Dueling Op-Eds in OC Register

                                

Rabbi David Eliezrie

                                                    
Hassam Ayloush


This morning's Orange County Register has a pair of op-eds regarding the February 13th Yorba Linda protest against two radical Islamic speakers at a dinner sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). As previously reported here, a few dozen people who showed up at the protest had an agenda far beyond that planned by the protest organizers and speakers. A couple of hours after the protest began and most of the speakers had spoken, some people showed up and shouted offensive chants at the dinner attendees as they arrived. It was inappropriate, especially since some attendees had brought their children.

CAIR and its LA-based leader Hassam Ayloush have used this split-off incident to condemn the entire protest and the speakers, They have propagated an edited 5-minute video of the event attempting to show a direct link between the speakers and those who chose to shout at the attendees.

As I previously stated, I was a speaker at the event and I have reported what I said (It doesn't seem to be on tape).  I am perfectly comfortable with what I said and I had no connection to those who broke away form the actual protest to go over to the parking lot, where the police had formed a barrier and shout at people.

The Orange County Register op-eds are by Rabbi David Eliezrie, who spoke at the rally and Hassam Ayloush of CAIR (who was not present to my knowledge -unless he was attending the event inside). I have never met either man. (I did not meet Eliezrie at the event in question.)

Anyway, the first link is the op-ed by Eliezrie, followed by that of Ayloush.


http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/icna-295132-cair-muslim.html

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/muslim-295130-american-charity.html

Of course, I have a few comments for Ayloush.

First of all, as usual, what is left out is the nature of the two speakers we were protesting. Oakland-based Amir Abdel Malik Ali has a long history of inflammatory rhetoric against Israel and often makes ridiculous anti-Semitic statements on various California university campuses. I am not speaking from hearsay or research. I have heard him speak many times at UC-Irvine, where I teach and have engaged him in Q and A debate just as many times. Ali would be insulted if one called him a moderate.

Imam Amir Abdel Malik Ali


Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn-based imam, has managed to convince many people in high places that he is a moderate. He is very cautious about what he says on video-tape. Yet on audio, there is a record of him making violent statements to his "flocks". In May 1992, days after the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Wahhaj gave a sermon entitled, "Stand Up for Justice".


"If we go to war, brothers and sisters – and one day we will, believe me – that's why you're commanded [to fight in] jihad,"..... When Allah demands us to fight, we're not stopping and nobody's stopping us."


"Believe me, brothers and sisters, Muslims in America are the most strategic Muslims on Earth," Wahhaj says in the 1992 sermon, arguing the government can't drop bombs on warring Muslims in the U.S. without causing collateral damage."


"We don't need to arm the people with 9mm and Uzis," he says. "You need to arm them with righteousness first. And then once you arm them with righteousness first, then you can arm them."

Don't take my word for it. The below link has the audio of this speech in two parts (along with several other of his sermons). You can download and listen to it yourselves. The quoted parts are found in part 2 in his conclusion.

http://www.aswatalislam.net/FilesList.aspx?T=Audio&C=Lectures&T1=Siraj%20Wahaj
(Aswat al Islam)



Imam Siraj Wahhaj


Not only is Wahhaj on audiotape talking about violent Jihad (and hardly in a critical manner), but he was also tied to the Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, now in prison for plotting to blow up targets in New York, and for whom Wahhaj testified as a character witness. Finally, he was identified by US Attorney Mary Jo White as an unidentified co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. (He was never charged.)

These are the two ICNA speakers that Ayloush doesn't want to talk about. The fact is that the Yorba Linda protest was organized to speak against hate-the hate propagated by these two men.

Which leads to another point. Ayloush laments bigotry directed against Muslims as he attempts to smear some 1,000 people for the actions of a few dozen. Yet, he and his organization don't have much to say about bigotry being directed every day to non-Muslims in places like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and other countries. I am talking about deadly bigotry including murder, rape, burning of churches and synagogues and driving non-Muslims out of the country. It is that bigotry which we are fighting.

In paragraph two, Ayloush writes of bigotry, yet he cannot explain the documented bigotry of Imam Ali, who just on the UCI campus has celebrated suicide bombers as martyrs and heroes, while referring to certain Americans as "Zionist Jews".  Just last May at UCI (in my presence), he admitted supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad ( US-designated terrorist organizations) while telling the Jews in the audience- "You Jews-Y'all the New Nazis".

All of this was never mentioned by Mr Ayloush in his letter complaining about bigotry. I call on Mr Ayloush to condemn Imam Ali for the innumerable statements he has made against not only Israel, but America and Jews. I also call on Ayloush to listenh to the above sermon and condemn Wahhaj for the violent statements he has made-as specified above. I am not holding my breath, however. Ayloush will not condemn these two persons. After all, CAIR is a creation (1994) of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood we have been hearing about lately.

Mr Ayloush didn't say anything about that either, did he?