Joe Kaufman, Chairman of Americans Against Hate is one courageous guy.  I had the privilege of standing beside him during an Anti-Terror Coalition press conference  organized to protest Muslim Day on the west steps of the Florida State Capitol building in Tallahasse in March.  At the time the frivolous case brought against him by the Muslim American Society (MAS) in Texas, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, was still unresolved. His  defense, although costly, was an important First Amendment matter that finally was dismissed by the Texas court, last week. 

Intrepid Dr. Paul Williams discusses the MAS-Kaufman case in this article, "Allah in Agony," on his blog, The Last Crusade.  Williams rightly calls Kaufman "one of the heroes in the fight against Radical islam."  Others who have been similarly sued by Radical Islamics that Williams cites are Rachel Ehrenfeld,  our colleague Bruce "Beowulf" Tefft, Mark Steyn, and Williams himself. To that group I would add Andy Whitehead, who forced CAIR to drop its lawsuit against him, as well as those in the American for Peace and Tolerance organization, Dr. Charles Jacobs, Prof. Dennis Hale, Sheik Ahmed Mansour and others, who caused the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) to withdraw their defamation case in 2007.  The connection between Kaufman's Texas case brought by the MAS and the ISB matter is made clear by the fact that  one of the founders of the MAS, Jamal Badawi is  also a trustee of the ISB Cultural Center formally opened last weekend in the Roxbury section of Boston.

Here is the account by Williams of this important victory for Kaufman and for all those rightly made anxious by those pushing the Stealth Jihad:

There is great elation deep in the bowels of the Last Crusade bunker this afternoon. Corks are popping in celebration of Joe Kaufman’s victory over the forces of Islamic hatred and intolerance. The lawsuit that was initiated against him by seven Muslim groups, including the Muslim American Society (MAS), was kicked out of court by the Texas Court of Appeals.

Mr. Kaufman is one of the heroes in the fight against radical Islam and the proliferation of terrorist groups and organizations throughout the country.

His legal problems arose when he led a small protest against Muslim Family Day at the Six Flags Over Texas amusement part. The event was sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a group with ties to such terrorists groups as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood of Pakistan.

At the protest, Mr. Kaufman and ten other protestors carried signs which read “Americans against Hate,” “ICNA – Bugs Bunny’s Terrorist Friends,” and “No Jihad in Our Backyard.” This activity proved to be highly unsettling for many Muslims in attendance. And Mr. Kaufman was slapped with a restraining order.

Upon returning to his office in Florida, Mr. Kaufman wrote an article about the ICNA event (which was closed to Jews and Christians) for Front Page Magazine, an on-line news publication.

The article resulted in the lawsuit from MAS and the other Muslim groups.

The case ended up in Texas Appellate Court, after the presiding judge refused to rule on whether or not Kaufman was a “media defendant” and to determine if the case should go to trial.

In their appearance before Appellate Court, members of MAS and other Islamic groups that initiated the suit admitted under that neither Kaufman nor his group had ever threatened them in any way, shape or form. The Appellate, therefore, decided that the restraining order should be lifted.

The Court also ruled that Mr. Kaufman is a “media defendant” and deserves all the rights provided to print journalists and moved to dismiss the case, on the grounds that the article written by Kaufman was not about the plaintiffs.

Despite the favorable ruling, the lawsuit took a financial toll on Mr. Kaufman.

A lesser man would be acquiesced to the Islamic demands by issuing an apology.

But Mr. Kaufman is not a journalist with weak knees and a rubber spine.

Other journalists in recent years have been sued for writing and speaking about Islamic terrorists. The list includes Mark Steyn, Rachel Ehrenfeld, Bruce Tefft, and, last but not least, Paul L. Williams.

What about the Muslim American Society (MAS), the group that initiated the suit against Mr. Kaufman? Is it a peaceful Islamic organization that fosters peace on earth and good well toward men?

We think not.

A visitor to a MAS website will be treated to the following quotes from the Koran and the Hadith:

• “The Holy Prophet (and through him the Muslims) has been reassured that he should not mind the enmity, the evil designs and the machinations of the Jews …”

 “In view of the degenerate moral condition of the Jews and the Christians, the Believers have been warned not to make them their friends and confidants.”

 “If you gain victory over the men of Jews, kill them.”

 “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.’”

 “May Allah destroy the Jews, because they used the graves of their prophets as places of worship.”

 “A Muslim must always worship Allah and wage jihad until death in order to reach his ultimate goal … Regularly make the intention to go on jihad with the ambition to die as a martyr.

In May 2005, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross reported in The Weekly Standard that MAS is a U.S. front group for the Muslim Brotherhood — a claim supported by a September 19, 2004 Chicago Tribune story. “The message that all countries should be ruled by Islamic law,” Gartenstein-Ross writes, “is echoed throughout MAS’s membership curriculum. For example, MAS requires all its adjunct members to read Fathi Yakun’s book To Be a Muslim. In that volume, Yakun spells out his expansive agenda: ‘Until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful.’”

MAS’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood were confirmed on August 14, 2007 at the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation. FBI agent Lara Burns testified that a phonebook found at the home of Ismail Elbarrasse — un-indicted co-conspirator and former assistant to HAMAS leader Musa Abu Marzook — listed the names and numbers of the Muslim Brotherhood leadership in the United States. On the first page of the phonebook under the title ‘Members of the Board of Directors’ were fifteen names. Among those names are Ahmad Elkadi, Jamal Badawi, and Omar Soubani: the founding incorporators of the Muslim American Society (MAS).”

Joe Kaufman’s victory and his courage under fire merits celebration.

But it should not serve to give true believers the assurance that the last Crusade can and will be won.

When Mr. Kaufman went to Texas to protest ICNA’s Muslim Family Day, we called Christian groups throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area to support Mr. Kaufman in his protest of Muslim Family Day. Only ten out of the thousands who had been summoned showed up to carry placards and to decry the parks exclusion of non-Muslims. The rest believed that the ICNA event which was taking place in their backyard was of no spiritual or patriotic importance.