Phoenix Mosque Attended by Garland Jihadists Previously Spawned Two Other Terrorists

"Simpson and Soofi were not the only two terrorists spawned from the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix (ICCP). Two other previous ICCP mosque attendees � Hassan Abu-Jihaad and Derrick Shareef � are currently in federal prison on terrorism-related charges�"

by Patrick Poole, PJ Media, May 8, 2015

h/t Jihad Watch

Yesterday at PJ Media, I reported on conflicting stories offered by the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix (ICCP) regarding former mosque attendees Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, who were killed this past Sunday in a gunfight outside a Dallas-area center where a �Draw Muhammad� cartoon contest was being held.

I noted the attempts by the mosque president, Usama Shami, to downplay the ties of the two would-be terrorists. This included Shami�s claim to the press that neither was a regular member. In fact, Elton �Ibrahim� Simpson had been featured in a mosque fundraising video posted on ICCP�s YouTube channel in 2012 identifying him as a member.

In fact, Simpson and Soofi were not the only two terrorists spawned from ICCP. Two other previous ICCP mosque attendees � Hassan Abu-Jihaad and Derrick Shareef � are currently in federal prison on terrorism-related charges�.

Abu-Jihaad is currently serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for passing classified information to a UK-based al-Qaeda webmaster�.

The FBI established a direct tie between Abu-Jihaad and Simpson according to court documents in the latter�s 2010 trial, as Simpson was first questioned by the FBI in 2006 when authorities believed he might be part of a terror cell:

In 2006, agents opened a criminal investigation of him based on his ties with an individual �whom the FBI believed was attempting to set up a terrorist cell in Arizona,� according to court documents.

Agents say Simpson knew Hassan Abu-Jihaad, an enlistee in the U.S. Navy later convicted of leaking classified information about upcoming movements of his battle group to an alleged terror cell in London. Simpson told agents he knew Abu-Jihaad, who was arrested in Phoenix in 2007, but did not tell them anything else about him.

Undoubtedly, what launched that 2006 investigation was the activity of Abu-Jihaad�s former roommate, Derrick Shareef.

Shareef was arrested in 2006 for his role in a plot to set off hand grenades at a Rockford, Illinois shopping mall during the holiday season. He later pled guilty on a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

During his trial, the FBI provided video tapes of Shareef threatening Americans:

�You are the enemies of Islam, for the sake of Allah we are coming for you,� Shareef says in a tape that looks like it could have been shot somewhere in the Middle East. In fact, the camera was 90 miles from Chicago in a Rockford home where the 22-year-old and a friend each made several videos declaring their desire for destruction.

�We will target you in your homes. We will target you in your businesses. We will target you in your synagogues and your churches. We do not fear you Kafirs. I swear by Allah I am ready to give my life right now for the cause,� the tape says.

Former Clinton Employee and Muslim Brotherhood Spokesperson Gets Life In Prison

With the Clinton Foundation scandals coming to a boiling point, it's easy to overlook Hillary Clinton's connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. This is an important story. Read and share. 

Related: Washington Times � Huma Abedin�s private emails, Muslim Brotherhood and the Hillary Clinton Emailgate Scandal, by Frank J. Gafney, Jr.

Former Clinton Employee and Muslim Brotherhood Spokesperson Gets Life In Prison
Posted at Creeping Sharia � April 17, 2015

Original reporting by gmbwatch on April 14, 2015

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is reporting that Gehad El-Haddad, described as �spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood�, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a 2103 case known as �the media trial�. According to a report on the Brotherhood�s website:

April 13, 2015 On April 11, 2015, Gehad El-Haddad, spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood, was sentenced to life imprisonment in case 317 for the year 2013 known as �the media trial�. Fourteen defendants received death sentences while thirty seven including Gehad were sentenced to life in prison. Among the convicted are 15 journalists and spokespersons...

 In August 2013, the GMBDW reported on the arrest of Gehad El-Haddad by Egyptian security forces. At the time, we noted that although we were the first and only Western source known to have reported on El-Haddad�s employment by the Clinton Foundation, mainstream media reports mentioning this employment failed to credit the GMBDW.

Gehad El-Haddad, the the son of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam El-Haddad, was a Senior Adviser on Foreign Affairs to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood �s Freedom and Justice Party, a position he held since May 2011. His resume also says that he was is a Senior Adviser & Media Spokesperson for the Muslim Brotherhood as well as a Steering Committee Member of the Brotherhood�s Renaissance (Nahda) Project. Mr Haddad was also the Media Strategist & Official Spokesperson for the presidential campaign of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. 

Gehad El-Haddad�s resume reports that he was the City Director for the William J. Clinton Foundation from August 2007 � August 2012. Among his duties at the Foundation were representing the Foundation�s Clinton Climate Initiative in Egypt, setting up the foundation�s office in Egypt and managed official registration, and identifying and developing program-based projects & delivery work plans.

'Sacrificing and Sacrificed for the Faith' � Martyrdom a Hundred Years Ago and Today

"...The history of the Christians in the Middle East is a story whose roots go back to creation, to the account in the Book of Genesis about the first crime committed in history, Cain�s murder of his brother Abel..."

Here is a striking theological look at Islam's unending war against Christians. It is clear that symbolically, Righteous Abel represents the humble, pious and forgiving Christians, who offer "a more excellent sacrifice" than the degenerate Cain, who represents Islam and Muslims, who "attack true worship and brotherhood." In Metropolitan Siluan's words,

"Cain irremediably attacks both existential dimensions of his life, the vertical and horizontal when he attacks true worship and brotherhood. On the other hand, in his person Abel saves, �offering up and offered by faith,� true worship and sacrifice to God. Furthermore, God accepts Abel�s offering and receives him as a sacrifice."

Related:

• Centennial of the Armenian Genocide � Special Resource Page
• The Orthodox Christian Holocaust: 1894 to the Present
• Second Anniversary of the Kidnapping of Archbishops Paul and John
• Armenian Church canonizes victims of Ottoman genocide

by Metropolitan Siluan of Buenos Aires and All Argentina
Notes on Arab Orthodoxy via Pravmir � April 26, 2015

�By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.� (Hebrews 11:4)

The Christian East continues in the footsteps of its Master, sacrificing and in turn being sacrificed upon the altar of martyrdom, �A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master� (Matthew 10:24). This offering-martyrdom is the cup from which many of our brothers have drank and currently drink, confirming the words of the Lord to James and John on the threshold of His passion, �You will indeed drink My cup� (Matthew 20:23).

It is clear that the history of the Christians in the Middle East is at once painful and glorious. It is painful on account of the great pain and suffering that they experience on earth and glorious on account of the dignity and grace that they receive in heaven. It is a story whose roots go back to creation, to the account in the Book of Genesis about the first crime committed in history, Cain�s murder of his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8). From his point of view, Cain sacrifices on the altar of his degeneracy God and his brother. Thus, Cain irremediably attacks both existential dimensions of his life, the vertical and horizontal when he attacks true worship and brotherhood. 

On the other hand, in his person Abel saves, �offering up and offered by faith�, true worship and sacrifice to God. Furthermore, God accepts Abel�s offering and receives him as a sacrifice. Later, when he recalls this episode, the Apostle Paul highlights Abel�s faith and its impact even until today: �By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.� (Hebrews 11:4)

Today the voice of Abel echoes loudly as the Christians of the East in general and the Middle East in particular commemorate the atrocities perpetrated against their communities at the end of the Ottoman Empire, from 1915 onward. According to historians, a policy of methodical extermination, without precedent in history, was carried out at the hands of the Turks, causing the martyrdom of some five million Christians � Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Armenians and Orthodox: men, women and children. 

Thus this week the Armenian Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church are celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the Sayfo on April 24 and April 19, respectively. While our Patriarchate has not declared a hundredth anniversary� although doing so would be justified by the more than two million Orthodox martyrs (Syrians, Lebanese and Greeks)� we stand united with all Christians in this expression of faith and memory, as it is the same scenario that is repeating itself and occurring today to the Christians in the Middle East.

For these reasons, our Patriarch His Beatitude John X of Antioch along with his brothers His Beatitude Ephrem II, patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church; His Beatitude Theodoros II, patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church; and His Beatitude Cardinal Bishara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Church; among others, are participating in the commemorations being held in Armenia to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

We are convinced that, without recognition of what happened in 1915 and its traits which continue until today, and without a clear, concrete and genuine commitment on the part of the great and regional powers, to prioritize and adopt the voice of Abel over that of Cain and to work effectively in this direction, it is impossible to prevent the altar of Cain from once more being filled with other sacrifices. No one is convinced by this abomination of humanity or the absence at the global level of political ability and determination to put an end to this disastrous, inhuman escalation that goes against all reason and logic, as well as against basic human rights.

Therefore, today the 22nd of April, the point between both anniversaries, the date on which we remember the two archbishops of Aleppo, His Eminence Archbishop Youhanna (Ibrahim) and His Eminence Paul (Yazigi), who were kidnapped in Syria on April 22, 2013, we struggle so that such atrocities will never happen again because we are seriously worried by the silent and progressive extermination of the Christian presence in the Middle East, an act accompanied by political indifference, hypocracy [sic] and a complicit international silence.

In the light of the Paschal season that we are experiencing, we understand that in all of this the attitude of everyone is critical: �And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God� (John 3:19-21).

Therefore, we raise our prayer for peace and for peaceful and harmonious coexistence between all who have lived in that land for centuries, praying that the Lord will illumine the conscience and actions of all those who can bring a light of His resurrection to this frenzied situation in order to put a stop to it and to restore all for the benefit of humanity above any interest or material benefit.

Ominous Sign of the Future: Muslim Migrants from Libya throw Christians Overboard

The fate of the murdered Christian migrants is the image of our future, unless we form a human chain to resist our attackers.

by Ralph H. Sidway

Survivors from the shipwreck of a boat arrive on April 15, 2015 aboard the tanker Maria Bottiglieri in the port of Corigliano Calabro, Italy (AFP Photo/Alfonso Di Vincenzo)

The shared experience. 

How people, often from very different backgrounds, countries, nationalities and races, and even religions, can bond in simple human camaraderie, especially when going through difficult challenges and trials together, helping one another, looking out for each other, protecting not just one�s own family but those of one�s fellow travelers, one�s fellow strugglers. 

The shared experience.

Yet in the Associated Press report of the horrific crime against migrant Christians � fellow migrants seeking a better life � we see into the Muslim heart of darkness:

ROME (AP) � Italy's migration crisis took on a deadly new twist Thursday as police in Sicily reported that Muslim migrants had thrown 12 Christians overboard during a recent crossing from Libya, and an aid group said another 41 were feared drowned in a separate incident. 

Palermo police said they had detained 15 people suspected in the high seas assault, which they learned of while interviewing tearful survivors from Nigeria and Ghana who had arrived in Palermo Wednesday morning after being rescued at sea by the ship Ellensborg. 

The 15 were accused of multiple homicide aggravated by religious hatred, police said in a statement. 

The survivors said they had boarded a rubber boat April 14 on the Libyan coast with 105 passengers aboard, part of the wave of migrants taking advantage of calm seas and warm weather to make the risky crossing from Libya, where most smuggling operations originate. 

During the crossing, the migrants from Nigeria and Ghana � believed to be Christians � were threatened with being abandoned at sea by some 15 other passengers from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali and Guinea Bissau. 

Eventually the threat was carried out and 12 were pushed overboard. The statement said the motive was that the victims "professed the Christian faith while the aggressors were Muslim."

The AP story reports that the survivors did literally forge a bond through their shared experience of enduring a brutal, murderous attack of jihad terror:

The surviving Christians, the statement said, only managed to stay on board by forming a "human chain" to resist the assault.

But is there more to this story than migrant-Muslim-on-migrant-Christian jihad murder, even if one takes into account the smuggling angle?

Recall how the Islamic State titled its infamous video of the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, �A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross,� and after the slaughter, with red-soaked foam lapping at the Libyan coast, the narrator threatened: �And we will conquer Rome, Allah willing.�

Italian officials did not take the threat lightly, warning, �ISIS is at the door.�

Alarmingly, as The Daily Beast reported back in February, ISIS may already have made it through the door, via the spiraling migrant influx challenging Italy�s security apparatus.

Italy saw �a 64 percent increase in illegal migrant arrivals by sea since last year. In all of 2014, more than 170,000 people arrived from Libya and Turkey, the highest number ever recorded.� 

Even worse, defense analysts warn that Italy has never been so exposed to an attack, due in large measure to heavily armed sea-based smugglers melding with those illegal migrants. The Daily Beast article added that �The Office of Migration in Rome says there could be as many as half a million people in camps waiting to come to Italy and the unrest will push them out faster.� 

And embedded within that half million, how many ISIS operatives might there be?

Looking beyond the specific threat to Italy and Rome, we continue to see shocking numbers of Muslims in the West being drawn to join the Islamic State. The attraction for certain Middle Eastern and African Muslims can hardly be less, as attested by the remorseless wave of crimes against Christians and their churches committed not only by ISIS or other jihadi groups, but more and more by the Christians� very Muslim neighbors (see also here and here).

Even statistical research reveals that more and more �ordinary� (or, as Western leaders invariably describe them, �moderate�) Muslims sympathize with the goals of the Islamic State as honoring Islam and purifying their lands of infidel presence. Here are some examples:

• 80% of London Muslims Support ISIS
• 27% of Young French Muslims (1.62 million) back the Islamic State - Poll
• Newsweek: 16% of French Citizens Support ISIS, Poll Finds
• 92% of Saudi�s believe that �Islamic State conforms to values of Islam� - Poll
• New Poll of Muslim Countries Finds Double-Digit Support for Terrorists

As Raymond Ibrahim reports concerning Arabic media sources, such Muslim views are mainstream and deeply engrained in the Islamic mind. One Saudi writer recently wrote, �They [Saudi institutions] said that the Christian is an infidel, a denizen of hell, an enemy to Allah and Islam.  So we said, �Allah�s curse on them�.�

Taking all this into account, the Muslim attack on Christians in a migrant boat crossing the Mediterranean is a sign of our times, a dark symbol and metaphor for a future which is rapidly beginning to come into focus:

We are all in a boat together, but there is a band of people in our boat which seeks to throw the rest of us overboard, to kill us, to sink and drown us, to eliminate us.

The fate of the murdered Christian migrants is the image of our future, unless we too form a human chain to resist our attackers.

Breaking News: Ottawa Gunman a Recent Convert to Islam

Terrorist shooting attack is the second fatal Muslim Jihad Attack this week in Canada. See here for more.

Alleged Ottawa Gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, recent convert to Islam

And it seems that these Muslims were acting in direct response to calls from the Islamic State Caliphate for Muslims to attack sites in North America (see here and here).  These are not "lone wolf" attacks. They are a direct result of an increasingly emboldened Islam, and the ideology which commands such attacks comes directly from the Quran and the example of Muhammad (see my post on the 'Jerusalem' Omnimax film here.)

With 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, if only 1% are motivated to obey the Quran's commands to wage jihad against non-Muslims, that means there are 16 million radicalized Muslim jihadists out there. If the ratio is 10%, the Muslim jihad army jumps to 160 million.

As I wrote in an article in May 2013 (Message to Muslims: Time for Some Serious Questions) after the broad daylight murder and near beheading of British soldier Lee Rigby by a Muslim:

This is gravely concerning, and should prompt us to pose the following questions to all Muslims everywhere: 

1. Do you subscribe to this same "theologically determined logic" which spawns acts of violence and terrorism by Muslims in every country of the world, and drives an Islamic supremacism which seeks to establish a global caliphate to bring Islam to world dominance? In other words, do you feel in your heart, as a Muslim, that you are at war with non-Muslims?

2. If you say you do not subscribe to this worldview, how do you support your position from Islam's sacred texts? Because � as you should know � all Islamic supremacists and jihadists fully support their actions using the Quran and the example of Muhammad and the consistent teaching of Islamic jurisprudence, and they say your religion commands you to support them in the global jihad.

3. In your heart of hearts, when you continue to see such horrific acts being perpetrated in the name of Islam by men and women who claim to be devout Muslims and use your own sacred texts to back up their actions, do you question the validity of your Islamic faith, your Muslim identity? In other words, "Are you finally reaching a crisis point in your faith?"

In short, it's time to ask Muslims everywhere, "Why do you remain a Muslim?"

It's time for Muslims to ask themselves, "Why do I remain a Muslim?"

As an Orthodox Christian, I believe we offer the Way, the Truth and the Life through the Orthodox Gospel of Jesus Christ. To all Muslims everywhere I offer this challenge: If you claim to be striving to live in truth and in a way pleasing to God, "come and see" what the Orthodox Christian Faith is all about. You will find a Light and Life you never knew existed.

But there is another aspect to this "crisis of faith" you should by now be going through.

We believe that the human conscience is a divine gift from God placed in every human heart. If your conscience is nagging at you, telling you that there has to be something terribly wrong with Islam if so many of its most devout adherents are committing murder in the name of God, then you simply must obey your conscience and seek answers. You are obligated to that small voice telling you to "get out." Your religion places a huge stigma on apostasy, and as you probably know, even prescribes death for those who leave Islam or insult Muhammad. Why is that? That should even further prove its falsity to you.

Do you not know that even according to the Quran, Jesus (Isa) is bestowed with greater honor from God than Muhammad? Jesus worked miracles, raised the dead, and ascended bodily into heaven, whereas Muhammad did none of these things.


It's time to leave falsehood and turn to truth. It's time to learn about Jesus Christ as His Church has always known Him and proclaimed Him, "full of grace and truth."


This is the same Church which your religion and forbears have relentlessly persecuted since Islam expanded out of the Arabian peninsula and began waging jihad against the world. Yet this same Church, by the grace of God, stands ready to embrace and receive you as a friend and brother or sister, if you repent of Islam, turn away from it, and turn to Jesus Christ.

It's time for all you Muslims of good conscience to show real courage, bravery, integrity and repentance, leave your former religion, which you know in your heart is false, and turn to Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church, who offers you the true Way of Light and Life.

Boston bombers� mosque tied to ISIS, at least 8 known Muslim terrorists

Boston Islamic Society mosque leaders "have openly defended their worshippers convicted of terrorism despite overwhelming evidence against them... [even holding] fund-raisers and rallies for the terrorists."

The Tsarnaev terrorist-linked mosque shows the danger posed by Islam, and underscores the urgency of four separate studies documenting that upwards of 80% of mosques in the U.S. preach or support jihad, distribute books and materials promoting jihad, and advocate the replacement of the U.S. Constitution with sharia law. 


Boston bombers� mosque tied to ISIS, at least 8 known Muslim terrorists
posted at Creeping Sharia, September 8, 2014

Boston strong. via Boston bombers� mosque tied to ISIS | New York Post.

By Paul Sperry

When it was revealed that the Boston Marathon bombers attended a Cambridge, Mass., mosque, its leaders were quick to disavow their actions.

Elder brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev�s ideology was not their own, the leaders of the Islamic Society mosque claimed. In fact, he was admonished for an extremist outburst he made during one sermon.

So, one crackpot in a congregation. Who can blame the mosque?

But what about eight � including a prominent member of ISIS?

As it turns out, worshippers at the Islamic Society have included:

• ?Abdurahman Alamoudi, the mosque�s founder and first president who in 2004 was sentenced to 23 years in prison for plotting terrorism. In 2005, the Treasury Department issued a statement saying Alamoudi raised money for al Qaeda in the US.
• ?Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT scientist-turned-al Qaeda agent, who in 2010 was sentenced to 86 years in prison for planning a New York chemical attack. Known as �Lady al Qaeda,� she is related to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. ISIS has tried to trade her release for journalist hostages.
• ?Tarek Mehanna, who in 2012 got 17 years in prison for conspiring to use automatic weapons to murder shoppers in a suburban Boston mall.
• Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a mosque trustee and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader banned from the US after issuing a fatwa that called for the killing of US soldiers.
• Jamal Badawi, another former trustee who in 2007 was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a plan to funnel more than $12 million to Palestinian suicide bombers.

Now it can be revealed that another regular worshipper at the Islamic Society mosque was Ahmad Abousamra, who is now the top propagandist for ISIS.

Abousamra�s father, a prominent doctor, even sat on the board of directors of the Muslim organization that runs the mosque. He stepped down after the FBI began questioning his son.

The FBI suspects Abousamra now operates ISIS�s sophisticated media wing promoting the group�s beheadings and other atrocities through slick videos posted on the Internet. The brutally effective English-language propaganda campaign has helped attract thousands of Western jihadists, including at least 300 Americans.

The FBI says Abousamra, 32, traveled to Pakistan and Yemen to train to kill Americans while enrolled at Boston colleges. He justified murdering civilians because �they paid taxes to support the government and were kufar [nonbelievers],� Boston FBI Agent Andrew Nambu testified in an affidavit.

Another agent, Heidi Williams, says Abousamra, who has a $50,000 bounty on his head, was inspired by the 9/11 attacks and, in fact, �celebrated it.�

A federal indictment says he even plotted to randomly gun down shoppers, then emergency responders, in a Boston mall. But when he couldn�t obtain the automatic weapons for the attack, he abandoned the plan and moved to Syria where he could enter Iraq and kill US soldiers as part of �violent jihad.�

Where did he learn his views about Islam and jihad?

The Islamic Society insists it�s moderate � that these extremists were fed by online forums. But Charles Jacobs, head of Boston�s Americans for Peace and Tolerance, says the mosque has hosted pro-jihad speakers and has stocked its library with classic jihadi texts � including writings by Osama bin Laden mentor Syed Qutb.

And Islamic Society leaders have openly defended their worshippers convicted of terrorism � including Siddiqui and Mehanna � despite overwhelming evidence against them. At their hearings and trials, officials have sought their release or lenient sentences. They have also held fund-raisers and rallies for the terrorists.

Recently, investigators found a mosque prayer card for Mehanna tucked in a Russian dictionary in Tsarnaev�s Cambridge apartment.

Abousamra�s father, Dr. Abdulbadi Abousamra, was president of the Islamic Center of New England mosques until 2007, when he moved to Detroit. The FBI began questioning his son a year earlier. As mosque president, internal documents show, Dr. Abousamra hired Hafiz Masood, brother of a known Pakistani terrorist, to be the imam of a mosque in Sharon, Mass., which his son also attended.

Dr. Abousamra, now chief of endocrinology at Wayne State University in Detroit, did not return e-mails and phone calls seeking comment.

As for the Islamic Society, it insists it isn�t preaching hate.

But how many terrorists does it take before people are convinced it isn�t a coincidence?

Paul Sperry is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of �Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington.�

Many more Creeping Sharia posts on the Boston mosque here, including this one: Boston Bombings And Mayor �Menino�s Mosque�.