Ismail Bostanov

The Deputy Chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Stavropol, Ismail Bostanov, was murdered in the city of Cherkessk on Sunday (September 20). Interfax quoted a law enforcement source in Karachaevo-Cherkessia as saying the attack took place when Bostanov’s was stopped at a traffic light and unidentified attackers opened fire on him. Bostanov was killed and his son was wounded and hospitalized (Interfax, September 20). According to other reports, the attack took place at a gas station (RIA Novosti, September 20). Bostanov was reportedly traveling back from a mosque in Ust-Dzheguta, south of Cherkessk, with his son when the attack occurred (www.newsru.com, September 20).

Bostanov was the Deputy Chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Stavropol for over 20 years and rector of the Islamic Institute in Karachaevo-Cherkessia for more than 10 years (www.gazeta.ru, RIA Novosti, September 20). In December 2006, three masked attackers broke into Bostanov’s home in Cherkessk, knifed and shot him and with firearms and beat up his wife. However, investigators at the time concluded that attack was part of an attempted robbery because the raiders stole money from Bostanov’s house (Kommersant, September 21).

Ismail Berdiev, who is the mufti of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and head of the Coordination Center of Muslims of the North Caucasus, said yesterday that he is convinced that Bostanov was killed by “Wahhabis” -the standard term used by local officials in the North Caucasus, both governmental and religious, for Islamist rebels and their sympathizers. “And who else could it have been -he was not a businessman, so that it could have entered someone’s mind to kill him for the sake of money,” Berdiev told Interfax, adding that Bostanov was known in Karachaevo-Cherkessia as “an active fighter against the spread of Wahhabi ideology.” Berdiev expressed particular indignation over the fact that Bostanov’s murder took place on the Muslim holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan (Eid Al-Fitr started Sunday, September 20, in most Arab and Muslim countries as well as in North America and Europe). “It simply beggars the imagination that someone dared to commit this heinous crime on such a holy day,” Berdiev said (www.newsru.com, September 20).

The Islamist rebel website Kavkaz Center reported Bostanov’s murder, describing him as a “murtad” (apostate) and an “evil enemy of Allah” who “carried out an anti-Islamic policy as rector of the ‘Islamic Institute.’” However, the website’s report did not include a claim of responsibility for the attack (www.kavkazcenter.com, September 20).

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov condemned Bostanov’s murder and urged all Muslims to unite against Wahhabism. “What has happened today proves again that all Muslims must act against Wahhabism,” he said in a statement. “If we want to stem this evil, the fight against it must be tough and continued.” Kadyrov said Bostanov was a deeply religious man and noted that the murder occurred during Ramadan. “He held an exceptionally principled position on reactionary Wahhabism and extremism. There were assassination attempts on his life before but they did not break his will or frighten him. In his sermons he led an uncompromising struggle against those who use Islamic slogans to commit cruel murders, terrorist acts and discredit our religion,” he continued. Kadyrov conveyed his condolences to Bostanov’s relatives (RIA Novosti, September 20).

However, Kommersant reports today that many of Bostanov’s relatives and friends do not believe that “Wahhabis” killed him. “Ismail-khadzhi was not involved in witchcraft or other activities censured by both official Islam and the Islamic underground,” the newspaper quoted one of the people gathered near the slain cleric’s home on Sunday. “As for the criticism [he] directed at the Wahhabis, all the imams rail against them, but they are not killed for it,” the relative suggested. According to Kommersant, relatives of Bostanov said he had not recently received any threats (Kommersant, September 21).

Bostanov’s murder was denounced by the leaders of Russia’s religious establishment. The Council of Muftis of the Russian Federation issued a statement saying that Bostanov’s killers were among “the violent enemies of Islam and mankind” (Interfax, September 20). Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill conveyed his condolences and support to Russia’s Muslim leaders and said Bostanov’s murder was aimed at intimidating traditional Muslim leaders but it would only strengthen their desire for peace and accord in society (www.ruvr.ru, September 21). Russia’s Chief Rabbi, Berl Lazar, expressed his condolences to Bostanov’s family and Russia’s Muslim community and said he was convinced that representatives of all of Russia’s traditional religions would unite to demand “maximally harsh measures against the bandit [rebel] underground” and their accomplices (Interfax, September 21).

Whoever murdered Ismail Bostanov and whatever their motive was, the killing took place against the backdrop of escalating insurgent violence in the North Caucasus. Two members of the anti-extremism center of Ingushetia’s interior ministry were shot to death and another wounded in an attack Sunday. Interior ministry sources said the attack took place at 12:15 p.m., local time, on the Kavkaz federal highway near the village of Gazi-Yurt in Ingushetia’s Nazran district, when unidentified gunmen fired on a car in which the ministry employees were traveling (ITAR-TASS, September 20). RIA Novosti reported today that the three Ingush policemen shot in the attack were brothers and that all of them died on the spot (RIA Novosti, September 21).

On September 19, attackers first shot up and then blew up a high-voltage electric power line on the outskirts of the Ingush city of Karabulak. On September 18, a bomb exploded in front of a freight train in Karabulak. The train was not derailed and no one was hurt in the blast. On September 17, a bomb detonated as a police patrol car was passing by in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia’s Sunzha district. Two policemen were hurt in the blast and hospitalized. The previous day, September 16, there were reports of two powerful explosions and subsequent gunfire in Ordzhonikidzevskaya, but there were no details about how many people were wounded or killed, if any, in those incidents. Three insurgents were reportedly killed in a shootout with police in the city of Nazran on September 14 (www.kavkaz-uzel, September 19).

On September 19, an anonymous Federal Security Service (FSB) source was quoted as saying that among the three rebels killed in a security operation in Dagestan’s Kizlyar district that day was Abdullah Saadullaev, a Sharia judge aka Daud who was the “right hand” of the Dagestani rebel “emir” Umalat Magomedov. The source claimed Daud was found with letters addressed to various businessmen in Dagestan threatening them and ordering them to hand over 100,000 Euros or more (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 19).

Nihad Awad, national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spoke in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday about the arrests in Pakistan of five Americans

Police in Pakistan raided a house linked to an Islamic militant group Wednesday and arrested five young American Muslim men from the Washington, D.C., area, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

One of the young men had left behind a video showing scenes of war, calling for the defense of Muslims and saying that “young Muslims have to do something,” said a person who had seen the video, describing it as a farewell of sorts.

It was the third known case since September in which Americans with ties to the Pakistan-Afghanistan region have been detained over possible terrorist connections.

The men were not accused of any crime, but their intent remained mysterious, and both U.S. and Pakistani officials emphasized that they were still gathering facts.

The five Americans, ranging in age from 19 to 25, were arrested in Sargodha, a dusty city in Punjab province, where several militant organizations with links to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban operate, according to a senior Pakistani official and a U.S. official in Washington. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three of the men arrested Wednesday are Pakistani-Americans, one is a Yemeni-American and one an Egyptian-American, the Pakistani official said. Pakistani law enforcement officers had “continuously tracked” the men from the moment they arrived Dec. 1 at Karachi international airport. All carried U.S. passports, he said.

They traveled to the city of Hyderabad, returned to Karachi, the hub of commerce in Pakistan, and then went to Lahore, the Punjab provincial capital, where they spent five days before going to Sargodha, he said.

They were arrested at a house that was occupied by Khalid Farooq, the father of one of the young men, Umer Farooq, according to an official familiar with the case. The elder Farooq is believed to have ties to Jaish-e-Muhammad, a banned Pakistani militant group, the official said.

Other Islamic militant organizations are also known to operate in Sargodha, including Sipah-e-Sahaba and a splinter group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Both are Sunni Muslim groups that have targeted minority Shiite Muslims and have also been linked to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.

Al-Qaeda, whose leaders are primarily Arabs, and the Pakistani Taliban, led by ethnic Pashtuns, are based in the country’s Pashtun-dominated tribal region bordering Afghanistan. They have spearheaded an insurgency that has killed and maimed thousands of people in suicide bombings and other attacks since 2007.

Many experts are concerned about cooperation between the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaeda and militant groups based in Punjab that were once used by Pakistani security services to wage a proxy war with India in the disputed Kashmir region.

The U.S. official confirmed that the five men were the same five men from Washington’s northern Virginia suburbs whose families reported them missing last month. Also confirming that they were the missing five men was Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a Muslim American advocacy organization to which their families turned for help.

CAIR arranged a Dec. 1 meeting for the families with Islamic leaders in northern Virginia, who then contacted the FBI, said Hooper, who declined to give further details.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the families of the five men were particularly disturbed to see the video message that one of them left behind.

“One person appeared in that video, and they made references to the ongoing conflict in the world, and that young Muslims have to do something,” Awad said. “The video’s about 11 minutes, and it’s like a farewell. And they did not specify what they would be doing.”

He cautioned against drawing hasty conclusions. But Awad and other Muslim leaders said the case – along with the recent recruitment of young Somali-American men in Minnesota by a violent group in Somalia – suggested that at least a small number of young American Muslims were drawn to extremist views. They pledged to start a nationwide campaign to counter such attitudes.

Hooper said neither the young men’s mosque – the ICNA Center, associated with the national Islamic Circle of North America – nor their families in Virginia supported extremism or violence.

“The Muslim community has taken the lead on this case in terms of taking it to law enforcement,” Hooper said.

Asked for assistance by the FBI, Pakistani security officers tracked the men to Farooq’s house, where they were taken into custody, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

In addition to Umer Farooq, two of the other men – named in Pakistani press accounts as Ahmed Abdullah and Wakar Khan – were described by officials as of Pakistani descent. Another, Ramy Zamzam, is of Egyptian descent, and the fifth man, Aman Yasser, is of Yemeni descent, according to one official. Some were born abroad, but all are now U.S. citizens, U.S. officials said.

A local imam in the Washington area said that before the men left, they did not seem to have become militant.

“From all of our interviews, there was no sign they were outwardly radicalized,” said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.

Zamzam is a dental student at Howard University, where he received an undergraduate degree this year with a major in biology and chemistry, according to his Facebook page.

One of Zamzam’s younger brothers, interviewed at the family’s apartment in Alexandria, Va., said Zamzam has a 4.0 grade-point average and is “a good guy.”

An upstairs neighbor, Peter Max-Jones, 16, called Zamzam “very intelligent, very kind, very helpful. Good citizen, all around.” He said Zamzam’s family was “very patriotic, very quiet.”

A U.S. official said there were no apparent links between the men and another American with roots in Pakistan, David Headley. Headley pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Chicago federal court to charges he helped a Pakistani group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, plot last year’s terrorist strike on India’s financial capital, Mumbai. That attack killed 166 people, including six Americans.

Headley, who was arrested in October, has also been indicted on charges of plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper that published a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. In another case linked to Pakistan, U.S. authorities in September arrested a Colorado airport van driver, Najibullah Zazi, and charged him with receiving explosives training from al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal area and conspiring to carry out a bomb attack in New York.

A British court convicted Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, of conspiring to activate bombs disguised as soft drinks, and later boasting in videos there would be “floods of martyr operations” that would leave body parts scattered in the streets. “Don’t mess with Muslims,” Hussain threatened.

I will not be surprised if Islamist leaders in the U. K. and North America now line up at the mics and issue the familiar denunciations of terrorism accompanied by the oft-repeated claim that “Islam is a religion of peace.” I say to them, this is not enough. Now is the time to say loudly, the doctrine of jihad is outdated and needs to be abandoned.

However, instead of distancing themselves from jihad, too many Muslim leaders are defending it by hiding behind its supposedly peaceful nature. Many take to the pulpit and state with disarming smiles and polite language that jihad is a peaceful exertion of spiritual warfare waged against oneself–against one’s ego and against one’s evil intentions, a sort of a cleansing of the soul. This is all said to be true because after returning from a battle, the Prophet told his colleagues: “You are returning from a lesser jihad to a greater jihad,” and when asked to clarify, he said the greater jihad “is the jihad against your passionate souls.”

But make no mistake: The jihad that Osama bin Laden and these three now-convicted British lieutenants wish to launch on British and Canadian citizens is the lesser jihad.

The jihad that convicted Ottawa terrorist Momin Khawaja talked about in his musings is the jihad of warfare, as clearly enunciated by such 20th-century Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood as Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna, and Pakistan’s Abu Ala Maudoodi.

This triad of Islamist gurus may be dead, but their ideological inspiration of the world jihadi movements is alive with their apologists in Canada. It is not what the Koran says that matters; it is how Mr. Qutb, Mr. Banna and Mr. Maudoodi interpret the Koran for the jihadis that needs to be discussed.

In the fall of 2007, Islamists set up a stand at Toronto’s annual Word on the Street book festival where they distributed a free booklet titled Towards Understanding Islam, written by Mr. Maudoodi. In the booklet, Mr. Maudoodi exhorts ordinary Muslims to launch jihad, as in armed struggle, against non-Muslims.

“Jihad is part of this overall defence of Islam,” he writes. In case the reader is left with any doubt about the meaning of the word “jihad,” Mr. Maudoodi clarifies: “In the language of the Divine Law, this word [jihad] is used specifically for the war that is waged solely in the name of God against those who perpetrate oppression as enemies of Islam. This supreme sacrifice is the responsibility of all Muslims.”

Mr. Maudoodi goes on to label Muslims who refuse the call to armed jihad as apostates: “Jihad is as much a primary duty as are daily prayers or fasting. One who avoids it is a sinner. His every claim to being a Muslim is doubtful. He is plainly a hypocrite who fails in the test of sincerity and all his acts of worship are a sham, a worthless, hollow show of deception.”

If Muslim countries do not go to war against the enemies of Islam, Mr. Maudoodi says a worldwide uprising by ordinary Muslims is the answer. He writes: “Muslims of the whole world must fight the common enemy.”

Does it surprise anyone that ordinary Muslims in Britain and Canada have rallied to his call and declared jihad against their own countries of birth?

If Mr. Maudoodi’s exhortations to jihad are not enough, we have the words of the late Hassan al-Banna being distributed in our schools and universities. Mr. Banna makes it quite clear that the word “jihad” means armed conflict. He mocks the concept of the lesser and greater jihad, suggesting that this theory is a conspiracy so “Muslims should become negligent.”

In addition, here is what Mr. Qutb, another Egyptian stalwart of the Islamist movement and the Muslim Brotherhood, writes in his classic book Milestones: “Any place where Islamic shariah is not enforced and where Islam is not dominant becomes the Home of Hostility (Dar-ul-Harb). … A Muslim will remain prepared to fight against it, whether it be his birthplace or a place where his relatives reside or where his property or any other material interests are located.”

Sayyid Qutb reduces the message of Islam to the rejection of all laws made by parliaments. He says: “The basis of the message [Islam] is that one should accept the shariah without any question and reject all other laws in any shape or form. This is Islam.”

Unless the leaders of British, American and Canadian mosques, as well as the Islamic organizations in these countries, denounce the doctrine of jihad as pronounced by the Muslim Brotherhood, and distance themselves from the ideology of Messrs. Qutb, Banna and Maudoodi, the insistence that “jihad means peace” will sound hollow. It will merely reinforce the suspicions of many Canadians who feel some overseas groups are pulling the strings in this carefully staged puppet show.

Now is the time for Islamic organizations to state flatly in their weekly sermons from the pulpit: Like slavery and concubinage, the doctrine of armed jihad is obsolete. If they do not, their public utterances should be viewed with suspicion and politicians of all stripes must lay down the law.

Canadian captive Omar Khadr at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Abdullah Khadr broke down in a Toronto court Tuesday, saying he told authorities in Pakistan he had bought weapons for Al Qaeda because he feared if he didn’t say that, his sister would be raped.

The 28-year-old, who is fighting extradition to the United States on terrorism charges, said he invented stories because it was the only way to stop his alleged torture by Pakistani and U.S. officials.

Khadr alleges in an affidavit that during his 14 months in detention, Pakistani officers beat him and penetrated him with a stick and American officials threatened to arrest his sister and have done to her what had been done to him.

While testifying, the eldest son of the infamous Khadr family became choked up and wiped away tears.

“(The Americans) told me that if I didn’t confess … they would bring my sister and do terrible things,” Khadr told Crown prosecutor Howard Piafsky.

An FBI affidavit says the interview team “never threatened to harm or retaliate against Khadr, his sister or any family member if he did not give satisfactory answers.

“It also never threatened to send Khadr or his sister to any prison in Egypt or Uzbekistan, or suggested, directly or indirectly, that he or his sister would be raped,” says the affidavit, part of which was read by Piafsky.

Khadr said he confessed to selling weapons to suspected Al Qaeda member Hamza Al Jowfi because he was reduced to tears and they wouldn’t believe him otherwise.

But the FBI says Khadr never cried and any suggestion he admitted to only minimal involvement is wrong. Instead, “he provided specific and detailed information regarding his relationship and dealings with Al Jowfi,” according to the agency’s affidavit.

Piafsky asked Khadr why he didn’t set the record straight and tell the truth to RCMP Sgt. Konrad Shourie, who interviewed him after his return to Toronto.

Khadr said he told Shourie what he thought he wanted to hear, fearing he’d be sent back to Pakistan.

“You almost predict what they want to hear,” said Khadr, whose father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was a reputed Canadian Al Qaeda financier and friend of Osama bin Laden.

Court saw a videotape of the December 2005 interview between Shourie and a relaxed Khadr, who shares a few laughs with the officer about how to make money by selling anti-aircraft missiles.

Asked about his demeanour, Khadr replied: “I thought Konrad Shourie had power over my life. You do whatever to please the person in front of you. … It’s a defence I built up in Pakistan to try and make the jailers happy.”

The U.S. has requested Khadr’s extradition to face charges of procuring weapons for Al Qaeda and plotting to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

I am not talking here about the much-discussed point that al Qaeda does not seem to actually be present in any significant way in Afghanistan. The argument here rests on claims that the goal is to prevent al Qaeda from returning to Afghanistan and that al Qaeda is so deeply interwoven with the various Talibans as to make the distinction meaningless. Both arguments are problematic -– but since both have been discussed elsewhere at some length, I won’t dwell on them.

I am more concerned with an issue more in the areas where I focus: the relationship between al Qaeda Central and the broader network of affiliated movements (AQAM, in the lingo) and like-minded individuals (which me might call AQN, the al Qaeda Network). A key part of the Obama administration’s strategy has been a very successful reorientation of America’s relationship with the Muslim world, downplaying al Qaeda and refusing to allow that extremist fringe to hijack or monopolize those vital relationships. But the new focus on al Qaeda in the AfPak strategy threatens to reverse that vital achievement … and even to revive al Qaeda’s flagging fortunes in the wider Muslim world.

In part, this refects a debate which has been raging for years over the importance of AQC to the wider network of salafi-jihadist groups and individuals. The Obama administration’s Afghanistan strategy seems to have taken one side in that debate –- but whether that is because it is correct, or because it is useful to justify an Afghan military strategy chosen for other reasons, is hugely important.

For Bruce Hoffmann and other “Centralists,” al Qaeda Central continues to play an extremely important role in guiding, shaping, arming, and directing the seemingly inchoate network of jihadists. They point to evidence of contacts between the perpetrators of well-known cases and AQC affiliated people in Pakistan or elsewhere. They point to the deluge of AQ propaganda still pouring out of al-Sahab and other jihadist media outlets. On the other side, Marc Sageman and other “bunch of guys” analysts see the threat as primarily one of a very loosely affiliated network of like-minded individuals and organizations who neither need nor want direction from AQC. If AQC was needed as a spark to light the fire, it is no longer needed to keep the fires burning or new fires from breaking out when local conditions come together.

In reality both approaches likely have some degree of merit. AQC does still exist, does put out its propaganda, does try to shape and guide the jihad. But individuals and local organizations carry out their own analysis and planning, explode into action for their own private reasons, seek out and network with other like-minded people without being told to do so. A healthy strategy pays attention to both dimensions.

Clearly, the Obama administration does not intend to ignore the other areas of concern -– countering violent extremism across the spectrum and around the world. But the AfPak strategy puts a tremendous amount of resources into one side of the equation -– al Qaeda Central. This could only be justified if it were the case that AQC is in fact vitally important to the survival and efficacy of the broader jihadist challenge (AQAM and/or the AQN). The case here remains fairly weak, though. Even granted that they try to make a difference, it seems likely that were bin Laden and Zawahiri to be killed or brought to justice -– inshallah –- it is unlikely that this would materially affect the ideologically motivated actions of the pockets of salafi-jihadist mobilization around the world.

And all other things are not equal. The AfPak escalation may well increase the pressure on AQC –- especially if the Pakistanis can be brought more fully on board. But at the same time, it may well galvanize and strengthen the affiliated movements and like-minded individuals around the world. Affiliated movements may benefit from personnel or resources leaving the Afghan theater or Pakistani safe havens, and strengthen the capabilities of insurgencies in Yemen, North Africa, Somalia, Iraq or elsewhere.

And to the extent that the escalation angers Arab and Muslim public opinion, it could create a point of entry into mainstream attitudes which al Qaeda has largely lacked in recent years. It could reinforce the growing notion that Obama is no different from Bush, that the U.S. is waging a war against Islam, that moderation does not pay. This would resonate dangerously with the breakdown of Obama’s efforts to push Israel towards a settlement freeze (especially if the Israeli-Palestinian front collapses into violence comparable to the 2000 al-Aqsa Intifada) or if tensions with Iran spike into military confrontation.

It is therefore absolutely vital that the Obama administration coordinate its AfPak strategy with its wider Middle East foreign policy and with its efforts at strategic public engagement with Arab and Muslim audiences. It needs to be sharply attuned to signs suggesting that its escalation in Afghanistan is restoring the ability of al Qaeda to appeal to the generalized “resistance” discourse which retains great sway with Arab public opinion. If it doesn’t do that, then even a successful campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan against AQC may end up actually strengthening the wider challenge of violent extremism which it is ostensibly meant to defeat.

Despite trillions of dollars spent and the deaths of thousands of US soldiers, al-Qaeda’s top leaders remain at large and are still claiming responsibility for attacks against Western targets, as new franchises or offshoots spring up in unlikely places.  
 
Caught in the crossfire are the world’s Muslims.   
 
In this episode, Empire looks at how al-Qaeda is perceived in the Muslim world.
We will analyse whether the US’ so-called ‘war on terror’ – with its deadly tactics and support for corrupt rulers – serves only to alienate Muslims, driving them into the arms of extremist groups.

We will ask if the US can reverse the tide of military intervention in the region and instead try to reach political solutions that involve all political parties, including repressed Islamic parties.

We will also discuss whether the Arab world has an answer to the al-Qaeda challenge.

They detained Gary Faulkner, a 52-year-old construction worker, after a 10-hour search in the country’s lawless tribal areas.

Officers said he told them he planned to “decapitate” the al-Qaeda leader. He was carrying a 40-inch sword, a handgun and dagger, and was equipped with night-vision goggles.

A local police officer, Mumtaz Ahmad Khan, said: “We initially laughed when he told us that he wanted to kill Osama bin Laden.” Bin Laden has evaded capture ever since the 9/11 attacks that shocked the world and turned al-Qaeda into a global terror brand. Analysts believe the 53-year-old Saudi has slipped back and forth across the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, relying on networks of tribal supporters in a region where central government holds little sway.

Last month, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan’s lawless border regions – and that he was being protected by Pakistani government officials.

However, some analysts also believe he may be dead, pointing out that video messages featuring the jihadi leader have all but dried up in recent years. Rumours have long circulated that he is struggling with kidney disease, or was badly wounded in an airstrike.

The tantalising prospect of tracking down such a notorious criminal has attracted a small band of bounty hunters and fantasists, lured by a $25 million (€20 million) FBI reward offered for information leading to his capture.

Mr Faulkner’s solo mission is the latest bizarre twist in the world’s highest-stakes game of hide-and-seek. He told police he visited Pakistan seven times.

On this occasion he arrived in the country at the start of the month and travelled to the district of Chitral, a mountainous area close to the Afghan border that attracts adventurous tourists for its hiking.

He was assigned a police guard – common in an area where foreigners are targeted by kidnap gangs. When he checked out without informing his minder, police launched a manhunt, according to Mr Khan, who was involved in the investigation.

“A search operation was launched and we found him 14 kilometres [nine miles] short of the Pakistan-Afghan border. He was trying to enter Nuristan,” said Mr Khan.

Nuristan is a stronghold of the Afghan Taliban, and along with Chitral is often mooted as a possible bin Laden safe haven. As well as his weapons, Mr Faulkner was also carrying a book of Christian verse.

“He said 9/11 caused colossal losses to the US, therefore he wanted to locate Osama bin Laden and his friends,” added Mr Khan.

He apparently told police: “God is with me, and I am confident I will be successful in killing him.” Mr Faulkner is being questioned by Pakistani intelligence agents.

American Muslims were both pleased and surprised by President Obama’s inclusive words in his inaugural address, on January 20^th, when he said America is “a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers.” Such words signaled Obama’s recognition that Muslims are an important part of the American fabric.  

In his historic June 4 speech in Cairo, President Obama hinted to the problems facing the American Muslims by saying that the United States “rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.”  

His Cairo statement coincided with a statement by Attorney General Eric Holder: “The President’s pledge for a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim community takes root here in the Justice Department where we are committed to using criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans.

A top priority of this Justice Department is a return to robust civil rights enforcement and outreach in defending religious freedoms and other fundamental rights of all of our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the housing market, in our schools and in the 
voting booth.”  

Similarly, in his September 2^nd speech at the White House Iftar dinner, President Obama emphasised that “the contributions of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalogue because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country.” While noting the contributions of American Muslims, president also alluded to their problems when he shared the story of the Muslim sixth-grader Nashala Hearn from Oklahoma, who was suspended twice last fall because the school officials claimed her hijab violated their dress code policy. The President said: “When her school district told her that she couldn’t wear the hijab, she protested that it was a part of her religion.

The Department of Justice stood behind her, and she won her right to practice her faith.”  

Not surprisingly, Valerie Jarrett, a Senior Advisor and Assistant to President Obama for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, was the keynote speaker at the inaugural session of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Convention 2009. She paid a tribute to the diligent work of Muslim Americans on behalf of the country. Citing President Obama’s April 2009 Cairo Speech, Ms. Jarrett acknowledged the contribution of American Muslims to the overall development of American society and the strengthening of American institutions. Ms Jarrett pointed out: “Your work here is crucial in confronting the challenges that all Americans are facing. And you help advance the new beginning between the United State and Muslim communities around the world that the President called for in Cairo.”

These courteous and good gestures by President Obama are accompanied by the appointment of a number of American Muslims to some minor positions in his administration. Rashad Hussain, an American Muslim lawyer, has been appointed as Deputy Associate Counsel to the President. Dalia Mogahed was appointed by President Obama to serve on the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) National Executive Director Kareem Shora has been appointed a member of the Homeland Security Advisory 
Council (HSAC). 

However, all these good gestures and public policy measures have little positive impact on the restoration of civil rights of American Muslims curtailed since 9/11. Profiling has been institutionalised in the post-9/11 America. State and federal agencies, under the guise of fighting terrorism, have expanded the use of this degrading, discriminatory and dangerous practice. The damage to civil liberties has been extensive, and a lot of work remains 
to be done. 

American Muslims and civil libertarians are particularly concerned about Justice Department guidelines implemented in the last days of the Bush administration, which allow race and ethnicity to be factors in opening 
an investigation.

Other civil rights concerns include FBI agent provocateurs sent into American mosques, citizenship delays, politicised “terror” trials, and misuse by the Department of Justice of the “unindicted co-conspirator” label. 

Today, eight years after 9/11, incidents of racial and religious profiling in the United States have increased dramatically. Soon after the 9/11 attacks, racial profiling became the norm at American airports where anyone belonging to the Arab or Muslim communities was systematically called out for questioning and sometimes even detained.

Eight years hence, August 14, 2009 detention of Indian Muslim superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s detention at Newark Airport in New Jersey is only one of the scores that take place every day.

Ramy Zamzam

Ramy Zamzam, 22, one of a group of young men arrested by Pakistani intelligence officials, graduated from West Potomac High School in 2005.
Zamzam, of Egyptian family background, was a senior dental school student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. at the time of his arrest in Sargodha, Pakistan.
The other men, all Americans, are now being held in Lahore: Ahmad A. Minni, 20; Umar Chaudhry, 24; Waqar Khan, 22, and Aman Hassan Yamer, 18. Chaudry’s father, Khalid, was also arrested in Pakistan. All five of the young Americans worshipped at a local mosque off Route 1 on Woodlawn Trail — the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Two of the men live on the same street as the mosque.
Their arrest by Pakistani police is based on allegations that they have been working with extremist Pakistani recruiters to join a training camp run by the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Nina Ginsberg, a Washington criminal defense lawyer and spokesman for the young men’s families, has refused to comment on the case or the views of the families beyond that the families are concerned about their safe return to the U.S., and do not believe they were involved in extremist activities as reported by the Pakistan government.
The families reported the men missing in late November, and released a farewell tape in an effort to assist authorities in locating the men. Shortly thereafter Pakistani officials announced their arrest in Pakistan. They have been held in custody since.
At the present time the FBI and the Pakistan intelligence service are investigating the men’s activities. The effort by the U.S. Department of State and the FBI’s effort to secure their release and deportation to the U.S. to face possible criminal charges has been held up by a recent court decision in Lahore to temporarily block the handover of the men to the U.S. government until the Pakistani government submits a detailed report on Thursday, Dec. 17. 

IN RESPONSE to the revelations about the young men and their alleged attempts to link up and train with extremist elements in Pakistan, the Moslem Association of Virginia and the Muslim American Society held a local press conference and issued a written public statement on Dec. 10 expressing their surprise and concern for the five men and the overall issue of radicalization of Muslims in the United States.
A statement from the Muslim American Society said: “Leading American Muslim organizations and community leaders are planning to launch a Web site and organize a summit where young Muslims can ask mainstream scholars questions as part of renewed efforts to combat extremism” … “the summit, to be held in Chicago, Ill., Dec. 23-27, will reach out to young Muslims to do peer mentoring that will focus on positive solutions involving issues of hate, violence, and intolerance.”
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said: “The idea is really to refute and counter the misuse of certain ayahs (verse of the Qur’an) and hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) that are commonly misused by recruiters of young people who do not understand the depths and circumstances of revelations and just juxtapose superficial and disconnected meaning to justify their actions.”
Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society, believes more imams and trained scholars should take steps to respond to incorrect ideas being promoted on the internet because young people get most of their information online and use social networking sites, blogs, and links as modes of communication. “They [scholars and imams] are not here writing, they’re not posting stuff on the internet” … “therefore, people are taking religious information in a vacuum.”