RUTHFULLY YOURS

On Monday a federal court in Sacramento will hold an evidentiary hearing on Hamid Hayat, 35, currently serving a 24-year sentence on terrorism charges. Hayat’s legal team will attempt to vacate the 2006 conviction, with support from the northern California division of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

“We welcome the court’s decision to hear new evidence in this case and hope that Mr. Hayat will be given a fair chance to present his appeal,” said CAIR executive director Basim Elkarra in a statement. “With Mr. Hayat’s case, there are legitimate concerns that he did not receive a fair trial.”

The Muslim Legal Fund of America “began funding the expenses for this case in 2014 because representatives were deeply concerned over growing evidence that Hayat was convicted largely on the basis of his religious identity rather than any evidence of wrongdoing.” According to MLFA executive director Khalil Meek, “Hayat was essentially convicted for possessing a prayer written on paper that asked God for protection. Imagine what impact this will have on everyone’s First Amendment rights if this conviction stands.”

Hayat’s lawyer Dennis Riordan, one of the top appeal attorneys in the nation, told the MLFA, “We believe that this is the most important legal case involving Muslim interests currently in courts of this country. This motion to vacate Hayat’s conviction is currently the best vehicle for exposing the harmful effects of anti-Muslim bias in American courtrooms.” Last June, Riordan told the Intercept, “It’s going to be obvious that, not only should he have prevailed at trial, but that he’s factually innocent.”

The January 29 hearing was ordered by federal judge Deborah Barnes, a relative newcomer to California’s Eastern District bench and a veteran of the California attorney general’s office. So Hayat’s CAIR and MFLA-backed legal team had done some judge shopping and it paid off. Barnes’ June 7, 2017 order raised “serious questions concerning the competency of the defense.”

March for Justice Chairman and Muslim Brotherhood operative Nidal Sakr has been living in the United States since he escaped Egypt, in March 2014, days before he was sentenced to death for the murder of an Egyptian police officer. While in the US, Sakr has repeatedly called for President Donald Trump’s execution, something that is punishable by US law. Whether serving his Egyptian sentence or his potential US sentence for his threats, he needs to be located so that he could be brought to justice.

Nidal Mohamed Sakr was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He describes himself as “US born from Palestinian origin.” In a videotaped lecture Sakr gave, in October 2012, he claimed that his mother is Egyptian and enlisted in the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin) at an early age, carrying weapons and ammunition for the group. He stated, “Let me be very clear about this. I was born into Ikhwan, and my mother actually is from the first generation of Ikhwan.”

Around 1970, Sakr joined a Brotherhood terrorist cell in Jordan that was conducting paramilitary operations against Israel. According to Sakr, the individual who recruited him into the cell was Abdullah Azzam, the future mentor of Osama bin Laden and co-founder of al-Qaeda. Also according to Sakr, he personally knew bin Laden. He stated, “Osama bin Laden, himself, was a student of Abdullah Azzam at King Abdul Aziz University. I know him personally. I know his brothers. I know his family.”

Years later, during the Arab Spring, Sakr and his convert wife, Sara Rae Bokker, were living in Egypt. According to Bokker’s Facebook page, which is packed with morbid graphics about death, she had arrived in Egypt in December 2003 and worked at the Jana Dan International School in Cairo from 2007 to 2014, first as a kindergarten teacher and then headmistress. While in Egypt, Sakr organized rallies for the Muslim Brotherhood and advised Brotherhood leadership. He, as well, served on the International Islamic Council for Dawah and Relief in Cairo, beginning in 2007.

Following the July 2013 coup against the government of newly elected Egyptian President and Brotherhood leader, Mohamed Morsi, by then-head of Egypt’s military and current Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Brotherhood immediately became a target. On Facebook, Sakr describes an incident where he was shot at by the new government. He writes: “Can you Imagine How Horrendous to Be in the Crowd Fired At? I CAN. I Was Fired At by Sisi n RABAA [Square in Cairo] for 12 Hours NON STOP…”

The Islamic State issued a new video today calling on “brothers in Europe, America, Russia, Australia and elsewhere” to “kill them all” as “it is now time to rise.”

The English-language nasheed, inspirational songs frequently released by terror groups, shows scenes of Western terrorists’ handiwork — including the March 2017 Westminster Bridge attack and the ISIS pledge video recorded by Berlin Christmas market terrorist Anis Amri — mingled with ISIS battlefield scenes and beheadings in Syria.

The video from ISIS’ official Al-Hayat Media Center was distributed widely on YouTube and social media platforms Twitter and Facebook, along with being posted on file-sharing sites.

“Your brothers in your lands have absolved themselves of blame, so leap onto their tracks and take an example from their actions and know that jannah [paradise] is beneath the shadows of swords,” a narrator says before the nasheed starts.

“Go answer the call, don’t spare none, kill them all, it is now time to rise, slit their throats, watch them die,” goes the nasheed. “The Islamic State stands, and it stands and demands, that you worship the one, whom besides there is none.”

“We’re the grandsons of men, who gave all that they can, to rule all of the lands, with the law of Islam,” the nasheed continued. “Holding up the flag high, and seeking paradise, o my brothers stay strong, victory won’t be long.”

“Together we will stand up, once filled with iman [faith], men who answered the call, terrorizing the world.” CONTINUE AT SITE