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.