Mohammad Badie’s article

As Palestinian supporters across the Middle East were demonstrating in commemoration of the nakba, the Arabic term meaning ‘catastrophe’ used to refer to Israel’s establishment in 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood and its General Guide Mohammad Badie issued statements to their followers laced with contempt for Israel and Jews.

In a commemorative statement on its English-language website, Israel is described by the Brotherhood as a “hostile terrorist racist expansionist monstrosity” that “constantly and actively works to Judaize Jerusalem and other Palestinian territories,” with assistance from the U.S. and West.

Mohammad Badie wrote in his weekly Arabic-language newsletter a piece titled, “Palestine … the Soul of the Islamic Nation.” In the article, Badie warns “Zionists to stop playing with fire by insulting the Al Aqsa by defiling and entering the mosque to sing and play in its courtyard.”

Badie also described the nakba not as an event that only affects Palestinians, but one that has been felt across the Arab and Muslim worlds. Badie characterized Israel’s creation as “the memory of confiscating land and property, and insulting Muslim and Christian holy places in the Holy City [Jerusalem]; in short, it is the memory of the invasion, rape and occupation of a sacred and blessed place in the Muslim and Arab abode.”

He went on to urge believers to “liberate the homeland from the filth of the brutal Zionist occupation, which is backed by the Western forces that claim freedom and human rights.”

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announcing the indictment

Earlier this week, authorities in New York announced the indictment of 16 men accused of smuggling more than $55 million worth of cigarettes from Virginia to New York.  Fifteen of the men are in custody while one is at large, believed to be in Jordan.  One of the accused is also believed to have sold the gun used in the 1994 murder of Ari Halberstam in Brooklyn.

Several of the men in the smuggling ring are reportedly suspected of having ties to Hamas and other militant groups.  Although authorities do not yet know where the revenue was directed, they noted that, in the past such operations have been used to finance Hamas and Hezbollah.

While fundraising for terrorist organizations is not limited to cigarette smuggling, there have been several cases within the United States in recent years, including:

• A group of approximately 20 men ran a criminal enterprise in Dearborn, Michigan, trafficking in contraband cigarettes, cigarette papers and Viagra, as well as stolen infant formula and toilet paper.  Prosecutors contend that the ring diverted some of the funds to Hezbollah.  Naturalized U.S. citizen Karim Hassan Nasser pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in September 2006, as did Theodore Schenk of Miami Beach, Florida and Imad Hamadeh of Dearborn Heights.
• Dearborn resident Elias Mohamad Akhdar was sentenced in January 2004 to nearly six years in prison for his role in a cigarette-smuggling ring designed to finance Hezbollah. Another Dearborn resident, Hassan M. Makki, received a sentence of nearly five years in prison in connection with the scheme.
• Carole Gordon and her granddaughter Brandy Jo Bowman were among eleven people charged in January 2003 for their involvement in a cigarette smuggling ring that funneled its proceeds to Hezbollah.   Both Gordon and Bowman pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.
• Mohamad Hammoud was charged in March 2001 for raising funds and conspiring to provide “a variety of items that Hizballah [sic] would use to engage in violent attacks and to film such attacks for use in Hizballah [sic] propaganda efforts,” according to court documents.  Hammoud allegedly procured dual-use technologies for Hezbollah, including goggles, global positioning systems, stun guns, naval equipment, nitrogen cutters and laser range finders.  Hammoud and his brother, Chawki, were convicted the following year of providing material support to Hezbollah through their cigarette-smuggling ring that knowingly directed money to the terrorist organization.
• At least three naturalized U.S. citizens – Said Mohamad Harb, Bassem Youssef Hammoud and Hussein Chahrour – and U.S. citizen Angela Georgia Tsioumas are among a group of nine individuals who bought cigarettes in North Carolina, shipped them to Michigan and sold them at a price lower than the tax-inflated Michigan price.  From 1995 to 2000, the scheme generated over $7 million used to procure dual-use technologies for Hezbollah.  Items were reportedly purchased for Hezbollah in both the U.S. and Canada, including goggles, global positioning systems, stun guns, naval equipment, nitrogen cutters and laser range finders.  Harb pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorists and racketeering charges.  Tisoumas  pleaded guilty to racketeering and money laundering charges.   Chahrour pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.  Bassam Youssef Hammoud pleaded guilty to trafficking in contraband cigarettes.

Spencer received media attention this week after a reporter discovered that Spencer published two articles by Jason Richwine, co-author of the recent Heritage Foundation report on alleged costs of immigration report. Spencer published the pieces on on Alternative Right, a racist website he founded.

In addition to Alternative Right (which he no longer edits but still writes for), Spencer runs the National Policy Institute (NPI), a white supremacist think tank; publishes Radix, a journal that promotes white culture and identity, and heads Washington Summit Publishers, a company that sells books by leading intellectual white supremacists such as Jared Taylor of American Renaissance and the late Sam Francis. 

Through all of these ventures, Spencer has become a leader in white supremacist circles that envision a “new” right that will openly embrace “white racial consciousness.” Although Spencer began his career The American Conservative, he has since rejected conservatism. He believes that conservatives can’t or won’t represent explicitly white interests.

Spencer has been an influence on a younger generation of college-age racists. In 2010 and 2011, leaders of the now defunct racist student group, Youth for Western Civilization, invited Spencer to speak at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and Providence College in Rhode Island. In both speeches to students at the schools, Spencer attacked affirmative action.

In other instances, Spencer has rejected the idea of appealing to mainstream audiences. In a 2011 interview on the website of Wermod and Wermod, a British-based publishing company that also sells white supremacist books, Spencer said, “Trying to ‘work within the system,’ or appeal to European-Americans using the language of FOX News and the GOP, is a bootless—not to mention a tasteless—strategy.”

Instead, at the April 2013 American Renaissance conference, Spencer called for the creation of a “white ethno-state on the North American continent.”

Al Aqsa TV describes Salama and Al-Kumi as “Martyrs”

Hamas’s Al Aqsa TV, a Treasury Department Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, has been the focus of media scrutiny after a decision by the Newseum to honor two Al Aqsa TV members as part of its ongoing memorial to journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2012.

On Sunday, the Anti-Defamation League described the inclusion of Hussam Salama and Mahmoud Al-Kumi in the Newseum Journalists Memorial as “a dark day for an American institution devoted to free speech and the First Amendment.”

Today, the Newseum issued a statement on its website indicating that it has “decided to re-evaluate their inclusion as journalists on our memorial wall pending further investigation.” ADL welcomed the museum’s decision.

Al Aqsa TV was established by Palestinian Legislative Council member and current Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Ahmad Hammad. It began broadcasting in the Gaza Strip in January 2006.

Modeled after Al Manar, which is owned and operated by the Lebanese-based terrorist organization Hezbollah, much of Al-Aqsa TV programming regularly glorifies violence and incites hatred of Jews and Israelis focuses on children or is geared towards children.

For example, at the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012, Al Aqsa TV interviewed the children of Hamas members who were killed in Israeli airstrikes. One of the boys interviewed said that he wants to follow in his father’s path, “I want to follow the path of Jihad like daddy and I want to be martyred like daddy.”

Over the years, Al Aqsa TV has featured music video aimed at radicalizing children. For example, a few years ago a music video aired by the network depicted a 4-year-old girl singing to her “mother,” identified as “mother Reem,” (an apparent reference to Hamas’s first female suicide bomber Reem Riyashi).  Later in the video, the woman detonates herself and kills four Israeli soldiers. After her mother carries out the attack, the little girl holds an explosive and sings to the camera, “I am following Mommy in her steps.”

In April 2007, the show “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” featured a Mickey Mouse-like character called “Farfour” promoting a message of radical Islam, anti-Semitism and hatred for the West. The “Farfour” character and child actors on the program taunt Western leaders and urge children to take up AK-47 assault rifles to defeat Israel and the United States.

The Newseum’s Journalists Memorial previously included Ahmed Haidar, a cameraman for Al Manar who was killed in 1993. Al Manar was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity in 2006.

This year’s memorial also plans to honor Maya Naser, a correspondent for Iran’s Press TV, Iran’s government-run English language satellite news network. Press TV has emerged as the Iranian government’s primary propaganda tool to promote a wide range of pernicious anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in English to a worldwide audience.

Meeting between Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Yusuf Qaradawi in Gaza

A senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau in Egypt expressed support for Hamas during a visit to Gaza on Wednesday.

Abderrahman Al-Bar, who is visiting Gaza with a delegation headed by radical Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi and representatives of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), delivered the greetings of Mohammad Badie, the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, to Hamas leaders.

“I report to you the greetings of the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood and all of his brothers and our brothers in Egypt,” Al-Bar said. “They are all yearning to be in this meeting and they are behind you with food and supply.”

Al-Bar also expressed his “overwhelming happiness to be in the company of the Mujahid Imam, Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi,” and to “meet our brothers and beloved ones and the symbol of Jihad in this time.” 

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh described Qaradawi as “The Sheik of the Arab spring” and suggested that his visit a step toward the liberating all Palestinian land from the Israelis. The visit is “a first step towards Al-Quds, a first step towards Al-Aqsa, a first step towards Palestine — all Palestine,” he said.  

During the meeting with Hamas, Dr. Salah Sultan, an anti-Semitic media per­son­al­ity and head of the Jerusalem com­mit­tee of the IUMS, said, “We hope, with the Will of God almighty, that this significant visit announces the inauguration of a project to liberate al-Quds [Jerusalem] and Palestine.”

Qaradawi, who recently boycotted an interfaith conference in Doha because he refuses to dialogue with Jews, reportedly said yesterday, “This land has never once been a Jewish land. Palestine is for the Arab Islamic nation.”

Jason Richwine, a co-author of a major report on the alleged costs of immigration reform published this week by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, has ties to the more extreme elements of the anti-immigrant movement. Richwine’s previous writings and statements also promote stereotypes about Hispanics.

Richwine is a regular attendee of the annual Writers Workshop event organized by The Social Contract Press (TSCP). TSCP is a publishing house founded by the racist John Tanton, the architect of the modern-day anti-immigrant movement.

This annual work­shop often fea­tures racist speak­ers, includ­ing Peter Brimelow, the founder of the anti-immigrant web­site VDARE, and Wayne Lutton, editor of The Social Contract (TSC), a journal published by TSCP.  Richwine spoke at the Writers Workshop in 2010 and 2012. At the 2010 conference he claimed to be an attendee “for a few years” and identified himself as “a restrictionist.” At the same event, Richwine participated in a debate with conservative author Ron Unz on the issue of white versus Hispanic crime rates. Richwine argued that the rate of crimes committed by Hispanics is much higher than that of whites.

In 2012, the same year Peter Brimelow addressed the event, Richwine talked about cultural differences between the European immigrants who came to the U.S. before the 1965 Immigration Act and the Hispanic immigrants who came to this country post-1965. He argued that when we talk about immigration “culture is the overriding concern.” Later in his speech, Richwine spoke about the differences in appearances between Hispanics and whites, claiming “Hispanic immigrants usually look distinctly non-white.” He said he did not “celebrate the fact that this should matter,” but added that “the reality is that subconsciously humans are a tribal species.”

He concluded his argument by claiming, “To me this is something that’s just a reality of human nature, that some groups of people are more culturally compatible than other groups of people is a reality of the human condition.”

In 2009, Steve Sailer, a long-time VDARE author with a history of making racist statements, highlighted an article by Richwine discussing the differences in IQ between Indian Americans, white Americans and Ashkenazi Jews. This not the first time Richwine has discussed IQ differences. According to a May 8, 2013 article in the Washington Post, Richwine has argued against allowing immigrants with lower IQs into the country.

The e-book is available on OnIslam.net, which is affiliated with radical Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Released in March 2013, the e-book contains three chapters: “Early History,” “Creation of Israel,” and “Systematic Judaization of Al-Quds.” In the “Early History” section, the booklet describes the Hebrew invasion of the Land of Canaan as “genocidal massacres against the native Canaanite tribes.”

Similarly, in the section titled “Creation of Israel,” Israel’s establishment is characterized as “a wave of genocidal massacres against Palestinians. Many notorious massacres were cold-bloodedly committed in Palestinian cities, such as Dir Yasin, Tantura, and Dawaymeh.”

The section on the “Systematic Judaization of Al-Quds” describes Jewish visits to the Temple Mount as provocations by “Talmudic-minded settlers, who conduct Talmudic rituals and call for the demolition of Islamic shrines in Jerusalem.”

The author of the e-book, Khalid Amayreh, a Hebron-based Palestinian journalist with ties to Hamas, attempts to establish an exclusively Arab and Palestinian historical identity for Jerusalem’s ancient occupants. Amayreh previously produced an e-book titled, “The Nazis of our time: The creeping Israeli genocide against the Palestinians.”

OnIslam frequently features articles on Qaradawi and publishes fatwas expressing support for “martyrdom operations,” or suicide bombings against Israel. The site also includes articles and religious rulings supporting violence against homosexuals, as well as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content.

For example, a March 2013 fatwa by Maher al-Huli, the head of the fatwa department in the Palestine Scholars Association, was published on the website, ruling that non-Palestinian Muslims should not travel to visit the Al Aqsa mosque “while it remains captive by the state of the Jews.” The website also has a portal dedicated to the issue of homosexuality, which contains several articles denouncing homosexuality as “sexual perversions” that “spread corruption on earth.”

Photo from Buford Rogers social networking profile

On May 3, FBI agents arrested Buford “Bucky” Rogers, 24, of Montevideo, Minnesota, alleging that he was planning some sort of terrorist attack on nearby targets.  A search of his residence allegedly uncovered a cache of weapons that included an AKM assault rifle, suspected pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails. 

Rogers, convicted of felony burglary charges in 2011, was charged with being a felon in possession of a weapon.

Rogers was part of the militia movement and purported to run a militia group he called the Black Snake Militia.  Through social media Rogers called for others to arm themselves against the government.  In a series of Facebook posts on June 15, 2011, Rogers wrote, “together we can fight back they wont take me down without a fight i hope that you wont go down easy eather.” 

He alluded to fighting against the NWO (New World Order) who he says has taken away the right to bear arms and the freedom of speech.  He also wrote “ever[y]one better get your guns ready cuz there comeing FEMA,” a reference to a conspiracy theory that our government will soon declare martial law and dissidents will be housed in FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) concentration camps.  He also wrote, “The war is here tsa agents are doing random [checks] and shooting people for no re[a]son.”

Additional social networking profiles seemingly connected to Rogers also allude to violence.

A profile attributed to the screen name “Davd Black” (but displaying a photo used in another Buford Roger  profile) called for violence in April 2013 writing “they fired the first shot already if your with me hit me up and we can take action” and “i know what we have to do time to rise i go[t] my rifle side arm and my rope for strin[g]ing tra[i]tors up lets go get umm boyz… this next c[o]uple months will be something to rem[e]ber.”

In a January 2013 post he asserted that, “The president has declared war on our Republic and so we will take action! ….So just like a rattle snake a warning only lasts so long the rattle has ended and now we STRIKE If you think we can still restore our republic by peaceful means you are sorely mistaken I wish i was wrong but I’m not I know the way the N.W.O./New World Order works and they will not go down with out a fight nor will we THIS IS A CALL TO ARMS!! … THE 2ND AMERICAN REVOLUTION begins tonight!!!

Weir’s interview was with the American Free Press (AFP), a Wash­ing­ton, DC-based conspiracy-oriented anti-Semitic news­pa­per pub­lished by long-time anti-Semite Willis Carto.

During the podcast interview, titled “AIPAC Slaps America in the Face, Again,” Weir claimed that the “Israel lobby” is pressuring Congress not to reduce foreign aid to Israel despite sequestration and seemingly is unconcerned with the fact that the money could otherwise be spent on domestic projects that would benefit Americans. She alleged that the lobby suppresses any opposition to Israel, Zionism or “Jewish power.”

Her interviewer, Dave Gahary, readily agreed with her, calling her analysis “terrific” and reiterating that there is strong evidence of “Jewish power.” He pointed to Jews’ “control” of Hollywood and Weir agreed, saying that it’s an “inside joke” in LA that Jews control Hollywood. She also defended Helen Thomas’s anti-Semitic remarks and claimed that Jewish-Americans are “very powerful in politics.” Weir even reflected that she was uncomfortable herself talking about the subject in a public broadcast because it is “taboo.”

At one point during the interview, Gahary rhetorically asked “why should we have to hide discussions about Jews or Jewish power? We shouldn’t. We should be able to say whatever we want.” Weir agreed, asserting that even when people apologize for making anti-Semitic comments, their apologies are sometimes deemed insufficient and they have to “grovel and grovel and grovel.”

It is not the first time that anti-Israel ideologues have appeared on American Free Press. In August 2012, Rebecca Vilkomerson, the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, was interviewed by AFP to promote JVP and the group’s boycott campaign against Israel. The parents of Rachel Corrie, a young activist who was killed while protesting Israeli policy in Gaza, and Yisroel Dovid Weiss, the spokesperson for the ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta, have also been interviewed by AFP in recent years.

Dzokhar, the surviving Tsarnaev brother, reportedly told law enforcement officials that he and his brother were inspired by Awlaki sermons available online. Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric who encouraged attacks against America and the West, delivered his ideology of extreme intolerance and violence to English-speaking online audiences for several years.

Prior to his death in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen on September 30, 2011, Awlaki influenced a generation of extremists in the U.S and abroad. One indication of Awlaki’s widespread influence is the number of extremists that have been found in possession of his materials. In addition to the Boston Bombings, Awlaki’s influence can be seen in at least nine other plots:

• Quazi Nafis, who pleaded guilty to attempt­ing to bomb the New York Fed­eral Reserve Build­ing in Octo­ber 2012, reportedly watched Awlaki videos and admired him, according to friends and federal officials.
• Adel Daoud, who was arrested in Sep­tem­ber 2012 and charged with plot­ting to bomb a Chicago-area bar, shared Awlaki lectures with his friends.
• Jose Pimentel, who was arrested and charged with state-level terrorism offense in New York for planning to attack military personnel and other targets in November 2011, posted at least fifteen Awlaki videos to his YouTube channel. On his website, Pimentel called Awlaki “The Destroyer Of The US” and posted transcripts of his messages. Pimentel reportedly accelerated his bomb-building efforts in response to Awlaki’s death in a US drone strike in September 2011.
• Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, who was sentenced for his plot to attack a military facility in Seattle in June 2011, subscribed to a YouTube channel featuring Awlaki videos.  In one of the videos Abdul-Latif made himself, he laments that President Obama “put a hit out on Anwar al-Awlaki, our brother sheikh.”
• Antonio Martinez, who was sentenced for attempting to detonate what he believed to be a car bomb at a Maryland Army recruiting center in December 2010, conveyed to an undercover informant his admiration for Awlaki.  On his Facebook profile, Martinez similarly broadcast his appreciation of Awlaki, writing, “I love Sheikh Anwar al Awlaki for the sake of ALLAH.  A real inspiration for the Ummah, I dont care if he is on the terrorist list! May ALLAH give him Kire amen [sic].”
• Farooque Ahmed, who was sentenced for his role in a plot to attack DC-area public transportation in 2010, was found to be in possession of CDs containing Awlaki lectures and speeches.
• Faisal Shahzad, who was sentenced to life in prison for his failed attempt to bomb Times Square in 2010, told investigators he was influenced by Awlaki.
• Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, sent 16 emails to Awlaki and received two responses.  In the aftermath of the attack, Awlaki claimed he “blessed the act because it was against a mil­i­tary tar­get,” gave Hasan “per­mis­sion to carry out his attacks at Fort Hood,” and instructed him to “kill other Amer­i­can sol­diers,” although his email responses were relatively innocuous.
• Five men who conspired to attack the Fort Dix army base in New Jersey in 2007 were reportedly in possession of an Awlaki sermon and were also reportedly recorded discussing the lecture enthusiastically.

Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan

Awlaki was also a contributor to Inspire magazine which influenced numer­ous inter­na­tional and domes­tic extrem­ists moti­vated by rad­i­cal inter­pre­ta­tions of Islam. Fed­eral law enforce­ment offi­cials report­edly con­firmed that the Tsar­naev brothers got bomb-making instruc­tions from Inspire magazine.

Additionally, Awlaki is believed to have personally instructed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate his bomb aboard a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 over American airspace in order to maximize casualties.

Awlaki’s influence is not limited to plots. His propaganda also influenced a number of individuals accused of providing or attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Recent examples include Abdella Tounisi, four individuals from California, Randy “Rasheed” Wil­son and Moham­mad Abukhdair. Notably, several American extremists communicated with Awlaki directly, including Nidal Hassan, Zachary Chesser and Barry Bujol, Jr.