[1332] in peace2
Fwd: CAIR-NET: Another U.S. Muslim Charity Shut Down
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Landi Parish)
Fri Dec 14 18:32:38 2001
Message-ID: <20011214233159.80805.qmail@web12901.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 15:31:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Landi Parish <landi_parish@yahoo.com>
To: peace-list@mit.edu
Cc: krhettn@mit.edu
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
--- CAIR <cair@cair-net.org> wrote:
> Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 16:46:48 -0500
> To: cair-net@cair.biglist.com
> From: CAIR <cair@cair-net.org>
> Subject: CAIR-NET: Another U.S. Muslim Charity Shut
> Down
>
> In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the
> Merciful
>
> -----
>
> AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS 12/14/2001
>
> -----
>
> HEADLINES:
>
> * ANOTHER U.S. MUSLIM CHARITY SHUT DOWN (Business
> Wire)
> * DETAINEES WORKED FOR ISRAELI COMPANY THAT HAS U.S.
> PHONE RECORDS (FOX)
> * ET TU, ISRAEL? (antiwar.com)
> * DETAINEES COULD BE JAILED INDEFINITELY (MSNBC)
> * MUSLIM GROUP DEMANDS AN ACCURATE ACCOUNTING OF
> DETAINEES
> * AMERICAN MUSLIMS FEAR NEW ANTI-ARAB VIOLENCE
> (Houston Chronicle)
> * JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE LINKED TO VIOLENCE SINCE ITS
> FOUNDING IN 1968 (San
> Jose Mercury News)
> * AT MOSQUE, RELIEF AND THANKS (Los Angeles Times)
> * FORUM ON ISLAM ADDRESSES FAITH, TERRORIST ATTACKS
> (Imperial Valley Press)
> * SOME VIEW TAPE WITH SKEPTICISM (Washington Post)
> * ISLAMIC SCHOLARS CALLING BIN LADEN TAPE A
> PERVERSION OF ISLAM (San
> Francisco Chronicle)
> * BIN LADEN TAPE HAS PEOPLE TALKING (AP)
> * LETTERS: FANNING FLAMES (National Post)
> * MUSLIM GROUPS TRYING TO SAVE STAMP (AP)
>
> -----
>
> ANOTHER U.S. MUSLIM CHARITY SHUT DOWN
>
> GLOBAL RELIEF FOUNDATION REACTS TO FREEZE ORDER
> Business Wire, 12/14/2001
>
> BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - In response to government action
> freezing its assets,
> the Global Relief Foundation made the following
> statement:
>
> "A compound tragedy has occurred today. We just
> commemorated the
> three-month anniversary of the first one. The second
> was inflicted this
> afternoon when the assets of Global Relief
> Foundation were frozen by our
> government. By halting medicine, food and other
> humanitarian aid, we risk
> the slow starvation and gruesome death in parts of
> the Muslim world that
> rely on such badly needed aid.
>
> In return for a false sense of security, our
> government has inflicted a
> great tragedy on countless innocent victims. "For
> weak, suffering and
> innocent victims, the timing of this action could
> not have been worse. This
> is the month of Ramadan, when Muslim-Americans are
> most generous in opening
> up their pocketbooks to help those in need. With
> only two days remaining,
> while maximum resources were making their way
> through GRF, the assets were
> frozen and the group's world-wide humanitarian
> operations were immediately
> halted. While GRF fully expects to be vindicated,
> with its assets one day
> released, this action to halt the flow of charitable
> aid from the most
> generous nation in the world will forever cast a
> blemish on America's
> reputation to give to the world's needy.
>
> "As President Bush prepares to host Muslim children
> in the White House to
> celebrate the holy day of Eid-ul-Fitr, we ask him to
> explain why
> Muslim-Americans cannot send aid to Afghan,
> Palestinian and other children
> in Muslim regions through Muslim charities. Why must
> religiously obligated
> charity destined to help the freezing, starving
> children of Afghanistan
> languish in a U.S. bank on this holy day and beyond?
>
> "Representatives and supporters of Global Relief
> Foundation (GRF), a
> non-profit humanitarian organization founded in
> 1992, strongly deny any
> links to terrorism. We are in the business of
> helping innocent civilians
> and take every precaution to ensure our aid does not
> go to support or
> subsidize any nefarious activity. Just as we would
> call the police if our
> collection box or computer equipment were being
> stolen, we would certainly
> alert the authorities if we had reason to believe
> the intended humanitarian
> purpose of our aid were being subverted to harm
> innocent lives.
>
> "GRF understands and appreciates both the
> seriousness and urgency of
> identifying potential threats to the United States
> and of locating
> terrorist operatives and those who sponsor them. At
> the same time, GRF also
> emphasizes the equal seriousness and urgency of
> conducting such
> investigations with precision and care. GRF intends
> to fully cooperate with
> the investigation and seeks a dialogue with federal
> authorities in order to
> determine standards of conduct and suspicious
> activity reporting. We owe a
> religious and legal obligation to ensure that this
> money goes to intended
> victims of disaster, famine, war and terrorism.
>
> "Our national security interests are best guarded
> through the good will
> generated from acts of kindness. It is no
> coincidence that American Muslims
> are perceived by Muslims throughout the world as
> their
> benefactors-in-chief. By importing this generosity,
> the U.S. will foster
> genuine admiration, a form of public diplomacy that
> cannot be bought with a
> billion-dollar PR campaign or photo opportunities
> with Muslim-Americans. By
> shutting the flow of this aid to the Muslim world,
> we risk losing the one
> aspect that could make us rise above any other
> developed nation: acts of
> giving."
>
> CONTACT: Global Relief Foundation, Bridgeview
> Roger Simmons, 240/603-7183 URL:
> http://www.businesswire.com
>
> -----
>
> DETAINEES WORKED FOR ISRAELI COMPANY THAT HAS U.S.
> PHONE RECORDS
>
> FOX NEWS: CARL CAMERON INVESTIGATES PART 2
> Carl Cameron, Fox News, 12/14/2001
> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40747,00.html
>
> BRIT HUME, HOST: Last time we reported on the
> approximately 60 Israelis who
> had been detained in connection with the Sept. 11
> terrorism investigation.
> Carl Cameron reported that U.S. investigators
> suspect that some of these
> Israelis were spying on Arabs in this country, and
> may have turned up
> information on the planned terrorist attacks back in
> September that was not
> passed on.
>
> Tonight, in the second of four reports on spying by
> Israelis in the U.S.,
> we learn about an Israeli-based private
> communications company, for whom a
> half-dozen of those 60 detained suspects worked.
> American investigators
> fear information generated by this firm may have
> fallen into the wrong
> hands and had the effect of impeded the Sept. 11
> terror inquiry. Here's
> Carl Cameron's second report.
>
> (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
>
> CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over):
> Fox News has learned
> that some American terrorist investigators fear
> certain suspects in the
> Sept. 11 attacks may have managed to stay ahead of
> them, by knowing who and
> when investigators are calling on the telephone.
> How?
>
> By obtaining and analyzing data that's generated
> every time someone in the
> U.S. makes a call.
>
> UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What city and state, please?
>
> CAMERON: Here's how the system works. Most directory
> assistance calls, and
> virtually all call records and billing in the U.S.
> are done for the phone
> companies by Amdocs Ltd., an Israeli-based private
> telecommunications company.
>
> Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone
> companies in America, and
> more worldwide. The White House and other secure
> government phone lines are
> protected, but it is virtually impossible to make a
> call on normal phones
> without generating an Amdocs record of it.
>
> In recent years, the FBI and other government
> agencies have investigated
> Amdocs more than once. The firm has repeatedly and
> adamantly denied any
> security breaches or wrongdoing. But sources tell
> Fox News that in 1999,
> the super secret national security agency,
> headquartered in northern
> Maryland, issued what's called a Top Secret
> sensitive compartmentalized
> information report, TS/SCI, warning that records of
> calls in the United
> States were getting into foreign hands in Israel, in
> particular.
>
> Investigators don't believe calls are being listened
> to, but the data about
> who is calling whom and when is plenty valuable in
> itself. An internal
> Amdocs memo to senior company executives suggests
> just how Amdocs generated
> call records could be used. ?Widespread data mining
> techniques and
> algorithms.... combining both the properties of the
> customer (e.g., credit
> rating) and properties of the specific ?behavior?.??
> Specific behavior,
> such as who the customers are calling.
>
> The Amdocs memo says the system should be used to
> prevent phone fraud. But
> U.S. counterintelligence analysts say it could also
> be used to spy through
> the phone system. Fox News has learned that the
> N.S.A has held numerous
> classified conferences to warn the F.B.I. and C.I.A.
> how Amdocs records
> could be used. At one NSA briefing, a diagram by the
> Argon national lab was
> used to show that if the phone records are not
> secure, major security
> breaches are possible.
>
> Another briefing document said, "It has become
> increasingly apparent that
> systems and networks are vulnerable.?Such crimes
> always involve
> unauthorized persons, or persons who exceed their
> authorization...citing on
> exploitable vulnerabilities."
>
> Those vulnerabilities are growing, because according
> to another briefing,
> the U.S. relies too much on foreign companies like
> Amdocs for high-tech
> equipment and software. "Many factors have led to
> increased dependence on
> code developed overseas.... We buy rather than train
> or develop solutions
> U.S. intelligence does not believe the Israeli
> government is involved in a
> misuse of information, and Amdocs insists that its
> data is secure. What
> government officials are worried about, however, is
> the possibility that
> Amdocs data could get into the wrong hands,
> particularly organized crime.
> And that would not be the first thing that such a
> thing has happened. Fox
> News has documents of a 1997 drug trafficking case
> in Los Angeles, in which
> telephone information, the type that Amdocs
> collects, was used to
> "completely compromise the communications of the
> FBI, the Secret Service,
> the DEO and the LAPD."
>
> We'll have that and a lot more in the days ahead
> Brit.
>
> HUME: Carl, I want to take you back to your report
> last night on those 60
> Israelis who were detained in the anti-terror
> investigation, and the
> suspicion that some investigators have that they may
> have picked up
> information on the 9/11 attacks ahead of time and
> not passed it on.
>
> There was a report, you'll recall, that the Mossad,
> the Israeli
> intelligence agency, did indeed send representatives
> to the U.S. to warn,
> just before 9/11, that a major terrorist attack was
> imminent. How does that
> leave room for the lack of a warning?
>
> CAMERON: I remember the report, Brit. We did it
> first internationally right
> here on your show on the 14th. What investigators
> are saying is that that
> warning from the Mossad was nonspecific and general,
> and they believe that
> it may have had something to do with the desire to
> protect what are called
> sources and methods in the intelligence community.
> The suspicion being,
> perhaps those sources and methods were taking place
> right here in the
> United States.
>
> The question came up in select intelligence
> committee on Capitol Hill
> today. They intend to look into what we reported
> last night, and
> specifically that possibility Brit.
>
> HUME: So in other words, the problem wasn't lack of
> a warning, the problem
> was lack of useful details?
>
> CAMERON: Quantity of information.
>
> HUME: All right, Carl, thank you very much.
>
> -----
>
> ET TU, ISRAEL?
> Did the Israelis have advance notice of 9/11?
> Probably.
> By Justin Raimondo, antiwar.com, 12/14/2001
> http://www.antiwar.com/justin/justincol.html
>
> ?THE PLOT SICKENS
> Ah, but now some government officials are talking,
> and we know a lot more.
> We know that some of the detainees have been
> identified as Israeli military
> or intelligence agents, and that some failed
> polygraph tests when asked
> whether they had engaged in covert operations
> "against and in the United
> States." We also know, courtesy of Fox News, that as
> many as 140 Israeli
> agents may have been rounded up in the US before
> 9/11: the extent of
> Israel's covert action operation is described as
> "sprawling?"
>
> ...When asked for details about the detention of the
> Israelis, a highly
> placed investigator huffed that "Evidence linking
> these Israelis to 9-11 is
> classified, I cannot tell you about evidence that
> has been gathered. It is
> classified information." Aside from affirming that
> such evidence exists,
> this same source admitted to the Los Angeles Times
> that there were certain
> "tie-ins" with 9/11. Some patriotic law enforcement
> officials seem to have
> leaked just enough information to practically
> confirm our worst suspicions.
> As Brit Hume put it in his lead-in to the first of
> Carl Cameron's four-part
> investigative report, top US law enforcement
> officials now believe the
> Israelis "may have known things they didn't tell us
> before September 11..."
>
> -----
>
> DETAINEES COULD BE JAILED INDEFINITELY
> By Tom Curry, MSNBC, 12/13/2001
>
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_email.asp?/news/671114.asp
>
> Dec. 13 Some of the non-citizens being held on
> immigration charges in the
> post-Sept. 11 dragnet may remain in jail for life,
> or at least
> indefinitely, if their home countries refuse to take
> them back and if the
> U.S. government convinces judges that they are too
> dangerous to be
> released. But some of the people in custody are
> seeking political asylum in
> the United States, which will create new legal
> challenges for the Bush
> administration.
>
> -----
>
> MUSLIM GROUP DEMANDS AN ACCURATE ACCOUNTING OF
> DETAINEES
>
> The Human Rights, Education, and Law Project (HELP),
> an organization
> dedicated to protecting the civil and human rights
> of Muslims, has issued
> the following statement:
>
> ?HELP demands that the Justice Department provides a
> complete and accurate
> accounting of all detainees being held as a result
> of the investigation of
> the September 11 attacks. HELP further demands that
> the Justice Department
> move more quickly to clear existing cases and
> release those who are not
> linked in any way to the tragedy.
>
> "According to the Attorney General?s report of
> 11/27/2001, the number of
> FBI detainees is 104; the number of INS detainees is
> 548, for a total of
> 652. However, HELP has learned from reliable sources
> that the Passaic
> County Jail in New Jersey holds over 400 inmates
> that were connected with
> the 9/11 investigations. It is unrealistic to
> believe that there were 400
> inmates in one county jail and approximately 250 in
> the all other jails in
> the nation. Such misleading accounting can only
> further diminish any trust
> in the Justice Department?
>
> CONTACT: Sohail Mohammed, ESQ, at (973) 779-6589
> 41 Watchung Plaza, #210, Montclair, NJ 07042-4117
> Phone: (973) 676-5660, Fax: (877) 865-5026
> E-Mail: HELP4Muslims@ureach.com
>
> -----
>
> AMERICAN MUSLIMS FEAR NEW ANTI-ARAB VIOLENCE
> By EDWARD HEGSTROM, The Houston Chronicle,
> 12/14/2001
>
> After spending months trying to convince Americans
> that theirs is a
> peaceful religion, moderate Muslim leaders watched
> in horror Thursday as a
> nationally aired videotape showed Osama bin Laden
> justifying mass killing
> in the name of Allah.
>
> On the tape, bin Laden quotes the Quran as saying:
> "I was ordered to fight
> the people until they say there is no God but Allah,
> and his prophet
> Mohammed." He says the terrorists were following the
> teachings of Mohammed,
> and claimed the attacks of Sept. 11 "benefited Islam
> greatly" by bringing
> new converts.
>
> The tape also speaks of support for the terrorism
> among sheiks in Saudi
> Arabia, suggesting a broader base of influence for
> the violent strain of Islam.
>
> "This film reinforces many of the worst stereotypes
> Americans have about
> Muslims," said John Voll, the assistant director of
> the Center for
> Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown
> University in Washington, D.C.
> "It showed men in turbans sitting around quoting the
> Quran to justify
> violence."
>
> Voll claims that by taking pleasure in the slaughter
> of innocent people,
> bin Laden clearly strays from the teachings of
> Islam.
>
> Some experts disagree.
>
> "Osama bin Laden does represent Islam, though in a
> particularly ugly and
> radicalized form," argued Daniel Pipes, director of
> the Middle East Forum,
> a think tank based in Philadelphia...
>
> ?Some experts warn that it would be neither accurate
> nor productive to
> blame the world's billion Muslims for the actions of
> a few. Voll said Islam
> is not the only religion whose tenets can be
> contorted to justify violence.
>
> "Jesus said: Don't think I came to bring peace. I
> came to bring the sword,"
> Voll said, paraphrasing Matthew 10:34 to show how
> the Bible might be cited
> by a religious fanatic to push for bloodshed?
>
> ?In Washington, the Council on American-Islamic
> Relations released a
> statement calling bin Laden's declaration
> "sickening."
>
> "As we have stated repeatedly, the tragedy that
> occurred on Sept. 11 cannot
> be justified by any cause or religion," CAIR said in
> the statement...
>
> -----
>
> JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE LINKED TO VIOLENCE SINCE ITS
> FOUNDING IN 1968
> By John Woolfolk, San Jose Mercury News, 12/14/2001
>
> SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Nearly 10 years ago, police
> dropped murder-for-hire
> charges against Jewish Defense League Chairman Irv
> Rubin, and he swore then
> it wouldn't be his last arrest.
>
> So it wasn't completely surprising when the militant
> group's burly,
> combative leader and an associate were arrested
> Wednesday on charges of
> plotting to bomb a mosque and a Congressman's
> office?
>
> ?Hussam Ayloush, director of the Southern California
> chapter of the Council
> on American-Islamic Relations, refused a recent
> request to debate Rubin.
>
> "It would be the same answer if I was invited to
> debate the KKK," Ayloush
> said. "It's not a legitimate organization to debate
> with. It's a violent,
> hateful and racist organization?"
>
> -----
>
> AT MOSQUE, RELIEF AND THANKS
> Culver City site was an alleged terrorism target.
> New war of words breaks
> out between Jewish, Muslim groups.
> By TERESA WATANABE, The Los Angeles Times,
> 12/14/2001
>
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000099262dec14.story
>
> Inside the King Fahd Mosque, as sunbeams danced off
> marble walls and deep
> chants in Arabic filled the hall, dozens of Muslims
> bowed, prostrated
> themselves and offered silent prayers. A dominant
> emotion here Thursday was
> gratitude--to be alive, to be protected by God, to
> still have a place to
> pray after FBI agents this week foiled an alleged
> plot by the Jewish
> Defense League to bomb the Culver City mosque?
>
> ?In a stream of news releases, national Muslim
> organizations seized on the
> alleged bomb plot to urge fair play: Treat JDL
> Chairman Irv Rubin and his
> associates with the same severity that Muslims and
> Arabs have experienced,
> particularly since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
> Rubin and another JDL
> official were arrested Tuesday on federal conspiracy
> charges.
>
> The Muslim Public Affairs Council called on the
> Justice Department to
> freeze the JDL's assets, just as federal authorities
> recently shut down the
> Holy Land Foundation, one of the nation's largest
> Islamic charities, on
> charges that it funneled money to terrorist
> organizations.
>
> The Los Angeles-based council, which federal
> authorities alleged was
> Rubin's initial target, also called for the closure
> of all JDL offices.
> Mimicking the language used against Islamic groups,
> the council said the
> JDL operated "alleged terrorist cells" in 11
> countries and more than 20
> U.S. cities. (The Anti-Defamation League estimates
> that Irvin's group has
> no more than a dozen followers locally and 200
> nationwide.)
>
> The alleged JDL plot made clear that "Jewish
> terrorism is just as dangerous
> as Muslim terrorism," said council Vice-President
> Aslam Abdullah. He called
> on authorities to profile those who "look like
> Rubin," just as thousands of
> Arabs and Muslims have been questioned at airports
> on suspicion of terrorism.
>
> In an even sharper statement, the Council on
> American-Islamic Relations
> demanded that the Anti-Defamation League, American
> Jewish Committee and
> other pro-Israeli groups stop fomenting what it
> called "an atmosphere of
> Islamophobia" that may have incited Rubin and other
> alleged plotters.
>
> Omar Ahmad, board chairman of the Washington-based
> council, said pro-Israel
> groups have "orchestrated an ongoing anti-Islamic
> smear campaign seeking to
> marginalize our community."
>
> The council said the ADL and American Jewish
> Committee had unsuccessfully
> tried to bar its members from testifying at public
> hearings on hate crimes
> in Los Angeles, Orange County and Santa Clara, as
> well as Florida and New York?
>
> -----
>
> FORUM ON ISLAM ADDRESSES FAITH, TERRORIST ATTACKS
> By KELLY GRANT, Imperial Valley Press, 12/13/2001
>
http://www.IVPRESSonline.com/display/inn_news/news04.txt
>
> CALEXICO Seeking to foster greater cultural
> understanding of Islam, San
> Diego State University-Imperial Valley campus and
> its Committee for
> Diversity and Equity hosted a forum about the
> religion Wednesday night.
>
> While an overview of the Islamic faith was
> presented, the discussion also
> covered the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the
> differences between Islam
> and the extremist beliefs of those suspected in the
> attacks.
>
> Though there are some 7 million Muslims in the
> United States, including 200
> to 300 in the Imperial Valley, Islam is a religion
> many Americans know
> little about. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, many
> Muslim Americans want to
> answer questions people have about their faith and
> dispel myths.
>
> Contrary to what many may think, Islam is actually a
> peaceful religion,
> explained Omaram Abdeen, a representative of the
> Council on American
> Islamic Relations...
>
> -----
>
> SOME VIEW TAPE WITH SKEPTICISM
> 'There Are Too Many Open Questions'
> By Hanna Rosin, The Washington Post, 12/14/2001
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40846-2001Dec13.html
>
> Friday, December 14, 2001; Page A32 In the Albelad
> market in Cleveland, the
> Abu Dhabi TV news station is always on, and it gets
> the customers talking.
> Yesterday, there was only one thing to talk about:
> the Osama bin Laden
> videotape, mostly what was suspicious about it.
>
> "You can't hear the Arabic too well. Who knows what
> they're actually
> saying?" said the day's first customer, a Lebanese
> man who bought chocolate
> bars, owner Ameen Hammad recalled.
>
> The second customer, an Iraqi, thought the dialogue
> must have been
> fabricated, dubbed onto an old home video of bin
> Laden having dinner?
>
> ?For some leaders of major U.S. Muslim organizations
> who have been
> criticized for failing to condemn bin Laden, the
> tape was enough to get
> them on record. For other Muslims in the United
> States who were more
> suspicious of the nation's eagerness to justify the
> war in Afghanistan, no
> number of independent, nongovernment translations
> would be enough to
> convince them...
>
> ?Before yesterday, the Council on American Islamic
> Relations would take no
> position on the government's allegation that bin
> Laden was behind the Sept.
> 11 attacks. "Now, it's clear from the statements in
> the videotape that he
> was complicit in the attacks and had foreknowledge
> of the attacks,"
> spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said, adding that he was
> "sickened" by bin Laden's
> contention that Islam had somehow benefited from the
> attacks?
>
> ?Altaf Husain, president of the Washington-based
> Muslim Student
> Association, was not so sure. "I make it a huge
> point to stay away from
> uninformed conspiracy theories," he said. "But this
> doesn't sit well with
> me..."
>
> ?Some who accepted the tape as a smoking gun did so
> anxiously, worried that
> the tape, with its talk of fatwas and snippets from
> the Koran, would set
> off a new round of anti-Muslim sentiment.
>
> "When I was in my car this morning, I heard this was
> being released and I
> thought, 'Oh no,'" said Mohamed Magid, director of
> the All Dulles Area
> Muslim Society in Sterling, which was vandalized
> Sept. 12. "What came to
> mind is that people should not stereotype us because
> of bin Laden. And that
> bin Laden is quoting the Koran and is
> misunderstanding the Koran?"
>
> -----
>
> ISLAMIC SCHOLARS CALLING BIN LADEN TAPE A PERVERSION
> OF ISLAM
> By Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle,
> 12/14/2001
>
> Rahmah Lutz had one word for Osama bin Laden
> laughing on tape about the
> Sept. 11 attacks: "deluded."
>
> Lutz, a Muslim who works for a Berkeley nonprofit
> that helps teachers
> understand the Arab world, believes that few
> educated Muslims subscribe to
> the brand of Islam portrayed by bin Laden on the
> tape released yesterday by
> the Pentagon.
>
> "Educated Muslims will see this for what it is -- an
> act of evil," Lutz
> said. "It is a transgression of the limits of
> Islam." The tape shows bin
> Laden and an unidentified sheikh recalling the
> planning of the terrorist
> attacks and the delight of followers at seeing them
> carried out. The sheikh
> tells a smiling bin Laden that Muslims who do not
> support the actions are
> "mentally impotent" and hypocrites.
>
> "It's an absolutist view," said Hatem Bazian, who
> lectures on Islam at the
> University of California at Berkeley and is director
> of the Al-Qalam
> Institute in Berkeley. "It's definitely outside the
> mainstream."
>
> He fears that non-Muslims who don't see that could
> lash out at the Islamic
> religion in general.
>
> "?Bin Laden seemed to revel in the death and
> destruction in Washington and
> New York," the Council on American-Islamic Relations
> in Washington, D.C.,
> said in a statement. "He falsely implied that the
> acts of the hijackers
> were justified by Islamic beliefs, and he made the
> sickening statement that
> the attacks 'benefited Islam greatly?' "
>
> -----
>
> BIN LADEN TAPE HAS PEOPLE TALKING
> By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press, 12/14/2001
>
> ?U.S. legal experts called the tape devastating, a
> "virtual confession," in
> the words of one.
>
> Even so, some skeptics abroad remained unconvinced
> that bin Laden did
> anything more than express pleasure at the success
> of attacks that killed
> more than 3,000 people. There was even a suggestion
> America cooked up the
> video using a stand-in. Deputy Secretary of State
> Richard Armitage found
> such skepticism in the face of bin Laden's words
> "absurd."
>
> "Some people think we didn't walk on the moon and
> others think Elvis is
> among us," Armitage added on NBC's "Today" show
> Friday.
>
> In an even, low voice, with the occasional chuckle,
> bin Laden recounted at
> length his reaction to the attacks on New York City
> and Washington. The
> apparently candid video, which was shot at an Afghan
> guest house before
> U.S.-backed forces overran the Taliban, was released
> Thursday by the Pentagon.
>
> "We calculated in advance the number of casualties
> who would be killed,"
> bin Laden said, according to the U.S. translation.
>
> But he said he had not figured that the World Trade
> Center twin towers
> would come down entirely, instead believing only
> floors at and above the
> planes' impact sites would be destroyed.
>
> On the operation's planning, he said "we did not
> reveal" to the hijack
> crews the details of what they were expected to do
> until just before they
> boarded the planes.
>
> They knew only that they were preparing for a
> martyrdom operation, he said?
>
> ?The Pakistani government said the tape vindicated
> its decision to back the
> U.S. war in Afghanistan despite the heated
> opposition from many of its
> citizens.
>
> And in Washington, a Muslim group that has been
> critical of aspects of U.S.
> policy in the anti-terror campaign found the tape
> convincing.
>
> "Bin Laden clearly spoke as someone who had
> foreknowledge of the attacks,"
> the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a
> statement. The group
> found particularly "sickening" bin Laden's claim
> that the attacks advanced
> the cause of Islam.
>
> Imad Hamad, director of the Dearborn, Mich.,
> regional office of the
> American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said
> the translation provided
> by the government with the help of outside experts
> seemed accurate.
>
> "It's clear in the tape that he had the prior
> knowledge," Hamad said. "And
> he was happy about it. This is insane?"
>
> -----
>
> LETTERS: FANNING FLAMES
> By Ben Houston, The National Post (Canada),
> 12/14/2001
>
> I hope the many commentaries and editorials
> published in the National Post
> on the subject of Islam's association with terrorism
> are motivated by a
> desire to influence the situation for the better.
> Unfortunately, you are
> more likely ostracizing and discrediting the
> community and its leaders. If
> the Post does care about Muslims I recommend that it
> start to treat the
> Muslim community with dignity and some empathy
> rather than simply working
> to inflame, discredit and polarize the Muslim
> community.
>
> -----
>
> MUSLIM GROUPS TRYING TO SAVE STAMP
> By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press, 12/14/2001
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) - After working five years to get
> the United States to
> issue an Islamic holiday postage stamp, Aminah
> Assilmi uses it on all her
> mail. But now she also adds a United We Stand stamp,
> even if the extra
> postage is unnecessary.
>
> Assilmi, of Taylor Mill, Ky., isn't trying to solve
> the post office's
> budget problems. In the wake of the Sept. 11
> attacks, she wants to show
> that the Muslim community is part of America too.
>
> The dark blue and gold "Eid Greetings" stamp was
> issued just 10 days before
> the terrorist hijackings.
>
> Now, the Islamic community that greeted the stamp
> with joy is struggling to
> save it from oblivion.
>
> "We are trying to reach our followers and members,
> whoever, to go into the
> communities to get people to use the stamp. Not just
> Muslims but friends
> from other religions as well," said Faiz Rehman,
> communications director of
> the American Muslim Council.
>
> The stamp carries English text saying "Eid
> Greetings" plus Arabic script
> that reads "Eid mubarak," a phrase Muslims use to
> wish each other well
> during major festivals?
>
> ?Assilmi, of the International Union of Muslim
> Women, started the effort
> after a Muslim fifth-grader who collected stamps saw
> the 1996 Hanukkah
> issue and asked her what "our" stamp looked like.
>
> "I told him there wasn't one and he said: 'You can
> get one for us,"' she
> recalled.
>
> The result was more than 10,000 letters to the
> postmaster general, 8,000
> proposed designs from school children, a mile-long
> banner and a postcard
> drive that culminated in release of the Eid stamp...
>
> ?Postal Service spokeswoman Cathy Yarosky said the
> Eid stamp seems to be
> popular but it is too early for accurate sales
> numbers. About 75 million of
> the stamps were printed?
>
> -----
>
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> 453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
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>
>
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