RE: Wall Street Journal - Islam, Israel and the United States

Leslie Sacks has sent an editorial response to an article published in the Wall Street Journal by Sheik Ali Gomaa, Grand Mufti of Egypt.

A brief synopsis of Gomaa’s article runs something like this:

Gomaa gives the impression he is a moderate Muslim. He categorically calls radical Islamic promoters a violent few that do not represent Islam as a whole. He calls the attacks in America on 9/11 “the most egregious of their attacks”.

Gomaa goes on to mirror that Islam has been addressing a reform to engage the modern world for years.

Yet there is still a hint of Islamic Supremacism for calling Israel an occupier of land which is the propaganda the West has fallen for. The reality is ALL the land acquired by Israel after 1948 was the result of wars of aggression or preemptive self-defense. Not to mention most of that land was supposed to be a part of the original Palestinian Mandate that was usurped by the 1948 invading armies.

Well that is enough of my synopsis Gomaa’s WSJ article. Below is Leslie Sacks’ presentation to SlantRight.com.

JRH 10/17/09
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RE: Wall Street Journal, Oct 7, 2009, Islam, Israel and the United States by Sheikh Ali Gomaa (Egypt's Grand Mufti)

By Leslie Sacks
Email sent: Fri 10/16/2009 1:50 PM

To the Editor:

By pointing to Islam's respect for law, peaceful co-existence and human rights, Dr. Gomaa elegantly answers the West's preoccupation with the question "Where are the [Islamic] moderates?" A number of questions loom, however. First and foremost: has this important statement been published widely in Arabic? I doubt it, and I wonder if the sheik's current status - and perhaps even his personal safety - explain why. If so, therein lies an essential problem: the West is hungry for accommodation, while the Arab world excoriates those who deviate from the fundamentalist interpretations of Islam that dominate the regions' religio-political landscape.

Furthermore, he reasonably seeks an end to the "occupation" of Palestine and the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the sheik ignores the potentially tragic consequences of those propositions - namely, rule by the same radical fundamentalists he so eloquently opposes.

Imagine if a Muslim of Dr. Gomaa's stature came out boldly and spoke the following so-far-forbidden yet simple words: 'Israel has an irrevocable right to exist as a Jewish country in peace and safety, while Iraq and Afghanistan's successful independence requires the exclusion of radical elements like the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Iran from their political, legal, and military arenas.' Imagine further that the sheik declared all of this in Arabic. That would truly be a gift to rapprochement; that we could truly take to the bank.

Sincerely,

Leslie Sacks
Los Angeles, CA

Third Temple Thoughts

Jews had controlled the Temple Mount for over a thousand years prior to the Romans destroying it in 70 AD. Even after the Roman expulsion that turned into the last Jewish Diaspora a Jewish presence has been in Jerusalem and their homeland. Israel may have had different names given by foreigners (e.g. Romans changed the name into the Latin version of Palestine) yet still a remnant of a Jewish presence remained.

Muslims controlled the Temple Mount from 638 AD through the present (as of this writing – 2009). There was a brief interlude of Crusader Christian control from 1099 – 1187 AD. Still Jews resided in Jerusalem and even then the Wailing Wall was a place of holy reverence by Jews. The Wailing Wall (Western Wall or Kotel HaMaaravi) has a long history of access for the Jews except during periods of intolerance by both Christians and Muslims. Relevant to this age the Jews were forbidden access to the Wailing Wall from the time of Jordanian conquest in 1948 until Jordanian defeat in 1967.

If you are a Christian Right prophetic oriented or Evangelical Christian (like I am), then you are among a group of Christians that believe the Second Coming of Christ and the construction of a Third Temple are very relevant. Detractors of this belief call this group Christian Zionists.

Zionism was and is the Jewish movement that paved the way for the creation of a Jewish State after the butchery of the Holocaust that occurred during WWII. Although Zionist and Christian Zionists are considered epithets by those that consider the creation of Israel a mistake, I wear the Christian Zionist badge with honor.

Ironically Zionists and Christian Zionists do not always see things eye-to-eye. Zionism is Jewish and for good reason Jews look on Christianity with great disfavor. A lot of nations and various religions persecuted Jewish people of the Diaspora. People and nations calling themselves Christian are definitely part of this list of persecutors.

For clarity’s sake you have to know that Muslim people and nations of the past and present have also been huge persecutors of Jewish people. If any historical revisionist tells you otherwise it is merely Muslim apologetic propaganda.

The agenda that Christian Zionists and Zionists have in common is the creation and protection of the Jewish State of Israel. For Jews this is a place where gentile governments will no longer persecute Jewish individuals. The Jewish individuals are not necessarily practicing religious Jews. The range of Jews returning (Aliyah) to a Jewish homeland ranges from the Ultra-Orthodox to the complete Leftist atheist.

For Christian Zionists Israel’s modern creation in 1948 signaled a red alert; viz. the scenario of the New Testament promise of Christ coming for His own.

Nineteen years later in 1967 there seemed to be a verification of the prophetic when Israel preemptively attacked Jordan due to Arab provocations in the Six Day War and recaptured all of Jerusalem as well as Judea and Samaria (aka West Bank). Hence in 1967 Jerusalem became a united city under Israeli sovereignty and the Temple Mount within the control of the Israeli government.

Sadly, the hero general that recaptured land from Jordan left the administration of the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf. The Israeli government’s reasoning lay more with the guilt trip from the West when the reasoning should have the Jewish heritage indelibly linked to the Temple Mount.

The Muslim heritage over the Temple Mount and Jerusalem was more about Islamic imperialism which was not a pretty sight to see for the vanquished. Evidently the actual conquest of Jerusalem was bloodless due to Muslims trouncing the surrounding area first. For Jews and Christian sects not part of the Orthodox Church, Muslim conquest was viewed in a favorable light. Evidently having to face the status of a second class citizen with nearly zero rights plus a non-Muslim profile tax all for the purpose of humiliation was better than the treatment received by the Greek Orthodox Church of the Byzantine Empire.

The favorable time for Jews and Christians under Islamic oppression was during the Umayyad Caliphate. These guys were the last ruling Muslims to give a hoot about Jerusalem. The Umayyads built the Dome of the Rock between 688 and 691 AD which was roughly 50 years after Islamic hegemony over Jerusalem. Al Aqsa Mosque was completed on the Temple Mount around 710 AD. By the time of the last Umayyads in 750 AD Muslims could care less about Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Interest only peeked momentarily among Muslims when Christian Crusaders re-conquered the Holy Land. The Crusaders lasted just under 200 years.

After the Crusaders were booted from the Holy Land whichever Muslim ruler had suzerainty over Jerusalem accomplished nothing to keep the city up. Jerusalem was barely an existing town with the combined majority of Jews and Christians eventually exceeding the Muslim population. Jerusalem began to rebuild when the Jewish population of the latter Ottoman and British Palestine Mandate experienced the phenomena of Zionism. As more Jews immigrated to Palestine (1948 – Israel) the land began to be reclaimed which brought prosperity to the area. Prosperity brought a Jerusalem renewal. And prosperity brought more Arabs looking for work as the result of Jewish ingenuity.

Again jumping to the Israeli reacquisition of all of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount we begin to see Jews and Christians to begin to look for the construction of a Third Temple. Although the Third Temple concept is immensely popular with Christian Zionists, the concept has somewhat divided Judaism.

In 1967 most of the Conservative and Ultra-Conservative Orthodox Jewish Rabbis felt it would be sacrilege for a Jew to possibly stumble upon a part of the Temple Mount in which the Holy of Holies was located.

As time has progressed couple with the Muslim Waqf doing all it can to rid the Temple Mount of archaeological evidence of the First and Second Temples, Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox have began weakening on the position that Jews should not visit the Temple Mount. There is definitely a move among Jewish Rabbis for the building of the Third Temple in the midst of some Ultra-Orthodox hold-outs.

Indeed there is a Jewish organization in Israel called the Temple Institute which is dedicated to the preparation of the Third Temple. This means re-sanctifying a Levitical Priesthood, the proper construction of Temple furnishing and utensils and the preparation for Temple sacrifices. Zionists and Christian Zionists are looking for the “red heifer” to begin the first sacrifice.

Here is good old fashioned speculation from The Last Crusade blog implying the two Muslim Mosques on the Temple Mount are to be removed to make way for the Third Temple. Now that would really be a God-thing to pull that off with the U.S. and the West pressuring Israel to give up half of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

JRH 10/16/09

Natural-Born Losers

I love Ann Coulter’s sarcastic wit especially when the Left, Obamanites, and anti-war morons looking for defeat. Coulter unleashes that wit in this column entitled, “Natural-Born Losers.”

Get ready for a good laugh at the expense of the Leftist Democratic Party that convinced America to vote for the greatest appeaser since Neville Chamberlain.

JRH 10/15/09

The Light is Shining on American-Muslim Organizations

John R. Houk
© October 14, 2009

In 2004 the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a lawsuit against Andrew Whitehead the founder of Anti-CAIR. The lawsuit was for $1.35 million for defamation via knowingly publishing false statements incriminating CAIR of criminal activity.

What did Whitehead say about CAIR that irked the ire of the Islamist organization on American soil? Whitehead posted these statements:

• “Let there be no doubt that CAIR is a terrorist supporting front organization that is partially funded by terrorists, and that CAIR wishes nothing more than the implementation of Sharia law in America.”

• CAIR is an “organization founded by Hamas supporters which seeks to overthrow Constitutional government in the United States and replace it with an Islamist theocracy using our own Constitution as protection.”

• “ACAIR reminds our readers that CAIR was started by Hamas members and is supported by terrorist supporting individuals, groups and countries.”

• “Why oppose CAIR? CAIR has proven links to, and was founded by, Islamic terrorists. CAIR is not in the United States to promote the civil rights of Muslims. CAIR is here to make radical Islam the dominant religion in the United States and convert our country into an Islamic theocracy along the lines of Iran. In addition, CAIR has managed, through the adroit manipulation of the popular media, to present itself as the ‘moderate' face of Islam in the United States. CAIR succeeded to the point that the majority of its members are not aware that CAIR actively supports terrorists and terrorist supporting groups and nations. In addition, CAIR receives direct funding from Islamic terrorists supporting countries.”

• “CAIR is a fundamentalist organization dedicated to the overthrow of the United States Constitution and the installation of an Islamic theocracy in America.”

This was a classic legal maneuver that the ACLU uses to intimidate people or organizations (government or NGO) to comply with an agenda. I don’t know if CAIR learned the tactic from the ACLU but I do know CAIR uses legal intimidation. In Whitehead’s case the intimidation was meant to destitute him and shut him up.

Whitehead is one of the first voices to expose CAIR associations with terrorists and subversive Muslim Fifth Columnists whose designs are to eradicate Western Democracy which of course includes America. Whitehead often used to send out a warning to those who read his email alerts to be careful where you read Anti-CAIR information. The warning was to forestall the CAIR potential for legally harassing an employee’s company that could potentially result in a dismissal.

I write about Whitehead’s encounter with CAIR because I just became aware that World Net Daily (WND) is publishing a book written by Paul David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry entitled, “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.”

The Gaubatz-Sperry book recounts how American-Islamic organizations are operating with the similarity of the organized Mafia. This kind of exposé more than likely has more detailed information than Whitehead’s courage at Anti-CAIR to write about the wrongs of CAIR.

Here is WND’s promotion of “Muslim Mafia.”

JRH 10/14/09
****************************************
Daring ACORN-style sting on top Islamist group

New book details 6-month infiltration of radical pro-Jihad, anti-U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and its front organziation, CAIR


World Net Daily promo
Sent: Wed 10/14/2009 8:01 AM

EMBARGOED UNTIL October 15, 2009

More than 12,000 pages of secret documents reveal how the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other "moderate" and "mainstream" Islamic front groups act as part of criminal Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to support terrorism and infiltrate and destroy the American system from within.

"Muslim Mafia," which hits bookstores today, tells the real-life story of a father and son team who spent six months infiltrating the national headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), obtaining more than 12,000 pages of secret documents and hundreds of hours of covert videotape detailing the group's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and the group's long-term plan to Islamize America by slowly institutionalizing Shariah law, a puritanical brand of Islam that promotes violence and mistreats women.

"Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America" documents the chilling details of an investigation by veteran federal counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence agent Paul David Gaubatz and a daring undercover operation, which included his son, Chris Gaubatz, and two hijab-wearing female interns, venturing into the belly of the Muslim Brotherhood beast. Chris worked at CAIR's national headquarters, by becoming an intern and posing as a Muslim convert, to gather for the first time evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood's inner workings.

More than likely, you've heard by now about the young investigators who covertly videotaped officials of ACORN, another nonprofit activist group, advocating illegal activities. Their sting was both courageous and audacious.

However, this (unrelated) sophisticated undercover investigation inside the headquarters of a terror-supporting front group was both more dangerous and devastating in terms of the volume of smoking-gun evidence collected. Essentially, this team of brave private investigators went behind enemy lines and lived to tell a shocking story of terror, fraud and sedition.

"Muslim Mafia," published by WND Books, is packed with pages of recently declassified government documents and evidence from the covert operation, including thousands of e-mails, faxes and internal memos that were never meant for public viewing. The first section of this book reveals how the Council on American-Islamic Relations functions as a dangerous front organization. More alarming, however, is that CAIR is part of an organized crime network in America made up of more than 100 other Muslim front groups that collectively make up the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.

The second half of the book exposes the inner workings of the mob-like Brotherhood, and outlines its broader conspiracy of infiltrating the American government and "destroying Western civilization from within." For the first time, the constellation of dots in this sinister conspiracy are connected, and connected convincingly.

"The evidence found in the investigation is incontrovertible - after all, it's their own documents laid bare," said co-author and investigative journalist Paul Sperry. "With more than 12,000 pages of support documentation, more than 40 pages of footnotes and an appendix containing more than 50 pages of exclusive confidential documents, Muslim Mafia offers hard proof of the Muslim Brotherhood's subversive strategy against America."

He added: "This is the pro-jihad factory for homegrown terrorism plaguing the nation now - the Brotherhood controls not only the political fronts but the radical mosques and schools and prison and military chaplains and proselytizing materials circulating in the country - yet no one is looking for the off switch."

The Muslim Brotherhood is known within Islamist circles as the "Ikhwan mafia," because of its highly organized structure, centralized control, and covert operations. Like the mob, it has its own internal bylaws, security, and military infrastructure. A network of front groups, cut-outs, and shell companies shield its criminal activities from the authorities.

"These guys talk about jihad and murdering Jews like the mob talked about killing-totally casual, like they were ordering pizza," said one FBI official in Washington quoted in the book.

Some of the key smoking-gun revelations detailed in the book include:

• New evidence that CAIR was launched to support the Hamas terrorist group, and has transferred tens of thousands of dollars to a group recently convicted as Hamas' top fundraising arm in the U.S. - money that ended up aiding terrorist attacks on Israelis and Americans;

• Internal documents showing CAIR, despite claims of cooperating with law enforcement, actively works behind the scenes to mislead and deceive the FBI on behalf of terrorism suspects - and has even cultivated Muslim moles inside law enforcement who have tipped off FBI terror targets;

• CAIR is more closely tied to al-Qaida than previously reported;

• CAIR claims to represent all Muslim Americans, however, it has victimized some 100 indigent Muslims in a massive fraud and threatened them when they tried to go to the media; and internally, personnel complaints reveal CAIR discriminates against Shiite Muslims and Muslim women within its own headquarters;

• CAIR and its sister fronts are funded by foreign Muslim Brotherhood sources;

• CAIR leaders share the Muslim Brotherhood's ultimate goal to replace the U.S. Constitution with Shariah law;

• The Muslim Brotherhood investment in corporate America will be used to pressure U.S. companies into compliance with Islamic principles.

"Muslim Mafia" reveals that these radical Islamofascists are working from within the United States to:

• Support Palestinian terrorists, and destroy Israel;

• Gut U.S. anti-terrorism laws;

• Loosen U.S. Muslim immigration policies;

• Convert Americans to Islam;

• Infiltrate the government and institutionalize Shariah law.

"The Council on American-Islamic Relations is an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator, yet according to its internal documents, it is planting agents inside Congress as well as the Obama administration while aggressively lobbying Congress to dismantle the antiterrorism infrastructure Congress set up after 9/11 to protect the nation from another Islamic terrorist attack," Sperry warned. "The Council on American-Islamic Relations, along with its sister front the Islamic Society of North America, are the spearhead of the Muslim Brotherhood's 'grand jihad' against Washington."

The Justice Department and FBI have already listed both CAIR and ISNA among U.S. front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood and for the Hamas terrorism group. "Muslim Mafia" reveals for the first time, through bank wire transfers, embassy cables and land records, that both groups are bankrolled by Arab governments and wealthy Middle East donors tied to 9/11 and other terrorism.

And they are doing the bidding of these hostile foreign interests, including propagating jihadi doctrine in the U.S. and supporting Hamas terrorists abroad. In effect, they are unregistered foreign agents with virtually unfettered access to the corridors of power inside the nation's capitol.

"Where are these terrorist front groups getting their money? And what kind of direction and orders are they under from their foreign backers?" Sperry asks. "The American people have a right to know."

"The radical Islamists overseas have repeatedly told us how they intend to infiltrate all areas of our society, and use the freedoms that are guaranteed under our Constitution to eventually replace it with Shariah law," writes U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, co-founder of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus, in the Foreword to "Muslim Mafia." "They have telegraphed their intent. Now we have proof - from the secret documents that this investigative team has uncovered, coupled with the ones recently declassified by the FBI - that their agents living among us have a plan in place, and they are successfully carrying out that subversive plan."

In a world where fighting terrorism is no longer popular and public leaders mask the reality of and in some cases intentionally cover up what's really happening within our borders, "Muslim Mafia" is an eye-opening wake-up call. It is a must read for anyone who wants the true story of the secret underworld that's conspiring to support terrorism and Islamize America.

Release Date: October 15, 2009
Publisher: WND Books
Price: $29.95 Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1-935071-10-5
Media Contact: Anita Jenkins 703-398-1137 media@wnd.com

ABOUT AUTHORS:

P. David Gaubatz, a veteran federal investigator and counter-terrorism specialist served for more than a decade as a special agent in the U.S. Air Force's elite Office of Special Investigations, where he held the U.S. government's highest security clearances including Top Secret/SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) and was briefed into many so-called black projects. Gaubatz is a U.S. State Department-trained Arabic linguist and has more than two decades of experience in the Middle East, including tours in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Iraq, where in 2003 he led a fifteen-man team in extracting the family members of the Iraqi lawyer credited with saving Army Private First Class Jessica Lynch.

Paul Sperry, a media fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, is former Washington bureau chief for Investor's Business Daily, and author of Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington, an Amazon Top 100 seller. The book is being used by top law enforcement departments in the country, as well as the U.S. military. Sperry has broken a number of national stories on the war on terror and other major issues and has been cited and credited by the Washington Post, USA Today, UPI and the Associated Press, among others. In addition, his columns have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Houston Chronicle, The American Spectator, and Reason, among other publications. Sperry has appeared on Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN and the NBC Nightly News. He currently writes editorials for Investor's Business Daily.

Christian Convert Teen Must Go Back to Ohio

Here is a Rifqa Bary update. Apparently the Judge in Florida has ruled that he sees no harm from Rifqa’s parents. The judgment is amazing since the Mosque that the Bary’s attend is of the Muslim Brotherhood/Wahhabi tradition. This means honor retribution will probably come Rifqa’s way for converting to Christianity and fleeing from the Muslim family for safety.

I wonder if the Mainstream Media will report if Rifqa is harmed, sent away by her parents to Sri Lanka or murdered for the name of Allah.

JRH 10/13/09 (Hat Tip: Muslims Against Sharia)

Assault on the military

It is bad enough that President Barack Hussein Obama is willing to sell-out American security in the name of appeasement and blaming America for its past foreign policies. Now BHO is obliterating troop morale among those fighting to uphold the American way by engaging the enemies of America on foreign lands.

Frank J. Gaffney describes the moral destruction of the U.S. military.

JRH 10/13/09

Radical Muslim Advises BHO

John R. Houk
© October 12, 2009

Who is Dalia Mogahed? Mogahed is a member of President BHO’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. This is a so-called multicultural advisory board. I presume “multicultural” is the defining word of the board. Among Leftists multiculturalism and diversity is to be promoted to the point of submerging the Christian and Anglo-Saxon heritage derived primarily from Britain.

Mogahed is typical of multiculturalists representing Islam. I say that meaning most American-Muslim groups are influenced by either the Muslim Brotherhood or Wahabbi psycho-Islam from Saudi Arabia. The former emphasizes a global Caliphate and the later emphasizes purist Islam from the Mohammed example. The emphasis is marginal in that both rigid Islamic camps strongly advocate much of same Islamic Supremacist propaganda.

Mogahed is the kind of multiculturist described above. She also promotes the West (i.e. America) accept the Muslim practice of Sharia Law. Despite of what Mogahed may tell her listeners, Sharia Law does not promote civil or human rights. Rather Sharia Law promotes the way of Mohammed which is brutal toward those who do not like Mohammed’s way and to Muslims who stray of Sharia’s path.

Why in the world would President Barack Hussein Obama place a person with links to concepts of Islamic despotism contrary to American Liberty and Freedom on a multicultural advisory council to give advice relating to Islam?

ACT! For America wonders that as well. They sent this out to their email list:

JRH 10/12/09
*************************
ASTONISHING

ACT! For America
Email sent: October 12, 2009 11:25:14 AM

Did you realize that "The majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with sharia compliance”?

That’s right, according to Dalia Mogahed, President Obama’s advisor on Muslim affairs, who made this astonishing statement in an interview on a British television show (see story below).

Mogahed has made news before.

She was a member of the U.S. Muslim Engagement Project, which called for “engagement” with the Muslim Brotherhood — the organization that has a 100 year plan for subverting and overthrowing the West.

She teamed up with John Esposito to conduct a poll on Islam, then misrepresented some of the results (some called it “cooking the books”) in order to increase the number of Muslim “moderates.”

What makes Mogahed’s demonstrably untrue assertion about shariah even more disturbing is that she made it in an interview hosted by a member of the radical Islamist organization Hizb ut Tahrir.

Hizb ut Tahrir is committed to the overthrow of democracy and capitalism and the worldwide imposition of shariah Islamic law. The organization has been banned as a terrorist organization in several countries — but remarkably, not here in the United States.

For Mogahed to assert that shariah promotes “gender justice” would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.

That she has the ear of the White House is yet another chilling reminder of how our nation is being led down the path of forced Islamification that England and Western Europe have already walked.

This is another reason why, over the past few weeks, we have been issuing such an urgent call to action to you, our members. If you have not yet responded to our fall “Call to Action,” there’s still time to help us reach our goal.

Please click here to become a monthly contributing Patriot Partner.

Or you can help by making a one-time gift as a Contributing Member by clicking here. (To make your gift with a check, click here to print out a reply form to mail with your check).

There are ample signs that a large percentage of the American people, once adequately informed about the multiple threats of radical Islam, don’t want an America that looks like England.

Help us reach them. Help us educate them. Help us mobilize them. There is time — but we don’t have ten or fifteen years. We need to act NOW, as if our very future depends on it — because it does.

+++++++++++++++


Barack Obama adviser says Sharia Law is misunderstood

By Andrew Gilligan and Alex Spillius
Published: 8:00PM BST 08 Oct 2009
Telegraph

President Barack Obama's adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, has provoked controversy by appearing on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Sharia Law.

Miss Mogahed, appointed to the President's Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said the Western view of Sharia was "oversimplified" and the majority of women around the world associate it with "gender justice".

The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party.

The group believes in the non-violent destruction of Western democracy and the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia Law across the world.

Miss Mogahed appeared alongside Hizb ut Tahrir's national women's officer, Nazreen Nawaz.

During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular "man-made law" and the West's "lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism".

They called for Sharia Law to be "the source of legislation" and said that women should not be "permitted to hold a position of leadership in government".

Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that "promiscuity" and the "breakdown of traditional values" were what Muslims admired least about the West.

She said: "I think the reason so many women support Sharia is because they have a very different understanding of sharia than the common perception in Western media.

"The majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with sharia compliance.

"The portrayal of Sharia has been oversimplified in many cases."

Sharia in its broadest sense is a religious code for living, which decrees such matters as fasting and dressing modestly. However, it has also been interpreted as requiring the separation of men and women.

It also includes the controversial "Hadd offences", crimes with specific penalties set by the Koran and the sayings of the prophet Mohammed. These include death by stoning for adultery and homosexuality and the removal of a hand for theft.

Miss Mogahed admitted that even many Muslims associated Sharia with "maximum criminal punishments" and "laws that... to many people seem unequal to women," but added: "Part of the reason that there is this perception of Sharia is because Sharia is not well understood and Islam as a faith is not well understood."

The video of the broadcast has now been prominently posted on the front page of Hizb ut Tahrir's website.

Miss Mogahed, who was born in Egypt and moved to America at the age of five, is the first veiled Muslim woman to serve in the White House. Her appointment was seen as a sign of the Obama administration's determination to reach out to the Muslim world.

She is also the executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, a project which aims to scientifically sample public opinion in the Muslim world.

During this week's broadcast, she described her White House role as "to convey... to the President and other public officials what it is Muslims want."

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said Miss Mogahed was “downplaying” Sharia Law.

“There is a reason sharia has got a bad name and it is how it has been exercised. Regrettably in the US there have been acts of injustice perpetrated against women that are driven by the Sharia-type mindset that women are objects not human beings,” she said.

She cited the example of Muzzammil Hassan, a Buffalo man who ran a cable channel aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes and was charged earlier this year with beheading his wife after she filed for divorce.

“Americans understand by example, it’s not as if we are an ignorant mass of people. Just as we don’t broad brush all Muslims, so should Dalia not downplay the serious nature of sharia law.”
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