Free Republic

November 10, 2009Exclusive: Who is Anwar al-Awlaki? Adrian Morgan At Ford Hood on Friday November 5th, after giving away a Koran, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan called out "Allahu Akbar" and began shooting at his fellow military personnel. Ultimately he killed 13 and wounded more than 30, and the media was buzzing with rumors.     Recently, one American born Islamic academic has been in the headlines, apparently connected to both Major Hasan and also to al Qaeda terrorists. Anwar al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico. He has lived in Yemen since late 2001 or early 2002, but possesses a...

The Web Site for the Fort Hood Shooter’s Penpal Is Down Look at which web site is down this morning: Anwar al Awlaki’s. The post praising the Fort Hood Shooter’s killing spree is down too. Was it the unwanted spike in traffic that forced the al Qaeda cleric to take down his site? Or, is it just a technical glitch? Or, is there “interference” from outside forces? We don’t know for sure. But there is a small note in the upper right-hand corner that says: “This domain may be for sale.” And the site that comes up now is one...

Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing November 9, 2009 - ال 1430 by Anwar al Awlaki Filed under Imam Anwar's Blog Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn’t exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war...

A radical American imam on Yemen's most wanted militant list who had contact with two 9/11 hijackers praised alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as a hero on his personal Web site Monday. The posting on the Web site for Anwar al Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, said American Muslims who condemned the attacks on the Texas military base last week are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion. Awlaki said the only way a Muslim can justify serving in the U.S. military is if he intends to...

WINDSOR, Ontario -- A judge on Friday granted bail for two Canadian men who face extradition to the U.S. on charges linked to the slain leader of a radical Detroit-area Islamic group. Mohammad Al-Sahli, 33, was granted bail of 300,000 Canadian dollars ($280,000), while Yassir Ali Khan, 30, was granted bail of CA$260,000 ($242,000). The men were also placed under partial house arrest and must report weekly to police.

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (AFP) – Islam is "not responsible" for the bloodbath at an army base in Texas where Muslim-American army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly gunned down 13 people, the prayer leader at the mosque where the officer regularly worshipped said Friday. "We offer our condolences and prayers to the families that have a person who died," said Imam Mohammed Abdullahi over loud-speakers that carried the weekly Muslim prayer to several hundred worshippers gathered at the mosque. "Islam is not responsible," he stressed. Many of the worshippers who had come to the mosque in this suburb of Washington knew...

Imam says Fort Hood suspect didn't seem radicalAssociated Press 11/05/09 10:35 PM EST SILVER SPRING, MD. — A Maryland imam at the mosque attended by the suspected Fort Hood, Texas, shooter says the Army psychiatrist never seemed to be an extremist. Imam Faizul Khan says he knew Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan for more than 10 years. They first met at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring. Kahn says Hasan was quiet and reserved. They mostly discussed religious matters, but Khan says Hasan never seemed controversial. They rarely discussed politics. Kahn says they spoke often about how Hasan wanted to...

DETROIT — A mosque on Friday dismissed as "utterly preposterous" the FBI's allegations that its murdered leader was part of a radical Islamic group. Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the imam or prayer leader of Masjid Al-Haqq in Detroit, was a "recognized and respected member of numerous mainstream Muslim organizations and leadership bodies," the mosque said.

Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the imam of Detroit’s Masjid Al-Haqq (Mosque of Truth), was killed Wednesday in a shootout with FBI agents. The agents were trying to arrest him on charges of conspiracy, receipt of stolen goods, firearms offenses and more. Agents also arrested eight mosque members; then Thursday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police caught Abdullah’s son, Mujahid Carswell. Two other accused jihadists also fled, and have not yet been found. According to the indictment, in his mosque in Detroit Luqman Abdullah was preaching “offensive jihad” and the establishment of a Sharia state in North America. This sovereign Isamic state would...

The case of the Flying Imams reached a settlement; and it favors political correctness and misguided views on profiling and religious sensitivities over common sense. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which represented the imams, said the settlement is "a victory for civil rights." "The six imams are pleased," Hooper said. "Their rights were maintained by the settlement." This is no victory for civil rights. These imams gave reasonable cause for alarm, based as much upon behavioral profiling as much as religious and ethnic profiling. The settlement sends a message that favors stupidity over safety: That lawsuit...

Detroit mosque leader killed in a hail of gun fire by FBI agents. Sometimes, the government gets it right.

October 28, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: Eleven Members/Associates of Ummah Charged with Federal Violations One Subject Fatally Shot During Arrest United States Attorney Terrence Berg, Eastern District of Michigan, Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent in Charge (SAC), Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI), Detroit, Michigan, and Police Chief Warren Evans, Detroit Police Department (DPD), Detroit, Michigan announced a federal complaint was unsealed today charging Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a.Christopher Thomas, and 10 others with conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of arson, illegal possession and sale of...

Note: Photo and video included. SNIPPET: "Ahmad Wais Afzali, 53, is charged with tipping off Najibullah Zazi that New York City police detectives were after him. Afzali is also accused of lying about it to federal agents. The Imam remains free on bail." His lawyer says the indictment is "merely a tired rehash of the same discredited allegations."

The lawyer for a Flushing imam arrested in a nationwide terror probe said his client's family plans to put up property in Queens and Virginia to secure a request for bail. Ron Kuby, the civil rights attorney representing Ahmad Wasi Afzali, 37, said the property would be posted by relatives of Afzali at a bail hearing Thursday in Brooklyn federal court...Federal prosecutors said they intend to try to keep Afzali in jail on the grounds that he may flee. The Brooklyn bail hearing, as well as one in Denver, where two other suspects are being held, comes as major rail...

If Najibullah Zazi had any doubts he was a prime suspect in a terror investigation, authorities say, they were quickly erased by a local imam. "They came to ask me about your characters," the Queens imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, told Zazi in a Sept. 11 phone conversation, according to a secret recording. "They asked me about you guys." The "they" referred to in a recently unsealed criminal complaint were New York Police Department detectives who had considered Afzali a reliable ally. At least one works for a division that operates independently from an FBI-run terrorism task force. Afzali's alleged tipoff...

A New York City Muslim imam, who acted as a police informant, betrayed his handlers by tipping off a terrorism suspect... Ahmad Wais Afzali, of the New York borough of Queens, was among three men arrested during the weekend in connection with an alleged bombing plot... The documents show that Zazi, 24, of Denver, abruptly left New York and returned to Colorado after having wiretapped phone conversations with the imam, which the FBI alleges contained talk of how police were interested in Zazi... Zazi attended an al-Qaida terrorism training camp in Pakistan and was arrested in possession of notes detailing...

A highly influential Shi’a religious leader, with whom Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regularly consults, apparently told followers last month that coercion by means of rape, torture and drugs is acceptable against all opponents of the Islamic regime ...Mesbah-Yazdi is considered Ahmadinejad’s personal spiritual guide. A radical totalitarian even in Iranian terms, he holds messianic views, supports increasing Islamization, calls for violent suppression of domestic political opponents, and, according to the ITIC, “declared that obeying a president supported by the Supreme Leader was tantamount to obeying God.” Asked if a confession obtained “by applying psychological, emotional and physical pressure” was “valid...

Homeland Security: Despite overwhelming support in and out of Congress, legal protection for airline passengers who report suspicious behavior is being blocked by Democratic leaders. Wasn't one 9/11 enough for them? Were it not for the courage and sacrifice of the passengers of United Flight 93 who forced their plane into a Pennsylvania field, many in Congress might not be here today, with a gaping hole where the U.S. Capitol still stands. We wonder if this fact is appreciated by those trying to block final passage of the so-called "John Doe" provision protecting from legal action those who report suspicious...

U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery cleared the way for their lawsuit to go to August trial. They claim their rights were violated when they were removed from their flight in the Twin Cities.

Barack Obama's approval rating hit a new low of 56% in the most recent survey (7/5-7/7), according to Gallup. His "Disapprove" number also hit a new high of 36%.

On this evening’s Hardball, NBC News correspondent Jim Maceda reported that in the wake of his speech, Arabs view Barack Obama not at all as an American president, but as an “enlightened regional leader” and “an imam.” Chris Matthews was, naturally, thrilled. View video here.

Amid all the shocking details in the disrupted plot to bomb Bronx synagogues and fire missiles at American military aircraft, one component of the case should come as no surprise - three of the alleged culprits converted to radical Islam in prison. Radical Islamists have targeted prison populations for recruitment for years. That's where Jose Padilla, suspected of plotting to detonate a dirty bomb and convicted of conspiracy to murder people overseas and of providing material support to terrorists, converted and was radicalized. That's where a California man, Kevin James, created his own cell, called the Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS),...

Tampa police arrested an imam and accused the Muslim prayer leader of sexually battering a 13-year-old boy who was at a Tampa mosque for early prayer. Shahade Police said the boy was staying at the mosque overnight on Saturday for early morning prayer. At about 6 a.m., police said he was assaulted by an imam who was living at the Masjid Omar Al Mokhtar mosque, which is located at 1307 W North B Street.

Special Dispatch - No. 2355 May 13, 2009 No. 2355 "First Black Saudi Appointed Imam of Haram Mosque in Mecca Accuses Shi'ites of Apostasy and Discusses Driving Jews and Christians Out of Arabian Peninsula; Claims His Appointment 'More Significant' than Obama's Election" SNIPPET: "Following are excerpts from interviews with Sheikhh Adel Al-Kalbani, imam of the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca, which aired on BBC Arabic on May 5, 2009 and Al-Arabiya TV on February 27, 2009. BBC Arabic, May 5, 3009: To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2102.htm "

The Italian police have arrested two men suspected of planning an attack on the Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris. They are also suspected of planning other attacks in France and Great Britain. The two are thought to play a leading role in the al-Qaeda network.

A man wearing an Iraqi army uniform has shot dead two US soldiers and injured three others in a military base south of the northern city of Mosul. The US army said the man was also killed in the incident but gave little information about the attack. But Iraqi military reports said he was a soldier also working as an Imam for at a mosque on the base. No motive was given for the attack but Mosul is seen as the last remaining urban stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The US army said it had received reports of "small arms...

The head of a Queens Islamic school is accused of brutally beating a 12-year-old student over a crack made about the man's private parts, The Post has learned.

Two years after it sparked a violent campaign of suicide bombings across north-western Pakistan, the Red Mosque in the country's capital, Islamabad, is again alive with chants of victory for Islam. On Friday, thousands of worshippers filled the sprawling Red Mosque compound and spilled onto the street outside to listen to the sermon by the mosque's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was released from jail the previous night.

TWO years ago, Sheik Adil Kalbani dreamed that he had become an imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. Waking up, he dismissed the dream as a temptation to vanity. Although he is known for his fine voice, Sheik Adil is black, and the son of a poor immigrant from the Persian Gulf. Leading prayers at the Grand Mosque is an extraordinary honor, usually reserved for pure-blooded Arabs from the Saudi heartland. So he was taken aback when the phone rang last September and a voice told him that King Abdullah had chosen him as the first...

Junior defence minister Jack de Vries has delayed deciding on the appointment of a Muslim cleric for the army for two weeks because his favoured candidate has proved to be controversial. The imam has written columns describing prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende as a 'mad crusader', Nos tv reports. In addition, he has said that Christians are always at war with Muslims and that Muslim men are entitled to refuse to shake hands with women. MPs on Wednesday demanded that the appointment be cancelled.

April 2, 2009 Italian authorities carry out raids against "Islamist radicals" across country SNIPPET: "Rome, 2 April (AKI) - Twenty-six foreigners suspected of links to international terrorism as well as aiding and abetting illegal immigration are being investigated by Italian police, after raids carried out on Thursday in various Italian cities. The raids were carried out in properties around the northern cities of Vicenza, Venice, Padova, Brescia, Como, Cuneo and Trento, the central city of Florence and the southern city of Caserta. The anti-terrorism and organised crime investigators in March 2007 began probing alleged Islamic fundamentalists attending the Via Dei...

CHESAPEAKE -- A Muslim leader faces sexual assault charges. Chesapeake police arrested Imam Iskender Ali Mihr, also known as Iskender Evrenosoglu, on Tuesday. The alleged victim says she was inappropriately touched last October while she was in his office for prayer. That woman, a college student, left the U.S. and returned to Turkey. She’s one of 100 followers of Ali Mihr in Hampton Roads. Iskender Evrenosoglu, who lives on Marina Reach, is charged with one count of sexual battery. Police say the woman filed a report on January 19 and Evrenosoglu was arrested Monday and released that day. The Imam...

Reporting from Cairo--The Islamic preacher slipped on a pair of shorts and talked about the Koran while playing beach volleyball, eating barbecue and joking about hot cars and palaces in paradise. If the West were to dream up its version of an ideal imam, he might look and sound like Mostafa Hosni,a 30-year-old former Nestle accountant who's comfortable in argyle sweaters and hip to self-help.A video of his seaside sermon posted on his website was a cross between a travel brochure and a spiritual quest for the BlackBerry generation. "We decided to leave the city and go somewhere with a...

More evil and violence from the ‘religion’ of ‘piece’. No wonder muslim kids grow up so full of hate and venom, the very people charged with protecting them are beating them down in the name of allah. Gee what a shocker there… Muslim children are being beaten and abused regularly by teachers at some British madrassas - Islamic evening classes - an investigation by The Times has found. Students have been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted, according to an unpublished report by an imam based on interviews with victims in the north of England. One was “picked up...

"The Imam who came forward to assist in the search of Barack Obama’s identity left Kenya secretly last night, and will arrive in the UK this morning. He will meet with a US contact person who will assist him in recording an asylum statement in the UK after handing over the documents that caused the blessing of Obama when he was born and to confirm the origin of the name Hussein." snip "The Imam is the grandson of the late Imam who blessed Barack Obama when he was born in Mombasa on the 4th of august 1961."

Hussein Obama - 12th Imam? Topics: Political News and commentaries Well, not exactly! It's been a slow news day, so I just couldn't help but put this up. I'm not suggesting that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim, but the image goes along with today's news of Obama admitting that he went to Pakistan in college. He went on to say, "I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee..." So he obviously had to have had some kind of exposure to Islam while there. Was it from visiting a madrassa or perhaps,...

On Thursday, June 12, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) will hold a news conference at CAIR’s Capitol Hill headquarters to announce the launch of a nationwide mosque census project, the first comprehensive survey of its kind.   WHAT: News Conference to Announce Mosque Census Project WHEN: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 11 a.m. WHERE: CAIR’s Capitol Hill headquarters, 453 New Jersey Ave, S.E., Washington, D.C. CONTACT: CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-341-4171 or 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com   The census, which will be conducted this summer, is sponsored by a coalition of organizations...

An imam in Morocco's eastern city of Fez has said that marriages between Moroccan women and European men who are not Muslims are forbidden under Islam. Each summer in Morocco, a growing number of local women are reportedly marrying young European men. "This kind of marriage, between Moroccan women and European men, is forbidden by the Koran (the Muslim holy book) and the Sunna (the way or deeds of the Prophet Mohammed)," Sheikh Mohammed al-Tawil said in a TV interview. "A Muslim woman may not marry an unbeliever while a Muslim man may marry Christian and Jewish women," he told...

A Muslim cleric graphically described the torture to which he claims he was subjected to in Israeli custody as he fought to block U.S. efforts to deport him on grounds he lied on his residency application. "Judge, you cannot imagine," Mohammad Qatanani said Monday, his voice breaking. "They say, 'We will kill your family.' They say: 'You know what your family is doing now? We will go to them, we will burn them.'" Qatanani paused to compose himself before telling Immigration Judge Alberto J. Riefkohl, "At that time, you feel that death is better than life." The detention is at...

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals. The Illinois senator interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that Bush's words were in any way directed at Obama, who has said as president he would be willing to personally meet with Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue. In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as...

Algerian immigrants who drown in the Mediterranean Sea on their way to Europe should be considered 'martyrs', according to a prominent imam. According to the local daily, Ennahar, Sheikh Shamsedin Bourubi issued a fatwa, or religious edict, on Monday saying that the Muslim faithful should pray for their souls. "The immigrants who leave Algeria by sea in a bid to reach Europe and die by drowning in the Mediterannean are 'martyrs' and are not committing suicide," he said. "So it is legal to conduct funeral prayers for their souls." The Bourubi's fatwa appears to contradict a preceding fatwa issued by...

When he faces an immigration judge in two weeks, a popular Muslim cleric fighting deportation may have to counter claims that he confessed to being a member of a terrorist group. According to Israeli military authorities, Imam Mohammad Qatanani admitted being a member of the militant Hamas organization during interrogation in 1993 in Israel. The U.S. State Department includes Hamas on its list of "designated foreign terrorist organizations." Anyone identified as a member or a supporter of an organization on the list can be refused entry to the U.S., according to Lucille Cirillo, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol....

PATERSON, N.J. — For a dozen years, Mohammad Qatanani has supported the members of the Islamic Center of Passaic County by speaking at funerals, hashing out ethical dilemmas and sometimes opening his home to domestic-violence victims at a moment’s notice. But now Dr. Qatanani, 44, the imam of the mosque here, requires the support of the members: he has been barred by federal immigration authorities from renewing his driver’s license, and must call on friends to ferry him to hospitals for visits with the sick among his flock. There are fund-raisers for him at the mosque. And after Friday prayers,...

The executive committee of the Democratic National Committee has elected three Indian-Americans to the standing committees at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, convening Aug. 25-28 in Denver, Colo....Pakistan-born Iman Malik Mujahid, founder and president of Chicago-based Islamic teaching materials distributor Sound Vision Foundation, was named to the credentials committee, which coordinates selection of convention delegates and alternates. Sunita Leeds, co-chair of the Washington, D.C.-based education-oriented Enfranchisement Foundation, was named one of the three co-chairs of the rules committee...San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Smita Shah, ...were named to the platform committee... Mujahid is a Muslim leader, activist, film producer...

An historic visit by the imam of Rome's mosque, Ala Eldin Mohammed Ismail al-Ghobashy, to the Rome synagogue tomorrow has been called off at the last moment on instructions from Muslim authorities in Cairo. Abdullah Redouane, secretary of the Rome Islamic Cultural Centre, who was to have accompanied the imam, claimed the cancellation was for "organisational reasons". However Italian reports quoted Abdul Fattah Allam, spokesman for Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, head of Al Azhar University in Cairo, as saying the sheikh had ordered the imam not to meet Rome's Jews while Israel continued to "refuse to restore the rights" of...

CRETEIL, France -- ...200 Muslim worshipers crowded into a former carpentry workshop here for noon prayers. The men knelt on red carpets in a first-floor hall, the women squeezed into the tiny office upstairs....But next June, Creteil's Muslims are scheduled to move into a new, $7.4 million mosque with room for more than 2,500 worshipers. The nearly finished building, with its 81-foot minaret, stands on a knoll overlooking the town's picturesque lake, within sight of city hall... The mosque will make Creteil something of an exception in Europe. From London to Cologne to Marseille, governments and residents are fighting the...

To be a "good" Muslim References -  'Palestinian' child abuse -  Evil 'Joy' -  'Blessing' Hitler -  Mourning the wicked -  Australia - Muslim land -  Jihad on all Buddhists -  Spain - Muslim land -  Europe - Muslim land -  Arabs DON'T care about 'Palestinians' -  72 virgins - Loyalty -  'Pallywood' -  (use of) Ambulances for terror -  (use of) Women for terror -  Human Shields -  Middle east background -  September 11 terror plot on London -  Myth on: 'Terrorists are desperate' -  Beheadings -  Ilan Halimi [an example of monsterous wild prolonged torture motivated by hate only] -  Muslims attacking Jews in France -  Ahmadinejad ' Islamic Hitler' -  Cutting -  'Honor killing' -  Jews & Christians as "Apes & Pigs"? - ...

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- The leader of a Muslim center has resigned after telling a newspaper that, in the eyes of the Islamic community, a death sentence was warranted for the best-selling author and critic of radical Islam Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who recently visited the area. Fouad ElBayly said yesterday he had stepped down as imam and president of the Islamic Center of Johnstown. He said the center's board members requested his resignation. The request came in response to Mr. ElBayly's comments about Ms. Hirsi Ali, who spoke April 17 at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown. Mr. ElBayly, a native of Egypt...

Text of report by Kenyan KTN TV on 25 April A contingent of heavily armed police officers attached to the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit this morning raided Goraya village [phonetic] in Mvita [Coast Province] arresting 11 people on suspicion of being linked to the Al-Qa'idah network. Among the arrested were the imam of Kwashibu [phonetic] mosque, Shaykh Ibrahim Mohamed Salim, and a National Museums of Kenya staffer based at the Fort Jesus Museum. Relatives said the police officers arrived at around 0200 [local time] this morning and moved from house to house where they ransacked wardrobes and left with a number...

Norwegian-Somalian Kadra, who became famous in Norway for exposing imam support of female circumcision, was beaten unconscious on Thursday. Kadra was attacked and beaten senseless by seven or eight persons of Somali origin, newspaper VG reports. "I was terrified. While I lay on the pavement they kicked me and screamed that I had trampled on the Koran. Several shouted Allah-o-akbar (God is great) and also recited from the Koran," Kadra told VG. Kadra linked the attack to recent remarks in VG where she said that the Koran's views on women needed to be reinterpreted. Kadra said that the gang of...