American Jews Who Support Shariah Imperil Us All

by Jerry Gordon (April 2012)

Florida CAIR director, Hasan Shibly, as a Shariah victory. It was not.

caught on video promoting the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) false talking points that the measure violated freedom of worship provisions of both the state and US Constitutions by barring Jewish Halacha and Bet din court rulings. Incoming Florida legislative leadership contacted by the author during the 2012 ALAC legislative battle indicated support for measure’s re-introduction in next year’s session.

Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), announced on March 5^th, a national program “to promote religious freedom and combat Islamophobia.” The ICNA press release noted the scope of this Shariah promotional campaign:

According to sources involved with the Florida ALAC legislation the bogus arguments of CAIR, the UVA and ADL were not recognized in the 2012 legislative debates over adoption of ALAC.

National Conference on Jewish Affairs (NCJA) issued a press release calling for the resignation of long term ADL national director, Abe Foxman. The ADL involvement in future legislative deliberations of ALAC in Florida and other states should be sidelined given ADL’s mistaken views which emboldened CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood groups opposing the legislation. There is also disturbing evidence that Catholic University law Professor Marshall Breger, the  Vice Chairman of the Jewish Policy Council (JPC) of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) has become a prominent figure emboldening Muslim Brotherhood objections to the ALAC legislation.

This article delves into why Jewish defense groups and alleged conservative Republican Jewish figures have made common cause with Muslim Brotherhood front groups in opposition to the ALAC legislation. Legislation that seeks to protect all Americans against the possible recognition of Shariah law in our courts that could supplant bedrock Judeo-Christian values, the core of the US Constitution and the law of this land.

The Shariah victory that failed in Florida

controversial decision by a Florida Circuit Court of Appeal in Tampa wherein a Judge ordered Muslim complainants to follow foreign law in a community dispute.

The stated objective of Florida SB 1360 was:

This important measure would have barred application of foreign laws from Islamic countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The Florida version of the American Law for American Courts (ALAC) was based in part on the model law developed for the American Public Policy Alliance (APPA) by David Yerushalmi, Esq. The ALAC model has been enacted in several states: Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Ahmed Bedier of (UVA) labeled the legislation as hateful to Muslims and in violation of constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship. He was particularly outraged by the sponsor of SB1360, Sen. Alan Hays, who passed copies of an anti-Shariah booklet to fellow members stating that it was a threat to the US Constitution.

, “Religious Leaders condemn anti-Shariah bill”:

David Yerushalmi, Esq., author of the ALAC model law commented on the failure of SB1360 to be called up for a previously calendared vote:

This is a great success not only for the Muslim community, but for all Americans who believe in the constitutional protections of freedom of religion.

Among those interfaith supporters who opposed the bill was the ADL.

The Florida regional executive director of the ADL, Andrew Rosenkranz, a few days before the scheduled vote on SB 1360, weighed in with the novel argument that the legislation would bar Bet Din, Jewish rabbinic courts in matters of domestic relations important to observant Jews. In a March 7^th press release, Rosenkranz of the ADL said:

Rabbi Jon Housman, knowledgeable about the differences between Jewish Halacha and Shariah, disagreed with the ADL stance. He noted that:

No jurisdiction recognizes the efficacy of a Get to dissolve a marriage, legal dissolution of which is controlled by State statute in every State and Territory of the US.

The United West (TUW)  captured on video Ahmed Bedier of the UVA  extolling the ADL talking points in opposition to the Florida ALAC legislation. Watch Bedier in this TUW You Tube video:

Note the comments of someone involved in the Florida ALAC legislative battle:

The ADL should be lambasted for their opposition to 1360 because they were dishonest in their objections.

The Southern Palm Beach County Jewish Community Relations Council may also have been complicit. Sources indicate that the group may have underwritten ADL travel and related expenses for lobbying in Tallahassee during the legislative session.

Nevertheless, the ADL engaged in a disinformation campaign against the ALAC legislation that was bogus. Tom Trento of TUW believes that this UVA/Bedier investigative video should be used in a national campaign combating ADL and Muslim Brotherhood lobbying against other state ALAC legislation.

Bedier flew back to his native Egypt to broadcast from Tahrir Square in Cairo. He broadcast Sheik Yusuf al Qaradawi, the 85 year old Muslim Brotherhood chaplain and television personality, espousing the re-conquest of Jerusalem and tearing up of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Interfaith Coalition on Mosques (ICOM) in 2010 in the wake of the Ground Zero Mosque protests in Manhattan. The ICOM filed an amicus brief in the controversial hearings held by the Rutherford County Chancery Court into the expansion of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tennessee (ICM).  The ADL trumpeted protection for such mega-mosque projects under the Religious Land Use and Institutional Persons Act of 2000. Note the bizarre comment of the ADL Civil Rights representative as regards the revelations by Steven Emerson of The Investigative Project on Terrorism and others. Emerson found active support for Hamas, a State Department designated foreign terrorist group, on a member of the ICM board’s MySpace Page.

CM board member, Mosaad Rawash who supported the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas were “irrelevant.”

There is irony in the alliance between the Muslim Brotherhood and the ADL in undermining the constructive Florida ALAC legislation. The Jewish defense group is betraying the State of Israel by allying itself with CAIR, a Muslim Brotherhood front that was founded as an affiliate of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.

Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) have uncovered ADL involvement with Islamic extremists in Detroit.

Then there is the matter of Florida CAIR director Hassan Shibly whose track record in Buffalo, uncovered by Feoktistov, Rachel Lipsky and Ryan Mauro who built an effective dossier, should have alerted the ADL to its dangerous alliance with CAIR.

Feoktistov noted this:

The ADL is effectively partnering with [Shibly] who hates Israel, thinks that Jews and Christians are steeped in heresy.

He pointed out a Shibly Facebook post in February 2009 that should have jarred Foxman, a Holocaust survivor:

The NCJA suggests that Foxman of the ADL resign

In a news release, the NCJA said:

The NCJA news release went on to note:

ADL lobbying supports the agenda of CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in the [2008 Federal Dallas] Holy Land terror funding trial.

Enter Conservative Republican ALAC Critic Professor Marshall Breger

While Foxman of the ADL prides himself on being a lifelong Democrat, human and civil rights liberal, there is an allegedly conservative Republican critic of the ALAC legislation and its defenders as well. Marshal J. Breger is a Professor at the Catholic University, Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC. He is an observant orthodox Jew. Breger was the Jewish outreach liaison in the Reagan White House and a valued member of the Bush I Administration as Solicitor and Assistant Secretary for Labor Standards at the US Department of Labor. He is Vice Chairman of the Jewish Policy Center (JPC) affiliated with the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC).

Washington Faith and Freedom  conference last June. In the Moment essay Breger criticizes both Yerushalmi and Rabbi Jonathan Hausman suggesting that Halacha and Shariah are compatible and not in conflict with the US Constitution. In contrast, we had earlier published Rabbi Hausman’s essay, “Halacha, Shariah and the Religious Acceptance of Constitutional Governance.” He articulates a basic Talmudic principle: “That principle is known as Dina d’malchuta Dina; the law of the country is binding and, in certain cases, is to be preferred to Jewish law/Halacha.” Hausman, in addition to his academic, legal and orthodox rabbinic training attended the American University in Cairo. He speaks and reads Arabic in addition to Hebrew and other languages. Further, he is conversant with the Qur’an, Hadith and Sunnah.

My point is not to analyze the nuances of halacha, let alone Shariah, but rather to underscore the inconsistency of attacking Islam for activities that Jewish law and practice would also permit, or even require.

[. . .]

Brigitte Gabriel, founder of Act for America, and Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy, point out in a World Tribune article that:

See the Interfaith letter of support for American Laws for American Courts.

Rabbi Aryeh Spiro, President of the Caucus for America

Father Keith Roderick, Secretary General of the Coalition for Defense of Human Rights agreed:

When it is possible to strengthen the protections of our Constitution and First Amendment protections, it seems expeditious to do so. The temptation to defer to foreign laws to resolve matters that have both civil and religious implications within the culture of the litigants risks the erosion of basic civil rights and religious rights.

Suhail Kahn, a member of the board of the sponsoring American Conservative Union. Watch the You Tube video especially the comments of Breger at this controversial session sparked by a question on Shariah: 

see here.

Imam Mohamed Magid, President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Imam Mohammed Magid, who is the son of the Grand Mufti of the Sudan, also leads the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS). Breger has participated in Interfaith Dialogues sponsored by ISNA, see Open Dialogue is Key to Peace in the “Holy Land” and in the U.S.”

Magid has had his own brush with terrorist funding.

An article in the Militant Islam Monitor noted:

The FBI and JTTF raided the ADAMS in connection with terrorism funding in 2002 during Operation Greenquest, and Magid himself is tied to a worldwide Islamist network linked to Al Qaeda.

Kahn is also a member of the Board, while Magid is Honorary Chairman of the interfaith Buxton Initiative in Washington

see here. Isi Leibler, an Israeli/ Australian international human rights advocate and frequent commentator for the Jerusalem Post has called the IPF “Jews against Zion.” Breger is a member of the US Advisory Council of the IPF. We are not sure that the views of the IPF and its US Advisory Council are in accord with those of the RJC and the JPC. The IPF has been accused of being part of the constellation of “progressive” Jewish groups on the left including J Street, Americans for Peace Now and the New Israel Fund, among others.  M.J. Rosenberg, a long time Capitol Hill aide and former IPF Washington-based Director of Policy Analysis left to join the Soros-funded Media Matters Action Network as a senior policy fellow. The Daily Caller has accused Media Matters of being linked to anti-Israel al Jazeerah.

IPF US Advisory board member, former Ambassador to Egypt, Israel, the UAE and Deputy Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Edward S. Walker, Jr. is a former President of the Middle East Institute. He was among former US diplomats, religious leaders and NGO representatives who signed a letter to President Obama condemning Israeli settlements in the disputed territories.

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