CTU is in the news again.
Since the beginning of this year, unwanted media attention been directed at the Catholic Theological Union’s Bernardin Center, its Muslim Studies program and the program’s embattled director, Dr. Scott Alexander
Alexander has been under fire because he is increasingly being seen as building bridges and associations - under the guise of Christian/Muslim interfaith outreach - to some truly reprehensible disciples of radical [Salafi] Islam.
A bit of history:
In February, as part of an ongoing series we have been doing about militant Islam in America, we came upon the activities of Oussama Jammal and the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation in Illinois.
Oussama Jammal is the Mosque’s president and Sheikh Jamal Said its Imam, or religious leader. It has a reputation for being a nerve center of Islamist organizing, recruitment and fundraising activity. As a result, it has been under law enforcement scrutiny for over a decade.
Bridgeview has a long history of funding groups like Hamas [In a February 8, 2004 article, the Chicago Tribune listed the following entities as having received substantial funding from Bridgeview: “Al-Aqsa Educational Fund, Benevolence International Foundation, Global Relief Foundation, Holy Land Foundation For Relief And Development, Islamic Association For Palestine, and the Quranic Literacy Institute”] - through a complex arrangement of financial ties provided by organizations like the Holy Land Foundation For Relief and Development [formerly the largest Muslim “charitable” foundation in the United States].
The Holy Land Foundation was shut down and had its assets frozen by the Federal government on December 4, 2001, a few months after the 911 attack.
”...the administrative record contains ample evidence that 1. HLF [Holy Land Foundation] has had financial connections to Hamas since its inception in 1989; 2. HLF leaders have been actively involved in various meetings with Hamas leaders; 3. HLF funds Hamas-controlled charitable organizations; 4. HLF provides financial support to the orphans and families of Hamas martyrs and prisoners; 5. Hamas’ Jerusalem office acted on behalf of Hamas; and 6. FBI informants reliably reported that HLF funds Hamas...” - from the Dept. of Justice filing in the case of Holy Land Foundation v. Ashcroft.
It is interesting to note that not only is Jammal’s Mosque located only a few feet from the now closed HLF office, but - according to the Chicago Tribune - it immediately hired the man who ran the office, Kifah Mustapha, in an apparently defiant show of continued support for the organization.
Bridgeview’s Saudi trained Imam, Sheikh Jamal Said and at least one his Board members have direct ties to the terror network themselves:
Yet, despite the full knowledge of the controversial nature of Oussama Jammal and his Mosque [we discussed this in detail with Scott, before publishing the first in our series] Alexander invited Jammal to participate in CTU sponsored events.
The Catholic Theological Union, located in Chicago, is America’s largest Roman Catholic school of theology and ministry. It produces more Catholic scholars than any other institution in the United States.
Given its high profile one would think that it might be more circumspect in its vetting process before bestowing its official imprimatur.
Dr. Alexander, as part of his Conversations in Faith series brought Jammal into the bosom of CTU. That occurrence, in February caused the American Jewish Committee representative to withdraw, rather than appear on the same platform as Jammal.
As we wrote previously and have since updated:
Alexander has proposed to expand the Catholic-Muslim studies program to include cooperation with the Center for Islamic Research at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem - funded by a $2 million dollar grant from the Lilly foundation. Al-Quds University is an institution known for its Hamas sympathies. Two Muslim scholars, Mustafa Abu Sway and Dr. Azzam Tamimi have been involved in the program coordination and have made presentations at program conferences.
Professor Mustafa Abu Sway is a documented Hamas activist . He came to America as a visiting Fulbright Scholar at Florida Atlantic University and was under investigation by the State Department for his association with Hamas. In May 2004 he left the US to return to his position as head of the Islamic Studies Department at Al Quds University.
Dr. Tamimi is the head of the UK based Institute for Islamic Political Thought.(IIPT) Tamimi is associated with Hamas and the militant Hizb Ut Tahrir group, which calls for the destruction of Western society and the implementation of a world wide Islamic government based on Sharia law.”
Nusseibeh has characterized what he euphemistically calls “martyrdom operations” as a legitimate form of resistance by Palestinians against Israel.
Witness Muhammad Farhat Nidal, an Hamas terrorist, who carried out a suicide attack on March 3, 2002 which resulted in the killing of 5 Israeli boys and the maiming of 23 others. Farhat’s mother [Umm Nidal] was widely quoted in the Western press as having strongly encouraged her son to become a suicide bomber and murder Israeli’s.
Nusseibeh went so far as to appear on Al-Jazeera television with Khaled Mash’al, a Hamas leader and Farhat’s mother, Umm Nidal. Nusseibeh, observing - in Arabic:
This is the face of Al-Quds University, this is the institution to which Alexander wishes to build a relationship...in the name of peace and religious toleration.
Fast forward - June, 2004.
We find Scott Alexander once again attempting to grant legitimacy to a militant Islamist, in this case Fawaz Damra, the Imam of the largest Mosque in Ohio, located in Cleveland.
Damra was convicted on June 16, 2004 in Federal Court on charges of unlawfully gaining U.S. citizenship in 1994 by lying about past associations with terrorist organizations and faces possible deportation and a prison sentence of 5 years.
An important facet of the prosecution case against Damra was a series of wiretapped conversations that Damra had with Sami Amin Al-Arian, formerly a professor at the University of Southern Florida. Arian organized two front groups, the Islamic Committee for Palestine [ICP} and the World and Islam Studies Enterprise [WISE] the purpose of which was - according to INS affidavits - funding the entry of terrorists into the United States.
Arian [aka - “Amin”, “The Secretary” and “Abu Abdullah”] is currently under [a 123 page] indictment for conspiracy to commit racketeering in furtherance of the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad [PIJ].
The type of activity Al-Arian is being charged with includes, but is not limited to - conducting and attending terror fundraising seminars, inviting known terrorist into the United States to speak at these seminars, using the Internet to further organize terror networks and post their deeds and advocacy [orally and in writing] of “death to Israel and her supporters,” i.e. the United States.
Another piece of the evidence against Damra was a video clip of a fundraising speech that he made to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a major terrorist group that contained the following pitch.
Maybe you can just consider that statement to be clarifying language for this 1989 snippet also by Damra:
”...terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation...”
Unbelievably, Dr. Alexander submitted in writing, the following exculpatory “expert” testimony on behalf of Damra’s motives with the court.
Looking at Damra’s words carefully, it’s clearly more than the case of a bigot using hate speech. He is fomenting a campaign of murder based upon ethnicity, in a statement that would have done the Third Reich proud.
Furthermore, in March of this year - before Damra was convicted, US District Court judge James Gwin denied him persmission to vist the Viginian based United Association for Studies and Research.
Why?
The United Association for Studies and Research [UASR] is the American arm of Hamas:
“Fourteen miles from the U.S. Capitol, a basement-run organization with alleged ties to Hamas and al Qaeda is a crucial link in the planning of any future terrorist attacks against the United States, according to several terrorism experts who analyzed documents and other information obtained in a CNSNews.com investigation.” - “Alleged Terror Threat Operates in DC Suburb” CNS News, by Scott Wheeler, July 12, 2004
Marzook was deported in 1997 and is reportedly now in Syria.
Mohammed Salah - a former employee of the Virginia group - has been identified by the DOJ as a terrorist and the New York Times reported that Salah has personally identified the UASR as the head of the political command for Hamas in the U.S.
At the last minute Alexander, mindful of his having made a serious political miscalculation in fending for Damra, pulled the apologia he had filed, under withering fire from Chicago’s Jewish community - a large financial and intellectual supporter of the interfaith programs.
The fact remains that before the firestorm erupted, Alexander excused some of the vilest anti-Semitic speech imaginable under a disingenuous theory of moral equivalence, which argues that such statements can at times be justified if only they are viewed in “proper” [we must assume, terrorist] cultural context.
To bring this full circle let us excerpt from our previous series, the following refers to a telephone conversation we had with Dr. Alexander in the days immediately preceding the appearance of Oussama Jammal at one of CTU’s programs.
I asked Dr. Alexander if he was familiar with the fact the Jammal’s Mosque had been under Federal scrutiny for a decade and that at one time the vestibule of the Mosque was filled with Hamas recruiting posters?
Dr. Alexander’s response was alarming, he claimed that Hamas and their terrorist activity was really no different than what the “Christian evangelical right” - people like Jerry Falwell - have brought forth.
Unbelievable as it might seem, Alexander feels that conservative, evangelical Christianity is responsible for the bombing of abortion clinics - and is not morally different from groups who conduct suicide bombings against Israeli women and children.
These are outrageous, indefensible positions for a scholar to take, let alone a Catholic scholar entrusted with cultivating discourse, reason and understanding. “
He has not only personally associated with individuals and groups who represent the worst elements of Islam, he has appeared at their conferences and been lionized as an academic visionary by them - small wonder when the following quote is his stock in trade - it could easily be interpreted [especially given Alexander’s penchant for contextual manipulation] a thinly disguised defense of jihad.
Far worse; Dr. Alexander has actively recruited these people into CTU/Bernardin and structured the Muslim Studies’ interfaith outreach programs around their militant sophistry instead of seeking to bring true moderation to the discussion of superheated matters of faith.
By his actions, Dr. Alexander has given official recognition to the enemies of Judaism, Christianity and in a larger sense the national security interests of the United States.
His actions have granted them a respectability that they could not otherwise achieve. Alexander is guilty not only of multiple instances of exceedingly poor judgment, but has shown himself to be a strident apologist for odious individuals and philosophies.
He displays a moral blindness - unless continued funding gets in the way - that is shocking and has therefore disqualified himself from any claim of academic objectivity, having long ago crossed the line into advocacy.
So far Dr. Alexander’s superior, Fr. Daniel Senior C.P., has been negligent in taking any meaningful administrative action in this matter, while Alexander attempts to remain aloof, refusing to comment, apparently hoping that this will somehow blow over.
Alexander is on trial, here, as is CTU. CTU’s behavior, in allowing this matter to fester is inexcusable. No apology or retraction can or will change Alexander’s egregious show of bad faith. We demand his immediate dismissal.
