FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III plans to give a lunch talk to the American Muslim Council’s Annual Conference on Friday June, 28th, because, as his spokesman Bill Carter has explained, the FBI regards the AMC as “the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States.” The AMC however, is one of the most extreme U.S. groups supporting militant Islam. AMC has consistently defended terrorist groups, designated as such by the US Government and/or by foreign governments, while it has worked to undermine stronger anti-terrorist measures designed to protect Americans here at home.
It is important to note that:
- AMC has a long and consistent history of making common cause with terror groups in the United States, most of which are unrelated to Islam or Mideast issues. (AMC is an “active member” of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, many of whose members have bombed America, e.g., the Puerto Rican FALN and Macheteros, Black Liberation Movement, Weather Underground), and abroad in Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Sudan -- all countries separate from the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
- AMC has a history of common cause with cop-killers. Its active membership in the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom puts AMC on the side of Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner; and Leonard Peltier, who murdered FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. The former president of the Executive Board of the AMC Board of Directors is Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown), who was twice on the FBI’s own Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. He once threatened to assassinate Lady Bird Johnson, then-First Lady of the United States. Today he is serving a life sentence for the 2000 murder of Fulton County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Kinchen.
- AMC representatives repeatedly refuse to denounce specific terrorists or terrorist groups, always dodging into generalities about terror, and then entering into political diatribes explaining why the terror or terrorist in question allegedly is justified or engaged in “freedom struggle.” AMC executive director, Eric Vickers, has repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas, Hizbollah, Egyptian and Palestinian Jihad, and other groups historically supported by AMC -- even including Al Qaeda!
- Soon after 9/11, AMC linked to a document called “Know Your Rights” that advises “Don’t Talk to the FBI.” AMC fervently opposed both Clinton and Bush anti-terror initiatives prior to and following the attacks of 9/11.
- While many of the charges and quotes about AMC center on its long-time Board member and former Executive Director Abdurahman Alamoudi, (still housed in AMC’s offices and running the related-American Muslim Foundation) – the AMC itself has hosted terror groups from all over the world virtually each and every year of its 12 year life. AMC is directly associated with many groups, charities and individuals that have been raided, closed, or subject to asset impoundment, arrest or deportation in connection to international terrorism, both before and after the attacks of 9/11. Certainly American Muslim groups without this extremely broad and deep history of troubling connections can be found and fostered.
Apologizing for Terrorism
- Hamas & Hizballah. Years ago, the State Department formally certified Hamas and Hizbullah as terrorist groups; AMC disagrees. Just two years ago Abdurahman Alamoudi, AMC’s long-time executive director and Board member, exhorted a rally outside the White House “We are ALL supporters of Hamas. Allahu Akhbar!…I am also a supporter of Hizbullah.” (This statement caused candidates George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton to return $1000. contributions from Alamoudi.) A Hamas publication in the United States, Az-Zaytuna, reported him as boasting that the AMC has gone “to the White House and defended what is called Hamas.”
- Terrorist fundraising fronts. The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) is one of the primary U.S.-based charities supporting terrorists overseas and President Bush ordered it closed after 9/11 for collecting money “used to support the Hamas terror organization.” AMC, however, responded by condemning the president’s act as “particularly disturbing … unjust and counterproductive.” Before the group was closed AMC had bestowed an award on it, commending its “strong global vision.”
- Plotters against Jordanian king. A previous AMC annual conference hosted Layth Shubayalat a terrorist implicated in an Islamist plot to topple King Hussein. AMC also has defended the outlawed Jordanian Islamic Action Front.
- 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Alamoudi has defended Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
- Beirut ‘terrorist conference.’ In January 2001 in Beirut, Lebanon, Abdurahman Alamoudi, former AMC Executive Director and current Secretary of AMC's Board of Directors attended and participated in what the U.S. State Department called a terrorist conference with a "destructive agenda." The conference brought together leaders of Hamas, Hizballah, Islamic Jihad, and Usama Bin Ladin's organization. The communiqué issued at the end of the conference stated, "The only decisive option to achieve this strategy [the destruction of Israel] is the option of Jihad in all its forms and resistance…" The communiqué also called for a boycott of American products (in addition to Israeli products), "The American products are exactly like the Israeli products. America today is a second Israel."
- Sudanese terrorism. AMC has provided defense of, and press conferences for, the Sudanese National Islamic Front , a State Department-designated terrorist group ; denied Sudanese connections with terrorism arguing that “[Sudan is] not engaged in terrorist activities and is not harboring terrorists,” despite Sudan’s place on the U.S. government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism; and denied Sudan’s continued practice of slavery. They also hosted an Iranian-backed radical cleric of the NIF, Hassan al-Turabi, for a U.S. visit in 1992.
- Syrian terrorism is not terrorism. The ambassador from another terrorist-sponsoring state, Syria, Rostum Al-Zoubi, will be speaking on the same podium as will Director Mueller. In 1996, the then Deputy Director of AMC, Khaleed Saffuri, stated, “Many of the things called terrorism in the hearing, by international law, is not terrorism," referring to a HIRC hearing chaired by Chairman Gilman on Syria's support for terrorism.
- Part of terrorism legal support campaign. The American Muslim Council belongs to the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF), whose President is Sami Al-Arian of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. NCPPF is ‘legal aid’ for every known terrorist group in the US. Specifically, NCPPF defends the PFLP-MF, Sheik Abdul Rahman, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, ETA, FALN, NORAID, Shining Path, Weather Underground, AIM’s Leonard Peltier who killed two FBI agents in 1975, among others. Although Al-Arian is the organization’s President, the real dynamo is Kit Gage, Executive Vice President at the former Soviet-funded front group, the National Lawyer's Guild.
- Won’t denounce terror groups when given the chance. AMC’s current Executive Director, Eric Erfan Vickers, appearing on the Alan Keyes show on 18 June 2002, did not, when given the opportunity, denounce terror groups AMC had previously supported. He declined to denounce Al Qaeda by name when requested to do so on Fox News on 19 June 2002.
- U.S. pulled money from AMC leader’s group. Vickers was also an incorporator and Board Member of the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), which had two grants worth $4.2 million revoked by the U.S. Agency for International Development, at the State Department’s request, because of the group’s ties with terrorist sponsoring Sudan (including the provision by IARA officials of intelligence equipment to AlQaeda). AMC’s current President Yayha Basha served on the Agency’s Board as Vice President.
- Denounces moderate Muslims who openly oppose terrorism. The AMC has aggressively attacked Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a leading moderate voice in the American Muslim community. Kabbani has spoken out against militant Islamic fundamentalism and the network of front groups operating and raising funds in the U.S.
Hostility to the United States
- For all its apparent patriotism, AMC harbors a deep anti-Americanism. AMC has not openly urged American Muslims to help root out terrorists from their communities, instead choosing to denounce U.S. anti-terrorism efforts as being hostile to Muslims. One of its featured speakers and coalition allies, Sami Al-Arian of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, is on the record calling, “Let us damn America.”
- Alamoudi has dilated on the agony of living in a country he loathes: “I think if we are outside this country, we can say oh, Allah, destroy America, but once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it. There is no way for Muslims to be violent in America, no way. We have other means to do it. You can be violent anywhere else but in America.”
- Former AMC President Al-Amin was noted for saying “We’re gonna burn America down,” during his days as a 1960s radical.
A Checkered History with Law Enforcement
- AMC opposed 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the key aspects of President Bush’s 2001 USA PATRIOT Act, both designed to strengthen U.S. anti-terrorism capabilities. It now accuses Attorney General John Ashcroft of “using national security as a pretext” to engage in a pattern of ethnic and religious discrimination” and instilling “intimidation.”
- The former president of the Executive Board of its Board of Directors is Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown), who was twice on the FBI’s own Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Today he is serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a Georgia sheriff’s deputy.
And finally, beware the weight of demographics when it is raised in debate. Eric Vickers, executive director of the American Muslim Council, defended AMC thusly on CNN Wednesday night: "There has been this continuing process of Mr. Harris and others trying to subvert the ability of the 7 million Muslims in this country having a dialogue with their government."
7 million Muslims?! They're still peddling that line, even after a thorough investigation showed our best estimate of Muslims in America was around 2 million.
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