Program to bring hundreds of Muslim youth to Seattle

via Muslim youth head to Seattle – Seattle News – MyNorthwest.com.

Bob Walsh is President of the One World 2011 program, a series of events that will bring hundreds of young people from Muslim nations to Seattle, this summer.

Walsh says its “Bringing people together to understand each other better.” He knows something about that, Walsh brought the Goodwill Games and the Soviets to Seattle in 1990. Quite a feat, when you consider at the time the Soviet Union was still considered an “Evil Empire.”

He says when Soviets and Americans met in Seattle during the month-long event, “It was an amazing thing to watch. Hugging and kissing and crying and talking about family problems and realizing that they liked each other. They had similar problems and understood each other.”

Now Walsh is working with countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Muslim Russian Republics to bring hundreds of kids to Seattle this summer.

Walsh actually credits his Goodwill Games for helping end the Cold War.

From a bizjournals.com report:

…backers of the new project, which is timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has kicked in $200,000.

Pipeline News covered the announcement of Walsh’s group, One World 2011 Partners With Hardcore Islamist Groups:

An ambitious new-age liberal interfaith initiative – One World 2011 – started by motivational speaker Bob Walsh will conduct several events next year. The website for the new effort/organization [see, http://www.oneworld2011.org/] lists the Islamic Society of North America’s president imam Mohamed Magid as being on its board and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) as one of its donors/event partners [see, http://www.oneworld2011.org/supporters.html].

Along with ISNA and MPAC, Hamas-linked CAIR is also listed as a supporter.

The website mentions that Magid is, “President Islamic Society of North America. Imam and Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center Washington, D.C./Sterling, VA”

source 1=”http://www.oneworld2011.org/directors.html” language=”,”]

Both the Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Public Affairs Council are hard line American Islamist organizations with troubling backgrounds.

ISNA is the largest Muslim organization in North America whose mission is to spread Islam through da’wa (proselytizing). According to many sources it receives Saudi funding, a sure signifier of its devotion to Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia’s revolutionary brand of Islam.

According to Discover the Networks, “Through its affiliate, the North American Islamic Trust – a Saudi government-backed organization created to fund Islamist enterprises in North America – the Saudi-subsidized ISNA reportedly holds the mortgages on 50 to 80 percent of all mosques in the U.S. and Canada. Thus the organization can freely exercise ultimate authority over these houses of worship and their teachings…” [see, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6178]

After the 9/11 attacks the head of MPAC, Salam Al- Marayati reflexively blamed Israel, the go to whipping-boy for Islamists. As quoted by the New York Times, ”If we’re going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what’s happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies.”

MPAC founder and Senior Advisor Maher Hathout had this to say about Hezbollah as quoted by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, “The whole country keeps condemning Hezbollah,” he said at Washington’s National Press Club in 1998.”I disagree with them on other issues, but on the issue of fighting to liberate their land and attacking only armed forces, this is legitimate, that is an American value — freedom and liberty.”

It’s not clear if taxpayers are funding any of One World’s efforts, but there is definitely State Department involvement.

The U.S. State Department chose One World 2011 to help host a special reception designed to dovetail with the Presidential Conference on Entrepreneurship. The summit, intended to help fulfill a commitment President Barack Obama made in Cairo to deepen U.S. relations with the Muslim world, was held in Washington, D.C. on April 26 – 27. One World 2011 was among a select group of organizations chosen to receive this honor. Our April 29th dinner reception involved several partners: the Islamic Society of North America, the ADAMS Center, One Nation, and The Interfaith Youth Core. Together, we hosted approximately 200 Muslim American entrepreneurs to a lovely dinner at the ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia.

David Boze, who appears to be a local radio personality, questions the logic, Muslim Youth Head to Seattle: Dream come true?

Walsh says, “Sixty-five to 85 percent of the people in that part of the world don’t like the United States. We have the same problem here. More than 50 percent of the people in this country believe that Islam is a violent religion and are very concerned about terrorism and so forth….It’s basically from a lack of understanding.”

Is it really? While half the American public may believe Islam is a violent religion, and the other pretends it doesn’t have a problem with violence, how do those concerns manifest themselves? Aid to Muslim countries struck by earthquakes, poverty, etc? Urging for conversion to Christianity? Maybe a suspicious glance, then an open willingness to engage in conversation and interaction as equals in this great country? And what is it that Americans “don’t understand?” I think it’s clear Americans recognize that not all Muslims are terrorists and that Muslims can be good friends, neighbors and patriots. We’ve honored those who’ve died in service to this country. But it’s also clear Americans recognize that the majority of terrorist activity IS Islamist terror, and that a radical evangelical is not the same threat as a radical Islamist no matter how many times CNN and the New York Times try to convince us of it.

And how might anti-American views manifest in the Muslim nations? Read State Department Travel warnings, or look what happened to Western reporters to find out.

I have no problem promoting positive interaction among the world’s youth Muslim or otherwise. But I do have a problem with the moral equivocating going on with his description of the problems between Americans and the “Muslim world.”

And it wasn’t a lack of interaction with the West that sparked the terrorism of 9-11, or the terrorist acts before and since.

This program may be healthy and engaging for the students involved, but it is utopian to imagine it will solve the hatred overseas. And while I don’t mind someone dreaming big, if their dreams lead to a blindness of reality or a refusal to look squarely at the truth of a situation, it can lead to people to blindly advocate bad policies based on wishes rather than evidence.

As Boze notes in his opening, “Many jihadist clerics have a similar goal, but seek a slightly different outcome. As the Koran dictates.

A quick side note, rather than experience life in a non-Muslim, secular country, these Muslim youth will be pampered with sharia-compliant, gender-segregated prayer rooms. Will the same respect and reciprocity be given when American kids go to a selected Muslim country in 2013?