Tag Archives: CAIR

Hasan was not a sleeper, says forensic psychiatrist

The perpetrator, Major Malik Nidal Hasan, appears to be a devout American-born Muslim, who grew up in Virginia.  His family originally came from the Palestinian West Bank, according to a Washington Post account. He graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in bio chemistry and was commissioned an ROTC officer. He was accepted into the Uniformed Services University of the Health Services in Bethesda and upon graduation took his residency at Walter Reed Hospital in psychiatry. According to an NPR report Hasan was put on probation for engaging in ‘Da’wa’ -proselytizing his Muslim faith:

NPR: A source tells NPR’s Joseph Shapiro that Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time.

Allegedly while at Walter Reed he had made statements about suicide bombing and he professed being harassed by his military colleagues for his statements. He repeatedly made statements about not wanting to serve in either Iraq or Afghanistan and allegedly requested a discharge. He apparently hired a military lawyer to fight the alleged harassment and his complaints were deemed groundless. After receiving poor performance evaluation reports he was reassigned to Fort Hood and was within weeks of deployment overseas to Iraq or Afghanistan when he perpetrated the mass shooting which resulted in 12 dead and 31 wounded at a deployment and returnee processing center at Fort Hood. It is alleged in some news reports that he made comments about suicide bombing on a blog that lead to law enforcement investigations. An AP report cited by the Washington Post notes:

The Associated Press reported that Hasan attracted the attention of law enforcement authorities in recent months after an Internet posting under the screen name "Nidal Hasan" compared Islamic suicide bombers to Japanese kamikaze pilots. "To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate," the posting read. "It’s more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause."

One disturbing revelation was Major Hasan’s involvement in a Homeland Security panel that was advising the Obama Administration transition team. Note this report:

 

The gunman who killed 12 people today at Ft. Hood appears, based on current media reports, to be Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan who was listed as a participant in a Homeland Security Policy Institute’s presidential transition task force last year. 

The task force was not officially affiliated with the White House. It was a project of the Homeland Security Policy Institute, an independent think tank housed at George Washington University, aimed at drafting policy recommendations for the incoming Obama administration.

 

More could be revealed if Major Hasan, who was wounded and apprehended in the attack, can be interrogated by FBI, and military CID agents.  He apparently was the lone shooter who perpetrated the attack with two handguns, one semi-automatic that resulted in a high rate of fire into a medical dental waiting room.

Interesting that Muslim Brotherhood front groups Muslim Political Action Committee (MPAC) and  Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) immediately issued a new release condemning these "wanton killings" by Major Hasan to prevent blowback .

This case has similarities to the Camp Philadelphia ‘fragging’ event in Kuwait that killed two officers in the 101st Airborne and injuring 10 others when several grenades were rolled into a command tent. The perpetrator, Sgt.Asan Akbar, a Los Angeles area Army reservist and Afro American convert to Islam, had alleged that US Forces in Iraq were engaged in ethnic cleansing and rape of Muslim women. He was also brought up on charges of insubordination.

As in the instance of the Kuwait Camp Philadelphia incident several questions are raised by the Fort Hood shootings. How do we determine the loyalty of serving Muslim officers and non-coms? Why Major Hasan wasn’t investigated by the Army for his anti-US foreign policy and jihadist views? Why given his poor performance evaluation reports and his displeasure at being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan wasn’t he recommended for an administrative discharge for the good of the service? There are estimated to be between 4,000 to 15,000 Muslims serving in all branches of the US Armed Forces. The military has made a significant effort to recruit Muslims especially for critical language skills.

By contrast, the IDF does not draft Arab Muslim citizens, the exceptions being loyal Druze, Circassian and Bedouin trackers.

We asked forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner for his insights into the mass shooter, Major Hasan.  Dr. Welner is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine and Chairman, The Forensic Panel.  He appeared on CBS news today discussing his assessment of mass shooter Maj. Hasan.

 Dr. Welner noted:

Having examined mass shooters who survived their attacks, I can tell you that these are events long anticipated and contemplated by the perpetrator. One learns a lot, in my experience, from the location point where the shooting started, and when in the perpetrator’s life he embarked on the killing. Mass shootings kill randomly, but do not start randomly. The point of first destruction is most instructive about the motivating force, be it workplace conflict or ideological.

The Hasan Akbar attack in Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait has important commonality with this Major Hasan tragedy in that both have proximity to deployment to the war theatre. The alienation and contempt of both for America politically, and their difficulty managing a personal conflict of bearing arms against Muslims in the context of the military effort in Iraq, is a psychological burden identified in both men.

The shocking element of yesterday’s crime is that Hasan was a psychiatrist (a profession whose training cultivates empathy) and is also connected to disaster medicine. The latter may be an outgrowth of the very nihilism that guides destructive fantasy into action. However, consider that mass shooters have to feel contempt for everyone in order to shoot anyone. How he practiced as a psychiatrist with that level of contempt will be informative. Physicians have also been implicated in ideologically driven mass casualty attacks, but more as planners (Ayman al-Zawahiri, Madrid-bombing planner Abu Hafiza) or political thinkers (Franz Fanon) and not in placing themselves in harm’s way.

It is only natural to contemplate the possibility that Hasan’s education and officer status, denoting his higher function, reflect on him as a sleeper terrorist. Two points argue against this, however. Reports of his vocal and impassioned political anti-American rhetoric are anything but the unremarkable comportment of a sleeper, and a person operating under external control would not be taken alive. How Hasan was captured will also be informative; unaffiliated mass shooters sometimes commit suicide, but invariably go forward with their attacks without a plan for the aftermath and may survive, especially because they become quite subdued after their rampage is essentially discharged.

Hesham Hedayet, the Egyptian who went on a shooting spree at LAX on July 4, 2002 is a better example of an activated sleeper. Yes, a symbolic date like Independence Day also bespeaks a calculated activation. Until the symbolic importance of yesterday is identified, the only association we have for the date is Hasan’s impending deployment. An ideologically driven killer operates on the timetable of his own conflict, while the sleeper follows orders.

 

Originally posted at The Iconoclast

The Politician-in-Chief

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was widely castigated when he declared two weeks ago that Barack Obama was "dithering" with respect to General Stanley McChrystal’s urgent request for the dispatch of additional troops to Afghanistan.  President Obama’s astonishing response to the murderous attack at Fort Hood suggests the Commander-in-Chief is not merely a ditherer, but someone who reflexively subordinates national security to political considerations.

I appeared last night on the terrific nationally syndicated talk radio program hosted by Lars Larson.  He pointed out something likely missed by those who did not catch in real-time the President’s first public comments yesterday on the Ft. Hood attack in which 13 members of the armed forces were killed and more than 30 others wounded.  Mr. Obama delivered them at a previously scheduled appearance at the White House "Tribal Nations Conference."

Lars remarked that, as the Nation and the world waited to hear the President’s response to this horrific incident– what light he could shed on who did it and the motive, as well, of course, as an expression on behalf of all Americans of sympathy and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones– the Commander-in-Chief’s focus was elsewhere. 

From the outset and for fully two minutes, Mr. Obama did what he does best: He pandered to a special interest of political value to him and his agenda.  In this case, the panderees were Native Americans.  According to the White House transcript, this is what the President felt compelled to say before he got around to addressing the act of home-grown terror at one of America’s most important military installations:

Let me first of all just thank [Interior Secretary] Ken [Salazar] and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference.  I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today.  I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, so I wanted to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor [actually, Dr. Crow received the Presidential Medal of Freedom] winner.  It’s good to see you.  (Applause.)

My understanding is that you had an extremely productive conference.  I want to thank all of you for coming and for your efforts, and I want to give you my solemn guarantee that this is not the end of a process but a beginning of a process, and that we are going to follow up.  (Applause.)  We are going to follow up.  Every single member of my team understands that this is a top priority for us.  I want you to know that, as I said this morning, this is not something that we just give lip service to.  And we are going to keep on working with you to make sure that the first Americans get the best possible chances in life in a way that’s consistent with your extraordinary traditions and culture and values.

Now, I have to say, though, that beyond that, I plan to make some broader remarks about the challenges that lay ahead for Native Americans, as well as collaboration with our administration, but…

It was only at that point, roughly half-way into his remarks, that Mr. Obama finally turned to what he called "a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas."  He then proceeded to take approximately the same amount of time to note that the details were not fully known but that "a number of American soldiers have been killed, and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence."  He sympathized and promised to keep those lost and harmed and their loved ones in "our thoughts and prayers."

(When Lars Larson pointed out this extraordinary sequence of presidential comments, my immediate reaction was to harken back to the relatively few seconds it took George W. Bush on September 11, 2001 to internalize and respond to the first news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  In his virulently anti-Bush film "Farenheit 911," Michael Moore damningly transformed that brief moment in a Florida classroom into an agonizingly protracted period of indecision and cynical calculation.  I mused on air whether Moore and his ilk would now find similar fault with The One – whose initial public reaction to the Ft. Hood attack made W’s to 9/11 seem a model of swift decisiveness, even though the former had had several hours to take aboard reports of the attack and to decide how to address it.  Fat chance.)

Then, with a final pandering promise– "I am confident that this [conference] is going to be resulting in terrific work between this government and your governments in the weeks, the months, and years to come"– the Commander-in-Chief was off to his next pressing engagement.

Perhaps the President publicly handled this attack as he did because he was unsettled by the fact that the alleged shooter is a devout Muslim, Army Major Nidal Malik Hassan, who evidently adheres to the theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls "Shariah." 

Now, Shariah requires its adherents to engage in jihad – the imposition of Islam, by force wherever possible.  This reality was characteristically obscured last night by Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood front and unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism financing conspiracy.  In a press conference, he preposterously declared that "No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence." 

Actually, Shariah not only justifies such violence.  Shariah demands it.

To cite but one example of the requirement for individual Muslims to wage jihad, Shariah expert Andrew Bostom observes that the influential Ottoman cleric, Sheikh Shawish, wrote in 1915: 

To whoever kills even one single infidel of those who rule over Islamic lands, either secretly or openly, there is a reward like a reward from all the living ones of the Islamic world.  And let every individual of the Muslims in whatever place they may be, take upon him an oath to kill at least three of four of the ruling infidels, enemies of Allah, and enemies of the religion.  He must take upon him this oath before Allah Most High, expecting his reward from Allah alone, and let the Muslim be confident, if there be to him no other good deed than this, nevertheless he will prosper in the day of judgment and we ask the Most High to extend the People of the Faith by the favor of their Lord.

In short, yesterday’s "outburst of violence" (to use the President’s formulation), looks like the first successful incident of jihadist mass murder in America since 9/11.  This could not be a message happily conveyed by a chief executive committed to "outreach to the Muslim world" and so deprecating of his predecessor, who had managed for seven years to prevent such incidents here in America.

Whatever Mr. Obama’s motivation for his conduct yesterday, it provides an important insight into the inadequacies of his wartime leadership.  However much he tries to cloak his administration’s protracted dithering over Afghanistan with a laudable determination to "get the decision right," however much he denies the toxic reality of Shariah and both the violent and stealthy jihad it requires, this President’s preoccupation with politics and, in particular, with currying favor with his base seems an integral part of his genetic code. 

Unfortunately, to the extent such a hard-wiring interferes with, or at least takes precedence over, his responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief, the lives of more Americans– probably civilian, as well as military– are likely to be lost unnecessarily, at home and abroad.

 

Originally posted at Newsmax

The last conference on Shariah’s threat to free speech? The Muslim Brotherhood hopes so

The beautiful new auditorium in Washington’s Capitol Visitors Center was the site October 27-28 of an impressive two-day conference that sounded the alarm on our increasingly endangered liberties: freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  If the Muslim Brotherhood and its associates like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) have their way, however, there will be far less of such freedoms and no such conferences in the future.  CAIR would have  open discussions, of freedom of speech and of religion, prohibited and even criminalized.

Incredibly, that would appear to be the aspiration of the U.S. government, as well.  After all, as participants of the International Legal Conference on Freedom of Speech and Religion discussed, the Obama administration recently joined the Organization of the Islamic Conference in sponsoring a resolution that would require UN member nations to act to bar and penalize speech that offends Muslims or can be claimed to encourage discrimination, hatred or violence against them.  Worse yet, with yesterday’s signature by President Obama of so-called "hate crime" legislation, a vehicle has been established for just such sanctions to be imposed in the United States, the First Amendment’s guarantees to the contrary notwithstanding.

In two days of addresses by U.S. Congressmen, members of the European Parliament and the U.K. House of Lords, prominent First Amendment experts in academia and the legal profession, investigative journalists, best-selling authors and nationally-known talk radio hosts, a compelling record was amassed showing that foundational liberties in the West are indeed imperiled.  Specifically, the speakers reported the cumulative effect of Islamist "lawfare" – by which Muslim Brotherhood and other adherents to the theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls "Shariah" seek preferential treatment for their co-religionists.   Lawsuits and political lobbying by Shariah proponents promote a virulent ideology masquerading as a faith, and suppress the practice of Christianity, Judaism and other faiths, both abroad and increasingly in the United States.

Most Americans would quite understandably be shocked at the evidence presented by the International Legal Conference.  Speaker after speaker documented a rising tide of infringements on free speech and freedom of religion and warned that more were in prospect – particularly as a result of the U.S. co-sponsored "hate speech" resolution in the U.N. Human Rights Council, concisely critiqued here by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh in the liberal online magazine The Huffington Post. The reporting and analysis presented at the conference is more needed today than ever.   Efforts by the Muslim Brotherhood and its ilk to keep it from being widely disseminated must be strenuously resisted.

The Center for Security Policy, which was proud to join the International Free Press Society and the Liberty Legal Project International in presenting the International Legal Conference, is determined to keep America "Shariah-free."  The Center for Security Policy looks forward to the fruits of this important symposium being made available at the earliest possible time and to working with the participants to use such information to support and protect our freedoms.

 

Destroying America from within

A powerful new book is wreaking havoc with the reputation myriad Islamic organizations in America have been carefully cultivating for years.  Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Trying to Islamize America (WND Books, 2009) reveals that, far from the moderate Muslim "mainstream" they profess to represent, these entities are associated with the insidious Muslim Brotherhood – an international criminal enterprise that has the self-professed mission of "destroying Western civilization from within."

Muslim Mafia is the product of acclaimed journalist and author Paul Sperry and former Air Force investigator P. David Gaubatz.  Much of it is informed by a six-month undercover operation conducted by the latter, his son Chris and several others into the organization Sperry calls the tip of the Brotherhood’s spear in America: the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Chris Gaubatz and two female researchers affected the appearance of Muslims who adhere to the theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls "Shariah."  They volunteered as interns with CAIR and, in due course, were taken into the confidence of senior officials including notably the organization’s co-founder and executive director, Nihad Awad, and Ibrahim Hooper, its aggressive spokesman.

Such was the professionalism of Chris Gaubatz’s undercover work that he was given boxes of documents to dispose of – which he did, in a fashion.  Upon discovering that the papers included materials relating to CAIR’s strategic plans, personnel, modus operandi and funding sources, the investigative team reviewed them carefully for evidence of conduct at odds with U.S. national security and other interests, if not downright criminal behavior.  Copies were made and 52 of the thousands of pages the younger Gaubatz was given by CAIR are reproduced in the book’s appendix. 

Muslim Mafia draws on Chris Gaubatz’s findings to paint a troubling portrait of CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood-tied entities doing business under such names as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), etc.  These organizations are working to transform the United States into an Islamic nation, governed not by the Constitution but by Shariah and subordinated ultimately to a global Muslim theocracy.

Toward that end, Muslim Mafia shows how CAIR has assiduously sought to penetrate U.S. decision-making circles, mounting successful influence operations against the executive, congressional and judicial branches.  Its agents have been: included in official outreach efforts to the Muslim American community; selected by the State Department to represent the United States to foreign Muslim populations through government-underwritten speakers programs overseas; tapped to provide "sensitivity training" to the FBI and other law enforcement organizations; and prominently involved in legal proceedings advancing Shariah’s supremacist program.

In addition, CAIR officials like Hooper have been perceived as exemplary representatives of Muslims in America by many in the media – the sort of error that the Brotherhood and its ilk capitalize upon in order to legitimize their operations and further expand their influence.

Thanks to Muslim Mafia, we know that it is neither accurate nor desirable to afford the Council on American Islamic Relations such legitimacy, nor prudent to accede to its demands.  Far from the grassroots powerhouse it professes to be, CAIR is exposed as a fraud.  In the words of Sperry and Gaubatz, "Like the Wizard of Oz who used smoke and mirrors to transform his modest stature into something larger than life, CAIR furiously works its own levers and buttons to create an illusion of size and power."

In fact, the authors reveal that the organization may have as few as 2,000 members nationwide and is running serious operating deficits.  They contend that, but for significant infusions of foreign funding – "some 60 percent of CAIR’s total budget," the organization would not be able to stay in business.

Sperry and Gaubatz identify such funding for CAIR as coming from "individuals, foundations and sovereign wealth funds closely identified with Arab governments."  Among these generous donors are members of the Saudi royal family and the kingdom’s preeminent institutions for spreading Shariah, including the World Association of Muslim Youth (WAMY).

Even CAIR’s professions of being the guardian of Muslims’ rights and interests are shown by Sperry and Gaubatz to be fraudulent.  For example, the undercover investigation revealed evidence that dozens of poor Muslim immigrants were misled into believing they were receiving legal advice from a CAIR employee who turned out not to be a lawyer and to be dunning them for services he had not rendered.  According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of victims of this fraud, when CAIR discovered the truth, the organization covered it up and allegedly threatened to sue the latter if they went public.

Muslim Mafia puts us all on notice:  The Council on American Islamic Relations – and, for that matter, other organizations that were, like CAIR, identified last year by the government as associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in the course of the successful prosecution of the Brotherhood’s Holy Land Foundation on charges of supporting terrorism – are part of the problem we face from Shariah, not part of the solution.

If America is to avoid being "destroyed from within," we must not only recognize this reality.  We must act on it.  Messrs. Sperry and Gaubatz have rendered a real public service by exposing the truth about the Muslim Brotherhood in America in a highly readable and accessible way.  Now it is up to us to ensure that the Muslim Brothers are treated as they enemies they are, not as reliable allies in the War for the Free World.

 

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is President of the Center for Security Policy, a columnist for the Washington Times and the host of the nationally syndicated talk show, Secure Freedom Radio.

Apostasy and the Islamic Nations

The 1990 Cairo Declaration, or so-called "Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Islam", was drafted and subsequently ratified by all the Muslim member nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Now a 57 state collective which includes every Islamic nation on earth, the OIC, currently headed by Turkey’s Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, thus represents the entire Muslim umma (or global community of individual Muslims), and is the largest single voting bloc in the United Nations (UN). 

Both the preamble and concluding articles (24 and 25) make plain that the OIC‘s Cairo Declaration is designed to supersede Western conceptions of human rights as enunciated, for example, in the US Bill of Rights, and the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The opening of the preamble to the Cairo Declaration repeats a Koranic injunction affirming Islamic supremacism, (Koran 3:110; "You are the best nation ever brought forth to men…you believe in Allah"), and states,

Reaffirming the civilizing and historical role of the Islamic Ummah which Allah made the best nation…

The preamble continues,

Believing that fundamental rights and universal freedoms in Islam are an integral part of the Islamic religion and that no one as a matter of principle has the right to suspend them in whole or in part or violate or ignore them in as much as they are binding divine commandments, which are contained in the Revealed Books of God and were sent through the last of His Prophets to complete the preceding divine messages thereby making their observance an act of worship and their neglect or violation an abominable sin, and accordingly every person is individually responsible  —  and the Ummah collectively responsible  —  for their safeguard."

In its concluding articles 24 and 25, the Cairo Declaration maintains, [article 24],

All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shari’a"; and [article 25] "The Islamic Shari’a is the only source of reference for the explanation or clarification to any of the articles of this Declaration.

These statements capture the indelible influence of the Islamic religious law Shari’a — the Cairo Declaration claiming supremacy based on "divine revelation," which renders sacred and permanent the notion of inequality between the community of Allah, and the infidels. Thus we can see clearly the differences between the Cairo Declaration, which sanctions the gross inequalities inherent in the Shari’a, and its Western human rights counterparts (the US Bill of Rights; the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights), which do not refer to any specific religion or to the superiority of any group over another, and stress the absolute equality of all human beings.

 

Continue Reading at The American Thinker…

Florida Department of Law Enforcement earns an F

[Note: John D. Guandolo is a 12 ½ year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  At the request of the Center for Security Policy, he prepared an assessment of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s (FDLE) investigation of the Ohio-based parents of former Muslim Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old apostate from Islam who has sought refuge in the state of Florida. The FDLE report is provided here, and is available as searchable text for the first time, below his analysis. The significant errors and omissions that Mr. Guandolo and other  experts have found in this FDLE investigation show a failure in FDLE’s professional responsibility in handling the Rifqa Bary case. Governor Crist and FDLE management need to get new investigators on the job, start over, and this time do it right.  A life may be at stake due to FDLE negligence– and willful blindness–  in conducting this investigation.]

 

John D. Guandolo:
Response to FDLE Investigative Report on Rifqa Bary Matter

Upon my review of the report filed by the FDLE regarding the Rifqa Bary Matter in Florida, I offer my professional opinion.

1. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Investigative Summary OR-73-1741 encapsulates the investigation into allegations made by Fathima Rifqa Bary (hereafter referred to as "Rifqa Bary") that she is or may be in physical danger from her father, Mohamed Bary, or others.   Point 4 on page 2 of the report states Rifqa Bary believes her life to be in danger from an "honor killing" by her family or others, which she states is in accordance with Islamic Law.  The report finds: "Ms. Bary’s concern that she may be killed because of her conversion from Islam to Christianity remains a subjective and speculative concern…"   and concludes there is no conspiracy to commit violence against her.  The investigators in this matter offer this opinion void of any knowable facts. 

In fact, a due diligence review would reveal the existence of authoritative Islamic Law texts officially translated into English.  This review would further reveal Islamic Law – which is real law – has requirements and rules as to how  to deal with those who leave Islam [eg The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, "Umdat al-Salik" also known as "Reliance of the Traveller" – publicly available].  If it can be shown (1) there is a requirement in Islamic Law for killing Ms. Bary as a publicly declared apostate from Islam, (2) that her parents adhere to Islamic Law, and (3) that she did, in fact, leave Islam and convert to Christianity, then the FDLE has a professional responsibility to include these facts in this report, and investigate this matter fully.  There is nothing subjective about this – these are all ascertainable facts.  I would hope the Florida State’s Attorney’s Office has done their due diligence on this matter and is aware of this

2. Mr. Bary’s comments to the Investigators claiming there is "absolutely not" any concept of Honor Killings under Islamic Law can also be comparatively and factually reviewed against Islamic Law.  There are, in fact, rules and requirements as to how apostates should be handled within the context of Islamic Law, and these facts must be reviewed by FDLE if a professional and factual report is to be completed.

3. It was noted that the Executive Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) -Columbus (Ohio) and the Staff Attorney for CAIR were present during the interview of Mr. Bary by FDLE Investigators.  Absent from the FDLE report was any mention that CAIR is a known Muslim Brotherhood entity and an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial – the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history – revealing HLF as a Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood front in the United States.  All defendants in this case were found guilty in November 2008 and are serving long prison terms.  These facts about CAIR were testified to at trial, and accepted as legally true.  They are irrefutable – the documents demonstrating these facts were stipulated to by the defense.  The Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) creed is "Allah is our goal; the Messenger is our guide: the Koran is our constitution; Jihad is our means; and martyrdom in the way of Allah is our inspiration," and their stated objective in America is a "Civilization-Jihad" to destroy the United States from within, and the MB exists to implement Islamic Law here in the United States. 

All of these facts are relevant for two critical reasons.  First, these material facts should be made known to the State Attorney’s Office and any Judges involved in this case as a matter of course.  Secondly, when representatives from an organization that is objectively known to be hostile towards to the United States and unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history, are allowed to be present during a law enforcement interview of someone, it raises questions as to why they were allowed to be present at the interview at all. 

These facts further demand an objective look to determine if the Muslim Brotherhood itself has a position on Islamic Law and Apostasy.  One of the MB’s two stated objectives is to implement Islamic Law in North America (and across the globe), and it is known they call for adherence to Islamic Law wherever Muslim communities exist.   The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law: Reliance of the Traveller is approved as valid Islamic Law by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a known Muslim Brotherhood entity, as proven in the HLF trial. 

In Reliance of the Traveller, Investigators will find specific legal doctrine on how apostates are to be treated under Islamic Law.  Furthermore, the Muslim Brotherhood has a history of officially addressing the issue of Apostasy.  In 1984, Ismail R. Al-Faruki , the Founder of IIIT, stated:  "That is why Islamic Law has treated people who have converted out of Islam as political traitors…[Islam] must deal with the traitors when convicted after due process of law either with banishment, life imprisonment, or capital punishment…but once their conversion is proclaimed, they must be dealt with as traitors to the state." 

Apostasy is also specifically addressed in Peace and the Limits of War, published by IIIT and written by Louay Safi, the former Executive Director of IIIT, Malaysia, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (a proven Muslim Brotherhood entity), and the Executive Director of the Islamic Society of North America’s (ISNA) Leadership Development Council.  ISNA was proven to be a Muslim Brotherhood entity and is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history – HLF.  The book is also approved by the Secretary General  of ISNA.  In it, Mr. Safi notes that individual apostates cannot be killed for a "quiet desertion of personal Islamic duties," but can be put to death as "just punishment" when the apostate deserts Islam publicly (p. 31).

4. This is a statement of facts regarding this matter:

  • There are requirements in Islamic Law regarding someone who deserts Islam
  • The Muslim Brotherhood’s objective is the implementation of Islamic Law in the United States
  • Rifqa Bary has left Islam and become a Christian
  • Rifqa Bary has made statements to FDLE officials and others that her parents have threatened to kill her because she has left Islam
  • The Bary’s appear to be adherent to Islamic Law
  • The Bary’s appear at an interview with two Muslim Brotherhood  representatives doing business as CAIR,  a group known to be hostile towards the United States which is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history
  • The Muslim Brotherhood supports the killing of Muslims who publicly leave Islam

5. It is my professional opinion that sufficient Probable Cause exists to believe that Ms Bary’s concerns for her personal safety are based in a realistic and factual understanding of her  situation, and, therefore, a further criminal investigation is warranted.

 

John D. Guandolo is a 12 ½ year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

Florida_Department of Law Enforcement
Investigative Summary
OR-73-1741

Pursuant to a request for investigative assistance, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted an investigation into allegations by juvenile female Fathima Rifqa Bary that she is or may be in physical danger from her father, Mohamed Bary or others. FDLE’s authority regarding criminal investigations is dictated by Florida Statute 943, as follows:

943.04 Criminal Justice Investigations and Forensic Science Program; creation; investigative, forensic, and related authority.-

2)(a) … the department may investigate violations of any of the criminal laws of the state, and shall have authority to bear arms, make arrests and apply for, serve and execute search warrants, arrest warrants, capias, and other process of the court. FDLE has conducted numerous interviews and inquiries as part of this investigation, and is documenting the substance of those interviews as part of the FDLE case file. This document will serve as an Investigative Summary regarding FDLE’s findings in this matter.

 

INVESTIGATIVE FINDINGS

On August 24, 2009, FDLE conducted an interview of Fathima Rifqa Bary. At that time, she made the following allegations:

1. Ms. Bary alleged she was the victim of an Assault by her father during an incident when her father threatened to strike her with a laptop computer in June 2009.

The investigative efforts by FDLE did not identify an assault having occurred against Ms. Bary in the state of Florida. Investigation of this allegation indicated it occurred in the state of Ohio, for which FDLE has no jurisdiction. Checks with Ohio law enforcement agencies revealed no derogatory information on Mr. Bary based on this allegation.

2.  Ms. Bary alleged she was the victim of an Aggravated Assault by her father during the above mentioned incident when she alleges her father said "I will kill you, tell me the truth".

The investigative efforts by FDLE did not identify an aggravated assault occurring against Ms. Bary in the state of Florida. Investigation of this allegation indicated it occurred in the state of Ohio, for which FDLE has no jurisdiction. Checks with

Ohio law enforcement agencies revealed no derogatory information on Mr. Bary based on this allegation.

3. Ms. Bary alleged she was the victim of long term child abuse by her father. Ms. Bary alleged her father struck her regularly and provided the following examples in support of her allegation: Ms. Bary advised she was struck in the face in the family car and she was struck in the face for interrupting a conversation.

The investigative efforts by FDLE did not identify any evidence of child abuse having occurred against Ms. Bary in the state of Florida. Investigation of this allegation indicated the incidents occurred outside the state of Florida, for which FDLE has no jurisdiction. Checks with other law enforcement agencies revealed no derogatory information on Mr. Bary based on this allegation.

Should Ohio determine an investigation into the above allegations in their jurisdiction is warranted, FDLE stands ready to assist the state of Ohio in any way possible.

4. Ms. Bary alleged she will become the victim of an "honor killing" by her family or unknown persons due to her conversion from Islam to Christianity.

This allegation by Ms. Bary is based on her belief or understanding of the Islamic faith and/or Islamic law and custom. Ms. Bary stated that she believes Islamic law dictates she must be put to death for her abandonment of the Islamic faith which she refers to as apostasy. Ms. Bary has not articulated who would commit such a killing, other than her father (as listed above in allegation two), or where it would occur. Other than her father, she does not identify any specific individual who have verbally or physically threatened her with death. No credible reports of threats toward Ms Bary have been received in the states of Florida or Ohio.

The Islamic community was not investigated. An investigation into any person, religious or social organization without a specific identifiable criminal predicate is inappropriate. Investigators checked with the local, state and federal law enforcement communities in the Columbus, Ohio and Orlando, Florida areas and have not been made aware of any identifiable threat to Ms. Bary or the Bary family regarding this allegation. At the time of this report, FDLE has received no information from law enforcement agencies of threats toward Ms. Bary or the Bary family, nor has FDLE developed any derogatory information on the Bary family. The FDLE cannot further evaluate the potential for a threat to Ms. Bary given the lack of specific information. FDLE has not been able to establish that a crime has occurred in the states of Florida or Ohio, or will occur in the states of Florida or Ohio in relation to the allegations by Ms. Bary. FDLE is mindful of the rights of all individuals associated with this investigation and has remained focused on specific allegations of criminal activity as presented by Ms. Bary. Ms. Bary’s concern that she may be killed because of her conversion from Islam to Christianity remains a subjective and speculative concern in that FDLE’s inquiry to date has failed to reveal any evidence ofa conspiracy to commit, solicitation to commit, attempt or other efforts to commit any such action or other violence against her.

 

The following is a summation of the investigative activities conducted by FDLE:

On Monday, August 24, 2009, Special Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and a Child Protective Investigator of the State of Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) conducted a sworn taped interview with Fathima Rifqa Bary, a juvenile. During the interview, Ms. Bary admitted to having run away from her home in Westerville, Ohio on July 20, 2009 and to having travelled by Greyhound bus to Orlando, Florida. Ms. Bary stated that she ran away from home due to her fear that her recent conversion from the Islamic faith to Christianity would result in violence or death.

Ms. Bary stated that in approximately June 2009 she learned that a friend of her father had notified her father of Ms. Bary’s Facebook page which had information about her religious conversion. She stated her father confronted her in her bedroom, grabbed the laptop computer from her and threatened her with it during a conversation about the issue. During the exchange of words, Ms. Bary alleged her father lifted the laptop computer and reared it back as if to strike her with it, saying "I will kill you, tell me the truth". Ms. Bary stated she thought her father would strike her with the computer, but he did not.

In an interview with FDLE on August 27, 2009, Mr. Bary denied having threatened his daughter. He stated that in June, when he confronted his daughter in her bedroom regarding Christianity, he grabbed the laptop computer she was working on. He stated that he lifted it to throw the computer and decided not to, that he had invested too much money in it to break it.

In an interview on August 28, 2009, Mr. Brian Williams, an associate ofMs. Bary’s, told FDLE that he told Columbus police (CPD report #090609442) that Ms. Bary had told him about her father threatening her with the laptop computer and about her mother finding Christian materials in her room in July 2009. Williams told CPD that he knew Ms. Bary would reach a runaway point.

During continuation of the interview with Ms. Bary, she stated throughout her childhood and into adolescence she was the victim of physical abuse by her father. She stated that on one occasion during her childhood, her father struck her in the face when she was in the family car en route to Mosque. She stated that she was wearing the traditional Islamic Hijab, a headscarf worn by Muslim women, and that she slumped down in the car in order to not be seen by others. Ms. Bary stated that her father struck her in the face apparently for showing embarrassment of her Islamic religion and customs. She also stated that her father struck her in the face when she was a young child for having interrupted a conversation between her parents. Ms. Bary said the last time she was a victim of abuse was when she was in middle school.

On August 27,2009, Mr. Bary was interviewed by FDLE. When asked about corporal or other punishment Mr. Bary stated that his daughter seldom was punished and when necessary, a scolding or denial of privileges was the norm. He denied ever striking her.

On August 27, 2009, FDLE agents interviewed Mrs. Bary regarding corporal punishment of her daughter. Mrs. Bary advised that usually a stern scolding was all that was required to correct her daughter.

On August 27, 2009, Rilvan Bary, Ms. Bary’s older brother, was interviewed by FDLE.

Rilvan Bary stated he knew of no corporal punishment toward Ms. Bary, and of no incidents ofphysical abuse by their parents.

On August 27, 2009, FDLE checked with New Albany Middle School, New Albany, Ohio, for records of abuse as outlined by Ms. Bary. Mr. Jeff Warner, Director of Communications for the Plain Local School District in New Albany, stated that the district had already conducted searches of their records due to public and press interest in the case, and had found no evidence of any reporting of abuse or suspected abuse. He stated that Ohio is a mandatory abuse reporting state, so any suspected abuse had to be reported by law.

In another incident, Ms. Bary stated that a high school teacher, Ms. Debbie Crump, had offered to house her in the event that she (Ms. Bary) needed to escape repercussions from her family due to her Christian religious beliefs.

On August 31, 2009, FDLE spoke with high school teacher Ms. Debbie Crump by telephone. Ms. Crump stated that she was not aware of any danger toward Ms. Bary regarding her conversion to Christianity. She said that she made an offer to Ms. Bary to stay at her residence because Rilvan Bary was having parties at the Bary residence when the parents were out of town. Alcohol was allegedly being consumed by Rilvan’s guests and Ms. Crump was concerned for Ms. Bary’s safety in that environment.

In continuation of her interview, Ms. Bary stated that she was in fear of being killed for her "apostasy" or conversion from the Islamic faith to Christianity, which she characterized as a violation punishable by death in Islam. She referred to the act as an "honor killing." She did not articulate who would carry out the killing, but suggested that her father, male blood relative or unknown individuals in the Islamic community would be required to commit the killing.

On August 27, 2009, Mr. Bary was asked if there was any Islamic punishment for conversion from Islam to Christianity. Mr. Bary answered "absolutely not" and "there is no such thing as honor killing." An attorney present at the time, Mr. Romin Iqbal, characterized the concept as cultural and tribal, not related directly to the Islamic religious practice.

Ms. Bary discussed her upbringing and stated that she had been a cheerleader at New Albany High School. When asked if her father approved of her cheerleading she stated that her father had no real idea what the concept or activities involved in cheerleading were, and allowed it. She stated that she always wore sweatpants or other coverings to hide the short skirt of the cheerleading outfit from him. She stated her father had never been to an event in which she performed as a cheerleader. Furthermore, she stated the family had no photos of her cheering or team photos as would appear in a yearbook.

On August 27, 2009, Mr. Bary stated to FDLE that he knew about his daughter’s cheerleading activities. He said that she had asked her mother for permission to cheer and was denied. Ms. Bary then asked Mr. Bary for his approval and he subsequently allowed her participation.. Mr. Bary stated that he drove her to cheerleading practice occasionally during the week He said he had never seen her perform due to his work commitments.

On August 27, 2009, Rilvan Bary told FDLE that his parents seemed to be supportive of his sister’s cheerleading activities.

When FDLE and other investigators visited the Bary household on August 27, 2009, several photos of Ms. Bary dressed in her cheerleading uniform were prominently displayed in the family living room.

Ms. Bary stated she had made her conversion to Christianity over a period of years, but in June 2009 was baptized in Ohio by Brian Williams, a 21 year old associate. She stated that several of her associates at the House of Prayer in Columbus knew of her concerns and fears of being killed for her apostasy to Islam.

On August 27, 2009, FDLE interviewed three people at the House of Prayer in Columbus Ohio. All knew of Ms. Bary and were familiar with her Facebook page which listed her concerns over leaving the Islamic faith. The interviewees stated they did not know Ms. Bary well and did not discuss her situation directly with her.

Ms. Bary was asked how she came to Orlando. She stated that she had hitchhiked from a neighbor’s house to the Columbus, Ohio Greyhound bus station on July 20, 2009. She stated she had arranged for a ticket through Christian associates she had met on the Facebook social networking page. She stated she traveled to Orlando, was met by the Law family and eventually taken in by the Lorenz family.

On August 28, 2009, Mr. Williams confirmed that he had picked Ms. Bary up at the Hopson’s residence on July 20, 2009 and drove her to the Columbus Greyhound station for her trip to Florida. He further stated that she had preplanned locations around the country, including a location in Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida and Orlando, Florida, with Orlando being her primary planned sanctuary. Mr. Williams referred to the preplanning locations as Ms. Bary’s "fire drills ".

On August 31,2009, DCF investigators told FDLE that when they first spoke to Ms. Bary about travelling to Florida, she told them she had used money saved from her job to purchase the ticket. FDLE’s investigation has revealed that the ticket was purchased in Orlando under a fictitious name and provided to Ms. Bary. During her interview, Ms. Bary acknowledged that it was her signature on the ticket. FDLE has maintained a copy of this ticket for this case file.

On August 27, 2009, FDLE and DCF conducted an investigation in the greater Columbus, Ohio area in an attempt to verify Ms. Bary’s allegations of criminal activity.

FDLE/DCF Investigators were accompanied to the Bary residence by Sgt. John Hurst of the Columbus P.D. Child Abuse Squad. The residence is located in an apartment complex.

Mr. Babak Darvish, Executive Director of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Columbus and Mr. Romin Iqbal, Staff Attorney for CAIR OHIO were present.

Investigators interviewed Mr. Bary in a voluntary noncustodial setting. Mr. Bary was cooperative and asked to be able to tell his side of the story. Mr. Bary volunteered that he learned of his daughter’s conversion to Christianity in early 2009. He stated that because she is still under age and living in his home he believed she should continue to study and practice Islam. However if she were to return from Florida, Ms. Bary would be allowed to study Christianity. Mr. Bary further stated that at the time she becomes an adult, she would be free to worship as she pleased. Mr. Bary denied having threatened his daughter. He stated that in June when he confronted his daughter in her bedroom regarding Christianity, he grabbed the laptop computer she was working on. He stated that he lifted it to throw the computer and decided not to as he had invested too much money in it to break it.

When asked about corporal or other punishment, Mr. Bary stated that his daughter seldom was punished and when necessary, a scolding or denial of privileges was the norm. He denied ever striking her.

Mr. and Mrs. Bary said that several years before, when Ms. Bary was in middle school, she wanted to babysit and created posters for advertisement. He stated that his daughter listed herself as a Christian and that Mr. and Mrs. Bary questioned her about the reference. He stated she never really answered the reference.

Mr. Bary stated that he knew about his daughter’s cheerleading. He said that she had asked her mother for permission to cheer and was denied. Mr. Bary advised he ultimately gave her permission to participate. Mr. Bary stated that he drove Ms. Bary to cheerleading practice occasionally during the week. He advised he had never seen her perform due to his work commitments.

Mr. Bary stated that about a year ago, his son Rilvan told him that Ms. Bary was carrying a bible to school and that she was speaking with students about Christianity. Mr. Bary stated that he told Ms. Bary not to discuss religion in school as it was against the rules.

On August 27, 2009, FDLE agents interviewed Mrs. Bary in furtherance of this investigation. Mrs. Bary stated that her daughter had changed significantly in recent months, paying less attention to her younger brother and the family in favor of other activities including late night computer use and telephone calls on her cell phone. Mrs. Bary denied any knowledge of physical abuse of her daughter. Mrs. Bary stated that it was her husband’s belief that their daughter should study and learn Islam first, but could study other religions also.

On August 27,2009, Rilvan Bary, Ms. Bary’s older brother was interviewed by FDLE.

Rilvan Bary stated he knew of no corporal punishment toward Ms. Bary and of no incidents of physical abuse. He stated that his own situation within the residence was that he was a part-time resident who had gotten an apartment with friends but spent a lot of time at home. He knew of his sister’s religious conversion through his friends at school.

He was asked by Ms. Bary to keep it quiet from her parents. He stated he noticed a change in her behavior and said that she had changed her group of friends to a much older group. Rilvan Bary stated that his circle of friends was predominantly American

Christians and that he had suffered no ill treatment for his associations. He admitted to being less than devout with his Muslim religious studies. Rilvan Bary stated his father did not force him to practice it although his father does pray five times daily. Rilvan Bary stated that his parents seemed to be supportive of his sister’s cheerleading activities.

On August 28, 2009, Brian Williams contacted FDLE via telephone. Williams advised that he knew Ms. Bary and that he had baptized her in June 2009. Williams stated he had previously advised Columbus police (CPD report #090609442) that Ms. Bary had told him about her father threatening her with the laptop computer and about her mother finding the Christian materials in July 2009. Williams stated he told CPD that he knew Ms. Bary would reach a runaway point.

FDLE’s investigation has not developed any information which supports an allegation of criminal activity in the state of Florida. Furthermore, our investigation has provided no clear evidence of criminal activity in other states which may be supportive of the above allegations. FDLE is prepared to assist the state of Ohio or any other entity in furtherance of investigative matters which may pertain to their areas of jurisdiction.

 

Death sentence? The FDLE Report

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is supposed to be in the business of saving lives.  Yet, a just-released report by FDLE investigators may prove to be a death sentence. 

At risk is the life of Rifqa Bary, the seventeen-year-old girl who fled to Florida in July to escape her family and the virulent Muslim community near Columbus, Ohio of which they have been a part since immigrating from Sri Lanka.  Rifqa says that her father had threatened to kill when he discovered that she had secretly converted to Christianity several years ago.  That would make her, according to the comprehensive theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls Shariah, guilty of "apostasy" – a capital offense.   

For Shariah-adherent Muslims, such an offense is a stain on the family’s honor and it often falls to fathers or brothers to remove it by the execution of the offender.  It is this possibility that the FDLE was asked by a juvenile court judge in Florida to assess before he ruled on the motions filed by Ms. Bary’s parents to compel her return to Ohio.  

Unfortunately, the Florida investigators failed to perform their assignment.  They found "no conclusive reports of threats" against Rifqa Bary.  At best, their report is incomplete.  At worst, it is misleading, possibly fatally so. 

The FDLE concluded that "our investigation has provided no clear evidence of criminal activity in other states [i.e., Ohio] which may be supportive of [Ms. Bary’s] allegations."  This finding could only have been reached by a lack of due-diligence.  For example, the investigators evidently failed to pursue the following leads: 

  • A Rifqa Bary Facebook site with 123 members that claims as its mission "we must kill her" was not considered evidence of potential criminal activity.
  • The Shariah-adherent Muslim community near Columbus and its toxic Noor Islamic Cultural Center were not investigated.  The FDLE report says that "an investigation into any person, religious or social organization without a specific criminal predicate in inappropriate."  This is all the more stunning given that Rifqa’s attorney, John Stemberger, has introduced into evidence a 35-page document revealing the mosque’s extensive ties to jihadism and terrorism.
  • The FDLE did not interview many of the friends Rifqa had identified who had knowledge of the abuse to which she had long been subjected at the hands of family members.  The FDLE evidently spoke to just three individuals from the list and dispensed with the rest.
  • There was nothing remotely like a rigorous effort to establish the degree to which Shariah requires its adherents to murder apostates like Rifqa Bary or the extent to which honor killings have been occurring in Western states – including, of late, the U.S. – to carry out this obligation. 

Without such relevant information, the presiding Juvenile Court judge, Daniel Dawson, is – to put it mildly – clearly at an extreme disadvantage in deciding whether Ms. Bary can safely be sent back to her family and/or community.   

The extent to which this denial of material facts is not just an omission but dereliction of duty on the part of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is suggested by the outrageous double-standard its investigators reportedly applied as they conducted interviews with the prospective victim and her family. 

My Pet Jawa, a blog that has been doggedly and carefully following the Rifqa Bary case, broke the story that the FDLE report included the following admission:

FDLE/DCF Investigators were accompanied to the Bary residence by Sgt. John Hurst of the Columbus P.D. Child Abuse Squad. The residence is located in an apartment complex. Mr. Babak Darvish, Executive Director of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Columbus and Mr. Romin Iqbal, Staff Attorney for CAIR OHIO were present.  Investigators interviewed Mr. Bary in a non-custodial setting. (Emphasis added.)

As My Pet Jawa observed:

What makes this decision by FDLE and the Florida Dept of Children and Families to allow CAIR – who is not a party to the legal dispute and has not notified the court that they are representing the Barys in any legal capacity – [reprehensible] is that FDLE/DCF conducted a three and a half hour interrogation of Rifqa, the victim in this case, without her attorney and guardian ad litem being present. (Emphasis in the original.)

The inclusion of CAIR representatives in such a proceeding would be all the more outrageous in light of the fact that CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood-associated organization.  The Brotherhood has the explicit goal of "destroying Western civilization from within" and making America into a Shariah-adherent Islamic nation.  CAIR was also an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving material support for the terrorist organization Hamas. 

Taken together, the FDLE’s conduct suggests that its personnel deliberately conducted an investigation that is both incomplete and misleading.  We can only speculate as to why.  But the possibility that Governor Charlie Crist would like this hot potato transferred to Ohio rather than have it complicate his run for the Senate may be a contributing factor. 

What is clear is this:  If the minor in question were fleeing parents who she believed wanted to kill her for reasons other than Islam’s Shariah, it is hard to imagine that the system in Florida ostensibly charged with protecting such children would even contemplate restoring parental custody.   

Should such a restoration take place in this case, it will be further evidence that America is succumbing to the stealth jihad that is inexorably insinuating that seditious Islamic program into our society, in Florida and elsewhere across this country.  In that event, the result of failing to fight the Islamists in this case may prove to be not just a death sentence for Rifqa Bary.  It could turn out as well to be an important milestone in the submission of all Americans to the program that explicitly seeks to replace our Constitution and the liberties it enshrines with the brutal and repressive program known as Shariah.  

 

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is President of the Center for Security Policy and host of the nationally syndicated program Secure Freedom Radio.

Death sentence? The FDLE Report

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is supposed to be in the business of saving lives.  Yet, a just-released report by FDLE investigators may prove to be a death sentence. 

At risk is the life of Rifqa Bary, the seventeen-year-old girl who fled to Florida in July to escape her family and the virulent Muslim community near Columbus, Ohio of which they have been a part since immigrating from Sri Lanka.  Rifqa says that her father had threatened to kill when he discovered that she had secretly converted to Christianity several years ago.  That would make her, according to the comprehensive theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls Shariah, guilty of "apostasy" – a capital offense.   

For Shariah-adherent Muslims, such an offense is a stain on the family’s honor and it often falls to fathers or brothers to remove it by the execution of the offender.  It is this possibility that the FDLE was asked by a juvenile court judge in Florida to assess before he ruled on the motions filed by Ms. Bary’s parents to compel her return to Ohio.  

Unfortunately, the Florida investigators failed to perform their assignment.  They found "no conclusive reports of threats" against Rifqa Bary.  At best, their report is incomplete.  At worst, it is misleading, possibly fatally so. 

The FDLE concluded that "our investigation has provided no clear evidence of criminal activity in other states [i.e., Ohio] which may be supportive of [Ms. Bary’s] allegations."  This finding could only have been reached by a lack of due-diligence.  For example, the investigators evidently failed to pursue the following leads: 

  • A Rifqa Bary Facebook site with 123 members that claims as its mission "we must kill her" was not considered evidence of potential criminal activity.
  • The Shariah-adherent Muslim community near Columbus and its toxic Noor Islamic Cultural Center were not investigated.  The FDLE report says that "an investigation into any person, religious or social organization without a specific criminal predicate in inappropriate."  This is all the more stunning given that Rifqa’s attorney, John Stemberger, has introduced into evidence a 35-page document revealing the mosque’s extensive ties to jihadism and terrorism.
  • The FDLE did not interview many of the friends Rifqa had identified who had knowledge of the abuse to which she had long been subjected at the hands of family members.  The FDLE evidently spoke to just three individuals from the list and dispensed with the rest.
  • There was nothing remotely like a rigorous effort to establish the degree to which Shariah requires its adherents to murder apostates like Rifqa Bary or the extent to which honor killings have been occurring in Western states – including, of late, the U.S. – to carry out this obligation. 

Without such relevant information, the presiding Juvenile Court judge, Daniel Dawson, is – to put it mildly – clearly at an extreme disadvantage in deciding whether Ms. Bary can safely be sent back to her family and/or community.   

The extent to which this denial of material facts is not just an omission but dereliction of duty on the part of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is suggested by the outrageous double-standard its investigators reportedly applied as they conducted interviews with the prospective victim and her family. 

My Pet Jawa, a blog that has been doggedly and carefully following the Rifqa Bary case, broke the story that the FDLE report included the following admission:

FDLE/DCF Investigators were accompanied to the Bary residence by Sgt. John Hurst of the Columbus P.D. Child Abuse Squad. The residence is located in an apartment complex. Mr. Babak Darvish, Executive Director of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Columbus and Mr. Romin Iqbal, Staff Attorney for CAIR OHIO were present.  Investigators interviewed Mr. Bary in a non-custodial setting. (Emphasis added.)

As My Pet Jawa observed:

What makes this decision by FDLE and the Florida Dept of Children and Families to allow CAIR – who is not a party to the legal dispute and has not notified the court that they are representing the Barys in any legal capacity – [reprehensible] is that FDLE/DCF conducted a three and a half hour interrogation of Rifqa, the victim in this case, without her attorney and guardian ad litem being present. (Emphasis in the original.)

The inclusion of CAIR representatives in such a proceeding would be all the more outrageous in light of the fact that CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood-associated organization.  The Brotherhood has the explicit goal of "destroying Western civilization from within" and making America into a Shariah-adherent Islamic nation.  CAIR was also an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving material support for the terrorist organization Hamas. 

Taken together, the FDLE’s conduct suggests that its personnel deliberately conducted an investigation that is both incomplete and misleading.  We can only speculate as to why.  But the possibility that Governor Charlie Crist would like this hot potato transferred to Ohio rather than have it complicate his run for the Senate may be a contributing factor. 

What is clear is this:  If the minor in question were fleeing parents who she believed wanted to kill her for reasons other than Islam’s Shariah, it is hard to imagine that the system in Florida ostensibly charged with protecting such children would even contemplate restoring parental custody.   

Should such a restoration take place in this case, it will be further evidence that America is succumbing to the stealth jihad that is inexorably insinuating that seditious Islamic program into our society, in Florida and elsewhere across this country.  In that event, the result of failing to fight the Islamists in this case may prove to be not just a death sentence for Rifqa Bary.  It could turn out as well to be an important milestone in the submission of all Americans to the program that explicitly seeks to replace our Constitution and the liberties it enshrines with the brutal and repressive program known as Shariah.  

 

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is President of the Center for Security Policy and host of the nationally syndicated program Secure Freedom Radio.

Stay of Execution

The image of a man convicted of killing 270 Americans and other innocent civilians receiving a hero’s welcome last week at an airport in Libya was at once appalling and infuriating.  Unless something permanent is done in the near future, however, the culture that promotes such behavior may soon be exulting over the "honor killing" of a young woman in America.

The young woman in question is Rifqa Bary, a seventeen-year-old from a family of Sri Lankan expatriates who are part of a Muslim community near Columbus, Ohio that is dominated by the Noor Islamic Cultural Center.  This mosque is renowned for its adherence to the brutally intolerant and repressive theo-political-religious program authoritative Islam calls Shariah.  In fact, counter-terrorism expert Patrick Poole has described the Noor Center as "the premier source of Islamic extremism" in Central Ohio.

According to Shariah, it is impermissible to leave the faith:  Those who convert have engaged in "apostasy," a capital offense.  As Ms. Bary says she embraced Christianity four years ago, she is– in the words of Tom Trento, a formidable anti-Shariah activist who runs the Florida Security Council– "Dead Girl Walking."

Pamela Geller’s terrific web site, AtlasShrugs, reports that Rifqa Bary was brutalized by family members even before they discovered that she had converted.  But when the family learned, apparently from others associated with the Noor mosque, that the girl was an apostate, she says her father erupted: "If you have this Jesus in your heart, you’re dead to me. You’re not my daughter. I will kill you."

See Rifqa movingly describe her situation in her own words.

Well aware of the tradition of honor killing, particularly of females by Shariah-adherent Muslim family members, Ms. Bary fled Ohio via a 23-hour bus ride to Florida. There, she found refuge with two pastors, Blake and Beverly Lorenz, whom she had met via Facebook.  When Rifqa’s family discovered her whereabouts, they began proceedings in juvenile court in Orlando to compel her to go back to Ohio.

All other things being equal, under Florida law, such a minor would be surrendered to her home state.  Unless, that is, the state’s governor, intervened on the grounds that mitigating circumstances argued against such a course of action.

As word spread last week of Rifqa’s plight – and the prospect that her return to Ohio could be a death sentence – there was an outpouring of sympathy in the state and around the nation.  Suddenly, Governor Charlie Crist was inundated with appeals on behalf of a young woman who merely sought to enjoy her inalienable rights in America of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and not least, the right freely and safely to practice her Christian faith.

Pressure mounted further as the Majority Leader of the Florida House of Representatives, Rep. Adam Hasner, worked with the state’s Department of Children and Families and Attorney General Bill McCullom to ascertain the danger to which Ms. Bary could be exposed if she were relinquished by Florida authorities.  Trento’s Florida Security Council and Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT! for America mobilized concerned citizens both locally and across America to prevent a potentially fatal miscarriage of justice.

Shortly before Juvenile Court Judge Daniel Dawson was to convene a hearing last Friday afternoon to rule on the Bary family’s motion to force Rifqa’s effective extradition to Ohio, Governor Crist’s office wrote her supporters.  The letter said in part that he "will make a decision that is in the best interests of and ensures the continued health, safety and welfare of Ms. Rifqa Bary." Secretary George Sheldon of the Florida Department of Children and Families took the unprecedented step of attending the hearing in person and was present when Judge Dawson agreed that Rifqa should stay in the state for at least the next 90 days.

During that period, the Florida Law Enforcement Department is to conduct an investigation of the Noor mosque and the danger Rifqa might face if returned to that community.  The court is expected to hold further hearings on a number of motions brought by the various parties to this drama.

What is clear at this point, though, is that Rifqa Bary has received but a stay– perhaps literally– of execution.  It is a safe bet that the court will be subjected in the coming days to a counter-campaign by her parents’ friends and supporters.  Already, according to blogger Dr. Rusty Shakelford, a source who infiltrated a strategy session convened by the Muslim Brotherhood associated Council on American Islamic Relations reported that CAIR "handed out copies of [a recent] Orlando Sentinel article [that was critical of Ms. Bary] and want supporters to push the meme that Christians have brainwashed and abducted this gullible teenage girl. They have also instructed supporters to circulate rumors that Rifqa had been carousing with infidel boys and engaged in acts of immorality. [This CAIR strategy takes the focus off the near-universal Islamic legal precepts and Quranic injunctions that demand death for apostates and impugns the character of the innocent girl at the center of this controversy who appears to be in genuine fear for her life if she is returned to her parents.]"

Let us be clear: Rifqa Bary is a proverbial "canary in the mineshaft," a warning to all of us that toxic Shariah is leeching into America.  Every effort must be made to ensure that her freedoms– and, inevitably, ours– are permanently protected against this deadly assault.

 

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is President of the Center for Security Policy, a columnist for the Washington Times and host of the nationally syndicated Secure Freedom Radio. 

Is ‘Islam’ at war with us?

Last week, John Brennan, the assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism approvingly recalled a key point in the speech Mr. Obama delivered in Cairo in June:  "America is not and never will be at war with Islam."  Unfortunately, that statement ignores the fact that the decision as to whether the United States is at war with anybody is not entirely up to our leadership or people.  The real question is:  Is ‘Islam’ at war with us?

It is certainly true that hundreds of millions of Muslims the world over are not seeking to wage war against the United States, or other non-Muslim states.  America has, as Mr. Brennan noted in his remarks before the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Thursday, a powerful interest in not making all those who practice Islam into our enemies.

Yet, it would be a grave mistake to construe the problem we face as John Brennan proceeded to do in his speech at CSIS:  "We are at war with al Qaeda which attacked us on 9/11 and killed 3,000 people.  We are at war with its violent extremist allies who seek to carry on al-Qaida’s murderous agenda."  He described that agenda as seeking "to replace sovereign nations with a global caliphate." 

Unfortunately, that is the stated goal of all those who adhere to what authoritative Islam calls Shariah – a number that includes many millions of people the world over.  Mr. Brennan’s speech made no reference to this wellspring of jihadism.

Of course, not all those who embrace Shariah are prepared to use terror against us.  Shariah requires though that if its adherents do not actually engage in violent jihad, they must support it through financial or other means.  After all, according to Shariah, the purpose of jihad is to bring about the triumph of Islam over the entire world.  Shariah commands that the faithful must use violence where possible to advance that objective, and non-violent means where not.

By failing to recognize this justification and catalyst for the threat we face, Mr. Obama and his administration effectively foreclose the possibility of countering it effectively.  Worse yet, in their understandable desire not to give gratuitous offense to Muslims, the U.S. government has repeatedly deferred to those who are most easily and most vocally offended. 

Specifically, the latter – notably, the putatively non-violent, but virulently Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and its myriad front organizations – have come to dictate what our officials can and cannot say about the danger posed not just by al Qaeda and its "violent extremist allies," but by all those who embrace the teachings, traditions, institutions and dictates of what authoritative Islam defines as "mainstream": Shariah.

This practice effectively disenfranchises American Muslims who reject this Shariah program – precisely the sorts of people we should most want to empower.  Last week, I discussed this problem on our talk radio program with someone who is trying to do something about it: Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina. 

As it happens, Ms. Myrick’s district is not far from where Daniel Patrick Boyd and other alleged "homegrown" jihadists were reportedly plotting attacks abroad, and possibly here.   What is more, the financial sector so prominent in the Charlotte community she represents is also a prime target of one of the most insidious forms of what author Robert Spencer calls "stealth" jihad: Shariah-compliant finance.

Congresswoman Myrick, a co-founder of the House Anti-Terror Caucus, recently convened a meeting to afford "moderate" Muslims an opportunity to interact with representatives of various federal law enforcement and other agencies responsible for securing this country.  According to Ms. Myrick, some of the officials seemed to be discovering for the first time that there are practitioners of Islam who do not embrace the seditious tenets of Shariah – and who were extremely concerned about the government’s almost exclusive reliance on those who do.

Fortunately, decisions in federal court in recent weeks may produce some urgently needed policy course-corrections.  Judge Laurence Zatkoff in the Eastern District of Michigan recently cleared the way for accelerated and wide-ranging discovery in connection with a suit brought by a Michigan Iraq war veteran, Kevin Murray, against the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve.  Mr. Murray is challenging on constitutional separation of church-and-state grounds the practice of a U.S. government-owned company, the insurance conglomerate AIG, promoting Shariah-compliant products. 

It seems likely that the depositions that will now be taken by Mr. Murray’s legal team – securities litigator and Shariah expert David Yerushalmi and attorneys at the Thomas More Law Center, led by its director Richard Thompson – will shed important light on the federal government’s understanding of authoritative Islam’s seditious program.  It may also reveal the extent to which U.S. officials have, with their failure to comprehend the true nature of the threat we face, acted, either wittingly or unwittingly, in ways that have enabled it to metastasize further.

Whether through the revelations of this law suit or through the work of influential legislators like Sue Myrick*, the time has come to recognize that even if we insist we are not at war with Islam, the authorities of Islam are at war with us.  Only by so doing can we connect with and empower our natural allies in this war – Muslims who want to enjoy liberty in a Shariah-free America.  And only by so doing, do we have a chance of prevailing.

 

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is President of the Center for Security Policy, a columnist for the Washington Times and the host of the nationally syndicated Secure Freedom Radio.

* Listen to my interviews with Rep. Myrick and Sen. John Cornyn.

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