Islamic Links on Obama Web Site Stir Criticism

Islamic Links on Obama Web Site Stir Criticism
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com
A page for Muslim supporters of Sen. Barack Obama — hosted on Obama’s presidential campaign Web site — promotes events sponsored by controversial Islamic groups.
Muslim Americans for Obama ’08, found on Obama’s main campaign site, allows users to create their own page through a “My Obama” option. The Muslim Americans for Obama page also links to a Web site that features lectures by people who have expressed radical Islamic views in the past.
A portion of the “Muslim Americans for Obama” page lists proposals to establish a Muslim American advisory group on U.S. foreign policy; provide prayer areas in public places such as malls, airports, universities and government buildings; institute a law to allow Muslim employees to take time from their work day for prayer; and institute a law against harassment of Muslim women in public areas.
The Obama campaign’s press office did not respond to numerous phone calls and e-mail messages from Cybercast News Service on this matter.
Throughout the campaign, Obama has professed his Christian faith, although his father is a Muslim.
Late last year, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, a supporter of Obama’s Democratic rival New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, caused a stir in Iowa when he said, “It’s probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim.”
“Muslim Americans for Obama ’08 is a grassroots initiative to support the presidential campaign for Barack Obama 2008,” the Web page says. “Our sincere intention is to serve as a resource for Muslim and non-Muslim Americans to get involved and learn more about the political process and Barack Obama as a person and presidential candidate.”
Other “My Obama” pages on the campaign’s Web site include “Jews for Obama,” “Christians for Obama” and “Gay Christians for Obama.”
But it is a link and a list of events on the Muslim Americans for Obama page that has prompted critics that consider themselves watchdogs of Islamist groups to take notice.
The list of events on the Muslim Americans for Obama page includes voter registration drives at conventions sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), held last April and August in Rosemont, Ill., and the convention co-sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and the Muslim American Society (MAS).
These groups routinely inject themselves into political causes, said M. Zhudi Jasser, chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. He thinks all political candidates should stay clear of mixing religion and politics, saying the root of terror is political Islam.
“Any candidate that engaged American Islamist organizations without any ideological litmus test about their stances regarding the transnational goals of Islamism, I think that is going to be a major liability,” Jasser, a Muslim, told Cybercast News Service.
I wouldn’t specifically say Obama. I would say any candidate that doesn’t identify that Muslim organizations should be leading the effort against political Islam and its impact on the ends of that terrorists seek. I think it will be a liability,” he said.
The MAS has faced intense scrutiny in recent years.
In the appeal of Sabri Benkhala, a man convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice last year after being acquitted of trying to help the Taliban, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia filed a brief that referenced to MAS as an “overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood for the United States.”
The Muslim Brotherhood is a militant Islamic group in Egypt. The government has not brought any charges against MAS.
“We are an American Muslim organization, and we don’t take orders from anybody oversees,” MAS Executive Director Mahdi Bray told Cybercast News Service. “We were established in America, and we are not an overt or covert arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
In 2004, after the Israeli military killed Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, the MAS Freedom Foundation announced it would push Congress to enforce provisions of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act against Israel, which forbids the use of U.S. weapons from being used against civilian targets.
Jasser was also concerned that the Muslim Americans for Obama site contained a “Qaran (Audio) English Translation.” Clicking on that brings a user to the Web site “The Sounds of Islam.” At this site users can listen to numerous lectures regarding Islam, including those from people who have expressed radical views in the past.
One of the more controversial lecturers on the site is the Islamic preacher Yusuf Al Qaradawi, who has advocated suicide bombings.
“Allah Almighty is just; through his infinite wisdom he has given the weak a weapon the strong do not have and that is their ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do,” the BBC quoted him as saying.
The “Sounds of Islam” site also includes lectures by Abdul Rahman Al Sudais, the chief cleric of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, who has used inflammatory rhetoric against people of different faiths.
The BBC quoted him as saying, “The worst … of the enemies of Islam are those … whom he … made monkeys and pigs, the aggressive Jews and oppressive Zionists and those that follow them: the callers of the trinity and the cross worshippers … those influenced by the rottenness of their ideas, and the poison of their cultures the followers of secularism …. How can we talk sweetly when the Hindus and the idol worshippers indulge in their overwhelming hatred against our brothers.”
Jasser said it’s not a stretch to show concern about such a link on the pro-Obama site.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
These illegitimates want to just walk right into this country, have it handed to them on a silver platter, and change it to a sharia-ruled dictatorship. Nice. No blood shed.
That’s what will happen if Obama OR Hillary wins.
Obama’s a closet Muslim. If he’d really converted to Christianity, he’d have been denounced as an apostate and a fatwa would be out against him. The lack of a denunciation and a fatwa, combined with his ardent support by Muslims, show he’s actually still a Muslim.
Some more about the Muslim American Society: one of the groups listed in the events section on the Obama site:

“The list of events on the Muslim Americans for Obama page includes voter registration drives at conventions sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), held last April and August in Rosemont, Ill., and the convention co-sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and the MUSLIM AMERICAN SOCIETY (MAS). “

Cindy Sheahan resurfaced in Cairo last week as a member of a delegation from the MUSLIM AMERICAN SOCIETY which is in Egypt to protest against the military trial of 40 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood”

And this from Barack Hussein Obama’s website
2007-2008 EVENTS CALENDER
March 31st, 2007 Barack Obama National Organizing Day Nation-wide Webcast Open Masjids in Your Community for this event. http://www.barackobama.com
APRIL 6 – 8, 2007 9TH ANNUAL NATIONAL YOUNG ADULT CONFERENCE Muslim Americans for Obama ’08 Kick-Off, Voter Registration, Rally and Information Booth Downtown Sheraton Hotel @ 3pm Atlanta, Georgia http://www.calltohumanity.org
APRIL 6 – 8, 2007 11th Annual Islam in America Conference Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Westin O HARE, 6100 River Rd, Rosemont, IL 60018 http://www.isna.net
July 6 – 8th, 2007 32nd ICNA-MAS Convention VOTER REGISTRATION/INFORMATION BOOTH: Muslim Americans for Obama ’08 Hartford, Connecticut http://www.icna.org
August 31 – September 3, 2007 44th Annual ISNA National Convention VOTER REGISTRATION/INFORMATION BOOTH: Muslim Americans for Obama ’08 Donald E. Stephens Convention Center Rosemont, Illinois http://www.isna.net
August 31 – September 3, 2007 The Mosque Cares Islamic National Convention VOTER REGISTRATION/INFORMATION BOOTH: Muslim Americans for Obama ’08 http://www.themosquecares.com
October 2007 MANA National Convention Philadelphia, PA VOTER REGISTRATION/INFORMATION BOOTH: Muslim Americans for Obama ’08
2007 Muslim Day / Eid Celebration Atlanta, GA OBAMA CAMPAIGN INFORMATION BOOTH: Muslim Americans for Obama ’08
November 2007 – January 2008 Masjid Voter Registration Drives, Nationwide
January 2007 – March 2008 2007 Primary Elections “GET OUT AND VOTE” – Nationwide