Democrats, National Security & the Flying Imams

From the NYPost, Debra Burlingame answers the question "why must Democrats constantly defend against charges that they can't be trusted on issues of national security?" According to Ms. Burlingame, one need only look at the Democrats fractured performance when faced with legislation to protect whistleblowers from individual liability when they report strange or suspicious behavior in mass transit - legislation pushed by Republicans and aimed directly at the Flying Imams lawsuit.

This is the kind of no-brainer legislation that every member of Congress should vigorously support. Yet House Democrats reacted to King's proposal as if he'd thrown a bomb into the House chamber itself.

According to witnesses in the gallery and on the floor, Speaker Nancy Pelosi displayed a classic deer-in-the headlights look as the Democratic leadership went into a huddle - plainly eager, not to embrace this common-sense measure, but to sidetrack it.

Meanwhile, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, took the floor to oppose King's motion - and to defend the lawsuit against John Does. "We should be tolerant," he argued; people shouldn't be singled out because they "look different."

In fact, the flying imams triggered concerns by a variety of unusual actions, as well as words that roused the concern of another Arabic-speaking passenger. Witnesses say that House members started booing Thompson.

Finally, a member of the leadership realized how this would look to Americans watching on C-SPAN: Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) was seen staring at Thompson and repeatedly drawing his hand across his throat - an urgent signal to get off the floor.

With Democrats realizing they couldn't argue against King's measure, it went to a vote, and passed, 304 to 121

Every one of those 121 votes aimed at defeating protection for "John Does" was a Democrat - indeed, more than half of all Democrats present voted "nay." . . .

Read the entire article here.

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MAS, CAIR & Minnesota - the Epicenter of Radical Islamic Activism?

Compliments of Powerline, this is from the Wall Street Journal looking at the unusual confluence of Islamic activisim in Minnesota:

What's going on? It appears that both local circumstances and activists with a big-picture agenda play a role. Take the taxi drivers. Minnesota is home to tens of thousands of Somalis, most recent immigrants. Behind the scenes, moderate local Somali leaders are engaged in a power struggle with national Muslim organizations that seek to exploit this vulnerable population. Islam prohibits the consumption of alcohol but not its transportation, say Somalis who reject the taxi drivers' stance. Yet in June 2006, the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Minnesota chapter issued a "fatwa" forbidding drivers here from carrying alcohol to avoid "cooperating in sin."

Hassan Mohamud, one of the fatwa signers, praised the two top-light proposal as a national model for accommodating Islam in areas ranging from housing to the workplace. But according to Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, MAS is "trying to hijack and radicalize the Somali community for their Middle East agenda."

Ahmed Samatar, a recognized expert on Somali society at Macalester College in St. Paul notes that "There is a general Islamic prohibition against drinking, but carrying alcohol for people in commercial enterprise has never been forbidden." Similarly, Islam prohibits consuming pork, but not touching or scanning it, according to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the American Society for Muslim Advancement in New York. It is, or should be, "a nonissue."

In Washington, the Democratic leadership is likely to seek passage of the End Racial Profiling Act, of which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called herself, in 2004, a "proud" cosponsor. Both MAS and CAIR are stumping for the bill, which would bar airport security personnel from disproportionately questioning Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent. Minnesota's Keith Ellison, the nation's first Muslim Congressman, told me that the imams' situation reflects a misunderstanding of Muslim prayer and will be sorted out in court, while the other matters stem from the normal process of immigrant adjustment.

The events here suggest a larger strategy: By piggy-backing on our civil rights laws, Islamist activists aim to equate airport security with racial bigotry and to move slowly toward a two-tier legal system. Intimidation is a crucial tool. The "flying imams" lawsuit ups the ante by indicating that passengers who alerted airport authorities will be included as defendants. Activists are also perfecting their skills at manipulating the media. After a "pray-in" at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., one credulous MSNBC anchor likened the flying imams to civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

The comparison is misplaced: Omar Shahin, leader of the detained imams, has helped raise money for at least two charities later shut down for supporting terrorism. From 2000 to 2003, he headed the Islamic Center of Tucson, which terrorism expert Rita Katz described in the Washington Post as holding "basically the first cell of al Qaeda in the United States." CAIR has long been controversial for alleged terrorist ties, while the Chicago Tribune has described MAS as the American arm of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which "preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic."

For background on the Muslim Brotherhood and its arm in America, the Muslim American Society, please see here, here, here and here. They need to be watched and challenged every bit as much as CAIR. You might want to also check out their website here.

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Let The CAIR-Flying Imam P.R. Campaign Begin

CAIR’s national legal director, Arsalan Iftikhar, is busy writing opinion pieces about the Flying Imams and racial profiling from the radical Wahhabists point of view, and at least one "useful idiot" newspaper has seen fit to give him a podium.

Many watching the Flying Imams case strongly suspect that this whole farce was stage managed by CAIR to provide grist to justify the passage of a truly atrocious piece of legislation that CAIR has been promoting for years – The End Racial Profiling Act. Iftikhar’s opinion piece does nothing to dispel that belief. The entire piece is devoted to playing up the Flying Imams and discussing how evil law enforcement are engaging in unlawful racial profiling against muslims in the wake of 9-11.

You have to love this guy’s arguments. One, all of the evidence about what the Flying Imams did to get tossed from the plane are all lies. As Iftikhar puts it:

. . . [F]alse media reports after the incident stated some of the following false claims: The imams were praying inside the plane, they were chanting pro-Saddam statements, and other silly accusations.

Lies- all lies I say. Hmmm, you can review the lies here and decide for yourself.

Two, paying attention to Muslims acting strange on a flight has no reasonable basis:

. . . The case of the imams’ ejection from an airliner highlights the growing politics of fear and how this hysteria is manifesting itself in our American social fabric.

Its that damned Islamaphobia again. We should be paying attention to fundamentalist Christians and those radical Jews. Let's leave the peace loving Wahhabists alone. By the way, to see Wahhabi Islam in its true form, check out here.

This is nothing more then CAIR trying to change the fabric of America to make it safe for Wahhabi Islam. The remainder of Iftikhar’s arguments go to the evils of racial profiling and playing up the End Racial Profiling Act.

Just so you know, the End Racial Profiling Act would drastically change how our law enforcement would do its work. It would let Muslims sue individual security personnel for racial profiling based on a pure numbers game. If, out of every 100 people searched by a guard, four are Muslim, that guard is deemed to have committed unlawful racial profiling if the population density of Muslims in the local area is less then 4 per 100. The burden of proof shifts to the guard to prove that he did not racially profile. And who could not imagine that the day after this legislation is enacted, CAIR starts filing class action suits against the FBI, etc. If this ever gets put into law, America as a nation can hang it up.

I truly hope that the Airways – or the John Does sued in the Flying Imam lawsuit – fashion their discovery to expose CAIR’s involvement in stage managing the Flying Imam incident. And that they then sue CAIR for every Wahhabi penny supplied by CAIR’s Saudi benefactors. The bottom line, CAIR needs to watched and challenged at every turn.

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CAIR's Flying Imams - Update 1 - A Muslim Organization Takes A Stand

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a group headed by Phoenix physician Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, bills itself as:

a think-tank based in Phoenix, Arizona founded on the compatibility of American Constitutional democracy and our citizenship pledge with our personal and spiritual faith of Islam. Our mission is to separate religion and politics in the practice of Islam.

AIFD has come out strongly against the CAIR managed lawsuit by the Flying Imams and, indeed, is putting their money where their mouth is. Today, AIFD told the Washington Times that their organization will raise the funds to pay for the defense of the individuals named as "John Does" in the lawsuit.

It is good to see a Muslim organization take a stand both against CAIR and against this atrocity of a lawsuit. In truth though, it is likely only to be symbolic - not because of any lack of sincerity on the part of the AIFD, but rather because it appears that lawyers are lining up to offer their services pro bono in defense of this lawsuit.

You can read the whole story here. I think that CAIR has made a real error with this lawsuit. The actions of the Imams were too contrived and pushed too many hot buttons for anyone to believe that this was anything other then a stage managed event. And if CAIR can be shown responsible, it will greatly undermine their organization. Or so I hope, but perhaps I am being overly optimistic.

At any rate, I found this on AFID's website, issued the same day as the law-suit was filed by the Flying Imams. It is well worth a read. AFID, an organization that I was not aware of until today, sounds deserving of our support:

March 13, 2007
AIFD Press Release
PRESS RELEASE

MARCH 13, 2007

NOT ALL MUSLIMS SUPPORT CAIR PLAN TO SUE US AIRWAYS on BEHALF of SIX IMAMS

Muslim organization believes that lawsuit filed by CAIR on behalf of local Phoenix imams is wrong for American Muslims and wrong for America.


[PHOENIX, AZ: March 13, 2007]: Wide media attention is being given today to the lawsuit filed by CAIR on behalf of six imams against U.S. Airways for their claims of discrimination against race and religion. Most of the imams are from local mosques here in Phoenix and were removed from a U.S. Airways flight on November 21, 2006 en route to Phoenix from Minneapolis.

AIFD would like the American public to be aware of our following positions representing an alternative voice from the American Muslim community.

1. We will not accept the victimization agenda of organizations like CAIR. Lawsuits like the one announced today exploit the climate of political correctness and at the end of the day are harmful to the Muslim minority in America.

2. Make no mistake, this type of agenda and policy direction of organizations like CAIR only represents its own membership and its own donors. A relatively small percentage of the 5-6 million American Muslims are enrolled as members of CAIR. Recent considerable donations to CAIR upwards of a combined $100 million from foreign nations like Dubai and Saudi Arabia make these types of costly, distractive actions against domestic airlines such as US Airways very concerning in its manifestation of foreign interference.

3. One of the frontlines in the war on terror is at the airports and at the gates. While the imams were clearly removed for their behavior after entering the plane, it should be made clear that many less rigid but equally pious Muslims believe (including 3 out of 6 of the imams for that matter) that the prayer they performed could have been performed upon landing in Phoenix due to travel dispensations in Islam or privately on time while seated on the flight. Muslims believe that God is forgiving and does not expect religion to be "too difficult".

4. While the six imams' handlers, CAIR, and their lawyers may have some kind of obscure basis for their lawsuit, it is our belief that the fallout and publicity from such litigation is wrong for American Muslims, wrong for American security, and wrong for American freedoms. The greatest guarantor of our rights as American Muslims is the tenor of our relationship with the greater majority of American society. This type of litigiousness is divisive and achieves nothing but resentment and actually causes far more harm than good to the overall image of the Muslim community in the eyes of non-Muslim America.

4. It is our hope as Americans and as Muslims that U.S. Airways stand firm in its defense of its actions to have the gentleman removed for concerns regarding their behavior after entering the plane. This is not about race or religion. It is about the privilege to fly securely.

5. The constant exploitation of America's culture of political correctness especially in this setting of what is the most dangerous environment of air travel is out of touch with America's priorities. Such misguided priorities by Muslim activist organizations like CAIR will make the legitimate defense of our civil rights far more difficult when more serious complaints of racism and discrimination are involved. America is quickly becoming numb to their constant refrains and the polls demonstrate the profound ineffectiveness of their tiring campaigns.

6. The organized Muslim community should instead be working on developing a strategic plan to counter militant Islamism within the Muslim community. That would do a lot more to change public opinion than suing the airlines who are trying to keep Americans who travel safe.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


CONTACT: AIFD Chairman, Board of Directors: M. Zuhdi Jasser. 602-254-1840, info@aifdemocracy.org . Website: www.aifdemocracy.org

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Unable to Keep An Eye On CAIR - Part 6.1

We were unable to keep an eye On CAIR this time because CAIR apparently bears a grudge against any individual or group that has the temerity to do anything other then blindly swallow CAIR’s dubious propoganda. Dinah Lord at Maverick News caught this one.

CAIR was holding their news conference today to announce the Six Flying Imams lawsuit. It was soon clear that CAIR did not want anyone there that might raise uncomfortable questions regarding the veracity of the Six Imams in light of the substantial evidence to the contrary, nor, for at least one of them, questions about his significant ties to organizations shut down in the past few years for their criminal ties to terrorist entities. Apparently, CAIR expected just such questions from CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network. And thus, the CBN crew were unceremoniously ejected from the premises by Ibrahim Hooper, who added

We have long barred the Christian Broadcasting Network from our news conferences because of their long, long history of vicious, anti-Muslim bigotry. And we have no motivation to promote that kind of intolerance. And it's a private function and we have decided they are not welcome.

If the irony of that statement does not have you rolling on the floor in gales of laughter, you either have no sense of humor or simply are not yet up to snuff on the nature of Wahhabi Islam and the track record of CAIR -- in which case its time to hit the books.

Please read Ms. Lord's entire post here.

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Keeping an Eye on CAIR - Part 6: The Flying Imams File

CAIR has held its press conference announcing the filing of the lawsuit by the flying imams. Their press release also has a link to the lawsuit itself. According to the facts therein, the imams were the model of decorum, at no time even discussing religion or politics, and indeed, several of the imams fell asleep upon boarding. Damn, how did it happen that all of the people who gave evidence in the police report to the contrary (see here) conspired to lie against these men just because they were Muslims? Its just rampant Islamaphobia, I guess. We will just have to wait for discovery -- and I do so with baited breath.

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