State Dept. Promotes Philly Supremacist
Groups as Model For Muslim World
The Investigative Project on Terrorism reports on a State Department-sponsored visit to America by a Bulgarian Muslim delegation, to “learn about the environment of religious tolerance in the U.S. and how religious groups function in a democratic society with a separation of church and state.”
A laudable goal, perhaps. But maddeningly, American taxpayers paid for the Bulgarians to meet representatives from Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups like the terror-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and terror apologist Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), while groups upholding American values like the American Islamic Forum for Democracy or American Islamic Leadership Coalition were ignored.
Perhaps equally disturbing are some of the lesser known groups with whom the delegation met on the Philadelphia leg of the tour.
Al Aqsa Islamic Society (AAIS).
The AAIS’ self-described mission is to “maintain the Islamic Identity and to protect Muslim people, children and students from the adversities of the surrounding non-Islamic environments.” Apparently, no one at the aptly named Foggy Bottom sees a problem with arranging a meeting with a group possessing such a hostile view of the surrounding American culture.
The Obama Administration brought a delegation of Bulgarian Muslims to the Al Aqsa Islamic Society in Philadelphia (left), holding AAIS’ supremacist, intolerant version of Islam as a model for Muslims worldwide. At right, a taxpayer funded women-only class inside the AAIS. |
The name of this mosque should have been State’s first clue as to the “Islamic Identity” which the AAIS fosters. In a typical Islamic supremacist gesture, the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was built by conquering Muslims on top of the site of the Jewish Temple. Many American Muslims use the name for their houses of worship to indicate Muslim supremacy, as well as Palestinian solidarity.
AAIS has been linked to anti-Israel protests, featuring slogans such as “No justice! No peace! No freedom! No peace!” — presumably not the face of “tolerance” State wanted to show its Bulgarian visitors. And it was at the AAIS that Mohamad Shnewer and the Duka brothers, sentenced to life in prison for planning an attack on Fort Dix, would come to pray, begging the question of what brand of Islam is being preached at this site.
The Foundation for Islamic Education (FIE).
FIE describes itself as a satellite campus of Al-Azhar University of Cairo, whose leaders and faculty have sanctioned suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, called Jews “descendants of apes and pigs,” defended the execution of Muslims who leave their faith and threatened Egyptian Christians (Copts) for questioning the Quran.
The Bulgarians met representatives from FIE to discuss the latter’s “Islamic … after-school and summer programs.” Did FIE officials tell the Bulgarians how before 9/11 they held summer “jihad camp” gatherings at their campus? Or mention that one invited speaker, Siraj Wahhaj, advocated replacing the Constitution with Shari’a? Did FIE bring up its hosting of imam Jamal Badawi, who issued a fatwa listing the conditions under which it is permitted to beat one’s wife; or of banned-from-Canada Riyadh ul Haq, who declared: “The only Muslims who are considered moderates, are those who....forgive me for polluting the masjid’s atmosphere by saying this, … openly advocate lesbianism, those who are publicly declared homosexuals”?
The Obama Administration should not be holding up American Islamist groups who espouse religious intolerance and supremacism as a model for Muslims worldwide.
