CNN has released clips of an audio message from Anwar al-Awlaki directed towards American Muslims. I am not claiming that Awlaki would never say such things, nor am I usually one for conspiracy theories, but as someone who listened to a good amount of Awlaki audio in the past, it is undeniable that there is something off about the recording. Perhaps its just the audio source or quality, but it sounds off.
Updates from abunoor RSS
-
abunoor
-
abunoor
-
abunoor
But Zahir, who goes by Haji Zahir, arrived at this position after a tumultuous personal history that American and Afghan officials have not publicly disclosed. During more than a decade living in Germany, Zahir, 60, served four years in prison for attempted murder after stabbing his stepson, according to U.S. officials.
-
abunoor
Contemporary Jahilliyah : Worse than ever before?
“Wa idhal-maw’udatu su’ilat
Bi-ayyi dhambin qutilat”
Economist Cover Story This Week: Gendercide: The War on Baby Girls
Killed, aborted, or neglected at least 100 million girls have disappeared and the number is rising. -
abunoor
Well know American Muslim speaker and activist Aminah Assilmi has returned to Allah
CAIR Offers Condolences on Passing of Aminah Assilmi
WASHINGTON, March 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The board and staff of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today offered their sincere condolences to the family of Aminah Assilmi, a national Muslim community activist, scholar and leader who died earlier today in a car accident outside of Newport, Tenn. She was returning with her son from a speaking engagement in New York. Her son, who was injured in the accident, was taken to a hospital in Knoxville.Inna Lillaahi wa Inna Ilayhe Rajioon
Sister Sabiwabi who has the OyHabibti blog did a post on Assilmi a couple of months back.
Assilmi was director of the International Union of Muslim Women in the United States — their website is here.
-
abunoor
Spencer Ackerman takes down Mitt Romney’s No Apology, a book written in an attempt to boost Romney’s foreign policy credentials for a 2012 Presidential run.
“[T]here can be no rational denial of the reality that America is a decidedly good nation,” writes Romney, or perhaps a third grader. “Therefore, it is good for America to be strong.”
Unfortunately I don’t see how any of his Romney’s simplistic nonsense will hurt him in a Republican primary at least. I mean we’re talking about an election where Sarah Palin could be his competition.
-
abunoor
A farewell message to the Islamosphere from Umar Lee
-
abunoor
They, too, escaped after al-Mabhouh’s murder but have been extradited to Dubai from Jordan.
So was this a joint Mossad-Fatah operation to decapitate Hamas?In the Middle East anything is possible.
(Thanks Angry Arab)
-
abunoor
Ayesha Nasir publishes a piece (for Slate’s XX) about being discouraged from reading or discussing her marriage contract before her marriage in Pakistan. I was happy to learn more about problems around the culture of marriage in Pakistan, and I hope people will work for solutions. I don’t know Ms. Nasir’s background, but she makes some statements about Islamic law that I think are confused and although in general she makes it clear she is talking about her own experience and culture in Pakistan at times she seems to be making claims about Islamic practice that are not true universally.
It’s safe to say that although there are many deep problems with Muslim marriage in the United States, the problems are generally different than those in Muslim cultures although I’m sure among some recent immigrants there must be more overlap.
-
abunoor
Amazing and beautiful reminiscence from Moazzam Begg on one of the Guantanamo captives who has finally been freed:
Seated on the floor of the C130 transport aircraft,
with my hands tied behind my back, my legs shackled and my head hooded; under
the flashes of light from cameras of US soldiers taking trophy pictures and
over the roar of the engines I heard someone next to me say in Arabic:
“Brother, the time for prayer has come – let us perform our prayer.” That was
my first ever act of worship in US custody and it was marked by the fortitude of a man I
will never forget: Abdul Rauf al-Libee. It has been over eight years since
that day but finally, he and the others taste a freedom that has come after an immense test. The the fight for the others goes on… -
abunoor
The Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case in which elements of the Patriot Act which prohibit any sort of support or assistance to groups labelled terrorist by the government violate the first amendment. My old professor David Cole is on the good side, surprise surprise the Obama administration is on the bad side.
The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a case that pits an individual’s right of free speech and association against a federal law aimed at combating terrorism. At issue is part of the Patriot Act that makes it a crime for an American citizen to engage in peaceful, lawful activity on behalf of any group designated as a terrorist organization.
Federal law makes it a crime to provide material support to any organization designated as a terrorist group by the secretary of state. But the definition of material support includes not just providing weapons, money or bomb-making skills; it includes providing any sort of expert advice, training or personnel — including advice on how to resolve disputes peaceably or training on how to make human rights claims before the United Nations.
The nonprofit Humanitarian Law Project has a long history of engaging in such activity, mediating international conflicts and promoting human rights. But it has stopped doing some of its work for fear of being prosecuted under the material support provision.
-
abunoor
Imam Zaid Shakir — Thomas Friedman : Prisoner in a Glass House
I will make Mr. Friedman a wager. I bet that Muslims will wage an ideological civil war to address their violent extremists long before Americans will. I bet that long after Muslims have reclaimed their subjectivity in this regard, most “objectified” Americans will still be passively acquiescing to the imperatives of the military, and now, terrorist, industrial complexes. Like Mr. Friedman, their failure to meaningfully address America’s militarism, aggression and violence will render them prisoners in a glass house.
-
abunoor
Ahmed Rashid was on Fresh Air discussing recent developments in Afghanistan.
Mr. RASHID: Well, I think the very big question is why now? I mean, why have the Pakistanis now arrested him? Because his whereabouts were certainly known to the Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI, for many, many years. And if it means that the Pakistanis are now serious about reining in the Taliban, well, of course, that’s a very positive step. That’s something that NATO and the Americans have wanted all along.
However, speculation from Kabul – and I’ve been speaking to officials in Kabul – their speculation is somewhat different. The first is that, you know, the Americans, the CIA could have discovered his whereabouts and then, you know, insisted that the ISI arrest him.
The second thing is that it was very well-known for several months now, and I knew this personally, that Mullah Baradar was actually in touch with the Kabul authorities, holding talks with them through not directly, but indirectly through his representatives. They were meeting in Saudi Arabia, and he was also meeting with Kabul representatives in Kandahar, the major – the second city in Afghanistan.
Now, one speculation is that these talks were moving forward, and perhaps the Pakistanis arrested him because he was talking to the Kabul authorities above and beyond the Pakistanis, who are very keen to make sure that any dialogue that happens between the Americans and President Karzai and the Taliban take place with Pakistani mediation, Pakistani brokership, if you like.
GROSS: So what kind of information do you think that interrogators are trying to get now from Baradar?
Mr. RASHID: Well, you know, I don’t think that I mean, obviously, there’s going to be a mild sort of interrogation, if he knows where Mullah Omar is or Osama bin Laden or anyone else. But I think he’s going to be treated very well because I think in the long term, what both the Americans and the Pakistanis would want out of him is to use him in negotiations with the Taliban leadership.
I mean, one speculation is that now that he’s been arrested, he could be used much more effectively to negotiate with Mullah Omar and others because he could be allowed to meet with the other Taliban leaders, he could meet with Kabul authorities, he could meet with the Americans, et cetera. So I don’t think he’s going to be, you know, tortured or anything like that. I think he’s going to be kept in a safe house. He’s probably going to be interrogated about, you know, other leaderships, et cetera, and certainly the Americans will pursue him about the whereabouts of al-Qaida.
But I think this arrest will mean that we may well see a speeding-up of the negotiations between the Taliban and the Americans and others.
-
abunoor
Fox News is coming after Rashad Hussain, recently named by the Obama Administration as envoy to the OIC and previously working as Deputy Associate Counsel in the White House. The charge is allegedly sympathetic comments (or more accurately criticisms of the prosecution of) Sami al-Arian that were attributed to Hussain when he was a law student in 2004.
The publication that originally attributed the quote to Hussain later changed the story on its website and claims the quotes were actually those of Al-Arian’s daughter and not Hussain’s. The original author of the story, who’s also working for the administration, claims she was always very careful about attributing quotes and would not have made such an error.
The right wing anti-Muslim bloggers will be working to find some other connections, such as to MSA or ISNA, which they will find very suspicious.
Mr. Hussain seems to be a dream as a Muslim appointment as he is a hafidh of Qur’an but at the same time seems to have been ambitious enough from a young age to try his best to avoid doing anything controversial.
It will be interesting to see if these kind of flimsy charges blow over quickly or if they become an issue. If they do become an issue, the message to politically ambitious American Muslims will be crystal clear, you must separate yourself from the Muslim community completely from high school.
-
abunoor
Fatima Bhutto describes the brutal murder of a 12 year old maid in Pakistan and goes on to make the case that Pakistan is a country whose laws “cater only to the rich and powerful.”
As grim as her killing may be, it will not be all that surprising if her murderer goes free. In a country where the entire top echelon of government, from the president to the prime minister, have been granted amnesty from corruption charges, murder cases, narcotics smuggling, kidnapping, and extortion so that they may lead Pakistan and pave the way for an obsequiously pro-American cooperation in the war on terror, why is anyone surprised that the rich and powerful are unaccountable? Why is anyone particularly horrified by the monstrous VIP culture that denies justice to the majority of the country and celebrates the injustices of the dominant, moneyed tastemakers?
We know that employing a child of school age in such demanding labor is cruel. We know that there is such a thing as minimum wage—even in Pakistan. We know that one can’t, shouldn’t be able to, get away with murder, but those things don’t really matter when one is above the law. -
abunoor
AlJazeerah has video evidence of Nigerian police massacre of unarmed civilians in wake of Boko Haram clashes. Warning: extremely hard to watch:
-
abunoor
After a meeting Thursday evening, the board declared in the resolution it “will continue to strive for the objective scrutiny and resolution to the fatal shooting of Cleric Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, not presuming guilt or innocence.”
-
abunoor
Thousands of Pakistanis have staged rallies against the conviction of a Pakistani scientist found guilty of trying to kill American servicemen in Afghanistan.
Protests were held on Thursday in several cities in Pakistan, where many believe that Aafia Siddiqui is innocent. -
abunoor
The 37-year-old MIT-trained neuroscientist faces up to 60 years in prison for attempted murder and armed assault.
-
abunoor
Yet another piece of evidence that Barack Obama’s administration has been a major disappointment in the area of civil liberties, even to those of us who were skeptical about how much to expect of him.
-
abunoor
The Department of Justice confirms it has launched an investigation into the killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah, but says it is “routine” and connected with the receipt of the FBI’s own internal investigation, the contents of which are not public, and not the result of any pressure from Rep. John Conyers or the public.
Also, the Imam’s wife, who is from Tanzania, claims that the government is seeking to deport her from the United States.
-
abunoor
Muslim blogger Tarek Mehanna is continuing to write and communicate while awaiting trial on charges of “providing material support to terrorists.” This is from his latest post:
So, that first time I was here in November ‘08, I was brought in to a dormitory – style unit that resemble a summer camp. It was an open space where inmates walk freely between the rows of bunk beds, as opposed to being hunkered down in cells. This is called ‘orientation,’ and population inmates spend three days here before being classified to their respective units. I’d never been to prison before, and had no idea what to expect walking into this unit. But, my instinct told me that i had to put up my flag, now or never. The one thing I did know about prison was that even as a new comer, I wasn’t going to act like one. So, rather than conceal myself and retreat to the shadows, I decided to pretend that I owned the place. I walked to the center of the unit where there was a bit of open space, laid out my bed sheet, put up a sutrah, and prayed Maghrib with about a hundred inmates looking on. Thus, I was able to break the intimidation factor of prison environment from my first hour inside.
This is a method that can be applied at work, school, etc. for Muslims who might be nervous or intimidated into hiding their beliefs or practices. Rather than let the environment control you, be strong and proud and establish your presence from day one. This is the only way your co-workers, classmates, boss, etc. will respect you, and it is the only way other inmates will respect you in prison. People will respect us when they see that we respect ourselves.
Mehanna’s attorney is framing the case as an issue of freedom of speech:
“The indictment is based primarily on statements made by Tarek electronically on the Internet in a blog or through e-mail,” his attorney, J.W. Carney Jr. said Monday. “It’s thus consistent that both he and his supporters would continue to communicate by those means.”
Carney has framed the case as a battle over freedom of speech.
“There are many people that believe that parts of the Muslim world are under siege by the United States and that American soldiers should not be in Iraq or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. There are many Americans who disagree with this point of view,” said Carney. “The Internet has taken the place of the town square … as a place to have these discussions.”
-
abunoor
A good piece by Joanne Mariner at FindLaw about the real questions that hang over the Aafia Siddiqui trial and which Ms. Siddiqui attempted on several occasions to bring into the trial although formally all the attorneys involved seemed to try to keep them out.
-
abunoor
Jurors completed a full day of deliberations in the Aafia Siddiqui case today without reaching a verdict. Deliberations will continue tomorrow morning.
-
abunoor
It seems Ahmed Faraz has been arrested in Britain for running a book store.
A 30-year-old man has appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London charged with 30 terror offences.
Ahmed Faraz faces 19 counts of distributing terrorist publications and 11 counts of possessing material likely to be of use to a terrorist.It will be interesting to see exactly what material they are arresting Mr. Faraz for selling. There are rumors on some Muslim forums sites that Maktabah’s translation of Ma’alim fil Tariq (Milestones) by Sayyid Qutb is among the material that is being described as illegal to sell or apparently to possess, but like I said that is just a rumor. (Note: The translation of Milestones by Maktabah also contained supplementary material. What would probably be most controversial is the translation of a fiqh work on Jihad by Ibn an-Nuhaas (d. 814AH) which was translated and taught by Anwar al-Awlaki….like I said though the work is by a scholar who died over 600 years ago). The Maktabah site is down.
-
abunoor
As critics of the Obama Administration from the right grow louder and louder in their critiques of the Obama administration’s handling of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab (reading Miranda rights, putting in civilian system, not torturing him) now there is a leak (reported here by NPR) that AbdulMutallab has been continuing to provide information to the U.S.
The suspect at the center of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner has been giving federal authorities valuable intelligence for weeks, NPR has learned.
Officials familiar with the case tell NPR that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been naming names of people he knew had trained with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and has been helping authorities locate al-Qaida training centers he allegedly visited while he was in Yemen.
His information was at least partly responsible for the arrest of 10 people in Malaysia last week, officials said. Malaysian authorities rounded up a handful of students, including one Nigerian, who are thought to have been part of an al-Qaida cell.
Authorities wouldn’t say how they were related to Abdulmutallab or provide additional details.
-
abunoor
According to Rep. John Conyers, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S.Justice Department has opened an investigation into the FBI killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah.
Detroit — The civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation of the Oct. 28 FBI shooting death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, U.S. Rep. John Conyers said at a news conference today.
Joined this morning by a coalition of civil rights groups who, along with Conyers, has been calling for an investigation, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said he received confirmation of the investigation from Washington late Monday and again today.
A call to the civil rights division of the Justice Department was not immediately returned this morning. -
abunoor
The choices one has in Somalia:
“In our country there are three paths: you can join al-Shabaab, you can join [the government forces] or you can go abroad,” said Ismael Mohamed. “Me, I don’t have money to go away so I join al-Shabaab.”
Ismael, 21, is a typical Islamist footsoldier. He is neither a jihadi nor an extremist; he loves God and Manchester United. He is a young Muslim with an education — his English is excellent — but no opportunities in a country that has been at war for as long as he has been alive.
Civil war led to the collapse of Somalia’s last Government in 1991. The rebels then turned on one another in a fight for power. Many Somali youngsters know nothing of life without war.
Al-Shabaab’s leaders are militant nationalists and Islamic extremists but the rank-and-file fighters are hired guns, conscripts or volunteers. Ismael joined up during last year’s failed rains when food was scarce and al-Shabaab was in the ascendancy — weeks earlier it had launched a fresh offensive against the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). “I didn’t have anywhere to stay or anything to do.” My friends, some of them were al-Shabaab and they would tell me that TFG is not Muslim, but al-Shabaab is Muslim,” he explained.
-
abunoor
Aafia Siddiqui’s lawyers have “classic gotcha” moment in Closing Arguments:
Lawyers for accused “terror mom” Aafia Siddiqui pulled a classic “gotcha” during closing arguments today, producing video evidence that two purported bullet holes were present in a police station wall a day before she allegedly shot at Americans there.
“The government says you can’t press ‘pause’ in this case, but you can, because we have the video and we pressed ‘pause,’” lawyer Linda Moreno said as jurors looked at a still frame from a televised news conference after Siddiqui’s July 2008 arrest.
Two small holes that prosecution witnesses earlier said could have been gunshot damage from an assault rifle that Siddiqui allegedly fired were clearly visible in the background.
Moreno said the “non-existence of physical evidence” proved that Siddiqui never shot the weapon — which a Special Forces warrant officer set down on the floor — and that instead “she startled the soldier in front of her and got shot” after peeking around a curtain in the back.
-
abunoor
Mauri Saalakhan’s eyewitness account of the testimony of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui at her trial is at MuslimMatters.