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The American Muslim Council in Its Own Words
Posted March 4, 2003
AMC on terrorism: "We are all
supporters of Hamas! Allahu Akhbar! ... I am also a supporter of
Hezbollah" (AMC founder Abdurahman Alamoudi, Associated Press, Jan. 9,
2002).
AMC on the United States: "I think if we were outside
this country, we can say, 'Oh, Allah, destroy America,' but once we are
here, our mission in this country is to change it. There is no way for
Muslims to be violent in America, no way. We have other means to do it.
You can be violent anywhere else but in America" (Alamoudi to Islamic
Association of Palestine, Chicago, Dec. 29, 1996).
AMC on Hamas: "Hamas is not a terrorist group. ... I
have followed the good work of Hamas. ... They have a wing that is a
violent wing. They had to resort to some kind of violence" (Alamoudi,
National Press Club, Nov. 22, 1994).
AMC on Abu Marzook, deported from the United States and now Hamas leader in Syria:
"Yes, I am honored to be a member of the committee that is defending
Musa Abu Marzook in America. This a mark of distinction on my chest.
... I have known Musa Abu Marzook before and I really consider him to
be from among the best people in the Islamic movement, Hamas -- in the
Palestinian movement in general -- and I work together with him"
(Alamoudi, Middle East TV, March 26, 1996).
AMC on Muslims and the war on terrorism: "We as Muslim
Americans are being called upon to either show patriotism or suffer
shame" (AMC Executive Director Eric Vickers, Sept. 24, 2002).
AMC on Wahhabism: "We have no more right or business
putting Wahhabism on trial for the Sept. 11 attack, as your editorial
suggests, than we do putting Christianity on trial for the Oklahoma
City bombing" (Vickers, letter to editor, Buffalo News, Sept. 26, 2002).
AMC on al-Qaeda: "They are involved in a resistance movement" (Vickers, MSNBC's Hardball With Chris Matthews, June 27, 2002 ).
AMC on President George W. Bush's closure of the Holy Land Foundation as an alleged terrorist fund-raising front: "Particularly disturbing ... unjust and counterproductive" (AMC statement, Dec. 11, 2001).
AMC on Bush's State of the Union speech and Iraq: "In
invoking God to be with American soldiers in our apparently imminent
war with Iraq, what the president did not say is that he is calling on
God to kill innocent Iraqi children" (Vickers, Jan. 29, 2003).
AMC on ridding the U.S. Muslim community of terrorists:
"As long as the war on terrorism exists, the government is not going to
cease profiling Muslims, having selective INS [Immigration and
Naturalization Service] registrations, spying on mosques and Muslims,
detaining Muslims, raiding Muslim organizations and businesses,
bringing fishing-expedition criminal indictments, etc. ... Thus I think
we have no real choice but to follow the wise example of our brother
Malcolm X and take our case to the world community. And who, I would
ask, has better stature as a mainstream organization than the AMC to
credibly present this compelling case?" (Vickers, Jan. 31).
AMC to imams on how to work with the FBI: "AMC calls
upon you to demonstrate mass criticism and activism against the new FBI
policy, which directs FBI field offices nationwide to conduct an
inventory of mosques and Muslims as part of their charge to develop
demographic profiles of their regions to combat possible terrorism"
(Vickers, memorandum to imams, Jan. 28, 2003).
AMC before Sami Al-Arian arrest:
"First let me say that when you had Mr. -- professor Arian on your show
-- you didn't grill him, you assassinated his character. You presented
him to all the world as a terrorist. And there's absolutely no evidence
of that. ... What has happened to professor Arian is happening to
Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent all over this country.
They are being discriminated against" (Vickers, on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Jan. 15, 2002).
AMC after Al-Arian arrest: "The [Muslim] community is
gaining the perception that people are rounded up and targeted because
of their political opinions and because they exercise the right to
dissent on current U.S. policy. Our community is in dire need to
understand how these charges are founded on concrete evidence of
criminal activity and not guilt by association or political
considerations" (AMC news release with the Council on American Islamic
Relations, American Muslim Alliance and Muslim Public Affairs Council,
under the American Muslim Political Coordination Council, Feb. 21,
2003).
[Go back to J. Michael Waller's story, "Undermining the War on Terror."]
-- JMW
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