Florida's Mr. Nice Guy Islamic Terrorist

Izhar Khan,  iman of a Margate, Florida's mosque was arrested recently on charges of funneling money to Pakistan's Taliban.  Southern Florida's Sun Sentinel  reported before the spiritual leader could begin his Friday 6 a.m. worship service, he was arrested by federal agents and city police.

Officials report Khan was part of a larger conspiracy linked to the Pakistani terrorist group. According to the indictment against Kahn, "it was the purpose and object of the conspiracy to advance the jihad of the Pakistani Taliban against the Pakistani government and its perceived allies, including the United States, in order to displace the lawful government of Pakistan and to establish Sharia."

Kahn's mosque was stunned at the arrest of their iman.  However, the most stunning aspect of the charge against Khan was the description of their spiritual leader.

Worshipper Navin Singh, 34 stated "He's not a bad person at all, he's very good, very respectful. He's into his religion and sports and that's it." Such shocking words to describe a man who covertly sent funds to the terrorist Taliban organization.

The Taliban are known to not only have killed Pakistani supporters of their government but also conspired to kill American troops sent to Pakistan to overthrow the Taliban.  Consequently, Mr. Nice Guy was sending funds to Pakistan that were used to kill members of the U.S. military.  "He's not a bad person at all."  In my book Khan is a murderous Islamic monster; not a nice guy who is just into his religion and sports.

Another congregant described Khan as a "typical 76-year-old grandfather just preaching and teaching good values, just  'do's and don'ts' and we did not have any inclination that he had any kind of political motivations."

How do you describe a person who has been accused of supporting terrorism as a "typical grandfather" just preaching good morals? Have these people lost their minds, knowing their leader may be responsible for funding the deaths of hundreds or thousands of Muslims and Americans?  Is Islam that blinding that its adherents can no longer recognize evil?

What blind devotion to a supporter of terrorism. The members of the Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque should be hanging their heads in shame.

Thank God the Council on American-Islamic Relations suspended Izhar Khan as leader of the mosque.  CAIR announced "The Muslim community rejects and condemns terrorism . . . and any support of terrorism."

The odd part of the Sun Sentinel article, written by Linda Trischitta and Paula McMahon, is that the two journalists devoted three columns quoting congregants who had nothing but positive words to say about their arrested leader.  "He's a man of spirituality and humble, peace loving." "Whenever I came here [the mosque], he prayed and was peaceful."  The article was slanted in the direction of making Khan out to be an everyday Joe-Iman.

Kahn was not a nice guy at all. In a private conversation included in the indictment against him, the iman was described, "[Hafiz] Kahn, upon hearing that mujahedeen in Afghanistan had killed seven American soldiers, declared his wish that God bring death to 50,000 more."

Florida's Mr. Nice Guy Islamic Terrorist

Should We Be Celebrating the Death of Osama bin Laden?

Shouts of "USA! USA! USA!" rang out in the streets of midtown Manhattan and in front of the White House at the news Sunday night of the demise of top Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden. The celebrations of the killing of the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack on the U.S.A. were patriotic and victorious.

However, for the past two days radio talk shows were flooded with callers who questioned whether or not Americans should celebrate the death of bin Laden.  Several people felt the celebrants were cheering in the streets as though their favorite sports team had won a World Series or Super Bowl championship.

I reject this thoughtless comparison and question the wisdom of those who dare compare the rejoicing of over a city's baseball team to the sense of justice felt over the shooting of an enemy of America who killed thousands of our people.  Unlike several sports street celebrations, there was no rioting, destruction of property, looting or attacks on the police by those who enjoyed America's victory over Al-Qaeda's evil leader.

Many callers felt those who rejoiced over the Al-Qaeda leader's death were no different than our enemies who danced in the streets when New York's Twin Towers fell on 9/11.  In fact, the opinion voiced by many stated we should never celebrate the death of anyone. Rather, the demise of a person is always a time of sadness. All deaths are equal.

I find nothing distasteful at the sight of Americans rejoicing over the news of Osama bin Laden's death. Yet I find a lot to take offense at by callers who felt Americans should not rejoice over the death of a noted enemy of America.

First, the celebration over the death of Osama bin Laden marked the triumph of good over evil.  Osama bin Laden plotted with his Al-Qaeda goons to kill as many American citizens as possible, including Muslims.  In several videos bin Laden gladly took responsibility for masterminding the 9/11 massacre.  For the families who lost loved ones in the toppling of the Twin Towers, the United Airlines Flight 93 disaster and the attack on the Pentagon, they were given a sense of righteous revenge knowing bin Laden faced justice.

Second, the celebration of the death of Osama bin Laden is a normal reaction to the downfall of  a wicked leader.  Though I was not alive when the news came across the wires that Adolph Hitler was dead, I can imagine the celebration by "America's greatest generation" over the death of this maniacal dictator.

I rejoiced when Saddam Hussein, the murderer of hundreds of thousands of his own Iraqi people, was hung for his heinous crimes.  In the Book of Esther chapter 9:16-18 describes how the people of Israel created the Feast of Esther or Purim to celebrate the death of Haman, a Persian official who plotted the destruction of the Jewish people in Persia.  In addition to Haman's death, the Jewish people also killed 75,000 inhabitants of Persia who were seeking to destroy the Jewish population.  Esther 9:19 describes how the Jewish people set aside the fourteen day of the month of Adar as a "day for gladness and feasting."

Third, the celebration over the death of Osama bin Laden demonstrates that all deaths are not the same.  When a loved one dies, we are saddened by their passing.  However, when Osama bin Laden was shot in the face and in the chest, I was not saddened for his wives nor the bin Laden family.  I saw his death as just dessert for a man who dedicated himself to terrorist activities and devoted his talents to the destruction of others. Proverbs 11:10 instructs us that "When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness."

If a person struggles over the ability to feel of sense of justice when an evil man is executed, that individual has lost their moral compass.

I remember as a young child watching the hanging of Nazi killer Adolph Eichmann, and how proud I was of the Israelis for tracking down this monster, putting him on trial and then executing him for the genocide of hundreds of thousands of Jewish people.  As a young child I had a sense of justice and have refused to allow our  morally softening culture from taking that quality from me.

I'm sad to say that many of the callers protesting the celebration of the death of bin Laden over the radio were men.  I would call them men who have lost their moral spine - men who most likely would not serve in the military due to their refusal to see the necessity of war to protect and preserve the freedom of our country.

I often wonder if these same men would've refused to fight Hitler's Nazi Germany were they alive during World War II.  No wonder the Marines' slogan say, "We're looking for a few good men."

Should We Be Celebrating the Death of Osama bin Laden?

Journalist Lara Logan Blows Whistle on Sexual Assault by Cairo Muslim Crowd

We can no longer remain silent about the abuse of women by Islamic men in the Middle East.  Under Islamic law right now women are oppressed, denied human rights, treated as property, false accused of crimes and sexually abused.

After a period of silence female journal Lara Logan shared her horror story on "60 Minutes" Sunday night.  While Islamic men rejoiced in Cairo's Tahrir Square at falling of Hosni Mubarak's Egyptian despotic regime, a mob surrounded the journalist and raped her with their hands and literally tore her body apart.

Logan is using her story to bring awareness to the sexual mistreatment of female journalists in the Middle East.  Logan must also realize the mistreatment of females by extremist Islamic men is not solely directed at female journalists but women in general. Let us not forget how women protesting the facade of Iran's President Ahmadinejad "election" to office were beaten in the streets of Tehran by the leader's forces.

In Cyrus Nowrasteh's film The Stoning of Soraya M  the film exposes the account of  the abuse of one woman in Iran who was falsely accused of a crime leading to capital punishment by stoning to death.

It's too bad that most  U.S. women's rights groups are so focused on abortion and equal rights in the work place that they are virtually silent at the mistreatment of women around the world, especially in extremist Islamic countries.

Even when Muslim's scholars are quizzed about the Koran's support of husbands beating their wives, the answers are often confusing and circuitous.

To keep readers aware of the mistreatment of women in the Middle East, here is a reproduction of Lara Logan's harrowing experience captured by Melissa Maerz in a Los Angeles Times article.

Breaking a months-long silence, CBS war correspondent Lara Logan talked to "60 Minutes" on Sunday night about what really happened to her in Cairo's Tahrir Square. On the night of Feb. 11, as the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak was falling, Logan joined the more than 100,000 people celebrating in the square, where she says a mob turned on her and sexually assaulted her.

"Suddenly, before I even know what's happening, I feel hands grabbing my breasts, grabbing my crotch, grabbing me from behind," she told Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes."

Things quickly spiraled out of control. "I think my shirt, my sweater was torn off completely," she said. "My shirt was around my neck. I felt the moment that my bra tore. ... And I felt them tear out, they literally just tore my pants to shreds. ... I didn't even know that they were beating me with flagpoles and sticks and things, because I couldn't even feel that. Because I think of the sexual assault, was all I could feel, was their hands raping me over and over and over again. ... They were tearing my body in every direction at this point, tearing my muscles. And they were trying to tear off chunks of my scalp, they had my head in different directions."

Logan said she was fighting for 25 minutes and didn't think she would live. "I was in no doubt in my mind that I was in the process of dying," she said. But thinking about her two children at home in Washington helped her focus on staying alive.

Eventually, she said, she was rescued by a woman dressed head to toe in black religious robes. "Just her eyes, I remember [I could see] just her eyes," Logan said. "She put her arms around me. And oh my God, I can't tell you what that moment was like for me. I wasn't safe yet, because the mob was still trying to get at me. But now it wasn't just about me anymore.

"It was about their women and that was what saved me, I think," she said. "The women kind of closed ranks around me."

Logan flew back to Washington, where she spent four days in a hospital as she was treated for cuts, bruises and internal tearing. She's been recovering at home with her husband and children. "I felt like I had been given a second chance that I didn't deserve," she said of her family. "I came so close to leaving them, to abandoning them."

Logan told "60 Minutes" that she was speaking out to help end the code of silence surrounding sex assaults on female journalists.

Journalist Lara Logan Blows Whistle on Sexual Assault by Cairo Muslim Crowd