Chairman’s Report for April 7, 2011

In this issue: America’s new Libyan “allies” are former Gitmo residents, terrorists /  Obama wants to fund Gaddafi – no, wait – Gaddafi must go! / Senator Durbin’s staff has ties to Islamic extremists? / Congressional caucus saves condemned Afghan Christian / New bill to forbid the use of foreign law in U.S. courts / “In God We Trust’ Resolution passes House .

THE PRESIDENT AND REVOLUTION

AMERICA’S “ALLIES” IN LIBYA – I am no fan of Muammar Gaddafi, but on the other hand I really don’t like the guys that President Barack Obama is backing to take over Libya. Several of the military commanders of the “rebel” forces are former Afghan Mujahideen or in some way associated with al Qaeda.  One of the commanders was a six-year detainee at our terror prison at Guantanamo Bay.

The rebels in Darna, for example, are led by Abdel Hakim al-Hasady, an influential Islamic preacher who spent five years at a training camp in eastern Afghanistan training recruits to kill Americans. Mr. Hasady’s field commander on the front lines is Salah al-Barrani, a former fighter from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that first fought the Soviets in Afghanistan. In the 1990’s he fought to oust Gaddafi and install a Califate.

Another commander, Sufyan Ben Qumu, worked for Osama bin Laden’s holding company in Sudan and later for an al-Qaeda linked charity in Afghanistan.  Both Hasady and Ben Qumu were arrested in Pakistani for terror ties and handed over to the CIA. Ben Qumu spent six years at Guantanamo Bay.  He had been working against the United States since his release in 2007 — until President Obama began helping him and others associated with Islamic terror organizations to oust Gaddafi. All of this is common knowledge, having been reported first in the Telegraph of London and then in the Wall Street Journal; however, the liberal media in the United States will not publish this information because of their love for Barack Obama.

In essence, Barack Obama is helping to rid the world of a ruthless and murderess secular dictator and is replacing him with Islamic extremists in the name of democracy.

OBAMA FIRST WANTED TO FUND GADDAFI’S ARMY – President Obama has referred several times of late to the “ruthless” Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and stated the reasons for ousting him from power.  But just a few weeks ago, Obama asked Congress to give the oil rich nation money to upgrade its military.  In the middle of the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, President Barack Obama requested that the Congress double the military aid the United States provided Muammar Gaddafi, asking for an additional $1.7 million in February!

Just a few weeks after he requested the funds to build up Libya’s military, Obama was  spending hundreds of millions of dollars to destroy it.  Meanwhile, President Obama can’t figure out what the U.S. role in the war actually is. Just ten days into the war that is not a war, President Obama announced that US jet fighters and bombers were being pulled back to allow our allies to “finish the job.” Oddly this comes just as several cities taken by the rebels have been retaken by Gaddafi’s troops.

Confused? So am I. But then, I don’t understand why our nation funds the military of Pakistan, which is a nuclear power and a horrid violator of human rights. Pakistan allows its territory to be used for terror attacks against a peaceful and democratic India. With our nation in debt to China and rich Arab nations, should we be funding human rights violators?

THE CONGRESS ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND TERROR

SENATOR DURBIN’S “I LOVE MUSLIMS” SHOW – Senator Dick Durbin favors the gay agenda, the women’s liberation movement, the sexual revolution — and oh yes, Islam. A recent photo shows the good Senator at a mosque surrounded by Muslims good and bad. Two of those in the photo were listed as conspirators in a Justice Department case and have associations with Hamas. It was no surprise then when Durbin announced hearings to prove that Muslims in America are persecuted.

Senator Durbin with nine imams including two linked to Hamas

Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) “Muslim Rights” hearing held on March 29 by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, was brought to you courtesy of a CAIR-Hamas-linked activist on Durbin’s staff.

His key staffer, Reema B. Dodin, is in regular contact with the Council on American Islamic-Relations, which is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism case. Dodin is a Palestinian rights activist who organized anti-Israel rallies at the University of California at Berkeley as a student. Dodin was also a member of the Muslim Students’ Association, which was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Dodin was cited in the book Muslim Mafia as one of the moles who had cultivated contacts inside the offices of key Democrat leaders. In fact, CAIR has Dodin listed as a reliable source in their rolodex. Her boss, Sen. Durbin, has been a long-time supporter of CAIR – and has helped raise funds for this terrorist-linked group. It was Dodin who recommended the top witness for the March 29 hearing – fellow San Francisco-area activist Farhana Khera.  He is the  founder of Muslim Advocates, an organization that has sued the Department of Justice to force it to disclose the FBI’s undercover operations to disrupt terrorist activities inside radical mosques. Muslim Advocates also advises Muslim witnesses or suspects not to talk to the FBI.

Islamist expert Steve Emerson has said of Durbin’s hearing: “It’s consistent with his whole entire policy of the last seven years of protecting radical Islamic groups.”   Emerson suggested that Dodin be fired from Durbin’s staff because of her extremist ties.

INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CAUCUS – On Thursday evening, March 31st, the Becket Fund, the Religious Freedom Coalition and other groups held a reception in the Longworth House Office Building next to the Capitol for members of the International Religious Freedom Caucus.  Congressman Trent Franks, (R-AZ) is the founder and chairman of the caucus, which currently has 16 members and works on issues of religious freedom. Most recently congressmen in the caucus worked for and won the release of an Afghan Christian named Said Musa who was sentenced to death for apostasy.

CONGRESSMEN CALL FOR RESOLUTION ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY – Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Congressman Heath Shuler (D-NC), co-chairs of the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus, introduced a resolution calling for the U.S. to take action to protect religious freedom. The resolution condemns the intolerance that sanctioned recent high profile assassinations in Pakistan, including that of Minister of Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti.

Tina Ramirez, Director of Government Relations at the Becket Fund, who collaborated with Congressman Franks’ office on House Resolution 141 said, “Congress is finally recognizing the dangerous nexus between Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and international advocacy for ‘defamation’ resolutions that defend the harmful effects of those laws on innocent lives. It is inexcusable that the international community has allowed these deaths to occur instead of standing behind the men who were willing to die for the freedom their country and the UN system was intended to protect.”

BILL OPPOSING USE OF FOREIGN LAW IN USA – Congresswoman Sandy Adams (R-FL) introduced H.R. 973, to prevent the misuse of foreign law in United States federal courts. The bill states: “In any court created by or under Article III of the Constitution of the United States, no justice, judge, or other judicial official shall decide any issue in a case before that court in whole or in part on the authority of foreign law, except to the extent the Constitution or an Act of Congress requires the consideration of that foreign law.”

DEFUND U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL – Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is the chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, called this week for the U.S. to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council. Under President George W. Bush the U.S. did not participate, but President Obama joined the HRC which is for the most part made up of the worst human rights offenders in the world such as Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia and yes, even Libya. Ros-Lehtinen said the U.S. should quit the HRC and “explore credible, alternative forums to advance human rights.” For the most part the HRC passes resolutions condemning Israel for defending itself against terror, and criticizing the USA in one fashion or the other.

IN GOD WE TRUST RESOLUTION – On March 17th the House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the “In God We Trust Resolution,” H. Con. Res. 13. which was originated by Congressman Randy Forbes (R-VA).  The Forbes resolution, supported by 64 bipartisan congressmen, reaffirms “In God We Trust” as the national motto and encourages its public display.

On the passage Congressman Forbes said, “Today, the House Judiciary Committee asked two simple questions: does the United States still have the right to trust in God, and if so, should it? If the answer is ‘yes’ to both questions, then the truths we declare to be ‘self evident’ and the rights we hold as ‘endowed by our Creator’ are indeed transcendent and cannot be taken away by any government.

I applaud the Judiciary Committee for answering ‘yes’ and reaffirming not only our nation’s trust in God, but also our fundamental rights as Americans.  As chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, I wrote a letter to Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith thanking him for assisting the passage out of committee of the resolution.

THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE

FORGET THE MOSQUE PART? – The so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” might just not be a mosque after all, one of the project’s co-founders told reporters recently. Daisy Khan, the executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, along with her husband Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, was one of the public faces of the project, which hasn’t yet raised any money and is still basically just an inflammatory idea. Speaking at a luncheon, Khan revealed that she and her husband are contemplating an “interfaith cultural center,” with no mosque.  Right.

MEANWHILE THE MONEY WILL COME FROM? – Ground Zero Mosque developer Sharif el-Gamal thinks the best way to be a good neighbor is to sue for enough money to build his temple to Islam. El-Gamal and his 45 Park Place Partners and 51 Park Place LH LLC filed a $4.1 million lawsuit against Burlington Coat Factory, the tenant that was in the building during the 9-11 jihad attack against the United States. The suit claims that Burlington Coat Factory ripped off two signs on the exterior of the building in haste and caused millions of dollars in damage to the facade, due to their desire to quickly distance the company from the mosque project controversy. The total area of damage is actually less than 150 square feet, so the lawsuit is asking about $27,000 per square foot for the damages. The lawsuit failed to note that el-Gamal plans to tear down the building to build his trophy to the 9-11 jihad attack.

AND ACROSS THE STREET – The nonprofit Anne Frank Center USA, a partner of the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam, offers educational programs about the Holocaust and the history of World War II.  The Center has signed a lease in the 20-floor, glass-and-steel tower at 100 Church St. The windows of the 1 million- square-foot office tower overlook Park 51, the planned 16-story, 125,000-square-foot Muslim community center and mosque at 45 Park Place, two blocks from Ground Zero. The museum, which currently rents loft space at 38 Crosby St. in SoHo, took out ads last year seeking a larger home in order to re-create the “secret annex” where the doomed Jewish teen wrote her famous diary while hiding from the Nazis with her family in Amsterdam between 1942 and 1944.

INTERNATIONAL

ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS IN ETHIOPIA – Muslims have attacked Christians and burned down 46 Pentecostal and 23 other Protestant churches in southwestern Ethiopia. The attacks began on March 2rd in Asendado, after imams spread rumors that a Qur’an was being flushed down the toilet at one of the churches. The nation is just 30% Muslim, but in areas where Muslims are the majority, violence against Christians is common. One of those areas is Besheno where notes are put on Christian homes telling them to convert or leave. The attacks in the area escalated during March, with an estimated 10,000 Christians fleeing the area because the government cannot contain the violence.

MISSIONARY KILLED IN JERUSALEM BOMB BLAST – Mary Jean Gardner, 59, of the Orkney Islands, Scotland was killed by a Muslim bomb planted at a bus stop in Jerusalem in March.  She was a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators and was studying Hebrew in Jerusalem and staying at the Home for Bible Translators. Previously she had served with a Wycliffe team in Togo, translating the New Testament into the Ife language. Miss Gardner was studying Hebrew in Jerusalem, hoping to return to Togo to translate the Old Testament.

RIOTS IN AFGHANISTAN OVER QUR’AN BURNING– More than a dozen United Nations staff including local guards and some Europeans were killed by a mob angry over the burning of a Qur’an by Pastor Terry Smith in Florida early in March.  Gen. Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan said the Qur’an burning in Florida was, “hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant.” I found his comment incredible, considering that Holy Bibles sent to soldiers in Afghanistan were confiscated and burned because they had been translated into the local languages of Pashto and Dari and were deemed a threat.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990