DanielPipes.org*
Summer 2005
http://danielpipes.org
* Cross-posted with permission

	Iqbal Sacranie

Sir Ibrahim Hooper and Lord Salam Al-Marayati? Well, they live in the wrong country to receive such accolades, and much they must rue it, for their British counterpart, Iqbal Sacranie, was knighted today, in the Queen's Birthday Honours. As secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (on which, see Chris Blackburn's analysis, "The Dark Side of the Muslim Council of Britain"), Sacranie has been one of the most important advocates of radical Islam in the United Kingdom – so what could be more appropriate than to reward him with a hoary English title?

The comparison with Hooper is not a stretch, for the MCB and CAIR work together; Beila Rabinowitz of MilitantIslamMonitor.org has even called the MCB "a carbon copy of CAIR."

Among Sacranie's actions: calling for censorship of religious speech, trying to change the plot of the action series 24, boycotting Holocaust Remembrance ceremonies, denying the existence of Islamic terrorists, interpreting the Bush administration's true agenda as the "recolonization and the re-mapping of the Middle East," and accusing Israel of genocide. (June 12, 2005) Permalink

Lodi, California Mysteries The arrest this week of five men of Pakistani origins in Lodi, California, on what are likely to be terrorism-related charges (terrorism was initially a formal part of the picture but was then retracted) has prompted extensive media coverage. The coverage has uncovered some mysteries, which I note here in the hopes of finding answers to.

	Qari Saeed-ur-Rehman, chief cleric of Jamia Islamia seminary, speaks about his grandson, Hamid Hayat, during an interview with the Associated Press at his madrassah in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (Associated Press)

• Hamid Hayat, 22, arrested on his return from what he admits was a jihadist camp in Pakistan, is an American citizen born in Stockton, California who attended school (though only up to the sixth grade) in the United States. That being the case, why does the Los Angeles Times write that, "Apparently unable to follow the proceedings in English, Hayat listened with the help of an Urdu translator"? Perhaps it's because Lodi contains an Urdu-speaking ghetto; an earlier article quotes one Pakistani immigrant, Raja Khan, estimating that around 80 percent of Lodi's Pakistanis are not fluent speakers of English. (In the absence of the two imams yesterday, the mosque service was held in Urdu.)
  June 14, 2005 update: Johnny Griffin III, the lawyer for Hamid's father, says the Hayats didn't make some statements attributed to them in the complaint. "For one thing, there was no interpreter present, and Hamid speaks and understands very little English."
• When he was arrested, Hamid Hayat, the junior-high dropout, was packing cherries. His father, Umer, sells ice cream from a truck. But his maternal grandfather, Qari Saeed ur Rehman, founded the Jamia Islamia Madrassa in 1962 (and still runs it), is a leader in the Jamiat Ulema Islam Party, and served as minister of religious affairs in the late 1980s. The family is Pakistani religious royalty – so, what are the father and son doing in California as unskilled laborers?
• Hamid Hayat's attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, explaining why his family traveled so often to Pakistan, said that it went "on one occasion to seek medical treatment for the mother." It traveled to Pakistan for medical reasons? Urdu-speaking doctors are not hard to find in northern California and they dispose of far superior facilities, so what's up?
• On April 19, 2003, on the way to Pakistan, the same day Hamid and Umer Hayat were stopped at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Christiana Halsey revealed that they were found with $28,093 in cash. What is an ice-cream vendor doing with such an amount of money and why is he breaking U.S. customs regulations by taking out so much cash without declaring it?
• And, speaking of money and travel, here is something curious about the Farooqia Islamic Center: the 2003 tax return of this apparently Islamist institution (it hosted the likes of Siraj Wahaj and links to the Islamic Society of North America and the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs) shows operating expenses of $57,544 in 2003, of which over one third, or $20,625, was spent on travel. Wonder why.

(June 11, 2005) Permalink

Europe Accepts Hamas As foreign Islamists approach democratic legitimacy, the U.S. government has found them increasingly acceptable (as I documented in "Can Hezbollah and Hamas Be Democratic?" but today the Bush administration put the brakes on this tendency, writes Steven R. Weisman in the New York Times.

A senior administration source said June 6 that the ban on contacts with would remain in place because Hamas is a terrorist organization. "The president has said that Hamas is on the terrorism list, and it's there for a reason. We don't recognize that you have changed your behavior just because a group is running candidates as well as suicide bombers."

In contrast, the Europeans and Canadians are moving toward acceptance of Hamas. Here are some signposts, in reverse chronological order. (June 7, 2005)

_________

Canada: In a parody of Canadian equivocation, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said today he will "wait and see" how Hamas fares in the Palestinian elections before figuring out his policy toward the terrorist group. "They've done well in a few municipal elections. I am told these are not necessarily typical of the whole situation. So let's wait and see how things develop." Should Hamas have a role in the elections and benefit from Canadian democracy-building initiatives? "We'll see the kind of role that develops. The political arm has been developing for some time. We will see where it leads us." (May 27, 2005)

United Kingdom: A review is under way at the Foreign Office considering a major policy switch to engage directly and openly for the first time with Hamas and Hizbullah, as they near making significant electoral gains. There is a growing sense that "it would be hypocritical to encourage democracy but refuse to accept the outcome." (May 20, 2005)

Holland: Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said on the European Union must consider revising its relationship with Hamas, which can no longer be ignored if it wins an anticipated 20 to 35 percent of the votes in the July elections, as surveys predict. (April 26, 2005) Permalink

Next Time Someone Gets Indignant About Israeli Spying on the United States … Refer him to this little item, "American sub spied on Israel," from Aaron Lerner at the Independent Media Review Analysis:

Israel Television Channel Two military affairs correspondent Ronnie Daniel revealed this evening that the submarine Israel chased from its territorial waters last November was an American spy sub. The vessel was identified by the Israeli Navy 18 kilometers from shore near Haifa, and fled shortly after discovery. IDF commanders admitted it wasn't the first time a Western submarine had been intercepted spying on Israel. Daniel indicated that Israel does not know what the spy sub was focusing on. (June 5, 2005)

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