In the beginning of December, LGF noted an upcoming Islamic conference in Florida, featuring a stellar cast of radical Muslims including the senior imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, who is on record calling Jews the “grandsons of monkeys and pigs.”

Sherrie Gossett attended the Florida conference and stayed for the rescheduled talks by radicals, after all the other media droids had left. (Knowing that regular media would want to finish early and file softball stories, the conference organizers rescheduled the meetings featuring jihad ranters as late in the day as possible, and took their names off the programs.) In the first of a three-part report, Gossett provides interesting detail on the backgrounds of some of the conference speakers: WND goes inside ‘mainstream’ Muslim conference. (Hat tip: Athos.)

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Just as a Florida Islamic conference was trying to recover from one media controversy, they were mired in another when Islamic speakers who have voiced support for suicide bombers and referred to Jews as “Jewish crackers,” “apes” and “pigs” freely addressed the crowd and were warmly embraced by conference leaders.

The speakers addressed the crowd just hours after Islamic leader Dr. Sayed M. Saeed assured media that those present represented “mainstream” Islam, and radical rhetoric or “misguided imams” would not be tolerated. The controversial leaders addressed the crowd after all media (except for WND) had left. One addressed the attendees in only Arabic in a separate room.

The Universal Heritage Foundation, organizers of the December conference, first ran into controversy when media learned a planned three-day conference called “Islam for Humanity” was advertising it would feature a Saudi Arabian sheikh famous for virulent, racist rhetoric.

Last April, while addressing 2 million followers at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, chief cleric Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais prayed to God to “terminate” the Jews, who he called “the scum of humanity, the rats of the world, prophet killers … pigs and monkeys.”

Al-Sudais also urged Arabs and Muslims to abandon peace initiatives with Israel. His comments were carried worldwide by Reuters and the Associated Press. The racist characterization of Jews was not a singular occurrence, as suggested by some media. Al-Sudais has variously described Jews as “evil,” a “continuum of deceit,” “tyrannical” and “treacherous”

Al-Sudais, was listed as a “specially invited guest” of the conference, which was slated to be held at the 31-acre Kissimmee campus of Universal Heritage Foundation, near Disney World, but was later moved to the nearby county-owned Silver Spurs Arena.

Following media exposure, al-Sudais’ name disappeared from conference materials. Later, Imam Siraj Wahhaj’s name also was dropped from a new issue of the program.

Wahhaj was deemed a potential unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and sits on the board of directors of the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, and the advisory board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

On the opening night of the conference, Dec. 19, Dr. S.M. Syeed, secretary general of the ISNA, addressed the controversy directly, with media present.

Syeed said the conference presented and “extraordinary opportunity” since the public and media are “waiting to see what we’re saying.”

“We would never allow such statements to be made on our stage,” Syeed said. “That kind of rhetoric has no place in our conference, projects or programs. We need to be sensitive and we should certainly distance ourselves from them.”

Referring to the prior media controversy, Saeed said, “This does not represent the Islam mainstream … these misguided imams. … We should clearly announce they are not representing us or the message of the prophet as mercy to mankind.”

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