Local media is reporting that the Counterterrorism Caucus of the Oklahoma state legislature has announced that it has collected information about the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its ties with an official of the Virginia Dar Al-Hijrah mosque. According to a report in the Pryor Times:
May 7, 2013 The Counterterrorism Caucus of the state Legislature has announced evidence collected against the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its ties with an Imam who has supported terrorists in the past.
At its recent annual banquet, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, Outreach Director of the Dar Al-Hijrahh Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., delivered the keynote address at CAIR’s banquet. The Dar Al-Hijrahh Islamic Center was identified in the 9-11 Commission Report as the mosque frequented by several of the 9-11 hijackers.
James Lafferty, chairman of the Virginia Anti-Sharia Task Force, had this to say about Abdul-Malik: ‘In his public statements, Abdul-Malik demonstrates regularly his contempt for the rule of law and his support for terrorist acts against America … and praises those who have attacked our country and attempted to kill the President of the United States. No American should honor this man or his disgraceful words and behavior.’
A letter from VAST included links to newspaper articles which cited several incidents from Abdul-Malik’s past:
— He defended Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a Dar Al Hijrahh, member who is serving a life sentence in a federal prison for nine counts of terrorism including a plot to assassinate President George W. Bush, kill members of Congress and bomb restaurants, nightclubs and other public places across America.
— He also defended Ali Al Timimi, a Muslim cleric of Fairfax, Va., who was convicted in April, 2005, and is serving a life sentence in a federal prison for counseling others to wage war against the United States and use firearms and explosives in furtherance of violent crimes.
— He was often cited as the spokesman for the Dar Al Hijrahh mosque and he used his position there to defend numerous convicted terrorists and question the judicial system in the United States.
Read the rest here.
The Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque has a close relationship with the US Muslim Brotherhood, particularly with the Muslim American Society (MAS) that is closely tied to the Egyptian Brotherhood. Dar Al-Hijrah is best known as the mosque where Anwar al-Awlaki, the American Muslim cleric of Yemeni descent who was linked to many terrorist plots and attacks and who was killed by a US drone strike in September 2011, had once been the Imam at prior to 911. Other Individuals convicted/indicted in terrorism-related cases have been known to have attended Dar Al-Hijrah.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) describes itself as “a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group and as “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.” CAIR was founded in 1994 by three officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine, part of the U.S. Hamas infrastructure at that time. Documents discovered in the course of the the terrorism trial of the Holy Land Foundation confirmed that the founders and current leaders of CAIR were part of the Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood and that CAIR itself is part of the US. Muslim Brotherhood. In 2008, the then Deputy leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood acknowledged a relationship between the Egyptian Brotherhood and CAIR. In 2009, a US federal judge ruled “The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas.” CAIR and its leaders have had a long history of defending individuals accused of terrorism by the US. government, often labeling such prosecutions a “war on Islam”, and have also been associated with Islamic fundamentalism and antisemitism. The organization is led by Nihad Awad, its longstanding Executive Director and one of the three original founders.