Tag Archives: Illinois

Illinois AG Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

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IPT News:

As her assistants defend the state against a discrimination suit brought by a Chicago-area imam, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is among a slew of state officials saluting the group representing him in advance of its annual fundraising banquet.

And the imam, rejected by the Illinois State Police (ISP) due to his past work for a Hamas-support network, is being honored at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago chapter banquet Saturday evening and will help with the fundraising.

CAIR represents Kifah Mustapha in litigation claiming the state discriminated against him and violated his free speech rights when the ISP rescinded a 2009 invitation making Mustapha the agency’s first volunteer Muslim chaplain.

The reversal followed a report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism showing Mustapha had been a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, which was convicted in 2008 of being part of a multi-million dollar American-based Hamas-support network. Mustapha was an unindicted co-conspirator in the case and had been on the Holy Land payroll.

The Attorney General’s office is defending the state police. It has moved for summary judgment in the case, arguing that Mustapha lacks standing to bring the lawsuit since the position was unpaid, so that Mustapha was not deprived of pay or benefits, as required by the federal statute which covers workplace discrimination. The ISP revoked Mustapha’s invitation after decision makers saw a confidential FBI report on him and were told he would not have passed the FBI’s background check for chaplains.

Madigan’s office also cited this video from the 1990s, showing Mustapha as part of a performing troupe singing the praises of Hamas and jihad as a young boy dances with a rifle. “O Hamas, raise the banners of Jihad,” the singers say. “The victory of God comes through it or through martyrdom. O Hamas, teach us the rifle.”

But Mustapha is a staple at CAIR-Chicago events, helping raise money for the chapter for the past eight years. For that, CAIR hasdubbed him ”The Mobilizer.”

“As a Muslim Chicagoland mobilizer,” CAIR’s promotion says, “Sheikh Kifah Mustapha has garnered the support of the Muslim and interfaith community around various causes while enlightening them through Islamic teachings and thought. Sheikh Kifah has mobilized each and every one of our past eight fundraisers.

Illinois attorneys say the video and other evidence paint a disturbingly different picture of the man. They were horrified by the video’s imagery and message, Madigan’s attorneys wrote. Keeping Mustapha as a volunteer chaplain “could lead the public to believe that ISP looked the other way when confronted with evidence that Plaintiff aided and abetted, or at least cheered for, terrorism.”

They urged the judge to watch the video, too, saying the state police “had to decide whether somebody cheering for violence while a child holds a gun is fit to be a state police chaplain. A reasonable person would decide the answer to that question is an emphatic ‘no.’”

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State Dept. Officials Meet With Brotherhood-Linked Activist

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Osama Abu Irshaid

by: Ryan Mauro

American Muslims for Palestine boasts that a member of its national board, Osama Abu Irshaid, was part of a delegation organized by the U.S. Campaign for the End of the Israeli Occupation that met with State Department officials on June 26. Irshaid says that Hamas rocket fire (which target civilian population centerss) are a form of “legitimate resistance” and he used to be the editor of a Muslim Brotherhood front’s newspaper.

Irshaid used to be the editor of the Islamic Association for Palestine’s Arabic newspaper, Al-Zaytounah. Internal Muslim Brotherhood documents unequivocally confirm that this organization was one of its fronts set up to promote the Hamas agenda. IAP events and publications consistently featured Hamas propaganda.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism documents that he refers to Hamas as “the resistance” and justified its firing of rockets into Israel.

“So instead of blaming the victim [Hamas], we should look at the criminal and the murderer. And instead of blaming the victim that even though if they’re firing rockets, regardless, now this is according to the international law should be a legitimate resistance, because they are under occupation,” he said.

The group Irshaid is currently a board member of, American Muslims for Palestine, calls for the destruction of Israel and features Brotherhood-linked speakers. Its event in Illinois on November 22-25 has many Brotherhood-linked speakers that have stated their support for Hamas and suicide bombings. Click here to read more about AMP and its upcoming conference.

Read more at Radical Islam

Illinois State Government’s Muslim Brotherhood Love Affair

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Posted by Ryan Mauro Bio ↓ on Nov 28th, 2011 at Frontpage:

The Muslim Brotherhood​’s stated objective in the U.S. is to “wage a grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house.” This is done through thinly-disguised front organizations with credentials as “moderates” that can win the affection of the media and officials. These fronts’ relationship with the government of the state of Illinois is a perfect example of this strategy’s success.

On August 30, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced who would serve on his newly-created Muslim American Advisory Council.  Among those chosen were Ahmed Rehab and Safaa Zarzour. The former is the National Strategic Communications Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Executive-Director of its Chicago chapter. The latter is the secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and is the chairman of CAIR-Chicago’s board. ISNA is listed in the Brotherhood’s own documents as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”

Both CAIR and ISNA are Muslim Brotherhood fronts and are listed by the federal government as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, which was shut down for financing Hamas. CAIR’s founders belonged to the Islamic Association for Palestine, which was also shut down as a front for Hamas. The two organizations went to court to get their designations lifted, but a judge determinedthat the government provided “ample evidence” connecting them to Hamas to justify the labels.

In 2007, the federal government said that, “From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists” and “the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.” In 2009, the FBI ended its outreach programs with CAIR because of the evidence of its involvement with Hamas.

The well-documented and well-publicized evidence of CAIR and ISNA’s involvement with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood has not stopped Illinois Governor Quinn and other officials from courting them. After all, opponents of the Brotherhood fronts are subject to being called “Islamophobes. As Quinn said in his announcement of his Muslim American Advisory Council, Illinois has “more than 400,000 Muslims and 300 mosques” and that’s a lot of voters.

“I congratulate CAIR-Chicago on another successful year of serving the needs of the Muslim population in Illinois, and for working toward ensuring justice and civil rights for all the communities you serve,” Quinn said in an email in March. Circuit County Clerk Dorothy Brown and Attorney General Lisa Madigan also complimented the group.

The website of CAIR-Chicago lists endorsements from the Secretary of State, five Democratic members of Congress, four mayors including that of Chicago, and various other officials in the state. It even includes praise from the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department and the Springfield FBI office’s Special Agent in Charge. Another Democratic Congressman, Mike Quigley of the 5th district, apologized to Muslims “on behalf of this country for discrimination you have faced” in September, playing into the theme of anti-Muslim hysteria and victimization the Islamists constantly use.

This isn’t the first time that Illinois officials have embraced terror-tied Muslim Brotherhood​ members. In December 2009, Imam Kifah Mustapha was appointed as the state police’s first Muslim chaplain. He, like CAIR and ISNA, was labeled as an “unindicted co-conspirator” by the federal government in the Holy Land trial. Documents introduced into court show that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s secret “Palestine Committee” to support Hamas in the U.S.

As a registered agent of the Holy Land Foundation, he raised the Hamas front hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The HLF sponsored his band, al-Sakhra, which performed songs supporting Hamas, jihad and violence against Israel. He also sat on the board of directors of the Hamas front named the Islamic Association of Palestine. CAIR also enjoys his support as a major fundraiser.

The Illinois State Police fired him in June 2010 as their chaplain after it Mustapha’s extremism was reported on. CAIR-Chicago immediately responded with a lawsuitaccusing the State Police of McCarthyism and “fear-mongering and anti-Muslim rhetoric that has senselessly engulfed our nation.”

He has been the imam at the Mosque Foundation of Bridgeview since 2002, which was taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s after it wrested control from moderate Muslims. It quickly began promoting extremism, including Hamas, suicide bombings and speaking out against assimilation.

Shockingly, despite all of the incriminating facts about Mustapha, he was given a six-week tour of FBI facilities including its main training center and the National Counterterrorism Center in September 2010 as part of its outreach campaign. A local news report said that “he pushed agents to fully explain everything from the bureau’s use of deadly force policy to radical and ethnic profiling.” The FBI​ responded to the outrage by saying his involvement posed no risk.

Far too many of the Prairie State’s officials have been swindled by the Muslim Brotherhood and the voters of Illinois need to hold them accountable. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and all of the officials whose public endorsements are proudly published on CAIR-Chicago’s website should be embarrassed and hopefully, replaced.