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WHY IS AHMED 'ABDEL SATTAR
BEING KEPT IN PRISON
THOUGH "TERRORISM" CHARGES
AGAINST HIM HAVE BEEN DROPPED?
By Kaukab Siddique
The case of Ahmed 'Abdel Sattar should be
a matter of serious concern
for all
Americans.
He is a good example of that
borderline case where the U.S.
government has moved against a citizen of the
United States merely because he
is an opponent of a client regime of the White
House. No issue of violence or
attempted violence is involved.
WHO IS AHMED 'ABDEL SATTAR?
Originally from
Egypt,
'Ahmed is an
unassuming, humble citizen of the
U.S. who worked for the post office honestly,
efficiently and diligently. He has
NEVER been involved in any criminal activity of
any kind. In fact he has been
pious to the extent of being virtuous and pure in
all his dealings. No one,
friend or foes, has EVER accused him of any
underhand or crooked activities.
A very community-oriented person, he was
steadily involved in
mosque-related activity to help create a decent
future for the children of his largely
Egyptian community. He never preached, instigated
or supported violence
against the United States.
He has deep roots in America. Married to a
an attractive and
compassionate White Muslim woman from Chicago
named Lisa, Ahmed was confident that he
had a future in this land of immigrants. Lisa
gave four children to Ahmed, each
one a gem of a child, each one sensitive to the
issues facing America and the
Muslim world. Look at their children:
Omar 15 Junior in High School
Ali 14 Sophomore in High School
Amina 10 in the 6th grade
Mohamed 10 in the 6th grade
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VALUES GAINED FROM AMERICA and the QUR'AN made
Ahmed an OPPONENT of the
Mubarak
regime in EGYPT:
Americans who are made aware of the Qur'an
are usually opposed to
dictatorship. As Ahmed studied the Qur'an and
looked at the politics of the country
he came from, it was natural for him to become an
opponent of the murderous
Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt. It seemed natural
to Ahmed that an Egyptian
Muslim living in America should be opposed to
Mubarak.
WHY THE RELATIONSHIP with
SHAIKH OMAR 'ABDEL RAHMAN?
Many Muslims in America do not know that a
series of changes took
place in the role of Islamic groups in Egypt over
the seventies and eighties. The
original IKHWAN al-MUSLIMOON (Muslim Brotherhood)
slowly degenerated into a
social work-and-intellectual debate movement. The
IKHWAN were unable to provide
leadership to Egypt's Muslim as the country
underwent cataclysmic changes. The
government of Egypt decided to recognize
Israel.
The
CIA
had evidently
infiltrated the top echelons of the Egyptian
system.
Faced with this destruction of the national
will, various Islamic
groups developed to replace the Ikhwan. The most
successful of these was al-Gamaa
al-Islamiyya which not only emulated the IKHWAN
in social works but also taught
resistance to the regime's repression, torture
and murder.
Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya proliferated into
thousands of decentralized
groups. Their spiritual leader was Dr. Shaikh
Omar 'Abdel Rahman, a Ph.D from
al-Azhar University whose dissertation was on the
meaning of
Jihad
in the Qur'an.
The mass movement posed a serious challenge to
the brutal regime of Mubarak as
it was rooted in mosques, villages and the poorer
sections of the population.
Under severe repression and after repeated
arrests, Shaikh Omar 'Abdel
Rahman took refuge in America. Owing to his
health condition, he was willing
to live in peace in America, like a traditional
Muslim scholar teaching the
rulings of Islam on a variety of issues. His
learning won him the admiration of
thousands of American Muslims and he was invited
to speak at mosques around the
country. He did not preach against America. The
era of Osama bin Laden had
not begun.
For Ahmed 'Abdel Sattar, the Shaikh as a
source of honest Islamic
knowledge, was a natural magnet. Ahmed admired
the Shaikh's otherworldliness, his
erudition in Qur'an and Hadith, his opposition to
the Hosni Mubarak regime.
Ahmed often disagreed with the Shaikh, but even
in disagreement, found the
Shaikh's learning attractive and infectious. The
more he listened to the Shaikh, the
more he liked him. IT NEVER DAWNED ON AHMED that
the U.S. WAS BEING TAKEN
OVER BY ISRAEL. America was no longer to be a
haven for opponents of regimes
linked to Israel.
THEN CAME THE ARREST OF SHAIKH OMAR
[probably to please Hosni Mubarak
who was disturbed by his growing support in the
U.S.]. Ahmed could hardly
believe that a man of God could be arrested and
brought to trial in "freedom
loving" America on charges of "terrorism" because
of opposing the criminal regime
of Hosni Mubarak.
WHY IS AHMED ABDEL SATTAR IN PRISON?:
The
Zionists
in New York wanted to 'get'
Ahmed for his unwavering
efforts to mobilize support to stop violation of
the Shaikh's human rights. They
could not 'get' him because under American law, a
person who stands up for a
dissident's rights cannot be labeled terrorist
just for his views. There was
nothing in Ahmed's life which the FBI could pick
up to go after him.
Then came
9.11.
Right away Ahmed's house was
raided on the pretext that
there might be weapons there. [None were found.]
Finally in April 2002, he was
arrested and a number of absurd charges were put
against his name. The
government had been listening to his phone calls
in which he spoke with Egyptian
dissidents and urged opposition to Hosni Mubarak.
Under Ashcroft, it takes months before a
citizen's case even comes up
before a court. The arrest itself takes the shape
of punishment. Ahmed was kept
in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT for a YEAR and 4 months
before the judge read his case
and realized that there was no case of terrorism
against him!
However, the government does not give up so
easily. He is still being
held on frivolous charges of "soliciting
violence" and "fraud." There is little
chance that such charges can hold up in court
because they are patently
bogus. The rub is that the hearing will be in
January 2004! Thus from July to
January, the government will be holding Ahmed
without bail. Massive community
support is available for the bail but the Judge
has accepted the prosecution's
absurd claim that Ahmed is a "flight risk." Where
would he fly to when the world
today is controlled by the U.S.?
As his son said about the bail hearing [held
on August 1]:
"I felt like a dog that had a bone waved in
front of his face for one week.
After that week of hope of getting that bone it
was yanked from the front of
my face and I was left feeling disgusted and
angry."
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I strongly urge the Muslim community,
worldwide, to take up the cause of
Ahmed 'Abdel Sattar. He has done no wrong.There
is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why
he should be in prison. As he was being led away
after the rejection of a
strong bail application, he waved to Lisa and his
children and said: "Be not
afraid. Allah is with us." [Slight abbreviation
of the Prophet's, pbuh, words to
Abu Bakar, R.A., given in Sura Taubah.]
Surely Ahmed is in prison only because
he worships Allah alone
without associating anyone with Allah.
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Dear Muslims, please write to Ahmed to show
your support, at this "address:"
Ahmed Abdel-Sattar #53506-054
MCC, 150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
If we can get more support for Ahmed, we can
also protest to the judge
and the prosecutor.
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I also urge IMAM SIRAJ WAHHAJ and the
"Majlise Shura" of New York to
show at least recognition of the case of Ahmed
'Abdel Sattar. Is it not a
disgrace that you are an Imam in New York and you
ignore the most important Islamic
case in New York? What kind of Islam is this that
you don't attend care to
attend the hearings, let alone show support? What
is the important business you
are involved in which stops you from taking time
to attend a hearing?
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2003-08-09 Sat 18:00ct