Hat tip to MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy:
From 3 Ex-terrorists:
Zachariah Anani was a teenage militia fighter. Born into a family of Muslim clergy in Beirut, Lebanon, he began Islamic school at age three. His grandfather and great grandfather had been imams, and his family expected him to follow in their footsteps.
At 13, he joined one of the many military groups that existed in the early ’70s. “All the religious fragments had their own secret militia,” Anani says. “I was trained to fight and kill Jews, and to hate Christians and Americans.”
Soon after enlisting, he made his first “kill.” By the time he turned 16, “life meant nothing,” Anani says. “Every time I killed someone and two or three fighters witnessed it, they would give me a point on my chart. I carried 223 points.”
Anani met a Christian missionary, embarked on a spiritual journey and converted to Christainity which became a turning point in his life.
Anani initially tried to keep his new faith secret. Apart from one professor, no one at his university suspected he was a Christian. But in the Muslim neighborhood where he grew up, everyone knew it and he was harassed and persecuted. He moved to the city’s Christian sector, but the persecution continued. Even his father hired assassins to kill him.
Finally church leaders convinced him to leave Lebanon because his presence endangered others. In 1996 Anani entered Canada as a refugee. It took another three difficult years before his wife and three children could join him. After Anani debated with a Muslim scholar in the United States, his family was attacked in Lebanon. Two of his children required surgery.
Zak has been attacked numerous times for his faith as a Christian, even in Canada.
When in Lebanon, he was nearly beheaded and was only saved when an army patrol came by and the Islamist gang dispersed leaving Zak with a huge wound on his neck. Zak nearly bled to death and was actually technically dead for 7 minutes, before being revived.
In Canada, where he now lives, his house and car have been burnt, his family attacked physically and Zak himself has been attacked.
An absolutely amazing story of a man trained from youth to fight and kill Jews and to hate Christians and Americans. Yet due to a single Christian missionary he has turned his entire life around – and done so at a terrible cost.
He was almost beheaded. His children have required surgery because wounds form attackers. His property has been destroyed – and done so not in Lebanon but in Canada. And now he wants to tell his story to the public, a story how both the Quran and Islam seem to condone violence. But not everyone wants Anani to tell his story.
From The Windsor Star (Canada):
A member of the Windsor Police Services Board says the anti-Islamic lecture held at a Baptist church Thursday night was a hate crime, and he’s leading the charge to have the speaker arrested.
Wally Chafchak, also a member of the Windsor Islamic Association, said he and other Muslims and Christians have approached police about the lecture by Zachariah Anani.
“In my opinion, this went far beyond religious discussion and debate,” said Chafchak. “In the Criminal Code there is a section that deals with spreading hatred in the community, and I think that’s what this is. This instance should fall under those laws. Justice can only be served if this person is charged. He’s talking about hate, this person. We will pursue it further until we feel we have our share of justice.”
Now a Christian convert, Anani said Islamic doctrine teaches the “ambushing, seizing and slaying” of non-believers, especially Jews and Christians. He said Islam is a religion that worships a god “who strikes with terror.”
Anani said he isn’t worried about being charged, because he only drew on facts from the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book.
“What I said was fact,” he said Friday. “I wasn’t talking about my own interpretation. I picked facts derived from statements of the book.”
It has to be noted that converting from Islam to any other faith, according to the Quran, is punishable by death. Islam is the only known faith to have such a restriction.
More from The Windsor Star (Canada):
Anani angered local Muslims when he used passages from the Qur’an during his first lecture Jan. 11 to support his view that Islam preaches violence.
“There will be an examination of whether he became a Canadian citizen with the full truest extent. His citizenship is going to be questioned at that time,” [Windsor West MP] Masse said.
As well, members of the Windsor Islamic Association have filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
CAIR has sent letters to Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant asking for a prompt investigation into Anani’s lectures under Canada’s hate crime legislation.
“His citizenship is going to be questioned…” Just imagine what will happen to Anani if his citizenship is revoked and he is returned by force to Lebanon. It appears that CAIR is not going to use its power to protect Anani but rather have him either convicted of hate crimes or deported.
Here I’ll repeat an earlier statement: Converting from Islam to any other faith, according to the Quran, is punishable by death. Islam is the only known faith to have such a restriction.
From PRNewswire via Yahoo:
There is a growing and forceful campaign by CAIR and other Islamist organizations in Canada to silence the free speech of Zachariah Anani and undermine his legitimacy as a Canadian citizen, by calling for his arrest and deportation.
CAIR, an organization which claims to be the voice of moderation, should be embracing Anani’s message against violence and the dangers of extremism instead of mounting a witch hunt against him.
It is no wonder that CAIR is attacking Anani, as it has been documented that many of the leaders of CAIR have openly supported the positions of Hamas, Hizballah and al-Queda — all recognized terrorist organizations.
[former terrorist from the West Bank] Walid Shoebat believes that CAIR and other Islamist organizations should join Anani in encouraging Muslims to speak out against terrorism and the killing, raping, forced conversion, mutilation and other acts of violence perpetrated by Jihadist groups worldwide against non-Muslims.
Why is it that CAIR absolutely refuses to acknowledge that killing, raping, forced conversion, mutilation, and other acts of violence are being perpetuated in the name of Allah? Do they not read the newspapers? Do they not watch TV? You would think CAIR would use their influence to effect positive change in the Muslim community, not punish those that would shine a light on those that use Islam for death and destruction.
Despite being founded by two self-identified supporters of Islamist terrorism and continually refusing to condemn Islamist terrorism, CAIR has not only survived, but thrived. In the five years since September 11, CAIR has grown exponentially in both resources and influence, becoming the de facto voice of American Muslims in the mainstream media.
CAIR claims to condemn “all forms of terrorism,” yet it almost exclusively focuses on Israel’s actions.
The CAIR board chairman is Omar Ahmad. In 1998 a California newspaper quoted Ahmad as declaring that the Quran should be America’s highest authority. That would put the Constitution where?
Addressing a youth session at a 1999 Islamic Association for Palestine convention in Chicago, CAIR’s other cofounder, Omar Ahmad, praised suicide bombers who “kill themselves for Islam”: “Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam, that is not suicide. They kill themselves for Islam.”
Ibrahim Hooper is the chief mouthpiece for CAIR. You’ll see him on television from time to time. In 1993 the Minneapolis Star Tribune interviewed Hooper. During that interview Hooper is quoted as saying that he wants to see America become a Muslim country.
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad, on the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, said “there is ample evidence indicating that both the Mossad and the Egyptian Intelligence played a role in the explosion.”
CAIR has never condemned any of Hamas’ many terrorist attacks. During the month-long war last summer, CAIR issued at least eight condemnations of Israel and America – but not one of Hezbollah. CAIR has, in fact, never condemned Hamas or Hezbollah. Given repeated opportunities to do so by outlets such as The Washington Post and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, CAIR has flatly refused to denounce either. Asked point-blank by Newsweek just last month to condemn Hamas, CAIR Executive Director and cofounder Nihad Awad demurred, dismissing the question as “the game of the pro-Israel lobby.”
And now they want Anani convicted of hate speech and deported to Lebanon … where his previous attempted beheading can be completed.
Anani, Muslim, Lebanon, Islam, Quran, CAIR
