Yesterday evening, President Obama made a speech from the Oval Office, in which he declared that the Combat Mission in Iraq is over. Only last month, Lt. Gen. Babakir Zebari, head of the Iraqi army, was claiming that Iraq was not able to defend itself properly. Zebari suggested that the Iraqi army would not be fully ready until 2020, but it would be inconceivable to imagine America remaining that long.

There will be 50,000 “non-combatant” troops remaining in Iraq until next year, mainly engaging in training of Iraqi armed forces. 80,000 U.S. troops have been withdrawn since Obama took office. He made a point in his speech of reflecting that George Bush had announced, in March 2003, the invasion of Iraq from the same location:

“From this desk, seven and a half years ago, President Bush announced the beginning of military operations in Iraq.  Much has changed since that night.  A war to disarm a state became a fight against an insurgency.  Terrorism and sectarian warfare threatened to tear Iraq apart.  Thousands of Americans gave their lives; tens of thousands have been wounded.  Our relations abroad were strained.  Our unity at home was tested.”

The New York Times observes:

With his party facing the prospect of losing control of Congress in this fall’s elections and his own poll numbers depressed in large part because of the lackluster economy and still-high unemployment, he said the nation’s perseverance in Iraq must be matched by determination to address problems at home.

This is the bottom line. The Midterms are coming up, and this address is the nearest that the president can come to making a “victory speech.” Only a Pollyanna would fail to notice the timing of this speech, with its deliberate emphasis on attempting to create a “feel-good” factor, is an attempt to make the Obama administration look good in the eyes of wavering voters. There are plenty of problems at home, as the New York Times admits, but this administration has done little to address those.

This speech, despite its homilies to the efforts of those soldiers who have given their best, and sometimes paid the ultimate sacrifice, is an attempt to a gloss over the shoddy achievements of the administration. Those achievements of the administration could also be seen as its charge-sheet – nationalization of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, a health care bill that was railroaded into law without allowing the people to know what they would be forced to pay for, and stimulus package that was as stimulating as a wet afternoon, which has had virtually no effect on the economy. On the southern border, there is no security. Already 11 million illegal aliens are treated as citizens, even though they bucked all the obligations of citizenship, and the administration has sought to punish Arizona for trying to uphold federal immigration law.

But the speech is also part of another agenda that this administration has encouraged – the wholesale abandonment of America’s historical traditions to put Islam center-stage into American politics, and worse – pandering to and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Tomorrow, talks will begin in Washington about “peace” in Israel and the Middle East. As Victor Sharpe points out today, this president has “barely disguised hostility to the Jewish state.” Hamas has not been invited to the talks, but do they need to be there? Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian authority has no respect for Israel, and in the West Bank that he controls, terrorists are eulogized in songs, in memorials, and schools.

And Hamas – despite killing hundreds of Israelis, most of its victims being civilians – has an active support network at home in America. And this government, to its eternal shame has done nothing to stop that.

On Tuesday night, four Israeli settlers were killed near Hebron in the West Bank. Hamas declared that it had carried out the attack, and boasted on its website that this is a “heroic operation.”

Hamas is a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its 1988 Charter specifically declares this, and no Hamas member has ever stepped forward to deny its links to the Brotherhood. The last leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahdi Akef, threatened to send thousands of fighters to engage with Israeli troops during the conflict in Lebanon.

The Hamas Charter states:

The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It is characterized by its deep understanding, accurate comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts of all aspects of life, culture, creed, politics, economics, education, society, justice and judgment, the spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of the occult and conversion to Islam.

When Hamas kills two unarmed men and two women as they drive in their car, Hamas is a terrorist organization. It is designated as such by the State Department, but people who fundraise for this terrorist organization such as the British Quisling, George Galloway, are allowed to enter the USA with impunity. Just because Hamas does some charity work, which Galloway is always at pains to point out, that does NOT stop it from being a terrorist organization. Charities do not riddle people with bullets or blow their bodies into hunks of torn meat.

Yet Galloway’s charity Viva Palestina has been involved in fundraising for Hamas, a designated terrorist entity, on American soil. On June 14, 2009, a fundraiser was held at the Al-Ahram Mosque in Florida a front organization for the Muslim Brotherhood. Heading this fundraising drive was Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society (a Muslim Brotherhood front group) and also Imam Mohammed Musri.

The mosque is owned by NAIT – the North American Islamic Trust. This is a Muslim Brotherhood organization.

We already know that CAIR, the organization that sets itself up to be a leading “advocacy group” for American Muslims was an unindicted co-conspirator in a trial involving the funding of Hamas via the Holy Land Foundation.

According to federal prosecutors, the North American Islamic Trust, which owns the Al-Ahram Mosque, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, as are the Muslim Arab Youth Organization (MAYA) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). These too were listed as unindicted co-conspirators.

ISNA released an email newsletter on August 27, which claimed that

Leaders from Muslim organizations around the nation, particularly social service organizations, are invited to a workshop with representatives from the DOA, Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Health and Human Services, the White House, Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and more. Twenty five to thirty Muslim leaders representing 20 Muslim organizations are expected to attend the workshop.

As pointed out by Christine Brimm the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO), which was in cahoots with the Department of Agriculture to create this event, has alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood. CCMO includes in its 2007 membership list groups which do have links to the Brotherhood, most notably MAS Freedom Project (headed by Mahdi Bray, who led the Viva Palestina fundraiser at the Al-Ahram Mosque in Florida) the Muslim American Society, ICNA and IIIT.

ICNA (The Islamic Circle of North America), as recently pointed out by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, instructs its members to read documents that are basically manuals of Islamic supremacism and has also glorified terrorist activities. It has links to the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami party, which tried to introduce a law in Pakistan that would have required anyone who left Islam to be put to death.

IIIT was listed in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum (called the “The General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America” – pdf) as one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “likeminded organizations of our friends.”

CCMO recently moved its offices to Washington. According to its chairwoman Sister Asma Hanif, who works in pediatrics: “this office will enable us to better serve you and help CCMO establish working relationships with civic and community organizations.”

Described on the  current Executive Committee of CCMO as a “member-at-large” is Anwar Haddam, who was a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), an Islamist party in Algeria. This group campaigned in an election to destroy democracy, and when a coup in 1991 prevented it from taking power, the country erupted into civil war.

Other executives include Dr. Daoud Nassimi, the vice-chair, and Imam Faizul Khan, who is Assistant Secretary Treasurer. Imam Khan is listed on the Islamic Society of North America website as a chapter member. ISNA is a Muslim Brotherhood group. Imam Faizul Khan has claimed that he had known the Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, for about ten years. They had had first met at the Muslim Community Center at Silver Spring, Maryland. Imam Faizul Khan claimed that Nidal Hasan did not seem like an extremist.

Dr. Iqbal Unus is another “member-at-large” on CCMO’s list of Executive Members. Similarly, he also has a position in the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamic Society of North America (mentioned in the federal charge sheet for the Holy Land Foundation trial as an unindicted co-conspirator). His position at ISNA is also a “member-at-large.” He is also listed as the Headquarters Director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), another Muslim Brotherhood front group.

CCMO secretary Shirin El-Koshairi of Ashland, Virginia, has a sharia-compliant mortgage and has switched all his investents to a sharia-compliant mutual fund.  The Treasurer of CCMO is Imam Johari Abdul Malik. In 2004, at the notorious Dar al-Hijrah Mosque (also listed on the 2007 CCMO member list) Malik made a speech in which he claimed that Islam would be the first religion in America:

“People even under the pressures that you and I know about, the deen of Islam is growing because people see even within all of this struggle it is better to be a Muslim under these conditions than to be a kaffir under any conditions… before Allah closes our eyes for the last time you will see Islam move from being the second largest religion in America-that’s where we are now- to being the first religion in America.”

The president may talk about his victory-for-peace in Iraq, but there are serious questions that his administration MUST address before the November midterms. The most important of these is – why is the organization so busy to promote Islam, when this is in direct contradiction of the Second Amendment that all American governments, whether they like it or not, must adhere to?

I wrote of the president’s Iftar dinner that took place on Friday August 13, where members of Muslim Brotherhood-related groups were in attendance. Iftar dinners were set up by Abrurahman Alamoudi, who – according to federal prosecutors – was a Muslim Brotherhood member, and an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF trial. Alamoudi was supported by Mahdi Bray in Lafayette Park on October 28, 2000, when he declared that

“I have been labeled as being a supporter of Hamas. Anybody supporters of Hamas here? Hear that, Bill Clinton. We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. Anybody who supports Hezbollah here?”

The president gave his support to the construction of the Ground Zero Mosque as an issue of “religious freedom,” but when coupled with revelations that Imam Rauf was a paid emissary of the US State Department, as also is CAIR executive Dawud Walid… when Charles Bolden, head of NASA, has claimed that the president wanted NASA to make Muslims feel better about themselves, something is wrong – seriously wrong – with the direction that this administration is taking America. It is taking America far away from the principles laid down by the Founding Fathers and has the chutzpah to then quote those same Founding Fathers to suggest that supporting Muslim-Brotherhood-related individuals and organizations is remotely connected to the ideals of those who built America.

But this engagement with not just Muslims, but the Muslim Brotherhood, is not new. The following was written by me in 2007:

US: Democrats Meet With Muslim Brotherhood Members

The Democrat party has been behind some questionable actions this year. Nancy Pelosi’s trip in April to Syria was condemned by President George W. Bush, who stated:

“Photo opportunities and/or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they’re part of the mainstream of the international community when, in fact, they’re a state sponsor of terror.”

Former President Jimmy Carter had approved her trip. Accompanying Pelosi on her trip to Syria were four Democrat Representatives – Keith Ellison, Minn., Nick Rahall, West Virginia, Tom Lantos, Calif., Henry Waxman, Calif., and one Republican – David Hobson, Ohio.

Despite criticism from the President, Pelosi’s deputy press secretary Drew Hamill had justified the trip thus: “The Iraq Study Group recommended a diplomatic effort that should include ‘every country that has an interest in avoiding a chaotic Iraq’.”

Syria, as a supporter and sponsor of Hezbollah, is hardly a country to be “courted” by politicians, and any “diplomatic” moves by the Democrats to “legitimize” terror-sponsors do nothing to benefit either the US, the Iraqi people, nor the Middle East at large.

Since Pelosi’s visit, other Democrats have been making overtures to Muslims of dubious standing. Pelosi met with President Assad of Syria on Wednesday April 4 and claimed he was “ready to engage in negotiations for peace with Israel” (even though Hezbollah had killed and also kidnapped Israeli soldiers in 2006, leading to the Israel/Lebanon conflict).

The day after Pelosi’s meeting with the Syrian President, a leading US Democrat in Congress met a senior leader of the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood twice in one day in Egypt. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer met with Mohammed Saad el-Katatni, the leader of the Brotherhood’s 55 members within the Egyptian parliament. The Brotherhood had been officially banned from participating in the elections of 2005, but its MPs had posed as “independent” candidates to get elected, making up a fifth of the 454 seats.

According to Hamdi Hassan, the Brotherhood’s spokesman, Hoyer met with el-Katani once at the parliament building and later at the home of the US ambassador to Egypt.

Once again, Mohammed Saad el-Katatni has been in meetings with Americans, this time a Congressional delegation led by a Democrat, David Price from North Carolina. The meeting took place early this morning, state the International Herald Tribune, Jerusalem Post and DPA via Earth Times.

The delegation met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier in the morning, followed by another meeting with parliamentarians, including el-Katatni.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is not a group to be trusted, particularly for a nation with strong links to Israel. Last year, the Egyptian leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Mehdi Akef, announced during the Israel/Lebanon conflict that he had 10,000 fighters, ready to be sent to Lebanon to fight alongside Hezbollah against Israel.

Akef also attacked Arab leaders in an Egyptian newspaper interview, where he said: “If they weren’t Muslims, we would have killed them, because they are a bigger threat to the nation than Israel itself.”

The terrorist group Hamas in Israel was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood Palestinian leader Sheikh Yassin, and the “spiritual leader” of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has made a fatwa condoning suicide attacks against Israeli civilians. The Muslim Brotherhood maintains that it is against violence. If the Democrats cannot see that this is a lie, then their own credibility is at question.

I wrote that entry on May 27, 2007, and sadly, it seems that what is happening now with the administration is merely the continuation of a long-standing policy among figures who are now deeply influential within this administration.

At virtually the same time that I wrote the above, the Nixon Center published a bizarre document by Robert Leiken and Steven Brook, entitled: “The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood.” (pdf)

The thesis of this document is that the Muslim Brotherhood is Islamist, but because it does not engage in terrorism, the American administration should deal with this group and therefore gain kudos in the Muslim world and some form of peace.

This policy, which comes straight from the Neville Chamberlain book of abject appeasement, now seems to be enacted by the current administration. At no stage were the American people told of this in the election, and they are still being kept in the dark.

The latest wing of the American establishment appears to be the Muslim Brotherhood.

And of course, the Muslim Brotherhood – which contains Hamas as one of its wings – is a peaceful organization. Tell that to the relatives of the four Israelis shot dead in Hebron yesterday.

 

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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