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A Pakistani-Canadian man wanted for leading a mob attack on a Mosque in Pakistan has found refuge in Canada.
In December 2016, Rasheed Ahmed, a dual citizen of Pakistan and Canada led a 3000-strong mob which attacked a historic Mosque in the town of Dulmial, northern Pakistan. The Mosque which dates back to 1860 has been at the center of a property dispute between Ahmadis and Sunnis. In 1996 the local Sunnis claimed ownership of the Mosque, a claim which was subsequently dismissed by the court.
Rasheed who is in his early 80’s and has lived in Canada for over 40 years traveled to Pakistan from his home in Missausaga and revived the decade-old campaign to grab hold of the Mosque property. Rasheed along with local clerics also filed an application with the Police requesting assistance in the “take over” of the Mosque.
An application filed with the local Police department by Rasheed and dozen other clerics stated:
“The Qadianis (Ahmadis) are using the Mosque as their worship place which is illegal under the law, We request that you free the Mosque from the Infidels and save Muslim interests by saving the Mosque from these Infidels, If these steps are not taken we will be forced to take extreme measures in order to liberate this Mosque”
The Ahmadis are followers of the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam which is considered heretic by mainstream Muslims. In 1974 Pakistan amended the constitution to declare the Ahmadis “non-Muslims”.
On December 12, 2016, a mob of roughly 3000 armed with automatic weapons and led by Rasheed attacked the Mosque leaving two dead and a half-dozen injured. During the attack which lasted several hours, the Police stood by as the mob ransacked the Mosque and set fire to property. The violent episode came to an end after the Army was called in and imposed a curfew in the town.
On January 15th, Dawn News reported that Rasheed had managed to flee the country before his name could be added to the Exit Control List (ECL).
While talking to Stewart Bell of National Post, Rasheed acknowledged that he was wanted for “terrorism” in Pakistan and said that in addition to terrorism charges police had also charged him with 10 to 12 more crimes.
Describing the events of December attack, Rasheed said, Fearing arrest, he phoned the Canadian high commission for help but it was closed. He went on to say:
Luckily I escaped, Thank God. It’s all work of God, I believe, because had I been caught it would have been not good for my health at all.
Rasheed said upon his return to Canada, he was questioned by Canadian authorities but “they were satisfied and said that I can go.” He claimed the Canadian Intelligence also cleared him of any wrongdoing:
“CSIS (the Canadian Security Intelligence Service) came and asked me questions and they said, ‘Okay, no problem.’”
Since the attack, Pakistan has arrested up to 80 people involved in the attack and more are being looked for, But Rasheed has managed to escape prosecution as there is no extradition treaty between Canada and Pakistan.
President Obama visits the the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Feb. 3, 2016
President Obama, a self-professed Christian, visited an Islamic mosque with ties to terrorism on Wednesday.
“Muslim-Americans keep us safe,” Obama said while speaking at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Maryland, which is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA. “They are our police. They are our firefighters. They’re in [the Department of] Homeland Security.”
Obama’s speech was his first at a U.S. mosque during his tenure in the White House. Leaders of the 47-year-old building are known for using vehement anti-Israel rhetoric. Terrorism expert Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism told WND on Sunday that Obama was informed of the building’s links to radical politics and terror, but he agreed to the event anyway.
“They prepared memos for the president’s aides that specifically laid out the sordid history and nexus to terrorism of the Islamic Society of Baltimore,” Emerson, the founder and director of IPT, said. “As he has done so many times in the past, he decided to ignore this evidence and still continue his plans to confer legitimacy on a mosque that has a history of having officials connected to Islamic terrorism and to this day still has officials making outrageously pro-terrorist statements that would seem to conflict with the president’s policies.”
Emerson said the mosque’s relationship with ISNA is a red flag. The organization was started by members of the international Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s.
The president went on to tell attendees at Wednesday’s event that “Islam has always been part of America,” because it was practiced by slaves.
“The very word Islam comes from ‘Salam’ – peace,” Obama said. “The standard greeting is ‘As-Salaam-Alaikum’ – ‘Peace be upon you.'” Like so many faiths, Islam is rooted in a commitment to compassion and mercy and justice and charity.”
Obama and his surrogates have consistently framed warnings by experts and political candidates on domestic terrorism as fear-mongering.
“We’ve seen an alarming willingness on the part of some Republicans to try to marginalize law-abiding, patriotic Muslim Americans,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday, CNN reported. “It’s just offensive to a lot of Americans who recognize that those kinds of cynical political tactics run directly contrary to the values that we hold dear in this country.”
Farhana Khera, the executive director of Muslim Advocates, was delighted with the president’s visit.
“The president’s trip is extremely timely. It couldn’t have come at a better time,” Khera told the network.
The president’s visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore comes just one month after Democratic U.S. Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia, Joe Crowley of New York, and Keith Ellison of Minnesota headed to the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Northern Virginia. That mosque also has ties to terrorism.
Deceased terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was an imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center and convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan also attended services there.
“We are a diverse nation of immigrants whose shared cultural heritage is one of openness and inclusion. We must celebrate this diverse thread of our cultural cloth, not tear it apart,” Beyer said before the group’s Dec. 4 event, WND reported.
The trip took place just two days after Islamic terrorists Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27, killed 14 at a social services center in San Bernardino, California.
Palestinian youth supporting the Hamas terror movement in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/FLASH90)
Western civilization is facing an onslaught of conflicting messages. On the one hand, hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees are being welcomed into countries around the world under the auspices of humanitarian aid. On the other hand, people are fearful of the spread of radical Islam and the terrorism which comes with this extremism.
Yet, Israel remains on the front page of news reports around the world. As the only democracy in the Middle East, a place where all religions are free to worship and all cultures attend its universities, Breaking Israel News sat down with David Rubin, the founder and president of the Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund and a survivor of a miraculous terror attack, to hear his views on Islam and the Biblical reasons to stand with Israel.
Terror survivor David Rubin, founder of the Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund. (Photo: Courtesy)
“I always talk about the role Israel plays in the world,” Rubin told Breaking Israel News. “Despite it being a tiny country, smaller than the size of New Jersey, it is the world leader for freedom against Islamic terror and the encroaching Islamic tsunami taking place today in Israel, the US and across all western civilizations.”
Rubin explained that the goal of Islam is to change western civilization from a Judeo-Christian way of life to one under Islamic Sharia law. “If that happens,” he continued, “freedom of press, religion, dress and speech will be done away with. Islamic Sharia law will take over which does not tolerate anything but Islam.”
Israel may be on the front lines battling terror and Islamic extremism. But, more and more countries are finding their demographic landscapes shifting dramatically. “Muslims are not only looking to destroy Israel,” noted Rubin. “Rather, they seek the end of all of western civilization and the rest of the free world as we know it.”
According to Rubin, today, people do not understand the need to stand with Israel. Rubin, who lives in Israel’s Biblical heartland, explained the Biblical reasons and practical importance of supporting the Holy Land.
Quoting God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you [Israel], and curse those who curse you,” Rubin shared, “As a religious person, I believe in God’s promises. When the US stood with Israel and didn’t force us to give up our land, America thrived. Since the Carter administration, presidents have pressed Israel to hand over land and the US has suffered the consequences.”
The word “Israel” is mentioned more than 2,300 times in the Bible, second only to the various names of God. As it says in Deuteronomy 11:12, Israel is “a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.”
“God is clearly passionate about the land of Israel and it’s people. Shouldn’t we all be?” asked Rubin.
Today, many people around the world believe that the prophecy of Isaiah 43:6 is being fulfilled: “Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth”. Millions of dispersed Jews have returned to the Holy Land and the once barren country is flourishing.
“But, terrorism has taken its toll,” noted Rubin. “It is critical for the west to defend and help those that fight terrorism. I believe that God placed Israel in the Middle East surrounded by Arab countries so that we can be a light unto the nations as it says in Isaiah 49:6, ‘I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ We have a special responsibility to lead. But, we cannot do that without support.”
Rubin points out three ways that people can stand with Israel. He stated, “First, pray for Israel’s welfare and that we should meet the challenges we face every day, as it says in Psalm 122:6, ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love You.’”
An ambulance brings a wounded soldier to the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem on October 17, 2015. The Israeli soldier was injured in a stabbing attack in Hebron, October 17, 2015. (Photo: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Second, get politically involved. Support political leaders in the free world who stand with Israel, not those who ask to withdraw from Israeli land, especially the Biblical heartland.
Thirdly, connect directly with those on the front lines. God sent Abraham specifically to this land, as it says in Genesis 12:1, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation.’
“We, on the front lines have listened to God’s command and feel that we are holding down the borders for the ultimate redemption. But, we need help, especially when it comes to supporting children traumatized by terror,” Rubin explained to Breaking Israel News. “The Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund heals trauma and restores the lost innocence of children. This is our future so that they can grow into productive, idealistic and caring adults willing to sacrifice for the Holy Land.”
Rubin ended by noting that there is a Jewish tradition that after a person passes on to the next world they receive a review of their life, “similar to the self-reflection that people do as they approach the end of the calendar year.”
“We learn from Jewish sources that when a person dies and comes before his Creator, he is asked, ‘Have I stood with God and been good to my family? Have I stood up for my country, God’s chosen people, the people of Israel and the Land of Israel?’ Don’t wait until that point. Stand and support Israel today.”
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/57122/biblical-reasons-stand-with-israel-world-combats-terrorism-jerusalem/#35MAyslp1SccfRQl.99
WASHINGTON — The woman who, with her husband, killed 14 people in San Bernardino pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a Facebook post the day of the attack, officials said Friday, and the F.B.I. announced it was treating the massacre as an act of terrorism.
“The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers, and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations,” the F.B.I. director, James Comey, said at a news conference here. But, he said: “so far we have no indication that these killers are part of an organized larger group, or form part of a cell. There’s no indication that they are part of a network.”
Tashfeen Malik’s declaration of allegiance to the Islamic State was posted on Facebook about 11 a.m. Wednesday, roughly the time of the shooting, according to people briefed on the investigation. At a news conference in San Bernardino, David Bowdich, the F.B.I. assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles office, said he was aware of the post, but would not say how much it influenced the decision to investigate the massacre as an act of terrorism, or what other information played a role in that shift.
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“There’s a number of pieces of evidence which has essentially pushed us off the cliff to say we are considering this an act of terrorism,” he said.
Even as its counterterrorism unit was overseeing the investigation, the F.B.I. previously said that terrorism was just one possibility. With the decision to call this a terrorism case, the bureau took over the investigation into the deadliest terrorist assault on American soil since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. A 2009 rampage at the Fort Hood military base killed 13.
There is no evidence that the Islamic State directed Ms. Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, to stage the attacks, law enforcement officials said. But the Facebook post has led investigators to believe that the couple, who were killed in a shootout with the police after the attack, took inspiration from the group, they said.
“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting,” one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
The Islamic State has not released an official statement on the San Bernardino attack, but the Amaq News Agency, which intelligence officials believe is run by Islamic State supporters, released a statement claiming that the killings had been carried out by “supporters of the Islamic State,” according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Islamic terrorists have used the oath of allegiance, called a bayat, to declare their loyalty to specific groups and leaders. To become a member of Al Qaeda, for instance, terrorists historically swore their devotion to Osama bin Laden.
Investigators are scouring the contents of computers, cellphones and other devices belonging to Ms. Malik and Mr. Farook, including items they attempted to destroy and files they tried to erase; investigators found two cellphones, which had been crushed, in a trash can near their home.
“We are going through a very large volume of electronic evidence,” Mr. Comey said. “This is electronic evidence that these killers tried to destroy and tried to conceal from us.”
That effort to erase the couple’s electronic footprints, and other evidence, like the 12 pipe bombs they had made and stored in their townhouse and garage, have led authorities to believe that the assault was premeditated.
Asked if the couple had been planning more attacks, Mr. Bowdich said, “it’s certainly a possibility we’re looking at.” He said the electronic devices might prove critical to revealing their motivations. “I truly believe that’s going to be the potential golden nuggets,” he said.
On Wednesday morning, law enforcement officials say, Mr. Farook and Ms. Malik walked into a conference center at Inland Regional Center, a social services center, and gunned down people at a combination training session and holiday lunch held by the county health department. Most of the victims were co-workers of Mr. Farook, who worked for the department as a health inspector.
The Facebook posting, which had been removed from the social media site, provides one of the first significant clues to the role that Ms. Malik, 27, played in the attacks.
She was born in Pakistan, and traveled on a Pakistani passport, but grew up in Saudi Arabia, according to Mustafa H. Kuko, director of the Islamic Center of Riverside, which Mr. Farook attended for a few years.
“They were living in Saudi Arabia, but they were Pakistanis,” he said. “They had been in Saudi Arabia for a long time. She grew up in the city of Jeddah.”
A person close to the Saudi government confirmed that Ms. Malik had spent time in Saudi Arabia over the years, staying with her father there, adding that Saudi intelligence agencies had no information that she had any ties to militant groups, and that she was not on any terrorism watch lists.
Ms. Malik returned to Pakistan for college, graduating in 2012 from Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan with a degree in pharmacy, according to local officials in the Layyah District of Punjab Province. They said that her family was originally from a town there, Karor Lal East, and that her father, Malik Gulzar Aulakh, moved with his family to Saudi Arabia about 20 years ago, later moving to the United States; American officials have not confirmed that. Officials in Layyah said intelligence officials visited on Friday and were looking for relatives of Ms. Malik.
Pakistani officials consider the area a center of support for extremist jihadist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba. Some of the most high-profile attacks against the Pakistani military in 2009 were led by a native of the same rural area: Umar Kundi, a medical doctor who became an operative for Al Qaeda. In addition, Multan, an ancient city in Punjab, is considered a hotbed of radicalism.
A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an continuing investigation, said security officials were looking into Ms. Malik’s time in Pakistan, as well as possible travel there by Mr. Farook.
In recent months, the F.B.I. has been particularly concerned that so-called homegrown extremists might be inspired by the Islamic State to stage attacks in the United States, law enforcement officials say. Even before theattacks in Paris last month, the agency had heavy surveillance on at least three dozen individuals who the authorities were concerned might commit violence in the group’s name.
The F.B.I. refocused its efforts on these individuals earlier this year in response to a shift in tactics by the Islamic State, law enforcement officials said. Instead of trying to persuade Americans to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State, the group began calling on its sympathizers and followers in the United States to commit acts of violence at home.
“We’ve especially focused on the portfolio of people we’re investigating for the potential of being homegrown violent extremists,” the F.B.I. director, Mr. Comey, said last month at a news conference. “That is, people consuming the propaganda. So those investigations are designed to figure out where are they on the spectrum from consuming to acting.”
“Within that group we’re trying to focus on those we think might be at the highest risk of being a copycat,” Mr. Comey said, referring to those who may try to follow the attackers in Paris. “And so we are pressing additional resources, additional focus against those. That’s the dozens.”
On Friday morning, the landlord of the building where Mr. Farook and Ms. Malik lived in Redlands, Calif., allowed journalists into the cramped townhouse near San Bernardino, which investigators had spent nearly two days scouring, leading to the rare sight of dozens of reporters and photographers trampling through what, the day before, had been a crime scene they were not even allowed to approach. Plywood was nailed over the openings where the police and F.B.I. had knocked out the doors and windows of the duplex townhouse, but the sheet of wood across the front entrance had been pried off to allow entry.
In an upstairs bedroom documents including driver’s licenses, credit cards and a Social Security card, all in the name of Mr. Farook’s mother, were strewn across a bed, while tabletops and other surfaces held more papers and books, including copies of the Quran. In the small living room, furniture shared space with a treadmill, a baby bouncer, rolled-up blankets and suitcases, and in the kitchen there was a sink full of dirty dishes and a refrigerator full of food, as if the occupants were expected back at any moment.
Mr. Bowdich dismissed any concerns about the security of the scene and any evidence it might have contained, saying the F.B.I. had completed its search. “Once we turn that location back over to the occupants of that residence, or once we board it up, anyone that goes in, that has nothing to do with us,” he said.
As investigators search for signs of a political or religious motivation for the massacre, the discovery of Ms. Malik’s Facebook posting has forced them to consider whether any radical impetus came primarily from her, rather than her husband.
Mr. Farook, 28, was a United States citizen, born in Illinois, whose parents were from Pakistan. F.B.I. officials came up with no hits when they searched agency databases for his name, according to law enforcement officials. That is significant because it meant that not only was Mr. Farook never the focus of an investigation, he was also never mentioned by anyone else interviewed by the F.B.I., even in unrelated cases.
The bureau, however, has uncovered evidence that Mr. Farook had contact with five individuals on whom the F.B.I. had previously opened investigations for possible terrorist activities, law enforcement officials said. All five inquiries was closed, and the contacts were made a few years ago, not recently, the authorities said.
One individual contacted was associated with the Shabab, the Islamist militant group in Somalia. Another was associated with the Nusra Front, the Qaeda wing in Syria. None of the other three were tied to the Islamic State or core Al Qaeda.
Mr. Comey said the F.B.I. is re-examining those contacts, but added, “I would urge you not to make too much of that.” The agency is also investigating a person, whom it has not identified, who was the original buyer of the two assault rifles used in the attack. Mr. Farook has been identified as the buyer of the two pistols the couple carried.
A cellphone Ms. Malik had with her on Wednesday had almost nothing on it — no social media apps or encrypted apps — leading investigators to suspect that it might have been a “burner phone,” meant to be used and discarded, the officials said.
Mr. Farook had posted profiles on Muslim dating websites, and apparently the couple met online. He told co-workers last year that he was traveling to Saudi Arabia to meet his bride, and both American and Saudi officials have confirmed that he spent more than a week in that country in July 2014.
Mr. Farook, was an American citizen, and he and Ms. Malik traveled to the United States together in July 2014, David Bowdich of the F.B.I. in Los Angeles said at a news conference. He said she had traveled with K-1 visa, a special visa that allows people to come to the country marry an American citizen. A couple has to marry within 90 days; after that the K-1 visa expires.
But people who knew them say they may actually have married in Saudi Arabia, before Ms. Malik ever set foot in the United States, possibly as early as 2013.
Mr. Farook applied for a permanent resident green card for Ms. Malik on Sept. 20, 2014, within the legal 90-day limit, a federal official said. She was granted a conditional green card in July 2015. As a routine matter, to obtain the green card the couple had to prove that their marriage was legitimate. Ms. Malik also had to pass criminal and national security background checks that used F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security databases.
In December 2016, Rasheed Ahmed, a dual citizen of Pakistan and Canada led a 3000-strong mob which attacked a historic Mosque in the town of Dulmial, northern Pakistan. The Mosque which dates back to 1860 has been at the center of a property dispute between Ahmadis and Sunnis. In 1996 the local Sunnis claimed ownership of the Mosque, a claim which was subsequently dismissed by the court.
On December 12, 2016, a mob of roughly 3000 armed with automatic weapons and led by Rasheed attacked the Mosque leaving two dead and a half-dozen injured. During the attack which lasted several hours, the Police stood by as the mob ransacked the Mosque and set fire to property. The violent episode came to an end after the Army was called in and imposed a curfew in the town.
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