Israel Matzav

Funding Al-Arian's Supporters

I found this story amazing. The United States State and Defense Departments are funding an organization called the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT). The IIIT was co-founded by Sami al-Arian - Islamic Jihad's North American leader, who is about to be deported from the United States as part of a plea bargain. The IIIT is an Islamic institution with ties to the extremist Saudi-Wahhabi movement. It is also a partner to the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS) which is a front group for Saudi-Wahhabi money movement, and whose leader, Taha Jabir Alwani was an unindicted co-conspirator of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian in 2003.

Here are some of the rest of the sordid details:

Last month, the State Department dispatched its head of counterterrorism, Ambassador Hank Crumpton, to be the keynote speaker at a conference co-sponsored by one of al-Arian’s former principal funders, the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT). And for good measure, the Defense Department largely paid for the event.

Aside from the group’s history with al-Arian, IIIT’s co-founder and former longtime president—and an unindicted co-conspirator in the al-Arian trial—allegedly wrote a fatwa, or religious edict, years ago endorsing Jihad against Israelis. Though he wasn’t at the conference, Taha Jaber al-Alwani still sits on IIIT’s board.

Though the former University of South Florida professor was acquitted of eight of 17 counts against him—the jury hung on the other nine—he is by no means innocent (he has admitted as much in a deal with prosecutors and will be deported).

Whatever can be said about al-Arian can also be said about IIIT—and that’s in the words of the group’s co-founder, al-Alwani, who once wrote that al-Arian was “a part of us and an extension of us.”

Not in question because of wiretaps and phone and fax intercepts is that al-Arian had an intimate relationship with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Also not in dispute is that al-Arian mocked an executive order designating PIJ a terrorist entity just weeks after it was signed by President Clinton, calling it the result of “a war staged by Zionists.” The setting was an intercepted phone conversation with Lou’ay Safi, then the research director IIIT.

Also uncontested is that al-Arian played host to some of the world’s most notorious Islamic terrorists. The Islamic Conference of Palestine (ICP), founded by the former USF professor, held annual conferences that played host to what the Tampa Tribune dubbed a “militant all-star team”: PIJ founder and spiritual leader Abdel Aziz-Odeh, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers), leading Hamas official Mohammed Sakr, and high-ranking Sudanese terrorist Hassan Turabi.

It was during this time that IIIT reportedly provided the lion’s share of funding for ICP and its sister organization, World and Islam Enterprise (WISE). According to an FBI affidavit, al-Alwani admitted to attending and speaking at various ICP conferences.

Not only did none of the Islamic terrorists in his presence apparently shock him, but al-Alwani probably felt quite at home. In that same affidavit, the FBI reveals that al-Alwani wrote a fatwa “at some point between December 1988 and November 1989” that said, “Jihad is the only way to liberate Palestine. …[N]o person or authority may settle the Jews on the land of Palestine or cede to them any part thereof.”

Striking a similar theme, al-Arian called for “true armed jihad against the enemy in Israel” during his speech at a 1990 ICP conference. At an ICP conference in Cleveland the following year, he set his violent sites on the United States: “Let us damn America. Let us damn Israel. Let us damn their allies until death.”

Even though most of al-Arian’s fiery speeches were caught on camera, many groups and prominent individuals lined up to support him. One such defender was Prof. Esposito, the other keynote speaker at last month’s IIIT conference. When USF moved to fire al-Arian in 2002, Prof. Esposito wrote a letter to the university’s president stating that he was he was “stunned, astonished, and saddened” because the man who—without a doubt—gave many jihadist speeches was a “consummate professional.”

...

Nor can State or Defense claim ignorance about IIIT. According to Caroline Ziemke of Institute for Defense Analyses, who sent Amb. Crumpton the invite, he knew about IIIT’s co-sponsorship. Ms. Ziemke further stated that the Department of Defense, which provided most of the funding for the event, was also fully aware—and approved.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:08 PM