Dallas Muslim Issues

To be a Muslim is to be a peacemaker, one who seeks to mitigate conflicts and nurtures goodwill for peaceful co-existence. God wants us to live in peace and harmony with his creation; that is indeed the purpose of religion, any religion. Our Mission statement; http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/WorldMuslimCongress/Articles/Mission-Statement.asp

Friday, February 27, 2009

AA,

I have received the following email with usual concerns. Insha Allah, we can sit down with these guys and allay their fears. This is a part of the propaganda of a few who want to get rich by spreading fears or perhaps are really scared of us. Indeed, without a doubt we need mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill. If the North Texas Muslim Council is taking the initiative, let’s us get a few more Muslims involved in it, who are not part of the council.

Mike Ghouse
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Memo: Keep an Eye on Those Muslims

By Forrest Wilder on Civil Liberties

A bizarre, conspiracy-laden memo [.doc] sent to law enforcement personnel
last week warns of threats to Texas from Muslim organizations and anti-war
groups. It calls on “law enforcement officers to report these type of
activities to identify potential underlying trends emerging in the North
Central region.”

We’re trying to learn more about which law enforcement agencies received
the bulletin - and how seriously they take it.

The bulletin - stamped “For Official Use Only” but leaked to this Web site
yesterday - was apparently issued last Thursday by the North Central Texas
Fusion System, one of a number of post-9/11 centers designed to consolidate
and share intelligence with law enforcement agencies.

The Fusion Center has an email address for “report[ing] suspicious North
Central Texas incidents or observations to the Fusion System Analyst.”
Civil liberties groups and Muslim organizations have worried that the Fusion
Centers are operating with little oversight and may be drifting into
counter-terrorism initiatives that they’re not qualified for.

The ACLU is calling the memo the “latest example of inappropriate police
intelligence operations targeting political, religious and social activists
for investigation.”

Here’s a choice passage from the bulletin:

Middle Eastern Terrorist groups and their supporting organizations have
been successful in gaining support for Islamic goals in the United States
and providing an environment for terrorist organizations to flourish. A
number of organizations in the U.S. have been lobbying Islamic-based issues
for many years. These lobbying efforts have turned public and political
support towards radical goals such as Shariah law and support of terrorist
military action against Western nations. Add to this the Hezbollah training
of Mexican Drug Cartel members on bomb making techniques; the threats to
Texas are significant.

The bulletin singles out certain organizations: the Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group; the International Action
Center, a left-wing organization founded by former U.S. Attorney General
Ramsey Clark; and the anti-war group ANSWER.

The bulletin is riddled with John Birch Society-ish statements. “Tolerance
is growing in more formal areas,” it warns at one point. As an example, the
memo cites an “Islamic Finance 101″ conference held by the Department of
Treasury. The document cites one Christopher Holton of the right-wing Center
for Security Policy, founded by Frank Gaffney, as calling Islamic finance a
“modern-day Trojan horse.” The document goes on to say, “A Houston bank
now offers Islamic Financing for home loans.”

Scary. But not as scary as the reports of “Islamic radicalization.”

Islamic radicalization of have been [sic] reported by such groups as
Hizb-ut-Tahir who have a goal of overthrowing governments and replacing them
with a caliph. They take advantage of growing tolerance in the U.S. Some of
their marketing schemes have included hip hop fashion boutiques, hip hop
bands, use of online social networks, use of video sharing networks, chat
forums and blogs. They have been especially active in California, New York,
Wisconsin, and Chicago. They target universities for recruitment.

If it seems like this “Prevention Awareness Bulletin” was culled from
conspiracy-prone right-wing Internet Web sites that’s because, apparently,
it was. A source list includes HumanEvents.com, FamilySecurityMatters.org,
FrontPagemag.com and the Christian Broadcasting Network, as well as more
mainstream sources such as the Anti-Defamation League and (using
“mainstream” loosely) the Washington Times.

The meta-data of the Word document lists one “James R. Johnson” as the
author of the document. Johnson is the son of Congressman Sam Johnson,
Republican from Plano. James (Bob) Johnson owns, with his wife Anita Miller,
ADB Consulting LLC, which received a contract from Collin County to design
the Fusion System. A cached copy of Johnson’s personal Web site says he has
“worked in National Intelligence for over 20 years.” Both Miller and
Johnson’s email addresses are listed on the contact section of the Fusion
Center’s Web site.

Calls to Kelley Stone, the Director of Homeland Security for Collin County,
were not returned today. Emails to Miller and Johnson have not been
returned. We will update this post if and when we hear back from them.