Sheikh Gilani Lane Videos

An extra-big size 7¾ hat tip to CP, who recorded these WDBJ7 News stories from Tuesday night and uploaded them to YouTube. With his permission and encouragement, I am embedding them here:

Now I know that “The Rev” (see previous post) and Sam Weddington are one and the same person.

The elderly lady who gets interviewed in the video is Nathalie Jones, the mother of Averett Jones. Mr. Jones, as you may remember from the Charlotte County Files, is the editor of The Southside Messenger.

It’s all in the family, y’all.

[Nothing follows]

Imitatio Christi

Christ carrying His crossThe other night at the Charlotte Courthouse demonstration I engaged in a lengthy discussion — well, an argument, really — with a Presybterian minister. I’ll call him “The Rev”, since I never caught his name.

The Rev counts among his friends a number of residents of the Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound in Red House, and he thinks that they are being unfairly maligned when we associate them with terrorism.

I pointed out that their founder and leader, Sheikh Gilani, is on record as supporting violent Jihad against Americans, and that members of the group have been convicted of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, fraud, and firearms violations, among other things.

But it was his contention that such things had nothing to do with the people in the Red House compound. I got the feeling that he considered the Muslims of America to be a big-tent organization, with room for peaceful Muslims here and terrorists there, a group that has something for everyone — with the possible exceptions of homosexuals and pig farmers, of course.

He has worshipped with these folks, taken meals with them, and coached their children. He knows that they are good people, and that they came to Red House so that they could practice their faith in peace. He said that it was wrong for me to judge people whom I have never even met.

I told him about some of the history of the Red House Compound — its use as a safe house for fugitive felons, the firearms stockpiling and subsequent arrests — but he waved that away impatiently. “You haven’t even met these people,” he said. “How can you justify going around spreading all this fear?”

Another participant in the discussion pointed out that the Koran explicitly prescribes violence against non-believers. This made The Rev especially voluble.

“Christianity has had its share of violence! The Bible has its own violent verses — ‘dash the babies’ heads to pieces’ and so on.

“Christ’s message to us is that we must love one another, and that love includes our Muslim brothers and sisters. This attitude of suspicion and hate is what’s wrong with the world today.”

After I came home, I thought about what The Rev had said, and I spent a little time looking up some of the violent verses in the Bible.
– – – – – – – – – –
The passage he referred to may have been from Hosea 13:15-16:

Though he may flourish among his brothers, the east wind, the wind of the LORD, shall come, rising from the wilderness, and his fountain shall dry up; his spring shall be parched; it shall strip his treasury of every precious thing. Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

Or it might have been Isaiah 13:15-16:

Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.

For additional violence, consider the peculiar revenge that Elisha took on the obnoxious little boys, from 2 Kings 2:23-24:

Then he [Elisha] went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.

You have to really comb through the New Testament to find anything violent (except for the violence that was directed against Christians by their persecutors, of course).

The verse that is most often cited in this regard is Matthew 10:34:

[Jesus said,] “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

But only a superficial reading would take this to be a prescription for violence. The next two verses make it clear that Christ was predicting internecine — even intra-family — conflict between those who believed in him and those who didn’t:

“For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.”

The Koran, on the other hand, is rife with violent passages. Yoel Natan has compiled a selection of 164 verses explicitly directing the believer to wage violent jihad against the infidel. And those are just from the Koran itself, and not from the Hadith or the Sunna.

Here’s a selection:

2:190-191 …fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you… And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.

8:12 When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.

8:39 …fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah

9:29 Fight those who do not believe in Allah…nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.

25:52 So obey not the unbelievers and fight strenuously with them in many a strenuous fight.

47:4 …when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates…

If you compare these passages with those from the Old Testament, you’ll notice a big difference: the violence in the Koran is normative, while the violence in the Bible is descriptive. The scripture of the Christians and the Jews tells stories about violence, but the Koran requires believers to practice it on behalf of Allah.

In 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, and 2 Chronicles one can find descriptions of hideous carnage, but no directives from God to the Israelites to inflict the carnage.

The prophets repeatedly describe what is to come — the wages of sin to be meted out to the House of Israel. They do not direct God’s chosen people to commit such violence.

The exception is to be found in Joshua, which describes the occupation by the Israelites of the Promised Land; their instruction is to drive out the Canaanites.

But — and this is crucial — once the land is occupied by the tribes of Israel, there is no further divine mandate for slaughter. God did not order His chosen people to convert pagans to Judaism at the point of a sword, nor to kill those who refuse to convert. Judaism was never an expansionist religion, except via the command to “be fruitful and multiply.”

The core message of the Koran, on the other hand, is that all infidels must be converted, killed, or subjugated. Any redaction of this message would leave a lot of blank spaces in the holy text. One can always hope for a modern, enlightened reinterpretation of the book, one that removes the imperative for violence, but it’s very difficult to see how this could be done.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


The history of Christianity includes many instances of barbarism and violence, but such acts were never carried out at the behest of Scripture, but always in spite of it. No Crusader could cite chapter and verse to justify a particular bloody act. The members of the Inquisition believed themselves to be engaged in a holy and righteous cause, but they would have been hard-pressed to point to a passage of the Bible that required them to behave as they did.

Christ carrying His crossAnd what would Jesus do? If He had lived during the time when the Legions of the Prophet swept through the Holy Land, what action would He have recommended to His disciples?

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” doesn’t work here, since, to a Muslim, Ceasar and God are the same person. The temporal and spiritual realms are not distinct; the political order is coterminous with the leadership of the True Faith.

Many modern mainstream Christian leaders seem to think that their religion requires them to kneel before any violent group and bare their necks to the sword. But if Christians in 732 and 1683 had followed this playbook, Christianity would no longer exist.

Christ commanded us to love our enemies, but does He require us to choose between abjuring Him and committing suicide?

Another side of Christ can be found in Matthew 21:12-13:

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘my house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”

A robust resistance to the unholy is incumbent upon all Christians, since the Kingdom will never flourish in a land of brutality and slaughter. It is time to overturn the tables of the beheaders and the seats of those who make the bomb belts.

The people The Rev broke bread with in Red House may be sincere, or they may be cynical manipulators. But, in any case, they are the smiley-face multicultural front for a group that is insidious, violent, and dangerous.

If Christians refuse to look this truth squarely in the face and deal with it, then Christianity is on its last legs.



Thanks to Ben of the 910 Group for help with the Koran research.

MSM Digest: Sheikh Gilani Lane

I want our readers to know that Gates of Vienna beat all the MSM web outlets last night in posting the news story about the Charlotte Courthouse demonstration. We scooped the Richmond Times Dispatch by about half an hour. Plus we had photos!

But here’s a survey of the Real Journalism coverage of the event as of this morning. It ranges from mediocre to not so hot.

WSET TV (ABC 13) had the best account. They also used a copy of Gates of Vienna’s exclusive photo of the “Sheikh Gilani Lane” sign. But that’s OK; we let Christian Action Network borrow it; and the TV people can have it, too.

Group Protests Sheikh Gilani Lane Name

Sheikh Gilani LaneIt wasn’t on Tuesday night’s agenda, but that didn’t stop protesters from getting across their opposition to Sheikh Gilani Lane. About two dozen protestors paraded around the county building.

Their chants included demands that the county rename the road, which is inside a Muslim community in Red House. The Christian Action Network organized the protest, because they say Sheikh Gilani a terrorist. Along with the protestors, there was another group in support of leaving the street sign up.

Nathalie Jones, Supports Sign — “I’m a Christian, and I believe in letting your neighbors make their choice about who they worship.”

Copeland Casati, Wants Sign Removed — “I think there’s a misconception that this is an attack on neighbors. This is not. It’s a concern about Sheikh Gilani.”

Haywood Hamlet, County Supervisor — “We see no need of changing it and opening the precedence of changing names all over the county.”

Despite the county’s stance on the issue, the Christian Action Network says they’ll keep fighting. They say they want to educate county residents about the situation, and say they may hold another protest in the future.

Copeland, by the way, is a young woman. You should see her on TV — she did an excellent job.
– – – – – – – – – –
Next is WDBJ TV (CBS 7):

Road bearing name of suspected terrorist sparks controversy

A road bearing the name of an international terrorist has sparked controversy in Charlotte County.

Sheikh Gilani Lane is an access road into the Muslims of the Americas community in Red House. It is a rural area of Charlotte County, about 15 miles south of Appomattox.

The U.S. government considers Gilani a terrorist. They believe he is responsible, in large part, for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Last week, Charlotte County Supervisors voted not to change the name of the road.

The Christian Action Network, out of Forest, is stepping up its pressure on the board to do something about the road’s name. They demonstrated in front of the county administration building Tuesday night. They chanted slogans and demanded the sign be removed.

However, the board did not address the issue again. Muslims in Red House tell us they are just trying to ignore the controversy and lead a normal life.

That’s not bad; it’s got the WTC bombing aspect in it, which you don’t hear much about.

Finally, the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Charlotte road’s name protested

Carrying signs and chanting as they marched, 20 people turned out last night for an hourlong protest over the name of a road they say honors a terrorist.

Repeating, “Remember our heroes and ground zero,” “It’s about time to remove the sign” and “V-A the American way,” the protesters marched around the Charlotte County administration building, waved their signs along the road and gathered on the lawn under a flagpole in front of the building.

The Forest-based Christian Action Network contends that Sheikh Gilani Lane, located in the Muslims of America enclave, was named after an international terrorist. The network has pushed to have the road sign removed.

Martin J. Mawyer, the group’s president, said he hopes the protest will raise public awareness and urge the county’s supervisors to change the name.

Established in the mid-1990s, the Muslim community sits on 44 acres in the western part of Charlotte County and is made up of mostly mobile homes. Sheikh Gilani Lane was named after Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarik Gilani, who founded the area and other similar sites in the United States. About 20 families were estimated to live at the Charlotte site a few years ago.

Opponents of the road name say the Muslims of America communities are hideouts for the al-Fuqra terrorist organization. They also blame Gilani for the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was reportedly on his way to interview Gilani when he was abducted Jan. 23, 2002, in Karachi.

But residents of the communities repeatedly have denied terrorist ties, insisting the areas are “a pure and safe environment for raising families and for worshipping the One Almighty Creator of all things.”

This month, the county supervisors declined to change the name of the road, citing their long-standing policy against changing road names. County rules allow residents to name their private lanes.

“As citizens of the United States, these individuals have the right to name the [road] whatever they want to,” Supervisor Joseph Carey said.

Mawyer said he will contact the national media about the issue. “It had been our hope that the Board of Supervisors would handle this without bringing national embarrassment to the state and the county,” he said.

The Christian Action Network is a nonprofit lobbying organization that says it is dedicated to protecting traditions of the American family and defending the nation against radical Islam.

The Rev. Sam Weddington, who lives in the county, said last night’s protest makes Muslim residents feel they are not welcomed.

“They are good people,” he said.

Sam Weddington, by the way, is probably the Presbyterian minister I mentioned in my last post. I never got his name.

The tone of this story is not bad; it just has a major factual error. CAN doesn’t blame Sheikh Gilani for Daniel Pearl’s abduction; they just cite his probable involvement in the betrayal of Mr. Pearl to his murderers.

My best guess is this: Sheikh Gilani had arranged through intermediaries to meet Daniel Pearl for an interview. He needed a favor from the group that kidnapped Mr. Pearl, or maybe he needed to ease the tensions of inter-group rivalry. So he traded in his bit of information about where to find his would-be interviewer, and when. And that was it for Daniel Pearl.

It would defy common sense, given the Sheikh’s notorious history, to assert that he had no involvement whatsoever with the abduction of Daniel Pearl. But there’s no way to tell exactly what his rôle was.

“Gilani Lane Is Insane!”

This evening just after dusk the Christian Action Network organized a demonstration at Charlotte County Courthouse. They were protesting against the official county approval of a road named for a known terrorist, Sheik Gilani, the founder of the Muslims of America and Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The event was scheduled just before a Board of Supervisors meeting.

Charlotte Court House


I got there early while it was still light so I could take some photos of the area. Charlotte Courthouse is one of the more beautiful locations in the Commonwealth of Virginia, scenic and historic — the home of Patrick Henry — without being overrun with boutiques and tack shops like a lot of other “old towns” are.

Charlotte Court HouseWhile I was waiting I chatted with a local businesswoman, who said she was appalled by the name “Sheikh Gilani Lane”.

“I’ve got a son in the Navy,” she said. “That’s not what he’s fighting for.”

She wondered why the FBI couldn’t do something about the Red House compound. I reminded her that this is a free country, and that unless someone there did something overtly illegal, there wasn’t much that law enforcement could do.

She gave a reluctant assent, but added, “You know, this country is really getting kind of screwed up.”

Martin Mawyer and the mediaThe Christian Action people gathered at Mimmo’s Restaurant just down the road from the Courthouse to eat and prepare for the demonstration.

The media showed up in full force, and Martin was interviewed a couple of times in front of the restaurant before he could eat his dinner.

The demonstration was not at the Courthouse itself, but just down the road in front of the County Administration Building, since that is where the Board of Supervisors meets.

Counter-demonstratorsI got there early, while the TV crews were setting up, and spent some time talking to the counter-demonstrators who were already there in anticipation of the arrival of the Christian Action Network. The TV people took footage of them while they were waiting.

– – – – – – – – – –

Counter-demonstratorOne lady carried a sign that read, “Have we made our neighbor welcome? Christ says that by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for another.” She told me that she was feeling like a young picketer. I remarked that she didn’t really look like a hippie. She replied that she thought there was a little hippie in her.

The state police were there to make sure no one got out of hand (no one did).

I chatted for a while with a representative of the state police. When I told him I was a blogger, he asked me which one.

State police“Gates of Vienna,” I replied.

“You’re with the 910 Group, right?”

“Well… yes, I’m associated with them.”

It turns out that he is a regular Gates of Vienna reader, and has been keeping up with the Jamaat ul-Fuqra news. He had even read today’s post. Hooray for the state police! Christine from the 910 Group was one of the demonstrators, and went over to introduce herself to him.

“Oh, so you’re Christine!” he said. “I know you.”

Counter-demonstratorI had a long discussion with a local Presbyterian minister, whose sign displayed a passage from Ephesians about the neccessity for giving up anger and focusing on love. He felt that the protest was doing injustice to their peaceful Muslim neighbors. He knows people in the compound; he’s met with them, eaten meals with them, and coached their children. They’re peaceful, decent, people, and the demonstrators have no right to judge them when they don’t even know them.

When I confronted him with Sheikh Gilani’s own words, he said that his friends in the compound think the Sheikh was being taken out of context.

Well, consider this, from a recruitment video:

In a videotape obtained by The Washington Times, Sheik Gilani calls on American Muslims to help him form an “international organization.”

“We have reached out and prepared them to defend themselves in a highly specialized training in guerrilla warfare,” he says, referring to two camouflage-clad black men flanking him. “Life is becoming more hard for Muslims. Therefore, every man and woman will learn to defend himself or herself.”

Must have been some context.

Demonstrators


The demonstrators arrived, led by a CAN member dressed as the Statue of Liberty, with another young man leading the chants with a bullhorn. “Sheikh Gilani out of the county!” and “Gilani Lane is insane!” are two that I remember.

Demonstrators


The demonstrators circled the complex several times while the media milled around getting video footage and interviewing people.

DemonstratorsAnother 910 Group member was interviewed at length while I eavesdropped, and she did an excellent job, speaking very clearly and articulately about the issue of Jamaat ul-Fuqra. You may have seen her if you were watching the 11 pm news on ABC13 out of Lynchburg.

At least one of the demonstrators was a local Charlotte County resident, a six-year veteran of the military who said that he had to come and speak out against the naming of the road.

A final gathering in front of the building, a big round of applause, and then the demonstration broke up.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


The Board of Supervisors knew that CAN was coming, and the had hastily rearranged their schedule to meet for a moment at 7:00 pm, adjourn, and reconvene a little later at a local school, where no demonstration would be allowed. I assume they thought that by this stratagem they could duck all the adverse publicity.

But by absenting themselves so thoroughly from the scene, they made sure that Martin’s folks and the 910 Group people got most of the talking-head time on the news, without a single official representative of Charlotte County on camera.

I’m not a media-savvy person, but given the indefensible case they have to try to make, this doesn’t seem to have been a very wise move on their part.

Jason Says a Lot More Than His Prayers

Mind your manners, young man!After numerous tries to post the response below to a comment left on one of our recent posts on Jamaat ul-Fuqra by someone named “Jason” I gave up the attempt. Blogger Comments do not seem to be functioning – at least with our present dial-up situation.

Instead, here are his remarks and my response, converted into a post (which you will see if Blogger itself is working).

First of all, we don’t get many Jason-types on Gates of Vienna, though I know other conservative blogs are plagued with them. The vitriol and lack of coherence in these kinds of remarks always amazes me. People like Jason seem to break out in an angry rash when they run across something which lies outside their particular viewpoint or experience. The response is inevitably reactive, insulting and sneering.

Jason’s comment is a cut above some of the remarks I’ve seen. At least his excretory insults are confined to urine; most of them are more fecal in nature. These tirades bring to mind a child I knew, who, when very angry at some perceived personal injustice, would stamp his foot and retort, “pee, poop, piss, damn!” This crowning insult would be delivered in a very loud, angry voice. The adult interlocutor was supposed to be devastated by this “argument,” but sometimes it was hard to keep a straight face.

With that, let me present Jason, in full flower:

ugh. you disgusting, racist, xenophobic bigots.

ever heard of the melting pot? america is full of lots of different kinds of people who all have different religious views. why are you so afraid of what you don’t understand?

the strawman argument you make is laughable at least. we are in no way even close to being ‘taken over’ by islam. the tiny percentage of people in America that are muslim is so small there is no way, even if they had such pernicious plans you hold in your feverish imaginations, that they could take over anything.

How is this one muslim you are so afraid any different than the christian terrorists here in the US who shoot doctors or blow up clinics or blow up buildings in Oklahoma? McVeigh was a Christian.

I’m more afraid of my Constitution being destroyed by your abject piss-stained fear.

I don’t often bother responding to this kind of juvenilia. It reminds me of the arguments I see on adolescents’ Live Journals. This is especially the case when a commenter fails to use caps when he starts a new sentence.

But to give Jason credit, he actually spells out “you” and “your” instead of resorting to the ubiquitous “u” and “ur.” Though it is obvious he never took Rhetoric, and probably didn’t join the debate team, I give him credit for being able to spell correctly, and he builds sentences which contain clauses. Again, a plus for him, given the poor quality of his argumentation in general.

Jason—

Your comment tells me we’re on the right track.

Not only is the spotty “information” you supply woefully out of date, it consists entirely of retreaded MSM talking points. These are boring, Jason. Everyone has heard them repeated ad infinitum, ad nauseam. You are free to believe them, but the rest of us find them wearisome. Like gnats.

Instead of whatever it is you do to get information, try some first-hand investigation yourself. Talk to the scared, intimidated people who live near these compounds. Especially some of the people who’ve had assault rifles pulled on them by these thugs.

The neighbors who live in these small towns near the compounds in Georgia, VA, SC, NY, etc., are indeed afraid, though none of their many emails to us expressing this fearfulness have mentioned “piss stains.” Perhaps they’re embarrassed?

On the other hand, I’d be interested to observe your reaction should someone pull an assault rifle out of his truck and threaten you with it. Would we have any opportunity to observe “abject, piss-stained fear” in such an encounter? And whose clothing would be wet? Would it be the angry man waving the assault weapon in your face or would it be sneering Jason with the dark stain on his trousers?

You say “one muslim” ?? These are groups of thugs whose leader is persona non grata in the US because of his terrorist recruitment within our borders. Gilani started this in 1980. His followers have murdered peaceful Hindus in this country and blown up their community centers. One dissident was brutally murdered in his home.

These guys cash their welfare checks and send at least 30% of the proceeds to Gilani in Pakistan, where he lives royally. He’s also been implicated in the execution of Daniel Pearl.

We are xenophobic? My dear, you are abysmally ignorant and it may be an impediment you are no longer capable of surmounting. For one thing, your spittle-flecked prejudice regarding Christians is so pedestrian and predictable it has become boring. Surely you have a less shop-worn argument to display?

In truth, what you presented was not an argument, son — it was a tirade. Tirades are resorted to when there is insufficient knowledge of a subject, or a lack of intellectual acumen, or simply a hair-trigger reactivity which betrays insufficient emotional maturity to hold one’s own in an intellectual exchange.

Tirades are neither novel nor creative. They do not have enough gravitas to carry the discourse forward. Think of Rumpelstiltskin, Jason; he indulged in a tirade. People inclined toward a despotic character do the same thing.

If you haven’t taken Rhetoric 101 yet, you might give it a try. Learning the rules of rhetoric and argumentation provides a skill that would allow you to construct a coherent argument. That’s argument, Jason, not tirade. The latter does not qualify as argument and it reflects poorly on the person producing it. Tirades have their place: in the school yard and streaming from the mouths of despotic tyrants. They have no place in civil discourse.

Study some methods of debate so you can avoid the abundant errors you left on this blog in your several comments.

I’ll point out a few of these errors — ones which weaken your side of the debate; ones which could be addressed in some remedial rhetoric classes:

  • ad hominem attacks,
  • appeals to the lowest common denominator,
  • specious, one-off comparisons,
  • accusations without back-up information, and
  • flagrant categorical errors.

Son, you need lessons in civil discourse… real bad and real soon. Your lack of skill is as embarrassing to read as would be the essay of someone who couldn’t spell and had no inkling there was such a thing as a paragraph. You have those skills. Now you can build on them.

Whoever may have demonstrated by example, or may have told you that winning arguments by sneering, by insulting your interlocutor, or by making prejudicial remarks as you accuse others of bigotry… well, Jason, they led you down the primrose path. Such tactics are counter-productive, at best. At worst, they diminish your own character and virtue.

If you like, I can show you how to make your statements into civil discourse. Quite possibly you are accustomed to arguing only in the manner you show here. However, if you google Aristotle’s The Art of Rhetoric, you will find excellent translations and study guides. When I looked just now, there were almost a million hits. See how easy it would be to fill in the lacunae left by your illiberal education?

Learning the manners neccessary to hold a discussion in the public square can be compared to learning a new language. Past a certain age, it will never be a native tongue, but you can limp along with a charming patois if you apply yourself.

It is not essential that people agree, only that their exchanges remain civil. It is an acquired skill, a subset of critical thinking. Unfortunately, it is one no longer taught in many schools.

Or you could just continue your tirades. But not here, son. In the future, I’ll simply remove your ravings. Life is too short, and bandwidth is too narrow to be cluttered with rude logical fallacies, and a long parade of the horribles.

In other words, Jason, get a courtesy clue bag and use it liberally while commenting here or I’ll delete your butt.

[End of post]

The Charlotte County Files

In the recent days The Southside Messenger — a small regional newspaper covering an area that includes Charlotte County, Virginia — has published pair of letters to the editor from residents of the Muslims of America compound near Red House, as well as an uncritical “news” story — dare I say puff-piece? — about the MOA.

Christine, the Operations Manager of the 910 Group, was dismayed by the lack of substantive information in the newspaper about Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra. She wrote an email to Averett Jones, the editor of The Southside Messenger, and suggested that he consider some of the available sources on Sheikh Gilani’s terrorist and criminal activities.

Sheikh GilaniMr. Jones proved an unreceptive audience. At first he suggested that there was no information about any terrorist activities by Sheikh Gilani, that all the allegations floating around on the web were derived from questionable fringe groups such as the Christian Action Network. Only information from the federal government would convince him. If he could be shown any such data, he would be glad to publish a story about it in his paper.

After Christine provided a copious amount of government information, Mr. Jones insisted that he meant that there was none from the State Department, which he considered the authoritative source. When supplied with State Department links, he added a requirement that they be recent documents, not from before 2002.

Christine has now supplied him with recent government documents, both state and federal, State Department and otherwise, detailing the extensive criminal and terrorist activities of Sheikh Gilani and the Muslims of America. But she is convinced that Mr. Jones is not acting in good faith, and will never make good on his promise to publish such material if she were to produce it.

As a result, she has decided to go public with the whole exasperating exchange. She is writing to all her contacts in Charlotte County — local government officials, law enforcement personnel, businesspeople, and ordinary citizens — to let them know that their local newspaper editor has been engaging in de facto censorship concerning Sheikh Gilani, Jamaat ul-Fuqra, and the Muslims of America compound near Red House.

Red House, Virginia


In the process of dealing with a recalcitrant newspaper editor, Christine has managed to compile the web’s most comprehensive collection of links to official documents detailing the activities of Sheikh Gilani. Readers who are interested should save her lists for future reference.

Notice how closely Mr. Jones’ attitude reflects that of the MSM — no need to find out the facts; we know what’s true; any information obtained from conservative sources is by definition invalid; etc., etc.

It’s the Tiny Trickle Media aping the Mainstream Media.

Averett Jones, the editor of The Southside Messenger, told Christine, “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.”

Don’t hold your breath for that one.

Christine has given me permission to post the entire email exchange here. Take a look, and see the extremes to which denial, self-dhimmification, and willful blindness will go.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Email sent to Charlotte County residents, February 19, 2007

Hi,

Sheikh Gilani LaneYou may have heard that a rally will be held Tuesday February 20 at 6:00 pm at the County Court House administration building, to protest the Charlotte Board of Supervisors’ vote on February 6 to honor Sheikh Gilani by naming a road after him. I will attend the rally as a concerned Virginia resident, and I hope you will too, if you read even some of the information provided here in links to 9 official U.S. federal or state government websites and reports that link Gilani to terrorism.

According to press reports, the public road sign has since been removed (the private one remains), but the Board’s vote preserves it on official government maps, and keeps it as part of Virginia’s cultural heritage and economic development profile. The negative impact extends to the entire state, not just to Charlotte County.

The Charlotte Board’s decision was based on incorrect information. According to the February 6 issue of the Charlotte Gazette (page 3), the Board’s decision to honor Sheikh Gilani was based on Supervisor Nancy Carwile’s research:

“But Carwile said she had extensively researched FBI, State Department, and Justice Department websites and could find no proof of any Gilani-based terrorist acts. In fact, during a brief Power Point presentation at the beginning of the meeting, all she did find were sites ‘made up’ by groups and individuals that supposedly showed ‘facts.’”

Supervisor Carwile is incorrect. Sheikh Gilani is linked to terrorism, as shown in several official U.S. federal and state government websites listed below.

I presented these links in a lengthy email to Averett Jones, editor of the Southside Messenger; that email is attached in entirety and summarized below. Mr. Jones stated, initially, that these websites are “pretending” to be official, and therefore he will not publish any articles on their existence.

I urge you to decide for yourself, to inform yourself about Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra, and to determine on your own the validity of this information and its serious implications for your community.

The exchange with Mr. Jones is included below, in chronological order, to explain why I am sending this information out, citizen to citizen. After a very long effort, I have given up trying to encourage Mr. Jones to publish the information. I include the links to the reports first, for your convenience.

Regards,
Christine

Summary of U.S. Federal and State Government Websites and Reports linking Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra to terrorism

1.   These first links all refer to the annual State Department “Patterns of Global Terrorism” Reports. Sheikh Gilani is mentioned in each of them. I provide links for all years in which I found his name. Search text for “Gilani”:
http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps14740/www.state.gov/
www/global/terrorism/1997Report/backg.html

http://sweden.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1998/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1996/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1995/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1999/appb.html
2.   The next link is a reply to a query about the delisting of JUF in 2000 by the State Department:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/7738.htm
3.   This link is to the transcript of a State Department briefing from 01/31/2002: Search text for “Gilani”
http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/2002/0131/epf401.htm
4.   This excerpt is from the State Department briefing from March 27, 2002.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2002/9025.htm
5.   This testimony by Daniel Pipes is provided by the State Department at:
http://www.state.gov/s/p/of/proc/tr/11443.htm
6.   These reports for 2004 and 2005, published by the California Department of Justice on “Organized Crime in California, Annual Report to the California Legislature.” See pages 2,23,24 and 25 in 2004; page 26 in 2005
http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf
7.   This link is from the Colorado Attorney General’s official website:
http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm
Gilani’s name is spelled here as “Jilani.”
8.   This Library of Congress site provides a brief summary for a report on Jamaat ul-Fuqra:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html
9.   The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, of the Department of Justice, provides this 93 page report on Jamaat ul Fuqra and Sheikh Gilani (spelled Jilani here):
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

– – – – – – – – – –
Email Exchange and Link Summary between Averett Jones, Editor, Southside Messenger, and Christine

[Mr.Jones’ computer appears to be set a day ahead – it may be a yahoomail problem.]

[All emails below will be forwarded, individually, at your request, if you wish to validate the accuracy of this email exchange. All emails are included here in entirety, with the exception of the very long Feb. 18, 2007 email with 9 categories of links, which is summarized in this page and included in full as an appendix.]

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:16:34 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Dear Mrs —,

Sheikh GilaniThank you for your letter and the links to Mercury news.com. I have personally read every article I could find on Gilani both in mainstream press and on web sites. I read your link to Mercury News and found the same information I have found in hundreds of websites and on CAN’s website. Our problem with this information is that not one of the claims regarding Gilani is ever documented. Gilani is not listed on any government website as a possible terrorist.

The article states “But over the years, state and federal authorities have described him as the head of an international terrorist group who draws financial support from followers in the United States.”

I have found this quote many times but again no reference to which “state and federal authorities.”

If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it. At this point all we have found are rumors mostly taken from CAN’s website. We have also received dozens of emails with quotes alleged to be from Gilani which also appear to originate on CAN’s website. If you find any additional information please do not hesitate to send it to us.

Thank You for writing.
Averett Jones
Editor, The Southside Messenger

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:57:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I searched on U.S. government sites and immediately found a number of links, which I provide with annotation below for your convenience. I hope that you will follow through on these. I will make them available, to assist your own efforts, to other stakeholders in our state and nation.

The total time required to find these was approximately 1 hour. I went to the central search website for the U.S. and state government sites, USAsearch.gov. I have not searched Lexis Nexis yet, since you expressed an interest primarily in official government sites.

The Muslims of AmericaYou state in your email to me, “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.” Below, I provide reports from the State Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, the California Department of Justice, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, the Library of Congress research service, and a 93 page report on Gilani and Jamaat ul Fuqra funded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

These reports provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection for Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul Fuqra. I will be happy to see you publish these materials. Please send me a link to the published article.

The nine links follow below, with summary annotations and excerpts for your convenience.

[See Appendix at the end of this email for the details supplied to Mr. Jones.]

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:02:47 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Morning Ms —,

Again, thank you for the information. I have already seen these sites but the problem is that when I attempt to return to the “State Department” website from them, they are not attached to that site. This indicates they are not official sites. Please advise me if you find additional information.

Sincerely
Averett Jones
The Southside Messenger

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:43:56 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

Mr. Jones, I’m beginning to think you’re not actually looking at these links. Let me urge you to do so, with greater care.

Of the nine itemized links below to official government sites that I provided, ALL of them have a link back to the official home page of the government agency. I just checked.

Two of them are old enough that they go back to an archived home page:

1.   In the five links provided for item #1 below, the first item is an archive file, and clicking on the state department link returns to the archive home page. Perhaps you are not aware of the archiving policies for websites within the U.S. Government. Of course, clicking on the State Department link for the other four items leads to the current State Department home page. Is it possible you clicked only on the first link of all those I provided? Surely not.
2.   Item #3 is also an archive file from an embassy website, but clicking on the “home” page link leads to an official homepage. This appears to me to be a non-standard approach to archiving, by the way, and I am happy for you not to treat it as an active link.

That leaves 8 additional links — plus the four from Item #1 — that are not archived files, but are active and all are on identified official government websites.

I look forward to your researching these documents, preparing a balanced article, and publishing it as you said you would do in an earlier email. Please send me a copy when you do.

As noted before, I will also be helping your efforts to educate the public, by sharing our email exchanges with stakeholders in our state and nation.

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:32:33 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Dear Mrs —,

I AM looking at the links. The address to the state Department is http://www.state.gov. Any link that does not begin with this address is not an official website it is a private site made to look official. I have serious reservations with any site made to look official with no official standing. The site I mentioned earlier has a return link to the State Dept. but the site itself is not official. The only official links you provided are in item 2 and 4.

Item 2 Question: The group headed by Shaykh Gilani used to be designated by the State Department as a terrorist group but it was taken off the list. Why?

Answer: Jamaat ul-Fuqra has never been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. It was included in several recent annual terrorism reports under “other terrorist groups,” i.e., groups that had carried out acts of terrorism but that were not formally designated by the Secretary of State. However, because of the group’s inactivity during 2000, it was not included in the most recent terrorism report covering that calendar year.

This does not state Gilani is a terrorist in fact it states ul-Fuqua was not included in 2000. (and has not been included for the past 6 years.) As I said earlier we are searching for the truth. I have difficulty believing the truth will be found in sites pretending to be official government sites.

Regards
Averett

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:58:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

I have two questions for you, Mr. Jones.

1. Question #1:

In an article by Robert Benning, “Name Will Stay the Same” (Charlotte Gazette, 2/7/07, page 3), Nancy Carwile of the Charlotte Board of Supervisors is quoted as follows:

“But Carwile said she had extensively researched FBI, State Department, and Justice Department websites and could find no proof of any Gilani-based terrorist acts. In fact, during a brief Power Point presentation at the beginning of the meeting, all she did find were sites ‘made up’ by groups and individuals that supposedly showed ‘facts.’

“Anyone can make up a website that says anything…you have to be careful when you search the internet,” she said. “If it doesn’t end with ‘.gov’ then it is not an official government site.”

This statement by Carwile closely reflects your own statements in our exchange of emails. Are you the source of Carwile’s research? Did you prepare the powerpoint she provided to the Board? The Board made their decision based on an assessment that no official websites or reports, federal or state, exist that link Gilani with terrorism. Are you responsible for that assessment, and therefore for their decision?

2. Question #2:

As to your suggestions that the websites I sent you are, in your words, “sites pretending to be official government sites,” your assessment is simply wrong, and you do need to learn more about domain name conventions within .gov sites. The site URLs that you have decided are pretending” are Embassy websites. Their URLs are either listed as subdomains within the state department website, or as their own URLS with a .gov suffix.

The other website links that I provided are also either U.S. federal or state government sites. You have not commented on these other links in your emails, although I am confident you exercised prudence and due diligence, followed each link, read the webpage content or the attached reports, and assessed the validity of the URLs, before dismissing them as “sites pretending to be official government sites.”

The URLs for these additional sites include:

1.   Three websites with the http://www.state.gov URL which you say you trust;
2.   The Office of the Attorney General of California
(NOTE — NOT A .GOV ADDRESS, BUT STILL OFFICIAL)
http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf
3.   The Office of the Attorny General of Colorado
(NOTE — NOT A .GOV ADDRESS, BUT STILL OFFICIAL)
http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm
4.   The Library of Congress, ending in a .gov address
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html
5.   The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, also ending in a .gov address
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

So this is my second question, Mr. Jones. You state in your email, “I have already seen these sites.” If so, and if you suspected that they were “pretending,” can you document your phone calls or emails to the official government agency webmasters, or to their public information offices or, in fact, to anyone, in which you actually verified that these sites were not official? Please forward that documentation if it exists.

I am, of course, particularly interested in seeing it, if your assessment of these sites was the basis for the Board of Supervisor’s decision to name the road in honor of Sheikh Gilani.

Thanks!

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:52:52 –0500
From: Averett Jones
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research

Mrs. —

I apologize for any misunderstanding. I am trying to answer your concerns and get my work done at the same time. I was not saying the websites you listed were not official. They are. When I said I could not find information on official sites, I should have said current sites. I have been unable to find anything after the 2002 statement that Gilani is no longer listed as a potential terrorist. There are hundreds of current sites which contain the same information that was official from 1995 to 2002 which are not official but have current dates. I have been unable to find anything official with current dates. I should have said I have seen the same information listed on these unofficial sites. I have never discussed this matter with Dr. Carwile until after the board meeting, nor am I responsible for any board decision. I will again apologize for the miscommunication and if you can find any current information regarding Gilani, please share it with me. My personal opinion is simple. I believe that everyone is innocent until proved guilty and this includes you, me, the Muslims in Red House and Sheik Gilani.

Sincerely, Averett Jones

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:30:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

You state below, “I have been unable to find anything after the 2002 statement that Gilani is no longer listed as a potential terrorist.”

The Muslims of AmericaPlease refer again to the list of links that I sent you. No doubt you reviewed them carefully and simply missed the dates of the documents. The report from the U.S. Department of Justice, http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/
grants/209520.pdf
, is dated April, 2005, and includes significant cited information from 2004.

The report from the California Department of Justice is, in fact, their 2004 Annual Report on Organized Crime.

Since you are concerned about recent information, I also found references to Gilani in the California 2005 Annual Report on Organized Crime, available here: http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2005.pdf

This means that the latest official government information I could find, based on a 1 hour search, is less than two years old.

As mentioned before, I look forward to your doing what you said you would: “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.”

Please do so.

Thanks,

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia



APPENDIX

1. These first links all refer to the annual State Department “Patterns of Global Terrorism” Reports. Sheikh Gilani is mentioned in each of them. I provide links for all years in which I found his name.

http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps14740/www.state.gov/
www/global/terrorism/1997Report/backg.html

http://sweden.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1998/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1996/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1995/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1999/appb.html

2. The next link is a reply to a query about the delisting of JUF in 2000 by the State Department:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/7738.htm

3. This link is to the transcript of a State Department briefing from 01/31/2002: The mention of Sheikh Gilani is the following excerpts from the transcript:
http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/2002/0131/epf401.htm

  QUESTION:   Pearl. Do we know anything, or does the State Department know anything about this sheikh that they have arrested, Sheikh Gilani or his group? Just tell us everything.
 
  MR. BOUCHER:   That’s the problem. I don’t think I’m in a position to tell you everything about what we know, about groups or an ongoing investigation. So I’m going to have to believe that it wouldn’t be in the best interests of Mr. Pearl for us to do that.

I can make clear that the Pakistani police are continuing their efforts. We are assisting them, US law enforcement officials are assisting them. The cooperation is very close, and as the Secretary told you, the senior Pakistani officials are interested and involved. Our Embassy in Islamabad and the State Department have been in very close touch with Mr. Pearl’s family and with the Wall Street Journal to work with them, to keep them updated. The Embassy met today with American journalists in Pakistan to advise them on the security situation. And we have taken other measures to increase the security awareness of official and non-official Americans. We issued that new Travel Warning yesterday to include information on possible kidnappings and terrorist actions.

Mr. Pearl should be released immediately and unconditionally. His continued detention is no help to any cause. This continuing to hold him, threatening to kill him would only hurt the people who are holding him. He is a Wall Street Journal reporter, and he should be released immediately and unconditionally. He is a respected journalist. He has no connection with the US Government.
 

  QUESTION:   With the arrest of Sheikh Gilani, does the United States believe they are going in the right direction (inaudible) with Daniel Pearl?
 
  MR. BOUCHER:   Again, I’m not going to comment on the process of investigation, on the progress of the investigation. I think I really have to let that proceed, and it would not help Mr. Pearl for me to try to talk about it or second-guess it from here. I’m sorry…
 
  QUESTION:   Without getting into the details of the investigation, this group that Mr. Gilani belonged to used to be on the State Department terrorism list and was taken off. Could you say why?

4. This excerpt is from the State Department briefing from March 27, 2002.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2002/9025.htm

    QUESTION:     The group Jamaat ul-Fuqra , which is associated with Sheikh Gilani, who may or may not be implicated in Daniel Pearl’s murder, was taken off the FTO list last year or in —
    MR. BOUCHER:     A couple years ago, I think, yes.
    QUESTION:     In the 2000 Report. With its reemergence, why hasn’t that been put back on the list?
    MR. BOUCHER:     We look at these things very carefully. It is a very careful review. It is an extensive review of the information before we do it. As you know, some of these have been challenged in court, although they were ultimately upheld. So it’s a very careful process to make sure that we gather all the available information and take the appropriate steps.
        Now, there are some designations under the Treasury Department’s list; for example, some of these groups get designated first in order to block their assets before we formally make them a Foreign Terrorist Organization. But it is a very careful process to make sure we get it right.
    QUESTION:     Can you say whether that was being looked at again?
    MR. BOUCHER:     I don’t think we’re able to say whether a specific group is under review, but we’re looking at various groups all the time for possible designation.

5. This testimony by Daniel Pipes is provided by the State Department at:

http://www.state.gov/s/p/of/proc/tr/11443.htm

Concerning Sheikh Gilani, the state department website excerpt from Pipes states:

“Daniel Pearl was suppose to meet with Sheikh Gilani, Pakistani militant Islamic leader who some 20 years ago organized a group known in this country as Al-Fuqra, which literally means “the poor.” It was made up primarily of African-Americans converts who live mostly in self-contained rural communities with their own schools and militias. They have a history of violence, for example murdering an Egyptian immigrant in Arizona in 1990 and recently a member of the California branch was arrested for killing a policeman. This is an extremely dangerous group, but I have no idea if Daniel Pearl was on the track of discovering something new about it .”

6. This is a report published by the California Department of Justice on “Organized Crime in California, Annual Report to the California Legislature 2004.”

http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf

Here are interesting excerpts:

“connection to a compound located on 377 acres off of Highway 245 in a rural mountain area of northeastern Tulare County near Fresno, California, known as Baladullah. The compound was, at one time, advertised as a site for a chapter of the Islamic Quranic Open University (IQOU). The school was founded by Pakistani cleric Sheik Sayed Mubarik Ali Gilani and has campuses on similar type compounds in various regions of the country. Sheik Gilani is also the founder of Jamaat el- Fuqra, a group that has been designated by the U.S. Department of State as a terrorist organization, which he created in the 1980s while in Brooklyn, New York, for the purpose of purifying Islam through violence. Sheik Gilani heads the organization from his base of operations in Lahore, Pakistan. Law enforcement authorities suspect that the compound may have been owned and occupied by individuals connected to Jamaat El-Fuqra, in part, because the IQOU and the terrorist organization are believed to be linked due to their crossover membership and that both groups operate under Gilani’s authority.

“During 2004, members of groups supporting international terrorism were engaged in the following criminal activity….

“…In November, a California resident and suspected Fuqra member was arrested in York, South Carolina, on a federal warrant for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. This individual, a former resident of the Baladullah compound in Fresno and Tulare counties, was extradited to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he remains in custody at a federal detention center awaiting trial. In early November 2004, Baladullah was placed into foreclosure.”

7. This link is from the Colorado Attorney General’s official website:

http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm

Gilani’s name is spelled here as “Jilani.”

The page content is the following:

“INFORMATION REGARDING COLORADO’S INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF MEMBERS OF JAMAAT UL FUQRA

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office successfully prosecuted members of a fundamentalist Sufi-militant Islamic sect known as “JAMAAT UL FUQRA”. Five FUQRA members were ultimately prosecuted between 1993 and 1994.

“FUQRA” is an Arabic word, which translates most accurately as “the impoverished”. The sect advocates the purification of the Islamic religion by means of force and violence. Sheikh Mubarik Ali Jilani Hasmi, who is known by many other aliases, and who also calls himself the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr, originated this group in Pakistan.

In addition to being suspected of committing numerous acts of domestic terrorism, FUQRA members in the United States have been suspected of committing fraud against various governmental entitlement programs in an effort to financially support their activities.

Colorado’s investigation indicated that the United States FUQRA movement was composed of approximately 30 different ‘Jamaats’ or communities, somewhat mobile in nature. Most of these ‘Jamaats’ are believed to currently exist today, along with what investigators deemed to be several ‘covert paramilitary training compounds’ — one of which had been located in a remote mountainous area near Buena Vista, Colorado prior to Colorado’s prosecutions in the mid-1990s. The corresponding FUQRA ‘Jamaat’ to the Buena Vista compound was located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Colorado’s investigation of FUQRA was initiated in 1989 when Colorado Springs Police Department detectives, initially investigating a series of burglaries, were contacted by the owner of a storage locker site and were told about a locker of, what appeared to be, abandoned property.

In September 1989, detectives executed a search warrant of the storage locker upon suspicion of illegal explosives. The search of the locker disclosed numerous items believed to belong to the FUQRA sect then residing in that area. Several explosive components– thirty to forty pounds of explosives, three large pipe bombs, a number of smaller improvised explosive devices, shape charges, ten handguns– some with obliterated serial numbers– silencers in various stages of manufacture, military training manuals, reloading equipment, bomb-making instructions, and numerous FUQRA-related publications were located in this storage area. Titles of some of the publications included “Guerilla Warfare”, “Counter Guerilla Operations”, “Understanding Amateur Radio”, and “Fair Weather Flying,” and “Basic Blueprint Reading and Sketching.” Several silhouettes for firearms target practice were also discovered, including one with the words “FBI Anti-terrorist team” written on the target’s torso bullseye.

Of great interest to law enforcement officials were documents concerning potential ‘targets’ for destruction and murder in the Los Angeles, Tucson, and Denver areas, including surveillance-type photographs, maps with hand-drawn overlays, notes, etc., concerning these targets. In addition, references to Buckley Air National Guard Base, Rocky Mountain Arsenal, the Air Force Academy, and electrical facilities in Colorado, and Warren Air Force Base, and two Wyoming National Guard armories in Wyoming were found. A somewhat detailed description of a firebombing attack on what is believed to have been the Hare Krishna Temple in Denver was also discovered. An attack, as described in these writings, did, in fact, take place in Denver in August 1984, causing an estimated $200,000 in damage. Investigation by Denver authorities at that time revealed that a Hare Krishna Temple in Philadelphia, where FUQRA activity also had been noted, was firebombed in a similar fashion.

Among the many documents found in the Colorado Springs’ storage locker were numerous blank birth certificates; blank social security cards; several sets of Colorado drivers’ licenses, each containing a picture of the same individual, but each with a different identity; and many underground press publications concerning the assembly of phony identification — to be reproduced in a manner to “withstand even close government scrutiny”.

Finally, the search disclosed a number of workers’ compensation claims, which ultimately led to a full-scale fraud investigation being conducted by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment in coordination with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorist Task Force.

This investigation revealed that Colorado Springs FUQRA members had defrauded the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment of approximately $350,000 dollars between September 1984 and January 1992. The mobility and multiple addresses and identities of the various FUQRA members posed a significant challenge to early detection and normal prevention of the fraud. As a result of the two-year investigation, five FUQRA members were indicted by the statewide grand jury in September 1992 on racketeering charges involving theft, mail fraud, and forgery. Six months after the indictments, further racketeering charges, including theft of rental property, conspiracy to commit murder and arson (the Denver Hare Krishna Temple), were also filed against the five individuals and a sixth person — all FUQRA members. Some of the fraudulently obtained workers’ compensation funds were traced directly to payments for a parcel of land near Buena Vista used by the group as a residence compound and training site.

One of the FUQRA defendants convicted is James D. Williams. After his conviction in 1993 for conspiracy to commit first degree murder, racketeering, and forgery, Williams fled and remained a fugitive until being apprehended in Virginia in August 2000. He was returned to Colorado and sentenced this past March to 69 years in prison. From at least the middle 1980’s through 1990, Williams was a leader of a Colorado FUQRA.

The conviction for conspiracy to commit first degree murder referred to a comprehensive written plan for the murder of a Tucson, Arizona Muslim cleric, Rashad Khalifa. Khalifa was murdered in January 1990 in a manner that was remarkably similar to the written plan.

It is believed the activities of UL FUQRA across the nation continue. Just recently the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (BATF) arrested one of the former Colorado defendants and FUQRA member, Vincente Rafael Pierre, in Virginia on alleged ammunition violations. In California, a FUQRA member was arrested on the suspected murder of a Fresno County Deputy Sheriff this last August. In addition, FUQRA operates something called the Quranic Open University in Los Angeles, which has received over $1.5 million dollars over the course of the last two years in charter school funding. This entity is also located in New York City and Philadelphia. There are believed to be active UL FUQRA training compounds still existing in New York, Michigan, South Carolina, California, and perhaps other states.

FUQRA or its members have been investigated for alleged terrorist acts including murder and arson in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles and Tucson. UL FUQRA is suspected of more than thirteen firebombings and, at least, as many murders within the United States”

8. This Library of Congress site provides a brief summary for a report on Jamaat ul-Fuqra:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html

Jamaat ul-Fuqra

(http://www.ict.org.il/inter%5Fter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=16)

The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), located in Herzlia, Israel, provides a profile for the terrorist organization, Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which is based in Pakistan. The Islamic sect commits acts of violence against those that they view as enemies of Islam. The ICT discusses the history and terrorist activities of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.”

9. The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, of the Department of Justice, provides this 93 page report on Jamaat ul Fuqra and Sheikh Gilani (spelled Jilani here):
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

Annotation: Using a case study of the investigation and prosecution of members of a terrorist group (Jamaat Ul Fuqra) in Colorado, this research report identifies the types of white-collar crimes used by the group for funding + mechanisms and identity deception and suggests how lessons learned from white-collar crime investigations can provide guidance for State and local police and prosecutors who may investigate terrorist groups.

Abstract: The Fuqra group was first organized in Pakistan by Sheikh Mubarik Al Jilani Hasmi, who also established a United States Fuqra organization in 1980. Most members of the U.S. Fuqra are African-Americans who have adopted extremist beliefs and live in communal environments or “Jamaats.” In August 1989, the discovery of a storage locker by the Colorado Springs police marked the beginning of an investigation that focused on fraudulent claims for worker’s compensation, a white-collar crime that is the focus of this report. Linked to the fraudulent worker’s compensation claims were other white-collar crimes, notably identification fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. Proceeds from these crimes were used to plan violent terrorist acts. This research obtained information on these cases through interviews and document analysis. This report describes the Colorado investigation in a module format. The first module describes the organization and activity of Fuqra, followed by a module on the investigation of properties that included a vehicle search, a storage locker search, and the search of a Fuqra compound. The third module details investigations of four fraudulent worker’s compensation claims, and the fourth module addresses the group’s cash flow from fraud to the purchase of property. Legal strategies are profiled in a fifth module, and the sixth module discusses lessons learned and best practices. 13 tables, 4 charts, and 3 supplementary appendixes

Main Term(s): Domestic Preparedness

Index Term(s): White collar crimes; Organized crime investigation; Fraud; Revolutionary or terrorist groups; Prosecution; Organized crime; Insurance fraud; Terrorist tactics; Investigative techniques; Money laundering; NIJ final report; Colorado

Jamaat ul-Fuqra in Georgia — From the Air

A Gates of Vienna/Christian Action Network Exclusive

Note: Any of the small images shown below that cause your mouse pointer to display the “link” icon may be clicked to show a larger version of the same image.



The Christian Action Network recently made another aerial run over a Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound, this time the one near Commerce, Georgia. Martin Mawyer, the president of CAN, has kindly made the resulting photos available to Gates of Vienna.


The compound on Madinah Road actually has a Royston address, and is about halfway between Commerce and Royston, to the northeast of Atlanta.

Jamaat ul-Fuqra — the terrorist organization whose cover group is known as the Muslims of America — means “community of the impoverished” in Arabic. When you look at the dwellings in the Commerce compound, it seems that the organization is trying to live up to its name.



Most of the residences are trailers and double-wides, some of them decrepit and badly in need of repair. Squalor of this level is not unknown in the rural South, but the Commerce compound definitely ranks near the lower end of the socio-economic scale.
– – – – – – – – – –
There is a small farm complex that probably predates the MOA acquisition of the property. It seems to be engaged in some kind of animal husbandry — cows? horses? Presumably not pigs.

The pasture and larger trees standing in the open indicate that the farm has been there for a while. The rest of the buildings and trailers are more obviously recent additions, set back in the woods along the narrow red-clay access roads that snake through the complex.

There is one exception to the general poverty-stricken appearance of the place. I mentally named this building “the Fortress” as I went through these photos, but in fact have no idea what its function is. A community center? A mosque? The house of a JF bigwig? It’s a strange-looking building, very different from anything else on the property.

In his initial pass over the area, Martin’s photos clearly show three cars parked on the concrete apron just above the entrance to the underground garages.

By the time the airplane had made a complete circle over the area and returned to the same spot above the Fortress, the cars had disappeared. You can follow the sequence of successive shots at right — according to Martin, the elapsed time between the first photo of the sequence and the last was les than four minutes. That was an insufficient amount of time for the cars to have driven away, and, in any case, Martin’s team saw no cars moving up the driveway.

The only possible explanation is that during the brief period of time involved, all three cars were driven into the two garages underneath the building. In fact, in the third photo of the sequence, the end of the red car is just visible beyond the southeast corner in the turnaround area. It has been moved, and is presumably in the process of turning around before entering the garage.

In the last three photos of the sequence, none of the three cars is still visible.

Notably odd features of the building are the rounded corners and the various levels of flat roof edged by parapets. Notice the triangular tower sticking up above the rest of the structure, with its narrow slit windows facing southwest and southeast.

With the exception of the tower, the different sections of the roof have beveled areas that slope up from a flat surface almost to the level of the surrounding parapet. You’ll observe that these triangular slopes are all facing northeast and northwest — that is, towards the driveway and the open lawn. None is facing the woods to the south.

It’s possible that these bevels have some unremarkable function that is not immediately evident. Maybe they are designed to funnel rainwater in a certain direction so that it can be gathered into a drain and collected in cisterns.

But my paranoid nature envisions these as positions for riflemen, who could lie prone and expose very little silhouette to an assault down the driveway or through the open area to the north. We know that the Muslims of America see themselves as victims of the next Waco, so this could be a part of their preparation for it.

An argument against this explanation is the fact that there is no evident means of access to the uppermost of the flat rooftop areas. So perhaps there is another explanation for these beveled corners — readers with architectural knowledge are invited to contribute suggestions.

                







*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


The impoverishment of the Impoverished does not seem to extend to motor vehicles. There are plenty of cars and trucks visible throughout the compound, and not just at the large building.

The double-wide shown at right has at least ten vehicles parked around or in front of it. Most of them were turned around when parked so that they are facing back up the driveway. Just for convenience? Or for a quick getaway?

There are a couple of hood-tarps in evidence on vehicles. It could be that the car’s hood is missing, and the engine is being worked on. Or maybe the car’s owner is trying to protect the engine and battery against those harsh Georgia winters.

Or maybe the tarp is there to conceal the front license plate from casual inspection if a county deputy comes down the road on a professional visit. Would he be required to show a warrant if he wanted to look at the rear license plate?

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


After going through all the photos, I was left with a handful of mysterious objects or structures. These were things that were big enough to be interesting, but which I couldn’t identify. I’m sure that each has an innocuous explanation; it just wasn’t one that I could think of.

The first one is a superstructure at the far end of the gable of the roof of the barn, as seen in the “farm” picture above. The thing appears to have two wheels, and sits astride the crest of the roof at the very end. My best guess is that it is some kind of winch or hoist to bring hay bales etc. up into the barn loft, but I’ve never seen one quite like it.

The next strange object is a rack or frame leaning against a tree way back in the woods away from any of the buildings. A tanning frame for animal hides? That doesn’t look like a hide on it. A piece of roof with some shingles attached?

It’s a mystery to me. I’m hoping the distributed intelligence of our readers will supply the answer. It’s probably something quite commonplace, to be found everywhere in the hinterlands of Georgia.

The other mysteries are these three tall buildings. Each is set back in the woods away from the roads and cars, with no cleared area around it. None seems to have an electric line leading to it. The footprint for each one is small, but all three buildings extend to second-story level.

The first one looks vaguely like a smokehouse, but lacks the roof vents. Notice the peculiar paint job on the end.

The second is ungabled, with a canted roof.

The third seems to have a window on the second floor, with a door underneath it.

A machine shop? A carpenter’s workroom? A meditation retreat? All guesses are welcome.

                

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


As I mentioned yesterday, members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra have defended their organization in letters to the editor of a local newspaper in Charlotte County, Virginia:

We are not terrorists, nor do we or shall we ever subscribe to terrorism. We are American citizens born and raised in the United States, respectful to God and the Constitution of the founding Fathers of this country. Many of us are Veterans ourselves, honorably discharged, by the various entities of the United States Armed Forces. Some of us currently have relatives serving in the Armed Forces overseas in Iraq.

These are fine sentiments. But contrast them with the words of the letter-writer’s own leader and spiritual guide:

In a videotape obtained by The Washington Times, Sheik Gilani calls on American Muslims to help him form an “international organization.”

“We have reached out and prepared them to defend themselves in a highly specialized training in guerrilla warfare,” he says, referring to two camouflage-clad black men flanking him. “Life is becoming more hard for Muslims. Therefore, every man and woman will learn to defend himself or herself.”

Another JF member also wrote to the paper:

The provocative tactics instigated by some members of CAN resemble events that led to the sad memories of Ruby Ridge and Waco. We are hopeful and pray that this venom of hatred never finds it’s [sic] way to Charlotte County, Virginia.

It seems obvious to me that the Madinah Road compound near Commerce is preparing for another Waco. Waco is now the gold standard for confrontations between private armed groups and the government. Any scrutiny of a group’s behavior “invites another Waco”.

Unfortunately for all of us, Janet Reno did for legitimate law enforcement what Joe McCarthy did for legitimate anti-communism. Thanks to Janet Reno, federal authorities are going to tread very, very softly with any group like Jamaat ul-Fuqra, particularly when a racial angle is involved. Law enforcement at the national, state, and local levels will bend over backwards to give the Muslims of America the benefit of the doubt, and then some.

So no new Waco is coming down Madinah Road to the Fortress. It’s not going to happen.

And the comparison of Jamaat ul-Fuqra with the Branch Davidians is spurious. David Koresh’s people did not operate compounds all over the country and in Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean, “villages” in which they stockpiled automatic weapons and gave weapons-training courses to young men recruited from prison. The Branch Davidians did not fire-bomb Hindu temples nor murder members who failed to follow the proper doctrine. They never engaged in massive welfare fraud as a fund-raising measure, nor did they repatriate their ill-gotten gains to a terrorist in Pakistan.

These are apples and oranges.

But my purpose here is not to stimulate some government action vis-à-vis Jamaat ul-Fuqra. I don’t think the government can help us, anyway. We’re on our own.

My goal is to present information, as much as possible. Let the light shine on the Muslims of America — if they are peaceful and harmless devotees of their Sheikh, they will surely welcome the attention.

They have been accustomed to gliding through the shadows, unnoticed by the vast majority of Americans. We want them to move out into the light.

Let’s exchange incognito for in flagrante delicto.



Update: A reader emailed me to ask if the mystery on the roof of the barn might in fact be on the ground beyond the barn. I said that I didn’t think so, because it appeared to overlap the roof of the barn and throw a shadow there.

Well, I was wrong. I scoured through the aerial photos and found another shot taken from a very slightly different angle, and you can clearly see the piece of equipment on the ground in the barnyard. The roof of the barn is damaged, with some tin missing and the joists poking out, so that an optical illusion is created making the wheeled device look like it’s on the roof.

I still don’t know what it is, but at least it’s on the ground, where it belongs.

The Feminislamists: Women of Woe

I Could Scream: Examining the plight of women under Islam


Over at Brussels Journal, Fjordman has an essay which describes how feminism leads to the oppression of women.

He’s right, of course. I sneaked away from “feminists” the same way I backed off from academia, though I had originally thought to make my intellectual home in both places. The former proved more doctrinaire than any fundamentalist religion I’d ever encountered, and the latter — academia — was a pit of vipers. Giving up both of these endeavors was disappointing. I wondered how I would ever find a community of intellectuals outside the ivory towers.

But intellectual curiosity and honest inquiry have long been banned from university circles anyway. The recent emasculation and crucifixion of Larry Summers in order to make room for the ascendancy of radical feminist Drew Gilpin Faust to his chair as president of Harvard is evidence enough that academic feminists are consumed with their own narrow orthodoxy. The similarity of their methods to those of the Inquisition (leaving aside the physical torture) are instructive. No one may flourish within their precincts who has not first surrendered her free will and submitted to the relativist and utopian world view — the only permitted ideology in the ghetto of the rad fems.

The silence of the professional feminists in the face of the barbarities of Islam regarding women has long been a source of wonder — if not disgust — for regular folks. We keep waiting for them to speak out on behalf of women who suffer slave status in Muslim theocracies. There has been only silence…or even worse, a disturbing preoccupation with trivialities like the Vagina Monologues or the rage against those who dare to disagree with their victim whingeing. The decades-old complaint about gender inequity has been transformed into a full-fledged deep hatred of men that makes these upper middle-class women look like spoiled, overprivileged narcissists.

The elected women in Congress are a good example this narrow self-absorption, the kind that follows in the wake of setting oneself up as a victim…in this case, of course, women are the victims of patriarchy. Yawn. In his essay, “Are Female Politicians Other-Centered,” Carey Roberts points out a few gaps between the rhetoric and the reality of these girls:

A few years ago Marie Wilson, director of the White House Project, made the remarkable claim that female politicians lead “from an other-centered perspective,” while those Neanderthal male pols tend to be “self-centered.”

I admit this came as news to me, but if it’s true, perhaps we should dispense with the formalities and anoint Hillary as the next Commander-in-Chief. That way we can enjoy the morning newspaper for the next couple years without being subjected to all the electioneering falderal.

In the past, whenever the Women of Woe invoked the cause of female liberation, we were expected to reflexively nod our heads in rapt agreement. Maybe it’s time to put some of their pronouncements under the microscope.

So are female politicos, in fact, “other-centered”?

It took Mr. Roberts a bit of digging, but he eventually found what the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues had to brag about. It was all in the contents of a report on the “accomplishments” of this august group during the 108th Congress. You can guess the dreary, predictable results. Mr. Roberts peruses the report:

Hmmmm. Education and Athletics, International Women’s Issues, Violence Against Women, Women’s Health, Women’s History, Women in the Military, and Women in the Workplace.

Looks pretty one-sided to me. Maybe the other-centered stuff is buried inside.

So on page 14 I read, “A bipartisan effort by the Women’s Caucus leadership succeeded in tripling U.S. contributions for programs supporting women and girls overseas through the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).”

Fine, but what about needy boys around the world?

Like the teenage boys in Africa who have become night commuters so they aren’t kidnapped and pressed into military combat. And all the boys in Afghanistan who were sent out to tend the goat herd, only to lose a limb to unexploded ordnance. And the 2,000 young boys from Bangladesh taken from their homes to work as camel jockeys in the Persian Gulf — are they less deserving of our compassion and largess?

The truth is, the Women’s Caucus comes across like any other narrow interest group, pretending the male half of the world doesn’t exist.

Well, just look at that! These intrepid fighters for truth and justice tripled U.S. contributions to the UN for programs which support women. We all know how effective that will be. Congratulations, girls.

Then, Mr. Roberts turns to the distaff side. What are men doing for themselves, precisely? What has the men’s caucus lined up?

The Congressional Men’s Caucus must be just as self-serving as the Women’s Caucus. Right?

Actually, there is no “Men’s Caucus.” Why? Because it never occurs to male politicians to single out men’s issues for special attention.

Look at the two major pieces of domestic legislation that the Daddy Party has enacted over the last 6 years: No Child Left Behind and the Medicare Drug Benefit. No Child Left Behind is designed to help children struggling to get an education in inner-city schools. And you guessed it, the Medicare Drug program predominantly benefits women.

In her acceptance speech as first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi proudly exclaimed, “Never losing faith, we worked to redeem the promise of America, that all men and women are created equal. For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling.”

As “Mimi” Pelosi spoke those words, her five grandsons were standing at her side with a slightly confused expression. The thought crossed my mind that compared to girls, her grandsons were at greater danger of having lower grades, falling behind in school, and never going to college.

One can only wonder whether the indelicate reality of our boys at risk has ever tweaked the conscience of Madame Speaker.

One can also wonder at the size of the conscience of Madame Speaker. Is it one of those things you need a magnifying glass and tweezers to find? Is it any more than a mere splinter in her vaulting ambition?

Feminislam’s AdvocateI have often mentioned the unholy alliance between academia and politics, especially where feminism is concerned. Fjordman brings to the table Dr. Wairimu Njambi, assistant professor of (gag) “Women’s Studies” at Florida Atlantic University, also known as “Florida Atlantic Terror University” for its links to Hamas and its militant Islamist students and professors.

Dr. Njambi, however, is a special case. She advocates female genital mutilation. Here is how Ari Kaufman describes her work:

Dr. Wairimu Njambi is an Assistant Professor of “Women’s Studies” at the Florida Atlantic University Wilkes Honors College, a feminist, and an apologist for some of the misogynistic cruelties perpetrated against women.

Much of her scholarship, for instance, is dedicated to advancing the notion that the cruel practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is actually a triumph for feminism and that it is hateful to suggest otherwise. According to Njambi “anti-FGM discourse perpetuates a colonialist assumption by universalizing a particular western image of a ‘normal’ body and sexuality.”

– – – – – – – – – –
Calling Njambi’s endeavors “scholarship” stretches the meaning of the word to irrelevance. Most of her students loathe her:

On the day that students filled out evaluations of her course Njambi told them point-blank: “I know a lot of you are not thrilled with some of the content in this course and with my views. But I am letting you know now that I will not change.” Not surprisingly, many students went on to describe her course as “the worst class I have ever taken.”

Unfortunately, there are male academics willing to climb aboard her absurd train of thought. And journalism students who are willing to report enthusiastically on the results. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Patchwork, a “Social Activism Magazine” described a lecture given by Professor Robert Daniels, a supporter of Njambi’s monumental ignorance (or denial, perhaps, given that she herself had to undergo this barbarous “ritual”). As you read his ideas, realize that we have reached, finally, the demonic convergence, we have come to the dark side – Feminislam. It took long enough, but here it is. The fems won’t be standing up for their oppressed sisters after all. Instead they’re rooting for the oppressors. It would be funny were the gropings of these strange bedfellows not so horrifying:

“Female Genital Mutilation is a prejudicial term,” he said. “To speak of these practices only as operations or mutilations is like speaking of making the sign of the cross on someone’s forehead on Ash Wednesday as ‘soiling the face’ or speaking of a fraternity branding as ‘mutilating the upper arm,’” said Daniels.

How’s that for an evil reductio ad absurdum? Ashes on the forehead don’t leave in their wake ruined bodies, fistulas, urinary incontinence, and all the other miseries that result from an extremely painful, germ-laden procedure done on a five year old without benefit of anesthesia.

He isn’t finished with this anthropological lecture, however:

Circumcision is a deeply embedded right [sic] of passage in Africa. It is a central ritual that defines social roles in families, communities, marriage-systems, a person’s self-identity and self-worth, said Daniels.

He’s absolutely right. It does indeed “define roles…marriage systems…self-worth, etc.” But what rôles are we talking about here? The one where the victims of failed mutilations live in back rooms, dribbling urine and unable to function? Has this obviously ignorant man bothered to research the sequelae of botched clitoridectomies?

Obviously not, since he doesn’t even distinguish among the various forms of female genital mutilation. Here is a description of the Pharaonic type, thought to have been practiced by the Egyptians during the period of the Pharaohs:

Infibulation involves extensive tissue removal of the external genitalia, including all of the labia minora and the inside of the labia majora, leaving a raw open wound. The labia majora are then held together using thorns or stitching and the girl’s legs are tied together for two — six weeks, to prevent her from moving and allow the healing of the two sides of the vulva. Nothing remains of the normal anatomy of the genitalia, except for a wall of flesh from the pubis down to the anus, with the exception of a pencil-size opening at the inferior portion of the vulva to allow urine and menstrual blood to pass through… This type of FGC is often carried out by an elderly matron or midwife of the village on girls between the ages of two and six, without anaesthetic and under unhygienic conditions.

A reverse infibulation can be performed to allow for sexual intercourse (often by the husband using a knife on the wedding night) or when undergoing labor, or by female relatives, whose responsibility it is to inspect the wound every few weeks and open it some more if necessary. During childbirth, the enlargement is too small to allow vaginal delivery, and so the infibulation must be opened completely and restored after delivery. Once again, the legs are tied together to allow the wound to heal, and the procedure is repeated for each subsequent act of intercourse or childbirth. When childbirth takes place in a hospital, the surgeons may preserve the infibulation by enlarging the vagina with deep episiotomies. Afterwards, the patient may insist that her vagina be closed again so that her husband does not reject her.

This practice is reported to cause the disappearance of sexual pleasure for the women affected, as well as major medical complications, although advocates of the practice deny this, and continue to carry it out.

So this is what little girls have done to them when they are small enough to be held down. And they, in turn, continue to undergo mind-boggling pain in order not to be rejected. Pain rather than death. Pain rather than being abandoned by one’s family. Where is the free will in that? What shreds of dignity or self-worth can a woman retain under these conditions? According to this professor, it is Tradition, and we shouldn’t intervene:

We should object and intervene when some people are destroying others, as in Darfur. There are more than enough cases of that within our own social and political system, and those in which we can have some effective influence.

“The cutting in each case removes our inherent androgynies, taking away the most feminine aspects of boys’ genitalia and the most masculine aspects of girls’ genitalia, so that we are truly made men and women,” Daniels said.

So he equates the removal of male foreskin with the excision of female genitalia?? These are the ramblings of a moral pygmy. Or is that a politically incorrect statement, too? I certainly hope so. After all, to notice that a tribe of people is short and to use that characteristic as a metaphor is obviously insensitive. Professor Daniels, on the other hand, is exquisitely sensitive. As he says, “there are more than enough cases of that within our own social and political system”…though whatever that is can only be surmised. Perhaps he means those fundamentalists who don’t permit dancing, or who protest the national abortion laws? Of course — the moral equation between those and the practice of infibulation is so plain, isn’t it? And while we’re at it, let’s have a round of applause for the Emperor’s new tailor. His diaphanous robes are cutting edge couture, no?

Unfortunately, the good Professor isn’t quite done:

Daniels referred to a feminist critique by Wairimu Njambi, a circumcised woman, to support his argument.

“Anti-FGM discourse perpetuates a colonialist assumption by universalizing a particular western image of a ‘normal’ body and sexuality,” Njambi wrote.

“This discourse includes not only a missionizing Christian bias, but also a Western sexist bias by considering women’s issues as separable from men’s,” Daniels said.

Daniels critiqued the common feminist notion that the rituals are an extreme form of male oppression.

“If one says they are examples of male oppression, does that mean that most or all the women in these societies are not only victims but agents in their own victimization?”

Cutting through the undergrowth of femspeak, that’s exactly what it means! How hard is this phenomenon to understand? Traumatize a five year old and she’ll do whatever she has to do as she grows up to remain a member of the group.

I’d love to see a debate between Njambi and Hirsi Ali. Both survivors of genital mutilation, they have assigned entirely opposite meanings to their experience.

I leave it to you to decide which one is sane…and humane.

Meanwhile, the clueless Professor Daniels, “educated” beyond his abilities, leaves us with this thought:

Cultural relativity does not say that all human behavior is just or justified, but it does say that we have to entertain the possibility that other ways of life may be equally valid ways to be human, that the “natives” are not simply ignorant and need our enlightenment, but that perhaps they know what they are doing as much as we do.

The Muslims of America Speak Up

The Christian Action Network has apparently touched a nerve by going after Sheikh Gilani Lane and the Jamaat ul-Fuqra compounds. This letter to the editor appeared a few days ago in the Southside Messenger:

I am writing and responding to the ongoing Sheikh Gilani Lane sign controversy here in Red House, Virginia. We, the Muslims of the Americas here in Charlotte County, would like to reiterate our position surrounding the controversy regarding Sheikh Gilani Lane.

We are not terrorists, nor do we or shall we ever subscribe to terrorism. We are American citizens born and raised in the United States, respectful to God and the Constitution of the founding Fathers of this country. Many of us are Veterans ourselves, honorably discharged, by the various entities of the United States Armed Forces. Some of us currently have relatives serving in the Armed Forces overseas in Iraq.

In America we have a respectful working process to resolve our differences when we disagree with one another. However, we have recently found this not to be the case. I am referring to the belligerent and undisciplined act of some members who claim to be with the Christian Action Network (CAN) flying an aircraft over our peaceful Islamic Village. Heavy bundles of offensive literature were hurled out of the aircraft with little or no regard to where they landed. Fortunately no one was physically injured. Many of our women and children are now terrified whenever any sort of aircraft passes over our village.

– – – – – – – – – –

Some days after this incident, group members of CAN, appealed to the County Board of Supervisors to have our road sign removed because of what they perceived to be Anti American. We would have thought a group who claimed to be followers of the Blessed Jesus Christ, (whom we as Muslims highly revere and believe in his second coming), would have made this appeal their first approach and had respectful dialogue surrounding the issue.

Again, I reiterate, the red, white and blue is also our country’s flag, and we too, stand up for the National Anthem with respect. Our service is reflective to our respect for our Country and our neighbors. Many of our Christian brethren and neighbors in Charlotte County have apologized for the rudeness and un-American behavior of the members of CAN and assured us that they did not approve of such lawlessness. They have also assured us of their support. Red House has become a very diverse cultural and religious community over the past 10 years. We have our Amish neighbors as well as several Christian churches on Road 615 all living peacefully throughout the community. Our small Red House area is a direct reflection of the diversity in America as well as the harmony.

We, along with our Attorneys, have contacted the local Sheriff’s Department, the F.B.I., and the Justice Department in regards to the transgression and violation of the members of CAN. We have been informed locally that subpoenas are forthcoming with regards to those violations.

Respectfully,

Charles Williams, Senior
Spokesperson (regarding this matter)

There’s also a puff-piece “news” story in the same paper about the Red House conpound.

Many of our readers have seen our earlier posts on Jamaat ul-Fuqra. To refresh your memory, look down our right sidebar and click some of the links, and then follow through to our various sources. Also, for the best and most complete information on MOA, visit the Politics of CP.

You can then decide for yourselves whether Mr. Williams’ letter is an accurate description of the Muslims of America.

I’ll let Sheikh Gilani’s own words do the talking:

In a videotape obtained by The Washington Times, Sheik Gilani calls on American Muslims to help him form an “international organization.”

“We have reached out and prepared them to defend themselves in a highly specialized training in guerrilla warfare,” he says, referring to two camouflage-clad black men flanking him. “Life is becoming more hard for Muslims. Therefore, every man and woman will learn to defend himself or herself.”

What the Well-Dressed Prophet Wears

For those of you who — like me — aren’t at church this Sunday morning, here’s a new way to occupy your time:


DRESS UP MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET!

Dress up Mohammed!



Normal Bob Smith has developed this useful and educational interactive website so that everyone in the family can attend to the Prophet’s sartorial needs.

Dress up Mohammed!Now you don’t have to be a Danish cartoonist to earn your very own fatwa!

It’s a kind of a virtual paper-doll arrangement, with many large accessories; Mohammed the Taxi Driver is particularly apt. The result of one of my own efforts is shown at right.

Don’t set your monitor at 800 x 600, as I did initially, if you want the interactive scripting to work right. It’s designed for higher-resolution settings.

File under: Blasphemy, Trivial.



Hat tip: Reader LN, via email.

[Nothing follows]

The Multicultural Paradise

Swedish postage stampOur Swedish correspondent LN tipped me to this postage stamp, which currently has the value SEK 5.50, the Swedish equivalent of our first class postage. As you can see, it depicts the idyllic multicultural landscape that every Nordic heart yearns for.

LN sent his own acerbic caption for the stamp:

A multicultural picnic at a Swedish summer lake — an example of insidious state-initiated manipulation of public opinion.

And indeed it is. Look at the two women in full abaya, and next to them the non-Muslim madonna and child. There’s also an alarming moose splashing towards them from the other side of the lake, churning up little golden balls from the water. Perhaps they are the golden orbs of diversity? The jewels of cultural reconciliation?

Multiculturalism is a millenarian sect, one which looks forward to the perfect world to come, the PC equivalent of the lion reclining with the lamb whilst beating his Uzi into a salad fork. It’s the world we’d all love to see, the stuff of dreams, but not something to be realized this side of the grave.

In brute reality, those fully veiled women are not going to coexist with the infidel whore and her little haram brat. One way or another, the kufar woman will don the hijab, or pay the jizyah. In any case, this little dejeuner-sur-l’herbe with its moose-watching sideshow will never happen.

And, outside of the most rarefied cloisters of postmodern academia, no one really believes that it will. In that sense it’s a lot like Marxist doctrine. The entire monstrous Soviet apparatus was based on Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy, but nobody really believed it.
– – – – – – – – – –
Soviet dancingIt was broadcast on the radio, flashed on TV, and printed in newspapers and magazines. It was painted into giant Socialist Realism murals, carved in granite, and engraved in block Cyrillic on the friezes of government ministries. It was taught to schoolchildren, printed up in multi-volume books, and exported all over the world in multimedia propaganda.

Yet, after about 1937, nobody inside the Soviet Union really believed it.

The useful idiots in Berkeley and on the Rive Gauche still clutch it to their throbbing hearts, but no one who has experienced the full practicum of socialism can retain any faith in it.

And so it is with multiculturalism. In the modern university, the more radical professors may believe the peculiar canons of the faith. Most, however, are like Ward Churchill, cynical exploiters of the opportune moment, or simply echoing the doctrine of the day because that’s what everybody does. The students know how to memorize the creed and recite the catechism of the true religion, because they’re well aware of the consequences of the failure to fall into line.

The Soviet Union taught us that an edifice built entirely upon the Big Lie cannot stand for long. The only question is which way the pillars will topple, and who will be crushed by the rubble.

     Until we stand tongueless in Gaza,
     bereft of all our syllables, we needs must know
     that into the garden with the Word crept the Lie,
     and wrapped his sinuous coils
     around that eternal tree.

Sweden’s Iraqi Connection

Before we get into the meat of this post, I’d like to offer special thanks to our Danish friend Kepiblanc, who has been doing such magnificent journeywork in the last few months translating for Gates of Vienna. He not only translates from his native Danish, but also from Swedish, Norwegian, German, and French when the occasion warrants and/or the mood strikes him. He’s like a babelfish translation automaton, except that the resulting English is fluent and makes complete sense!

So let’s hear a round of Gates of Vienna applause for Kepiblanc.



Saddam’s people in SwedenThis article (translated by Kepiblanc) is from the Swedish blog kulturrevolution.se, and concerns the growing Iraqi criminal networks in Sweden.

The Iraq war prompted an exodus of thugs and criminals from Iraq, particularly those who had previously been employed by Saddam’s Mukhabarat. According to Brynte Cronsköld — who is a Crime Inspector with the Swedish Customs Service — the shrewd Baathist refugees have learned to game Sweden’s asylum system, as so many questionable Third World “refugees” have done before them.

Counterfeit Passports and Crime
by Brynte Cronsköld
February 15, 2007

On February 14th Carl-Robert Lindgren wrote about the extensive forgery of passports practiced by the Iraqi embassy during recent years, and the indifference of Swedish authorities towards it. In and of itself it is serious enough, though hardly surprising, given the present state of affairs in Iraq and Sweden.

Hiding behind this is something that is very disturbing from the perspective of law enforcement. Given the enormous influx into Sweden of Iraqis carrying fake ID documents, all indications point to a repetition of the disastrous mistakes made during the early nineties. When Yugoslavia fell apart, a lot of people came to Sweden and were given residence permits. Within this stream of refugees we received a substantial portion of Tito’s Security Service with all the attendant consequences. Without any doubt they arrived with faked papers and — just as happens today — there were no obstacles to getting a permanent residence permit, even though Swedish Security, the military, the Customs Service, and police were very well aware of those people’s true identity. Some of them should rightfully face a War Crimes Tribunal — which explains some of the brutality we’ve seen in the criminal underground during the latest fifteen years.

– – – – – – – – – –

With their experience, know-how, and contacts, they very quickly established themselves within organized crime. What this means became evident when Customs noticed their expert trafficking in drug, weapons, liquor, and cigarettes. More than a decade later the problems remain unresolved. To the contrary, Yugoslav criminals are now so deeply embedded in Swedish society that the problem is impossible to cure. Some agencies (police, customs etc.) actually tried to stop them, while others (immigration, courts, lawyers) helped and protected them by handing out citizenships like RFSU [Swedish Birth and Prevention Council — translator.] hands out condoms. If some of those key criminal actors disappeared from time to time it was solely due to mutual intramural killings, rather than Swedish law enforcement.

Now, with Iraq falling apart, history repeats itself. Parts of the old regime’s security apparatus — and not a very nice part at that, even compared with other dictatorships — have already arrived. Nobody should maintain the illusion that new criminal networks are not under construction and that Swedish authorities don’t know about it. All this could have been avoided had we demanded valid passports and revoked the Iraqi embassy’s permission to issue them, at least for the time being. In reality the distribution of passports has been an incubator for serious crime and terrorism throughout the Western world, and it’s a disgrace that Sweden has let it happen.

Within this organized crime there are other forces besides pure greed. Ethnic, cultural and — not least — religious factors contribute dynamics that are incomprehensible to Swedes, and unmanageable by law enforcement authorities. We will have to live with the consequences of this for decades.



Hat tip: Reader LN, via email.

Electric Cake

The ice storm


Well, we survived the Ice Storm of ’07. This one wasn’t much as ice storms go — the Storm of ’94, which was almost exactly thirteen years ago, was devastating beyond description. We lost about seven acres of pine trees from that one, felled as if by a scythe. This one only did a little damage here and there, but for some reason it knocked out electric power for a lot of people in our part of Virginia.

The photo at the top illustrates the futility of all human effort. Two big branches came down from the pine tree and pwned the wheelbarrow. You can’t see them, but four or five of Dymphna’s azalea bushes are under those branches, too.

The ice storm


A pine tree fell down into the yard from the area where pine trees always fall into the yard — at least the fourth one to fall through the forsythia bush and land in this spot. They seem to send out a new suicide tree after each storm, just waiting for the next one.

And before one of you wags asks the obvious question: no, that’s not Schloss Bodissey in the background.

It’s the gardener’s quarters.
– – – – – – – – – –

The ice storm


I had to cut my way past this tree to get up the driveway. There was another one down further along, but I could drive through the field to get around it.

Three days with no internet! And reading by candlelight is a bitch. But I managed to get through two collections of Elmore Leonard westerns and half of Mark Steyn’s latest book, so the time wasn’t completely wasted.

It’s a good thing that the power came back on in the middle of the night last night — the temperature was about 14°F (-10°C) when I got up this morning. Our house was warm enough with no electricity, thanks to the Carbon Monoxide Special, but the pump in the pump house would surely have frozen.

Ah, but to wake up this morning to a warm house, electric lights, and a hot shower — life doesn’t get any better than that.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *


Here’s a little reminder that the government isn’t the only form of obnoxious and inhuman bureaucracy. Late yesterday afternoon it became evident that not everyone was going to get their power restored. The temperature hadn’t gone above freezing all day long, and the wind was blowing hard. It was all set to be a mean night.

Our electric company is CVEC, the Central Virginia Electric Co-operative — or as Dymphna and I often call it, the FCVEC, the F***ing Central Virginia Electric Co-operative. The CVEC is not a big concern — just one of those little rural leftovers, like a miniature version of the TVA. The Co-op is notorious for having sudden and mysterious twenty-minute outages on a cloudless warm day without a breeze stirring — no warning, no explanation, just BLAM! No power. Dymphna and I like to say that happens when the chain on their bicycle breaks. It used to play hell with my programming back in the days before UPS.

So what did the FCVEC tell people yesterday as sunset approached?

“We recommend that if your power is not restored by 5 PM, you and your family should relocate to a motel.”

Right. That’s just what Granny Medicaid in her trailer needs to hear. She’ll just jump in the Beamer, boogie on down to the nearby Best Western, and plonk down her Platinum Visa for the desk clerk.

The last list I saw yesterday had 286 customers still listed as without power, just on our local substation. There aren’t 286 motel beds within forty miles of here. I guess the FCVEC expects people to double up a little bit here and there. Three to a bed and six on the floor, people.

To hell with your dogs and your water pipes. Let ’em freeze!

That’s the Co-op version of “Let Them Eat Cake.”

It seems that we buy our electricity from Marie Antoinette.



I’ll be catching up on email for a while — 700 or so were waiting for me this morning. And we’ve got to go over the mountain to a funeral this afternoon, so not much will happen here at the Gates today.

We’ll be back to our regular jihad-blogging schedule as soon as possible. In the meantime, you may entertain yourselves with this amusing Norwegian video (with English subtitles) about the earliest known instance of Tech Support. Hat tip: Wally Ballou.

Now Back to Our Regular Programming

Well, as “regular” as things ever get around here.

Thanks for all the comments and the emails during our weather crisis.

I want to reassure those who were worried about using an unvented kerosene heater — yes, you’re right to be concerned. However, we opened doors frequently enough let oxygen in and were never in danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. As leaky as this old house is, I’m not sure we even needed to do that, but just to be on the safe side…it was an “open-door-frequently” policy. Now that the heat pump is up and running all we have to do is wait for that kerosene odor to fade.

It was fun “roughing it” for awhile — though I kept thinking of people around the world who would consider our privation a great luxury.

For those who asked: no, we don’t have a fireplace. The rooms are too small for that to be practical. And yes, we’d love a generator — especially the kind the electric company installs and upkeeps since neither of us is mechanically inclined. As the Baron says, he can do anything that requires brains and no skill.

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head Take WashingtonMeanwhile, try the presidential straw poll at Pajama Media. I’ll have to admit I don’t even know all the contenders. For example, who is Duncan Hunter?? And some of the contestants on the Dem side are quixotic, to say the least. Dennis Kucinich comes to mind. Perhaps hope springs eternal? Or maybe there are enough people far enough to the left cliff willing to vote for him? If that is so, it makes me wonder why Patrick Buchanan is not in the lists.

As it turns out, some people are attempting to stuff the ballot box on this little venture. How dumb can you get? Are people really ignorant enough to think an IP address can’t be recognized? Lord love a duck, there are some straaange folks out there.

Admittedly, most people who visit PJ Media to look at the news items are on the right side of the aisle. But the advantage to the PJ poll is that you get to vote on both parties.

Wouldn’t that be fun in real life? I think it would bring out the devil in some voters and we’d wind up with some oddball winners. One from Column A and one from Column B would definitely be a recipe for political entertainment. Our political “parties” need some rejuvenation — why not this one? Of course, we’d wind up with an executive branch that resembled Mr. Potato Head, but that can’t be much worse than it’s been for the last sixteen years.

Think of it: Hillary and Rudy ruling together, with Bill trying to keep them from killing each other. The possible combinations boggle the mind.

How about Barack Obama and Newt Gingrich? No?

Well consider John McCain and Al Gore…

The mutations and permutations are fascinating, but meanwhile ugly reality will have its way and we’ll all have to hold our noses and vote. Or stay home.

[end of post]