New Ground Zero Imam: Jail Apostates
Those who leave Islam and preach against the Muslim religion must be jailed, declared the imam who has become the new face of the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York City.
“If someone leaves the din, leaves the path privately, they cannot be touched. If someone preaches about apostasy, or preaches their views, they’re jailed,” stated Imam Abdallah Adhami in a November lecture obtained and reviewed by this column.
Adhami was discussing the Koranic view of apostasy, or Muslims who decide to leave the Islamic religion.
According to Shariah, or Islamic law, the consensus view in Sunni Islam is that a male apostate must be put to death unless he suffers from a mental disorder or converted against his will.
There are, however, differing views on the subject, with some contemporary Islamic scholars differentiating between public and private apostasy and arguing for actions ranging from death to nothing.
Adhami, speaking to a non-Muslim audience, claimed Islamic law only calls for punishment for public apostates and that most Islamic scholars demand only that public apostates be jailed as opposed to killed.
He said, “In Islam, in the Koran, theoretically, if you look over the Koran from cover to cover, you literally have the right to the choice to reject God’s message. The only thing you do not have the right to do is to spread this conviction, lest you, quote unquote, pollute others.”
In a separate lecture obtained and reviewed by this column, Adhami declared Muslims have “more of a right” than Jews to the biblical prophet Moses.
It was announced last week that Adhami, 44, will take on the role of senior adviser for the proposed $100 million Islamic cultural center and mosque to be built near Ground Zero in New York City, the site of the 2001 World Trade Center attack.
The previous face of the Ground Zero mosque, Imam Faisel Abdel Rauf, has said he will focus on a public speaking endeavor that started last weekend in Detroit and is slated to continue in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other cities.
Rauf kicked off his nationwide speaking tour by addressing the banquet of a group that was designated as an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas. Rauf’s appearance in Detroit, the city with North America’s largest Muslim population, was a keynote address to the so-called “Diversity Forum Banquet” of the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA.
Organization Targeting Beck
Teeming With Radicals
The George Soros-funded organization attacking Fox News host Glenn Beck is led by a who’s who of the radical left. Jewish Funds for Justice, or JFJ, has been leading a crusade demanding Beck be fired in response a program in which Beck specifically targeted Soros, calling the businessman the “puppet master.”
JFJ is led by individuals associated with communist and socialist groups; the children of Soviet spies; and a U.S. socialist organization that seeks to infiltrate the Democratic Party.
As this columnist reported this weekat WorldNetDaily, JFJ is funded by Soros’s Open Society Institute.
Now more information has emerged on the JFJ’s leadership. JFJ was founded by Si Khan, who serves on the board of the Rosenberg Fund for Children, which seeks to aid the children of parents the group deems “targeted, progressive activists.”
The group was founded by Robert Meeropol, whose parents Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of passing crucial nuclear secrets to the Soviets and executed in 1953.
JFJ board member Amy Dean meanwhile has keynoted a Communist Party event and was involved with a U.S. socialist party.
JFJ board member Janice Fine was a leader of the socialist New Party and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, another socialist group.
JFJ board member Donna Katzin is a former activist with the Cuba Resource Center. She is a donor to the Oakland, Calif.-based DataCenter, which itself has close ties to Cuba.
JFJ’s president and CEO, Simon Greer, previously worked as a labor and community organizer and social change leader for 15 years. Greer recently wrote that he has had the “privilege of getting to know George Soros.
Is Iran Scared Of ‘Iranium’?
The Iranian government is afraid of a new documentary investigating Iran’s nuclear program and is attempting to stifle free speech, the film’s director charged.
A screening of “Iranium” was canceled last week amid threats to the event and a report of protest from the Iranian embassy. Following uproar from conservative members of the Canadian government over the cancellation, the screening of the film was rescheduled for February 8.
” ‘Iranium’ is quickly turning into the film Iran’s leaders don’t want you to see,” Alex Traiman, the film’s director, told this column.
“That Iranian leaders would try to stifle free speech in North America perfectly displays the distinct difference in values instilled in Iran versus the West,” said Traiman.
“Attempting to cancel the screening shows that the Iranian regime is afraid of the film’s content and the repercussions they may face from Americans and Canadians following its release. It also goes to show how fragile the current leadership structure in Iran actually is,” Traiman added.
“Iranium” is narrated by Iranian actress and Academy Award nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo.
The film purports to document the development of Iran’s suspected nuclear program, beginning with the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the ideology installed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. It accuses the Iranian leadership of using terror as a policy tool.
The film also details the Iranian crackdown on protestors following last year’s presidential elections and outlines possible scenarios the greater Middle East and the Western world may face should Iran cross the nuclear threshold.
Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for Internet giant WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York’s 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m.
