Saturday night’s bloody machete attack in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/29/us/new-york-stabbing-rabbi-home/index.html">Monsey, New York</a> against a rabbi and his congregants celebrating Chanukah shocked in ways beyond its sheer brutality. This anti-Semitic assault by a man influenced by the “Black Hebrew Israelite” movement comes amidst a spate of crimes against Jews, with the New York Police Department now investigating <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-semitic-attacks-new-york-city-hanukkah_n_5e06227ac5b6b5a713ada7f9">six hate crimes</a> that occurred during the holiday.
Certainly, churches, synagogues, and mosques are under siege in America, from <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2018/11/10/Robert-Bowers-extremism-Tree-of-Life-massacre-shooting-pittsburgh-Gab-Warroom/stories/201811080165">Pittsburgh</a> to <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mikehayes/jury-sentences-dylann-roof-to-death">Charleston</a>, and from <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/news/los_angeles/220410/synagogues-carry-face-bomb-threats/">Los Angeles</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/us/minnesota-mosque-bombing-suspects.html">Minnesota</a>. However, under the pretense of protecting places of worship and faith-based nonprofits, Congress stands poised to spend millions of taxpayer dollars effectively providing pro-jihadist Islamist groups — with documented ties to overseas terrorist organizations — with their own private armed militias.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and co-sponsor Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) have put forth a new bill, the <a href="https://www.portman.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/portman-peters-introduce-legislation-increase-security-resources-faith">Protecting Faith-Based and Nonprofit Organizations From Terrorism Act</a>, which provides <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2019/09/as-hate-attacks-on-houses-of-worship-mount-congress-needs-to-do-more-to-help-with-security-rob-portman.html">$75 million annually</a> over the next five years for security to religious groups.
Lawmakers need to address two notable problems as they consider this security bill.
First, <a href="https://www.portman.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-05/Protecting%20Faith-Based%20and%20Nonprofit%20Organizations%20from%20Terrorism%20Act.pdf">the proposal</a> provides funding to 501(c)(3) nonprofits. <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/05/the-muslim-brotherhoods-american-goals">Muslim Brotherhood</a>-linked Islamist groups such as the <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/3437/cair-islamists-fooling-the-establishment">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a>, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/swindle-california-islamist-activists-protest-david-m-swindle">Muslim American Society</a>, and the <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/732/isna-admits-hamas-ties">Islamic Society of North America</a> would therefore be eligible for funding under the plan, providing security dollars to advocacy organizations that share a common Islamist ideological heritage. Another network of Muslim nonprofits, including the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/57929/catalogue-of-icna-links-to-jamaat-e-islami">Islamic Circle of North America</a> and the <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/84.pdf">Muslim Students Association</a>, would also benefit from the bill despite being tied to <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/59929/jamaat-e-islami-a-threat-at-home-and-abroad">Jamaat-e-Islami</a>, a violent South Asian Islamist movement.
Assuredly, Islamists are not the only extremists exploiting 501(c)(3) laws; <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/white-supremacist-groups-tax-break-educational-2017-8">white nationalists also have a long history</a> of doing the same thing.
Second, the bill fails to adequately limit how grant monies can be spent. It identifies three general types of uses for the funds: “Target hardening,” “security training,” and “any other appropriate activity.” But what is to prevent religious centers and nonprofits from hiring or training armed guards to enforce religious law?
Some Muslim American communities have previously recruited security guards to serve as enforcers of Islamic law. These vigilante patrols have often been less concerned with local security than they are with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/09/02/a-breach-in-guards-invincibility/d0f9c4cc-4562-482f-9aac-fb9be699d003/">converting</a> their neighbors, enforcing standards of dress, and prohibiting drug and alcohol use.
Sunni Muslim secu͏r͏i͏ty patrols can be traced back to January 1988, when New York City imam <a href="https://www.meforum.org/6576/svcf-hate-speakers-siraj-wahhaj">Siraj Wahhaj</a> — listed as a potential <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/02/blind-sheikh-dies-terrorist-evangelist/">un-indicted co-conspirator</a> in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings — announced his <a href="https://clarionproject.org/clarion-special-report-nys-sharia-patrol/">“40 Days and 40 Nights”</a> campaign to expel crack cocaine dealers from Brooklyn. Armed with guns and nightsticks, Wahhaj’s team of nearly 50 men drew recruits from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/23/nyregion/muslims-start-patrol-to-fight-crack-in-brooklyn.html">homeless shelters</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/16/nyregion/security-guards-vigilantes-special-report-brooklyn-private-police-violent-their.html?mtrref=www.google.com&amp;assetType=REGIWALL&amp;fbclid=IwAR2bJlupgVwbKMXoKgDHADEtNRa5_ZILHylCaZfAnK_IFpa26DzMmfvUEqA">prison converts.</a>
From this “40 Days” event arose a more formalized, permanent, and licensed group of paramilitary guards and enforcers, known as SSI Patrol Services. In 1991, a New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/16/nyregion/security-guards-vigilantes-special-report-brooklyn-private-police-violent-their.html?mtrref=www.google.com&amp;assetType=REGIWALL&amp;fbclid=IwAR2bJlupgVwbKMXoKgDHADEtNRa5_ZILHylCaZfAnK_IFpa26DzMmfvUEqA">headline</a> described SSI as “private police as violent as their enemy” and questioned whether the firm employed “Security Guards or Vigilantes?”
The imam’s foot soldiers had no concept of proportionality: “If they spill one pin drop of our blood, we spill gallons of theirs,” one member promised. And indeed, they <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/16/nyregion/security-guards-vigilantes-special-report-brooklyn-private-police-violent-their.html?mtrref=www.google.com&amp;assetType=REGIWALL&amp;fbclid=IwAR2bJlupgVwbKMXoKgDHADEtNRa5_ZILHylCaZfAnK_IFpa26DzMmfvUEqA">followed through with this threat</a>: One guard received a second degree murder charge, a second was held in a case involving the shooting of a disabled man, and a third faced a lawsuit for a brutal beating.
SSI was not the only Muslim paramilitary group with a questionable record. In 1996, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/09/02/a-breach-in-guards-invincibility/d0f9c4cc-4562-482f-9aac-fb9be699d003/">exposed</a> how the Nation of Islam’s (NOI) “Fruit of Islam” wing inspired the creation of multiple private security corporations that received “an estimated $20 million in public contracts in 10 cities.” Residents of areas patrolled by NOI security groups claimed “that guards paid with public money were proselytizing for Farrakhan, pestering residents to stop eating pork, go to the mosque or buy subscriptions to the Final Call, the Nation&#8217;s newspaper.”
<a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/03/11/black-muslim-security-firm-makes-false-claims-in-bid-to-secure-port-of-oakland-contract/">BMT International Security Services</a> is another black Muslim security group accused of defrauding the government and lying about its credentials to secure a $450,000 contract patrolling parks at the Port of Oakland. Such behavior was in keeping with the group’s background since “prosecutors have called it a cult that ran a wide-ranging criminal enterprise, committing crimes from real estate and mortgage fraud to murder.”
More recently, last year Wahhaj <a href="https://spectator.org/brooklyns-islamist-vigilantes/">revived his Islamist security group</a> under a new name: The <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/12/24/new-york-muslims-have-a-new-security-patrol-group/">Muslim Community Patrol (MCP)</a>. Just weeks after its founding, MCP members initiated a <a href="https://christianaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/The-Secret-Agenda-of-New-York-Citys-Muslim-Patrol-Cars.pdf">conflict</a> when they attempted to stop a group of African-American men from smoking marijuana near a mosque. According to “Abdul,” <a href="https://clarionproject.org/clarion-special-report-nys-sharia-patrol/">an informant who attended an MCP meeting</a>, Wahhaj said, “The mosques need protection and the MCP cars can help stop people who were not following the rules and regulations of the Sharia …”
“Everything is going to be Sharia,” Abdul explained. “That’s Wahhaj’s main thing. He’s working on a ‘one sheikh’ and ‘one government’ system that practices Sharia.”
Portman should  therefore consider one major revision for his bill: Funds must be allocated to increase the presence of trained local police — not dangerous and unprofessional faith-based patrols. The fungibility of funding to Islamist groups must also be considered; every taxpayer dollar dispensed to these groups frees up funding for other extremist activities.
If there’s one thing at which American Islamists are particularly adept, it is exploitation of the good intentions of others. And indeed, the intentions behind this bill are obviously well-meaning, but for such efforts to succeed, Congress must recognize the potential for abuse.
&nbsp;
David M. Swindle is a fellow for <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/">Islamist Watch</a> and the Southern California associate of the <a href="https://counterislamist.org/">Counter-Islamist Grid</a>. He also works as the Director of Research for <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/">The Israel Group</a>. Follow him on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle">@DaveSwindle</a>.

Capitol Hill

SWINDLE: Stop Taxpayer Money From Funding Islamist-Tied Security Agencies

CAIR

Congress

New York Police Department (NYPD)

Police

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Rob Portman

U.S. Senate

In Hollywood, playing an imaginary character is not a job limited to actors. It’s an ethos that is visible going back to Raymond Chandler’s 1930s and 1940s detective stories that depicted a particular culture of strangeness and cynicism in Southern California that persists today: Most people are not as they appear.
Such is the case with the <a href="https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/muslim-public-affairs-council-and-j-street-accuse-trump-and-netanyahu-of-fueling-ethnonationalism/">Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)</a>, which plays the part of a supposed civil rights organization based in Los Angeles, <a href="https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/facebook-and-disney-sponsor-islamist-group-mpacs-media-awards-honoring-dead-anti-semitic-activist-jamal-khashoggi/">supported</a> by numerous entertainment and technology companies, yet has clear <a href="https://gohmert.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=306135">origins with the Muslim Brotherhood</a>.
Back in <a href="https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/facebook-and-disney-sponsor-islamist-group-mpacs-media-awards-honoring-dead-anti-semitic-activist-jamal-khashoggi/">April</a>, MPAC held its annual “media awards” and chose to honor the late Jamal Khashoggi, a supposed Washington Post “journalist” and thus an alleged martyr for free speech. But the truth about Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia is more complicated: The desert kingdom has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-security-idUSBREA260SM20140307">designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization</a> and Khashoggi has <a href="https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/facebook-and-disney-sponsor-islamist-group-mpacs-media-awards-honoring-dead-anti-semitic-activist-jamal-khashoggi/">associated himself</a> with the group for a long time, parroting its propaganda and even indulging in Islamism’s frequent partner, <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/larryprovost/2018/10/24/khashoggi-writings-reveal-antisemitism-pro-shariaism-n2531301">anti-Semitism</a>.
On November 23, at its 19th annual convention, MPAC <a href="https://convention.mpac.org/banquet">honored</a> another man of mystery who is not as he appears. The “Community Changemaker Award” went to Dr. Ahmed Soboh, chairman of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/shuracouncil/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARA6hfOqEB1ADV_lDpqmzTbubduraoZ5Acprm0iHogPf_BVNPGMb8zZVyahW0WMQDKZtwHjEwGwqYwOQKME8pH3KJoO8iI1oeyvF3aSba5_uyyNULXXU8o2G7wgh7RcWsAvnniTz0uVfmY4dqTp-TP2IMkVDkoE9gFWtkrr0xt-gwIv66DgNKjGPgmYMKm-MI2iMKTIjiJ-0LTJSVMKqgHcr_mSj4PL6LCRUjeKpgRxgDKZ1UfwJY5Rn_MG5UeMiQvMx86J2dHR4kPVQSN8CxBDVZTVqEaGf9KXoJ7ZhLkU7deRPCV9hRJ9veOTI2iRLTmXeCEcLwBjnDiklSQ&amp;__xts__%5B1%5D=68.ARCj9TS4VcW45qp0v53Dbi3JpUKBX-L-n-s3PsHzbPp1Xw9wW3X7TqkefKRBxXA0yYzhzLp2SQQY6fBx5cL_nmJEGEyfSYmeHK1rC8Lc87ioCRSDtFhlNFiO90wMBWjC9-_0U-auJR-oP_1t63U2R_eMR8uydC-p6dIu1BZdvaGTEPovamISkyNFM9A4iAK9lVYBjSYsAjTn4_pAfM9dLeodQcH7VQH8u5PahSS3IwRhIzv3EZf3D0UVogzPQfJ6ORbK7FoxVRY6ytq73Yt1drfi0JbrAJCwgusO4cG_Fobj_Ea5K92ouzhoDf-4KxmjQ6PbatHgTcb7uyhWqA&amp;__tn__=K-R&amp;eid=ARA748xLwUqlBDXFhcskqp8MdWhQUPwd9nFKxN2q3mx5wxA0KHqqiDHPPow2Yur5NdXkpwhOphwwLXtK&amp;fref=mentions">Islamic Shura Council of Southern California</a> (ISCSC), an organization he has led following the tenure of <a href="https://www.islamicity.org/by/muzammil-siddiqi/">Muzammil Siddiqi</a>, a prominent Islamist leader and <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/171/muzammil-siddiqi">longtime defender of sharia</a>. Soboh works as a dentist at <a href="http://www.sobohliswidental.com/?orig_url=www.sobohdental.com">Soboh Liswi Dental</a> in Pomona and has held numerous positions in the Southern California Islamist community over the last 15 years. One of his first roles was as an executive committee member for the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Greater Los Angeles chapter (CAIR-GLA), <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_la_holds_community_forum_with_bakersfield_muslims">appearing at a March 2008</a> community forum.
He currently serves as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ahmed.soboh/about?section=education&amp;lst=20704912%3A649505902%3A1575153912">Director of Religious Activities</a> for the <a href="https://cvislamiccenter.org/">Chino Valley Islamic Center</a> (CVIC), a mosque that has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cairgla/photos/a.259334470172/10161733228925173/?type=3&amp;theater">hosted</a> such radical speakers as CAIR-GLA Executive Director <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/709.pdf">Hussam Ayloush</a>, <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/51845/countering-islamist-extremism-the-right-way">Bayan Claremont</a> Founder/President <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/51845/countering-islamist-extremism-the-right-way">Jihad Turk</a>, and <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/58905/prominent-california-islamists-praise-imam-call">Ahmed Billoo</a>, who was recently criticized for <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/58905/prominent-california-islamists-praise-imam-call">anti-Semitic remarks</a>. Soboh’s support of CAIR continued further as CVIC hosted <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/365949797439438/">two CAIR-GLA events</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/630623767443548/">in July</a> and an event in May with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/354381118541954/">the L.A. chapter</a> of the Muslim American Society (MAS) — which, like CAIR, has also been labeled as a <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/4655/uae-designates-cair-mas-as-terrorist-groups">terrorist organization</a> by the United Arab Emirates.
So how significant is the role which Soboh now plays? What does the ISCSC actually do? The group seems to have three primary functions: (1) Radicalizing the Muslim community by sponsoring extreme speakers, (2) providing Islamist groups opportunities to coordinate their activism, and (3) creating a private space for Islamists to subvert transparency, airing groups’ differences only behind closed doors rather than in public.
First, a brief rundown of the ISCSC’s regular speakers makes clear the organization’s support for radicalism: An April 14, 2018 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/shuracouncil/photos/gm.964947137006083/10155608897342833/?type=3&amp;theater">banquet featured</a> <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/52758/hardline-salafist-yasir-qadhi-headlines-islamic">Yasir Qadhi</a>; the March 4, 2017 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1822238718058166/">banquet brought</a> <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/55337/the-worst-of-suhaib-webb">Suhaib Webb</a> to town; the February 27, 2016 fundraiser banquet offered two radicals for the price of one with both former Congressman <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/12/keith-ellison-islamic-radical/">Keith Ellison</a> (D-MN) and <a href="https://www.meforum.org/6576/svcf-hate-speakers-siraj-wahhaj">Siraj Wahhaj</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/167482580270436/">appearing</a>; for the March 1, 2014 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/317864788354203/">banquet</a>, ISCSC chose <a href="https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/10181/tariq-ramadan-reformist-or-islamist">Tariq Ramdan</a>, a man now with multiple <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/tariq-ramadan-oxford-professor-facing-rape-charges-granted-conditional-release">rape accusations</a> against him. On <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/577702172256409/">March 9, 2013</a> ISCSC hosted a day-long conference featuring <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/52341/worst-of-the-icna-mas-conference-2017">Jamal Badawi</a>, Qadhi, Wahhaj, Siddiqi, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/swindle-a-rising-female-islamist-leaders-self-defeating-argument-against-white-liberal-feminists">Muslema Purmu</a>, with Soboh acting as a moderator.
Second, visit<a href="https://shuracouncil.org/our-members"> ISCSC’s list of 74 members</a> to see its unique role in the community. ISCSC acts as an “umbrella organization” and brings together Muslim groups — not all of which are clearly Islamist — of such types as mosques, K–12 schools, higher education, clinics, charities, and activist groups from the moderate-posing MPAC to the more openly radical CAIR and MAS. While MPAC, CAIR, and MAS have tactical differences and varied targets of influence, it’s the role of ISCSC to try and get the three of them to get along and to influence Muslims to support all three groups. On October 25, ISCSC <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=499759974210390">released a video with Soboh urging Muslims</a> to attend the groups’ upcoming November banquets and conventions.
Third, ISCSC’s place in Southern California’s Islamist community came into focus from its role in the Institute of Knowledge’s (IOK) “<a href="https://www.iokconference.com/">Ilmspiration</a>” conference on September 21, which was a one-day gathering of Islamist scholar-activists — including individuals from <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/51455/the-worst-of-omar-suleiman">Omar Suleiman’s</a> <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/">Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research</a>, and <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/civil-rights/328873-once-again-cair-shows-that-islamism-and-civil-rights-dont-mix">Abdul Nasir Jangda</a>’s <a href="https://www.qalam.institute/">Qalam Institute</a>. ISCSC sponsored the event, Soboh gave the opening welcome, and at the day’s final panel, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/swindle-a-rising-female-islamist-leaders-self-defeating-argument-against-white-liberal-feminists">Muslema Purmul</a> offered a revealing explanation of how the group operates behind the scenes.
In his speech, Soboh explained how various Islamic organizations had been developing over decades and collaborating together. He began with a reference to the past: “Our Muslim community in America has been building its assets in America for the past 60 years. … And now we have amazing organizations, amazing institutions, amazing properties, endowments, funds, and all that.” What happened approximately 60 years ago? The Muslim Students Association was founded in <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/money-politics/organizations/">1963</a> and from it came such “amazing organizations” as the Islamic Society of North America, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, and the North American Islamic Trust. “But for the past 20, 15 years, we started shifting our building of assets to something that’s extremely important, which is building our base of Muslim scholars and intellectuals.  … Indeed, our institutions are also becoming an asset: IOK, Yaqeen, and Qalam Institute … Shura Council is very proud to sponsor, to collaborate, to see the collaboration of these organizations. &#8230;”
ISCSC would not receive mention again until <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/swindle-a-rising-female-islamist-leaders-self-defeating-argument-against-white-liberal-feminists">Purmul</a> brought it up: “Not every single thing that every organization does is agreed upon by every other organization within the Muslim community … we have things like Shura Council that we can come together under one umbrella … we do need to have private spaces where people can go up to each other and say, ‘Look, this is really confusing. Why did you do this?’”
So congratulations to Dr. Soboh for this recognition. A downside of this exposure: The mask is now off and you’re under the spotlight. Opponents of Islamism are now well aware of what, until now, had been a quiet influence operation.
&nbsp;
David M. Swindle is the Southern California associate of the <a href="https://counterislamist.org/">Counter-Islamist Grid</a> and a fellow for <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/">Islamist Watch</a>. He also works as the Director of Research for <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/">The Israel Group</a>. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle">@DaveSwindle</a>.

Los Angeles skyline mountains

SWINDLE: A Troubling Award For A Rising Leader Behind Southern California Islamism

California

Islam

Los Angeles

Throughout the Islamic world, many injustices committed against women horrify the Western conscience: Polygamy, child marriage, honor killings, female genital mutilation, niqabs, forced hijab, unequal rights codified for centuries under sharia, and so forth. So what do female <a href="https://counterislamist.org/about-us/">Islamist</a> activist-scholars dedicate their energies to opposing? “White liberal feminists.”
At the <a href="https://www.iokconference.com/">Ilmspiration Conference</a> held by the Walnut, California-based Institute of Knowledge on September 21st, 2019 in Anaheim, Muslema Purmul was the stand-out female speaker in both substance and style. The moderator introduced her, noting she was a graduate of sharia from Al-Azhar University, that her husband Jamaal Diwaan was also a sheik, and that they both were “critical role models.”
The couple operates two organizations they founded: The <a href="https://www.themajlis.us/">Majlis</a> mosque and the <a href="https://www.safacenter.org/">Safa Center for Research and Education</a>. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/2111457405794108/">Both also appeared at</a> last year’s Muslim American Society’s (MAS) 21st annual West Coast Convention, and each have been named by the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles chapter as <a href="https://ca.cair.com/losangeles/updates/socal-muslim-of-the-week-muslema-purmul/">Muslims of</a> <a href="https://ca.cair.com/losangeles/updates/cair-las-socal-muslim-of-the-week-jamaal-diwan/">the week</a>. Both MAS and CAIR were <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/11/cair-terror-group-daniel-pipes/">designated</a> as terrorist groups by the United Arab Emirates in 2014.
Purmul’s talk fascinated in its contradictions, as she spent about three fourths expressing disdain and critiquing feminism’s fractiousness, only to conclude by conceding that serious sexism existed in Muslim communities.
She started with humor: “I was given the topic ‘Do we need feminism?’ So the answer, really, is ‘no.’” The audience — whose young women in hijab sat segregated to the left side of the ball room — burst into laughter and applause. “And I’m done with my talk. No, I’m joking.”
Purmul cited the research of a “faith-based feminist” writing at Forbes about religious communities and feminism: “In general, specific views in these issues are rooted deeply in our own personal and direct experiences rather than data and research.” Purmul then embraced this, arguing in favor of judging an ideology based on encounters with a handful of people:
<blockquote>“… there has never been someone in my life who has ever told me the words ‘when I see women who wear that I just want to rip it off their heads’ other than white liberal feminists. I have heard that actually three times in my life from different white liberal feminists … You don’t get to judge my paradigm.”</blockquote>
Purmul then revealed another life experience, this time in a religious studies class, that angered her because it did not present Islam as she believed it. “I do not take my paradigm from morality from people who don’t understand my religion,” she said. Thus, Purmul creates the ultimate counter to any critiques: They simply don’t “understand my religion.”
Purmul conceded the existence of Muslim feminists she supports and references a convert who came to see Islam as “the most feminist religion in the world.” Purmul clarified: “What she means when she uses that term is the advocacy of women’s rights according to the sharia. &#8230; If you were to just ask me, I’d say, ‘Well that’s just Islam. I advocate for Islam.’”
Purmul then proffered the broad range of feminist views as further evidence in her argument, saying “There’s no consensus … that all feminists say ‘this is what we’re about’ because there’s a difference of agreement in that movement.”
Yet unacknowledged in Purmul’s speech or throughout the conference: There are plenty of disagreements within Islam and even within <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2013/10/islamism-in-disarray">Islamism</a>. Herein lies the central contradiction of Purmul and all the day’s speakers. They will accuse every Western ideology of being endlessly divided, but they also believe that they have a monopoly to define the one true Islam.
Rather than the rights in traditional feminism, instead Purmul advocated for “divine privileges” and “matriarchy” as supposed checks on patriarchy: “It might be a little taboo to say this, but we also believe that Allah has privileged both genders. … We do have patriarchy, but we also have matriarchy … .” Tellingly, Purmul did not detail what “matriarchy” entailed.
Then Purmul echoed a theme throughout the other talks, which also demanded Islam stand over any man-made ideology: “The reason I could never sign on to feminism, on a personal level, was just the idea that if you have to go outside your own theology for your human rights and dignity, what does that say about your religion?”
Then Purmul let her guard down, shifting from attacking feminism to defending the Muslim world. She mentioned a Muslim woman confessing to her that she felt “very oppressed” because her family would not let her attend college like her brothers. Purmul conceded that “women are being abused in the name of Islam&#8230; .”
How could Purmul look the other way so much on the women suffering throughout the Islamic world? She was merely following an important rule in Islamism, stated by Abdul Nasir Jangda in his final speech of the night: “There’s nothing more ugly and more detestable than someone who tries to divide the ummah.”
In the day’s closing panel, Purmul got the last word, revealing a related tactic which holds Islamism together: “Not every single thing that every organization does is agreed upon by every other organization within the Muslim community. … We can’t write people off because we don’t like one thing that they’re doing. … And what we disagree on, like, let’s disagree with it honestly, behind closed doors.’”
These principles that Purmul asserts however, have resulted in a closed system that effectively empowers individuals with disturbing records: The sexual harassment claims against <a href="https://www.mangobaaz.com/nouman-ali-khan-sexual-harassment-allegations/">Nouman Ali Khan</a>, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/08/former-oxford-professor-tariq-ramadan-accused-destroying-alleged/">Tariq Ramadan&#8217;s </a>(who Purmul <a href="https://5pillarsuk.com/2018/06/14/imams-politicians-academics-express-outrage-at-tariq-ramadans-treatment/">has defended</a>) facing heinous allegations of rape, and <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/03/03/woman-who-accused-womens-march-founder-of-harassment-cover-up-faces-lawsuit/">Linda Sarsour</a> looking the other way on sexual harassment charges.
Purmul may proudly insist that “You don’t get to judge my paradigm!,” but in America we all do have the freedom to judge her insistence that Islamism and feminism are mutually exclusive — and to condemn her moral blindness in regarding “white liberal feminists” as a greater danger to many Muslim girls than some of their own families forcing them to endure genital mutilation and child marriages.
&nbsp;
David M. Swindle is the Southern California associate of the <a href="https://counterislamist.org/">Counter-Islamist Grid</a> and a fellow for <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/">Islamist Watch</a>. He also works as the Director of Research for <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/">The Israel Group</a>. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle">@DaveSwindle</a>.

SWINDLE: A Rising Female Islamist Leader’s Self-Defeating Argument Against ‘White Liberal Feminists’

Among the fascinating phenomena of America’s most prominent Muslim activist organizations is how they decide which Muslims to lift up and which to ignore. Compare two recent comedy specials. One, Dave Chappelle’s newest Netflix special “Sticks &amp; Stones,” which is <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/08/dave-chappelle-review-netflix.html">generating intense reactions</a> given its choice of material — including abortion, #MeToo, Transgenderism, “the alphabet people” (referring to the expanding acronym LGBTQIA+), and the implications of the “cancel culture,” which seeks to silence all who do not adhere to the “woke” doctrines of political correctness.
Thinking about this hilariously offensive special brought to mind another recent comedy special that challenged different cultural taboos: Millennial Ramy Youssef’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-PSx-lf_kU">Feelings</a>,” released on HBO on June 29.
Both comedians are American Muslims, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJobAaaxUcM">fact often forgotten</a> about Chappelle — perhaps since he is a convert who generally shuns public discussion of his faith. But Youssef, the son of Egyptian immigrants, emphasizes Muslimness as central to his comedy, TV show, and identity.
In fact, <a href="https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/facebook-and-disney-sponsor-islamist-group-mpacs-media-awards-honoring-dead-anti-semitic-activist-jamal-khashoggi/">Islamist organization the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)</a> — a group co-founded by Hassan Hathout, who described himself as a “<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2012/08/history-mpac-andrew-c-mccarthy/">close disciple</a>” of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and whose current director Salam al-Marayati <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/muslim-leader-who-called-israel-a-suspect-after-911-meets-with-biden-at-white-house/">suggested</a> Israel as a suspect of the 9/11 attacks — and its “Hollywood bureau chief” <a href="https://twitter.com/SueObeidi">Sue Obeidi</a> is <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/emmys-ramy-patriot-act-hasan-minhaj-muslim-portrayal-tv/">eager to promote</a> Youssef. On the contrary, MPAC does not generally even acknowledge the successes of Muslims not in line with its Islamist ideology.
One of the differences between Chappelle’s and Youssef’s styles of comedy is that the latter is more clearly playing essentially himself. And while his ideas may provoke some shocks, they do not do so in the same way as Chappelle’s over-the-top fictional character — a character who intentionally pushes ideological buttons. At times, Youssef goes fairly deep into faith, sexuality, and 9/11. While there are some exaggerations, it’s clear he’s providing what the title suggests: His “feelings.”
Youssef devotes significant time in both his special and fictional show to advancing a bizarre subject: Cousin marriage and why it should be acceptable. Youssef gets not one but two chances at the same time on prominent, hip, corporate television and this is where he places all of his chips? Obeidi and MPAC go through all this trouble to lift him up, only for the big ask of America to more readily permit … cousin marriage?
From minutes 48 – 51, Youssef asks, “You ever have that cousin growing up you kind of have a vibe with?” Then telling a story of his cousin’s wedding in Egypt and jealousy toward her husband, he asks, “Have I been in love with my cousin this whole time? &#8230; It’s only weird if you don’t have a hot cousin. If you think it’s weird, you just have an ugly family. I’m sorry … Why can’t we be with our cousins?”
He then asks the audience for, “like, a real reason?” Captain Obvious in the audience brings up genetics. “That’s propaganda … I looked into it … The rate doubles &#8230; It goes from 1.4 to 2.8% chance that something could happen.” Then he pauses for effect and says, “Like, when did 2.8% ever stop you from doing f***ing anything?” People applaud.
Then he ups the ante: “We’ve been brainwashed. This s*** started in America. They said being with your cousin would f*** up the kids because they didn’t want immigrant populations to grow … That’s racist! That’s why I’m not upset about like, the ‘Muslim ban’ and stuff. I’m still thinking about the ‘cousin ban.’”
In fact, Youssef vastly understates the potential negative impact of cousin marriages, as demonstrated by recent cases in the U.K: While British Pakistanis make up 3% of all births, their children accounted for <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/11723308/First-cousin-marriages-in-Pakistani-communities-leading-to-appalling-disabilities-among-children.html">30% of genetic illnesses</a> due to cousin marriage, and in 2017 the London neighborhood of Redbridge released a startling report that <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-borough-child-deaths-redbridge-parents-related-cousins-pakistani-families-council-report-a7741146.html">19% of the child deaths</a> in its borough were from cousin couples — 9% of whom were Pakistani.
Next, Youssef baits his P.C.-incubated audience: “It’s just so disappointing because I’m in this crowd of people who are like ‘woke’ or whatever, but you’re not. Like … I saw some of you when I was saying some s*** … I’m sharing a sexual feeling and you shut down … I’ll stand up for the gay community, the trans community … And I’m like yeah, I get that, cause I don’t identify as being her cousin. Gender’s a construct, so is family, like all this is just … it’s what we say it is.”
Funny? That’s not playing a character, it’s a comedian setting aside several minutes in his HBO comedy special to earnestly argue for cousin marriage on the grounds that opposing it is racist.
There is a huge difference between Chapelle, who pokes fun at hot-button controversies to generate laughs, and Youssef, who uses his jokes in a clumsy effort to shoehorn the culture of Islamist society, grafting it onto the intersectionalist arguments that people have come to expect — even when it doesn’t actually fit. The fights for gay marriage and transgender acceptance are somehow comparable to doubling one’s chances of having children with birth defects?
MPAC wants a Muslim (actually Islamist) comedian, not a comedian who happens to be a Muslim. This is significant because it further illustrates MPAC’s Islamist purpose. MPAC doesn’t want to suggest that American Muslims are just like other Americans, with similar issues. Rather, they want to keep American Muslims apart and to force Islamist sentiment down all Americans’ throats.
While it may seem counterintuitive that MPAC would promote Muslims with extreme views rather than all-American Muslim success stories, this is actually a feature and not a bug for organizations with roots in the Muslim Brotherhood. This movement is committed to Islamist values and culture overcoming American and Western values. Pushing the ideological boundaries of respectability is the goal and any tools at hand, whether it be LGBTQ sympathies, postmodernism, or the stand-up comedy traditions of provocation are fair game.
David M. Swindle is the Southern California associate of the <a href="https://counterislamist.org/">Counter-Islamist Grid</a> and a fellow for <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/">Islamist Watch</a>. He also works as the Director of Research for <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/">The Israel Group</a>. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle">@DaveSwindle</a>.

Dave Chappelle.jpg

SWINDLE: Islamist Organizations Only Elevate The ‘Right’ Muslims

Dave Chappelle

Political Correctness

<a href="https://twitter.com/HussamA">Hussam Ayloush</a>, the longstanding leader of the Greater Los Angeles chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-GLA), wrote a blistering attack against the American government on Friday, a day after Independence Day, before flying to Turkey to begin a whitewashed spiritual social media travelogue.
Ayloush <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/posts/10156800910444825">published</a> to his Facebook page, “As someone who grew up through wars, occupation, loss of loved ones, being displaced, and enduring bloody dictators, I truly appreciate freedom. But how can I celebrate our Independence Day when migrants and their children are abused in our US concentration camps and denied freedom? Or when our tax money funds the denial of freedom to Palestinians and Egyptians? Or when our weapons wage the UAE/Saudi war on Yemeni lives and freedom? My freedom is not complete until everyone else is free.”
Ayloush curiously did not mention Turkey among the list of repressive Middle Eastern states, despite Ankara’s growing reputation for <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-06-28/turkey-jails-more-journalists-any-other-nation-those-detention-are-all-terrorists">jailing journalists</a> and political prisoners.
Two days later on July 7, Ayloush played tour guide, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/videos/10156807718594825/">streaming </a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/videos/10156807718594825/">live</a> on Facebook for just over two-and-a-half minutes outside at “Istanbul&#8217;s newest and one of its most beautiful mosques, Camlica Camii.”
Ayloush then <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/videos/10156807738524825/">streamed</a> another minute-and-a-half once inside the mosque, declaring, “The inside of the new Camlica Masjid in Istanbul is just breathtaking. Masha Allah. May Allah bless everyone involved in making that amazing project possible.”
Ayloush would later <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/posts/10156808663179825?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARAM6BMuZeYeIMSVdT9BWvRaYWRKjLJWJB2Wy8bUb-Rd3aPxD7fTrB-gqNYgwCMKICyFDGuly6WpTibJ350xlxVEeNDyaVRBVvlhGb24g7udU7HHE2cIcnCOf3QQ-EN2bGAio0nk7ESITw1shjvkCd587AJhQMcopxYER_9Vx9RlzgNpvrcCGW0PqezbJ4CNWJBvO5NGBmMIAuOOxjW5OvjHJc7rAg1gsbj5fsMmipOairvPhbIaWPICKVFT0qSSVk2tH0_EPOGQUpFaRQGVunA9mrs&amp;__tn__=-R">report</a> that one of his taxi drivers claimed to love an American leader. He reports, “I cringed, thinking: Please don&#8217;t make it be Trump.” The driver then supposedly said, “Malcolm X, A brave and principled leader.”
On July 8, Ayloush streamed <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/videos/10156810607224825/">inside</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/videos/10156810559139825/">outside</a> the Eyüpsultan masjid, which he described as “possibly the most spiritual place to visit in Istanbul.”
If Ayloush is really as committed to the principle that “freedom is not complete until everyone else is free,” then how can he be idyllically chronicling his mosque tour while the state he is in <a href="https://clarionproject.org/turkey-systematic-torture-rape-political-prisoners/">engages</a> in appalling torture and rape of its political prisoners?
In 2016, The Independent published an <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/turkey-coup-attempt-erdogan-torture-human-rights-suspension-kurdish-prisoners-freedom-from-torture-a7149951.html">article</a> claiming that “Torture has returned to Turkey under Erdogan.” Ann Hannah wrote, “The European Court of Human Rights has frequently found Turkey to be in breach of the absolute ban on torture and our clients at Freedom from Torture are living proof that it continues to take place under Erdogan’s government.” Hannah revealed that doctors with Freedom from Torture had documented beatings, electrocutions, rape, and sexual torture — all utilized during interrogations about political activity.
In 2017, Safak Pavey, a member of the Turkish Parliament and the Republican People’s Party, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/opinion/turkey-erdogan-prison.html">wrote</a> in The New York Times about what he’d discovered since having to become “a specialist in the Turkish prison system.” He noted that 38,000 real criminals — fraudsters, rapists, and thieves — had to be released to make room for journalists and political prisoners. He describes coerced interrogations, where prisoners are beaten with batons until signing confessions.
On July 9, Ayloush <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/posts/10156811796139825">made clear</a> his support for the Erdogan regime and his lack of concern for those oppressed within it: “Appreciating Turkey&#8217;s beauty and stability cannot be complete without recognizing the brave citizens who sacrificed their lives to oppose the military coup attempt and protect their country&#8217;s freedom and democracy in July of 2016. May Allah accept them as Shuhada&#8217;.”
Ayloush’s whirlwind tour again shows the increasingly <a href="https://spectator.org/mas-icna-and-its-web-of-turkish-support/">cozy relationship demonstrated in recent </a><a href="https://spectator.org/mas-icna-and-its-web-of-turkish-support/">years</a> between American Islamists and the <a href="https://clarionproject.org/turkey-pm-erdogan-unabashed-support-muslim-brotherhood/">Muslim Brotherhood-backing</a> Erdogan regime. Other noteworthy examples include Turkey <a href="https://counterislamist.org/turkish-leadership-in-international-islamist-movement-means-armenian-genocide-denialist-propaganda-for-american-muslims/">pushing propaganda</a> at last year’s Muslim American Society West Coast convention and Turkey <a href="https://counterislamist.org/turkey-indoctrinates-american-muslim-children-to-celebrate-islamist-leader-erdogan/">indoctrinating</a> California Muslim children with an Erdogan political campaign song.
Ayloush’s decision to criticize the U.S. the day after Independence Day while celebrating the increasingly authoritarian Turkey once again raises serious questions about Ayloush and CAIR’s commitment to freedom and human rights.
David M. Swindle is the Southern California associate of the <a href="https://counterislamist.org/">Counter-Islamist Grid</a>. He also works as the Director of Research for <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/">The Israel Group</a>. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle">@DaveSwindle</a>.

SWINDLE: CAIR-L.A. Leader Trashes American Freedom Before Visiting Authoritarian Turkey

Turkey

On <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/2323471524380525/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A5%2C%22action_history%22%3A%5b%7B%22surface%22%3A%22page%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22main_list%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%22%5C%22%5b%5d%5C%22%22%7D%5d%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D">June 2</a> at 1:00 PM local time, six men performed Islamic prayers on the sidewalk in front of an emerald green building in Los Angeles’ Japantown neighborhood.
They waited for more people to gather, until a small crowd of approximately 25 Muslim-American men and women and a handful of non-Muslim supporters had gathered outside the local consulate of Saudi Arabia. The group began unfurling signs and chanting slogans in defense of “our scholars” who were scheduled to be executed by the Saudi government.
“Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Saudi’s crimes!” “Rest in peace Jamal Khashoggi!” “Down! Down! With [Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman]!” “Free expression, no oppression!” And, of course, the traditional activist chant: “No justice! No peace!”
These protestors were not just ordinary Muslim-Americans, however, but members of the Muslim American Society&#8217;s Greater Los Angeles chapter (MAS-GLA). And the scholars were leading clerics with a history of ties to Islamic extremism and terror: <a href="https://www.nysun.com/foreign/islamist-threat-arrives-in-switzerland/55439/">Salman al-Odah</a>, who issued calls for killing American troops in Iraq and was linked by Spanish prosecutors to the 2004 Madrid train bombing carried out by al-Qaeda; Ali al-Omari, a member of the <a href="http://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/a-public-apology-by-aidh-al-qarni,-salafi-scholar,-sheds-a-light-on-mohammed-bin-salman’s-version-of-‘moderate-islam/d/118847">International Union of Muslims Scholars</a>, which the Saudi government has designated as a terrorist organization and which called for the <a href="https://www.memri.org/reports/reactions-sheikh-al-qaradhawis-fatwa-calling-abduction-and-killing-american-civilians-iraq">killing of Americans in Iraq in 2004</a>, and <a href="https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/defenddemocracy/uploads/documents/facebook_fatwa_low_res_2.pdf">Awad al-Qarni</a>, who once offered $100,000 to any Palestinian who successfully kidnapped an Israeli soldier.
Why did this particular organization come out in support of these radical three clerics?
First, MAS has been named by federal prosecutors as the “<a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/542.pdf">overt arm</a>” of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in the United States, and the group often does little to hide its radical sympathies. MAS was <a href="https://gulfnews.com/uae/government/uae-publishes-list-of-terrorist-organisations-1.1412895">designated a terrorist group</a> in 2014 by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Describing the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/qatar-terror-ties-friend-foe-or-both">decision to designate</a> MAS and similar groups, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said that the small Gulf state “&#8230; cannot accept incitement or funding” of terrorism.
At last year’s <a href="http://www.maslaconvention.org/">MAS’s west coast convention</a>, the keynote speaker was Tareq Al-Suwaidan, a Kuwaiti-based Brotherhood leader and open <a href="https://www.memri.org/reports/kuwaiti-muslim-brotherhood-leader-and-director-saudi-al-risala-tv-tareq-al-suwaidan-tours">anti-Semite</a> — who, incidentally, is <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/kuwait/kuwaiti-preacher-barred-from-makkah-pilgrimage-1.1238437">banned</a> from entering both Saudi Arabia and <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-sunday-telegraph/20100124/282209416988562">the United States</a> — who spoke via Skype. Suwaidan has previously called for jihad to liberate Palestinians, including once <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/2439.pdf">boasting</a> that “the Jews will meet their end at our hands.”
Both Suwaidan and al-Odah are leading members of the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign (GAAC), a <a href="https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/NGO_Doha_Terror.pdf">Qatari sponsored network</a> of radical clerics, which includes multiple MB acolytes and other Islamist clerics. It was this association that formed part of the justification for the <a href="https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2017/09/28/saudi-university-dismissing-muslim-brotherhood-linked-academics/">arrest</a> of the three clerics and 27 others in September of 2017.
It should come as no surprise that MAS’s declaration of the three imams as “our scholars” indicates a shared association with the Brotherhood.
And the ties are even more direct in the case of al-Qarni, who has had previous involvement with MAS. <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/3864/cair-protests-saudi-radical-exclusion-from-us">In December 2012</a>, al-Qarni was scheduled to speak at MAS’s annual national convention but was blocked from entering the country because of his inclusion on the U.S.’s no-fly list — a direct result of his advocacy for jihad.
The protests were led by five California-based Islamist activists, most notably Yasmeen Azam, a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/yasmeen.azam.5/about?section=contact-info&amp;lst=20704912%3A100003030329134%3A1560447252">23-year-old activist</a> who <a href="https://www.facebook.com/yasmeen.azam.5/about?section=education&amp;lst=20704912%3A100003030329134%3A1560447252">currently works</a> as the assistant regional coordinator for MAS-GLA. She was among the protest’s primary organizers. It is worthwhile to learn about Azam and keep an eye on her now, as she is just beginning to establish herself as an activist — rather than waiting until she becomes more prominent and effective. Opponents of the domestic Islamist movement in America do not need another Zahra Billoo or Linda Sarsour.
Azam has been making a name for herself in L.A. Islamist circles for years now, including a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/cair-greater-los-angeles/cair-las-socal-muslim-of-the-week-yasmeen-azam/10153973288967831/">profile</a> in September 2016 as the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ “SoCal Muslim of the Week.” The fawning write-up noted that Azam gave a speech at the United Nations based on an essay she submitted into a contest, “The Call to Light,” which described “her personal spiritual awakening.” It also noted Azam’s involvement with <a href="https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/2/2/the-ten-worst-u-s-purveyors-of-antisemitism-2-students-for-justice-in-palestine?print=true&amp;singlepage=true">Students for Justice in Palestine</a> and the MSA chapter at California State University Long Beach, for which she would serve as president. Today the MSA is <a href="http://www.nypdshield.org/public/SiteFiles/documents/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf">described</a> by law enforcement as a “radicalization incubator.” Azam is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, with her anti-Israel campus activism documented in an <a href="https://canarymission.org/individual/Yasmeen_Azam">extensive profile</a> at the indispensable Canary Mission website.
Others who led the group, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=392262191631804">giving speeches</a> and booming slogans through the bullhorn, included such familiar voices in Southern California Islamist circles as Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl (described by Daniel Pipes in 2004 as a <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1841/stealth-islamist-khaled-abou-el-fadl">“stealth Islamist”</a>), <a href="https://shuracouncil.org/muslim-of-the-week/imad-bayoun">Imad Bayoun</a> (a regular MAS lecturer who has <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7003/cal-state-professor-bin-laden-islamist">praised</a> MB founder Hassan al-Banna and defended MB theorist and jihad apologist Sayyid Qutb), Shakeel Syed (who has <a href="https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/25693/shakeel-syed-wants-tariq-ramadan-freed">advocated</a> for the release of al-Banna’s Islamist intellectual leader grandson Tariq Ramadan, who is currently held in France on rape charges), and MAS-GLA’s Director Tareq Purmul.
Putting together these varied data points from the protests, the promotion of international MB figureheads, and the activist priorities of Azam, MAS’s role in Islamist activism comes into clearer focus: Much more so than other groups, MAS takes a particular concern in international issues and strives to provoke American Muslims to see themselves as one part of a global <a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Ummah">“ummah.”</a> What’s so problematic about this is that in MAS’s formulation, this ummah is one that consists of MB activists and ideologues linked with terrorists — and is dead set on the destruction of Israel, to boot.
David M. Swindle is the Southern California associate for the <a href="https://counterislamist.org/">Counter-Islamist Grid</a>. He also works as the Director of Research for <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/">The Israel Group</a>. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle">@DaveSwindle</a>.

SWINDLE: California Islamist Activists Protest At Saudi Consulate In Support Of Terror-Linked Clerics

Al Qaeda

Palestinians

Protest

Saudi Arabia

Students for Justice in Palestine

One of the best methods for judging the health of any organization &#8212; be it a large company, small business, or a non-profit group &#8212; is the issue of employee turnover. 
Using this metric, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which bills itself as the nation&#8217;s preeminent Muslim civil rights organization, appears to be severely dysfunctional. The organization&#8217;s list of <a href="https://www.cair.com/chapters">chapters</a> is constantly being updated as new executive directors start and stop, and as new chapters attempt to rise and others fold. Today there are 27 CAIR affiliates listed (down from over 30 in years past) and only 17 are currently led by leaders who have been there three or more years. Many chapters are without leadership and have been for some time.
Now, a new lawsuit is providing an insider account of the day-to-day workings of CAIR&#8217;s largest branch: The four chapters that comprise CAIR&#8217;s California branch (CAIR-CA). The lawsuit alleges a toxic culture and poor leadership, which suggests CAIR&#8217;s devotion to progressive civil and employment rights practices may be only a façade for something more insidious. 
On April 24, Susanne Arani filed a 42-page lawsuit (PDF available <a href="https://docdro.id/FjATdM9">here</a>) against CAIR-CA. Arani served as a lawyer in the San Diego office, working on and off since 2015. On April 9, 2019, Arani was fired by Dustin Craun, her new boss, CAIR-CA&#8217;s greenhorn executive director who took over in January. 
Arani alleges discrimination based on religion, gender, age, and political views; breaches of attorney-client privilege; wrongful termination and retaliation; failure to hire; and hostile work environment. 
Arani offers multiple allegations against both Craun and the upper levels of CAIR-CA leadership responsible for overseeing him, while at the same time offering a highly suggestive glimpse at the ideology at work behind the walls of CAIR. Specifically, anti-Americanism and sexism seem to run rampant.
Arani claims that near the end of February, while considering a much more expensive new office space that featured a large American flag out front, Craun told her, &#8220;If I would have to see that flag every day, I am going to want to put bullets or darts through it. I&#8217;ve been thinking of at least taking the American flag [the building&#8217;s American flag] and hiding it in our office so no one has to look at it.&#8221; In addition, Arani claims that Craun wrote on his Facebook page, &#8220;This country [America] is disgusting,&#8221; on March 30, 2019.
Arani also expresses frustration for alleged pay disparities between men and women and further notes that a 2016-2017 audit of CAIR-Los Angeles&#8217; office found it paying its female workers substantially less than it paid its male employees. Arani also claims knowledge of CAIR-CA executive directors&#8217; salaries, asserting that a longtime executive director of CAIR&#8217;s San Francisco office and lawyer Zahra Billoo made less than non-lawyer Craun. Based on these points and other examples she cites, Arani concludes &#8220;that said salary differentials and positions for females versus males are the pattern and practice at CAIR-California.&#8221;
Arani also alleges sexist statements by Craun, such as asking a male bookkeeper about the office&#8217;s female workers: &#8220;How do you deal with all these girls?&#8221;
Arani lays into Craun, going into detailed allegations about how she regarded him as unqualified. She claims Craun &#8220;has never worked in an office &#8230; never managed staff &#8230; never spent any considerable amount of time in San Diego &#8230; never fundraised,&#8221; and &#8220;has no experience in law, policy or government.&#8221; She alleges that Craun &#8220;does not work eight hours a day on a consistent basis&#8221; and sometimes takes mid-day naps.
Further, Arani objects to her and a co-worker being credit-checked for their positions while Craun was not. She alleges &#8220;that a simple credit check would have eliminated [Craun] as a viable candidate for the position of executive director.&#8221; She further alleges Craun yelled at employees, failed to do his primary job of fundraising, insisted on mandatory prayer before staff meetings, and allowed his wife to use the office like it &#8220;was her own living room.&#8221; Arani additionally makes more serious legal accusations about the security of confidential client files under Craun&#8217;s leadership, both before and after her termination.
As much as Arani may take delight in taking vengeance against her former boss with embarrassing personal claims, there is a more serious refrain running throughout the legal complaint: Craun was allegedly supported in his actions by the other leaders in CAIR-CA.
This isn&#8217;t the first time a lawsuit aired CAIR&#8217;s dirty laundry, suggesting that internal problems of the kind Arani alleges may be more organizationally systemic. In 2008, CAIR and CAIR-Virginia were sued along with CAIR-Virginia&#8217;s &#8220;resident attorney&#8221; Morris J. Days. The suit alleges that Days, who was not actually an attorney, had taken money from clients for legal services never received, and that CAIR knew all about it. The outcome of that lawsuit has not yet been resolved.
CAIR likes to pitch itself as a &#8220;social justice&#8221; organization in an &#8220;intersectional&#8221; alliance with other marginalized groups. This new lawsuit provides further allegations that CAIR&#8217;s progressive rhetoric may indeed just be a cynical activist tactic and that, on the inside, CAIR may institutionally practice discriminatory policies which it <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/04/24/muslim-workers-workplace-bigotry/3517707002/">would</a> <a href="https://ca.cair.com/sfba/news/cair-sfba-files-religious-discrimination-complaint-against-samsung-on-behalf-of-muslim-job-applicant/">never tolerate</a> <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_files_lawsuit_on_behalf_of_virginia_muslim_fired_for_wearing_hijab">if it were</a> <a href="https://www.cairgeorgia.com/press-releases/528-cair-georgia-files-discrimination-complaint-against-augusta-restaurant-chain.html">done against</a> <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_files_religious_discrimination_and_hostile_workplace_complaints_against_aarp_and_arch_on_behalf_of_muslim_employees">Muslims in other organizations</a>. 

David M. Swindle is the Southern California associate of the <a href="https://counterislamist.org/">Counter-Islamist Grid</a>. He also works as the Director of Research for <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/">The Israel Group</a>. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle">@DaveSwindle</a>.

SWINDLE: Non-Muslim Lawyer Launches Major Lawsuit Against CAIR

Intersectionality

Lawsuit

Leftism

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From one perspective, the idea of &#8220;Islamophobia&#8221; has established itself as one of the most popular and effective Islamist activist tactics over the last 20 years. By recasting anti-Muslim bigotry to include criticism of political and religious ideas, Islamists have sought to unify a diverse American Muslim community into yet another victimized political interest group akin to gays and ethnic minorities. Through this strategy numerous <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.islamist-watch.org/islamists/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEx4Uv9WnwsjDx_WYRMu063-6iiqg" href="http://www.islamist-watch.org/islamists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">activist organizations</a> have gained unwarranted political influence and sympathetic media coverage.
But not all support this approach. Sometimes, hardline clerics reject the narratives of &#8220;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/448229/trump-paris-climate-accord-progressives-bring-intersectionality&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFX5JLXkswEoRVDLoMt8uMPgtriFA" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/448229/trump-paris-climate-accord-progressives-bring-intersectionality" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">intersectionality</a>&#8221; and politicized victimhood promoted by Islamists who have embraced the language of progressivism. Today, radical Islam divides between those on the one hand who would use the language of democracy and liberalism to infiltrate and destroy both; and on the other with those unwilling to stomach such charades, often out of a disgust at the supposed wickedness and decadence of the West.
A video published on August 14 by <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.facebook.com/OnePathNetwork/videos/1769007116461570/?hc_ref%3DARSvcZiqchbHTwGpQsV02dhG17-6jxRkLc8roD2V3c5BcTFjL-6Q6pNWDgM33R-2meIFacebook%2520OnePath%2520Network&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFC36id-IyNw51LuPH3tTG3ZXuPmg" href="https://www.facebook.com/OnePathNetwork/videos/1769007116461570/?hc_ref=ARSvcZiqchbHTwGpQsV02dhG17-6jxRkLc8roD2V3c5BcTFjL-6Q6pNWDgM33R-2meIFacebook%20OnePath%20Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OnePathNetwork</a>, an organization with over 700,000 Facebook followers, asked: &#8220;Should Muslims Support LGBT equality to stop Islamophobia?&#8221; The video featured an excerpt from the question-and-answer session proceeding a sermon given by <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://twitter.com/drshadeeelmasry&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEB-zJgsG6QTeTgRPnBNLk_4M9cXw" href="https://twitter.com/drshadeeelmasry" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Shadee Elmasry</a> at Masjid Hamza in Valley Stream, New York. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.facebook.com/pg/DrShadeeElmasry/about/?ref%3Dpage_internal&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFvAhB6LqyuWFkvAndF15mZWtG7yg" href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/DrShadeeElmasry/about/?ref=page_internal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elmasry</a> is the Scholar in Residence and Director of Education and Community Affairs at the New Brunswick Islamic Center in New Jersey.
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The video begins with Elmasry describing a recent message he received from a chapter of the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.islamist-watch.org/islamists/organization/16/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG6zjktJbXRFfUTgbsH0fZhV449aA" href="http://www.islamist-watch.org/islamists/organization/16/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Muslim Students Association (MAS)</a> invited to an anti-Islamophobia march. The Muslim students attended the march and discovered that the campus LGBT activists had organized it. Then according to Elmasry, in less than a week, the LGBT leaders were asking the MSA for support in an anti-homophobia project: &#8220;Because you accepted the framework&#8230; and so, you have to accept the whole menu now,&#8221; Elmasry warned.
What is &#8220;the framework&#8221; that Elmasry references? In an August 1st post on Facebook, Elmasry <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.facebook.com/DrShadeeElmasry/posts/1637358589617366&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNESbw7uDAgVMI-G13E8u03xbf6_EQ" href="https://www.facebook.com/DrShadeeElmasry/posts/1637358589617366" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">challenged</a> &#8220;the most successful secular religion of our generation&#8212;Liberalism&#8221;.
Elmasry accepts the social consequences of rejecting &#8220;the framework&#8221; and urged his Muslim listeners to embrace rejection by &#8220;the kuffar&#8221;: &#8220;We don&#8217;t need for people to like, to accept us. &#8230; In the Quran, Show me one ayah [verse] of Quran. &#8216;Oh [believers], gather and make sure the kuffar[non-believers] like you.&#8217; There&#8217;s no such ayah [verse].&#8221; Elmasry makes clear his rejection of Muslim political activism, saying, &#8220;I don&#8217;t need your acceptance and you don&#8217;t need their acceptance.&#8221;
Elmasry favors proselytization over unholy alliances: &#8220;What we need to do is give Dawah [call to Islam]. I wouldn&#8217;t jump on the activists&#8217; language of &#8216;anti-Islamophobia.&#8217;&#8221;
He denounces Muslim political activists, accusing them of selfishness: &#8220;It&#8217;s a very selfish mentality that &#8216;we want us to be safe.&#8217; No, we don&#8217;t care about ourselves. We care that people believe in Allah.&#8221;
Elmasry is skeptical of the potential gains to be made through Muslims infiltrating or imitating Western political systems. In <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D-Cd8YKy2434&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHrWyoPbzNvuZK1Zma558bcHluPmg" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cd8YKy2434" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the full video of the sermon</a> from which the excerpt is drawn, he dismisses common Muslim political causes, such as the effort to obtain international support for creating a Palestinian state. Elmasry yells, 38 minutes into his talk, &#8220;If the kuffar give it to you, the kuffar can take it away from you!&#8221;
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Elmasry&#8217;s sermon illustrates three obscured realities. First, Western Islam is much more divided than it may appear. Second, the divide is not just between Islamists and moderates, but also includes disagreements between Islamists and conservative clerics over political and theological issues.
And third, &#8220;the activists&#8221; who claim to speak on behalf of all Muslims and use charges of &#8220;Islamophobia&#8221; like a cudgel in no way possess the broad mandate they claim to have. In 2011, a <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/culture-civilization/religion/islam/poll-american-muslims-cair/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEfMEv8dnxyM36Mk4yYw_xTTpseXw" href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/culture-civilization/religion/islam/poll-american-muslims-cair/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gallup poll revealed</a> that only 12% of Muslim men and 11% of Muslim women believe the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) best represents their interests, with other Islamist &#8220;leadership&#8221; groups registering even less support.
By now this charade of an Islamist-GLBTQ political alliance has gone on long enough that imams like Elmasry have started to rebel. The question: how much longer until more gay, lesbian and transgender activists realize the truth too &#8212; that this intra-Islamist disagreement is a question of tactics, not of principle?
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://twitter.com/daveswindle&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930129000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHi7-JWkbuuxleKi6uw2NxJgdjbBg" href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">David M. Swindle</a> is the coordinator for <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://twitter.com/Islamist_Watch&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930130000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEeEhGBNfMoTaO4u5dLBWG08K1qIg" href="https://twitter.com/Islamist_Watch" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://twitter.com/meforum&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1505842930130000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFhzE4xgSAOGF-CNf7aHAiA6ijmlg" href="https://twitter.com/meforum" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Middle East Forum</a>.
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The 3 Hidden Truths Revealed When Imams Oppose the GLBTQ-Islamist Partnership

Hours after 49 innocent people were brutally killed during the Pulse massacre in Orlando, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other Islamist groups were already deploying time-tested tactics to divert attention from the obvious cause of this massacre, a radical form of Islam much like their own. Three bear highlighting: diversion, claiming the terrorist attack had nothing to do with Islam, and publicly smearing Muslim reformers. 
In Dallas, the diversion tactic was set into action on social media when Alia Salem, head of CAIR&#8217;s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter, attacked the lt. governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, for a Bible verse he tweeted at 6:00 AM on Sunday, only minutes after the end of the Pulse showdown. Patrick&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/aliarsalem/status/742032673888079872">tweet featured</a> Galatians 6:7, which states &#8220;Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.&#8221;
Salem seemed to interpret this passage to suggest that those murdered in the club deserved what they received, <a href="https://twitter.com/aliarsalem/status/742012954380374016">retweeting</a> the Bible verse with the comment: &#8220;The moment when right-wing extremists and Muslim extremists publicly align. #TrueColors #Orlando #StandWithLGBTI&#8221;. 
Patrick later deleted his tweet, explaining that it had been scheduled in advance, before the atrocity had occurred. Despite this, Salem <a href="https://twitter.com/aliarsalem/status/742032673888079872">kept her tweet</a> (replacing the vanished Patrick tweet with a screenshot of it).
The exaggeration of rightist anti-Muslim sentiment is a diversion tactic that CAIR, and Salem in particular, often resort to. CAIR <a href="http://www.cairflorida.org/blog/the_growing_rightwing_terror_threat.html">regularly assert</a>s that &#8220;right-wing&#8221; and &#8220;anti-government&#8221; terrorism is a bigger threat than radical Islam, while Salem won the 2015 CAIR chapter of the year award, largely for her success launching the Ahmed &#8220;clock boy&#8221; Mohamed media hoax. 
And after the San Bernardino terrorist shooting, CAIR&#8217;s most prominent local leader, Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush, used a similar method of blame-shifting. He <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cair-director-on-cnn-u-s-partly-responsible-for-islamic-terrorism/">told CNN</a>, &#8220;When we support coup leaders in Egypt or other places, when we support dictatorships, oppressive regimes around the world that push people over on the edge, then they become extremists, then they become terrorists. We are partly responsible.&#8221;
It is CAIR, the leading and most influential Muslim Brotherhood-founded group operating in this country, that is partly responsible, not the American people. Instead of focusing on uniting Muslims against ISIS and radicalism, CAIR leaders chose to blame Americans and &#8220;Islamophobia.&#8221; 
The second tactic that CAIR has deployed is making the case that terrorist acts have nothing to do with Islam. 
Following the Orlando attack on Sunday, CAIR-Arizona Executive Director Imraan Siddiqi tweeted: &#8220;This sick, cowardly act has no justification in any religion or ideology -Anyone who does: The Muslim community &amp; world stands against you.&#8221; He later pinned the <a href="https://twitter.com/imraansiddiqi/status/742036032720273409">tweet</a> to the top of his profile.
Siddiqi knows this is not true. He is well aware that religions and ideologies can be used for justifying the murder of gays and lesbians. In fact, it was just three months ago on March 28th when Dr. Farrohk Sekaleshfar&#8217;s speech at the Husseini Islamic Center in Sanford, Florida <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBlwxqqAprQ">drew protests</a> because in 2013 Sekaleshfar described the killing of gays as an act of love in accordance with Islam: &#8220;We have to have that compassion for people. With homosexuals, it&#8217;s the same&#8230; Out of compassion, let&#8217;s get rid of them now.&#8221;
But is CAIR concerned with casting out Muslims who advocate violence? No, they are more concerned with ridiculing and marginalizing peaceful, patriotic Muslim leaders. CAIR cannot allow other Muslim groups who do not share their Islamist ideology to emerge as competitors.
CAIR&#8217;s third tactic is smearing Muslim reformers.
Since Siddiqi so loudly proclaimed that no ideology could inspire mass murder, his next move was to stoop to the character defamation of Muslims courageous enough to speak its true name. 
Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, one of the leaders of the Muslim reform movement, wrote that, &#8220;Mateen pledged allegiance to #ISIS at standoff. How much more evidence do we need that the enemy&#8217;s ideology is: #Islamonationalism #Islamism,&#8221; and Siddiqui <a href="https://twitter.com/imraansiddiqi/status/742052788444663808">replied</a> &#8220;&#8230;and of course look who shows up to throw gasoline on the fire.&#8221; 
Clearly, Jasser is not the one responsible for fueling hate. Siddiqui and CAIR&#8217;s smear campaigns are complete misrepresentations of the truth. 
<blockquote>
&#8220;Three bear highlighting: diversion, claiming the terrorist attack had nothing to do with Islam, and publicly smearing Muslim reformers.&#8221; 
David M. Swindle, on tactics used by Islamic groups to deflect attention from the causes of terrorist attacks
</blockquote>
As CAIR increasingly names &#8220;Islamophobia&#8221; as the primary problem, more and more of its leaders, such as CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid, continue to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyokt8l4Zx8">assert</a> that America is irredeemably racist since its founding. Rather than helping to prevent future attacks, CAIR offers would-be terrorists further reason to wage war against America.
Other countries, like the United Arab Emirates, which <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/393614/cair-terror-group-daniel-pipes">named CAIR as a terrorist organization in 2014</a>, are waking up to the game CAIR is playing. So should we.
Until America&#8217;s most prominent Muslim organization stops trying to demonize Christian politicians, right-wingers, Muslim reformers, and US foreign policy, Americans will likely fall victim to more of these hate-driven terrorist attacks. Islamist ideology is the problem, and it&#8217;s up to Muslims first and foremost to extricate it from their communities and faith.
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<div>David Swindle is the Coordinator of <a href="http://www.islamist-watch.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Islamist Watch</a>, a program of the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Middle East Forum</a>, and the managing editor of <a href="https://www.libertyislandmag.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Liberty Island</a>. He is based in Burbank, California, and you can follow him on Twitter at<a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@DaveSwindle</a>.</div>

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David M. Swindle