North Carolina: 3 Muslims sentenced in plot to behead terror witnesses

Pair gets just three years for plotting to behead witnesses. via Trio sentenced in plot to behead terror witnesses | abc7chicago.com.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A judge gave four life sentences Friday to a man already facing decades in federal prison for his role in a North Carolina terror plot.

Hysen Sherifi lectured federal Judge Earl Britt about Islamic teachings and warned the judge he faced damnation at his sentencing hearing.

Prosecutors say Sherifi conspired with his brother and a female friend to kill witnesses who testified against him about a plot with five other men in the Raleigh – Johnston County area to attack the U.S. Marine base at Quantico and targets overseas. In 2012, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the original case.

After Sherifi was convicted, prosecutors say he convinced his brother Shkumbin and former special education teacher Nevine Aly Elshiekh to help behead three confidential informants from his trial. He also wanted a fourth man killed who he said had defrauded his family out of more than $30,000.

The FBI learned of the plot through a jail informant and staged a fake hit on one of the witnesses. They even created bogus photos of the beheaded man to show to Hysen in his jail cell.

At sentencing Friday, Judge Britt said Hysen destroyed the lives of his brother and Elshiekh.

They were also sentenced Friday after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy to commit murder for hire at Hysen’s urging. Shkumbin Sherifi was given 36 months in prison and 36 months probation. Nevine Aly Elshiekh was sentenced to 42 months in prison and 36 months probation.

Prosecutors offered Elshiekh and Shkumbin plea deals, agreeing to drop eight other counts in exchange for testimony against Hysen.

More: Man sentenced in N.C. plot to behead terror witness

Before Hysen Sherifi was sentenced, he lectured the judge about Islamic teachings.

“The Koran is the truth that invalidates all other religions,” said Sherifi, who declined a court-appointed lawyer and represented himself at trial. “If you do not submit, he will severely judge you, and on the day of judgment you will enter hellfire.”

North Carolina: Muslim pleads guilty, wanted to rob & kill Americans to fund jihad

“Rios planned to fund his trip by committing violent robberies in North Carolina, leaving no witnesses alive.”

via Neighbor describes eerie feeling about terrorism-related suspect – WJHL-TV

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – A 19-year-old from Fayetteville pled guilty to charges related to his plans for terrorist activities, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Erwin Antonio Rios, 19, of Fayetteville, pled guilty Tuesday to a charge of possession of a stolen firearm. He was arrested in February.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Rios wanted to take the gun overseas to carry out what he called “jihad” on non-believers in Islam, U.S. forces included. The DOJ said Rios explained jihad as various forms of violence against those he determined to be non-believers. The DOJ characterized the intentions as terrorist activities.

In a press release, the DOJ wrote that Rios planned to fund his trip by committing violent robberies in North Carolina, leaving no witnesses alive.

“Erwin Rios intended to commit violent acts against innocent people in furtherance of his extremist doctrine of hate,” said John Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Charlotte Division of the FBI.

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) affidavit, Rios was arrested on February 7. Agents believe Rios was living or had spent some time at his father’s house on Oak Knolls Drive prior to his arrest.

People who live on the street said Wednesday they remember agents raiding the Rios home a few months ago – the day of, or the day after the arrest. One neighbor who did not give his name said he saw agents take computers from the home. The neighbor also said he had only seen Rios for a few weeks prior to the raid, and he said Rios was wearing a thobe or Islamic man’s robe.

The FBI affidavit said a confidential informant first met Rios at an Islamic house of worship in Hoke County in June 2012. According to the affidavit Rios talked to the informant over several more months. The affidavit said Rios talked about a desire to be soldier for Allah, and that Muslims would rule the world, and that anyone who killed in defense of his religion would be forgiven and guaranteed a place in heaven.

His father says it was an Islamic website that led his son to jihad. Why can’t a single reporter identify the website? And why did it take nearly three months for news of his arrest to hit the air?

More via WAPO, NC man pleads guilty in terrorism plot that included talk of attacks on Fort Bragg soldiers

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina man who the FBI says spoke of killing U.S. Army soldiers as part of a personal jihad has pleaded guilty to possessing a stolen firearm.

Erwin Antonio Rios, 19, admitted guilt Tuesday in U.S. District Court as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. The terms of the agreement have not been made public, but the felony charge to which Rios pleaded guilty carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

In an affidavit filed with the court, FBI Special Agent Frank Brostrom said Rios holds extremist Islamic views and told a government informant he would like to kill Fort Bragg soldiers.

“Rios spoke of how Islam will rule the world soon, and that non-believers are guaranteed hell fire,” Brostrom said. “Rios stated that he would have loved to have been a soldier for Allah.”

Authorities said Rios, who is from Fayetteville, also plotted to travel overseas to commit violence against non-Muslims and devised a scheme to commit armed robberies to obtain money to buy weapons. The FBI set up a sting where Rios bought what he was told was a stolen handgun and was then immediately placed under arrest.

According to the affidavit, an FBI informant first met Rios in June 2012 at a mosque in Raeford. The young Muslim told the informant he wanted to fight non-believers oppressing the faithful.

Two month later, the informant and Rios were riding in a car past the gates of Fort Bragg, the sprawling home of the 82 Airborne Division. Rios told the informant they could easily gain access to the base and that he liked to observe the soldiers and watch their movements in case he ever had to make jihad against them, according to the affidavit.

When a military helicopter flew overhead, Rios “stated that he wished he had a ‘Stinger missile’ to take it out,” according to Brostrom.

In another conversation, Rios is reported to have told the FBI informant that the “most efficient way to kill them all would be to wear an explosive vest and blow yourself up for Allah,” according to the affidavit.

In September, Rios told the informant he had been talking to someone who could get him an AK-47 assault rifle and a .357 caliber handgun for about $500. When the informant suggested that the guns might be stolen at that price, Rios responded that he knew that but it was still a good deal, according to the affidavit.

The FBI said Rios feared arrest if he tried to buy guns from a licensed dealer. State court records shows he has prior convictions for breaking and entering and possession of a stolen firearm. In 2011, Rios had applied for a passport but was denied because he was on criminal probation, according to the affidavit.

After Rios expressed his desire to buy a gun, the informant offered to introduce him to a neighbor who broke into homes to steal weapons.

On February 7, Rios traveled with the informant to Lillington to meet with a second informant posing as an illegal gun salesman. According to the affidavit, the FBI informant offered Rios a 9mm handgun that had been stolen. Rios then paid a $100 for the gun, which had secretly had the firing pin removed, according to the FBI.

Rios then drove off with the first informant, but they were pulled over by FBI agents after traveling about a mile. Rios was taken into custody as he reached for a knife concealed in his pocket, according to the affidavit.

His guilty plea on Tuesday comes days after three Raleigh Muslims were sentenced in a plot to behead federal informants who helped the FBI foil another homegrown terror plot that involved plans to attack the U.S. Marine base at Quantico, Va., and targets overseas.

 Anyone checking into the mosque, its imam, other members? The jihad-loving, article-scrubbing Fayetteville Observer is already defending the house of jihad mosque. Imams have been preaching jihad in North Carolina since at least  the 90′s.

Including the Muslim behind first accredited Islamic college in U.S. says OK for Muslims to attack Ft Bragg

A Council on American-Islamic Relations adviser and regular speaker at its events has suggested Islamic law permits Muslims to attack C-130 military transport planes carrying the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, N.C., according to a stunning new book exposing Washington-based CAIR’s inner workings.

Radical Islamic cleric Zaid Shakir, a frequent guest speaker at CAIR events, tells his Muslim audiences: “Jihad is physically fighting the enemies of Islam to protect and advance the religion of Islam. This is jihad.”

“Islam doesn’t permit us to hijack airplanes filled with civilian people,” Shakir once told a Muslim audience. However, “If you hijack an airplane filled with the 82nd Airborne, that’s something else.”

More than 60 posts on North Carolina, click the link below to see them all.

North Carolina Muslim Found Guilty In Witness Beheading Plot

2009 photo of Hysen Sherifi after his arrest in a Triangle-based terrorism plot. Courtesy WRAL

Apparently his “We fight for Allah” defense was not persuasive. Clearly not a jury of his peers. via Hysen Sherifi Found Guilty In Beheading Plot | digtriad.com.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man serving a 45-year sentence for a terror plot to attack a U.S. Marine base and overseas targets has been found guilty in a murder-for-hire plot to behead witnesses who testified against him.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker said 28-year-old Hysen Sherifi was found guilty Thursday of nine counts related to the murder-for-hire plot, Sherifi will be sentenced in February, when he faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars.

Sherifi’s brother and a friend also were charged in the murder-for-hire case and testified against Sherifi after entering into plea agreements with prosecutors.

Sherifi has said that he was arrested because of his Muslim faith. He was sentenced in January to 45 years in prison for plots to attack the Marine base at Quantico, Va., and overseas targets.

Many previous posts on Sherifi and the eight Muslims from Raleigh, North Carolina arrested in terror plots on American soldiers.

Muslim in North Carolina beheading plot: “We fight for Allah”

His brother is set to rat on him. via Federal prosecutors play recordings, video in beheading plot :: WRAL.com.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Jurors in the federal trial of a man accused of wanting to behead three people viewed videos and listened to recordings about the alleged plot on Tuesday.

Hysen Sherifi, 28, is on trial for charges stemming from accusations that he planned with his younger brother and a female friend to pay a hit man to carry out the killings.

At the time, he was already serving 45 years in prison after being convicted for plots to attack a Marine base at Quantico, Va., and targets overseas.

In court Tuesday, federal prosecutors claimed it is Sherifi’s voice on the recordings with a fellow inmate in which Sherifi allegedly talks about beheading two government witnesses in his first trial as well as another person who reportedly conned Sherifi out of money.

Sherifi, who is acting as his own attorney, has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors also showed a video of Nevine Elshiekh, the female friend, handing over photos of the people Sherifi allegedly wanted beheaded.

Elshiekh, one of two people who pleaded guilty last week to charges in the case, is expected to testify later this week.

In opening statements Monday, prosecutors said Sherifi was already in custody in the terror case when he asked another inmate in the same lockup to help him hire a hit man.

The fellow inmate contacted the FBI, allowing federal agents to set up a sting operation that included a confidential informant posing as the representative of a shadowy assassin named Treetop.

At Sherifi’s direction, his brother, Shkumbin Sherifi, 22, and Elshiekh spent the first week of 2012 rounding up $5,000 to pay for the initial hit on a government witness, said prosecutor Matthew Blue of the U.S. Justice Department’s counterterrorism section.

Elshiekh hocked her gold jewelry to help finance the beheading, he said.

In the sting, a middleman collected the money and later provided faked pictures appearing to show the targeted witness beheaded and lying in a shallow grave. His co-conspirators brought Hysen Sherifi a photo, holding it against the wire separation in the jail’s visiting area, Blue said. Sherifi told the inmate claiming to have murder-for-hire connections he wasn’t satisfied with the killing, Blue said.

“He had one complaint; ‘I wish you wouldn’t have wasted a bullet. I wish you would have just chopped his head off,’” Blue told jurors.

After opening statements by prosecutors, Sherifi read Quranic verses to jurors in Arabic and lectured them on their meaning in English.

“We fight for Allah. We have authority. Do you have authority to make laws for mankind?” Sherifi told jurors without describing who else he claimed to represent. “We do not make laws. We follow the laws that have been revealed by Allah.”

 Signed, sealed, delivered.

Back posts here.

North Carolina: Two Muslims plead guilty in plot to behead terror trial witnesses

Admitted Islamic beheading plotter was director of special education at Sterling Montessori Academy and Charter School in Morrisville, North Carolina.

via Pair pleads guilty in plot to kill witnesses in Triangle terror trial :: WRAL.com.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Two people pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges that they plotted to behead witnesses from a terrorism trial involving several Triangle men.

Nevine Aly Elshiekh, 47, and Shkumbin Sherifi, 22, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for hire. They are scheduled to be sentenced in February, when they face up to 10 years in prison.

Elshiekh and Sherifi were arrested in January after an FBI sting in which Sherifi’s brother, Hysen Sherifi, allegedly tried to have three witnesses in his October 2011 federal terrorism trial killed.

Hysen Sherifi, 27, was sentenced in January to 45 years in prison for plotting to attack the U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., as well as targets overseas. Six other men also are serving federal prison sentences for their roles in the terror cell.

Court records show that an FBI informant posing as a hit man accepted a $750 down payment on a killing from Elshiekh, who also provided the informant with the names of the people to be killed.

Shkumbin Sherifi later paid the informant $4,250 for the first killing, and the informant showed him doctored photos that appeared to show a beheaded corpse in a shallow grave as a way of confirming that he had killed a witness, according to court records.

DNC Muslim prayer segregates women, inferior under sharia

Over at the Gateway Pundit, a commenter notes the sharia compliance enforced on women at the DNC Jummah. The real war on women, Islamic sharia (will not be televised).

Source: Dwayne Gross; NBC News

Macsmind points out that one of the leaders of the DNC Muslim prayer event is wearing a ripped and torn U.S. flag around his neck.

Note the complete disrespect of the flag, draped in a way that suggestion “submission”.

And the media is scurrilously trying to now claim that the event wasn’t sanctioned by Obama and the DNC who mysteriously deleted the Islamic event from their schedule after public concern of Democratic support for sharia law and jihad-preaching participants.

Lest you have any doubts that Democrats whole-heartedly support Islamic sharia law, recall just weeks ago that a prominent Democrat stated on video that Voting Against Sharia Law Is GOP Fear Mongering, Bigotry.

Flashback: Three years ago the media pimped for this and ignored sharia then too: Sharia law and segregation enforced on Capitol Hill lawn (video)

Update: Another view of the “scarf” that coincidentally has stars and stripes and is red, white and blue.

DNC Islamic prayers commence led by jihad-preaching imam

20,000 minus 19,900 or more showed up. via Islamic prayers in Marshall Park draw critics | WCNC.com Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — About 200 Muslim men, women and children prayed together Friday afternoon, as police and protesters looked on in Marshall Park for the Jumah at the DNC 2012.

The event, sponsored by the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs, was added to the official DNC Host Committee calendar and the implied endorsement angered people across the country.

Earlier this week, the committee removed the Jumah from its calendar.

Officials said speakers for the event and statements and positions from event organizers were not appropriate and relevant to the Host Committee.

Organizer Jibril Hough, of the Islamic Center of Charlotte, said the Jumah was never sponsored by the DNC Host Committee.

“The DNC did not do this. We did this,” said Hough. “It is about prayer, not politics. We want to celebrate the community and let people know about our beliefs.”

Several protesters showed up to Marshall Park during the Jumah and a few shouted and chastised the worshippers.

Police did get involved by asking the protesters to turn down their sound system.

Most of the people attending the Jumah said they felt it was a success and look forward to other Islamic events happening through the weekend.

Hough, who is on the DNC Welcome Committee, said he felt it was a historic day and is proud of his city.

Video at the link above shows what, about 50 people? (if anyone finds video of the event on youtube please post in comments)

Any way you look at it this was applauded by the Democrats, it was promoted as a Democratic event and even listed on the DNC schedule until the very last minute. They fully embrace Muslims even though those that call for jihad against Americans and to convert America into an Islamic state as the event’s lead imam Siraj Wahhaj has done.

In a September 1991 speech in Toronto, titled “The Afghanistan Jihad,” Wahhaj toldhis fellow Muslims:

“Those who struggle for Allah, it doesn’t matter what kind of weapons [you use], I’m telling you it doesn’t matter! You don’t need nuclear weapons or even guns! If you have faith in Allah and a knife! If Allah wants you to win, you will win! Because Allah is the only one who fights. And when his hand is over your hand, whoever is at war against my friends, I declare war on them…. The Americans are not your friends … The Canadians are not your friends … The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah, the Messenger and those who believe. These people will never be satisfied with you until you follow their religion …”

Two months later, Wahhaj urged U.S. Muslims to become politically active as a means of augmenting the influence of their faith: “As long as you remember that if you get involved in politics, you have to be very careful that your leader is for Allah. You don’t get involved in politics because it’s the American thing to do. You get involved in politics because politics are a weapon to use in the cause of Islam.”[1]

In a 1992 sermon, Wahhaj emphasized the importance of jihad to his Al-Taqwa mosque congregation: “I will never ever tell people, ‘don’t be violent, that is not the Islamic way.’ The violence has to be selected…. Islam is the only answer because it is only Islam that we do it for Allah…. [We are] commanded to do jihad…. [W]hen Allah commands us to fight we are not stopping, no one will stop us.”

In an autumn 1992 address to an Islamic gathering in New Jersey, Wahhaj expressed his desire to have Muslims seize control of the United States and replace the country’s constitutional government with an Islamic caliphate. “If we were united and strong,” Wahhaj said, “we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him…. [T]ake my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”

We’ve written about Siraj Wahhaj numerous times – see posts here. Listen to Siraj Wahhaj call Muslims in America to wage jihad below.

• states Islam commands jihad of the true soldiers of Allah – listen to the Wahhaj speech
• advocates the replacement of the U.S. government with an Islamic Caliphate
• unindicted co-conspirator to the 1993 World Trade Center bombings
• called the most dangerous ‘Islamic Scholar’ in the U.S. in regards to our national security
• promoted Islamic ads on NYC subways to coincide with the 9/11 anniversary
• Keynote speaker at 2009 ICNA-MAS conference (Memorial Day weekend)
• More Siraj Wahhaj profiled at Discover the Networks

Decades from now your children will ask, why didn’t my parents or grandparents stop this obvious infiltration and invasion after 9/11.

DNC’s Islamic prayer leader keynoted “Jihad Summer Camp” — two weeks before 9/11

via The PJ Tatler » DNC’s Islamic prayer leader keynoted “Jihad Summer Camp” — two weeks before 9/11.

The planned Islamic prayer service for this coming Friday as part of the DNC’s 2012 convention has drawn some controversy in recent days, even from some Muslim groups.

One of the points of criticism is that the event is being led by extremist cleric Siraj Wahhaj, who was named by US Attorney Mary Jo White as “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial, and appeared as a character witness for the mastermind of the plot, the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman (prosecuted by our PJ Media colleague, former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy).

Back in 2003, Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Barrett highlighted some of Wahhaj’s extremist statements, noting his advocacy of strict shariah law:

He has told his followers that a society governed by strict Islamic law, in which adulterers would be stoned to death and thieves would have their hands cut off, would be superior to American democracy. Speaking of unnamed forces in the government and media, he has preached, “These people want the destruction of Islam.”

Dr. Daniel Pipes also quotes Wahhaj in an article “The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America“, where Wahhaj has a perverse take on Martin Luther King Jr.s “I Have a Dream” speech:

I have a vision in America, Muslims owning property all over, Muslim businesses, factories, halal meat, supermarkets, all these buildings owned by Muslims. Can you see the vision, can you see the Newark International Airport and a John Kennedy Airport and La Guardia having Muslim fleets of planes, Muslim pilots. Can you see our trucks rolling down the highways, Muslim names. Can you imagine walking down the streets of Teaneck, [New Jersey]: three Muslim high schools, five Muslim junior-high schools, fifteen public schools. Can you see the vision, can you see young women walking down the street of Newark, New Jersey, with long flowing hijab and long dresses. Can you see the vision of an area . . . controlled by the Muslims?”

One other troubling element of the history DNC’s jumah prayer leader is that Wahhaj was the keynote speaker at a “Jihad Summer Camp” just two weeks before the 9/11 attacks. Here’s a flyer for the event:

The actual organizer for the DNC jumah prayer event on Friday, Jabril Hough, has also faced some criticism for his group’s advocacy of Islamic supremacist ideology and extremist views.

For example, earlier this week Charlotte TV station WSOC aired an interview with Hough where they covered some controversial topics, including Hough’s claims that American troops are actually the terrorists in Afghanistan:

Eyewitness News asked Hough about his views on several topics, including the war on terror.

“American troops are actually the insurgents. It’s not the people who live there. The people who live there are defending their country,” Hough said.

Hough does not consider himself to be a supremacist, but believes Muslims have not received the credit they deserve.

“This is a fact: Muslims have visited America prior to Columbus. It was a Muslim who guided Columbus on his voyage to the new world,” Hough said.

He insisted he is not a radical, and said his beliefs are shared by mainstream Muslims.

This is the face of American Islam that the DNC would like to portray as “moderates”. And they have the audacity to call others “Islamophobes”.

Hough also said:

CBN News asked another Muslim convert from North Carolina whether his loyalty came first to Islam or to America.

“My loyalty first is to Islam,” answered Jibril Hough.

North Carolina: Muslim convert gets 18 years for leading terror cell

via Leader of Triangle terrorist cell gets 18-year sentence – Orlando Sentinel.

Three years after eight men were accused of stockpiling weapons in rural Johnston County and conspiring to commit jihad overseas, the ringleader of what prosecutors describe as a homegrown terror cell was sentenced in federal court Friday.

Daniel Patrick Boyd, who engaged in a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony in the trials of four others who fought the charges, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The federal accusations in July 2009 that eight men had been amassing weapons and plotting to maim, injure and kidnap people abroad brought shock and disbelief to the Johnston County community where they lived.

The case highlighted the government’s use of FBI informants to build a slew of terror cases across the country since the Sept. 11 attacks.

It also raised questions about the influence that an older, outspoken man could have over young men in a rural community who were seeking direction in their lives. Two of the eight involved where Boyd’s sons.

“Daniel Boyd recruited his own sons and others into conspiracies to murder persons abroad and provide material support to terrorism,” said Lisa Monaco, assistant attorney general for National Security. “Today, he is being held accountable for his actions.”

Boyd, 42, received a lesser prison term than some of the younger men he was accused of influencing. He pleaded guilty in February 2011 to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder persons abroad.

One of the other men — Anes Subasic, 36 — also was sentenced in the federal courthouse in New Bern. He was given 30 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad.

‘This is stupid’

Subasic, a Bosnian refugee who was tried by himself because of his propensity for outbursts in the courtroom, ranted at Senior U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan and federal prosecutors during his sentencing hearing.

He shouted that he was not guilty, not a terrorist and not a Muslim.

“This is stupid and retarded,” Subasic yelled.

When prosecutors suggested that Flanagan give Subasic a sentence of life in prison, he yelled out: “How about two?”

Flanagan ordered Subasic to get a mental health evaluation while in custody.

Friday’s sentences bring to a close the first terror case in the Triangle, which came among a wave of similar post-9/11 cases across the nation. Charges were filed and arrests occurred before any violent acts happened.

The federal government used confidential informants in the Boyd case to help gather more than 800 hours of video and audio recordings.

In June 2009, investigators seized rifles, ammunition and pistols from the Boyds’ Willow Spring home.

Obama ok’s mass Muslim prayer at DNC – rejects Catholic priest’s prayer

If it walks like a duck? via The Gateway Pundit.

The Obama Campaign will sponsor an Islamic Jumah at the DNC in September. Obama’s DNC lists the assembly as an “official function.”

Robert Spencer wrote this about the DNC Jumah:

But the most disturbing aspect of the entire “Jumah at the DNC” is not the obvious victimhood-mongering of its agenda, but the people involved. The Democrats are playing host to an unsavory gang of Islamic supremacists with numerous ties to jihad groups. Even this is not surprising, but it should be a matter of concern to any Americans who are more aware of the jihad threat than the average politically correct Democrat pol.

But, as Atlas Shrugs pointed out, the Obama Campaign denied Catholic Cardinal request to lead prayer at the convention.

President Obama turned down a chance to have Timothy Cardinal Dolan deliver a prayer at the Democratic National Convention after Dolan told Democrats he would be “grateful” to deliver a blessing in Charlotte.

Dolan — considered the top Catholic official in the nation, as head of the Archdiocese of New York and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops — tipped off Democrats a few weeks ago that he had agreed to deliver the prime-time benediction at the Republican convention in Tampa next week, Dolan’s spokesman Joseph Zwilling told The Post.

From our original post back in July on the DNC Islamic prayer fest and two of its key leaders:

Jibril Hough:

CBN News asked another Muslim convert from North Carolina whether his loyalty came first to Islam or to America.

“My loyalty first is to Islam,” answered Jibril Hough.

On page 2 of the DNC Jummah flyer, another leader Hassen Abdellah seemingly brags about defending terrorists in the 1993 World Trade Center attacks and we quote, “A Lead Defense Attorney For First 1993 World Trade Bombing Suspects Hassen Abdellah Has Etched His Name In Islamic History As It Is Being Written Right Here In America.” (all caps in the flyer)

According to the flyer, the DNC has approved Hough and Abdellah’s presence at DNC and the mass Islamic prayer.

Mr. Abdellah was briefly the lawyer of Mohamed el-Atriss, who was convicted of selling fake IDs to two of the 9/11 hijackers. Atriss did provide the fake IDs, but claimed he did not know what they would be used for.

Robert Spencer, writing at Human Events, identified two more of Abdellah’s clients:

As an attorney, Abdellah has represented Mahmud Faruq Brent, a Muslim cabdriver in Baltimore who pled guilty in April 2007 to attending a jihad terrorist training camp in Pakistan. At the time of the guilty plea, the Washington Post reported that Abdellah said that “Brent does not intend to cooperate with authorities or testify against the other defendants.” Abdellah also represented Numan Maflahi, who in 2004 was sentenced to five years in prison for, according to the New York Times, “lying to investigators during an investigation of terrorism financing efforts that they said were centered in Brooklyn.”

What’s that bit about defending against all enemies, foreign and domestic?

Update: Democrats backtrack and accept Dolan’s invite. Meanwhile, today Obama put us over $16 TRILLION in debt and it’s not news. Anyone praying?

Jihad At the DNC

via Jihad At the DNC | FrontPage Magazine

It is no surprise, after four years of Obama Administration pandering, Muslim groups have a prominent role at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. The Charlotte Observer reports that organizers expect as many as 20,000 Muslims to attend the “Jumah at the DNC” series of events being organized by the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA). Among these events is an all-day “Islamic Cultural & Fun Fest,” which will include a “TownHall Issues Conference” that will address “issues such as Islamaphobia, Anti-Shariah, Middle Eastern Crisis, Patriot Act, National Defense Authorization Act and more.”

There is no doubt whatsoever that this “TownHall Issues Conference” will not include any discussion of Islamic jihad terror plotting in the U.S., or of how Muslim groups have tried to exaggerate the problem of “Islamophobia” by faking hate crimes. It is likewise certain that the “Anti-Shariah” issue will be portrayed as an attempt by bigoted Americans to restrict Muslim religious freedom, when in reality it is solely an attempt to prevent the political and supremacist aspects of Islamic law that are at variance with constitutional freedoms from gaining a foothold here. Certain also is that the discussions of the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act will focus on how these measures are supposedly excessive and unfairly target Muslims.

The overall thrust of the entire “TownHall Issues Conference,” as is clear from its stated agenda, is to portray Muslims as the innocent victims of a bigoted, racist and “Islamophobic” government and law enforcement establishment that is unfairly scapegoating Muslims as a whole for the misguided deeds of a few on September 11, 2001. It will include no discussion of the many attempted jihad attacks against the U.S. since then, or of the successful ones, such as Nidal Malik Hasan’s massacre at Fort Hood or Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad’s murders outside a military recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas. Any and all scrutiny of the Muslim community in the U.S. will be portrayed as gratuitous and unwarranted. The assembled Democrats, meanwhile, will be falling all over themselves to promise that whatever domestic counter-terror apparatus the Obama administration has failed to dismantle during its first term will go under the knife during its second.

But the most disturbing aspect of the entire “Jumah at the DNC” is not the obvious victimhood-mongering of its agenda, but the people involved. The Democrats are playing host to an unsavory gang of Islamic supremacists with numerous ties to jihad groups. Even this is not surprising, but it should be a matter of concern to any Americans who are more aware of the jihad threat than the average politically correct Democrat pol.

Take, for example, BIMA spokesman Jibril Hough. Hough’s mosque, the Islamic Center of Charlotte, is owned by a Muslim Brotherhood group, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror funding case. When confronted about this on a radio show, Hough first professed not to be aware of the charges against NAIT, and then refused to disavow the organization, saying only that he himself was “not necessarily” a member of NAIT and: “I was not involved in the decision to allow NAIT to be the [title] holder.”

Meanwhile, the “Grand Imam” for Jumah at the DNC is none other than Siraj Wahhaj. Wahhaj is one of the most sought-after speakers on the Muslim circuit, and has addressed audiences all over the country; in 1991, he even became the first Muslim to give an invocation to the U.S. Congress. After 9/11, his renown as a moderate Muslim grew when he declared: “I now feel responsible to preach, actually to go on a jihad against extremism.” But as with so many other Muslim leaders in the U.S., Siraj Wahhaj is not as moderate as he may appear at first glance.

Wahhaj was several years ago designated a “potential unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He himself has denounced this designation as essentially meaningless, but he didn’t earn it by doing nothing. In the early 1990s he squired the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, all around New York City and New Jersey, sponsoring talks by him in area mosques. The Blind Sheikh, of course, is now serving a life sentence for his role in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, as well as in jihad plots to blow up the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels.

When Wahhaj was traveling around with the Blind Sheikh, was Rahman “moderate,” and then became “radicalized”  later? Or did Rahman and Wahhaj share a supremacist and violent view of Islam, but Wahhaj is going about his jihad in a way that is less likely than Rahman’s to draw law enforcement scrutiny? No one ever asks Wahhaj such questions – least of all Democrat Party politicians.

Nor is Wahhaj’s association with the Blind Sheikh the only blot on his reputation as a “moderate.” He has warned that the United States will fall unless it “accepts the Islamic agenda.” He has also asserted that “if only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.”

So why is such a man acting as the “Grand Imam” at “Jumah at the DNC”? The Democrats are so in thrall to multiculturalism that it is likely that few, if any, DNC organizers know or care about Wahhaj’s Islamic supremacist statements and ties. To raise any concerns about such a speaker would be “Islamophobic,” violating every rule of the anti-American, anti-Western ethos that prevails among so many Democrats today.

The worst thing about Siraj Wahhaj’s appearance at “Jumah at the DNC” is that it is so thoroughly unsurprising. What would be genuinely shocking would be if the DNC anywhere, at anytime, featured a speaker who spoke realistically about the jihad threat. But there is about as much chance of that as there is of the Democrats ditching Obama and nominating David Horowitz as their candidate for President of the United States.