 21:

KARACHI - Pakistan's immigration authorities issued immediate deportation orders on Monday for an American girl awaiting an uncertain destiny holed up in a fundamentalist Islamic seminary.

Muna Abanur Mohammed is among the eight students at Jamia Binora, a leading madressa in southern port city Karachi, who were placed on a black-list last month by Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, due to the expiration of their religious education visas to study Koran.

"Yes we have received the deportation orders but we will not hand her over," Maulana Mufti Mohammed Naeemi, founder and head of the madressa, a 12-acre sprawling walled compound seminary, told Deutsche Presse-Aguntur [sic] dpa.

"No one could dare come near a one mile radius of our compound," he said.

Senior immigration officers at state Federal Investigation Agency, requesting anonymity, said they had no immediate instructions from the federal authorities to carry out any swoop against the madressa to remove students holed up inside.

Meanwhile, a US embassy official in Islamabad said they were closely watching the situation.

"We are aware and monitoring the situation," Press Attache Megan Eliss said.

A madressa insider told dpa that the US embassy was in constant touch with the girl.

So far, out of the eight students, two American teens, known as the Khan brothers, were removed last week by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Pakistani authorities and sent back to Atlanta, Georgia, following the intervention by US Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas.

Both brothers were evacuated following a documentary "Karachi Kids" shown by US-based Fox Television, which claimed that teens were forced to study at Jamia Binoria.

Naeemi said the madressa would try its level best to negotiate with the Pakistan government for an extension of Muna's visa.

But he could not say how long he would manage to violate Pakistan's writ by holding the girl at his seminary.

The other five students who have also been served deportation orders include four girl students from Thailand and one male from Fiji.

Jihad Watch: Pakistan: Madrassa ignores deportation order for female American student

[Snowden]

Muslims outraged over McCain backer's words: "The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us"


Will McCain throw Bud Day under the bus? More on this story. "McCain's war buddy riles Muslims," by Marc Caputo and Beth Reinhard for the Miami Herald, July 19 (thanks to Alan):

A war buddy of John McCain's upset Muslims by comparing them to terrorists, creating another headache for the Republican presidential candidate bedeviled by misstatements from some of his surrogates.

One of John McCain's fellow Vietnam POWs compared Muslims to terrorists during a defense of the Iraq War on Friday, saying ``The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us.''

There are indeed Muslims who have said things like that. There is a Muslim organization that is dedicated, in its own words, to "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

Why does that come in for no mention in this story? It isn't really surprising, given the tendencies and perspectives of the mainstream media -- it would have been more surprising if they had mentioned it. But in a sane world, Bud Day's remarks would be judged for their accuracy: some Muslims are indeed doing what he said, and to claim offense and pretend that he was tarring all Muslims is just more CAIR victimology. Of course, if it weren't effective, they wouldn't do it. Here once again, the attention is on Day's "gaffe," not where it should be: on the accuracy of his remarks and the activities of jihadists in the U.S. and around the world.

Col. Bud Day riled Muslim leaders with the remarks made in a conference call with reporters arranged by the Republican Party of Florida on McCain's behalf.

He added: ``I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.''

McCain's presidential campaign wouldn't comment. A Republican Party spokeswoman said later that Day acknowledged he misspoke and ''made an unfortunate mistake'' because he meant to say ''terrorists'' and not ``Muslims.''

Of course. Because as everyone knows, the terrorists aren't Muslims. They're Methodists. And they aren't acting in the name of Islam and according to Islamic teachings. Rather, they're acting according to the teachings of John Wesley.

Muslim leaders and Arab-American groups quickly denounced the ''bigoted'' comments by Day, a Pensacola resident, Medal of Honor recipient and member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attack machine from 2004.

''This is as close to racist as it gets. These are cheap street tactics,'' said Khaled Saffuri, who helped organize Arab outreach for President Bush's 2000 campaign but is now a Libertarian. ``Even if this is called a mistake or a slip of the tongue, it shows a bigger problem with racism. McCain and the Republican party should denounce this.''

Kenneth Timmerman wrote in 2004: "Saffuri's ties to radical Islamists and apologists for terror are neither superficial nor coincidental."

''It's perpetuating a form of Islam-ophobia,'' said Saif Ishoof, a Miami Republican and president of the Center for Voter Advocacy, a nonpartisan group in Florida that educates Muslims about the political process.

[...]

Day's gaffe on Muslims adds to what the community describes as a sweeping backlash from many directions. Many leaders complain that they have been vilified as terrorists since the Sept. 11 attacks launched by a segment of radical extremists who don't represent the 1.1 billion Muslims worldwide.

[...]

Muslim leaders say there are about seven million Muslims in the United States, but other estimates put the size of the community around 2.5 million. The founder of the American Arab Institute, James Zogby, said Thursday that the ''rhetoric'' of Bush and McCain have furthered misunderstanding of Muslims by frequently pairing ''Islam'' and the words ''terrorist'' and ''fascism'' in stump speeches.

Once again, the fact that Muslims themselves are furthering these "misunderstandings" by committing acts of violence and justifying them by reference to Islamic teaching goes utterly ignored, as if it were only Bush and McCain (and their "Islamophobic" advisers) who are responsible for linking Islam with terrorism.

But as for calling Obama a Muslim, Zogby said, Democrat Hillary Clinton's supporters bear some of the blame.

''I got those e-mails. I saw them. They were nasty,'' Zogby said. 'They try to sow suspicion and fear by saying: `We don't know him. He's not one of us.' The insult is to all American Muslims. To use 'Muslim' as the the ultimate slur does real damage here and abroad. And it's bigoted.''

That wasn't Day's intent, said Republican Party of Florida spokeswoman Katie Gordon.

'Clearly, he did not intend to alienate the Muslim community in any way. He was talking about terrorists. He mistakenly used the word `Muslim,' '' Gordon said. ``That was 30 seconds of a 30-minute call in which he talked eloquently about his and the senator's experience in the war and the senator's leadership qualities.''

He didn't mean it! Please don't hurt us!



Jihad Watch: Muslims outraged over McCain backer's words: "The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us"

[Snowden]

Is CAIR using political alliances and legal threats to get special treatment for Muslims from courts?


Patrick Poole asks the question and marshals the evidence in "Are Muslim Defendants Getting Special Treatment in Court?" at Pajamas Media, July 16 (thanks to Isabella the Crusader):

An otherwise unremarkable hearing in the Fairfax County, Virginia, general district court last Thursday marked an ominous trend with respect to the cherished American judicial principles of the rule of law and equality before the law. The hearing on four misdemeanor charges against Dr. Mustafa Ahmed Abbasi featured all of the usual players — judge, bailiff, clerks, prosecutors, police officers, criminal attorneys, and defendant — but with one notable addition to the judicial drama, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

CAIR’s intervention in the Abbasi case is a manifestation of a larger campaign against law enforcement to use political alliances and legal threats to intimidate police in cases involving Muslim defendants and to establish separate and preferable treatment for Muslims in the American legal system.

The circumstances concerning the charges against Dr. Abbasi are as unremarkable as last Thursday’s hearing. On February 9, Abassi committed an improper turn which prompted a traffic stop by Fairfax County police. After consent for a search of the vehicle was given, police discovered loose pills, needles, and prescriptions written to other individuals in the trunk of the car, violations of Virginia law. Dr. Abbasi admitted that he treated members of his mosque out of his vehicle, also a violation of Virginia medical rules (it should be noted that he is also a U.S. Customs and Immigration Service-approved immigration doctor). Abbasi received a summons for unlawfully prescribing drugs and three others for possession of controlled substances, and was allowed to leave the scene on his own recognizance.

More than two months later, a letter was sent from CAIR national legal counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili to Colonel David Rohrer, chief of the Fairfax County Police Department, claiming that the traffic stop was made on the basis of profiling and that Dr. Abassi’s consent to the vehicle search was never given. She also claimed that Abbasi’s arrest was part of a pattern of “religious discrimination” by the department.

The CAIR letter made a series of demands, including an internal affairs investigation of the incident, a reprimand for the officer who made the stop, a written apology for Dr. Abbasi, a dash-cam video of the traffic stop, audio of the related police radio transmissions, and the institution of CAIR’s workplace sensitivity and diversity training for the entire Fairfax County Police.

An important fact to note is that CAIR’s narrative was derived entirely from Dr. Abbasi’s own self-serving account. Al-Khalili’s letter admitted that they had not even attempted to review any factual evidence that might exist in the case (dash-cam video and police radio transmissions), which could have been easily obtained through an open records request before making their accusations of religious discrimination. Before then, she had not asked for any evidence. It seems that CAIR’s demands were clearly aimed at having their “diversity” training instituted by the police department, as there was no indication that Al-Khalili was acting as counsel for Abbasi (she did not appear at last week’s hearing), but was rather acting in CAIR’s own organizational interests.

CAIR’s hysterical claims in this case — Al-Khalili’s letter raises the specter of “the Fairfax County Police Department’s repeated and relentless attacks on American Muslims” — are belied when reviewing the special relationship between CAIR and Fairfax County officials, including the chief of police, Col. David Rohrer, and the County Board of Supervisors chairman, Gerry Connelly.

Read it all.



Jihad Watch: Is CAIR using political alliances and legal threats to get special treatment for Muslims from courts?