American-Muslim Fatwa Against Terrorism is Bogus

Submitted by Emily Emerson (United States), Jul 30, 2005 at 17:27

The American Islamic Leaders' "Fatwa" is Bogus

Steven Emerson
The Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 28, 2005 [Thursday]

This morning a group of American Islamic leaders held a press conference to
announce a fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, against "terrorism and
extremism." An organization called the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA)
issued the fatwa, and the Council on American - Islamic Relations (CAIR)
organized the press conference, stating that several major U.S. Muslim
groups endorsed the fatwa.

In fact, the fatwa is bogus. Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism
ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even
acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated
mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad let
alone admit that it has been used to justify Islamic terrorist acts. It does
not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake
fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that
these groups are moderate. In fact, officials of both organizations have
been directly linked to and associated with Islamic terrorist groups and
Islamic extremist organizations. One of them is an unindicted co-conspirator
in a current terrorist case; another previous member was a financier to
Al-Qaeda.

I spoke with Judea Pearl, father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl who
told me that the fatwa was "vacuous because it does not name the
perpetrators of Islamic terrorist theologies and leaders of Islamic
movements like Yousef Al Qaradawi, Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahari,
Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc." Pearl told me that these groups are "trying to
perpetrate a deception on the American public."

Officials of both groups have been linked to various terrorist
organizations:

The Chairman of the Fiqh Council, Taha Jaber Al-Alwani, is an unindicted
co-conspirator in the case against Sami al-Arian, the alleged North American
leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, whose trial began in June 2005 in
Tampa, Florida. Mr. Alwani has been named in court documents as an official
of several entities in northern Virginia suspected of being connected to
terrorist financing. Documents released in the Al Arian trial show that
Alwani funded the Islamic Jihad front groups in Tampa.

Another past trustee of the Fiqh Council, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, is serving a
23-year prison sentence for illegal financial dealings with Libya and
immigration fraud, has admitted to his part in a plot to assassinate the
Saudi Crown Prince, and has vocally announced his support for the terrorist
groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Additionally Alamoudi was just named by Treasury
as having been a financier for Al Qaeda.

In 1998, Fiqh Council member Sheikh Muhammad al-Hanooti, gave a speech
calling for jihad against the United States and the United Kingdom, saying
that "Allah will curse the Americans and British" and "Allah, the curse of
Allah will become true on the infidel Jews and on the tyrannical Americans."
Additionally, Hanooti is strongly linked to Hamas, having served on the
board of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP). A 2002 INS memo
extensively documented IAP's support for HAMAS and noted that the "facts
strongly suggest" that IAP is "part of HAMAS' propaganda apparatus."

On October 28, 2000, Muzammil Siddiqui, the President of FCNA, at a rally in
Lafayette Park in Washington D.C., said, "America has to learn -- if you
remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come!"

In the past 4 years, several CAIR officials have been convicted of or
charged with various terrorism-related offenses.

CAIR has championed and defended officials of Islamic terrorist groups
including Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook, Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader
Sami al-Arian, Palestinian Islamic Jihad fundraiser Fawaz Damra, and the
radical Egyptian cleric Wagdy Ghoneim.

CAIR has repeatedly attacked the prosecutions of Islamic terrorists arrested
and/or convicted since 9-11 and has attacked the government's freezing of
Islamic terrorist fronts as part of a "war against Islam" by the United
States.

CAIR has led protests against the deportation of radical Islamic clerics who
have called for Jihad or who have been fundraisers for Hamas.

CAIR has asserted that the indictment of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader
Sami al-Arian on conspiracy to murder more than 100 people was "politically
motivated" and instigated by "the attack dogs of the pro-Israeli lobby."

CAIR has been named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by the family of
former FBI official John O'Neill, who was killed on 9-11.

One of the signatories to today's fatwa is Fawaz Damra who was convicted of
immigration fraud related to his ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and
denaturalized. He is currently awaiting a deportation hearing.

Another signatory, the Muslim American Society, is a front for the Muslim
Brotherhood in the United States and whose publications have repeatedly
supported suicide bombings.

For a comprehensive background paper on the links to Islamic terrorist and
extremist groups, please click here or go to
URL: http://www.investigativeproject.org/FCNA-CAIR.html

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