Imam Muzammil Siddiqi
Head of Garden Grove Islamic Center
Past head of Islamic Society of North America
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
Imam Muzammil Siddiqi of the Garden Grove (Ca) Islamic Center is due to receive a humanitarian award from the Orange County Human Relations Commission on May 5 in Anaheim. This announcement has set off what is just beginning to be a firestorm in Orange County given Siddiqi's past associations and the fact that he hosted the notorious Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, at his mosque in December 1992 according to Steve Emerson's. Investigative Project on Terrorism. During this visit, Siddiqi reportedly allowed Rahman to give a sermon on violent jihad, which Siddiqi interpreted in real time. This incident was reported in the New Yorker magazine in an article about Adam Gadahn, the American Al Qaeda member who attended Siddiqi's mosque.
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/orange-county-human-relations.html
It would hardly be credidble that Siddiqi did not know of Rahman's reputation in 1992 since it went back to the 1970s in Egypt, from which he was expelled, eventually making his way to the US, where he went on a tour of vile speaking engagements raging against infidels in America.
Now it appears that the Blind Sheikh is not the only notorious character that Siddiqi has associated with. Intelwire.com reports that on September 9, 2011, two days before 9-11, Sidiqqi attended a benefit dinner at UC-Irvine to raise funds for Jamil al Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown,) who is serving life in prison for killing a police officer. Also attending that dinner was none other than Anwar Alwaki, an American-born terrorist imam now hiding in Yemen. Shortly prior to this event, reports Intelwire.com, both Siddiqi and Awlaki had just spoken at a convention in Chicago of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), of which Siddiqi was formerly president. ISNA was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Texas Holyland Foundation Trial for money laundering through Islamic charities. ISNA has been identified as an arm of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood.
http://news.intelwire.com/2011/02/new-911-suspects-in-california-new.html
In the below link, Frontpage Magazine reported that one of the speakers that evening at UCI was the anti-Semitic, anti-American Imam Alim Musa.
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=18870
In the below link, you can watch a video of Musa's talk at UC-Irvine (Investigative Project on Terrorism).
http://www.investigativeproject.org/236/musa-defends-cop-killer-threatens-us
Was Imam Siddiqi sitting there in that audience that night, as Intelwire.com reports?
To be sure, Siddiqi has his admirers in America in high places. He is a learned man with all the requisite certificates and degrees. He has been accepted as a moderate into the halls of government including a meeting with President Bush in the days after 9-11. Personally, he is urbane and soft-spoken. A couple of years back, I happened to meet him at Chapman University during an interfaith meeting. (Siddiqi is on the faculty at Chapman.) In his talk, he stressed the common origins of the three Abrahamaic faiths and told of how Jews and Muslims lived together in the Middle East in peace for centuries. Yet, in my view, he failed to address challenging questions about what is going on today in the Muslim world.
Of course, Muzammil Siddiqi may have an explanation for all this, and when you attend large gatherings, it doesn't mean you are close to everybody else present or even know them. Yet, it seems there is a certain pattern here with Mr Siddiqi. The Orange County Human Relations Department is sticking by its decision to honor Siddiqi. That is hardly surprising given the politically-correct nature of this group. Yet, it seems reasonable to me that before the OCHRC goes through with this humanitarian award, Imam Siddiqi should address these issues openly and publicly.
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