Since it surfaced nearly two years ago, it remains the most explosive document from both Holy Land Foundation trials.
“This is believed to be the manifesto of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America,” intones Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim physician from Phoenix and an outspoken critic of radicalism in his introduction to “the document” in a controversial new film which has caused a stir.
This clip from “The Third Jihad” uses evidence from the HLF trial and other sources to argue that there continues to be a concerted, furtive effort by a small faction of radical Muslims in the U.S. to impose Shariah, or fundamentalist Islamic law, on Americans.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said this about a recent screening at an influential Jewish center in L.A.: “‘The Third Jihad’ resorts to innuendo, minimalism, sensationalism, and conjecture. In a pluralistic society in which healthy community relations are a necessity, agenda-driven films such as this do little to defuse confusion about religious minorities and educate the public in an honest and credible manner.”
CAIR is targeted in the film, and weathered criticism during the HLF trial that it was a front for Hamas.
So, what’s all the fuss over this document?
It was known during the first HLF trial as government exhibit 3-85.pdf, and, during the retrial, as Elbarasse Search 3.pdf. The latter refers to where the original 15-page document (the exhibits have an attached, government-created translation) was found -- in the home of unindicted co-conspirator Ismail Elbarasse.
In 2004, the FBI searched his Virginia home, where they found a trove of Muslim Brotherhood archival material. The Brotherhood is the parent organization of Hamas, the terrorist organization that the Holy Land defendants were ultimately convicted of supporting.
According to published reports, authorities in Maryland arrested Elbarasse after spotting his wife videotaping portions of a major Chesapeake Bay bridge while they rode across it in their SUV.
As we pointed out during the first trial, the document has continued to take on a life of its own, way beyond the HLF case.
Here’s a key paragraph highlighted in the movie:
Sounds rather horrifying. Sentiments like this have spawned considerable interest.
But lawyers for the HLF defendants say that the document is old (18 years as of yesterday) and merely the ramblings of a fringe element of a fringe element.
“Wishful thinking,” as Mahdi Bray explained it to me when I asked him about all of this during the first HLF trial, which ended in a hung jury. Bray is the controversial director of the Washington, D.C.-based Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation, which some believe is the current incarnation of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. Bray denies that.
“I wouldn’t be candid if I didn’t say there weren’t some old-timers who want to hold onto the old way, who say that ... this should be our model,” he told me. “We said ‘So what? It doesn’t work here.’ We’ve been very adamant about that.”
“There’s a maturation that’s taken place in the American Muslim community that’s either not understood, or understood but viewed as a threat to other interest groups in this country.”
Mark Briskman, regional director of the Dallas Anti-Defamation League, a pro-Jewish organization, countered that age has nothing do with the documents’ content.
“The Hamas charter is dated, but the terrorists have never renounced that document,” he said, adding that it calls for the destruction of Israel. “The Constitution is dated, but we still follow it.”
“We’ve never seen a document like this,” he said. “That’s their plan for taking over Western civilization. This is the smoking gun. We think this is a document that needs to be understood and seen widely in the U.S.”
Unfair or not, the movie is another step in that direction.