A little over three years ago the division between President Bush and the left was probably the greatest when it came to his handling of Islamic terrorism. Here we all were facing the same enemy; Al-Qaeda, its supporters and affiliates and instead of showing a strong united front to combat the Islamist/jihadist network that wanted to destroy our country the left made President Bush the arch bad guy. How our enemies must have rejoiced as this played out in the American press, month after month.
Who was right? What I found over the next three years wasn't what I wanted or expected to find. Frankly, I would have preferred to have any concerns about the nature of our enemy dispelled and gone back to my normal life of not thinking much about it anymore. But that didn't happen. My search for answers eventually led to the creation of this blog in June of 2007.
All that aside, never in my wildest thoughts did I expect some of this research to led me into parts of the Muslim community in Oklahoma. Never.
I learned the Muslim Brotherhood had weapon training sessions and/or camps in Oklahoma back in the 80s which was one of the earliest indications of Islamist influence in this state ( FBI Muslim Brotherhood document, page 16). A video clip of Abdullah Azzam from a documentary called "Jihad in America," which aired on PBS in 1994, identifies a speech he gave in Oklahoma City in 1988 to many of our Muslim neighbors. Azzam was the mentor to Osama Bin Laden and a long-term member of the Muslim Brotherhood! A year later he was assassinated and Bin Laden's group morphed into Al-Qaeda. Azzam was praised as a martyr in a 2007 Al-Qaeda produced video that is still on YouTube!
When I discovered that a CNN reporter accidentally happened onto an Islamist/jihadist convention in Oklahoma City attended by thousands of Oklahoma Muslims in 1992, I was speechless:
"...I actually stumbled across it quite by accident. In December 1992 I was a correspondent with CNN and on assignment in Oklahoma City to do some interviews on another subject entirely. On Christmas Day I found myself with nothing to do. While looking for a fast-food restaurant, I passed a convention center where I saw thousands of Muslims dressed in traditional garb congregating in the streets and entering the center. At first, my own ignorance led me to think they might be extras on a movie set.
When I went inside, I discovered what was really going on. Radical groups were openly declaring themselves to be Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizbullah, and even Gama'a Islamiya (Omar Abdel Rahman's group in Egypt). They made absolutely no effort to hide their identity or their agendas. Just going to the stalls I collected a phenomenal amount of material, some of which I have subsequently showed on national television. Alarmed, I called a FBI official in Washington to see if it was aware of their existence. I was even more shocked to discover the FBI did not know this conference was taking place..."
What this reporter saw at this convention changed his career and life forever. Today, Steve Emerson is an investigative reporter and a leading anti-terrorism expert who shares his knowledge in testimony to Congress and is the executive director the Investigative Project. His critics offer little by way of proof to discredit him such as in a 2007 article by Ahmed Rehab of CAIR-Chicago that linked backed to CAIR's own page on Emerson, which has since been removed (see IP address)! How can you take CAIR's criticism of him seriously when their documentation to back up their claims doesn't exist?
Back in 1993, Osama bin Laden's pilot, Ihab Ali Nawawi, actually received his commercial pilot license at the Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma! A few years later in 1998, the FBI in Oklahoma City warned of concerns about a large number of Middle Eastern men taking pilot training in Oklahoma could be related to "planned terrorist activity."but the memo was never sent to Washington.
Then there's the stone-walled investigation into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing about possible or coincidental Middle East connections by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher that is still out there trapped in some kind of political limbo. As a result, I started a page title "Islam in Oklahoma - mixed signals" in 2007. That's the same year the Islamic Society of Tulsa brought in Jamal Badawi, who is a known Muslim Brotherhood leader and an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror-funding trial, to represent them as their Quranic expert in a very public debate. Badawi approves of Islamic martyrdom to combat aggression or oppression which follows the Islamist mindset. My web-page on Islam in Oklahoma has now grown to 15 pages and highlights a number of mixed signals received from some of our Muslim neighbors and leaders. By no means is it complete. Are these signals unique only to the state of Oklahoma? Somehow, I doubt it.
"Islam in Oklahoma" will continue to be a work in progress that is full of twist and turns that would make a great novel, except it's real.
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Note: zTruth knows there a many, many thousands of fine Muslims in America who simply want to practice their religion who also strongly reject Islamism, or the pursuit of Islamic rule and/or supremacy. This would include Islamic hegemony organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the OIC and their affiliates in the U.S. I praise American Muslims who actually take a stand on this issue like Dr. Zuhdi Jassar of Arizona.
When a Muslim or Islamic group professes their strong community service and interfaith goals in cities and towns all across America, but then has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood - it's disturbing.
If you find I've made a mistake, don't hesitate a minute to send me an e-mail (ztruth@ymail.com) with a credible proof source to back up your claim where I made a mistake. Upon confirmation your source is accurate and I did make a mistake, I will make any and all corrections. So far no one has done so.
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