Obama Muslim Faith Adviser Appears On U.K. Television With Hizb ut-Tahrir

Confidential sources in the U.K. are reporting that Obama administration Muslim faith adviser Dalia Mogahed appeared by telephone Sunday on a U.K. Islamic channel along with members of the Islamist group known as Hizb ut-Tahrir. According to the report:

She was on ‘Muslima Dillemna’ show, last night Sunday the 4th of October 2009 on Islam channel (channel 813 SKY Digital), 7pm discussing the subject of ‘Why Muslim Women want Shariah?’.This is a show presented by members of Hizb ut-Tahrir and had the official Woman Media Spokesperson, Dr Nasreen Nawaz who was introduced as such on the show and is always on the show openly in her capacity as spokesperson for Hizb ut-Tahrir. Essentially the discussions centred around the implementation of Shariah law or in the words of Dalia Mogahed, “integrating Shariah and law” in Muslim majority countries, and “unifying Islamic countries” and her role was explaining the views of Muslims in this regard to the Obama administration, though not to “Lobby” – which was not her role. She explained that the results showed that women wanted democracy, equal gender rights, political sufferage at the highest level including political office, the hijab was not an issue for any of the women; they supported liberty and womens rights and democratic good governance issues – which in the mind of the Muslim women was congruent with the “Shariah”. However she did not challenge any of the views expressed buy Nawaz, as supporting the call for Khilafah, as a single state for the “Muslim world”, and imposition of HT’s version of Shariah, suppressing women’s political rights. This was for the majority of the time not challenged at all, after the initial expression of the findings, and no challenge of HT as a legitimate political entity and their cause as a legitimate cause. In fact there was no challenge of HT at all or their totalitarian ideology, but considered their ideas as legitimate and often supported their assertions with researched findings, and explained that there were other researches that they are involved in the future.

Islam Channel is a U.K. media company which frequently promotes the works of individuals associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood. The CEO of Islam Channel and director of the event is Mohamed Ali Harrath who is wanted by Interpol on charges of terrorism in Tunisia. U.K. media has reported that:

…Mr Harrath has admitted setting up the Tunisian Islamic Front (FIT) which, according to the Tunisian Government, advocated the establishment of “an Islamic state by means of armed revolutionary violence”. In evidence before Britain’s Special Immigration Appeals Commission in 2003, an MI5 witness accused the FIT of terrorism activities in France. Mr Harrath denies this, saying that his movement was wrongly blamed by the French courts. He described the FIT as a “nonviolent political party founded in 1986”, and said he has been persecuted and tortured by the Tunisian authorities because of his opposition to what he and other critics deride as a “one-party state”.

Hizb ut-Tahrir (HBT) is a Sunni political movement whose founder was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood but who split with the organization to form HBT. HBT has a self-acknowledged goal of unifying the entire Islamic world under a Caliphate. HBT is banned in Germany from public activity on charges of spreading antisemitic propaganda and of being “hate preachers” and a former German Interior Minister ruled that the group was “spreading hate and violence” and had called for the killing of Jews.”

Dalia Mogahed is a protege of John Esposito, perhaps the best known academic supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and with strong ties to Saudi Arabia. Ms. Mogahed, who was born in Egypt and lived in the U.S. since the age of 5, is the executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and the co-author of a book with Dr. Esposito suggesting that majority of the world’s Muslims support some form of democracy. Dr. Esposito is also a member of the Gallup Center along with Ahmed Younis, previously a National Director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) also tied to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. In 2003, Ms. Mogahed was  identified in 2003 as the Outreach Coordinator for the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh (ICP) whose co-founder recently lost a DOE security clearance and whose Imam will probably be deported on immigration violations. Ms. Mogahed is the daughter of Elsayed Mogahed, an Egyptian immigrant who is a former engineering scientist at the University of Wisconsin and director of the Islamic Center of Madison (ICM). The website of the ICM links mainly to U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations and Souheil Ghannouchi, the President of the Muslim American Society (MAS), was ICM Imam and President for several years. The MAS is part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and closest to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

To watch the broadcast, go here.