Islamisation: Da’wa Ads in the West

Da’wa Ads in the West

by Daniel Pipes

I’ve become aware over the years that Islamist groups have taken out advertisements in Western countries to promote Islam (known in Arabic as da’wa). This weblog entry occasionally notes these efforts, their sponsors, texts, and responses.

For starters, the Islamic Circle of North America plans and Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn imam, plan to place ads during the month of Ramadan on 1,000 of the New York City subway system’s roughly 6,200 cars at a a cost of about $48,000. Each ad will feature a black panel on the left and a white panel on the right. The left poses questions such as “Q: Islam?” “Q: Prophet Muhammad?” or “Q: Head Scarf?” and the right replies with “A: You deserve to know, 877-WHY-ISLAM or www.WhyIslam.org.”

In a letter to Metropolitan Transit Authority officials, U.S. Rep. Peter King (Republican of New York) wrote “I have no problem with the ad itself, but I have a very, very real problem with those behind it,” a reference to ICNA and Wahhaj. King described him as “a known Islamic extremist” who would be gaining “credibility and stature” through the bus promotion. King called on the MTA “not to have these ads, not to go forward with them, and I don’t see this as a free speech issue at all.”

 

The “New York Post” front page.

 

The New York Post broke news about the ad yesterday with a screaming front page headline titled “Jihad Train” and an inside article titled “Train-ing Day for Jihadists: Muslim Subway Ads Have Terror Tie-In.” (July 22, 2008)

Sep. 15, 2008 update: Some ten members of the Seattle chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America paid nearly $5,000 to sponsor 6 ads on the outside of Metro buses and about 25 on the inside of them. The text on the outside ads reads: “Q: Islam? A: You deserve to know, 877-WHY-ISLAM or www.WhyIslam.org.” One of the funders, Bilal Aijazi, a software developer, says the ads, which are scheduled to run until November, are meant to stir conversation and steer people toward information on Islam. “We feel often Muslims don’t have a voice. This is just a way to present the community with a source of information about Islam that comes from Muslims themselves.”

A Seattle bus with the pro-Islam ad.

Jan. 15, 2009 update: For the controversy over ads in Broward Country, Florida, proclaiming “ISLAM: The Way of Life of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad,” see my weblog entry “CAIR claims Abraham, Moses, and Jesus for Islam”

A Ft. Lauderdale bus with an ad claiming Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as Muslims.

 

Feb. 19, 2009 update: A previously unknown group, the Islamic Circle of the Bay Area, has taken out advertising on about 170 “Muni” buses and 10 cable cars in the San Francisco area with a text that states that Islam is “The message of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad.”

 

A San Francisco cable car with an ad for Islam.

Mar. 4, 2009 update: “Zombie” took pictures of the San Francisco buses, including one that proclaims “ISLAM, Submission to God, 1-877-WhyIslam www.WhyIslam.org.” Zombie notes that there has been “nary a peep of comment or protest about these ubiquitous in-your-face ads” from denizens of what is “famously amongst the most secular and non-religious cities in the nation.”

July 5, 2008San Francisco‘s secular residents seem to accept the pro-Islam ads.

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2008/07/dawa-ads-in-the-west.html

ICNA’s New York City ad.

Insult : Face Criminal Charges

Israelis Insult Muslims, Face Criminal Charges

by Daniel Pipes

In 1997-98, the Israeli government, with Washington’s encouragement, arrested and jailed a young woman, Tatiana Soskin, who put up posters in Hebron that depicted the Muslim prophet, Muhammad, as a pig, A Jerusalem court convicted her of various crimes and sentenced her to two years in prison, plus a one-year suspended sentence. I covered the case at the time in an article, “[Hebron Pig Poster Incident:] How Clinton Adheres to the ‘Rushdie Rules’” but then forgot the topic: that seemed to be that, a one-time incident without consequences over the next decade.

 

 

But now a similar court case is taking place, as a poet goes on trial in Israel, explains Sultan Knish. Gershon (Gregory) Trastman writes for Vesti, a conservative Russian-language newspaper in Israel, and a recent poem by him, with references to Arab demographics as a weapon against Israel, has him in trouble. Here is a rough translation of his poem:

 

 

 

 

Today however in Israel it is
A Nightmare, the number of Arabs passes a Million
And increases without weakness or respite
Look upon them and your vision grows dark
I will tell the Jews without offense
At night they farm and form is filled
By the eclipse of the moonlight’s beam,
The breath of death, what way is found?
The hare, the cat, the locust cannot match
And whether through Ill Luck or Prophecy
We already pave the way to the Tomb of Night
The Tomb of Night, an Arab woman’s womb

 

 

 

 

In addition, Sergei Podrazhansky, the Vesti oped page editor, is on his way to court.

 

 

Comments:

(1) Two such cases suggest the Soskin episode was not aberrant but part of something larger.

(2) Dhimmitude appears to be flourishing in Israel.

 

Feb. 25, 2009 update: The slogan “No Arabs – No terrorism” emerged during the post-September 2000 violence and in 2002 was deemed racist by Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein. Nonetheless, Neria Ofan, 37, had a bumper sticker on his car with the slogan as he drove in 2004 through the West Bank to his residence in Yitzhar. In a February 18 ruling, Judge Shulamit Dotan of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court found Ofan guilty of incitement to racism. She explained why: the slogan is

tainted with racism because it connects the entire Arab population, without any differentiation among its members, and the execution of heinous terror acts. It thus shows hostility and enmity toward an entire populace, only because of its national-ethnic origin. The slogan also suggests a solution to the “problem” in the form of collective punishment of the Arab population by making it disappear, either by expulsion of by other means, which the reader need only imagine, as long as the country remains “clean” of Arabs.”

Ofan will be sentenced at a later date. He is the second person to be convicted for using the slogan, the first having been David Ha’ivri, who was sentenced to six months of community service for distributing T-shirts with the slogan on them.

Ofen responded by calling the judgment both “a bit illogical” and “a selective enforcement of the law.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir also accused the police and the courts of a double standard: “We see that when the Arabs chant ‘Death to the Jews’ as they did recently in Umm el-Fahm, neither the police nor the State Attorney’s Office do anything.” He also held that “No Arabs – No terrorism” does not amount to a direct call to violence.

Barak Medina, a law professor at Hebrew University agreed, noting that there is no uniform approach in such cases, which are influenced by the public mood and the general political circumstances. He also noted that Israeli law enforcement is more sensitive to remarks directed against a minority.

 

Comment: In contrast, a bumper sticker with “No Muslims – No Terrorism” was for sale in 2003 at a Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., and no one was arrested.

 

Mar. 2, 2009 update: On learning that “a cast member on the Israeli version of the reality show Survivor said he had named one of his shoes Muhammad,” I wonder if jail awaits him. So far, the only reaction I find is that GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah yesterday, as paraphrased by the Saudi newspaper Arab News, “called on the international community and the United Nations to take immediate measures to stop the defamation of prophets and religions.”

 

 

Related Topics: Dhimmitude, Freethinking & Muslim apostasy, Israel

Related Posts

Further Converts to Terrorism

A CAIR Miscellany

Muslim Hours at Municpal Swimming Pools in the West

 

 

 

Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

The Looming Tower
Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

by Lawrence Wright

Wright’s book may be the most important volume written about terrorism since 9/11. Aside from his eloquent writing (a rarity in the genre) and painstaking research, Wright, a staff writer for The New Yorker, brings to life the personalities that have animated the jihadist movement and helps the reader to understand how their ideas have had such violent force.

Wright’s narrative begins with the influential Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb, who is introduced as a confused, middle-aged man aboard a ship in 1948 bound for New York, struggling with whether he should cling to his Islamic faith once he reaches America or “indulge those temptations all around me.” Having resolved to adhere strictly to Islam, Qutb responded with disgust to the overt sexuality he found in the United States, seeing even a church dance as lascivious. Though his American travels radicalized Qutb, his most significant experience was imprisonment under Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egyptian regime. Qutb’s prison writings would shape Muslim militants’ thinking, and Wright shows how the harsh prison conditions Qutb suffered at the hands of fellow Muslims shaped his idea of takfir—leading him to conclude that his “jailers had denied God by serving Nasser and his secular state.”

Today Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are the most recognizable faces of the jihad, and Wright offers a fascinating study of their personal histories. As a teenager, Zawahiri once refused a car ride from the Egyptian vice president; referring to Egypt’s roundup of Islamists in 1954, Zawahiri told his brother, “We don’t want to get this ride from a man who participated in the courts that killed Muslims.” Bin Laden was also pious early in life, though he tried “not to be too much of a prig.” Believing that musical instruments were haram, bin Laden “organized some of his friends into an a cappella singing group,” even recording tunes about jihad.

Just as Wright brings Al-Qaeda’s most influential leaders to life, he also illuminates the U.S. officials charged with thwarting their efforts—men such as the FBI’s John O’Neill, a womanizer who “favored Chivas Regal and water with a twist, along with a fine cigar,” and the CIA’s driven, obsessive Michael Scheuer, whose response when the agency expected him to retire was, “Stick it in your ass.” Personal conflicts, exemplified by the rivalry between O’Neill and Scheuer, would seriously hamper U.S. efforts.

The book culminates with 9/11, which occurred on O’Neill’s second day as the World Trade Center’s head of security. He was one of the approximately 3,000 victims that day. After walking outside in the chaos and calling both of his lovers, O’Neill was last seen alive entering the tunnel to the south tower.

Though Wright makes no policy recommendations, he shows that—contrary to the flawed assertions of some analysts—personalities matter, and a small group of people can profoundly change the course of history. He draws on a wealth of information derived from rare documents and interviews with sources that range from the lowest ranks of the jihadist movement to the highest echelons of U.S. government. His book provides an invaluable tool for understanding Al-Qaeda’s origins and evolution.

 

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 469 pp. $27.95 ($15.95, paper).

Reviewed by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2009
http://www.meforum.org/2080/the-looming-tower

PAKISTANI GUNMEN HAVE ASSAULTED SRILANKAN CRICKETERS

 

 

SHAME PAKISTAN! DENYING AND DIPLOMACY IS NOT THE ANSWER

 

Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on its way to play in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

 

6 Sri Lankan cricketers were reported injured including wicketkeeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara, Tilan Samaraweer and Ajantha Mendis in a shootout at Lahore in Pakistan this morning (March 3).The visiting Sri Lankan cricketers were on their way to the Gaddafi international stadium minutes before the commence 3rd day’s of play of the second test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

 

INJURED PLAYERS

Thilan Samaraweera (hospital)

Tharanga Paranavitana (hospital)

Mahela Jayawardene

Kumar Sangakkara

Ajantha Mendis

Suranga Lakmal

Chaminda Vaas

Assistant coach Paul Farbrace

 

 

Reports suggest 12 gunmen ambushed the team coach and its accompanying police detail on the Liberty Square roundabout in the heart of Lahore, as the convoy was on the way to the Gaddafi stadium for a Test match.

 

According to available information, gunmen who had arrived in a white car had opened indiscriminate small arms and RPG grenade attacks at the  bus and the escort vehicles that was transferring the Sri Lankan cricketers to the stadium. 

Security fears

Islamist insurgents who have staged high-profile attacks on civilian targets before are out of control, they are threat to all nation.

 

Pakistani terrorists had a plan to kidnap all players and keep hostage for their big benefit and demand. The lawless country is run by corrupted leaders have become a safe haven for terrorist organization. They attacked India time and again. And Pakistan has supported.

Eight people including five policemen were killed in the shoot out.

Sri Lankan tour has been called off after the attack. Intense trade of fire occurred between police and unknown attackers. CCPO Lahore Habibur Rehman said there were 12 attackers carrying rocket launchers; hand grenade, Kalashnikovs and Mousers who reportedly reached the site in rickshaws.

 

 

 

 

In a coordinated attack, the assailants ambushed the convoy carrying the squad and match officials at a traffic circle 100 yards (meters) from the main sports stadium in the eastern city of Lahore, triggering a 15-minute gunbattle with police guarding the vehicles.

None of the attackers was killed or captured at the scene, city police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said. Authorities did not speculate on the identities of the attackers or their motives.

The attack reinforced perceptions that nuclear-armed Pakistan is veering out of control under militant attack and will end hopes of international cricket teams — or any sports teams — playing in the country for months, if not years. Even before the incident, most cricket teams choose not to tour the country because of security concerns.

 

 

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman told

Attack on Sri Lankan team is an attempt to spoil Pak reputation . In an exclusive chat with Geo News, Sherry said president and prime minister have strongly denounced the attack and prime minister has ordered immediate enquiry of the incident and a report would be compiled soon.

She said security forces took the control of the area and there is no need to be panic. Foolproof security arrangements were made for the team. Governor Punjab Salman Taseer was also reached the scene soon after the attack.

 The TV news says the way the Pakistan authority is investigating the location and used arms it is apparent that they are destroying the evidence of crime.  Without wearing gloves and precaution measure they are handling   arms , used articles and everything  arbitrarily in the crime location. This evidence show Pakistan authority will not arrest and book the perpetrators to justice. 

 

Some interesting fact:

Pakistan is the center or link of most terror activities in the past  occured in South Asia , Middle East even in America and Europe .

Most terrorism done by Taliban, Al-quida, Laskar-e-Taiba etc. and ISI linked

Most terrorists are Muslim and their faith is Islam.

Most Muslim countries have some terrorism support, they say jehad or sharia law.

Most Muslim are religious they think  Koran is their only book of knowledge, so they don’t care for education and knowledge. But they are jealous of western lifestyle and well-off condition.

The most places Muslim dominate turn into hell, they ruin the economy, they ruin political stability, they ruin education and science ,freedom, freedom of expression, civilization, human rights etc.

Most Muslim try to turn a country into an Islamic country whenever they get majority.

Most Muslim show religious and bigot when others show secular and tolerant.

Pakistan and other Muslim countries speak a lot lies they call it a diplomacy.

 

 

 

 Drawing attention and sympathy  from International community Pakistan made it a regular practice . Every time it promises to curb terrorism and welfare of Pakistanis, as soon as the resource reaches them they use the money/resources  via ISI for terrorism and islamisation, because they believe They can have a share in Kashmir in the pretext of Azad Kashmir.

International community knows well India and Pakistan was created out of British India. And princely state Kashmir has legally and willfully has joined India. Pakistan has to free the part of Kashmir they illegally occupied.  They think only proxy war by terrorist outfit can materialize their unborn dream.

It has been noticed the more civilized nation want to avoid war and pamper  Muslim, the more Muslim countries think they are expanding and winning. It should be checked.

 

Are UN, International Communities and US so fool that for last sixty years a country become so fragile and weak it is ruled sometimes by civilian Government and some time  by military dictator it is always demanding money and resources and promising all false.

 

The Indian government, which had ordered its players to steer clear of Pakistan, said the incident proved Islamabad was doing nothing to combat known militant networks.

‘It reminds us it is the responsibility of the incumbent government to take all precautions and all steps, particularly when the international community wants member countries to take certain positive steps to fight against terrorism,’ Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.

India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said the attack underscored ‘the enormity of the threat’ emerging from Pakistan, while India’s governing Congress party branded Pakistan ‘the epicentre and fountainhead of terror.’

‘Every country in the world must unite against this scourge by isolating the country and demanding immediate concrete results,’ Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.

 

After joining the so-called “war on terror” following the attacks on the United States in September 2001, Pakistan saw a significant rise in attacks by tribal movements and groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The security forces have borne much of the brunt of the violence but hundreds of civilians have also been killed.

PAKISTAN CRICKET TIMELINE

Sept 2001: New Zealand pull out of Pakistan tour following US military action in Afghanistan after 9/11 attacks; West Indies and Australia move games to neutral venues.

 

May 2002: New Zealand cancel tour of Pakistan after explosion outside team’s Karachi hotel

2007

July 10: More than 100 people are killed as Pakistani security forces storm the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) and a neighbouring religious school in Islamabad. The military operation came at the end of a long siege prompted by students seizing a number of police officers.

The crackdown at the mosque followed an anti-vice campaign by administrators in which students harassed music and video shop owners and abducted a number of women accused of being prostitutes.

The bloody end to the siege undermined the reputation of the security forces and led to an upsurge in attacks.

July 14: At least 23 paramilitary troops die and 27 others are wounded when a suicide bomber rams an explosives-packed car into their convoy in the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan region near the border with Afghanistan.

July 15: Another 49 people are killed and hundreds injured in a suicide attack and a number of car bombings across the North West Frontier Province in an apparent retaliation for the Lal Masjid operation.

More than half the deaths came in a suicide attack on the Dera Ismail Khan police recruitment centre.

July 27: A suspected suicide bomber kills at least 13 people at the Muzaffar hotel in Aabpara, Islamabad, after hundreds of stone-throwing protesters clash with police as the Lal Masjid reopened.

About 140 people in total lose their lives to suicide attacks in the month following the mosque raid.

 

Two suicide blasts in Rawalpindi injured at least 66 people [EPA]

September 4: At least 25 people are killed and 66 injured in two suicide bomb blasts in high security areas of Rawalpindi during morning rush hour.

The first blast took place near Qasim Market where a defence ministry bus carrying about 38 civilians and uniformed officials was hit, killing 18 people.

Five minutes later, a second blast took place behind the military’s general headquarters killing seven people.

October 18: The convoy of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister and leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, is attacked by a suicide bomber shortly after she returns from self-imposed exile.

Bhutto survives the blast in Karachi, but about 140 people are killed and more than 450 injured.

October 30: A police checkpoint in the high security zone of Rawalpindi, less than one kilometre from Musharraf’s camp office, is hit by a suicide bomber killing seven people, three of them policemen, and injuring 31 others.

November 24: Thirty people are killed in two suicide attacks in Rawalpindi.

In the first incident, a suicide bomber crashed his car into a bus carrying Inter-Services Intelligence officials to work, killing 28 officials and a bystander.2008

January 10: A suicide bomber walks up to police officers outside the high court in Lahore and detonates his explosives. Nineteen people die, including 16 police and three passers-by.

In the second attack another suicide bomber attempted to enter the General Headquarters (GHQ), blowing himself up when he is asked to identify himself.

December 21: A suicide bomb blast targeting Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, head of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, kills at least 57 people and injures more than 100 at Jamia Masjid Sherpao, in Charsadda District.

December 27: Bhutto is killed in a second suicide bombing after a rally in Rawalpindi. More than 20 other people are also killed in the blast.

Another 47 people die in riots following the attack as protesters blame Musharraf’s government for failing to provide adequate security for the opposition leader.

 

An explosion at an election rally in Charsaddain northwestern Pakistan leaves at least 25 people dead. The attack is believed to be targeting members of the secular ANP party, the leader of which was assassinated two days earlier. 

February 9: An explosion at an election rally in Charsaddain northwestern Pakistan leaves at least 25 people dead. The attack is believed to be targeting members of the secular ANP party, the leader of which was assassinated two days earlier.

February 18: Aaj TV reports that at least 24 people are killed and nearly 200 injured in election-related violence.

February 29: About 38 people are killed and 75 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Mingora in Swat District  during the funeral of a senior police officer who had been killed just hours earlier. 

March 2: At least 40 people die when a suicide bomber attacks a traditional tribal meeting in the Darra Adam Kheil region, near the city of Peshawar.

March 11: Twin suicide car bomb strikes in Lahore kill 24 people, most of them in an attack on a government security office in the eastern city.

March 15: A bomb is thrown over the wall of an Italian restaurant in Islamabad, a favourite hangout for foreigners.

A Turkish woman is killed and several others, including four FBI agents, are hurt.

 

The Marriott blast was said to have the ‘hallmarks’ of an al-Qaeda attack [AFP]

May 18: A bomb attack on the Army’s Punjab Regimental Centre market in the city of Mardan kills at least 13 people, including four soldiers.

This was the second attack in Mardan, a month after a car bomb on April 25 killed three and injured 26 people.

June 2: A suicide bomber blows up a car outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad killing at least six people and wounding about 20.

A message purporting to be from al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the blast and suggests it was a response to the re-publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad.

July 6: A suspected suicide blast targets police officers deployed to provide security for a rallly marking the one-year anniversary of the Lal Msjid siege.

August 21: At least 59 people are killed by two suicide bombings as they arrive for work at an arms factory in the town of Wah, 30km west of Islamabad.

The Pakistani Taliban claim the attack which takes place just days after Pervez Musharraf steps down as president.

September 3: Snipers fire at Prime Minister Gilani’s motorcade in a failed assassination attempt.

September 20: Over 50 people killed and hundreds injured in suicide bombing at Islamabad’s Marriott hotel. The Taliban denied a role in the blast, but US intelligence said the attack had the “hallmarks” of an al-Qaeda operation.

November 2: At least eight Pakistani soldiers killed in suicide attack in South Waziristan, close to Afghan border, hours before arrival in Pakistan of David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command.

December 5: A car bomb kills 20 people and injures at least 45 others in Peshawar. The attack destroyed a hotel, a mosque and set fire to several shops.

Police officials said that chemicals intented to spread the fire were contained in the bomb.

December 28: At least 30 people are killed in a suicide car bomb blast at a polling station near Buner, a town in the North West Frontier Province during a by-election for a provincial assembly.

2009

February 5: At least 24 people are killed and 50 others injured in a suspected suicide bombing near a Shia mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan, a town in central Pakistan.

February 20: At least 30 people killed and more than 60 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a funeral procession in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in North West Frontier Province.

March 3: At least five policemen killed and six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team injured in attack in eastern city of Lahore.