Posted on 08/28/2006 10:07:18 AM PDT by Lorianne
It happened again this week. I came out of the office to find a flyer under my windshield wipers inviting me to a special informational presentation on God and family values, and how to bring them back to the forefront in America.
I'm a parent, so the flyer caught my interest. But as an analyst for the Northeast Intelligence Network, my eyes were riveted to the address on the flyer: The session was being held at a nearby mosque.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided it would be a good time for some onsite investigations of the mosque. In order to not attract undue attention, I dressed conservatively, wearing a navy jumper with a long sleeve white blouse, and low heels. I debated whether or not to put on a hijab (head scarf) then decided not to. After all, I was going to "learn," not to pretend I was a Muslim.
I checked the mosque schedule on the Web, and discovered there was going to be an Arabic language session an hour before. So I showed up an hour early. The imam met me at the door, and told me that the presentation didn't start for an hour, and suggested I come back in an hour. Fortunately, I had anticipated this. I explained that since I had quite a bit of reading to do for a class I was taking. "Can I just sit here and read?"
He hesitated a moment, then agreed. I sat in the back of the room, with my book open, and made a mental note to remember to turn the pages every so often, as I listened to the speakers in Arabic.
The first speaker was the head of the Muslim Students' Association at the nearby university. Although I missed the beginning of the discussion, I caught up quickly. He was talking about the problems he had encountered on a recent trip, when TSA flagged him for extra screening. He joked about the fact that they had stopped him for extensive screening. He had anticipated that he would be screened and he had filled his carryon luggage with printouts of the Quran from the Internet, and had 15 or 16 CDs labeled in Arabic, and he had a notebook computer with him.
As he expected, he was delayed he thought it was very amusing that while several TSA personnel were scrutinizing his personal belongings that his classmate from Jordan was able to walk through security, along with his American girlfriend, without any problems whatsoever.
One of the men said, in Arabic: "Blonde Americans are good for something!" Another man advised him to be cautious, since there was an American woman in the room. The imam spoke up and told everyone I didn't speak Arabic.
At that point, another student took the podium. His name was Khaled, and he began to recount his recent trip to New York City. Khaled and three of his companions had gone to New York for several days in January. He told of how uncomfortable his trip up to NYC had been. He felt like he was being watched, and thought he was the victim of racial profiling.
Khaled and his friends were pretty unhappy about it, and while in New York, they came up with a plan to "teach a lesson" to the passengers and crew. You can imagine the story Khaled told. He described how he and his friends whispered to each other on the flight, made simultaneous visits to the restroom, and generally tried to "spook" the other passengers. He laughed when he described how several women were in tears, and one man sitting near him was praying.
The others in the room thought the story was quite amusing, judging from the laughter. The imam stood up and told the group that this was a kind of peaceful civil disobedience that should be encouraged, and commended Khaled and his friends for their efforts.
He pointed out that it was through this kind of civil disobedience that ethnic profiling would fail.
One of the other men, Ahmed from Kuwait, gave a brief account of his friend Eyad, who had finally gone to Iraq. Ahmed was in e-mail contact with Eyad, and hoped by the following week to be able to bring them more information about the state of the "mujahideen" in Iraq.
As the meeting drew to a close, the imam gave a brief speech calling for the protection of Allah on the mujahideen fighting for Islam throughout the world, and reminded everyone that it was their duty as Muslims to continue in the path of jihad, whether it was simple efforts like those of Khaled and his friends, or the actual physical fighting of men like Eyad.
As the meeting broke up, several women in hijabs came in the room, and two of them sat with me. They were very warm and friendly and welcoming, and appeared to be clearly thrilled that I was there. They asked me questions about who I was, and why I was interested in the session.
By the time the session began, there were half a dozen American women, four of them African-American. Where the previous session had definite anti-American tones, this session was all American and Apple Pie. The earlier session had been in Arabic this one was in English.
The woman leading the session, Nafisa, told of the concerns she had regarding her daughters in the public-school system. She complained about the influence of the MTV culture, and seemed concerned about the rampant sexuality that pervaded all facets of American life, from television to movies and on into the school system.
She explained her personal solution - the local Islamic school, beginning with kindergarten. Instead of worrying about her daughters dressing provocatively and behaving inappropriately with boys, she talked about the modest school uniforms they wore, and the single-gender classes her daughters attended.
She then began to discuss Islam, focusing on the commonalities it has with Christianity. The sales pitch had clearly begun. While in the previous section, the men had quoted over and over again sura from the Quran calling for violent jihad, the women's session focused on the "gentler" side of Islam.
The same imam who demanded that the men continue in the path of jihad did a complete 180-degree turn in this session, stressing instead the suras that promoted the "brotherhood" between Muslims, Christians and Jews. "After all, we worship the same God, and follow the teachings in the books he gave each of us. We are all the same, we are all People of the Book," he stressed.
The differences between the sessions were striking. Clearly the second session was a recruiting session.
Were the women aware of what was being taught in the first session? Certainly those women who spoke Arabic should have been.
The reason for concern is obvious: Two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the wellbeing of their children.
But the Arabic-speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.
It shows clearly that as much as we'd like to pretend it hasn't, jihad has reached Small-Town, USA. This mosque isn't in Washington, D.C., or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep South.
And if it's in this tiny little quiet southern town, it's probably in your hometown, too.
[Laura Mansfield is a freelance writer with over 20 years of experience dealing with Middle East issues. She is fluent in written and spoken Arabic, and has an excellent understanding of the complex cultural, religious and historical issues. Her experience includes nearly seven years living and working in the region for a wide range of private and government clients.]
The story questionably ommits the fact the author can apparently understand Arabic.
I agree on the BS meter..
Muslims really like to foster this myth that they preserve family values much better than most Christian denominations, and perhaps, in some instances, they are right. No abortions among Muslims, that is for sure, and infidelity by the female spouse is almost unheard of, and not repeated after being discovered (usually by stoning or decapitating the miscreant wife). Of course, infidelity is defined differently for Muslim males, as they have a number of options not extended to the married females, or even single females, for the most part. Widowed or divorced females are fair game, in any event. The command is, that the forms and rituals of the Islamic ideology must be preserved and carried out every day, without fail, and slackers or truants to these services shall be sought out and physical reminders given them.
And pedophilia, as defined by Westerners, is merely hands-on sex education among Muslims. Incest is excused on the difficulty of finding dates outside your own household, and the girls really have to get around to reproducing sometime before their fifteenth birthday, or else they shall surely be unmarriageable and a burden on the household.
Then what distinguishes you from the "Bush lied about WMDs crowd?"
"She wasn't interested in finishing her day with a cut throat or a flaming gasoline shower."
This sounds quite silly. I didn't mean she should open up during the Arabic language session. I meant that after the whole affair was over she could have simply told the Imam that she understood what was being said and asked him about it.
He may have lied about what was said or he might have clarified the meaning. She then could have told her story to the local newspaper.
It would be paranoic for her to imagine that she would need to fear for her life.
> Muzzies... murder civilians whether children or helpless old people. ... Root them out and kill/deport them.
Errrrrrrmmmmm.....
Why am I not surprised???
I'll say it again...
To reinforce what this woman did, y'all need to find a copy of the book titled:
"Terrorist Hunter"
by "Anonymous"
The author Anonymous is not that anymore, but I highly recommend this book...It begins with aq very compelling story of this womans childhood and escape from Iraq...
How she became an expert on this issue later in life is something that I almost could not put down...
It dovetails right into this thread like it was an exerpt from its pages...
And to think these activities and discussions inside these mosques to this day does not surprise me...
Dirn it!
Ping...hehehe
Hit post to fast...
I'm not saying that it *is* BS, just that to me, it reads like it.
It all just seems too pat. It's hard to explain. I could be completely wrong, I'll admit but still my BS meter is above normal on this one.
Again, I have no problem at all imagining that this sort of thing (and worse) does indeed go on in U.S. mosques.
I would encourage her to be more open. Ask the Imam what he meant when he asked Allah to protect fighters around the world. Did he mean in Afghanistan? Does he include those Islamic soldiers and police fighting to preserve freedom in Iraq?
Were it me, and if I didn't get satisfactory answers, I would have tried to have the information published in my local paper, perhaps contacted the FBI.
What she's doing now, whether fact or fiction, will only spread fear. If her allegations are true, why not do something constructive about it?
I swear i read this post on here months ago.Does anyone remember this post a couple of months ago.
"Then what distinguishes you from the "Bush lied about WMDs crowd?"
I think I don't understand your question. It makes no sense to me. There was specific evidence from many different trusted sources about the existence of weapons and weapons programs. For the life of me, I can't see a connection between these two things.
The best I can figure is that you're suggesting that this woman bears some similarity to Clinton, Gore, Kerry, etc., people who said there were weapons but refused to lift a finger to do anything. But somehow I don't think that's what you mean.
It is being encouraged as a form of "civil disobedieance."
These people do not identify with other Americans, but clearly see themselves as the "other."
meaning what?????????
Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Your ignorance on that issue is amazing.
> meaning what?????????
Killing innocents (or advocating doing so) because they are of a particular religious group...
If it Not Good for Group A to do so, why is it ok for Group B to do so?
zook, zook, zook.
OF COURSE a report like this will strike fear in the hearts of every reader of these words. We may need to have fear spread around a LOT more, to stir people into taking action. It is for sure, the Muslims will not take the necessary steps to purge Islam of the double-talk and the false representations the imams have made of their theological and ideological goals. Everybody is either to become Muslim, or be reduced to the status of "dhimmi", or assume room temperature and provide worm food and compost.
None of the three alternatives appeals to me very much. It is all done with the element of compulsion, and is diametrically opposed to the individual human dignity which is considered one of the high ideals of Western civilization. If Muslims want me to respect Islam, they must first respect my point of view, and allow their belief system to compete openly. This means that Muslims are free to leave the Islamic religion after becoming conversant with the postulates of other beliefs, without fear of retaliation by their former brethren.
Muslims are almost TOO zealous about pursuing their prejudices. Nobody would tolerate a Christian being so bigoted, adamant and dogmatic for ten seconds.
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