Troubling Presence at a Funeral
Fri, Jun 11, 2004 at 6:41:33 am PDT
We’re just not serious about the war against radical Islam. Case in point, a Muslim imam with ties to many suspect individuals and groups ... invited to the Reagan ecumenical service: A Troubling Presence at a Funeral.
Patriotic Americans will always cherish their memories of Ronald Reagan’s strong and courageous leadership during the Cold War. However, his funeral at the National Cathedral may uncap different emotions. Among those the Reagan family has invited to the ecumenical service is Mohammad Magid, a D.C.-area Muslim imam with disturbing ties to suspected terrorists.
Magid, who was born and educated in the Sudan, is the Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS). ADAMS has numerous close affiliations with the main targets of “Operation Green Quest,” “the largest U.S. terror finance investigation anywhere in the world.” In March 2002, federal agents raided ADAMS’s facility in Herndon, Virginia, as part of an investigation into financial support for terrorism. Federal affidavits state that the “Grove Street addresses” (500 and 555 Grove St. in Herndon) housed more than 100 interlocking Muslim organizations, most headed by Jamal Barzinji, and these groups gave material aid to terrorists. Among those raided were several major ADAMS associates, including its chairman. Magid himself was present when federal agents raided the Herndon offices of ADAMS in March 2002.
Soon after the raid, Magid held a public meeting encouraging “community building” among the organizations investigated. Although 100 people showed up at the Sterling, Virginia, public library for the meeting, another 150 members of the overflow crowd met at ADAMS headquarters itself.
And with whom did Magid wish to build alliances? Among those invited was Kit Gage of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, Sami al-Arian’s political front group. Al-Arian is the University of South Florida professor indicted for being Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s North American leader and chief financier. Wahhabi talk-show host Mahdi Bray, political advisor for the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), followed Gage. The Washington Times has described MPAC as “an anti-Semitic organization that has defended infamous terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.”
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad also addressed the meeting. Awad has a long history of association with extremists, both in this country and in Bosnia. He once worked for senior Hamas political leader Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook’s Islamic Association for Palestine. Awad has removed all doubt about his inclinations, telling a crowd at Barry University in 1994, “I am a supporter of the Hamas movement.” Awad helpfully told the outraged crowd in Sterling: “This is a war against Islam and Muslims. Our administration has the burden of proving otherwise.”
