Muslim Public Affairs Council Report Part II From IPT

Here is the second installment of the Investigative Report On terrorism on the Muslim Public Affairs Council(MPAC). Vicious, hateful statements backed up with rabid anti-semitic cartoons is and still is nothing new to MPAC. Should Jews or Christians do the same thing to Muslims and Islam, then it is hate speech. Then the Muslims riot, burn vehicles, destroy property. The installment delves into this hate speech and why MPAC thinks it is all right to do. Protected under freeedom of speech? This is a very long section but take your time and read it all. You will be much the wiser for having done so.
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 Hate Speech Long an MPAC Specialty



Condemnation of the United States' Middle East policy.

Vicious attacks on Israel as a racist, genocidal apartheid state.

Justifications for terrorism and defenses of its perpetrators.

These have been the stock in trade of policy statements by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) over the years.

Many of those statements, detailed in the second installment of a new report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), appeared in the pages of The Minaret, a now-defunct monthly magazine affiliated with the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC). MPAC has been closely intertwined with ICSC -- which originally gave it life -- by way of overlapping leadership and membership. Indeed, many MPAC officials worked simultaneously with The Minaret itself until it suspended publication in 2005.

Articles and editorials in the magazine, including those by MPAC members, downplayed the threat posed by Islamic extremists, served up inflammatory rhetoric about Jews and Zionism, and repeated conspiracy theories about both the 1993 and September 11, 2001 World Trade Center bombings.

Other hateful MPAC statements chronicled by IPT came in press releases issued by the organization, media interviews, and speeches by its officers at conferences and other public forums.

Multiple articles in The Minaret aimed at playing down the threat posed by Islamic extremists.

A typical piece, written by Dr. Javeed Akhter for the March 2004 issue, painted suicide bombers as young men with "legitimate anger towards the oppressors of Muslims all over the world," and even sought to rationalize their actions. "Restoration of justice and fair play … will largely vaporize the motivation for a suicidal mission," Akhter argued.

Other Minaret articles directly praised Hezbollah, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States -- a group that had been involved in multiple attacks including the deadly 1983 car bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut and the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847.

Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, a staff writer asserted in the June 2000 issue, was "a clear sign that determination and will can lead to the liberation of an occupied homeland." Describing Hezbollah as "the Lebanese freedom fighter group that led the effort to drive Israel out," he wrote it was "being widely praised throughout the world."

As for anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rants, Minaret articles and editorials frequently compared Israel to apartheid South Africa, alleged that Israel was engaged in genocide, and accused U.S. Jews of trying to undermine Muslim participation in the democratic process in this country. A 1998 article by Pejman Novin, an officer of the Muslim Students Association at UCLA, contended that Zionism was rooted in "colonialism, expansionism and racism," and had "striking similarities to the first European settlers in America and their attempt to annihilate Native Americans."

Such rhetoric was supplemented by equally hateful cartoons that the magazine ran on a regular basis. The drawings, many by Algerian-American artist Khalil Bendib, typically attacked U.S. support for Israel over allegedly put-upon Palestinians, assailed what they identified as the "Zionist Lobby," and crudely caricatured Israeli leaders and Jews in general. Examples of Bendib's work are in the full report.

Following the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, The Minaret published articles questioning Osama bin Laden's involvement and suggesting instead that the U.S. or Israeli government might have been responsible. An October 2001 article relayed for consideration bizarre -- and already debunked -- allegations that Jews working at the World Trade Center had stayed home from work on 9-11 because they had been warned of the impending attack.

Again in the November-December issue, an article entitled, "Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy," urged that "we first ask the basic question: who are the real perpetrators of this tragedy, and what are their motives?"
Continue reading

IPT

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4297534039335729692


Installment part I

Muslim Public Affairs Council. A three part series from the IPT. Part one.

The Investigative Project On Terrorism has put together a three part series on the MPAC(The Muslim Public Affairs Council). This is anothe Islamic group that tells the American people one thing, and then by and through it's actions is proven to be completely the opposite. I will run the series for the next three night s provided I remember to do so. The reports run several pages so just find the link to go to the complete article. very much worth your time.  I am far from perfect and do forget things on occasion, much to the delight of my family and friends. It does not happen often so when it does I am gaffed and abused. All in fun of course. On to part one after MPAC's vsions and mission statement below. Hightlights in red bring attention to the hypocrisy of what MPAC is saying.

Here is MPAC's Visiosn and mission staement from their website:

The Muslim Public Affairs Council is a public service agency working for the civil rights of American Muslims, for the integration of Islam into American pluralism, and for a positive, constructive relationship between American Muslims and their representatives.

Since 1988, MPAC has worked diligently to promote a vibrant American Muslim community and enrich American society through exemplifying the Islamic values of Mercy, Justice, Peace, Human Dignity, Freedom, and Equality for all. Over the years, MPAC has built a reputation as a consistent and reliable resource for government and media, and is trusted by American Muslims as an authentic, experienced voice.

In all its actions, MPAC works diligently to offer the public a portrayal that goes beyond stereotypes in order to elucidate that Muslims worship God, abhor global terrorism, stand against oppression, and are part of a vibrant American pluralism. MPAC operates on the core belief that change in U.S. policy requires more from our community than attending meetings. It requires organized, sustained efforts in coalition with like-minded groups both at the grassroots and national levels. It requires a strong voice in the media, thoughtful analysis and authentic dialogue.


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MPAC Pursues Islamist Ideology in Guise of Civil Rights Defender

IPT: Part One

Far from being the zealous champion of civil rights that it presents itself to be, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has followed a consistent pattern of defending designated terrorist organizations and their supporters, opposing U.S. counterterrorism efforts and spouting anti-Semitic rhetoric.

That is the key conclusion drawn in a thorough, carefully documented 88-page report on the organization prepared by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). The first of a three-part breakdown of that report can be found here.

It shows the true nature of MPAC's philosophy and intentions, which are matters of serious import, as the group has been accepted as a liaison partner with law enforcement agencies in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.

Main Justice, an independent news organization that covers the Justice Department, reported January 12 that MPAC is "one of two Muslim-American organizations now attending regular meetings led by the Civil Rights Division and including government officials [from] the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies."

Beginning life in 1986 as the Muslim Political Action Committee of the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC), MPAC split off two years later and adopted its new name-- one that managed to preserve the same acronym. Though it is now independent, the two organizations remain closely intertwined.

Much of the IPT report details MPAC's long history of efforts to sow distrust between Arab Americans and the broader American community, incite hatred of Jews and defend suspected domestic and international terrorists.

Before it launches into a litany of such specifics, it cites the philosophical links between MPAC's "founding fathers" and the Muslim Brotherhood founded in 1928 by Hassan al Banna -- a rigidly conservative and highly secretive Egyptian-based organization dedicated to resurrecting a Muslim empire.

Al Banna is credited with developing the motto that the Brotherhood still uses today: "God is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Quran our Constitution, jihad our way, and dying for God our Supreme Objective."

Hassan Hathout, who described al Banna as his mentor and "the person who most influenced my life," was to become a co-founder of ICSC. His brother Maher helped in that effort and, when MPAC was split off, became its senior adviser.

Both brothers had immigrated to the United States after involvement with the Brotherhood leading to their arrests in Egypt for "Muslim Activism." Hassan later expressed his hopes for relaunching the Islamic movement from a U.S. base. "Who knows," he wrote, "maybe the infertile soil that would not accept the seed of Islam in the East, might be replaced by a more fertile soil that would accept Islam in the West…This is the beginning of the Islamic Movement in the United States and in the West, and you are a part of this."

Sharing the Hathout brothers' Islamist ideology is another of MPAC's founders, Mohamed Fathi Osman. Osman, an Egyptian-born scholar and author, has gone beyond simply defending Islamic movements to explicitly condoning jihad. "Jihad is allowed in Islam against those who attack the faithful…the jihad of Islam is no more nor less than any legitimate struggle for justice," he argued in a 1987 article entitled, "The Anatomy of Terrorism."

When first organized, MPAC focused its activities largely on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most notably supporting the Palestinians during the first Intifada in 1987-88. In the interim, it has evolved into a social welfare organization that describes its objectives as "working for the civil rights of American Muslims, for the integration of Islam into American pluralism, and for a positive, constructive relationship between American Muslims and their representatives."

Lofty goals indeed, but at odds with what the record -- drawn from the organization's ties and membership, its statements and publications -- shows to be its real agenda.

The disconnect can be seen, for example, in considering the history of Edina Lekovic, responsible in her role as MPAC's spokeswoman for preparing the statements that show the group's reasonableness and good intentions.

But this is the same Edina Lekovic who was an editor of Al-Talib, a Muslim student magazine, while studying at the University of California at Los Angeles in the late 1990s. She is listed as managing editor in the July 1999 issue -- one that features Ayatollah Khomeini and Osama bin Laden on its cover, with a headline' "The Spirit of Jihad," and describes bin Laden as a "freedom fighter and philanthropist."

By the time this paean to bin Laden ran, Al Qaida had issued a declaration of war against the United States and a fatwa declaring it to be "an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it" to kill Americans and their allies. And it had carried out the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Nonetheless, Al-Talib proposed, "When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid Osama bin Laden as a 'terrorist,' we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter; someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah's cause and speaks out against oppressors."

And, perhaps, a hero of civil rights? Continue reading

IPT

http://www.investigativeproject.org/1785/mpac-pursues-islamist-ideology-in-guise-of-civil


MPAC Vision and Mission Statement