Important Statement from NOCCC to the Community:
On the afternoon of February 13, NOCCC joined the call for a peaceful protest of ICNA’s fundraiser at the Yorba Linda Community Center. We discovered that the Imam speakers, Malik Ali and Siraj Wahhaj are terrorism activists who are known for their anti-American, anti-Semitic beliefs . These radical Imams, who are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, do not hide the fact that they support Hamas. A popular speaker with the Muslim Student Union on college campuses, Malik Ali openly promotes jihad and dying for Islam. Siraj Wahhaj, supposed co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was a character witness for the convicted blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.
While we held our peaceful, organized and informative program on the grass area, away from the building, a group of unknown, uninvited protestors gathered near the entrance to the community center to stage their own noisy protest. CAIR has taken advantage of this situation to produce an extremely edited, greatly distorted YouTube video, giving the impression that all of our invited speakers’ words were filled with rude comments and inflammatory rhetoric against all Muslims.
NOCCC stands behind our participation in the protest. We will not allow this despicable hit job and the intimidation tactics of CAIR to stifle our patriotism or diminish our resolve to educate and expose the bigotry of these and other anti-American Imams and the threat of radical, political Islam and sharia law they represent.
We have publicly denounced these badly behaved protestors. However, we have to wonder who plans and attends a fundraiser hosted by two anti-American, radical Imams in a patriotic community like Yorba Linda and then is surprised and offended when the community demonstrates its righteous outrage.
ICNA Protest Organizer Karen Lugo Responds to “Hate Comes to Orange County”
As a planner — and the emcee — of the protest of the Islamic Circle of North America’s (ICNA) fundraiser featuring radical Islamists Malik Ali and Sirhaj Wahhaj, I am very disturbed by CAIR’s representation of the gathering in Yorba Linda. The video presentation with footage and quotes selected for their sensational and hurtful value, is an intentional misrepresentation of the program that evening.
There were two groups demonstrating on February 13th and CAIR chose to only present video of the splinter group that was not invited and not welcome. The main program was in a completely different area and continued with speakers while the ICNA fundraiser began. Never did the main group dismiss and gather at the entrance to the community center.
The obvious goal of deflecting attention from our clear statements about ICNA’s extremist speakers is an obvious attempt to intimidate, discredit, and silence our efforts to expose the true nature of the Muslim fundraiser’s organizers. This will not work. We are committed to moderate Muslims and will continue to expose groups and individuals that are working against American constitutional freedoms.
Here are the facts that the CAIR video (while CAIR does not take credit for production of the video, they distributed it) did not present. The event was planned, as the flier shows, as a “peaceful and patriotic” protest. Instructions on the fliers even requested that demonstrators bring only flags, and no signs. CAIR has chosen to spotlight only the most incendiary remarks. Furthermore, not one of the protest organizers recognized anyone in the group that splintered off. We do not know who they were or who sent them.
What CAIR also does not address is why hundreds of individual Southern Californians many of whom have never protested against anything before, were out on a beautiful Sunday afternoon waving flags and listening to speakers. These people, many not affiliated with an organization, were all there to express solidarity in declaring that extremist Muslims like Malik Ali and Siraj Wahhaj are not welcome in the community.
Featured speaker, Imam Siraj Wahhaj was named as a possible co-conspirator in the to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and testified as a character witness for the convicted terror mastermind, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Imam Malik Ali frequents America’s university campuses and speaks on the theme of “the convergence of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X: we shall overcome by any means necessary.” He is known for his anti-Semitic statements and his credo or pledge including the lines, “Jihad is my spirit” and “I will die to establish Islam.” The sponsor organization, ICNA has been called a friend by the Muslim Brotherhood, is aligned with extremist organization Jamaat-e-Islami, and has been praised by the Brotherhood as an ally that could help teach American Muslims “that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands… so that… God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.” (Arabic translation via Discover the Networks) This is why community members were alarmed and joined in protest.
We applaud the members of Congress: Rep. Ed Royce and Rep. Gary Miller, as well as Mayor Nancy Rikel, for their participation. We also strongly support the efforts of Rep. Peter King to conduct hearings into why and how Islamists are being radicalized in the United States.