New Trend Magazine (www.newtrendmag.org)

Ahmed ‘Abdal Sattar's Bail Denied: Clean record, Community Guarantees, Rejected
Hearing was a Sham: War not Against Terrorism but against ALL good Muslims (Br. Kaukab)
Jum'a Khutba in New York Urging Muslims to Help U.S. Prisoners and Children of Oppressed


April 12, 2002. It was something out of Kafka, a surrealistic bail hearing for a man of God who has never hurt anyone. At the federal court in downtown Manhattan (New York city) the prosecution wanted the judge to deny bail to Ahmed Abdel Sattar on the allegations that he was a "danger" to his community and he was a "flight risk." The indictment claimed that for two years the government has been monitoring Ahmed and he has been talking to "terrorists" all over the world. The prosecutor insisted that Ahmed is the "point man" for Gamaa' Islamiyya of Egypt which has been declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. The prosecutor alleged that Ahmed, with the help of Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman's attorney and translator, coordinated moves between the Gamaa and the Shaikh in prison. The prosecutor insisted that the charges related to terrorism could put away Ahmed for the rest of his life, hence he would be tempted to flee if given bail.

The defense attorney gave a timid, conciliatory reply but managed to point out:
1. Ahmed is a married man with children going to U.S. schools.
2. He is fully employed and his family depends on the steady income from his job. Hence there is no validity to the "flight risk" theory.
3. Ahmed has NO criminal record whatsoever of any kind.
4. Originally from Egypt, he has lived regularly in the U.S. as a citizen for 15 years and all his roots are here.

Prominent members of the Islamic community in USA have so much confidence in Ahmed's decency that a whole list of them gave their personal homes to be put up for bail. The value of the properties put together came to OVER TWO MILLION for bail.

The judge would not accept the $2 million bail package, rejected the pleas of the defense and ordered Ahmed to be kept in jail.
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After the hearing, Br. Kaukab (editor of New Trend) spoke to a group of media representatives who had come to cover the case. He said:

It's ridiculous to claim that Ahmed is a flight risk. Where could he go? His country's government is thirsting for his blood.

Br. Kaukab said:The U.S. is victimizing this man to please the Egyptian dictator Mubarak. Gamaa al-Islamiyya is fighting Mubarak, not USA. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have documented the fact that Mubarak's police use torture as a routine of their investigation. Mubarak is sitting on 60,000 political prisoners. Ahmed is more of a civic, non-violent and clean citizen than most people in this country. The government's effort to brand him as a terrorist "point man" indicates that the war against "terrorism" is actually a war against Islam.

Br. Kaukab told the media: This bail hearing was a sham. The bail denial seemed pre-arranged inspite of the cut-and-paste nature of the prosecution's rambling allegations. The hearing was more like a Stalinist show trial just to tell the world that a hearing was held.

Br. Kaukab concluded: This guilt by association technique used by the prosecution means that if any Muslim talks to a critic of a dictator or is a dissident himself, he can be dubbed a point man for "terrorists." A person talking on the phone to opponents of a terrorist regime does not become a terrorist. Such conversations are the right of every individual.
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Ahmed's children sobbed quietly as it became clear their father was not coming home. Ahmed's wife Lisa, an average White woman from Chicago, now resplendant in her Islamic outer covering and her head covering, stood dignified and strong in her Islamic faith, holding her smaller children to herself. She has seen America's "justice" meted out to Muslims before, first to the blind Shaikh and then to Nasser Ahmed who was kept in prison for almost FOUR years on secret evidence which turned out to be no evidence. Alhamdulillah, in all these years Sis. Lisa has become strong enough (inshallah) just in time to face the ordeal of the sudden arrest and imprisonment of her husband. A good woman married to a decent, honest, truthful man.
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Jamaat al-Muslimeen Needs Volunteers to Monitor Cases of Muslim Prisoners

On April 12, Br. Kaukab gave the Juma' khutba at a New York mosque packed with 500 worshippers. His book DAJJAL: SUPERPOWER USA sold like hot cakes after the khutba and a stack of New Trends was distributed. Several hundred people came to Br. Kaukab after prayers, some to thank him for the khutba and some to offer help and cooperation.

These were the main points of the khutba:
1. Islam is a religion of peace.
2. Islam does not allow any compulsion in religion. We do not want to coerce any Christian, Jew or Hindu to become Muslim.
3. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was a man of peace, kind and compassionate, but he had to fight back because the oppressors wanted to destroy Islam even in Madina after forcing him out of Makka.
4. Muslims are fighting because they have been attacked in Kashmir, Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq, Sudan. They are not trying to take over anyone else's land. The war is all in our countries, not in non-Muslim countries.
4a. WE DENOUNCE THE HOLOCAUST OF MUSLIMS IN INDIA. What wrong have these innocent, defenseless people done?
4b. INDIA SHOULD REMEMBER THAT 25 YEARS BACK KASHMIRIS TOO WERE DEFENSELESS, GENTLE PEOPLE who did not want to fight back. Like Muhammad (pbuh) they HAD to fight back. India's Muslims will learn that too.
5. We must honor our martyrs sacrificing themselves in Palestine. We must oppose the Zionist media's attempts to denigrate our martyrs.
6. We Muslims want peace but that does not mean that we are afraid. We accept Allah's will and reject all human enslavement.
7. The answer to the Zionist claim that Islam oppresses WOMEN is now being given by the women martyrs in Palestine.
8. Join our efforts to MONITOR and HELP Muslim prisoners in U.S. prisons. Jamaat al-Muslimeen needs volunteers, especially in the cases of IMAM JAMIL al-AMIN, Dr. OMAR Abdel RAHMAN, John Walker and all other prisoners.
9. We work within the law of the land and by peaceful means, in an organized, disciplined way, just as the Prophet (pbuh) did within tribal law in Makka.
10. Muslims must stand united TO DENOUNCE THE ARREST OF AHMED Abdel Sattar, a model citizen who had the courage to stand up to dictatorship.
11. If ONE MUSLIM is OPPRESSED, the pain goes to the ENTIRE Muslim ummah.
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2002-04-17 Wed 19:38ct