Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) – Page 16 – A Volunteer Human Rights Group – Choose Love, Not Hate

A Clarion Call for Passionate Defense of Human Rights in Defiance of Extremists

As I once stated in a human rights speech at Freedom Plaza, “compassion begins with passion.” You cannot show that you truly care about our shared universal human rights, if you cannot show your feelings and passion for your fellow human beings and their challenges. If you are passionate about human rights, then you cannot be “patient” as you watch your brothers and sisters in humanity being persecuted, oppressed, attacked, and murdered.

There is a time and a place for equanimity, patience, and a reserved manner, and there is also a time and a place for a passionate defense of the rights, dignity, and security for our fellow human beings. There is a time when we must provide leadership on the truths we hold self-evident for all.

Our real leaders understand this, because they understand what is at stake by those who deny and attack our shared universal human rights. Our real leaders are not necessarily institutional, political, government leaders or administrators in our nations. We must make certain the voices of real leaders of human rights, dignity, and security are heard, amidst the passive voices that will invariably shrug their shoulders at the challenges to our shared human rights.

Let us be clear – the enemies of our shared universal human rights are never inconsequential to the security of the world. The enemies of our shared universal human rights are always an insidious cancer to the human race whose growth must be aggressively blocked and whose threat must be removed.

Some also believe that our passion for human rights should only apply for selected identity groups that we care about. Universal human rights are universal. The most fundamental value in our shared universal human rights is Equality. This is the truly shared common cause around which we must rally.

So we must also be equally passionate in our human rights defiance to anti-human rights extremists, who believe they can threaten, bully, and commit violence against others in denial of their human rights, because they believe they have superior rights over others. The enemies of our shared universal human rights despise the word “equality.” It is their primary objection to our common cause of shared human rights.

Equality is truly the keystone of the human rights struggle, which holds all of the other causes together as one struggle. The importance of equality in our human rights is forgotten by the apathetic, when they believe we do not need to passionately challenge all of the enemies of human rights.

Equality.

In the United States of America, we have been blessed with a history that this is not merely just another word in our language.

Equality.

It is so much more than just another word. It is a desperate whisper. It is a cry against injustice. It is a prayer. It is call to action. It is a shout of defiance. But whatever it may mean to you, to people in America and around the world, Equality is not just another word. Equality is not something we could dispassionately care less about, because it applies to all of us – everywhere – just like our shared universal human rights.

To those who have seen brothers and sisters of every identity stand together in a common cause of our shared universal human rights, they know that without Equality, we cannot have Liberty. They know without Equality and Liberty, we cannot have shared universal human rights.

Of all of our shared universal human rights, Equality is what anti-human rights extremists want to steal away from humanity. As it is the keystone of our shared universal human rights, so it is also the common target of the extremist enemies of human rights. The enemies of human rights don’t simply dislike equality; they hate Equality. They seek to destroy Equality and subjugate people of various identity groups, based on their race, their religion, their nationality, or other identity, and force them to submit to a tyranny.

So when we passionately challenge the enemies of our shared human rights and Equality, we must be prepared to defy all such enemies. Most importantly, we must never allow our passion in defying such enemies of human rights to allow us to become tyrants ourselves. We must always remember our struggle for human rights is for shared human rights for all of humanity.

To those who do not view anti-human rights extremists as a threat to passionately oppose, often they decide that they can choose that only some anti-human rights extremists matter, and that other enemies of human rights do not. This is not a support for our shared universal human rights. We must passionately reject all enemies of human rights, as the common cause of the human race.

In addition, there are also those who believe that people around the world have no choice but to live under a tyranny of those who seek their total submission and denial of their universal human rights. They believe they should surrender to what they believe will not change, and that the best thing to do is simply make the best of the current circumstances. They also believe that it is not worth giving much attention to anti-human extremist groups, because they believe eventually such groups will fail of their own overreaching ambitions, without much reaction by free people.

The people of the world may wonder how some free people can be so dispassionately calculated and cold-hearted about enemies of human rights, especially American free people. America brings a history both of natural defiance against anti-human rights oppression, as well as a deep-seated desire by its immigrants to “start anew” somewhere else and get a “fresh start” at life, and release concerns about “the old world.” Especially between foreign wars, Americans often resort back to a policy of “isolationism” as a response to great sacrifices. Passion is exhausting.

But when we come back to the keystone of human rights — Equality, we then have a different message to those who would watch the oppression of and violence against our fellow human beings with detachment and equanimity.

America did not defeat the tyrants that oppressed them by a dispassionate hope that eventually someday things would change on their own. They stated: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” In America, the weary, the detached, and the dispassionate may find comfort in isolationism from the world and from our societal responsibilities, but we can never be Americans without a zealous commitment to the most important of the truths we hold self-evident — EQUALITY.

Equality is the great motivating force to remind the American people, who and what they are, and why in the great words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

In the exhaustion of the difficult efforts for human rights, it is easy to get discouraged and weary. It is easy to lose hope for change. But I have been blessed in my lifetime with the opportunity to see great things happen. I have been blessed to live in a time in the United States of America, where I have seen American change from a nation where public racial segregation and oppression was openly tolerated in some place to where we have come to an African-American president elected twice. This is what I have seen with my eyes and experienced in my own short lifetime. The struggle for our shared human rights, especially for our sisters in America, is still truly an ongoing battle which is far, far, far from being won. But I can tell you a fact, not an opinion. CHANGE IS POSSIBLE. We CAN positively change the world in support of our shared universal human rights. It is not just wishful thinking. It can be done.

We have seen such human rights CHANGE. I urge the world to remember this history and to act to find ways to promote such change in challenging the current enemies of human rights and equality.

But we did NOT achieve CHANGE by being passive and unconcerned about the actions of anti-human rights extremists. We did not achieve change through dispassionate equanimity to the anti-human rights extremists who sought to subjugate others. We did not change the thinking of a generation by quietly expecting the extremist enemies of human rights would just go away by themselves, and relinquish their stranglehold on the human rights, dignity, and security of the oppressed.

We did not achieve any victories of change by making excuses for and rationalizing away the actions and the ideology of the enemies of human rights.

In achieving the victories of change, we did not retreat to isolationism from human rights. We did not shrug our shoulders at the abuses of the extremists. To the victims of such extremists, we did not only extend our sympathies and prayers, but we also extended our protection as well as our passionate outrage and defiance against the extremist enemies of human rights.

To the enemies of human rights, we not only recognized and defended the rights of others, but also we challenged and rejected the wrongs that extremists applied to our fellow human beings. We did not defend those victimized by the enemies of our human rights through relativist surrender. We judged their actions based on a consistent application of our shared universal human rights for all. This judgment between right and wrong was passionately communicated in every aspect of our society: our leaders, media, schools, houses of worship, institutions, and public gatherings.

In the American national judgment on white supremacism, whether it was by the 100,000 American Union soldiers who died fighting to end it during the Civil War, or it was through the total war of ideas against white supremacism during what is known as the “Civil Rights era,” this judgment against extremists was not a racial attack on white Americans, but it was a total clarion call for change to reject the supremacist views of extremists. But we fearlessly judged what was right and wrong, based on our shared universal human rights for all. As the American people know all too well, that struggle never ends, and such passionate defiance against anti-human rights extremists must never be relaxed.

Most importantly, we were NOT patient, despite the endless pleas for “patience,” “understanding,” “culture,” and “incremental change,” which mostly apologists for white supremacists sought to spread as a countermessage in the “war of ideas” during the “Civil Rights era.” As Americans are all too painfully aware, when it comes to defying the extremist enemies of human rights, patience is not a virtue, but only allows anti-human rights persecution to find new ways and places to arise again and again.

This is the model that I have seen in my life which works to achieve CHANGE in human rights. It is a model that requires a passionate challenge to anti-human rights extremists that are given no excuse, no rationale, no justification, and no escape from the judgment of a society which stands for justice and equally shared universal human rights.

So too in today’s world, as the extremist enemies of human rights seek a total war on our equality, liberty, human rights, human dignity, and security, so we must call for a new clarion call of total defiance of the ideology and actions of today’s enemies of human rights. We must not allow the voices of relativism, defeatism, and cowardice to win the day. If we believe in our shared universal human rights, then we must take the stand that those that seek the destruction of such shared universal human rights bring a common cause to rally all of humanity.

To do so, we need to bring out the greatest agent of human rights to our common defense, the keystone of our shared human rights: EQUALITY. We must call for the EQUAL universal human rights for all people in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and we must defy those enemies of human rights, from any extremist ideology which seeks the persecution and oppression of our brothers and sisters in humanity. Of all of the ideas in the world, the one that the enemies of human rights can least tolerate and accept is equality of human rights. Therefore, such equality of human rights must be the spearhead of our campaign to defy and challenge the extremist causes.

To the extremist calls of terrorism, violence, and subjugation of our fellow human beings, let them know the enemies of human rights know that we will reject, defy, and condemn their ideologies of hatred and violence. As we approach the anniversary this week of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, let us passionately and defiantly make a statement to all of the anti-human rights extremist groups — we will not submit, and we will defend our EQUAL universal human rights for all.

We will be passionately Responsible for Equality and Liberty.

American ISIS Terrorist Linked to Al-Huda

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has learned that American ISIS terrorist Tashfeen Malik was linked to the Pakistan-based Al-Huda Institute, where she obtained religious training, which other Muslims have described as extremist. On December 3, 2015, R.E.A.L. reported on our investigative research where we had discovered that Rafia Farook was also a supporter of the Al-Huda Institute on Facebook, before Rafia Farook took her Facebook site down. We captured a screenshot before it went offline, and reported on this subject in another report. As we reported, many Muslim women and Muslim men rejected and were critical of the Al-Huda Institute as being extreme.

In addition, the UK Guardian also did a follow-up report titled “San Bernardino shooter’s ‘hardline’ Islam not an outlier in native Pakistan,” stating “Tashfeen Malik’s daily life was a common one that has not been an indicator of radicalization: ‘She’s a typical small-town, educated, middle-class conservative’.” As R.E.A.L. reported on December 3, this is not the case among many Muslim women and men who rejected the views of Al-Huda.

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Dawn/AFP Report: California shooter studied at Al-Huda institute: teacher
MULTAN: The woman who, with her husband, shot dead 14 people in California last week attended one of the most high-profile religious teaching centres for women in Pakistan, a teacher at the Al-Huda institute told AFP Monday.

Tashfeen Malik, 29, studied at the Al-Huda Institute in Multan, which admits middle-class women and also has offices in the US, the UAE, India and the UK, the teacher at the teaching centre who gave her name only as Muqadas said.

“It was a two-year course, but she did not finish it,” the teacher Muqadas said. “She was a good girl. I don’t know why she left and what happened to her.”

The teacher did not say when Malik studied at the Al-Huda institute, but fellow classmates at the Bahauddin Zakariya University said she had attended the institute after classes at the university, which she attended from 2007-2013.

Farhat Hashmi’s organisation, Al-Huda institute, has no known extremist links, though it has come under fire in the past from critics who say its ideology is extremist in nature.

Malik and her husband Syed Farook, 28, went on a killing spree at a social services centre in San Bernardino. Investigators suspect that Malik, who went to the United States (US) on a fiancee’s visa and spent extended periods of time in both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, may have radicalised her husband.

The probe is trying to establish if she had contact with radicals in either country.

An administration official at the academy in Multan said he could neither confirm nor deny that Malik had studied there, and said he would discuss the issue with management.

“But we have nothing to do with it (the shooting) and are not responsible for our students’ personal acts,” he added.

One of Malik’s former classmates at the Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, where she studied pharmacology, told AFP she had attended the institute after classes, saying she “drastically changed” during her time there.

“Gradually she became more serious and strict,” said the student, requesting anonymity.

A second university student who also requested anonymity confirmed the account.

Pakistan has pledged to crack down on religious seminaries suspected of being breeding grounds for intolerance or even fostering extremism, with the country’s information minister Pervez Rashid terming them “universities of illiteracy and ignorance”. However the government’s efforts to rein in madrassas have prompted anger from many clerics.

Time for Politicians to Stop Politicizing Terror Investigation

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) urges politicians and political groups to refrain from their plethora of political comments about the ongoing terrorist investigation of the San Bernardino attack.

In San Bernardino, California, five days ago, over 30 Americans were gunned down in broad daylight, and their Christmas party was rigged with bombs to blow up, which was intended to kill many, many more people. There has been a lot of talk about many issues, but certainly not enough about the Americans who were killed and the many more who are still injured right now. Some people who were shot remained hospitalized Monday. They represented African-American, Asian American, Hispanic American, white Americans, young, old, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters. They are snapshot of our American family of diversity in every way.

American Victims of San Bernardino December 2 Terrorist Attack by ISIS Supporters

Like so many other attempted and completed terrorist attacks, the only reason the blood bath was not significantly worse, was because the terrorists’ bombs didn’t work. We need sober and responsible minds to grasp the significance of this. In the meantime, this is an ongoing federal terrorist investigation being led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). If there is anyone who should be speaking out from our government on this terrorist attack, it should be the designated agent of the FBI. Period.

Not every politician of every party, every governor, mayor, and political activist group. Not every political pundit. We have had numerous political people speaking precipitously on this, both during the actual attack, immediately afterwards, and while the investigation is ongoing. Candidly, a lot of political people from every political group have made a lot of foolish comments that at some point they are going to regret, and which certainly have been unnecessary.

As we are just finishing burying the American dead, now is not the time to “politicize” an ongoing terrorist investigation. The political parties could be doing something constructive. They could be planning events to help the victims. They could be having marches and events positive to demonstrate that we will not be terrorized by ISIS in America or anywhere else. But now is not the time for this ridiculous and shameful political in-fighting among Americans. It is disgraceful and shameful, and dishonors the great United States of America.

Our politicians and political pundits need to shut up for a bit, while the facts on the case are actually learned. We also would urge President Obama to use his office to provide statements, when he actually has something to say, as it is important for the public to have confidence in the federal government terrorist investigation. A terrorist investigation is not a bully pulpit for political talk and pressure. It is wrong and inappropriate, especially on Sunday, as Americans were grieving their lost loved ones. The struggle against terrorists has no place as a mud-throwing political debate, when we have dead fellow American citizens who have just been buried.

Because it is the nature of people to want to “do something,” in response to the outrage, many people have issued their opinions. We still have a free country, and we all have the right to our opinions, even the misguided, uninformed, and incorrect opinions.

But let us please remember, we still have an ongoing terrorist investigation going on. We are learning new information, and significant new information every day.

If we really want “do something,” there are things we can do. There are fundraising charities for the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist attack. There is research and education we can do about those involved in the attacks. There is information on different terrorist threats that we face from totally different extremists and anti-human rights groups to also be concerned about. There are those who are speaking to reject the extremist and anti-human rights ideology of the ISIS terrorist group. There is plenty of constructive things to do and talk about.

But we need to not lose sight that it was ISIS supporting terrorists who gunned down over 30 Americans on December 2. Not the Democrats, not the Republicans, not the political pundits, and not lobbying groups. The anti-human rights enemies who killed and wounded our fellow Americans were the ISIS supporting terrorists. Let’s not forget that THEY are the enemy – not each other.

R.E.A.L. will not comment and dignify such the inappropriate and shameful political comments made during this terrorist attack and while our fellow Americans were grieving their buried loved ones, by acknowledging such political comments, during this time and during this initial terrorist investigation. R.E.A.L. will make only one statement regarding such totally inappropriate political commentary:

Shame on you — all of you.

We too have opinions, but we would rather focus on the facts, on the investigation, and our necessary imperative to support human rights.

Most of all, we urge the real leaders of America within the human rights and the justice communities, to use their influence to promote the causes of human rights, justice, and dignity in their own ways, so that we hear of no more victims from the supporters of this anti-human rights terrorist group.

R.E.A.L. will continue our focus in defiance of the anti-human rights ISIS terrorist group, the ongoing investigation, and the shared cause of our universal human rights, which such enemies of human rights as ISIS seeks to disrupt and destroy.

We must not let them succeed.

American ISIS Supporters Committed San Bernardino Terrorist Attack

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L) has received multiple reports from news and law enforcement sources indicating a link between the December 2, 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack and the ISIS terrorist group. After receiving repeated confirmation from multiple sources, we must recognize that the bloody San Bernardino terrorist attack has been the first “successful” act of terror on the United States homeland by supporters of the ISIS terrorist group.

R.E.A.L. calls for an organized and honest discussion of the current challenges of ISIS to people around the world, as well as American ISIS recruits. R.E.A.L. calls for a renewed awareness among human rights groups on the importance of the “War of Ideas” in supporting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Americans and by all people as a tool to defy the extremist and terrorist ideologies that reject anti-human rights ideologies, defying human rights, human dignity, and human life/security. In response to this terrorist attack on America, we call for the American people to make a public stand of defiance in support of Universal Human Rights on Thursday, December 10, Human Rights Day.

On December 2, 2015, American ISIS supporters and terrorists Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik attacked the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, shooting San Bernardino county workers, resulting in 14 killed and 17 wounded. They also reportedly unsuccessfully tried to develop a remote control bomb detonator for IED bombs.

American ISIS Supporters and Terrorists Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik attacked the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, shooting San Bernardino county workers, resulting in 14 killed and 17 wounded

On December 4, 2015, news media reported that 27 year old woman terrorist Tashfeen Malik “posted to Facebook pledging allegiance to Islamic State militant group (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before carrying out the mass shooting with her husband.” This was followed by a confirmation by Associated Press on December 4 in an interview with a Facebook executive, who stated that terrorist Tashfeen Malik posted support to ISIS on Facebook, during the San Bernardino terrorist attack. This commitment to ISIS by terrorist Tashfeen Malik to ISIS was also in interviews with FBI officials by the New York Times and by Reuters.

On December 5, 2015, the official ISIS terrorist group Al-Bayan”radio station” took credit for their San Bernardino terrorist attack as an act of “supporters” of ISIS, as reported by CNN, CBS, and other news media.

As Rita Katz of SITE Intelligence also reported on December 4, 2015, ISIS “official” social media accounts were full of celebrations over the San Bernardino terrorist attack, “posting images, threats, and warning against the US.”

As R.E.A.L first reported on Twitter and Facebook on December 4, 2015, the ISIS affiliated “Amaq News Agency” claimed that the San Bernardino terrorist attack was performed by supporters of ISIS. The Amaq News agency claimed (rough translation from Arabic): “The depths of the agency: attacked two supporters of the Islamic state in the center of the city of San Bernardino in California. And fired weapons inside the center, causing the death of 14 people and wounded 17 others, and then fled, before they were killed later after an exchange of fire with US police who chased them for several hours. The strikers are a couple of Pakistani origin, with the attack comes after days of statements by US officials that the United States is far from “terrorist attacks.” The operation comes after Paris bloody attacks carried out by fighters of State on 13 November last year, which claimed the lives of dozens, and after a martyrdom operation on the presidential security amid the Tunisian capital.”

By the end of the day on December 4, 2015, the FBI announced that it was investigating the San Bernardino killings as a “terrorist” attack, leading a federal terrorism investigation.

Given the rapid report on the December 2, 2015 San Bernardino, California terrorist attack, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L) has provided most of our reports on Twitter.

There are additional reports being circulated today also regarding links to an extremist cleric in Pakistan. As more reports are confirmed, R.E.A.L. will update this report.

It is vitally important for Americans to note that ISIS terrorist group is not Islam, as they claim. As documented by R.E.A.L., this can be seen by the Muslims in American and around the world who publicly reject the ideology and the actions of the ISIS terrorist group.

As documented by R.E.A.L, it can also been seen in the ISIS terrorist group history of mass murder against Muslims around the world, blowing up mosques, killing Muslim children, women, and men of all ages and in nations around the world. The ISIS terrorist war on Muslims clearly demonstrates how they do not represent other Muslims.

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands in support of our universal human rights for all, and we stand in defiance against those, including terrorist and hate groups, which seek to attack such universal human rights, dignity, and security for all.

The Muslim Faces and Voices Against ISIS – in USA, Paris, and Around the World

While we have had many faces and voices against ISIS, the most important and compelling voices of those against extremism are Muslims who have, around the world, faced death from the ISIS terrorists who claim they are representing a twisted version of “Islam.” It is essential that we encourage those supporting human rights and rejecting extremist views.

Muslims, in America, in France, and Other Parts of the World, Are Taking a Public Stand Against ISIS — Muslims, in America, France, Other Parts of the World, Are Taking a Public Stand Against ISIS

After the November 13, 2015 ISIS terrorist attacks, we saw Muslims in France, Italy, and other parts of Europe stand up in rejection and defiance of the ISIS hate and terrorism, including taking part in public protests against ISIS and in support of those attacked in Paris. Muslims across France and Europe marched against ISIS. Since the November 13 Paris attacks, a global campaign has extended on Twitter with Muslims taking a stand against ISIS promoting the campaign #NotInMyName.

After ISIS Paris Terrorist Attacks, Muslim Demonstrations Take Place in Europe - Thouands of Muslims in Toulouse, Rome, Stockholm Denounce Attacks — After ISIS Paris Terrorist Attacks, Muslim Demonstrations Take Place in Europe – Thousands of Muslims in Toulouse, Rome, Stockholm Denounce Attacks

Anti-ISIS Muslim Women Protest in Support of Paris

There have been active, but rarely publicized Muslim groups in the USA which challenge extremist views. This has included groups which R.E.A.L. has joined with in promoting human rights, such as the Muslims for Progressive Values, and the Muslimah Writer’s Alliance (MWA), with whom we have stood together in support of shared universal human rights.

Washington DC - R.E.A.L. and Interfaith Group Stands at Freedom Center for Universal Human Rights — Washington DC – R.E.A.L. and Interfaith Group Stands at Freedom Center for Universal Human Rights

On the day of the December 2, 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Muslims came forward to reject and denounce violence. In the aftermath of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, we also see Muslims who have spoken out and rejected the terrorist violence against those victims.

Muslim woman Samar Natour - standing friends with the victims of San Bernardino terrorist attack - "We are here to show support and for there to be a Muslim presence and to show that the violence is not what our religion is about " (Source: Newsweek) — Muslim woman Samar Natour – standing friends with the victims of San Bernardino terrorist attack – “We are here to show support and for there to be a Muslim presence and to show that the violence is not what our religion is about ” (Source: Newsweek)

On December 3, 2015, the American Muslim Institution, based in Washington DC, issued a statement that the “Loss of life in San Bernardino is unequivocally condemned by Muslims.” The statement included “Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and their loved ones, 14 people have lost their lives to senseless violence and another 17 are seriously injured. We pray with our hearts, souls and minds, asking God to guide us all to restore peace and sanity. American Muslims condemns this violent crime and urge the law enforcement agencies to track down all possible links to these violent acts, if any. It is time for the law enforcement officials to investigate the backgrounds of the suspected individuals to understand the sources and causes for their vigilant and criminal behavior, as it is a serious breach of security and to take corrective measures. As fellow Americans and fellow Muslims, it is our duty and collective responsibility to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is the duty of all of us to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it.”

Washington DC: Anti-ISIS Rally by Muslims at Lincoln Memorial (Source: News and Views)

On November 20 2015, in Washington DC, Muslims gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to make a statement that they reject the violence, hatred, intolerance, and terrorism of violence. This was also organized by the American Muslim Institution. As reported by News and Views, the Muslim activists made statements condemning ISIS as “evil” and not representing Islam, reporting that “American Muslims gathered on the steps of Lincoln Memorial Friday to condemn the ISIS terror, and reinforce Islam’s message of peaceful coexistence.” “In their speeches and slogans, participants said the ISIS hateful ideology of violence does not represent Islam since it goes against Islam’s message of peaceful coexistence and respect for human life.” Mike Ghous, executive director of American Muslim Institution, stated “We are taking a small step to condemn them, to send a message to ISIS and terrorists that we do not approve them. We do not accept them because they are evil.”

In addition, also on November 20, 2015, about 100 people gathered in Lafayette Square in Washington DC, across the street from the White House, with candles, American flags and banners that read “Muslims Condemn Terrorism,” and “American Muslims Against ISIS.”

Anti-ISIS Rally by American Muslims Against ISIS - 100 at Lafayette Park - gathered outside the White House (Source: WTOP/Michelle Basch) — Anti-ISIS Rally by American Muslims Against ISIS – 100 at Lafayette Park – gathered outside the White House (Source: WTOP/Michelle Basch)

In addition, R.E.A.L.’s December 3, 2015 posting, we pointed to numerous Muslim women who rejected extremism in the Al Huda groups. There is a continuing, but rarely publicized, movement by Muslim women and men to challenge rigidity and extremist views.

R.E.A.L. urges continuing public statements and specific rejection of ISIS, its ideology, and its terrorist tactics by Muslim activists, as well as non-Muslim activists.

As many have said, we are all in this together.

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However, what many in the West are not as well aware of is how much the ISIS terrorist organization has targeted and attacked Muslims, Muslim activities, and Muslim mosques. As we have reported elsewhere, ISIS has waged a global war against Muslims.

As we have reported numerous times, Muslim around the world have condemned the attacks by the ISIS terrorist group which has frequently targeted Muslim groups globally. The frequency of such ISIS terrorist attacks against other Muslims is so common and so regular, we don’t begin to suggest we are covering them all, and frequently are forced to posting on Twitter of such regular attacks by ISIS on other Muslims.

But among those we have posted about, R.E.A.L. has reported of ISIS terrorist attacks against Muslims on:

— Syria – ISIS Terrorist Massacre of Civilians in Terror Attack Killing over 145 on the Syrian town of Kobani and a nearby village

ISIS terror group killed at least 145 civilians in Kobani, Syria, including children, women, elderly

— Bangladesh – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Mosque in Bogra, Shooting at 20 Worshipers During Prayers – killing 1 and wounding 3

ISIS Terrorist Attack on Muslim Mosque in Bogra, Bangladesh - November 26, 2015 — ISIS Terrorist Attack on Muslim Mosque in Bogra, Bangladesh – November 26, 2015

— Saudi Arabia – ISIS Terrorist Bomb Attack On Mosque During Prayers – killing 13 and wounding 22

ISIS Terrorist Bombing on Saudi Mosque in Abha - August 6, 2015 — ISIS Terrorist Bombing on Saudi Mosque in Abha – August 6, 2015

Injured Victims of ISIS Terror Attack on Mosque - mir of Asir Prince Faisal Bin Khaled visits the injured at a hospital in Abha, Thursday (Source: SPA) — Injured Victims of ISIS Terror Attack on Mosque – mir of Asir Prince Faisal Bin Khaled visits the injured at a hospital in Abha, Thursday (Source: SPA)

— Iraq – ISIS terrorist bombing of Shiite Muslim market area in Iraq – with ISIS mass casualty murder of 60 Muslims

ISIS Truck Bomb on Muslim Neighborhood in Iraq - August 13, 2015 — ISIS Truck Bomb on Muslim Neighborhood in Iraq – August 13, 2015

— Bangladesh – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Muslim Gathering Killing 14 Year Old Boy and Wounding Over 50 Muslims

ISIS Terrorist Bomb Attack on Shiite Muslim Procession in Dhaka, Bangladesh, October 24, 2015

— Kuwait – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Shiite Mosque of Al-Sadiq During Ramadan Prayers – Killing at Least 8, and Injuring Many

ISIS Cowards Attack Shiite mosque of Al-Sadiq during Muslim Ramadan Prayers

— Saudi Arabia – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Minority Shia Imam Hussein mosque

— Iraq: ISIS burning to death 45 Muslims in an attack on Iraq village in western Iraq Al Anbar Governate’s town of al-Baghdadi

— Afghanistan – depraved murders of Afghanistan Muslims by ISIS

ISIS Terrorists in Afghanistan Murder Helpless Men

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Clearly, the ideology of ISIS terrorism is primarily as an enemy to the Muslim people. It makes sense that Muslims can and must continue to be the number one face of opposition to ISIS.

It is the primary responsibility of white Americans to fight and defy the hate and terrorist ideology of white supremacy (which over 100,000 U.S.A. soldiers died in fighting a war over), and we see white Americans in protests in our nation’s capital and around the nation to challenge white supremacists. Just as it would be wrong to judge all white Americans for the actions of white supremacists, including the vast majority which have fought and many given their lives to challenge white supremacist hate and terrorism, so we must respect those Muslims who reject, defy, and denounce the ISIS hate and terrorism.

We urge all, from all identity groups, and all religions, to be jointly Responsible for Equality And Liberty.

The ISIS War on Muslims

As Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has reported numerous times, many Muslims around the world have condemned the attacks by the ISIS terrorist group which has frequently targeted Muslim groups globally. The frequency of such ISIS terrorist attacks against other Muslims is so common and so regular, we don’t begin to suggest we are covering them all, and frequently are forced to posting on Twitter of such regular attacks by ISIS on other Muslims.

But among those we have posted about, R.E.A.L. has reported of ISIS terrorist attacks against Muslims on:

— Syria – ISIS Terrorist Massacre of Civilians in Terror Attack Killing over 145 on the Syrian town of Kobani and a nearby village

— Bangladesh – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Mosque in Bogra, Shooting at 20 Worshipers During Prayers – killing 1 and wounding 3

— Saudi Arabia – ISIS Terrorist Bomb Attack On Mosque During Prayers – killing 13 and wounding 22

— Iraq – ISIS terrorist bombing of Shiite Muslim market area in Iraq – with ISIS mass casualty murder of 60 Muslims

— Bangladesh – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Muslim Gathering Killing 14 Year Old Boy and Wounding Over 50 Muslims

— Kuwait – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Shiite Mosque of Al-Sadiq During Ramadan Prayers – Killing at Least 8, and Injuring Many

— Saudi Arabia – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Minority Shia Imam Hussein mosque

— Iraq: ISIS burning to death 45 Muslims in an attack on Iraq village in western Iraq Al Anbar Governate’s town of al-Baghdadi

— Afghanistan – depraved murders of Afghanistan Muslims by ISIS

Clearly, the ideology of ISIS terrorism is primarily as an enemy to the Muslim people. It makes sense that Muslims can and must continue to be the number one face of opposition to ISIS.

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Orange Ribbon for Universal Human Rights - Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) — Orange Ribbon for Universal Human Rights – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

San Bernardino Terrorist Attack Victims

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has begun to get names of the victims of the December 2, 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. This posting will be updated as new information on victims is released.

The victims killed included: Tin Nguyen, 31; Larry Daniel Kaufman, 42; Nicholas Thalasinos, 52; Juan Espinoza, 50; Shannon Johnson, 45; Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46; Aurora Godoy, 26; Isaac Amanios, 60; Harry Bowman, 46; Yvette Velasco, 27; Sierra Clayborn, 27; Robert Adams, 40; Damian Meins, 58; Michael Wetzel, 37.

American Victims Killed in San Bernardino Terrorist Attack - December 2, 2015 — American Victims Killed in San Bernardino Terrorist Attack – December 2, 2015

Tin Nguyen

Tin Nguyen – a 31 year old Vietnamese-born woman from Santa Ana who was a food inspector. She stopped by the Christmas party. She was planning to be married in 2017.

Larry Daniel Kaufman

Larry Daniel Kaufman – a 42 year old man who ran the center’s coffee shop and trained the developmentally disabled clients who worked with him, and who proudly wore rainbow earrings for gay pride.

Nicholas Thalasinos

Nicholas Thalasinos – a 52 year old man restaurant inspector, who was a Messianic Jew. He was a scholar and religious. He was defiant to extremist views, including ISIS. He received a death threat the day before he was murdered, and reported had a heated debate with Syed Farook two weeks before the attack, as reported in another posting.

Juan Espinoza

Juan Espinoza – a 50 year old man from Highland, who worked as an inspector for the county health department. Juan Espinoza is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son. Another report describes Juan C. Espinoza as the director of Riverside County Transportation & Land Management Agency.

Shannon Johnson

Shannon Johnson – a 45 year old man from Los Angeles, he worked as an environmental health specialist with San Bernardino County’s public health department for nearly 11 years, according to his LinkedIn page. Johnson said he was in charge of food safety, recreational health and housing.

Bennetta Bet-Badal

Bennetta Bet-Badal – a 46 year old woman from Rialto; she worked as an inspector for the San Bernardino County Health Department. Bennetta Bet-badal was born in Iran in 1969, and fled to the United States when she was 18 to escape the persecution of Christians following the Iranian Revolution. She settled in California and married Arlen Verdehyou, a police officer, and they had three children. Her friends created a “Benneta Betbadal Memorial Fund.”

Aurora Godoy

Aurora Godoy – a 26 year old from San Jacinto. She was a wife and mother of an infant son. Her aunt, Rebecca Godoy made a statement on Facebook: “Yesterday in the shootings in San Bernardino many families were affected. Ours was one of them. We will keep her flame alive so that her young son does not forget his special mother.” Those who cared about Aurora Godoy and her family created a GoFundMe web page to get community financial help for the family to help cover their funeral costs, and assist them in the aftermath of this tragedy.

Isaac Amanios

Isaac Amanios – a 60 year old man from Fontana, was a health inspector for San Bernardino County. He leaves behind his wife, Hiwet Gebreslassie, and three adult children. He was the cousin of Nat Berhe, a Fontana native who’s a safety for the New York Giants.

Harry Bowman

Harry Bowman – a 46 year old man from Upland, who had just started on his job as a statistical analyst with San Bernardino County’s environmental health services on September 19, 2015. He had two teenage daughters. He was a native of York, Pennsylvania. He had just received a Christmas present from his mother, which sat on the doorstep. He never made it home.

Yvette Velasco

Yvette Velasco – a 27 year old woman from Fontana, who was a an environmental health specialist for the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. Her family released a statement: “Yvette was an intelligent, motivated, and beautiful young woman, who was full of life and loved by all who knew her. We are devastated about what happened, and are still processing this nightmare. We ask that you please respect our family’s privacy in order to grieve our loss. Yvette is survived by her parents, Robert and Marie Velasco, and her three sisters, Adriana, Erica, and Genevieve. Please pray for our family and the other families who have lost a loved one as a result of this terrible tragedy.”

Sierra Clayborn

Sierra Clayborn – a 27 year old woman from Moreno Valley, who worked as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County. She was a graduate of University of California, Riverside. Like many others around the world, Sierra Clayborn added the French flag to her Facebook profile soon after the terrorist attack in Paris on November 13. How could she know that she too would be a victim just barely over two weeks later?

Sierra Clayborn Defiantly Stood for Human Rights and Dignity of Paris Terrorist Victims

Robert Adams

Robert Adams – a 40 year old man from Yucaipa, leaves behind his wife, Summer, and his daughter, Savannah. Robert Adams was an environmental health specialist for the San Bernardino County Health Department. Friends and supporters of Robert Adams created a GoFundMe web page to raise funds to help his family.

Damian Meins

Damian Meins – a 58 year old man of San Pedro, who had only been working for San Bernardino County for a short time. He previously worked for a physical education teacher at St. Catherine’s School in Riverside. Damian Meins was also an Extended Care Coordinator at St. Catherine of Alexandria School in Riverside, where he also helped kids create Christmas art projects and religious murals. Damian Meins received a Community Recognition Award for his work in Riverside, which was based on “compassion, courage, forgiveness, generosity, humility, inclusiveness, integrity, kindness, respect and service.”

Michael Wetzel

Michael Wetzel – a 37 year old man from Lake Arrowhead, who worked as the supervising environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County. He leaves behind a wife and six children. His friends created a YouCaring crowdfunding page in order to help his family, where you can also see his entire family. “So many prayers needed,” Wetzel’s wife wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon. They were an active part of the Church of the Woods in Lake Arrowhead.

American ISIS – Garland, Texas Attack

CNN Security reporter Jim Sciutto reported on December 4, 2015 that the Garland, Texas terrorists Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi also pledged allegiance to ISIS. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi attacked the at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas on May 3, 2015, with the goal of disrupting an event inside and killing one of the event participants. They shot a security guard in the ankle. Both Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi were shot and killed by police.

On Twitter, minutes prior to the attack, one of the gunmen posted “May Allah accept us as mujahideen” with the hashtag #texasattack. He wrote that both attackers had pledged allegiance to “Amirul Mu’mineen”, a likely reference to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The statements also requested others to follow an ISIS propagandist, Junaid Hussain, on Twitter. After the shooting, Hussain wrote: “Allahu Akbar!!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire.

Screen shot of Garland, TX Terrorists (Source CNN Twitter)

San Bernardino: Jewish Victim Threatened Day Before Terrorist Attack

One of the victims of the San Bernardino, California terrorist attack had received a threatening message the day before the December 2, 2015 attack. The day before the terrorist attack, according to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer, victim Nicholas Thalasinos reportedly “had posted about a threat he had received that included the words ‘you will die and never see Israel.’ ” Nicholas Thalasinos was a Messianic Jew.

In addition, TIME Magazine reports that Kuuleme Stephens said “he happened to call 52-year-old Nicholas Thalasinos while he was at work and having a discussion with Syed Farook.” TIME Magazine reports that “they had a heated conversation about Islam two weeks before the attack.” TIME Magazine’s interview also added comments from Kuuleme Stephens that “[s]he added that Farook said Americans don’t understand Islam.”

Nicholas Thalasinos’ wife, Jennifer Thalasinos, lives in another part of the country and was contacted by the New York Times. According to the New York Times, “[i]n a phone interview, Jennifer Thalasinos said that her husband of nine years had been friendly with Mr. Farook, and that they were part of the same ‘little group’ of employees. ‘He had worked with him,’ Ms. Thalasinos said of her husband. ‘He had talked about him. Nothing negative.'” The New York Times added “‘My husband was very outspoken about ISIS and all of these radicalized Muslims,’ she said, adding, ‘If he would’ve thought that somebody in his office was like that, he would’ve said something.'”

Los Angeles News KTLA Channel 5 reported that Syed Farook “apparently was radicalized and in touch with people being investigated by the FBI for international terrorism, law enforcement officials said Thursday.” CNN reported that “Farook himself had talked by phone and on social media with more than one person being investigated for terrorism, law enforcement officials said. The communications were ‘soft connections’ in that they weren’t frequent, one law enforcement official said. It had been a few months since Farook’s last back-and-forth with these people, who officials said were not considered high priority.”

Los Angeles CBS reported that Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik were reportedly viewing ISIS propaganda, stating that “[a] source also told CBS News that the pair were looking at ISIS propaganda online.”
CNN reported that the San Bernarino police chief addressed “the discovery of hundreds of rounds of ammunition in their rented black SUV as well as in their apartment. Authorities also found 12 pipe bombs there, as well as hundreds of tools that could be used to construct IEDs or pipe bombs,’ the chief said.”

Per the Clarion-Ledger, the San Bernardino police chief reported that “a search of the couple’s home turned up 2,000 9mm rounds, more than 2500 .223-caliber rounds and “several hundred” 22 long rifle rounds, as well as 12 pipe bombs and tools for making more explosive devices. He said the pair had rented their black SUV getaway car several days earlier and were supposed to return it on the day of the assault.”

The New York Times reports that “[i]nside the the small townhouse where the couple returned after the shooting, investigators found what they termed a fairly large “dedicated work space” and several tools that appeared to have been used to create pipe bombs, according to law enforcement officials. Along with the dozen devices that were in the home, the authorities found smokeless powder, the officials said. That substance is most often found in bullets but can also be used to set off pipe bombs. The Boston Marathon bombers used that type of substance to ignite their devices.”

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands in unified support for the Universal Human Rights of all of our fellow human beings of every identity group, with respect for their human rights, dignity, and security. We will also defy those extremists ideologies that seek the destruction of such rights, dignity, and security, especially those who use cold-blooded tactics of murder and mayhem to enforce their political will. We will always recognize such acts of violence as nothing other than Terrorism.

San Bernardino, California Attack and Al Huda

Update – December 7, 2015: DAWN news reports that terrorist Tashfeen Malik was also linked to Al-Huda, stating: “The woman who, with her husband, shot dead 14 people in California last week attended one of the most high-profile religious teaching centres for women in Pakistan, a teacher at the Al-Huda institute told AFP Monday. Tashfeen Malik, 29, studied at the Al-Huda Institute in Multan, which admits middle-class women and also has offices in the US, the UAE, India and the UK, the teacher at the teaching centre who gave her name only as Muqadas said.”

Regarding the December 2, 2015 the San Bernardino, California attacks, the primary suspects were named as Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who were killed in a shootout hours after an attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, which led to 14 killed and 17 wounded. Syed Farook’s brother-in-law, Farhan Khan spoke at a press conference held by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) late Friday night, where he stated “I just cannot express how sad I am for what happened today.” NBC News interviewed San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, and reported that he said “a motive in the shooting has not been determined.” Syed Farook has been reported as a U.S. citizen, and reports have stated his parents were immigrants from Pakistan.

On a follow-up report, the UK Telegraph news media reports on that “[i]n 2006, Rafia Farook, who records indicate is Farook’s mother, filed in a Riverside court for divorce from her husband, also named Syed Farook.”

Al Huda Logo on Facebook, liked by relative of terror suspect (Source: Facebook)

On Facebook, a Rafia Farook was listed (now offline) who was related to, had the same friends and relatives, and attended the same local mosque as San Bernardino reported terror gunman Syed Farook. Rafia Farook’s Facebook friends also included Syed Farook’s brother-in-law Farhan Khan, who spoke at the CAIR December 2 late night press conference after the San Bernardino attack. Their Facebook sites and most of their friends have been taken offline. However, before that happened, we learned that this same Rafia Farook liked the “Dr. Farhat Hashmi” Facebook site which promoted her teachings of the Al Huda Institute.

A screen shot of Rafia Farook’s Facebook likes, including “Dr. Farhat Hasmi,” was captured before the Facebook site was taken down.

This is significant because of the frequently controversial positions of Dr. Farhat Hasmi and her Al Huda International Welfare Foundation (“Al Huda”), which have been the source of news reports by the National Public Radio, Pakistan news media, and Canadian news media.

On April 7, 2010, the National Public Radio (NPR)’s Asma Khalid provided a news report on Dr. Farhat Hashmi and her religious schools of Al Huda International Welfare Foundation (“Al Huda”) in Pakistan, entitled “Religious Schools Court Wealthy Women In Pakistan.” In the report, Asma Khalid wrote that “[i]n Pakistan, wealthy women have been returning to Islam and finding comfort in Al Huda, a new network of religious schools. The students insist the faith they are studying is peaceful and tolerant. But critics hear echoes of Taliban ideology in what the schools preach.”

Faiza Mushtaq was interviewed by Asma Khalid for her review of the “Al Huda” phenomenon, which she was writing about for a paper at Northwestern University stating: “These women come to Al Huda, spend a year or two years getting a diploma. And then these women go back to their hometowns or to their own neighborhoods, use the same sort of education materials, the course plans, Farhat Hashmi’s lecture tapes, and start offering a diploma course of their own.”

Asma Khalid reported that there were 200 branches of the “Al Huda” school, and stated at one such school “Here, like all of the Al Huda branches, the focus is the Quran. Students learn line-by-line translations and analysis. They learn about the importance of mercy and forgiveness -nothing political and nothing violent. It’s a stark contrast from the extremist rhetoric taught in some schools.” Asma Khalid continued that the Al Huda movement was a social movement ” a movement in the sense that it goes beyond individual transformation, ultimately has a vision of what it wants a Pakistani society to look like.”

Asma Khalid stated that “That scares some people in Pakistan, like Nadeem Paracha. He’s a columnist for the popular English-language newspaper Dawn. He says Farhat Hashmi may use gentle words but deep down, she’s an extremist. Her orthodoxy echoes the Taliban’s vision for Pakistan.”

Al Huda leader Dr. Farhat Hashmi provides her own web site of lectures and commentary. Dr. Farhat Hashmi was listed by the The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center of Jordan as one of the “World’s 500 most Influential Muslims in 2012.”

In the NPR report by Asma Khalid, Dawn Newspaper columnist Mr. Nadeem Parcha told Ms. Khalid that regarding the Al Huda movement that “I don’t care about if they call themselves soft Muslims or whatever. They are playing an equally destructive role. If the Taliban are playing a destructive role in a political manner, then these preachers are playing a very destructive role in a culturally and social manner.” NPR’s Asma Khalid concluded that Dr. Farhat Hashmi “insists that she preaches tolerance, not tyranny. But not everyone believes her. Hashmi’s classes exist in a climate of religious anxiety here in Pakistan. It’s a place where suicide bombers are ripping through markets in the name of Islam. And it’s a place where born-again, bourgeois Muslims are muddling the very idea of what it means to be a modern woman.”

Wikipedia reports that Dr. Farhat Hashmi “was formerly a lecturer and assistant professor at the Faculty of Usul-al-Din at International Islamic University, Islamabad.” In the report, it also quotes a report from the Pakistan Daily Times which stated “During a sermon when asked by a woman what a wife should do if her husband was unwilling to help her destitute parents, Hashmi promptly quoted An-Nisa, 34 (Chapter Al Nisa, verse 34) of the Quran, arguing that the wife should comply with her husband’s wishes, ‘no matter what, as he was her divinely appointed imam.'”

Four months after the NPR report on Al Huda, on August 19, 2010, Muslim Link Paper wrote a rebuttal to the NPR article, stating : “Area Muslim women responded to recent allegations that a famous female Islamic lecturer was promoting extremism, calling the media reports baseless. Dr. Farhat Hashmi’s Al-Huda International Welfare Foundation, an Islamic, educational institute that gives to the needy and also provides Islamic learning to women of all ages around the world through online lectures, was accused of promoting an ‘orthodoxy’ that ‘echoes the Taliban’s vision for Pakistan’ in an April 5, 2010 National Public Radio (NPR) segment. ‘I don’t see how those allegations could fit’, said Samiyah Mustafa from Rockville, 18, in an interview with the Muslim Link. She took an Al-Huda International Foundation course in January 2009 and finished it one month ago… The ‘sorority of Al-Huda’, as one sister in Saudi Arabia puts it, were dismayed to hear the institute being accused of breeding terrorism. ”

The Muslim Link article also drew some angry responses from commenters who stated they were Muslim women, who disagreed with and objected to Dr. Farhat Hashmi’s Al Huda campaign.

Tehmina Murtaza commented: “Farhat Hashmi has turned religion into a business. Women need to get educated and contribute towards science and math and business etc and not just dedicate their lives to propagating the ulhuda\’s version of religion. It is possible to be both a good Muslim and contribute to society. ”

Seema Kurd commented: “She should put more emphasis on teaching men how to respect women. This way misery in many muslim countries for women will end. Many muslim countries treat women like trash. There are forced marriages, honor killings, female children are being killed before they are born. Why can’t Ms, Hashmi see that. Thousands and thousands of women are being slaughtered every day in so call muslim countries. She should promote education for women and help poor women by giving them sholarships. A burka, veil, hijab, or abaya does not protect women. We should strongly teach young boys to respect females from an early age, so they should not look at other women as sex objects. I totally dislike her teachings. We all should be taught arabic in schools so we are able to read and understand Quran. No one can tell fellow muslims what the Quran says, s/he should be able to read and understand it. We women should not regards men as Gods. In Islam men and women are equal, and they should work together to bring up a family and respect each others friends, relatives, and parents.” (Quoted without editorial changes.)

In 2003, the Pakistan Daily Times also reported a letter from a Yasser Latif Hamdani who was concerned about broadcasts of Dr. Farhat Hashmi’s lectures in India: “To the horror of every right thinking Pakistani, ARY has started broadcasting the self-styled Islamic scholar Dr Farhat Hashmi’s lectures. Not only is she misleading the young women of Pakistan by preaching a puritan and narrow interpretation of Islam, her lectures are now being aired directly into India where Pakistan is already seen as a close-minded extremist nation. Dr Farhat Hashmi’s interpretation of Islam is very retrogressive, which is in stark contrast to the dynamic nature of the Islamic faith. For example, the topic of discussion at one of her recent lectures aired by ARY was ‘The status of laughing in Islam’. She all but declared laughing to be completely haraam and a major sin. According to her, the time spent laughing and being happy, would be better spent remembering Allah. Is Islam really as stifling as Dr Hashmi makes it out to be? Dr Farhat Hashmi and others like her represent a disturbing trend and may have an adverse impact on the women’s movement in Pakistan. Women in Pakistan have always stood up for their rights despite all odds, and fought off the bigotry of fanatical religious leaders. Now they are being betrayed by one of their own kind, who has capitulated and joined the ranks of those who wish to uphold the conservative and stifling set-up of a patriarchal society.”

A Pakistan blog of the “Critical Supporters of Pakistan People’s Party’ (CSPPP)” provided a more critical view of Dr. Farhat Hashmi, making the allegation that Farhat Hashmi’s teachings were bringing women “into the Saudi-Wahhabi cult.”

The Pakistan Friday Times has provided a report by the Director at the South Asia Free Media Association, Khaled Ahmed, titled “A decade of millennial change,” where he expressed concern about growing extremism in Pakistan. Khaled Ahmed wrote: “The tragedy of 9/11 was reinterpreted and even rich women of Pakistan following the Al Huda movement of Farhat Hashmi heard from her that Osama was a ‘soldier of Islam’ and took it to heart. There was some English-Urdu divide but no one was willing to own the part Pakistan had played in providing Al Qaeda its launching pad of global terrorism in Pakistan.”

Khaled Ahmed has also made this same claim in the Pakistan Tribune: “India’s Zakir Naik and Pakistan’s lady proselytiser Farhat Hashmi, have called Osama bin Laden a soldier of Islam.” (I have found no confirmation for such a statement written in English from Farhat Hashmi.)

Khaled Ahmed, wrote in an article for the Pakistan Tribune, the “Daughters of Al Huda,” that “[w]e are wrong to look for terrorist tracts in the madrassa. The suicide bomber is not made through syllabi but through isolation from society. When we wish to produce a normal citizen we begin by socialising the child. Anyone withdrawing from society by rejecting its norms is ripe for the plucking by the terrorists. The residential madrassa does that. In Islamabad, a number of female ‘dars’ groups are busy doing that in varying degrees.” “Al Huda ladies wear hijab and abaya and are found in the big cities. They are usually well-heeled, using the group-isolating dars activity to reinvent personal identity through ‘discovery’ of Islam. Al Huda was founded in 1994 by Farhat Hashmi and husband Idrees Zubair, both PhDs from Scotland’s famous centre of Islamic learning, the University of Glasgow. Farhat, from Sargodha, where her parents were both members of Islami Jamiat Tulaba, is steeped in the ‘dars’ of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Maulana Maududi’s thought.”

Khaled Ahmed referenced a book by Ms. Sadaf Ahmad, an assistant professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Lahore, entitled, Transforming Faith: The story of Al Huda and Islamic Revivalism among Urban Pakistani Women (Syracuse University Press 2009), which studies the Al-Huda movement. The book describes its focus as “In Transforming Faith, Sadaf Ahmad deftly explores how Al-Huda is fostering a new generation of educated, urban, middle-class women to become veiled conservatives. She offers an engrossing and sensitive account of how the school’s aggressive recruiting methods through informal religious study groups and a one-year degree program combined with the school’s techniques of persuasive teaching methods have turned Al-Huda into a social movement.”

Khaled Ahmed reported from this book that “Al Huda ladies began to alarm with their rejection of society. Some orthodox Muslims began to ask questions. The author found Al Huda graduates to be ‘very intolerant and judgmental toward people who were different from them’ (p 193). Mr. Ahmed also reported “The Canadians are probably worried because Farhat thinks Osama bin Laden is an Islamic warrior.” In his review of Ms. Sadaf Ahmad’s book on Al Huda, he stated that the “author opines: ‘They react strongly to her statements, such as her claim that the 80,000 Pakistanis who died in the 2005 earthquake did so because they were involved in immoral activities and had left the path of Islam, and fear that her brand of extremist Islam will further marginalise their Muslim communities within the country’ (p 196).”

In 2005, the Pakistan Daily Times also reported: “Farhat Hashmi, the controversial Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist, says those who died in the October 8 Pakistan earthquake were punished by God for their ‘immoral activities’.”

Farhat Hashmi began her Western operations in 2004, with a sponsorship in Canada, out of Toronto. In 2005, the Pakistan Daily Times reported that: “A Pakistani who sees Dr Hashmi’s arrival in Canada as ‘bad news’ for the community, told Daily Times that she has been in the country now for close to a year and in 2004, she and her husband ran Quran ‘courses’ in a mosque run by the Islamic Circle of North America (ISNA), a nationwide conservative group with close ties to the Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan and similar ideologically motivated groups elsewhere.”

In June 2006, after twelve Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were arrested in a significant terrorist bomb plot in Canada, the Pakistan Daily Times reported with concern about the growth of Dr. Farhat Hashmi’s schools in the West, in this case in Canada. The Pakistan Daily Times stated: “Pakistan needs to worry too because of the image its Islamists are giving it. Pakistan’s ‘rich man’s preacher” Farhat Hashmi, after making a lot of money off the penitent upper crust, has landed in Canada and bought property for her big Islamic institution. The school is the latest extension of Al-Huda International which Dr Hashmi founded in Pakistan in 1994 after graduating with a PhD in Islamic studies from the University of Glasgow. The school now counts more than 10,000 graduates and she has offered lectures to women in Dubai and London. She has moved to Toronto with her husband and family ‘in response to demand from young women in the city to gain a deeper understanding of Islam’. For a nominal fee of $60 a month, students attend classes four days a week for five hours a day. The moderate Muslims of Canada call her Wahhabi because of her unbending doctrines. ‘Hardline’ political Islam has been leveraged in Canada with Saudi-Wahhabi funds. A 2004 study found that millions of dollars were funnelled to extremist Islamic institutions. It said Saudi Arabia spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fund 210 Islamic centres and 1,359 mosques around the world, including in Canada. It cited an official Saudi report in 2002 that stated ‘King Fahd donated $5 million for the cost of an Islamic Centre in Toronto, Canada, in addition to $1.5 million annually to run the facility.’ The Saudi factor has since faded away but the ‘zone of contact’ of Pakistanis with their Arab brethren remains the mosque, facilitated by the English language, not available as effectively in the Arab world where a large number of expatriate Pakistanis live.”

In 2006, the Pakistan Daily Times also reported that “Farhat Hashmi, founder of the ultra-conservative Al-Huda centres, who moved to Canada nearly two years ago with her family has been told by Canadian immigration officials to leave the country but so far has failed to do so.” The Pakistan Daily Times reported that “Hashmi is operating classes attended by upscale, generally idle and mostly affluent Pakistani women and impressionable teenagers. Her reactionary teachings, which many see as bordering on retrogressive interpretations of Islam, have set a challenge to liberal sections in the Muslim Canadian community in Toronto, which is already trying to cope with increasing difficulties triggered by the recent arrest of 17 youngsters, almost all Pakistanis, on terrorism charges.”
No additional information has been available on her immigration issues with Canada, although it appears she is still living in Canada. She was to work for Islamic Society of North America Canada (ISNA Canada), but reportedly ISNA could not afford her salary.

A report in January 2011 by the Toronto Star stated that an audit of ISNA Canada identified mismanagement of $600,000 in donations, and indicated that funds designated for the poor were not reaching them. The Toronto Star reported: “Devout Muslims donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of Canada’s largest Islamic organizations on the promise that the cash would be used to help the poor. But only one in four dollars donated to a special pool of money at the Islamic Society of North America Canada (ISNA Canada) actually reached the needy.” The Toronto Star reported: “The organization had a world-renowned Islamic scholar on its payroll, despite her not actually working for ISNA, in a bid to help her immigrate to Canada, the audit revealed. Farhat Hashmi had been invited to come from Pakistan to deliver lectures several times throughout the mid-2000s. ‘This is a serious violation of the (Canadian Revenue Agency) rules and immigration rules to hire someone just in the books to help get through immigration,’ the auditor’s report said.”

But there has been no impact on Al Huda’s operations or growth in Canada, Pakistan, or the west.

The Pakistan Daily Times has remained concerned about the influence of Al Huda, however, and reported that: the “wave of fundamentalist thinking among largely middle class Canadian Muslims has received a fillip from Al-Huda founder Dr Farhat Hashmi who recently immigrated to Toronto. According to Farzana Hassan, a Toronto-based freelance writer, ‘As if the conservative push to uphold faith-based arbitration in Ontario was not enough of a blow to progress in Canada, another version of Muslim fundamentalism has recently begun to consolidate its foothold on Canadian soil, particularly in the greater Toronto area. Although Dr Farhat Hashmi is a well-known theologian with a doctorate from the University of Glasgow, she epitomises hard-core, doctrinaire orthodoxy – a worldview which appears to be gaining strength as a result of ambitious funding from certain quasi-governmental organisations in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.'”

The Pakistan Daily Times report also quotes comments from Farzana Hassan, “[a]ccording to Ms Hassan, writing in the California-based outlet, Islam Today, Dr. Hashmi has come to wield “tremendous influence on the hearts, minds and souls of South Asian Muslim women, some of whom come from avowedly secular backgrounds.” The newest Canadian venture of Dr. Hashmi’s Al-Huda foundation involves the launch of a one-year diploma programme, aimed at producing female Muslim role models as ‘paragons of virtue and piety in every respect.’ Ms Hassan argues that this translates into ‘utter subservience, bigotry and ignorance,’ as those ‘trapped within such a programmed and brainwashed mentality refuse to recognise oppression to begin with, and if perchance they do, they justify it, citing examples of ‘inherent’ gender differences and ‘male superiority.'”

Raheel Raza, writing in American Thinker on November 8, 2008, stated that “In Mississauga, Ontario, a woman by the name of Farhat Hashmi runs an Islamic school for girls. Hashmi wears a full niqab (face covering) and encourages young girls to emulate her. She is known for promoting a very conservative Islamic ideology that is based on Wahhabism. She, like other Islamists is in favor of Sharia in Canada.”

The Shia Public Affairs Council (SHIAPAC), which seeks to protect persecuted Shia / Shiite Muslims, has expressed concern about perceived radical Pakistan clerics in the West “converting peaceful Sunni Muslims to radical Deobandi and Wahhabi.” The SHIPAC references “Farhat Hashmi” among those clerics leading such radical conversions in the West.

Another Pakistan commenter criticizes the “anti-Shia poetry published by Dr Farhat Hashmi Salafi on her Facebook page has been written by notorious pro-Taliban hate cleric Taqi Usmani Deobandi in order to malign sacred Muharram rituals of Shia and Sunni Muslims.”

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As Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) noted at the beginning of this posting, the San Bernardino police are still investigating the cause of what appears to us to be a wanton terrorist attack on helpless and innocent people. As others have said, in the view of the human loss, any rationale for such a tragedy seems less consequential. However, as R.E.A.L. would do with any known and/or suspected extremist attack, we believe it is the obligation of those committed to standards of human equality, human rights, and human dignity to identify and challenge extremist views from any source: by gender, by race, by nationality, by identity group, by religion, when the safety and security of our human rights, and our most precious human right of life, is threatened.

We urge the supporters of Al Huda to accept the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) without qualification and exception, and to speak out on the attack in San Bernardino, and if they reject extremist views to make such rejection publicly very clear. There are clearly many concerns, much of which come from other Muslims, other Muslim women, people of Pakistani origin, and others, too many to simply ignore.