California Conservative

Earlier this morning, I posted about David Keene’s ‘transformation’ into a CAIR mouthpiece on Islamophobia. There’s more to the story. Much more. According to this post by Christine at Vigilant Freedom, David Keene of the ACU “appointed Suhail Khan to the ACU board.” That’s why I started digging. What I found out about Suhail Khan is troubling to say the least. First I found a bio of his father, a man named Mahboob Khan. Here’s what that bio on Mahboob Khan says:

Dr. Mahboob Khan passed away on April 16, 1999, in Sunnyvale, California. Dr. Khan was born on March 31, 1939, in Madras, India. He was the second child of seven born to Zainab Khatoon and Khader Khan. He was the first of his family to complete his high school diploma, and likewise the first to complete his BS degree from Madras University. He immigrated to Boulder, Colorado, in 1966 to complete his masters and doctorate in solid state physics. He married Malika Begum, also of Madras, India in 1968 and in 1969 they had their first son, Suhail Khan. As a student, Dr. Khan helped establish the Muslim Students Association (MSA) which subsequently became the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). He was the Vice President of MSA, the West Zone Representative, and served on the Majlis Ash-Shura for ISNA.

Here’s what Frank Gaffney wrote about Mahboob Khan in his FrontPageMag article on Suhail Khan and the ACU:

Suhail Khan’s father was the late Mahboob Khan, a PhD in solid-state physics. His biography claims that he helped establish the Muslim Student Association (MSA) while a student in Boulder (presumably, this refers to the MSA chapter at the university as the parent organization was established in 1963). The MSA is present on scores of American campuses and serves to recruit, proselytize and indoctrinate on behalf of Saudi-backed Islamists.[1] It is pro-Hamas; the MSA at UC Irvine even demanded that its members be allowed to wear Hamas armbands at graduation; and openly sympathizes with terrorists. Dr. Khan held the post of MSA vice president and Western Zone representative.

The elder Khan also served as member of Majlis ash-Shura (the governing council) of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was created by the Muslim Student Association (MSA) in 1977 to promote the Islamist agenda among Muslims and the general population. Another MSA arm is the North American Islamic Trust, the Saudis’ vehicle for providing the financing of, by some estimates, as many as 80% of the mosques in America. That financing, and the control arising from holding title for the mosques’ real estate, affords the Saudis and their proxies the ability to determine: who will serve as imams in their American mosques; what materials are distributed to the congregations[2] and taught in the madrassas (mosque schools)[3]; to what purpose are the members’ obligatory tithes applied; which congregants will be eligible to make the haj pilgrimage to Mecca; etc.

It’s fair to say that there’s a few discrepancies between the two bios, though I don’t consider the discrepancies to be major discrepancies. That said, Mr. Gaffney’s article contains verifiable references to his claims, I’ll trust his bio on the elder Khan. Either way, though, both bios reference Dr. Khan’s serving “as member of Majlis ash-Shura (the governing council) of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and of Dr. Khan’s helping “establish the Muslim Student Association (MSA) while a student in Boulder (presumably, this refers to the MSA chapter at the university as the parent organization was established in 1963).”

Here’s another troubling bit of information in the Gaffney article:

Mahboob Khan founded one such mosque after he moved the family from Colorado to southern California in 1975. The mosque, together with an Islamic center and an elementary school, comprises the Islamic Society of Orange County (ISOC), of which Dr. Khan served as president before moving on to San Jose in 1980.

The Islamist character of the ISOC was evident in a visit there in December 1992, by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, better known as the Blind Sheikh, who was later convicted in connection with the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. On the occasion of his fundraising visit to Orange County, Rahman “dismissed nonviolent definitions of jihad as weak. He stressed that a number of unspecified enemies had ‘united themselves against Muslims’ and that fighting them was obligatory. ‘If you are not going to the jihad, then you are neglecting the rules of Allah.’”

Here’s another troubling bit of information from Mr. Gaffney’s article:

He has repeatedly been a featured speaker at MSA, ISNA and CAIR events, as well as those of other problematic groups, including the California-based Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and the Islamic Institute (II, also known as the Islamic Free Market Institute or IFMI). For example, Khan spoke most recently at an II meeting in December 2006.

The Islamic Institute was established by Grover Norquist in 1998 with $20,000 in seed money from Abdurahman Alamoudi (who is currently serving a 23-year federal sentence for terrorism-related activities). II is the principal vehicle for the Islamists’ influence operation aimed at the Bush Administration and Republican and conservative circles. Norquist was its founding president; Alamoudi’s long-time deputy, Khalid Saffuri, was its first executive director; and II’s offices continue to be housed in the downtown Washington office suite rented by Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform.

The name Abdurahman Alamoudi rang a bell so I checked him out. Here’s what I found:

A self-described Muslim moderate, Abdurahman Alamoudi has had many public titles over the years: founder and executive director of the American Muslim Council; Islamic affairs advisor for the Clinton administration; official appointee of the Pentagon in charge of choosing Muslim chaplains; and State Department-selected Goodwill Ambassador to Muslim nations. In stark contrast, Alamoudi’s private life has been devoted to supporting and fundraising for a host of anti-American/anti-Israeli terrorist groups and nations, from Hamas and Hezbollah, to Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda, to the Libyan regime of Muammar Qadhafi.

This brings numerous questions to mind:

• Did Hillary know what Mr. Alamoudi was all about?
• Did Hillary know that Mr. Alamoudi supported Hamas and Hezbollah?
• If she knew that Mr. Alamoudi supported Hamas and Hezbollah, why didn’t they run him out of their administration immediately?
• How extensive of a background check was run on Mr. Alamoudi?
• What was found out about him through this background check?
• Considering that Mr. Alamoudi was “openly raising funds for Omar Abdel Rahman, the Blind Sheikh’s defense fund after he helped orchestrate the original WTC bombing, shouldn’t that have raised a ton of red flags for Mrs. Clinton? Or was it just not that important to her?

Here’s what Steve Emerson wrote about Mr. Alamoudi:

Hillary Clinton has worked particularly closely with the head of the AMC, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, who has openly collected funds for the legal defense of Mr. Marzuk, the Hamas chieftain arrested at JFK Airport, and for Mr. Abdurahman, who organized the World Trade Center bombing.

Here’s what Discover the Networks says about Mr. Abdurahman:

• In 1994 he said: “Hamas is not a terrorist group…I have followed the good work of Hamas…They have a wing that is a violent wing. They had to resort to some kind of violence.”
• During a March 26, 1996 appearance on Middle East TV, Alamoudi said the following about Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) founder Musa Abu Marzook, who in 1997 would be deported from the United States because of his Hamas-related activities: “I am honored to be a member of the committee that is defending Musa Abu Marzook in America. I really consider him to be from among the best people in the Islamic movement, Hamas and I work together with him.”
• On December 29, 1996, Alamoudi told a meeting of the IAP: “I think if we were outside this country, we can say, ‘Oh, Allah, destroy America,’ but once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it. There is no way for Muslims to be violent in America, no way. We have other means to do it. You can be violent anywhere else but in America.”
• In October 2000, Alamoudi attended an anti-Israel protest outside the White House. Speaking to a group of Palestinian-terrorist-supporters, he declared: “I have been labeled…as being a supporter of Hamas. Anybody supporters of Hamas here?…We are all supporters of Hamas…I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah.”
• Alamoudi defended Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh imprisoned for his role in plotting New York-area terrorist attacks, most notably the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

I just did a search on Grover Norquist’s name. What I found isn’t flattering to Mr. Norquist. The article that most caught my attention was a golden oldie from Powerline. Here’s the section that most caught my attention:

Norquist’s themes are those of the Islamist apologist organizations like CAIR and the American Muslim Council: informed critics of Islamofascism and advocates of American interests like Daniel Pipes and Frank Gaffney are portrayed as bigots, and key law enforcement tools against domestic terrorism are alleged to be nefarious infringements of civil rights. When Norquist attempted to enlist James Woolsey to his cause on the latter score, Gaffney powerfully established that Norquist was all but lying.

People will point to the work Mr. Norquist did at Americans for Tax Reform as reason to cut him slack. I’d simply respond by saying Mr. Norquist isn’t irreplaceable. If he leaves ATR or if ATR shuts down, competent people will come along to start a similar organization up. What’s inexcusable is how Norquist ignored the war against the jihadists while lambasting good men like Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes as Islamophobes. That’s simply inexcusable. What’s worse is Mssrs. Norquist and Keene being shills for the most radical terrorist-sympathizing groups in America.

Keene’s willingness to be a panelist with Parvez Ahmed at the National Press Club is foolish, especially considering CAIR’s being an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal trial against the Holy Land Foundation. If his goal was to reach out to the Muslim community, his better bet would be to reach out to Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. As far as I can tell, Dr. Jasser doesn’t have a history of ties with known terrorist groups.

How does Keene justify appearing with Parvez Ahmed? Doesn’t he care about CAIR’s terrorist ties? Or is it that he just isn’t that particular about who he associates himself with? It seems to me that Keene should draw the line short of legitimizing a terrorist-sympathizing organization like CAIR.

I’d also question Mr. Norquist’s decision to promote Suhail Khan’s candidacy for the ACU board. What was he basing this decision on? Did he do a background check on Suhail Khan? If he did, why didn’t he have concerns when organizations like the MSA, ISNA and CAIR popped up on Khan’s resume? I think I can answer that with this tidbit of information:

The Islamic Institute was established by Grover Norquist in 1998 with $20,000 in seed money from Abdurahman Alamoudi (who is currently serving a 23-year federal sentence for terrorism-related activities). II is the principal vehicle for the Islamists’ influence operation aimed at the Bush Administration and Republican and conservative circles. Norquist was its founding president; Alamoudi’s long-time deputy, Khalid Saffuri, was its first executive director; and II’s offices continue to be housed in the downtown Washington office suite rented by Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform.

In other words, Norquist placed a higher priority on lobbying the White House than on his client’s terrorist ties.

It seems totally appropriate to say that national security and the fight against the jihadists must take precedence over commerce. Norquist and Keene forgot that lesson. Their dash for lobbying cash vetoed their national security concerns.

Technorati Tags: David Keene, American Conservative Union, Grover Norquist, Americans For Tax Reform, Suhail Khan, MSA, Parvez Ahmed, CAIR, Blind Sheikh, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Abdurahman Alamoudi, Frank Gaffney, Daniel Pipes

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Activism, Author: Gary Gross, CAIR, Corruption, Middle East, Special Interests, Subversives, Terrorism, W. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.