Terrorist Conference in Florida
Wed, Dec 3, 2003 at 8:39:52 am PST
A newly formed group with a deceptively innocuous name, the Universal Heritage Foundation, is planning an Islamic conference in Florida. And they’ve invited a star-studded list of speakers, representing the broad spectrum of radical Islamic views and support for terrorists: Islamic conference speaker draws wrath. (Hat tip: TS.) The conference chairman, Zulfiqar Ali Shah, says it’s all about tolerance, and to prove it he has invited the senior imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia—a raving freak who has gone on record calling Jews “the scum of humanity, the rats of the world, the killers of prophets and the grandsons of monkeys and pigs.”
Shah himself is former president of the Islamic Circle of North America, a group allied with the militant fundamentalist movement of Jamaat-e-Islamiya in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Steven Emerson’s book American Jihad describes the Islamic Circle of North America:
ICNA openly supports militant Islamic fundamentalist organizations, praises terrorist attacks, issues incendiary attacks on Western values and policies, and supports the imposition of shari'a (Islamic code of law). It has created several nonprofit charitable organizations that collect tax-deductible contributions for militant Islamic causes. ICNA’s views are disseminated through regular conferences and a monthly publication called The Message. ...In 1995, ICNA’s president made the following comments on the topic of jihad at a conference in Columbus, Ohio: "Sometimes, especially nowadays, I hear some Muslims defining jihad, and they will talk and talk and talk about everything in jihad, but they'll be very careful that there is nothing of qital [battle, fight, combat] mentioned in there. Well, at least you should not be disrespectful of the people you're talking to. They can pick up a Koran of any translation, and see what is in there in an instant. And a strong part of Islam is qital, and all nations and all people have a legitimate use of violence and war. And in Islam we came up with the first international law, that when you have qital, you have 'culture of qital.' There's a method, there's a decision-making body. It's not that a person gets angry and he starts his own qital. But when you present jihad you have to present it in its entirety."
The Florida director of CAIR is, of course, defending the conference and the invitation of this radical Saudi imam, and predictably whining about discrimination:
Altaf Ali, Florida director of the council, said Al-Sudais and the other speakers are highly respected and that it has been "open season" on Muslims since the 9-11 attacks."I personally have never heard any of these individuals say anything hateful," Ali said. "Anybody associated with a mosque is immediately [considered] a terrorist suspect. We are being found guilty by association."
And this article at the Orlando Sentinel contains a shocking list of the other speakers at this conference—a who’s who of radical Islamic terror supporters:
* Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an "unindicted person who may be alleged as (a) conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, according to former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White. His Masjid al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y., hosted the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in a conspiracy to bomb the Holland and Lincoln tunnels in New York. Wahhaj testified as a character witness for Rahman. Wahhaj, whom his supporters say is "mainstream," has made numerous anti-American statements.* Imam Maulana Shafayat Muhammad, principal of the Darul Uloom Institute & Islamic Training Center in Pembroke Pines. Dirty-bomb suspect José Padilla attended his mosque. Padilla, Brooklyn-born Muslim convert, is accused of plotting with al-Qaeda to explode a bomb containing radioactive materials in the United States.
* Muzzamal Siddiqui, who has spoken at pro-Hezbollah rallies, supported the creation of an Islamic state in the United States and praised martyrdom for the Islamic cause, according to the SITE Institute. In spite of his statements, Siddiqui has been a guest at the White House, and he spoke at Washington National Cathedral post 9-11.
* Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America and former director of academic outreach at the International Institute of Islamic Thought. Federal agencies raided the institute last year on suspicion of funneling money to suicide bombers.
After 9/11 it’s just suicidal that our government is still allowing conferences like this to take place. We really have gone back to sleep—the radical Islamic groups can hear us snoring, and they have redoubled their efforts.
