Dar al-Hijrah Imam Endorses (Partial) Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation (FGM) can be an effective tool to prevent promiscuity among girls, the imam at a prominent northern Virginia mosque claimed in a recent lecture flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Without it, "hyper-sexuality takes over the entire society and a woman is not satisfied with one person or two or three," said Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center Imam Shaker Elsayed in a May 19 talk, "Foundation of a Happy Family." Only tip of a girl's clitoris should be cut, he said, otherwise it creates "serious harm in the sexual life of the child when she grows up. And this is why the West thinks of alkhikah as sexual mutilation..."

The video remains posted on the Falls Church, Va. mosque's YouTube channel.

Muslim societies which prohibit FGM are making a mistake "to prohibit the tradition and they end up causing a lot of damage on the other extreme side of the sexual life of a woman," Elsayed said.

He isn't the only prominent voice in the U.S. Muslim community endorsing female genital mutilation. The Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America (AMJA) endorses the practice in two fatwas posted on its website, using justifications similar to Elsayed's. While not required, one fatwa says, "it is considered an honorable thing for females."

Islamist advocates argue that FGM has nothing to do with Islam.

After several Detroit area doctors were charged with violating Michigan's ban on female genital mutilation in April, activist Linda Sarsour denounced denouncing the practice as contrary to Islam.

"FGM has no place in Detroit or anywhere else in the world. FGM is barbaric & not an Islamic practice," Sarsour wrote.

She should target that message to its proponents. Sarsour spoke at a fundraiser at Elsayed's mosque six days before his talk on female anatomy and promiscuity. FGM did not come up, but Sarsour described Islam's prophet Mohammed as "a feminist in his own right."

Air Force Vet Sentenced to 35 Years for Attempting to Join ISIS

A former member of the U.S. Air Force was sentenced to 35 years in prison for trying to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh was an Air Force avionics instrument system specialist from 1986-1990 and worked as an airplane mechanic for companies in the U.S. and the Middle East.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis reportedly applauded Pugh's military service while meting out the long sentence, but noted it was "a long time ago" and that Pugh's decision to join ISIS is "a very sad thing."

Court records trace Pugh's radicalization to 2013, when he was working with Kalitta Air, an air transportation company in Dubai. A co-worker saw Pugh watching jihadi content online, including images accompanied by messages such as, "If fighting for my religious freedom makes me a terrorist, I am a terrorist."

In late 2014, he made several comments supporting ISIS to his co-workers while working with a charter airline company in Kuwait City. He told a co-worker about an ISIS advertisement "looking for pilots and mechanics, and they are paying big salaries."

Computer records show Pugh started extensively viewing and downloading ISIS propaganda videos in late 2014 and early 2015, searching for ways to travel to Syria to join ISIS. A search of Pugh's laptop revealed searches for "borders controlled by Islamic state," ISIS propaganda videos such as "Flames of War" and "Virtues of Seeking Martyrdom" and execution videos.

An execution video showed ISIS executioner "Jihadi John" holding up the severed head of American aid worker Peter Kassig and rebuking then-President Obama for refusing to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. "The spark has been lit here in Iraq and its heat will continue to intensify by Allah's permission until it burns the Crusader army," al-Qaida in Iraq leader Sheikh Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi said in the video.

"That the defendant saved this video, among many others, establishes his knowledge that [ISIS] committed acts calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation and coercion, and it retaliated against government conduct," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

Pugh bought a one-way ticket from Cairo, Egypt to Istanbul, Turkey in January 2015. Around the same time, he drafted a letter to his Egyptian wife in which he called himself a "Mujahid" and said that he would "use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic State." "There are only 2 possible outcomes for me. Victory or Martyr," he added.

But he was denied entry in Istanbul and returned to Egypt where he was detained and eventually deported to the United States.

Pugh's "military service is admirable," prosecutors wrote, but "his decision to turn his back on his country to support a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of the United States and all it stands for represents a particularly stark betrayal in light of his prior military service and the training, support, and opportunities he received through his affiliation with the U.S. Air Force."

Dar al-Hijrah to Host Pro-Brotherhood Egyptian Imam

The Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va. will host an imam Monday who is accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist groups.

In 2015, Egypt's Minister of Religious Endowments banned Sheikh Mohammad Jebril after Jebril gave a Ramadan prayer asking Allah to "punish those who have shed our blood and orphaned our children." He also prayed that manipulative members of the media and corrupt politicians would be punished. Jebril led Ramadan prayers in Cairo's oldest mosque, the 7^th century Amr Bin al-Aas Mosque, since 1988.

Religious Endowments Minister Mohammed Mukhtar Jumaa also barred Jebril from leaving Egypt at the time and asked Egypt's television stations to keep him off the air.

A subsequent investigation connected some of Jebril's assets to terrorist acts allegedly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Other money allegedly supported imprisoned Brotherhood members' families.

Dar al-Hijrah promoted Monday's event by describing Jebril as "one of the world's most prominent reciters of the Quran."

Dar al-Hijrah has a history of supporting Brotherhood causes. After the Egyptian military ousted President Mohamed Morsi – who led the Muslim Brotherhood's party – in July 2013, mosque members played a central role in creating Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (EADHR). The group held rallies in New York, Washington and other U.S. cities demanding Morsi's reinstatement.

Dar al-Hijrah imam Sheikh Shaker Elsayed and board member Akram Elzend announced EADHR's existence three days after Morsi's ouster. EADHR's NY-NJ chapter later described the group as part of an umbrella group created by the London-based International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. An open letter from the umbrella group, International Coalition for Egyptians Abroad, to then-U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in March 2015 also lists EADHR as a subsidiary.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood website, Egypt Window, noted that ICEA came into existence the same week as EADHR to coordinate the European and American lobbying campaign for Morsi's return.

Jebril and Elsayed previously appeared together at a 2008 fundraiser for the Islamic Society of Central Virginia. Jebril also recited from the Quran at a September 2009 prayer rally outside the U.S. Capitol.

After Palestinians Deny Incitement, Official Calls for Shooting Israelis

A senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official repeatedly called for Palestinians to take up arms against Israelis in an article published last week in prominent Palestinian outlets, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports.

Issa Karake, the PLO's Commission of Prisoners' Affairs director, accused Israel of trying to kill Palestinian prisoners who ended a 40-day hunger strike the day after his article was written.

"They (i.e., the prisoners) are being murdered [by Israel] in silence, through an official and planned method," Karake wrote Wednesday on Prisoners' Affairs commission's website. "They are melting, bleeding, and dissipating. If one prisoner will fall, the entire world will fall. The world will die if a Palestinian prisoner will die... Break the pens, look for a gun and bullets. Do not look at your watches, the time is up..."

Two additional calls to arms were added when the Palestinian news site Al-Quds published the article a day later: "enough, let every one of us look for a gun and bullets."

This blatant example of violent incitement contradicts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' assertion during a White House meeting with President Trump earlier this month that Palestinians raise youth in a "culture of peace."

Trump reportedly scolded Abbas for lying to him when the two leaders met again last week in Bethlehem.

"You tricked me in DC! You talked there about your commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me your involvement in incitement [against Israel]," Trump shouted at Abbas, according to an American source cited in a report from Israel's Channel 2.

Just before the president's trip, the Palestinian Authority (PA) named two public squares after terrorists Karim and Maher Younes, two Israeli Arab cousins convicted in the 1980 kidnapping and murder or Israeli soldier Abraham Bromberg.

On Sunday, Abbas personally appointed Karim Younes to Fatah's governing institution – its Central Committee.

The PA's justice ministry "emphasized that the decision of the Fatah Movement leadership – led by President Mahmoud Abbas – to appoint the veteran prisoner Karim Younes to the Fatah Central Committee is the clearest and severest response to the campaign being led by Israel to accuse the prisoners, Martyrs (Shahids), and the Palestinian struggle of terror," the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported Sunday.

President Trump raised concerns earlier this month over the PA's program of paying terrorists and their families. Abbas is unlikely to end the program, with a top aide calling the idea "insane."

Amid growing pressure to halt this practice, it is important to note that Abbas is directly behind the policy concerning terrorist transfers and is personally responsible for fueling Palestinian hatred against Israelis.

Abbas and Palestinian Authority Honor Terrorists Amid Trump Visit

The Palestinian Authority (PA) honored two terrorists this month in the lead up to President Trump's visit with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Media Watch reports.

Though Abbas tried to present a moderate stance to the American president, the PA named public squares in Jenin and Tulkarem after terrorists Karim and Maher Younes, two Israeli Arab cousins convicted in the 1980 kidnapping and murder or Israeli soldier Abraham Bromberg.

Both terrorists were sentenced to 40 years in jail.

Abbas' Fatah party and Jenin's municipal authorities sponsored one of the ceremonies.

"...Jenin District Governor Ibrahim Ramadan conveyed a greeting [expressing] honor and pride to the prisoners and their relatives on behalf of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership," the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported on Friday and translated by PMW.

In Tulkarem, the public ceremony featured a Palestinian official openly supporting the PA's policy of glorifying terrorists and supporting convicted murderers.

"This is in appreciation of fighter Maher Younes... I thank the Tulkarem Municipality and all of the district's bodies for this national act of standing side by side with the prisoners and expressing support for them. We permanently stand by our fighters," proclaimed Tulkarem District Governor Issam Abu Bakr, quoted in Ma'an news on May 11.

President Trump raised concerns earlier this month over the PA's program of paying terrorists and their families.

Abbas is unlikely to end the program, with a top aide calling the idea "insane."

Amid growing pressure to halt this practice, it is important to note that Abbas is directly behind the policy concerning terrorist transfers.

He may claim that Palestinians are raising youth in a "culture of peace," but overwhelming evidence shows that the PA and other Palestinian factions systematically promote violence against Jews and Israelis. Through incitement, Palestinian leaders encourage others to follow in the footsteps of terrorists.

On Monday, a Palestinian terrorist tried to stab Israeli Border Police officers in Abu Dis – a Palestinian town east of Jerusalem – before officers shot and killed the assailant.

The attack reportedly occurred as President Trump toured Jerusalem on an official state visit. The next day, a Palestinian man stabbed and injured an Israeli police officer in Netanya, in a "probable" terrorist attack. Despite suffering a neck wound, the officer was able to shoot and injure the attacker – identified as a 44-year-old man from Tulkarem.

Manchester Attack Prompts U.S. Law Enforcement Reaction

U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are reacting to Monday's suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester, England with new warnings and intelligence reviews.

The attack killed 22 people and wounded 59 others after an Ariana Grande concert. Police say the explosion took place outside the arena near the Manchester Victoria train station, catching people as they exited the building. ISIS claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack Tuesday morning, calling the bomber a "soldier of the Caliphate."

"Worse and more harmful is coming upon the Worshippers of the Cross and their friends with the permission of God. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds," the statement said.

In Senate testimony Tuesday morning, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats cautioned that ISIS claims credit for a lot of attacks, and that this claim has not been verified.

The bomber, identified as Salman Abedi, was known to British authorities but was not thought to be an immediate threat.

The FBI Bureau's legal attaché in London helped British counterparts and collected residue from the bomb for analysis at the FBI's lab in Quantico, Va.

In the United States, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are releasing a new terrorism alert for local law enforcement around the country, law enforcement sources told the Investigative Project on Terrorism. A more detailed advisory will be given to all owners of sports stadiums and music venues a conspicuously higher level of law enforcement presence is expected in crowded public places.

The National Security Agency is reviewing communications it intercepted over the past two weeks, selecting communications based on key words or numbers of individuals with known terror ties.

The Manchester attack comes three weeks after a State Department alert warned Americans traveling to Europe that terrorist strikes remain legitimate threats.

"Extremists continue to focus on tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities as viable targets," the alert said. "In addition, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, high-profile events, educational institutions, airports, and other soft targets remain priority locations for possible attacks. U.S. citizens should exercise additional vigilance in these and similar locations, in particular during the upcoming summer travel season when large crowds may be common."

Islamist Who Lobbied Congress Lauds Brotherhood Luminary

One of the Muslim Brotherhood supporters who recently tried to lobby Congress to cut off aid to Egypt's military regime is lauding an Islamist ideological architect who inspired Osama bin Laden's thinking.

Ayat Orabi joined the Egyptian Americans for Freedom and Justice (EAFJ) Capitol Hill lobbying mission earlier this month. In a Facebook post Tuesday, she calls Sayyid Qutb a martyr and "the most knowledgeable master of intellectual output in the history of modern Islamic movements."

It's consistent with Orabi's previous radical statements. She claimed last September that Egypt's Coptic Christian minority had declared "war on Islam," a message that often incites violence.

Qutb taught that the Muslim world had degenerated into a state of apostasy that he called jahiliyyah, and that insufficiently Islamic regimes should be violently replaced. His manifesto Milestones advocates using jihad of the sword to clear the way for Islamic preaching. He also denounced Muslims who taught that jihad could only be used defensively as "defeatists" in his commentary, In the Shade of the Quran.

"As for those who are in a land hostile to Islam, neither their lives nor their properties are protected unless they have concluded a peace treaty with the land of Islam," Qutb wrote.

Qutb is often praised by other EAFJ leaders. President Hani Elkadi, for example, posted an Internet meme emblazoned with Qutb's picture on his Facebook page in 2015.

"There has to be a sacrifice, There has to be a calamity, We must be tested, Because cheap victory does not last ... and no one is capable 'to carry it' except the mighty—Giant of Islamic thought, the martyr: Sayyid Qutb," the post said.

EAFJ spokesman Mahmoud El Sharkawy cited Qutb later in 2015, invoking In the Shade of the Qur'an. It reads: "The banner of Allah is still there awaiting the arms that will raise it and the nation which under this banner will advance towards righteousness, guidance and success. #Sayyid Qutb #In the Shade of the Quran."

Other American Islamists laud Qutb or see him as a role model.

"Curious u feel qutb extreme how exactly / do u mean it was his ideas=extreme?" former Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council member Mohamed Elibiary asked on Twitter in 2013.

Ahmed Rehab, executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Chicago listed Qutb next to Malcolm X as his two favorite modern personalities on his personal website. "(martyred for what they stood for, same year!)" Rehab wrote.

Milestones is included in a recommended reading list by the Islamic Circle of North America's Southern California chapter.

It's clear that Qutb's influence continues in so-called "mainstream" American Muslim groups, not just among violent jihadis.

Trump Continues Obama DHS Policy of Engaging CAIR

Donald Trump might be the president of the United States, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to treat the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a credible outreach partner.

Its officials participated in DHS town hall discussions in Miami and Tampa, CAIR-Florida announced Thursday.

A discussion at Miami-Dade College included Veronica Venture, the outgoing DHS acting officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and Kareem Shora, section chief of the DHS Community Engagement Section.

Venture and Shora are both holdovers from the Obama administration.

Shora enjoys close relations with CAIR-FL, organizing multiple events with the group on DHS's behalf. He helped organize a December training event for visiting French police officials with CAIR-FL in conjunction with the State Department.

This marks the latest example of DHS's partnering with CAIR as a Muslim community liaison partner despite its well-documented connection to Hamas – a tie that caused the FBI to sever similar outreach in 2008. CAIR officials have worked to discourage Muslims from cooperating with the FBI.

Both Shora and CAIR oppose to President Trump's vocal support for Israel and desire to counter Islamic terrorism.

Shora urged the U.S. to stop shipping weapons to Israel during its 2006 war with Hizballah because Lebanese civilians we "getting bombed." As executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Shora claimed in 2009 that Muslim charities fell victim to "undue scrutiny" from law enforcement in the effort to cut off funding terrorist groups. He also called the portrayal of Muslims as more "vulnerable" to terrorist recruitment an "unfortunate reality."

The two Florida DHS programs indicate that the Trump administration has yet to change course on the Obama administration's controversial Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program. The government has no way of telling whether these outreach programs work, the General Accountability Office (GAO) noted in an April report.

In Tampa, DHS allowed CAIR-FL Executive Director Hassan Shibly to participate in a roundtable with local law enforcement. Shibly played a key role in the December outreach event with the French police along with Shora. He also has made his share of radical statements.

He accuses FBI agents of unjustly killing a Muslim suspect who attacked them after questioning. After independent investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing, Shibly repeated the accusation and is helping the family sue the FBI.

He also opposes FBI sting operations as an "entrapment program targeting the Muslim community" and a form of tyranny that strayed away from the "great ideals of liberty, equality and justice."

Muslim Brotherhood Invokes Anti-Semitism in Pro-Hamas Statement

The Muslim Brotherhood advocates for "resistance" against Israel and more support to Hamas until "Islamic land is liberated from the usurping Zionists" in an Arabic language statement released May 8.

The reference to "usurping Zionists," a form of anti-Semitic incitement, is clearly omitted from the Brotherhood's English language statement. The statement was released to congratulate Hamas after electing Ismail Haniyeh to lead the terrorist group's political wing.

Since Hamas is at the forefront of attacking Israel, a translation by the Investigative Project on Terrorism shows that the Brotherhood believes "it is requisite on every free honorable person to support them and provide the means of legitimate resistance to them; until our holy places, and our Arab and Islamic land is liberated from the usurping Zionists (emphasis added)."

This discrepancy is another example demonstrating Muslim Brotherhood doublespeak – communicating freely to their core supporters in Arabic, while watering down language in English to deceive Western audiences.

Both the English and Arabic language statements include a Brotherhood call for "legitimate resistance" – a term Islamists often use to vaguely reference violence and terrorism aimed at destroying the Jewish state.

In praising Haniyeh, the Muslim Brotherhood places the Hamas chief among a long line of Brotherhood leaders.

It encourages Haniyeh "to follow the path of the righteous Salaf (The Prophet Muhammad and his companions). The lives of our great leaders, (Brotherhood founder Hassan) Al-Banna, (ideological luminary Sayyid) Qutb, (Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed) Yassin and (co-founder Abdel Aziz) Rantissi should inspire him with wisdom and sacrifice."

Hamas recently planned to rescind its status as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in an attempt to alleviate tensions with Egypt. Nevertheless, the terrorist organization refuses to formally sever ties with the Brotherhood.

Hamas refuses to revoke its 1988 charter, which openly advocates for Israel's demise and "confronting the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews through jihad" – resembling anti-Semitic language also used by the Muslim Brotherhood.

It continues to call for Israel's destruction through "armed resistance" in a recently released political document intended to re-brand the terrorist organization as a more moderate group.

"Resistance to the occupation, by all means and methods, is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws and international norms and laws, at the heart of which is armed resistance ... Hamas refuses to infringe upon Resistance and its weapons, and emphasizes the right of our people to develop the means of Resistance and its mechanisms," said an IPT translation of the document obtained by Al-Quds news.

Lawsuit Targets American Muslims for Palestine

A national anti-Israel group and several of its activists are "alter egos and/or successors" of a Hamas-support network that was found liable for an American teen's death in a 1996 terrorist attack, litigation filed in Chicago federal court Friday claims.

After Stanley and Joyce Boim won $156 million in damages, defendants including the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and the American Muslim Society (AMS) shut down and claimed to be unable to pay. It was a ruse, the Boims' attorneys claim, as many of the same people opened up American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) at a nearby address.

A subsequent criminal prosecution found that other defendants in the original lawsuit, like the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and the United Association for Studies and Research, were part of a Muslim Brotherhood-created Hamas-support network in the United States called the Palestine Committee.

The IAP used to hold annual conventions. The year after it shut down, AMP held its first national meeting, offering the same "audience, content, management, speakers, and ... message" as the IAP gatherings, the complaint said.

Today, AMP and its financial arm, Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation, continue the work done by the defunct groups in the original Boim suit, the complaint said. AMP donors and officers "are substantially identical to the management and donors of their alter egos and predecessors, HLF, IAP and AMS."

In 2015, the Investigative Project on Terrorism first identified the connections between the AMP and Palestine Committee groups. Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Vice President Jonathan Schanzer built on those connections in congressional testimony last year.

Rafeeq Jaber, a defendant in the new action, handles AJP's taxes, the complaint says. He previously served as president of both the IAP and AMS. AMP President Abdelbasset Hamayel was IAP's secretary general. AMP board member Osama Abu Irshaid edited the IAP newsletter, Al-Zaytounah. The publication ran Hamas communiques and solicited donations for the Holy Land Foundation.

Although the Boim complaint makes no allegations about religion, AMP Chairman Hatem Bazian dismissed it and the allegations it makes as "frivolous and highly Islamophobic."

The original Boim lawsuit focused on 17-year-old David Boim's 1996 murder in a Hamas shooting attack on a bus stop in Israel. His parents collected only a small portion of the damages awarded in that suit. The defendants "deliberately created and [hid] behind new legal entities, to obscure their identity and avoid paying the judgment," a memorandum filed along with the new complaint said.

It was filed on the 17^th anniversary of David Boim's murder.

"These defendants cannot escape their legal liability and accountability for murder by merely changing the names of their organizations. We are filing this lawsuit to secure justice for David's memory precisely 17 years after the Boims' original lawsuit was filed against those who murdered their 17-year-old son," attorney Alyza Lewin said in a statement.

Newer Postings   |   Older Postings