Dar Assirat This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Jihad via America - 2002 investigative series documents genesis from mosques and magazine to murder - Militant Islam Monitor - Militant Islam Monitor

   www.militantislammonitor.org/a - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/2/2004   Last Visited: 7/29/2005

   Two Attawheed officers ran Assirat, and some writers for the magazine attended Attawheed's religious services.
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   Alothmany, a past board member of both Attawheed and Al Andalus, insists that each operated separately from Assirat.
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   Legal papers list Attawheed secretary Bandar Al-Mashary as chief executive of Dar Assirat for Da'wah and Media Inc., which published Assirat. Mohsen Al-Mohsen, who edited Assirat for four years, once chaired Attawheed's board - at least one year while Alothmany sat on the board.
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   His brother-in-law, Mulhim El-Tayeb, wrote for Assirat, too.
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   Attawheed members deny ties to Assirat or extremism. But Assirat's publisher and editor were officers of Attawheed; one of its writers taught at the school. The school's Web site linked to IANA and to extremist groups embracing the ideology in Assirat.
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   Assirat and its various connections reflect "one of our fundamental problems" today - the clash between constitutional rights and extremist threats, according to F. Gregory Gause III of the University of Vermont.
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   Assirat operated in Pittsburgh in relative obscurity, but it was not a few pages put together by college students between classes.
   
   It averaged 30 pages a month between glossy covers, was produced by a paid staff and printed professionally. Its goal was to be "The Voice of Islamic Awakening in the West," as it subtitled itself - but with a global reach.
   
   In its final years, Assirat printed about 3,000 copies monthly and distributed about 2,200 in the United States, according to two Pittsburgh firms that handled its printing and mailing. Other copies were mailed to Canada and overseas. Initially distributed for free, it later advertised subscription rates of $20 to $35.
   
   How it was funded is unknown, but its budget seems substantial. Printing and mailing alone cost more than $48,000 annually, and two staffers claimed to earn $24,000 to $28,000 a year.
   
   Office workers who shared a building in Scott Township with Assirat say its staff could swell to 40 young men. Those sources describe the men as aloof and apparently religious: They left their shoes in the building's hallway and washed their feet in restroom sinks - part of a devout Muslim's ritual cleansing - before praying several times daily.
   
   Promoted as "a pulpit of the truth" attracting "the best Muslim writers from all over the Muslim World," Assirat aimed its message at Muslim youths, according to its Web site.
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   Three months after Al-Mohsen graduated and returned home, Assirat stopped publishing. Neither he nor Al-Mashary could be reached for comment.
   
   Nazeeh Alothmany - who sat on Attawheed's board for at least a year while Al-Mohsen chaired it - insists Assirat had no connection to Attawheed, and no appeal for him: "It was too philosophical.
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   In its next edition, Assirat mourned the "martyrs" killed in those camps, listing the 19 dead mujahideen (holy warriors) identified by al-Qaida's office in Peshawar, Pakistan.
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   Gunaratna, author of the book "Inside Al-Qaeda," accuses Assirat of "using extremist propaganda to radicalize the Muslims in America."
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   Even fewer are as sophisticated as was Assirat, because radical publications are banned in most Arab countries and operate underground.
   
   Deeb - who stresses that her opinions are not official Library of Congress views - describes Assirat's militancy as "psychological warfare ...
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   Killing, anti-Americanism and "holy war" were long-running themes of Assirat.
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   Fresh from Bosnia's killing fields, Abdel Aziz thanked Assirat for its "interest in jihad and mujahideen" and for promoting Islam in "the land of infidelity and promiscuity."
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   Throughout its pages, Assirat accused the West and the United States of oppressing Muslims. Its October 1998 cover story, two months after the two U.S. embassy bombings, was "The International Aggression Against Muslims: The Story of the Covert War Against Muslims All Over the World."
   
   The University of Vermont's Gause says Assirat often "taps into this notion that ‘everyone is against us' that seems so pervasive" among Islamist groups.
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   Assirat is "the sort of material that converts or gives people that final push that they sometimes need to commit acts of terror," says Hisham Kassem, former head of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights.
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   The subject of "holy war" - what Imad Shahin, a specialist in Islamic movements at American University in Cairo, terms "jihadist discourse" - appeared regularly in Assirat.
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   In a 1999 article, Assirat condemned "some organizations that call themselves ‘Islamic,' but the flagrant conduct of their belief resembles the infidel."
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   In its final issue, Assirat called for "jihad against the usurping assailants who wave Zionist and Crusader-type banners, occupy the land of Muslims, shed Muslim blood and assail Muslim women and the Muslim faith.
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   Levitt, the former FBI analyst, insists Assirat is not a free-press issue because, "when you start calling for the death of certain kinds of people ...
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   Taylor believes Assirat was a "bulletin board of the Islamist presence in the United States."
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   Assirat regularly published articles about IANA; IANA's officers contributed articles to the magazine or sat on its advisory board.
   
   The relationship did not end when Assirat folded in July 2000.
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   Redouane Mohammed Azizi, a fellow Algerian and friend of Guerdjouma, wrote for Assirat in Pittsburgh as well.
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   While Assirat highlighted IANA in print, Attawheed Foundation made IANA part of its own legal set-up.
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   Azizi hedged, however, when asked about Assirat. He said he never worked for the magazine - until being reminded of an article he wrote for it.
   
   ‘DANGEROUS DIVISIONS'
   
   While denying a connection between Attawheed and Assirat, Alothmany and Attawheed board member Abdulaziz Al-Nehabi say the words of both are misinterpreted or mistranslated.
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   Some Muslims interviewed by the Trib recoiled at the ideology found in Assirat.
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   Even so, the experts consulted by the Trib are troubled by the similarities between Assirat - which they classify as extremist - and the school and the foundation.
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   Assirat regularly published articles about IANA; IANA's officers contributed articles to the magazine or sat on its advisory board.
   
   The relationship did not end when Assirat folded in July 2000.
   ...
   Redouane Mohammed Azizi, a fellow Algerian and friend of Guerdjouma, wrote for Assirat in Pittsburgh as well.
   ...
   While Assirat highlighted IANA in print, Attawheed Foundation made IANA part of its own legal set-up.