In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
WASHINGTON, D.C. (MASNET) March 27, 2009 –A group of community leaders, both Muslim and non-Muslim have contacted a Washington, D.C.-based K-Street law firm to pursue a defamation lawsuit on behalf of Mahdi Bray. The action will pursue Steve Emerson, The Investigative Project, Robert Spencer, the notorious islamophobe, and others, in relation to a slanderous attack launched this week against Mr. Bray.
"I've known Mahdi Bray for a long time, and although he's had some difficulties in his life, as have many of us, he has been a remarkable champion for civil and human rights. It is high time the type of directed specifically at the Muslim community and its leadership by right-wing extremists and so-called terrorist experts stops. I think we can start the beginning of the end by initiating litigation that will force them into financial responsibility for their scurrilous and shameless acts against the Muslim community," stated Rev. Walter Fauntroy, former member of Congress and Chief Lieutenant to the late Dr. Martin Luther King.
Another member of the group stated, "No Muslim leader is exempt from Emerson and his vicious attack group; they are well-funded and have managed to slanderously attack every Muslim leader from any and all Muslim organizations, including MANA, ICNA, CAIR, AMA, AMP, MAS, MPAC and a host of other Muslim organizations. No one is exempt from these hate mongers. Not only are they attempting to poison American Muslim relationships, but they are also attempting to poison the growing normalization of relationships between American Muslims and the American Jewish community. They must not succeed."
Additional information to follow.
RELATED:
The Hatchets May Swing, But the Tree Still Stands: A Response to Investigative Project 'Expose' of Imam Mahdi Bray
Muslim Groups Targeted for Economic Hits
-------------------------------------------------------------
MAS Freedom (MASF) is a civic and human rights advocacy entity and sister organization of the Muslim American Society (MAS), the largest Muslim, grassroots, charitable, religious, social, cultural, civic and educational organization in America - with 55 chapters in 35 states.
-------------------------------------------------------------
MAS Freedom
1325 G Street NW, Suite 500
Washington DC 20005
Phone: (202) 552-7414
or (703) 642-6165
Toll Free: 1-(888)-627-8471
Fax: (703) 998-6526
Friday, March 27, 2009
Muslim Groups Are Targeted for Economic Hits
I found this noteworthy as it happens to relate to my post of March 27 (below).
By O.M. Hassan-Ali
Back in the 1960's, the F.B.I. Counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) practically wrote the book on tactics used by the U.S. government to target Black radical organizations and groups that opposed the war in Vietnam. One time-tested strategy was based on draining the resources of (usually) poor and financially-strapped groups by tying them up in litigation and lengthy court battles – while, at the same time, alienating them from their financial donors.
Is this one of the factors behind the Investigative Project/Jihad Watch crusade against Imam Mahdi Bray? Let's look at the facts and connect the dots:
1. Imam Bray will be the principle fundraising speaker for the March 29, 2009 fundraising event for The Muslim Link, a periodical vital to the Muslim community of Maryland, Washington, DC, and northern Virginia.
2. George Galloway, a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, will also be a featured speaker at the event. Galloway (like Mahdi Bray) is both a vocal critic of the U.S./United Kingdom wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an opponent of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
3. Galloway was recently denied entry into Canada due to pressure on the Canadian government exerted by pro-Zionist interests there.
4. One of the bogus anti-Bray emails received by the Muslim American Society called on Muslims, and specifically The Muslim Link, to end the newspaper’s association with him.
Am I seeing some imaginary conspiracy here? I don’t think so. I think that it would please our adversaries to no end if they could (1) do irreparable harm to the reputation of a national Muslim leader and prolific community fund-raiser, (2) raise a furor sufficient to prevent Mr. Galloway from entering the United States in the same way that they stopped him from getting to Canada, and (3) severely damage a critical fundraising event for a significant Muslim newspaper.
Remember, pulling the financial rug out from under the Islamic Society of Boston (among other organizations) by falsely connecting ISB to "radical" Muslim terrorist organizations was one of the major cards played by The David Project, Steve Emerson, and their collaborators, in the Israeli Consulate in Boston. Their effort was a failure then; and their current attack will fail as well.
Money is the life-line of any organization, whether in our own community, or elsewhere. We need to be conscious of both the obvious and the more subtle, attempts made by others to financially cripple Muslim organizations as a central part of their anti-Islamic crusade in America.
Our vigilance and generous material support for community organizations like The Muslim Link is crucial to the struggle and ultimate success of the work to protect the legitimate freedoms and rights of our nation's citizens.
O.M. Hassan-Ali is a Washington, D.C.-based writer and political commentator.
By O.M. Hassan-Ali
Back in the 1960's, the F.B.I. Counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) practically wrote the book on tactics used by the U.S. government to target Black radical organizations and groups that opposed the war in Vietnam. One time-tested strategy was based on draining the resources of (usually) poor and financially-strapped groups by tying them up in litigation and lengthy court battles – while, at the same time, alienating them from their financial donors.
Is this one of the factors behind the Investigative Project/Jihad Watch crusade against Imam Mahdi Bray? Let's look at the facts and connect the dots:
1. Imam Bray will be the principle fundraising speaker for the March 29, 2009 fundraising event for The Muslim Link, a periodical vital to the Muslim community of Maryland, Washington, DC, and northern Virginia.
2. George Galloway, a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, will also be a featured speaker at the event. Galloway (like Mahdi Bray) is both a vocal critic of the U.S./United Kingdom wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an opponent of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
3. Galloway was recently denied entry into Canada due to pressure on the Canadian government exerted by pro-Zionist interests there.
4. One of the bogus anti-Bray emails received by the Muslim American Society called on Muslims, and specifically The Muslim Link, to end the newspaper’s association with him.
Am I seeing some imaginary conspiracy here? I don’t think so. I think that it would please our adversaries to no end if they could (1) do irreparable harm to the reputation of a national Muslim leader and prolific community fund-raiser, (2) raise a furor sufficient to prevent Mr. Galloway from entering the United States in the same way that they stopped him from getting to Canada, and (3) severely damage a critical fundraising event for a significant Muslim newspaper.
Remember, pulling the financial rug out from under the Islamic Society of Boston (among other organizations) by falsely connecting ISB to "radical" Muslim terrorist organizations was one of the major cards played by The David Project, Steve Emerson, and their collaborators, in the Israeli Consulate in Boston. Their effort was a failure then; and their current attack will fail as well.
Money is the life-line of any organization, whether in our own community, or elsewhere. We need to be conscious of both the obvious and the more subtle, attempts made by others to financially cripple Muslim organizations as a central part of their anti-Islamic crusade in America.
Our vigilance and generous material support for community organizations like The Muslim Link is crucial to the struggle and ultimate success of the work to protect the legitimate freedoms and rights of our nation's citizens.
O.M. Hassan-Ali is a Washington, D.C.-based writer and political commentator.
The Hatchets May Swing, But the Tree Still Stands
A Response to Investigative Project 'Expose' of Imam Mahdi Bray
By Ibrahim Abdil-Mu'id Ramey
WASHINGTON, DC (MASNET) March 26, 2009 – It's no secret that many national Muslim leaders have been in the cross-hairs of organizations with a singular dedication to attacking Islam or characterizing high-profile American Muslim leaders as dangerous extremists. Imam Mahdi Bray, Founder and Executive Director of MAS Freedom (MASF), the civic and human rights advocacy entity of the Muslim American Society (MAS), is the latest target in this ongoing form of smear campaigning.
On March 26, 2009, Steve Emerson's Investigative Project released an expose on Imam Bray, outlining details from a past felony conviction, complete with photos from the arrest record; clearly with the intent to implicate that Imam Bray leads some sort of 'secret' life.
However, it goes without saying that, what happened in the past, and what Imam Bray has achieved subsequent to those earlier, troubled years, paint quite a different picture altogether from the one that the IP expose would lead readers to believe.
For starters, Imam Bray has never, either in private or in his extensive public life, denied serving time in prison or having a prior history of experience with drug use while working in the entertainment industry in his earlier years.
That said, it might also be pointed out that, while incarcerated Imam Bray was heralded by corrections officials as a model prisoner, and subsequent to his release, became extensively active in religious dawa (outreach), organizing the National Islamic Prison Foundation – a project with the mission of supporting incarcerated Muslims.
The success of the prison outreach program resulted in Imam Bray receiving a 1995 invitation to return to the Federal Correctional Institution in Morgantown, West Virginia as a motivational speaker for Muslim inmates.
What is important to Imam Bray's colleagues, community members, friends and family, is not the time that he spent in jail; it is the quality and integrity of the life he has led subsequent to having paid for past mistakes.
What is really troubling to Emerson, Spencer, Pipes, and their fellow travelers, is not Imam Bray's felony conviction or time spent in prison, but rather his effectiveness in building Muslim institutions and defending the rights of unjust targets of prosecution, as in the cases of the Six Traveling Imams and Dr. Sami Al-Arian, to name just two.
Much of Imam Bray's work is spent promoting Muslim community civic engagement, encouraging Muslim voter registration and participation in the electoral process, and advocating for justice on behalf of the many innocent victims of the post 9/11 anti-Muslim dragnet that has become so evident to all of us.
The body of Imam Bray's work – all within the context of nonviolence – is something that Muslim bashers and Islamophobes love to hate.
Islam is a transformational force in the lives of many Muslims, as is evident in the case of Imam Bray. It is with a note of personal pride, I might add, that this transformational force is also evident in the work and legacy of another African-American former inmate: El Hajj Malik Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X.
Clearly the intent of the Investigative Report's expose is to excoriate Imam Bray by portraying his past moral turpitude as an indicator of un-trustworthiness. The article should, in my opinion, be viewed in the context of the larger campaign against Muslim activists and the advances that Muslims have made in bringing Islamic values and the Muslim community presence to a more central place in the American inter-religious discourse.
The evidence of this advancement is reflected, in part, in Imam Bray's national stature, as well as the vehement attempts by some of his opponents to discredit him.
They can (and will) chop away at him; but I know this tree – and it won't succumb to the blows of their hatchets.
A Chinese political philosopher once said, "To be attacked by one's enemies is not a bad thing, but a good thing."
Perhaps this latest broadside will only help to illuminate that Islam, indeed, can change the lives of people for the better.
It certainly did in the case of my beloved friend, colleague, and brother in faith, Imam Mahdi Bray.
-------------------------------------------------------------
MAS Freedom (MASF) is a civic and human rights advocacy entity and sister organization of the Muslim American Society (MAS), the largest Muslim, grassroots, charitable, religious, social, cultural, civic and educational organization in America - with 55 chapters in 35 states.
-------------------------------------------------------------
MAS Freedom
1325 G Street NW, Suite 500
Washington DC 20005
Phone: (202) 552-7414
or (703) 642-6165
Toll Free: 1-(888)-627-8471
Fax: (703) 998-6526
By Ibrahim Abdil-Mu'id Ramey
WASHINGTON, DC (MASNET) March 26, 2009 – It's no secret that many national Muslim leaders have been in the cross-hairs of organizations with a singular dedication to attacking Islam or characterizing high-profile American Muslim leaders as dangerous extremists. Imam Mahdi Bray, Founder and Executive Director of MAS Freedom (MASF), the civic and human rights advocacy entity of the Muslim American Society (MAS), is the latest target in this ongoing form of smear campaigning.
On March 26, 2009, Steve Emerson's Investigative Project released an expose on Imam Bray, outlining details from a past felony conviction, complete with photos from the arrest record; clearly with the intent to implicate that Imam Bray leads some sort of 'secret' life.
However, it goes without saying that, what happened in the past, and what Imam Bray has achieved subsequent to those earlier, troubled years, paint quite a different picture altogether from the one that the IP expose would lead readers to believe.
For starters, Imam Bray has never, either in private or in his extensive public life, denied serving time in prison or having a prior history of experience with drug use while working in the entertainment industry in his earlier years.
That said, it might also be pointed out that, while incarcerated Imam Bray was heralded by corrections officials as a model prisoner, and subsequent to his release, became extensively active in religious dawa (outreach), organizing the National Islamic Prison Foundation – a project with the mission of supporting incarcerated Muslims.
The success of the prison outreach program resulted in Imam Bray receiving a 1995 invitation to return to the Federal Correctional Institution in Morgantown, West Virginia as a motivational speaker for Muslim inmates.
What is important to Imam Bray's colleagues, community members, friends and family, is not the time that he spent in jail; it is the quality and integrity of the life he has led subsequent to having paid for past mistakes.
What is really troubling to Emerson, Spencer, Pipes, and their fellow travelers, is not Imam Bray's felony conviction or time spent in prison, but rather his effectiveness in building Muslim institutions and defending the rights of unjust targets of prosecution, as in the cases of the Six Traveling Imams and Dr. Sami Al-Arian, to name just two.
Much of Imam Bray's work is spent promoting Muslim community civic engagement, encouraging Muslim voter registration and participation in the electoral process, and advocating for justice on behalf of the many innocent victims of the post 9/11 anti-Muslim dragnet that has become so evident to all of us.
The body of Imam Bray's work – all within the context of nonviolence – is something that Muslim bashers and Islamophobes love to hate.
Islam is a transformational force in the lives of many Muslims, as is evident in the case of Imam Bray. It is with a note of personal pride, I might add, that this transformational force is also evident in the work and legacy of another African-American former inmate: El Hajj Malik Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X.
Clearly the intent of the Investigative Report's expose is to excoriate Imam Bray by portraying his past moral turpitude as an indicator of un-trustworthiness. The article should, in my opinion, be viewed in the context of the larger campaign against Muslim activists and the advances that Muslims have made in bringing Islamic values and the Muslim community presence to a more central place in the American inter-religious discourse.
The evidence of this advancement is reflected, in part, in Imam Bray's national stature, as well as the vehement attempts by some of his opponents to discredit him.
They can (and will) chop away at him; but I know this tree – and it won't succumb to the blows of their hatchets.
A Chinese political philosopher once said, "To be attacked by one's enemies is not a bad thing, but a good thing."
Perhaps this latest broadside will only help to illuminate that Islam, indeed, can change the lives of people for the better.
It certainly did in the case of my beloved friend, colleague, and brother in faith, Imam Mahdi Bray.
-------------------------------------------------------------
MAS Freedom (MASF) is a civic and human rights advocacy entity and sister organization of the Muslim American Society (MAS), the largest Muslim, grassroots, charitable, religious, social, cultural, civic and educational organization in America - with 55 chapters in 35 states.
-------------------------------------------------------------
MAS Freedom
1325 G Street NW, Suite 500
Washington DC 20005
Phone: (202) 552-7414
or (703) 642-6165
Toll Free: 1-(888)-627-8471
Fax: (703) 998-6526
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