by Bruce Keegan
13 January 2007
Highlights
From 2003 to 2004 Rasmieyh Abdelnabi was a reporter and op-ed writer for the Northern Star at NIU. She wrote articles defending Islam and veil wearing, and she wrote a few pro-Palestinian articles such as “Israel’s cry for pity should fall on deaf ears,” Northern Star, 5 Nov 2003. (Only a few of her articles can be found on the Web, but there may be more if one looked into the NIU archives). A couple of Rasmieyh's articles came to the attention of pro-Israel watchdogs, as well as anti-Islamists bloggers.About the same time that Rasmieyh wrote a rabid anti-Israel piece, a Jewish student’s car was vandalized in broad daylight on or near the NIU campus. Someone keyed in the word “Jew.” Northern Star staff refused to report on it calling it an isolated incident. Isaac then read the “Israel’s cry…” article and responded, and Isaac's older brother, a NIU alumnus, called the Northern Star an anti-Semitic/Pro-Terrorist paper.
From 2003 to 2004 Abdelnabi was the Women’s Representative in the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Northern Illinois University (NIU) at DeKalb outside of Chicago. Daniel Pipes refers to the MSA as the Saudi “Wahhabism’s contribution to the North American campus.” From 2004-2005 Rasmieyh was the female co-president, the other co-president being a male. Rasmieyh wrote a few newsletter articles that were pro-veil and pro-umma.
Caption: Derrick Shareef
In 2006 or so Rasmieyh Abdelnabi became a reporter for the Beloit Daily News in Beloit, Wisconsin. Then in December 2006 Derrick Shareef, aka Talib Abu Salam Ibn Shareef, plotted to attack synagogues in area, especially the one in DeKalb. He also considered attacking a courthouse in DeKalb and CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Illinois. He was arrested on 6 Dec 2006.
Derrick Shareef actually attended the same mosque in DeKalb that Rasmieyh attended in college, but Rasmieyh mentions none of this in her piece on Shareef. Shareef mentions that the umma was a motivating concept for his terror activity. The reader will find critique of Rasmieyh's reporting on Shareef as well as on Rasmieyh’s other articles. Also see this related blog entry: Journalists and Jihad in the Heartland of the USA.
Introduction
This blog entry was prompted by reading the work of local reporters (via the Web) regarding the See the previous blog entry for another post on this subject.
Discussion of excerpts of Rasmieyh Abdelnabi’s writings begins here. Some longer excerpts of her writings and links to the full text can be found at the end of this blog entry.
Rasmieyh’s Background
From 1998 to 2000, Rasmieyh attended the Argo Community High School, 7329 West 63rd Street, Summit, IL 60501. This high school is 5.1 miles west of the AlSalm MosqueFoundation, 3247 W 63rd St, Chicago, IL 60629, and 4.2 miles north of the hardline Mosque Foundation at 7260 W 93rd St, Bridgeview, IL 60455, and associated ministries (e.g., SoundVision, food pantry, a Muslim association).The AlSalm (or Al Salam) Mosque was in the news for suing a city over a land deal that fell through, and then later was in the news again for taking a grant of 500,000 USD from the “Global Relief Foundation, an Islamic “charity” that was closed down by the Feds after 9/11 due to terrorism links.” The Bridgeview Mosque has been in the news a lot for its radicalism and connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Chicago Tribune reported that many Bridgeview mosque members are from Beitunia, a Palestinian town of 20,000 four kilometers southwest of Ramallah near the Green Line just north of Jerusalem. Rasmieyh wrote that she visited an uncle back in Palestine in the summer of 2003. Since she mentions walking through Ramallah (or Ram Allah) the most, perhaps her uncle lives in Beitunia or thereabouts. The Tribune reported that Islamist activists such as Al-Arian have raised funds for charity at the Bridgeview, and this money subsequently went for terrorism in the Holy Land. In Islam, the rightful recipients of zakat charity include jihadists. The FBI has investigated the mosque, but filed no charges. The Chicago Tribune reported on the Bridgeview mosque:
Rasmieyh wrote in her college newspaper that her public highschool brought in pro-Palestinian speakers:All but the youngest girls wore head scarves….Soon, mosque
leaders—adhering to a strict interpretation of Islam—told the
congregation's women to cover their hair and wear looser clothing.
During social events, the women were separated from the men….Men
who attended the mosque grew their beards and traded their T-shirts
for long tunics. Women draped themselves in loose, ankle-length
robes….Most non-Muslims moved away from the mosque neighborhood,
frustrated by traffic jams on Fridays and the call to prayer that rang out
over mosque loudspeakers. Muslims were happy to take their places.
‘It was convenient to live here,’ recalled Zakaria Khudeira, who moved
in two blocks from the mosque. ‘You could dress the way you wanted.
The children wouldn’t be called names.’ The mosque now attracts
thousands of worshipers—most of them Palestinian-Americans—by
offering pro-Palestinian sermons, a spiritual refuge and a strict version
of Islam. The ultraconservative Saudi Arabian government partially
pays the salary of prayer leader Sheik Jamal…Still others joined the
mosque because they liked the pro-Palestinian politics, sermons in
Arabic and what they saw as its authentic interpretations of the Koran,
the Muslim holy book….Sheik Jamal….raised money at one national
Islamic conference by asking people to donate in the memory of a
Palestinian suicide bomber, according to his speech in 2000, taped by
terrorism researcher Steven Emerson and translated by the
Tribune…..mosque attendance is booming. Friday prayers are so crowded
that dozens cannot get inside, forcing them to place their prayer rugs on
the front lawn. As many as 2,000 attend Friday prayers. Bridgeview
remains one of the most popular of the Chicago area’s 50 mosques…..At
a prayer service last May, Sheik Jamal raised $50,000 for Palestinian
activist Sami Al-Arian, a former professor at the University of South
Florida who is charged with being the U.S. leader of Palestinian Islamic
Jihad. To rally donors, the sheik called Israel ‘a foreign, malignant
and strange element on the blessed land’…. The mosque remains so
conservative, several former leaders said, because more and more
mosque officials are Brotherhood members. Mosque leaders declined
to comment on the Brotherhood, but director Bassam Jody noted that
most of the mosque's 24 directors belong to the Muslim American
Society—a group with strong ties to the Brotherhood. The mosque
vice president runs the society’s local chapter. In an interview in Cairo,
Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef said he and other
Brotherhood members helped create the society and that it follows
Brotherhood philosophy.[1]
Suheir Hammod, a Palestinian-American writer, visited my high school
and told us a story about a 7-year-old Palestinian boy. The Israeli army
was doing a routine raid of his family’s house. They ordered everyone
out of the house. The boy saw the soldiers with the big guns and he saw
his family leaving the house, so he started running. He ran out of the
house and everyone started to yell for him to stop but he just kept running.
He was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier for not listening. It turned out
that the boy was deaf, so he didn’t hear the yelling or even the shot that
killed him. When the Israeli Defense Force was asked about the incident,
they called it an ‘accidental necessity.’ I always knew things were bad
in Palestine – I just never realized how bad.[2]
College Muslim Student Organizations
From 2004-2005 Rasmieyh was the female co-president, the other co-president being a male. Here is an example newsletter written by co-president Rasmieyh:
Bismallah Ar-Rahman Al-Rahim (Arabic greeting at the top of the letterhead)
Muslim Students’ Association of Northern Illinois University
Volume 2, Issue 1 August 27, 2004
Letter from the Presidents
By: Sister Rasmieyh Abdelnabi {junior, Political Science and History}
and Brother Omar Mishal {senior, Electrical Engineering}....
Our focus this academic year is to reintroduce the importance of the ‘ummah,’ or community in Islam….The MSA is planning on having more events such as speakers throughout the year. We plan on hosting an ethnic night showing that Muslims come from all over the world, not just the Middle East. We would also like to start organizing Quran memorization, weekly religious lessons, Ramadan activities, and sporting events....
May Allah bless each and every one of you, and help you to have a great
and successful semester.
Walaikum Assalamu Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu!
Rasmieyh on Veils, Scarves and Niqabs
Caption: Rasmieyh Abdelnabi in Scarf
The Scotsman reported that Al-Qaeda’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, in a video near the end of 2006…
…praised Muslim women who insist on wearing the
Islamic veil despite pressures not to in some Western lands.
He described anyone doing that as ‘a soldier in the battle of Islam
against the Zionist- Crusader attack.’[3]
Headscarf wearing seems innocent and even virtuous, but it often leads to veils, hijabs, niqabs and burkas where women in public are more and more concealed. In Islamdom and even in Islamic neighborhoods in Europe, the Islamic dress code is enforced by harassment of offenders, up to and including physical violence, shootings, acid splashed on uncovered faces and thighs, and starting people on fire with flammable liquids. Moreover, the veil is the uniform of Islamism, just as gangs and Neo-Nazis have uniforms. These are just two reasons that France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Shah’s Iran, Tunisia and other countries have banned or are considering banning veil wearing in schools and other public places.
The West needs to resist all types of lawful Islamism such as veil wearing.[4] For instance, in Minneapolis Somali cab drivers did not want to transport people with alcohol or guide dogs for the blind. At first the airport was going to accommodate them, but then six Imams caused trouble on a jet in Minneapolis, and then the cabbies wanted prayer rooms next. The officials saw that the Islamists would not stop until the entire airport, city, state and country was Sharia-compliant. So instead they have decided to yank the licenses of the cab drivers who refuse fairs for religious reasons. There are other reasons for resisting head covers. Daniel Pipes wrote:
On grounds of security, however, I believe that both coverings
should be banned, as one cannot have faceless persons walking the streets,
driving cars, or otherwise entering public spaces.
During the summer of 2003 Rasmieyh spent three months in Palestine. She mentions walking through Ram Allah, Bethlehem and Anta. There she seems to have become militant about wearing her scarf as evidenced by at three articles (discussed next) that she wrote which mention her scarf wearing. In “The Fake Roadmap to Peace,” Northern Star, 3 Sep 2003, Rasmieyh wrote: Whenever someone mentions the Roadmap to Peace in
Palestine/Israel, I can’t help but laugh. I spent three months
this summer in Palestine…I could see it in every soldier that
checked my American passport looking for some error that
they could punish me for. I could see it in every Israeli-Jew’s
face. I could see them looking at me with this
why-can’t-you-just-go-away look. Some had a look of fear,
silently praying that I was not about to blow myself up. It did
not matter that I was American; all they saw was my scarf and
my Arab name, and treated me accordingly. They treated me
like the scum they felt I was.
Rasmieyh was impressed by how powerful she felt when she saw fear in Israeli Jewish faces. That was worth the trip to the Holy Land just by itself, no doubt. In the spirit of the Quran which says in the Spoils of War Sura:
Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your
power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the enemy
of Allah and your enemy [Q 008:060].
Rasmieyh was determined to get more Muslim women to wear their veils around the Northern Illinois University campus to scare the bejesus out of the infidels. So Rasmieyh, being the MSA Women’s Representative, wrote a piece entitled “Sisterly Advice” for the MSA newsletter, v. 1, issue 1, dated 19 Sep 2003. She wrote:
‘And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be
modest, and to display of their adornment only that which
is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and
not to reveal their adornment save to their own’ (Q 24:31).
Sometimes when we rushing [sic] to class in the morning we
don’t exactly notice what we are wearing as we are hurrying out.
At times we will wear a shirt or a pair of pants that might not be
appropriate for a Muslima to wear. In the above ayah, Allah (SWT)
tells us that it is very important to guard our modesty properly.
Another important point that is made in the ayah is “lowering our
gaze.” This of course does not apply to only women because in ayah 24:30,
the same thing is said to the men.
In college there is a lot of mixing between the genders. It is very
important for us as Muslims to have a pure intention when speaking to
the other gender. We should also keep in mind that idle talk will get us
no where and might give the other gender some illusions.
Remember Sisters and Brothers to always lower your gaze
and be modest. Ladies we represent an Ummah, especially the Sisters
who wear Hijab.[end]
Note: Hijab wearers represent Islam more than just plain Muslims because the veil is Islamism’s symbol.
After getting more Muslim women to wear the Hijab around campus in September 2003, it seems people were saying that veil wearing was an oppressive feature of Islam. Rasmieyh felt compelled to set the record straight in that Muslim women are oppressed, not by Islam but by culture. So on 29 October 2003 Rasmieyh published in the Northern Star “Culture represses Muslim women, not the Islamic faith”:
The United States’ perception of Muslim women is that
they are oppressed and lacking rights at the hands of a
male-dominated Islamic society. The American media have
done wonders in portraying Muslim women as submissive and
passive.
Many carry the notion that women are treated unfairly because
of Islam; that in Islam women are looked upon as property
of their fathers, and after marriage, their husbands.
Contrary to popular belief, Muslim men and women are equal.A woman has the same rights as a man. She has the right to be
educated and to choose her husband. She also has the right to choose
whether to wear the scarf.
Not many Muslim women in Islamic countries can ever exercise the “right” not to wear a scarf. Why? Because that would be un-Islamic and a women might have acid thrown in her face by some extremist if the religious police, the Muttawah, didn’t swat her legs with sticks first. Rasmieyh might say that this is the culture that takes away the option not to veil, but this is really just a “What came first—the chicken or the egg?” argument. Westerners see right through the ruse and finger Islam, not the culture. Besides, what rights do Muslim women really have when fathers, husbands and guardians are given the right to beat them if they do not do their bidding? (Q 4:34). Also, Sharia law makes women into second-class citizens.
A year after Rasmieyh made such a big deal of wearing scarves, now she is tired of people looking at her scarf as though they had never seen a Muslim women before. So she writes “Staring reflects poorly on gawkers” for the Northern Star, published on 17 Nov 2004:
I realize that the scarf causes the staring. It’s as if people
have never seen a Muslim woman....So, ladies and gentlemen, we
have two options. One: Realize that you are staring at people and
making them feel uncomfortable and quickly stop. Or two: Let
your eyes and the floor become the best of buddies.
This last part about “Let your eyes and the floor become the best of buddies” reminds me of Rasmieyh’s Koran quote (above) to the MSA students about how they ought to lower their gaze (Q 24:31). It also reminds one of how under Sharia law in Islamdom, non-Muslims were dhimmis, and they were not allowed to look Muslims in the eye. Charlotte West wrote:
…dhimmis [are] required to avert their eyes, step down
onto the road whenever they passed a Muslim Arab on the
sidewalk and other daily dramatizations of their lowly status.
Rasmieyh on Islam’s Being a Religion of Peace
Rasmieyh wrote “Islam teaches love and family” for the Northern Star, published on 3 Nov 2004:
What bewilders me most is how people are so quick to believe
that Islam promotes the killing of innocent life. Why don’t people
stop and think logically? What religion would actually promote the
killing of innocent women and children?
Critics of Islam use a verse from the Quran that says to killall the infidels
and non-Muslims. But they don’t read the verses before
it and after it to understand the meaning. If they did, they would
see that the verse is taken out of context. They also would notice that
Muslims are told to never engage in pre-emptive strikes. This
illustrates how peaceful Muslims are supposed to be. The Muslim
individuals who use the Quran to justify their
stupidity are just ignorant and lack understanding of their own religion.
When it comes to beheadings, kidnappings and killing innocent people
(especially women and children), Islam is very clear: It’s just wrong….
The true Islam teaches peace and compassion….The Muslim
individuals who use the Quran to justify their stupidity are just ignorant
and lack understanding of their own religion….Critics of Islam use a
verse from the Quran that says to kill all the infidels and
non-Muslims [Q 9:5]. But they don’t read the verses before it and after
it [Yusuf Ali Q 9:4-6] to understand the meaning. If they did, they
would see that the verse is taken out of context….
Rasmieyh is correct in that “Islam teaches love and family,” except that Islam is tribal about it. In both MSA newsletters mentioned above, Rasmieyh herself wrote that Muslims need to be more conscious of being a tribe—“the umma.”
Toward those people outside the Umma, the Koran, Hadith and Sunna, Islamic jurisprudence and Sharia law are heartlessly cold and ruthless. The Bible does not have any open-ended verses comparable to those in the Koran that mention fighting and killing modern peoples: pagans, Jews and Christians (e.g., Quran 9:5, 29-30). Here are some examples of what the Koran thinks about people outside of the Umma:- “Non-Muslims are the vilest of animals…” (Q 8:55)
- Show mercy to one another, but be ruthless to Non-Muslims” (Q 48.29)
- How perverse are Non-Muslims!” (Q 9:30)
- Strike off the heads of Non-Muslims, as well as their fingertips” (Q 8:12)
- “Fight those Non-Muslims who are near to you” (Q 9:123)
- Muslim mischief makers should be murdered or crucified” (Q 5:33)
Critics of Islam use a verse from the Quran that
says to kill all the infidels and non-Muslims [Q 9:5].
However, critics of Islam say that all kinds of verses in the Quran, Hadith and Sunna says that Muslims should fight kill non-Muslims such as here, here and here. The “a verse” that Rasmieyh alludes to, however, is Q 9:5, otherwise known as the Sword Verse:
…fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and
seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every
stratagem (of war)…
The Sword Verse which abrogates (cancels out) all the peaceful verses in the Koran, including the four or five verses that apologists for Islam slyly quote to make Islam sound peaceful, e.g. “there is no compulsion in religion” (Q 2:256).
So what do the verses before and after the Sword Verse say? Q 9:4 says that Muslims are not to kill those with whom they have a treaty as long as they kept to the terms of the agreement, and Q 9: 6 says that Muslims are to grant asylum for pagans who ask for it so they can hear the Koran.
Q 9:4 has practically no impact on the Sword Verse since few people have treaties with Muslims. Besides, Muslim treaties are merely truces entered into when Muslims are weak. The truces broken on some pretext as soon as Muslims have re-armed, but in any case, no more than ten years. This is based on the Hudaybiya Treaty that Muhammad entered into with the Mekkans and then broke on a pretext after less than two years. Hugh Fitzgerald wrote in “Islam for Infidels”:
As Majid Khadduri notes in War and Peace in Islam,
this Treaty of al-Hudaybiya became the model, and basis,
for all future ‘treaties’ with Infidel peoples and polities.
So one can see that there is no way to contextualize away the Sword Verse. It means exactly what it says.
Reader take note that Abdelnabi did not turn to some Medieval Islamic treatise, or Islamic school of thought, that made moderate Islam respectable and authentic. The reason is that there is no such document, as Ibn Iblis and Robert Spencer have pointed out. The Koran and Hadith and Sira are so clear that Jihad is mandated upon all Muslims until the end of time, so any treatise proposing a more irenic form of Islam proves unconvincing and is branded apostate literature and un-Islamic to boot!
The fact is that in Islam, there is nothing that keeps Muslims from terrorism, and this explains why there are so many terrorist incidents per day (see The Religion of Peace counter on this page). Muslims may say there is this or that rule against terrorism and suicide bombing, but for every such rule there is a loophole. Muslim historian Tabari (839–923 AD) wrote:Among them were many Christians who had accepted Islam
but when dissension [a conflict] had developed in Islam had said, ‘By God,
our religion from which we have departed is better and more correct than
that [Islam] which these people follow. Their religion [Islam] does not
stop them from shedding blood, terrifying the roads and seizing
properties’ (Tabari’s History, v. 17, pp. 187, 188; or see Answering-Islam).
That Abdelnabi and no other Muslim cannot argue effectively from the Koran, Hadith and Sira that terrorism is wrong without themselves becoming an apostate, any Muslim who lusts for the 72 virgins, or any angry Muslim could potentially could become a terrorist—often suddenly.[6] Many moderate Muslim parents have fanatical sons and daughters, and these parents are at a loss as how to deal with their “My son the fanatic” problem.
In another article, Abdelnabi criticized the Bush administration for keeping Cat Stevens out of the US in 2004. In her Northern Star article “‘Peace Train’ unjustly derailed,” 29 Sep 2004, she wrote:
When I read that Yusuf Islam, aka Cat Stevens, was refused
entry into the United States, I could not help but laugh. The U.S.
government has always been one of the many enemies of extremist
Muslims, but after making Yusuf Islam public enemy numero uno,
the current administration has managed to annoy even moderate
Muslims. Huge mistake....
Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam ever since he converted (or “reverted”) to Islam in 1977, never recanted his 1989 statement saying that Salmon Rushdie deserved to die for breaking the Sharia blasphemy code. Stevens’ offending and unrecanted words were:
Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the
prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence
for that is actually death.
Many US writers no doubt would want Stevens kept out of the US for that statement, but of course a writer/reporter such as Abdalnabi has nothing to fear from Cat Stevens and his ilk. But there’s more. Israel claims that Stevens gave money to Hamas. In 1997, he made music to celebrate the Bosnian Jihadists’ victory. In 2006, radical cleric Omar Bakr Muhammad, who left the UK for Lebanon, said that Stevens was a supporter of his. In 2007 Cat refused to criticize, must less condemn, Hamas.
Jeff Townsend, a Sycamore (city near DeKalb) resident, responded to Abdalnabi’s article “‘Peace Train’ unjustly derailed” with his own article, “Cat Stevens left ‘Peace Train’ at the station,” published in the Northern Star on 5 Oct 2004: I must say that when I read Rasmieyh Abdelnabi’s article, I couldn’t
help but ask myself: ‘What the heck is she talking about?’
She claims America has now alienated moderate Muslims by refusing
to let the singer formally known as Cat Stevens back into the country.
Her main argument seems to be that since he wrote ‘Peace Train,’
he must be a peaceful guy so he should be let back in. This is a really
flawed and uneducated assessment. First off, he left the country and
if the U.S. government doesn’t want to let him back in, I say ‘good!’
He shouldn’t have left professing his hatred for the United States and
then expect a ticker-tape parade if he returned! Secondly, the government
isn’t letting him back in with good intent. While it is true he wrote
‘Peace Train,’ it is also true that he gave money to a Muslim ‘fundraiser’
that somehow ended up in Hamas’ hands - a Muslim organization not
friendly to the United States at the moment. I say go where you’re
wanted, and he isn’t wanted here!
Incidentally, Muslims will defend most any Islamist, especially when the offence is Jihad-related. Giving money to charity may sound innocent enough, but most Muslims know that Sharia law states that Jihadists are one of several worthy recipients of zikat charity. Moreover, the terrorist groups that pose as charities are well known. For instance, an Ohio imam Fawaz Damrah was convicted, jailed and deported for giving money to Islamic Jihad in Palestine, yet… Muslims in the Detroit, MI area have repeatedly supported
the imam, claiming that he is a ‘peace loving and religious man.’[7]
Rasmieyh’s Pro-Palestinian, Anti-Israel Views
Rasmieyh’s pro-Palestinian views are known on the Web since they aroused the attention of watchdog Honest Reporting for Campus and bloggers. In the US, UK and other places, Palestinians especially run hostile campaigns against Israel and liberally throw around terms such as “apartheid,” “racists” and “Zionists.”
Watchdogs must monitor campuses because they are hotbeds of political extremism, and the leftists have now joined forces with Islamists who spread much anti-Israeli propaganda and hatred.[8] Daniel Pipes says, “Islamism…politicizes the religion” of Islam…Its program resembles those of fascism and
Marxism-Leninism. . .Islamists constitute a small,
but significant, minority of all Muslims, perhaps 10
to 15 percent of the population. Many of them are
peaceable in appearance, but they all must be considered
potential killers.[9]
Currently it is mostly law-abiding Islamists such as the Muslim Student Association who operate on US campuses. Daniel Pipes refers to the MSA as the Saudi “Wahhabism’s contribution to the North American campus.” By contrast, in the UK HuT (Hizb ut-Tahrir) and other more radical groups operate in the shadows, and radical Islam flourishes on 24 UK university campuses according to a 2005 UK government report: When Students Turn To Terror.
One reason that UK universities are more radical is the population they draw from is more radical. British intelligence reported in 2005 that there were 16,000 “British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity.” Also, surveys conducted after the 7 July 2005 bombings in London revealed that 46 percent of Muslims thought that clerics preaching violence against the West were mainstream. Six percent thought that the 7/7 bombing were justified, and five percent “believe there is a Koranic justification for the bombings.”[10]
Rasmieyh’s pro-Palestinian articles--that is the ones that are readily available on the Web--all date to 2003 and 2004, which was after she stayed at her Palestinian uncle’s house near Ramallah or thereabouts for three months.Abdelnabi wrote “The Fake Roadmap to peace,” Northern Star, 3 September 2003, about her experience visiting the West Bank during the Summer of 2003:
I have this theory about the checkpoints, the ridiculous
curfews and the mean anal-retentive soldiers. They want to make
the Palestinians stay locked up in their homes until they are crazy
enough and desperate enough to want to kill themselves. And then
we wonder why so many of them become suicide bombers.
Jeff Swanson responded to Abdelnabi’s article “The Fake Roadmap to peace” at his Open Fire: Taking Aim at Liberal Media blog on 3 Sep 2003 with this “It’s All Isreal’s Fault” entry:
The NIU editorials are at it again. I'm sure glad I'm far
away from so many liberals packed into such a tiny area.
Check out Fake Roadmap to peace by Rasmieyh Abdelnabi.
It's a scathing attack on Israel and their harsh treatment of
the Palestinians. Curfews. Roadblocks. Oh my! . . . Naturally
when it comes to the failure of any roadmap to peace all the
blame is on Israel. Yeah, sure...It has nothing to do with 50
years of Arab aggression against the Jews. It has nothing to
do with the Palestinian Authority not arresting terrorists and
dismantling the infrastructure. It has nothing to do with terror
gangs shooting, stabbing, exploding bombs and shelling Israeli
towns killing scores of civilians....
Charles Johnson at his Little Green Footballs blog responded to Abdelnabi’s article “The Fake Roadmap to peace” on 3 Sep 2003 with “Fifth Column at NIU”:
In the Northern Illinois University student newspaper, a
rabidly seething article by an Arab student attacks Israel
for curfews and roadblocks, and casually dismisses suicide
bombings as if they were weather patterns, blameless forces
of nature, nothing to do with Palestinian terror gangs…
Abdelnabi wrote, “Israel’s cry for pity should fall on deaf ears,” Northern Star, 5 Nov 2003:
As I was researching for a term paper last week, I ran across
an article by the Christian Science Monitor titled, ‘Behind
Israel’s siege mentality.’ The article discusses how Israel
feels alone in the world. It feels it has to defend itself
against the criticism of the world. Israel believes that its
only friend is the United States. Saying that this article
astonished me is an understatement. I had to re-read it
to make sure it was not a satirical piece. Where would
anyone get the idea that the world is against Israel?
Many people have voiced their opinions on Israel’s
‘kill anything Palestinian’ defense policy. But why is that
so wrong? People have voiced their opinions on suicide
bombing. Before continuing any further, clarification is
necessary. Suicide bombing is wrong. Killing one’s self
should never be an option.
Notice that Abdelnabi faults the suicide-bomber only for killing himself but not for killing or maiming Israeli victims. By contrast, non-Muslims are concerned first about the victims of the bombing long before considering the fate of the bomber. This type of thinking is a manifestation of Islam’s tribalism that was discussed above in the “Rasmieyh on Islam’s being a Religion of Peace” section.
Honest Reporting in its 7 Nov 2003 Alert responded to Abdelnabi’s article “Israel’s cry for pity should fall on deaf ears”:
This article compensates for its excruciatingly small
font size by packing in more malice and lies directed at Israel
than anyone could possibly imagine. But, as ridiculous as it is,
the piece deserves some of our attention. In her weekly
column in Northern Illinois University's Northern Star,
Rasmieyh Abdelnabi (who’s profile reveals that she is a
fan of ‘That 70’s Show’ and ‘The Importance of Being
Ernest’) callously suggests that ‘Israel’s cry for pity should
fall on deaf ears.’ Identifying the bias in this one shouldn’t
be hard. So, please take a look at the article and dedicate a
few minutes to respond…
A Jewish student, Isaac, who attended Northern Illinois University since 2001 sent in a passionate response to Abdelnabi’s article “Israel’s cry for pity should fall on deaf ears” to the Northern Star. Isaac’s older brother, a former student of NIU, sent his comments and Isaac’s to the Jewish Defense Organization (JDO), a Manhattan-based group.
What prompted Isaac’s response in part was “in early September” he found both his car doors has been keyed and the word “Jew” scratched into his car hood. That would be about the same time that Abdelnabi’s “The Fake Roadmap to peace,” Northern Star, 3 September 2003, was published. The reader will recall the Fake Roadmap article was about her experience visiting the West Bank during the Summer of 2003, the same article where she said that Israeli curfews and checkpoints drove Palestinians to suicide bombings. Isaac’s older brother wrote [start of long quotation]: Three months ago my brother who just happens to be the
Northern Illinois University homecoming king, the director of activities
for student housing, social chair of his fraternity, has one of the hardest
majors in the school of business and is loved and respected throughout
his campus. His name happens to be Isaac and like me, he is a huge
Israeli supporter. He has an Israeli flag hanging from the rearview
mirror of his car. One day, after class he came up to his car and
found the word JEW scratched into the hood of his car. A police
report was file under Hate Crimes and the school’s newspaper was
made aware of the incident. They made up some lame excuse and
did not publish an article; they did not even include the incident in
the police beat section. Mark Bieganski, the Northern Star editor in
chief claims that they could not find the police report (My brother
gave them the report number and actually went to the police station
and picked it up in under 2 minutes.) Isaac called them 3 times
asking them to publish the article; he was blown off every time.
Last Wednesday they published the following article justifying suicide bombers:
Israel's Cry for Pity Should Fall on Deaf EarsAt this point I realized that this is an anti-Semitic/Pro-Terrorist paper and
As I was researching for a term paper last week, I ran across
an article by the Christian Science Monitor titled, ‘Behind Israel’s
siege mentality.’ The article discusses how Israel feels alone in the
world. It feels it has to defend itself against the criticism of the world.
Israel believes that its only friend is the United States. Saying that
this article astonished me is an understatement. I had to re-read it
to make sure it was not a satirical piece. Where would anyone get
the idea that the world is against Israel? Many people have voiced
their opinions on Israel’s ‘kill anything Palestinian’ defense policy.
But why is that so wrong? People have voiced their opinions on
suicide bombing. Before continuing any further, clarification is
necessary. Suicide bombing is wrong. Killing one’s self should
never be an option. Still, people need to understand why certain
individuals resort to suicide bombing. Israel’s defense polices create
an environment that gives Palestinians a feeling of hopelessness and
despair.
Let’s take the Israeli invasion of Jenin in April 2002. The
Jenin Inquiry ‘group of 12 internationals from the United States,
Britain, Ireland, Canada and Norway, including an international
lawyer ...’ reported the number of Palestinians murdered was
unknown. According to the United Nations and Human Rights Watch,
52 Palestinians were murdered. But the Jenin Inquiry group discovered
this number was flawed because the United Nations never actually sent
people to investigate but relied on outside sources. Human Rights Watch
did a rather swift investigation that discounted many issues. Three
researchers were sent in for only seven days. The Jenin Inquiry group
had members living in Jenin during the inquiry. One member lived in
the Jenin Refugee Camp from February to December 2002. According
to their report, the number of dead is unknown because many people
have gone missing. Many eyewitnesses said that during the invasion,
many homes that were bulldozed contained people - meaning that
many Palestinians were bulldozed to their deaths, such as Rachel Corrie.
Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity
Movement. An Israeli bulldozer killed her as she was protecting a house
from being demolished in Gaza. She was wearing a neon-orange jacket.
In Jenin from April 3 to 18, neighborhoods were ‘razed and flattened
by tanks and bulldozers.’ The JI report tells of soldier interviewed by
the Israeli daily Yehidot Ahronot. The soldier told his interviewer that
for three straight days, he bulldozed homes in Jenin. He stayed awake
by drinking whiskey. The soldier explained the satisfaction and enjoyment
he got from bulldozing and killing the people in the homes. ‘As far as
I am concerned, I left them with a football stadium, so they can play,’
he said. ‘This was our gift to the camp.’ The inquiry group noted that
for three months after the massacre in Jenin, the smell of rotting
corpses was evident. This was only evident in areas that had yet to be
carefully and quickly cleaned by the Israeli army. After the massacre,
a number of suicide bombers came out of Jenin. The last suicide
bomber was from Jenin. Coincidence? I think not. Columns reflect
the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.
requested that they publish my brother’s article if they are going to publish absolute
lies they might as well publish some truth. They blew me off for 3 days claiming
that the editor was in Dallas and did not have a cell phone or check his e-mail.
Last night the editor ‘spoke’ with my brother, he let him know that he doesn’t
have to publish this because ‘it’s an isolated incident’ (Yeah, right! Lots of
people at NIU have an Israeli flag on display. Lies, Lies and more Lies by
these anti-Semites.). I requested the courtesy of a rebuttal to her article and
was also told the same thing ‘I don’t have to publish anything, I’ll look it over
and think about it.’
At this point I do not have a clear answer from the editor and thus will
be contacting the conservative mass media. I would appreciate your help in my
uphill battle. Anything you can do or recommend to expose these people would
be very helpful. Below is the article my brother [Isaac] wrote to the Northern Star:
My earliest memory of hate strongly impacts my life today. I was
born in the Ukraine in a suburb of Kiev, in fact the little town that
‘The Fiddler on the Roof’ is about. When I was four years old I
witnessed the police chief’s son hurl a rock at my then eight-year-old
brother’s head as he called him a little kike. As my weeping mother
cleaned his wound her hands red with the product of hate I vowed to
myself to never let hate consume my life.
My family fled Russia in 1989 to escape violent anti-Semitism
and found refuge in the United States. Primarily having been
raised here I was fortunate not to experience such scary events
as did my brother and parents. I am thankful to America for
giving me the innocent childhood that every boy and girl deserves.
Following my brothers footsteps I arrived at NIU in 2001. I have
built myself a nice little niche here in DeKalb through involvement in
organizations, volunteering, and an active social life. NIU was the last
place I expected to fall victim to serious anti-Semitism. To my surprise
as I walked to my car (parked outside of Barsema hall) after my class
in early September I found both drivers side doors keyed and the word
‘Jew’ scratched into my car hood. I have an Israeli flag hanging from
my rearview mirror in support of my Jewish homeland. I was enraged
at the sight and immediately went to the police station to file a report
after which I made my way to the Northern Star office where a very
sympathetic Asseah Hussein took my story and even pictures of my
vandalized car. Maybe with all the violence in the Middle East my story
wasn’t applicable.
Hate is a serious passion and it takes a certain kind of audacity
and cowardice to commit a hate crime in the middle of the day on a
busy street. If there is an anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli sentiment on this
campus I’m sure it has little to do with the evident anti-Semitic autograph
so prevalent on the hood of my car. I didn’t have the heart to tell my parents about my vehicle
And this is the Editorial I [Isaac’s older brother] wrote them:
because they had sacrificed everything familiar to them to give my
brother and me the opportunity to grow up away from words like
kike and hate sprung blood. It would break their hearts to know they
sent their son to an academic environment where this kind of hate
and cowardice is present.
The scar on my brother’s head ignites the scare in my heart
every time I look at his forehead. My brother’s bully directed his
hatred towards a person. The coward that so diligently made my
hood aware of its driver paid me no such consideration. Hate
accomplishes nothing and I hope that on the eve of opening of the
NIU Unity in Diversity Poster Gallery everyone reading this understands
that a college environment is place for open minds to mesh and share
Ideas. To think that we walk these academic halls with people who
would perform such an act is inconceivable.
TERRORIST SUPPORTER WRITES FOR NORTHERN STAR.
In response to the latest piece of hatred by Rasmieyh Abdelnabi
I would like to cleanse your minds of her dirty anti-Semitic and
anti-American propaganda. In her ‘Israel’s cry for pity should
fall on deaf ears’ article she states: ‘Suicide bombing is wrong.
Killing one's self should never be an option.’ Killing ones self is
never an option? How about the 40 innocent civilians this terrorist
takes with him or her. Oh this is not a concern for Rasmieyh
Abdelnabi because these innocent civilians are kids in kindergarten,
cafe patrons, teenagers in dance clubs, and your parent on their
morning commute. Apparently according to Rasmieyh 40 innocent
Jewish lives are not worth as much as one hate driven terrorist
suicide bomber. These so-called religious martyrs are all too eager
to give up the lives of their Jewish cousins to get their spot in heaven
among their 72 virgin harems. Rasmieyh talks of horrible conditions
they are forced to live in, stating that she understands why suicide
bombers exist. She never stops to look for the true cause of these
horrible conditions. Mr. Yasser Arafat (a native Egyptian), the
‘brave and noble’ leader of the ‘Palestinian’ people of whom only
about 10% are of true Palestinian decent funnels the relief funds
to his Swiss bank accounts, his wife and child in France and to
furnish a multi million dollar mansion the Israeli government built
him in an Israeli resort town of Eilat. The money donated by numerous
countries including the US and Israel to better the lives of the
‘Palestinian’ people are going to Arafat's bank accounts and to
sponsor terrorist organizations. Arafat is once again under investigation
for smuggling relief money into his private accounts. It is in Arafat's
best interest to keep this conflict alive in order to extrude ‘relief’
money from sympathizing nations. This is your true enemy, not
the Jews, not the Americans not the Israelis.
The September 11th terrorist were apparently so disturbed
by the American greed and moral corruption that they had to visit a
local strip club prior to their religious crusade to New York City.
These ‘martyrs’ are cowards. Terrorists killing our American brothers
and sisters in Iraq today are no different from the cowardly animals
hiding themselves behind innocent women and children in refugee
camps like Jenin. Differences between terrorists should not be drawn.
The same people Rasmieyh supports and sympathizes with are the
same coward barbarians that RAPED our nation on September 11th.
The Northern Star should not be a forum for Rasmeiyh to
develop her al-Qaeda sympathizing Al Jazeera application portfolio.
All though I am sure the Northern Star does not mean to portray a
Pro-Terrorist and Anti-Semitic image, Rasmieyh Abdelnabi is
helping the Star do just that with great success. [end of long quotation]
President George W. Bush is at it once again — blindly supporting
Israel and its illegal actions. A couple of weeks ago, Bush approved Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s ‘Disengagement Plan’….I once heard Bush
say, ‘My job is to protect the American people.’ I laughed after I heard
that, because his real job — as is evident from his actions — is to get
power — do absolutely anything to get it — and do absolutely everything
to keep it….The Palestinians already don’t have enough land to live on
because of all the settlements and the ridiculous barrier being built. When
I used to walk through the Palestinian cities of Ram Allah, Bethlehem and
Anta, I couldn’t help but feel claustrophobic. Houses are only a few feet
from each other.
Rasmieyh and the Umma
Derrick Shareef (22), aka Talib Abu Salam Ibn Shareef, was brought up by his father in the Nation of Islam. Shareef and his mother had a house in DeKalb. About seven years ago Shareef was in Detroit where he converted to Sunni Islam, which would have been in 1999 when he was 15 year old.
Nation of Islam adherents often shave and dress in suits. When Derrick recently became radical, grew a beard and dressed in traditional Muslim garb, his mother said he was attracting too much attention in the neighborhood and she asked him to live elsewhere.[11] When Derrick was arrested, he was working in Rockford at a mall store that sold electronic games. It seems he attended the sole mosque in DeKalb for several years. The DeKalb mosque also serves as the headquarters for the Muslim Student Association (MSA). He still considered the DeKalb mosque to be his mosque when he was arrested. The arrest affidavit quotes Shareef as saying: I had already started to look at synagogues out here
and in the DeKalb area and everything. I was looking
at synagogues, I was doing MapQuest....One of them was
down the block from the masjid [Arabic: mosque]…
Bloggers have noted that the only mosque that fits that description is the one in DeKalb on 721 Normal Road: Islamic Society of Northern Illinois University. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that Cary Wolovick, president of the NIU Hillel organization that meets at Congregation Beth Shalom at 820 Russel Road, understood that his synagogue was a target. Wolovick said:
It disturbs me that someone would try to blow up something that I’m part of.[12]
Derrick Shareef made statements that showed that the Umma was an integral concept behind what he calls his “violent Jihad.” In the following arrest affidavit, the bracketed notes are in the original. The Confidential Source (CS), who probably was wearing a “wire” and remote recorder, quotes Shareef as saying:
‘I’m ready man, these Kafirs [a term translated as “infidel”] don’t
Note: "Shank" is slang verb meaning "to knife."
give a damn about us, niggers don’t care what happens to the Umma
[an Arabic word meaning community or nation that is commonly used
to mean the collective nation of Islamic states], about sisters getting raped,
about brothers losing their (UI [unintelligible]). They don’t care, man.
All they care about is (UI)...I probably would have eventually ended up
just stabbing the shit outta some Jews or something. Just stabbing them
niggers with a steak knife. Dude, I ain’t gonna lie. Because during that
war with Hezbollah, man, I had already started to look at synagogues
out here and in the DeKalb area and everything. I was looking at synagogues,
I was doing MapQuest....One of them was down the block from the masjid
[mosque], I knew that they do their thing on Saturdays, right. I was like,
I’m gonna lay low out here, I’m gonna camp out overnight, be out there
on Friday night after Jumma” [Friday payer] or Saturday morning about
12:00 or 1:00 o’clock., I be there. And as soon as I see them fools going
in the building, I had planned on trying to grab one, depending on how it
was, niggers trying to run in the building all at once and open up shop, I
was just going to go over there and shank one or two of them.’ A few
minutes later, SHAREEF stated: ‘They definitely gonna know that this shit
ain’t over, and they not as safe as they thought.’
Remember Sisters and Brothers to always lower your gaze
and be modest. Ladies we represent an Ummah, especially
the Sisters who wear Hijab.
Then on 27 August 2004 Rasmieyh again wrote to the MSA about the umma:
Our focus this academic year is to reintroduce the
importance of the ‘ummah,’ or community in Islam….
So it would seem that the Umma concept was big at Rasmieyh’s and Shareef’s mosque in DeKalb.
The Umma concept is tribal thinking of the worst sort, and strengthening tribal thinking can have negative consequences whenever the tribe is restless, especially when the tribe reads the Jihad verses, the victimology rhetoric and other bad things in the Quran. The Iranian ex-Muslim Ali Sina stated about the Umma concept: Deindividuation is characterized by diminished awareness
of self and individuality. In Islam individuality is denied and the
individual’s life is fused with that of Umma. Deindividuation
reduces an individual’s self-restraint and normative regulation
of behavior. It contributes to the collective behavior of violent
crowds, mindless hooligans, and the lynch mobs….Ironically
it is the brutality and the repressive nature of Islam, in conjunction
with its absolute irrationality that has made this doctrine successful
and has allowed it to survive this long.[13]
For some students, it seems unlikely that another terror
incident will follow this one soon, due to DeKalb’s remoteness
in comparison to metropolitan areas like New York or Chicago.
‘Why choose DeKalb or Rockford?’ wondered Justin McConkey,
a sophomore accountancy major. ‘It just doesn’t make sense.’
What the students were saying in 2006 is that a terror plot is a big-city crime that seldom happens in little to mid-sized cities as a matter of: 1) statistics and 2) publicity. Statistics say there is a bigger supply of would-be terrorists in big cities, and terrorists crave publicity found in the big cities because there is a direct relationship between the amount of publicity and the amount of terror spread among the populace.
Just as the two incidents may not be so isolated, the vandalism and the terror plot are not necessarily big-city crimes. They are religio-political crimes, or more specifically Jihad. All the elements needed for spawning acts of Jihad are found right in DeKalb:
- The teaching about the umma as was found in Rasmieyh’s writings.
- The preaching about defending the umma was there.
- Grievances galore about members of the “other” tribe, the enemy Jews who ought not be pitied, as Rasmieyh wrote in “Israel’s cry for pity should fall on deaf ears,” Northern Star, 5 Nov 2003.
- The Jews are spoken of terribly in the Koran and there are thousands of Korans scattered around DeKalb.
- The mosque where the anti-Semitic Koran is read or recited is right down the block from the synagogue.
- The incitement against Israel was there in the writings of Rasmieyh and no doubt others.
- Many other teachings in Islam lead to terrorism, such as how there are two territories, the Domain of Islam (Dar Al-Islam) and the Domain of War (Dar al-Harb) where infidels rule. Terrorism like 9-11 is acceptable in the Domain of War.
When Shareef was first arrested on 6 Dec 2006, some reports said he was a Nation of Islam follower since his father was. When Malcolm X converted to Islam from Nation of Islam, he indicated that the main difference was there was less racism.
There is not a whole lot of difference between Islam and the Nation of Islam on the doctrine and practice of Jihad. For instance, the Nation of Islam adherents, who called themselves Nubians, set out on Jihad from New York City in July 1990 and took over the island of Trinidad for a few days, holding the government hostage before they were marched off to jail. Sounds just like Islam to me. Shareef’s mother set the record straight and said that Shareef converted to Sunni Islam seven years before and over the years had become radical, growing a beard, shaving his head close, and wearing full Muslim garb. She also said: He doesn’t seem to understand that he doesn’t have a
true meaning [of the religion]…He’s not getting with genuine
Muslims who appreciate love and love mankind.[14]
So he attended the DeKalb mosque for up to seven years and yet could not connect with any moderate Muslims, not even within the MSA? That speaks volumes.
Rasmieyh got a job after graduating from NIU at the Beloit Daily News. Rasmieyh’s Beloit Daily News article “You can’t let fear control you: Citizens react to grenade plot,” 9 Dec 2006, follows the standard theme about how if we change our lifestyle or lose our freedoms because of terrorist, the terrorists have already won. On the other hand, it could be take as “Don’t be an Islamophobe.”
Abdelnabi’s article really has no words of condemnation of the terrorist incident or the Muslim involved, probably because Muslims cannot be critical of the umma. Of course, that is Abdelnabi's position as one can see from her article "Islam teaches love and family" (excerpts in this blog entry). Charles Johnson already pointed out that Rasmieyh writes as though terrorism was a weather pattern. Rasmieyh interviewed locals such as James Akbar, no doubt a Muslim. He was chosen because his brother Allah Akbar was unavailable for comment. James said that the concept of “You live to die” is in the Bible, but that really describes Islam’s Inshallah fatalism doctrine. James says, “There isn’t too much terror that I would be worried about around here.” Now if he had quoted from the Koran rather than alluding to the Bible, the local stores would shortly be sold out of worry stones and squishy stress balls! If James really wanted to worry people, he could have mentioned that Beloit College has “nearly 100 students from 41 countries on campus, among them Muslim students from countries such as; Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria.” Speaking of students, just today I see that a former Chicago grocer Muhammad Salah and a university graduate student from Mississippi, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, were arrested for sending money to the families of Hamas martyrs. Also, there is a great number of Muslims at truck driving schools, and some prove to be suspicious characters. So James, why can’t we worry about terrorism “around here” BEFORE it gets to be “too much”? Oh, yeah, that be Islamophobia, something Muslims want outlawed. Never mind! I guess I need some sensitivity training from CAIR.
Article Example 1:
‘You can't let fear control you'
Posted: Saturday, Dec 09, 2006 - 12:08:10 am CST
Citizens react to grenade plot
By Rasmieyh Abdelnabi
Daily News staff writer
http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/2006/12/09/news/120906news02.txt
ROCKFORD - A plot to bomb the CherryVale Mall isn't worrying too many Stateline Area residents. On occasion, Beloit resident Kelli Kacizak shops at CherryVale Mall. She said a bomb threat could happen anywhere. “If it's as close as CherryVale, why not here?” Kacizak said. Still this doesn't mean she won't be cautious this holiday season as she shops for gifts. “I would do more online shopping and I'll kind of stay away from larger malls,” Kacizak said. Fellow Beloiter Joe Forrestal Jr. is not frightened by Rockford's threatened attack and said it won't stop him from shopping in Rockford or at the Janesville Mall. “You can't let fear control you,” he said.
Forrestal said when it's his time to die, it's his time to go and there isn't anything he or anyone else can do about it. James Akbar of Beloit agrees, saying fear is not going to control his life. Akbar said although he doesn't shop at CherryVale Mall anymore, the recent threat isn't going to deter him from shopping there in the future.
“Because of one thing that's said in the Bible: You live to die,” he explained.
Akbar experienced bombings as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Grenades were thrown into restaurants and mothers put bombs on their babies before handing them off to someone to be blown to bits, he said.
“There isn't too much terror that I would be worried about around here,” Akbar explained. Loreta Hall of South Beloit said the bombing didn't happen so there's no need to worry too much. “I don't foresee anything happening,” she said. “Don't get up in a roar about it just yet.” Hall's daughter is worried about letting her sons go to CherryVale Mall as they are frequenters of the shopping center. They won't be allowed to go until the situation has calmed down a bit. While Hall doesn't want people to worry, she can't believe what life in the United States has come to. People now have to worry about being safe where they live and shop.
Article Example 2:
The Fake Roadmap to peace, Wednesday, September 3, 2003, By Rasmieyh Abdelnabi
http://web.archive.org/web/20031108171840/http://www.northernstar.info/perspective/articles/090303-roadmap.asp
Whenever someone mentions the Roadmap to Peace in Palestine/Israel, I can’t help but laugh.
The Roadmap is a plan to create a Palestinian state by 2005. Sounds great, right?
I am laughing this very minute.
I call it the Fake Roadmap. It was a roadmap designed by the United States and Israel.
Palestinian officials were not really asked about what should be included. It was just assumed that they were willing to make a bunch of concessions.
I spent three months this summer in Palestine, and I could see and feel the fakeness.
I could see it in every soldier that checked my American passport looking for some error that they could punish me for. I could see it in every Israeli-Jew’s face. I could see them looking at me with this why-can’t-you-just-go-away look. Some had a look of fear, silently praying that I was not about to blow myself up. It did not matter that I was American; all they saw was my scarf and my Arab name, and treated me accordingly. They treated me like the scum they felt I was.
I spent most of my summer in my uncle’s house, not really going out much. Every one of my relatives was too scared to go out. They said that if a suicide bombing occurs and a soldier or sometimes an Israeli-Jew sees an Arab, they might beat him or her.
My aunt told me a story of a Palestinian woman in Jerusalem who was strangled to death in an elevator by a bunch of men. My stepmother’s brother was beat up by a couple of Israeli soldiers right after a suicide bombing occurred. If he were not discovered as quickly as he was, he would have bled to death. Israeli soldiers shot my grandmother’s sister because they thought she was carrying bombs in her basket. If they had looked closer, they would have discovered that she was carrying a basket full of figs.
Suheir Hammod, a Palestinian-American writer, visited my high school and told us a story about a 7-year-old Palestinian boy. The Israeli army was doing a routine raid of his family’s house. They ordered everyone out of the house. The boy saw the soldiers with the big guns and he saw his family leaving the house, so he started running. He ran out of the house and everyone started to yell for him to stop but he just kept running. He was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier for not listening. It turned out that the boy was deaf, so he didn’t hear the yelling or even the shot that killed him. When the Israeli Defense Force was asked about the incident, they called it an “accidental necessity.” I always knew things were bad in Palestine – I just never realized how bad.
Spending all that time there really gave me a new perception on the situation. I believe that the Palestinian population is in a deep depression. Everything is about getting past the checkpoints. You can’t get to Ramallah from Jerusalem without at least three checkpoints.
Without the checkpoints, a person can get to Ramallah from Jerusalem in 15 minutes. Now it takes about 45 minutes. And you can forget about going from Ramallah to Jerusalem in 45 minutes. That takes at least 75 minutes. The Israeli soldiers more strict about the people leaving Palestinian cities than they are about entering them. When I went to Bethlehem (another Palestinian city), my aunt and I had to take a mini-bus and a taxi to get into the city. Because on our way out, the soldiers took their time checking my passport, we had to walk to the highway to take the bus back to Jerusalem. It was a 20-minute walk in the blistering sun. I said words I never thought I would hear myself say. And my aunt said words I still don’t know the meaning of and I’m guessing better off not knowing.
The best part is that I knew that the Israeli soldiers took pleasure in doing these stupidly anal things. They think that making the roads difficult will make people want to stay home. Sometimes the Israeli government will issue a curfew on a Palestinian town. The curfews are so frustrating; times are 2 or 3 p.m. During these obnoxious curfews, people are not allowed to leave their homes. If they are caught leaving their homes, they could get arrested or worse, shot and killed.
I have this theory about the checkpoints, the ridiculous curfews and the mean anal-retentive soldiers. They want to make the Palestinians stay locked up in their homes until they are crazy enough and desperate enough to want to kill themselves. And then we wonder why so many of them become suicide bombers.
Footnotes:
[1] Ahmed-Ullah, Noreen S., Kim Barker, Laurie Cohen, Stephen Franklin and Sam Roe. “Struggle for the Soul of Islam: Hard-liners won battle for Bridgeview mosque,” Chicagotribune.com, 8 Feb 2004.
[2] “The Fake Roadmap to peace”, NorthernStar, 3 September 2003
[3] Neighbor, Margaret. “Veil-wearing Muslim women are part of our fight - al-Qaeda chief,” scotsman.com, 1 Jan 2007.
[4] Belien, Paul. “The Threat of Lawful Islamism and the Need to Fight It,” BrusselsJournal.com, 11 Dec 2006; also Islamist Watch.
[5] “British Muslim leader [Anjum Chaudri]: Only Muslims are innocent,” JihadWatch.org, 17 Dec 2006.
[6] “Sudden Jihad Syndrome,” DanielPipes.org, 14 Mar 2006.
[7] Kouri, Jim. “‘Peace Loving’ Imam Deported to Middle East,’ Canada Free Press, 9 Jan 2007, Gates of Vienna.
[8] Morgan, Adrian. “Radical Islam And British Universities: Part One,” Western Resistance, 4 Jan 2007.
[9] Warner, Bob. “‘Real’ Enemy Defined,” Philadelphia Daily News, 8 Oct 2001.
[10] Daniel Pipes. “British Opinion Surveys From an Islamist Hell,” FrontPageMagazine, 25 July 2005
[11] Korecki, Natasha et al. “Mall a terror target: Feds,” Chicago Sun-Times, 9 Dec 2006.
[12] Leicht, Colin. “Terror plot foiled,” Northern Star, 11 Dec 2006.
[13] Fjordman Essay: Is Islam Compatible with Democracy? part 3 jihadwatch.org, 10 Jan 2007.
[14] Korecki, Natasha et al. “Mall a terror target: Feds,” Chicago Sun-Times, 9 Dec 2006.
