Are You Buyin' This?
me? ...not so much
Shabbir Ahmed is one of the three imams being held in the Lodi “alleged” terrorist case. [ yes, those were sneer quotes] These facts came out at his hearing this week:
Ahmed admitted giving five public speeches[in Islamabad] in which he “encouraged people to go to Afghanistan to defend Osama, to defend the Taliban and kill Americans.” [in November and December of 2001]
Ahmed was brought to Lodi in 2002 by Muhammed Adil Khan, the second imam held on immigration complaints. [under a religious visa.]
Ahmed defended himself, saying: “I simply said to try to pressure Americans to stop bombing.”
Asked repeatedly whether he had also urged Pakistanis to defend Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, Ahmed eventually said, “Being emotional, I may have said it or I may not have said it.”Nishiie asked: “Didn’t people riot after your speeches?”
Ahmed, responding in Urdu through an interpreter conceded: “Temporarily, people get excited and the spirit goes on. ... I was not the only speaker.”
IOW “Heh heh heh—you know us Arabs—we’re just excitable people. Hey - we riot if the couscous isn’t minty enough—it’s a cultural thing. C’mon - you know… We’re funny peoples, eh?”
Ahmed said he spent seven years at Jamia Farooqia, a large madrassah in Karachi founded by Adil Khan’s father, before becoming an imam in Islamabad.
...Ahmed - who said he taught at the madrassah for three years - acknowledged the school sent guerrillas to Afghanistan to wage jihad against the Russians, who occupied the country from 1979 to 1989.
But they only went to give manicures to the villagers there.
Ok—here’s the hook:
"Having come here I see human value and respect for human life - even animals are taken care of here. When I saw such a picture my mind changed.”
He said he now regrets making anti-American speeches. “Now I know what the truth is,” he said. “I think there is justice here and everyone is respected. Even though I went to jail, at no time was I disrespected or dishonored."
Not even one page flushed?!? Oh, we’re slipping, kidz.
The Lodi Muslim Mosque board of directors unanimously voted to fire Ahmed, 39, in a special session Sunday night, said Mohammed Shoaib, the mosque’s president.
Ahmed “can go someplace else, because we do not want more problems here,” Shoaib said. “We don’t want that kind of person who has spoken against the United States."
It’s a start…
As to the Ice Cream Man and his madrassah-going son?
The government claims Hamid Hayat, 22, admitted training at a Pakistani camp to learn “how to kill Americans.” Prosecutors say he initially denied, then admitted, and now denies being trained as a terrorist.
Prosecutors also claim his father at first denied, then admitted, and now denies his son’s involvment in terrorist training.
Hokay, then; one of those was a lie. Case closed.
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