Thread: Pro-Morsi/Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in Washington DC

Pro-Morsi/Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in Washington DC



Did Obama come out to shake their hands? I do hope the FBI was taping this. A rally outside the White House Friday offered a clear example of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Grand Deception” in action in America. To a casual observer, it appeared that a few dozen people came out to support ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Protesters shouted his name and spoke passionately about democracy and how they think it was violated in Cairo.



IPT Signs like “We love Morsi” and “Egyptian Americans Support Democracy” made it seem Morsi was a beloved and unifying figure. In Egypt, opposition to his rule triggered massive street demonstrations considered among the largest in history.

Nobody at the White House rally mentioned the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi emerged a year ago to become president. No one referred to Morsi’s attempts to monopolize power for the Brotherhood via edicts and appointments – moves that fueled widespread discontent and drove millions of protesters to the streets of Egypt.

But an examination of the rally’s organizers and speakers shows deep connections to the Brotherhood, an 80-year-old religious and political movement that seeks to establish a global Islamic Caliphate governed by Shari’ah, or Islamic law. Its motto: “Allah is our goal, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle [jihad] is our way, and death in the service of God is the loftiest of our wishes.”

The July 5 rally was organized by the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center of Falls Church, Va. mosque that has been home to some notable Islamic extremists. Law enforcement records obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism in 2010 show it has served as “a front for Hamas operatives in U.S.,” and “has been linked to numerous individuals linked to terrorism financing.” It was home to the late American-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki before he left the United States.



9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour attended the mosque, as well as Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan.

Dar al-Hijrah also has a long history of supporting both the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. One of the mosque’s founders and former imams, Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Adam el-Sheikh, also founded the Brotherhood-relatedMuslim American Society (MAS) along with former Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef. (Reports claim that Akef was among the Muslim Brotherhood leaders arrested during the July 4 roundup.)

MAS and Dar al-Hijrah have shared several leaders. For example, former MAS President Esam Omeish served on the mosque’s board of directors. Omeish had to resign from a Virginia immigration board in 2007 after he was seen on videotape praising Palestinians who chose “the jihad way” to liberation. And Imam Shaker Elsayed is a former MAS secretary-general.



In a 2004 profile of the Muslim Brotherhood in America, Elsayed praised Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna, saying that his ideas are “the closest reflection of how Islam should be in this life.” Earlier this year, Elsayedtold an Ethiopian group that Muslim men should be “the first in jihad line.”

At the White House rally, the former director of the MAS political arm, Mahdi Bray, spoke first amid chants of “Democracy!” and “[in Arabic] Wake up Al-Sisi, Morsi is President!”

“We will join our voices, we will join them together, we will join them together as Muslims, Christians, Jews, secular, wherever there are people, wherever people care about democracy and justice, we’ll raise our voices together,” Bray said.

Bray has repeatedly defended alleged terroristsand, during a previous rally near the White House, proudly raised his hands in support of both Hamas and Hizballah.

VIDEO AT LINK

Joining Bray at the pro-Morsi rally was Mauri Saalakhan, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist who has defended former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and blames Israel and its supporters for a host of global problems. Like Bray, his message seemed benign.

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/0...washington-dc/

a BIT MORE ON ONE OF THE ORGANIZERS.
Mahdi Bray's Secret, Checkered Past
An IPT Investigation

IPT News
March 25, 2009



It's difficult to call Mahdi Bray a private man. He leads the Muslim American Society's (MAS) political arm, MAS-Freedom. His picture appears on numerousMAS and personal websites and he co-hosts a weekly radio program in Washington, D.C. He spent most of Saturday riding on the back of a flat-bed pick-up truck, leading demonstrators on a march through Washington and to the Pentagon in protest of the Iraq war's sixth anniversary.

The procession stopped outside the offices of military contractors, where demonstrators left cardboard coffins and chanted slogans. Bray, megaphone in hand, led the way:

"We say no more! I hope your stocks plummet to the ground. I hope it goes in the toilet. I hope your stock just goes to hell ... The justice, and the peace, and the humanity and the solidarity that we have with the Palestinian people, the solidarity we have with the people of Iraq, and Afghanistan, Pakistan, the solidarity we have with the veterans who have been hoodwinked by this government, we say not in our names!"

As the crowd marched, Bray led them in a time-worn anti-war chant:

"We're the people. We, the people, and the people united can never be defeated."

For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate."

A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers.

And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) tracked down court records involving Bray and found a history of legal run-ins and deceit. Bray was no kid – he was born in 1950 and was more than 30 years old when he amassed at least three felony convictions during the 1980s. And, if his recollection of the timing of his conversion to Islam is accurate, it did not straighten him out. He had changed his faith years before becoming a felon.
Bray declined to comment Wednesday after hearing a summary of the IPT's findings. "You guys write the stories as you see fit to write them," he said.

SEE SAMPLE OF BRAY SPEECHES:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/...bray-a-sampler

He even spent a couple of days in a Virginia jail cell as recently as March 2008 due to a series of traffic violations. Finally, there are questions today about his Washington, D.C. voter registration.

Back to back arrests

The 1980s proved to be a difficult time in Bray's life. The trouble started with an arrest in February 1981 for marijuana and cocaine possession. Then came grand larceny charges for cashing checks off a dead account just two weeks later. He was convicted on the cocaine and larceny charges and sentenced to three years in prison, only to find himself in even bigger trouble toward the end of the decade.

Throughout these ordeals, and even while incarcerated, Bray secretly was keeping hundreds of dollars a month in workers' compensation money intended for his grandfather. Wrighty Bray, Jr. was injured while working at the Norfolk, VA Navy Shipyard as a "helper-boilermaker." During his shift on December 2^nd 1929, the 25 year-old Bray slipped, causing his right leg to be pinned in the hold of a ship. Wrighty Bray bled heavily and the leg had to be amputated. As a result of that injury, he qualified for - and began receiving – workers' compensation under the Federal Employee's Compensation Act, known as FECA.

Those payments, regulated by the U.S. Department of Labor, continued to be sent properly and without incident for the next 46 years. Wrighty Bray, Jr. died on December 1^st, 1975 of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 71. His workers' compensation payments should have ceased at this point.

But court records show his grandson, then called Wright Bray IV, "devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud the United States of America … by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises."

The payments continued while Mahdi Bray was in prison for the drug and larceny charges. They continued after the Labor Department sent forms to Wrighty Bray, Jr. to update his status. He was indicted in June 1988 on 64 counts of mail fraud and receipt of stolen U.S. Securities. According to the indictment, Mahdi Bray submitted a signed "false and fraudulent" form saying Wrighty Bray was living in Washington and was unemployed. He "well knew [it] was false and fraudulent in that the defendant's grandfather was dead and no longer entitled to benefits," the indictment said.

Department of Labor investigators were growing suspicious about the Bray claims by September 1986. Handwritten notes show an investigator had determined that the "last medical expense paid for the clmt (was) on 3/18/68" and that Wrighty Bray had no medical procedures on file since 1975. Repeated attempts to receive signed forms required to continue the benefit checks were met with no response.
The investigator concluded: "The facts of this case lead me to believe the client may be dead."

A December 14, 1988 report from a Labor Department Inspector General's Office agent indicates Bray changed the mailing address on the benefits at least twice after his grandfather died. The agent also traced a 1984 check and found it deposited in Bray's bank account.



The payments ended shortly after a March 1987 visit to a Department of Labor office, where Bray tried to drop off a form that had been due months earlier to update his grandfather's status. According to a Labor Department claims examiner's handwritten account of the visit, Bray attempted to talk his way through dropping off a late, fraudulent form by claiming he was "Herbert Bray," and could not stay to answer questions because he was double parked. The note says Bray reluctantly agreed to wait five minutes, and when he did start talking, "indicated that grandfather was old but proud and would not let any family members assist him with the paperwork until it had stacked up and then he would call grandson or granddaughter to assist, which is why he was now bringing" in the form.

When asked where Wrighty Bray was, Bray said he was staying with a granddaughter, but that no change of address was needed since the elder Bray still picked up his mail at home. Asked for a telephone number where his grandfather could be reached, Bray said he couldn't remember it.

In all, Bray kept more than $71,000 that the U.S. Government intended go to his grandfather. He pled guilty to one count of mail fraud on June 26, 1989 and was sentenced to 36 months in prison and ordered to make full restitution.
It is unclear how much Bray has disclosed publicly about his past. He does not refer to his criminal history in speeches or on his radio program, called "The Crescent Report." The show, which Bray co-hosts, airs Sunday mornings on WUST, 1120 AM in Washington.

He often dismisses criticism of his statements and connections as smear campaigns from Muslim bashers.

That was part of his message when he spoke at a conference entitled "Islamophobia: Its rising threat and policy challenges," hosted by the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. The December 2006 conference attracted officials from the departments of State and Homeland Security including Alina Romanowski, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and Dan Sutherland, Homeland Security officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Muslims in America are professionally successful, Bray said:

"Yet there are certain interest groups, in and outside of America, that have long used bigoted distortions of Islam, portraying particularly the Muslims in America as seditious, dangerous, disloyal, or a fifth column, totally incompatible with democracy. This is, I think, the underpinning, in terms of when we start talking about Islamophobia."

He has been at the forefront of MAS efforts to increase Muslim voter participation.

Under his leadership, MAS even taps Girl and Boy Scout troops it sponsors for get-out-the-vote telephone banks. After the 2006 election, he claimed credit for helping elect Democrat Jim Webb to the U.S. Senate from Virginia and electing Tim Kaine to be Virginia's governor a year earlier:

"Ask Jim Webb what kind of impact we have. Ask the Governor of Virginia what kind of impact we have."

A biography on one of his personal web sites boasts that he has "appeared on CBS News, Fox, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Aljazeera and many TV and radio talk shows. He has served as a major consultant and a political adviser to various Washington-based political and advocacy groups and to several national, state, and local political campaigns."

As a result of that political ground work, Bray was among a group of Islamist leaders to meet secretly with an outreach coordinator for Barack Obama's presidential campaign last September. The Obama campaign acknowledged the meeting, which also included representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was a mistake. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and the organization's founders were linked to a Hamas-support network in the U.S. CAIR challenged that designation in September 2007. The trial court never ruled on CAIR's motion.

As NBC News reported:

"A second meeting participant speaking on condition on anonymity said he was stunned to learn that [CAIR Executive Director Nihad] Awad and Bray had been invited to an event where Obama representatives would be present. The participant said Awad and Bray are considered politically 'radioactive.' He said that some in the Obama group knew ahead of time that top CAIR officials would be in attendance--an allegation the Obama campaign disputes."

On the eve of the election, Bray told London's Guardian newspaper:

"No Muslim wants to be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. I think Barack Obama has practiced that. I think that for his own candidacy that Obama has kind of thrown us under the bus."

Perhaps his closest and most powerful political ally is U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who has appeared on Bray's radio talk show, and has spoken at MAS fundraisers.

Bray and Ellison's offices provided conflicting information about the congressman's trip to Saudi Arabia last year during the hajj, or Muslim pilgrimage. Ellison's office said MAS Minnesota chapter paid for his travel, after clearing it with the House Ethics Committee, but Bray said Ellison paid his own way because such a gift from MAS "would be a breach of congressional ethics."

Cloudy Conversion Story

If his recollection of the timing of his conversion to Islam is accurate, a spiritual awakening was not enough to straighten him out throughout the years he kept money intended for his late grandfather. In an interview just before the November election, Bray said he was "celebrating 30 years of being a Muslim." That places his conversion in or around 1978, a time frame that matches information cited elsewhere. In 2003, Associated Press reporter Bob Lewis wrote "Bray, a former Baptist who converted to Islam 27 years ago and now heads the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation, urges Muslims to become active in their communities to show Americans all the good they have to offer."

And Bray repeated his claim of a 30-year life as a Muslim during a convention sponsored by MAS and the Islamic Circle of North America at the Hartford Convention Center in July 2007:

"Let me just say from the offset that as a practicing Muslim for 30 years and as an African American all my life and that's 57 years give or take, for me what I see taking place in America is déjà vu all over again."

In 2002, he told a CAIR conference in Columbus, OH "I embraced Islam some 27 years ago." That would place his conversion around 1975.

In 1981, however, Bray told his probation officer "that he is of the Baptist/Unitarian faith and is a member of the Central Avenue Baptist Church in the Berkley section of Norfolk." It was part of an interview in his pre-sentence investigation related to the drug charges. "The defendant reports that he attends church services every Sunday and believes in God."

He told the probation officer "that he would like to return to college and continue his education with an emphasis in theology with the ultimate goal of becoming a minister."

Bray declined to say when he became a Muslim during his brief conversation with the IPT. "You guys write whatever you want," he said. "I gotta go."

His drug arrest came after police saw him and a woman in his parked car just after midnight in Norfolk on February 1, 1981, records show. As they approached, they saw marijuana and a bag of white powder in plain view. The officers reported that when they ordered Bray to open his door, "he ate the packet of white powder." They still seized some marijuana and a mirror and straw with residue on it. The powder tested positive for cocaine. Bray told officers the marijuana was his and the cocaine belonged to his companion.

He was convicted September 18, 1981 and sentenced two months later to 30 days in jail for the marijuana and a year for the cocaine possession – with 10 months of that suspended.

As probation officer Michael Gordon noted in the pre-sentence report on the cocaine charge:

"Of concern in determining a disposition in this case is the fact that the instant offenses are not subject's first conflict with the law."

He had a history of traffic citations, a pattern that continues even now. More troubling, though, between his arrest and sentencing on the drug case, Bray was arrested in Chesapeake, VA and charged with three counts of grand larceny for cashing bad checks at area stores. He pled guilty to grand larceny November 19, 1981. He was sentenced to three years in prison on January 6, 1982, with two years suspended.

He admitted passing the bad checks under the name "Dwight Bray," saying:

"He advises that the three checks were cashed during a time period when his company was having financial difficulties and he intended to cover the checks later. The defendant advises that the checks were prepared in the name of Dwight Bray because subject believed that making out checks to himself might cause problems."

Bray has not had any felony arrests since the workers' compensation case, and his 1991 release from prison. Evidence uncovered by the IPT details Bray's history of providing false and misleading information to the public, and to government, including a sworn application used to maintain his voter registration.

That is the focus of the second part of our investigation, which can be read here.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/...checkered-past

Mahdi Bray: Voting With Conviction
An IPT Investigation

IPT News
March 27, 2009


Second of Two Parts

It turns out to be just a bad dream. But for "Mohamed Abdallah," apathy about Election Day leads to his arrest. He is rousted from his bedroom, hooded, and dragged before a judge.

"You didn't vote," the judge repeatedly says, his voice rising.

Mohamed, a young American Muslim, is more interested in playing "Guitar Hero" than in any election. But the judge explains, "By not voting, you are forfeiting your right to change policy that could affect your community, your country and the entire world."

He then sentences Mohamed to "a lifetime of silence," laughing maniacally as Mohamed begs the court to reconsider.

Mahdi Bray plays the judge in this well-produced, lighthearted and terribly ironic video.

Ironic because Bray, leader of the Muslim American Society (MAS)'s Freedom Foundation, has found himself before sentencing judges repeatedly in his life. And because he leads MAS's "Voting is Power" campaign effort. Yet like Mohamed, he didn't vote in November 2008, either.

On a MAS website, Bray acknowledges missing the election but touts his status as a registered voter. Bray is, in fact, registered to vote in Washington, D.C., but his eligibility may be in question. Public records show he is a Virginia resident. But, his voter registration lists as his home address a Washington office suite on 17^th Street N.W. that is listed on MAS websites as an office location.



As a convicted felon, Bray can't register to vote in his home state of Virginia. As the Investigative Project on Terrorism reported Thursday, Bray was convicted on separate indictments of grand larceny and drug possession in 1981. In 1989, he began a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to mail fraud. For more than 10 years, Bray kept workers' compensation checks sent to his late grandfather, who died in 1975. He was released in 1991.

Virginia is one of two states that do not restore voting rights to felons upon completion of their sentences without an appeal to the governor. Bray has been a registered D.C. voter since late 1991, just a few weeks after his last release from prison, records show. In 2004, he updated his registration, switching from a Washington, D.C. residential address to the office suite.

Voter registration applications include a sworn statement, in this case affirming, "I live in the District of Columbia at the address above" above Bray's signature. Immediately beneath the signature line it says:

"WARNING: If you sign this statement even though you know it is untrue, you can be convicted and fined up to $10,000 and/or jailed for up to five years."

The November 2004 election was the last one in which Bray voted. Three weeks later, Bray was cited for driving with no county decal, improper registration and driving with a suspended license in Falls Church, Virginia. The citations show Bray living at an Annandale, VA address. Similar information was provided in a July 2006 traffic stop.

In a brief telephone call with the IPT Wednesday, Bray declined to comment or answer questions, including whether he is a Virginia resident.

Radical Defender

Beyond his criminal history and the voter registration issues, Bray has a history of defending accused terrorist supporters, and of offering misleading statements about his organization's history and his own actions.

He traveled repeatedly to Dallas in support of defendants in the Hamas-support case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). After a 2007 trial ended in a hung jury, the five defendants were convicted following a retrial in November on 108 counts.

Bray also served as a character witness at a bond hearing for Sami Al-Arian, who was accused of providing support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). After an initial trial in 2005 ended with a mix of acquittals and a deadlocked jury on other counts, Al-Arian pled guilty in April 2006 to conspiring to provide goods or services to the PIJ.

Bray similarly has defended Ali Al-Timimi, who is serving a life sentence for soliciting others to wage war against the United States and attempting to contribute services to the Taliban. The conviction, Bray said, "bodes ill" for the First Amendment.

Later this month, he will speak at a fundraiser for the Muslim Link newspaper with British Member of Parliament George Galloway. Galloway is fresh off a trip to Gaza, where he gave 100 vehicles loaded with supplies and an unspecified amount of cash directly to Hamas officials.

Bray has made at least two trips to Cairo to stand in solidarity with Muslim Brotherhood members facing military tribunals for membership in a banned organization. Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan accompanied Bray on his second trip to Egypt to stand in solidarity with members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

After the IPT reported on the trip, Bray wrote an article in response, arguing his stop in Cairo was one among many and indicates his opposition to military tribunals more than support for the Brotherhood.

"The reality is that my trip had less to do with the Muslim Brotherhood than with my organization's opposition to the human rights violations of Egypt-an American ally and the second largest recipient U.S. foreign aid."

Federal prosecutors say MAS was "founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States." A telephone book described in testimony by a prosecution expert witness as listing Muslim Brotherhood members in the U.S. includes Ahmad Elkadi, Jamal Badawi, and Omar Soubani, MAS's three founding directors.

In 2004, the Chicago Tribune published an investigation on the Brotherhood in America, reporting that:

"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members.

Some wanted the Brotherhood to remain underground, while others thought a more public face would make the group more influential."

Despite those documented links, Bray insists MAS was "established in America, and we are not an overt or covert arm of the Muslim Brotherhood."

On the same web page where Bray acknowledges being a registered voter is a slide show under the heading "Mahdi Bray's Photos." It includes images of demonstrations and political events in the U.S. One frame features a picture of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, who was killed by an Israeli bomb attack in 2004. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, created in the wake of the Palestinian Intifada in 1987.

Mixed Messages

His own life story includes contradictions. As reported yesterday, Bray claimed last fall to be "celebrating 30 years of being a Muslim." That places his conversion in or around 1978. He told a probation officer in 1981, however, that he remained a Baptist who "attends church every Sunday and believes in God."
It isn't clear whether he would exaggerate his time as a Muslim, or whether he lied to the probation officer. During the call with the IPT, Bray declined to answer when he became a Muslim or to discuss the criminal charges.

In his mail fraud case, Bray was accused of submitting forged paperwork in his grandfather's name to keep the benefits flowing. He even gave what his indictment called "false and fraudulent" information to a Department of Labor claims worker during a brief office visit to drop off one such form.

After his last prison sentence ended in 1991, Bray went on to become a public figure, working as political director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, (MPAC) before joining MAS. He also served on an advisory board for the American Muslim Council.

AMC founder Abdurrahman Alamoudi, is serving a 23-year sentence for illegal transactions with Libya and for facilitating a Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Until his arrest, Alamoudi was among the nation's most visible and prominent Muslim political activists. Alamoudi pled guilty in October 2004.

He staunchly defended Alamoudi before the guilty plea, however, calling the arrest a "witch hunt" aimed at "an attempt to marginalize the tremendous potential the Muslim Community has." Bray was not implicated in the Alamoudi case.

In the fall of 2007, he passed off as a joke his enthusiastic response to a speech by Alamoudi in 2000, saying those present at a rally outside the White House were supporters of both Hamas and Hizballah.

"You saw me pumping my fists. You didn't see me raising my hands. If they had shown the audience, you would have seen people in the audience raising their hands and falling out laughing. For him to come and make these kinds of radical rants, no one took him seriously."

See the videotape from the 2000 rally here. Bray is spotlighted off to the speaker's side.

His criminal record has been clean since the workers' compensation claim. He spent a few nights behind bars a year ago, however, as a result of his repeated traffic and vehicle registration violations. Court records indicate Bray has racked up more than 20 convictions over the years for improperly registered, tagged or inspected vehicles, and repeatedly driving on a suspended license.

He was stopped for a 3^rd time for driving on a suspended license on April 20^th 2006. An arrest warrant was issued the next day. The case dragged out for nearly two years, but on March 27, 2008 Bray turned himself in to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. He was given a 90 day sentence, with 80 days suspended. He was released after serving three days.

http://www.investigativeproject.org/...ith-conviction

FYI
Radical Muslims recruit criminals in U.S. prisons

Recent attempted attacks highlight the threat

By Stephen Levy
-
The Washington Times
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Radical Muslims are using U.S. prisons to recruit hardened criminals for terrorist activities, counterterrorism experts told Congress on Wednesday.

Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the hearing was called because “the danger remains real and present, especially because of al Qaeda’s announced intention to intensify attacks within the United States.”

Recent attempted attacks by Islamist convicts in California, Florida and New York highlight the threat, he said.

Several law enforcement specialists bolstered his statements.

“The prison population is vulnerable to radicalization by the same agents responsible for radicalizing Americans outside of the prison walls,” saidPatrick Dunleavy, former deputy inspector for criminal intelligence for New York state prisons.

The testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee followed an earlier hearing in March on Islamic radicalization in the United States that prompted protests by Islamic groups and committee Democrats.

U.S. officials have said several hundred Americans, many of whom converted to Islam in prison, traveled in the past several years to Yemenfor terrorist training with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Security officials say these converts could be used by terrorists to more easily pass through security screening.

Four witnesses at the hearing said the number of cases of prison inmates turning to radical Islam was small but the problem poses a serious national security threat.

“Radicalization of even a small fraction of this population holds high consequence for Americans and innocent people around the world,” said Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing, commander of counterterrorism for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Kevin Smith, former attorney general for California’s Central District, said radical clerics who convert inmates to their cause have passed along a distorted form of Islam he called “Prislam.”

The experts disagreed about whether radicalized convicts can communicate with terrorists outside prison, potentially increasing the danger of coordinated attacks.

Bert Useem, a sociology professor at Purdue University, said prison authorities had become more effective at limiting communication in and out of their facilities.

Mr. Dunleavy disagreed and said, “Despite appearances, prison walls are porous.”

The hearing sparked debate of the topic of Islamic radicalization between Republicans and Democrats, with many Democrats stating that hearing was too narrowly focused.

“Limiting this committee’s oversight of radicalization to one religion ignores threats posed by violent extremists of all stripes, and there are other threats to be concerned about,” said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and ranking member.

Laura Richardson, California Democrat, said the committee was unjustly singling out Muslims in its investigation of radicalization.

Mr. King said an earlier hearing triggered “mindless hysteria” by opponents of the hearing.

“Countering Islamic radicalization should not be a partisan issue,” he said. “I would urge my Democratic colleagues to rise above partisan talking points.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...sons/?page=all

From the Clarion Project:
US Prisons

Life in prison is not easy. Prisoners are forced to face their crimes, adapt to a new and unpleasant lifestyle and rehabilitate themselves for future release. Many prisoners become members of various communities to combat loneliness, and to ensure protection from the daily threats associated with life in jail. An unusually high number of convicts are being converted to Islam. In particular, African Americans in the prison system are converting in large numbers.

According to estimates, up to 20 percent of prisoners in the U.S. are Muslims. This figure is approximately 20 times higher than the national Muslim population average

Prison Recruitment to Radical Islam

What makes Islam so appealing to prisoners? Converts are protected by fellow converts. Plus, they are accepted into a new and different culture, while learning religious self-discipline and as part of a large and growing community, prisoners feel equal. Angry inmates are ideal candidates for recruitment to Radical Islam organizations. In England, police found al-Qaeda training manuals that encourage the recruitment of prisoners "disenchanted with their country's policy". Muslims teach that upon conversion, all previous deeds are wiped away.

The convert becomes a new person; clearly an attractive point of view for a convict. Although these prisoners are provided with a community, the kind of Islamic rehabilitation taught in prisons is suspect. Many Imams (Muslim leaders) are hired based upon recommendations from organizations with clear ties to terrorist entities.

Wahhabi-trained Imams have gained a monopoly on prisons and teach their radical interpretations of Islam to new converts. When no federally-trained Imams are available, prisoners themselves often lead their communities without direct supervision.

Convicts are supposed to be learning the tools to return to society as mentally-stable individuals, offering positive contributions, and avoiding further criminal behavior. Instead, many inmates are learning and practicing Radical Islam.

Upon their release from prison, these former convicts return to society with an 'ax to grind' and a new found perversion of religion which preaches Jihad against western values. Many former inmates prefer to stay in an Islamic community setting. These individuals have been recruited to Radical Muslim enclaves such as Islamberg, NY. Others return to typical communities across the country.

Chicago gang member Jose Padilla, became a Radical Muslim while in a Florida prison. Following his release in 2002, Padilla was later arrested on the suspicion of planning to explode a “dirty bomb". In 2001, Richard Reid became a Radical Muslim while incarcerated in a UK prison. He attempted to blow up an American Airlines plane by igniting explosives in his shoes.

The conversion of inmates to Islam in prisons is one very alarming example of creeping Sharia, or the spread of Radical Islam in the United States, right under our noses.

http://www.clarionproject.org/threat...eat/us-prisons