Month: September 2009

Al-Amriki says he wants your kids!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just like the ACORN story that took weeks for the “state-run” media to report, so too FOX News is initially dominating this story of an Alabama boy going to Somalia and becoming a leader of a Jihadi terrorist organization—Al Shabaab.  I’m guessing this whole concept—American born Muslim convert becoming an Al Qeada wannabe—is outside of the mainstream media’s world view.

Abu Mansour al-Amriki — or Omar Hammami as he was known — appears in a video posted online Tuesday by the group al-Shabaab, which has ties to Al Qaeda and was labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government last year. In the new video, al-Shabaab fighters pledge their allegiance to Usama bin Laden.

“I ask Allah to grant victory to the [Muslim fighters] in every land and under every sky,” says one fighter in the video, excerpts of which were provided to Fox News by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “We ask Allah that the Islamic Nation be liberated from invaders by the next [end of Ramadan] and [an Islamic state] be established by then.”

During the 50-minute video, titled “We Are At Your Command, Usama,” al-Amriki pops up in scenes of apparent military training. In one scene, he stands in the background – a black, bulging vest strapped to his chest – while at least four people whose faces are hidden by cloth point rifles forward.

Al-Amriki has been in Somalia for several years, but he first became a public figure in October 2007, when Al-Jazeera TV featured him in a report on the “common goal” of Al Qaeda and hard-line militants in Somalia. He kept his face hidden.

He showed his face for the first time in April, when a video posted online featured him purportedly leading a group of al-Shabaab militants in an ambush of “the enemy.”

We need more western kids!  (Six former refugees, American-Somalis, have died so far in Somalia.)

Speaking about one man killed in the fight, he said, “We need more like him, so if you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbors, anyone around, to send people like him to this jihad, it would be a great asset for us.”

Read the rest of the FOX report on how Al-Amriki came to be in Somalia in the first place.

We first reported to you about Al-Amriki here in April.

Kennedy got big UN prize for his refugee work

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

No surprise here.   The UN High Commissioner for Refugees this week announced that Senator Ted Kennedy received the top award for helping refugees get to America (except not to Hyannisport or any other community where the very rich and powerful live). 

The late United States Senator Edward Kennedy has been awarded the most prestigious United Nations refugee award for his record of more than 45 years as an unparalleled champion of refugee protection and assistance.

“Senator Kennedy stood out as a forceful advocate for those who suddenly found themselves with no voice and no rights,” [like Mary Jo?]  UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres said today in announcing the 2009 Nansen Refugee Award.

The award is given annually to an individual or organization for outstanding work on behalf of refugees.

They told him about the award in June.  Whew! That’s a good thing.

Mr Kennedy’s work in establishing US refugee admissions, resettlement and asylum programmes directly helped millions of persecuted individuals to find protection and start new lives in the US, UNHCR said in a statement.

He was the chief sponsor of more than 70 refugee-related measures and was instrumental in codifying international refugee obligations into US law.

“UNHCR is grateful it was able to inform Senator Kennedy of the Nansen Committee’s decision in June, and deeply saddened by his passing,” the agency said. He died in August.

Iraqis learn about American life from on-line forums

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I guess forums like this one fill in the gaps refugees are experiencing in their supposed orientation programs offered by US State Department-funded outfits.

This McClatchy article made me laugh:

Forum regulars offer do’s and don’ts for airport screenings and remind new arrivals to report any changes of address “so you don’t become a national security concern.” They get into the nitty-gritty of an Iraqi household in America: Long skirts for Muslim women? Bring them, because U.S. shops are filled with miniskirts and shorts. Electrical appliances? Leave them in Baghdad because of the voltage difference. Hookah pipes? Don’t worry, the tobacco and coals are available. Need cheap furniture and household goods? Try a site called Craigslist, “where you can buy and sell anything!”

Wal-mart exploits old people?  

An Iraqi refugee whose online handle is “Arizona” is a particularly astute observer of his new world. One of his most recent posts describes how he walked into a Wal-Mart and was shocked to be welcomed by “a person who’s over 85 years old and works as a tracker of shopping carts.” Apparently unfamiliar with Wal-Mart greeters, who are often senior citizens, Arizona made a phone call to make sure that the chain wasn’t exploiting the elderly, and later he published relevant labor laws for other Iraqis to see.

Do we have a budding social justice activist here?  Arizona needs to find the nearest ACORN office!

Another time, Arizona wrote of a stroll through a park and his first encounter with homeless street performers. He struck up a conversation and learned about their tenuous lives. He wrote with admiration that the U.S. government provides them with food assistance and medical care.

“God bless you, my brother,” an Iraqi named Basel commented on Arizona’s post about the street musicians. “I always see you trying to shed light on American society and to show us the corners we’ve never heard of.”

Obama: We aren’t taking care of the world anymore!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Whew!  I can’t believe it—I agree with Obama for a change. According to AP, Obama told the UN yesterday that it’s time for world leaders to do more for their own problems and not depend on the US to save their necks.

UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama challenged world leaders Wednesday to shoulder more of the globe’s critical burdens, promising a newly cooperative partner in America but sternly warning they can no longer castigate the U.S. as a go-it-alone bully while still demanding it cure all ills.

“Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone,” said Obama in put-up-or-shut-up comments before a packed U.N. General Assembly hall. “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”

I will be anxiously awaiting the letter from Obama to Muslim countries (such as Saudi Arabia) demanding they take care of Muslim refugees—starting with the Palestinians!

Fatwa: Iraqis must not become U.S. citizens

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The invaluable MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, which translates things in the Arabic-language media that we need to know, reports:

Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), recently issued a fatwa stating that an Iraqi exile may not become a U.S. citizen; the fatwa came in response to a question from a viewer during his Ramadan television special. Al-Qaradhawi explained that a Muslim must not become a citizen of a country that is occupying his homeland – and that the ruling was inspired by similar rulings issued by Muslim clerics during France’s occupation of Tunisia.

Al-Qaradhawi qualified his pronouncement by saying that it did not apply to Iraqis who had fled Iraq at the beginning of the occupation and had already taken foreign citizenship in the U.S. or Europe, but only from this day forward.  It also applied to Afghan exiles, he said.

Others  disagreed.

Al-Arabiya TV director ‘Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed wrote an op-ed in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat criticizing Al-Qaradhawi’s ruling. The following are excerpts from the English version of his article, as it appeared in the English edition of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat:

“However, this fatwa has nothing to do with the reality on the ground, and contains more political absurdity then it does religious guidance. Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi himself is an Egyptian who has Qatari citizenship – given to him after he opposed the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. However, when an Israeli office was opened in Doha, Al-Qaradhawi did not renounce his Qatari nationality. This is a personal issue that does not concern us as much as we are concerned with the usage of religion, especially the weapon of the fatwa, in highly politicized cases.”

….

“The truth is that the fear is from the opposite side. In the U.S. there is a strong lobby opposed to the naturalization of Muslims and Arabs, for racist and political reasons. Immigration to the U.S. eventually results in citizenship, and the granting of full citizens’ rights – something not granted to Arab refugees in any Arab country, regardless of the humanitarian situation.

“Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi should ask about the Palestinian refugees who live a tough life and are treated like animals in many Arab countries. They are forbidden from working and earning a livelihood – and some are even forbidden from traveling and visiting their families.

“In the future, before speaking, Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi should ask any Arab immigrant who has been lucky enough to gain citizenship in the [country of the] infidel, in order to find out the difference between myth and reality.”

So it is unclear what effect the fatwa will have, if any. Probably those Iraqis who are having a hard time in the U.S. will end up going back, as we’ve seen they are doing, and those who stay will want citizenship. I don’t get the impression that most Iraqi immigrants are ruled by faraway Imams.