Choose Islam Or Off With Your Head!

Feb. 2007

An opinion piece appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer by Jonathan Last concerned the story of a pupil reporter formerly under his wing, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross. Daveed was a former member of an American Islam group, Al-Haramain, which was later investigated by the FBI for links to terrorism.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross gained firsthand knowledge of the anti-Western indoctrination, which Last asserts most moderate Muslims are subjected to at Al-Haramain, not to mention the ugly taste of the Islamic intolerance with Western values.

We trust you will find Last’s insights as eye-opening as we did. Perhaps more shocking is that the mainstream media ignores this type of intolerance in our own homeland. Below is condensed summary of Last’s startling insights.

Everything appears as normal

Before 9/11, Al-Haramain's headquarters in Ashland (Oregon) was seen as a bastion of moderate, friendly Islam. Last explains that Pete Seda, who ran the office, was publicly chummy with the local rabbi. The group encouraged public schools to bring children to their offices on field trips. All of this was for public consumption. In private, things were somewhat different, Last explains.

One of Gartenstein-Ross' coworkers, for instance, often complained about the Nation of Islam, whose members he believed were deviants. He said, "Let them choose true Islam or cut off their heads."

Al-Haramain was host to a number of visitors, one of whom was a Saudi cleric named Abdul-Qaadir. Qaadir preached that those who leave Islam should be put to death. In defending the execution of apostates, he mused that "religion and politics aren't separable in Islam the way they are in the West.... Leaving Islam isn't just converting from one faith to another. It's more properly understood as treason."

In warning Gartenstein-Ross about his engagement to a Christian, Abdul-Qaadir said, "As long as your wife isn't a Muslim, as far as we're concerned, she is 100 percent evil."

Patterns of deception and indoctrination

Last continues to paint a truly unnerving picture. He describes a time at services; a visiting member of the Egyptian branch of Al-Haramain declared that the Torah was "The Jews' plan to ruin everything." He continued, "Why is it that Henry Kissinger was the president of the international soccer federation while he was president of the United States? How did he have time to do both? It is because part of the Jews' plan is to get people throughout the world to play soccer so that they'll wear shorts that show off the skin of their thighs."

We hope we don’t have to point out that Former Secretary of State Kissinger was never president of either the United States or FIFA. Is this stuff truly to believe by Islamic teachers or is it merely sinister disinformation?

Home grown calls for violence

A recent New Yorker profile of another homegrown radical, Adam Gadahn (a.k.a. "Azzam the American" and one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists), recounted Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman's visit to the Islamic Society in Orange County, Calif.

Rahman, later indicted for helping to plot the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, ridiculed the notion that jihad could be nonviolent and exhorted Muslims to take up fighting against the enemies of Allah. Sitting next to him and translating for the congregation was the local "moderate" imam. The New Yorker reports that "videotapes of the lecture were later offered for sale at the society's bookstore."

This would likely not surprise Gartenstein-Ross, some of whose Muslim acquaintances even disapproved of his decision to go to law school. Their objection was that, as a lawyer, Gartenstein-Ross would have to swear an oath to defend the Constitution. As one Muslim told him, "There are some things in the Constitution I like, but a lot of things in the Constitution are completely against Islamic principles."

Our Take

This perspective, which is not from an al-Qaeda fighter or other Jihadist radical, but from a normal, devout presumably moderate Muslim, is critically important. The challenge Islam poses to the West goes beyond mere terrorism. The seeds of deception are spread insidiously while we turn a blind eye. The whispers of wickedness are unheard until they culminate in a bang such as 9-11. We cannot afford to tolerate intolerance in the land of the free.

BACK TO: Terror CoverUps * Media CoverUps * PlayingPolitics.com

ConventionCenters.com * CremationServices.com * Romances.com