Patrick Poole over at Pajamas Media has a huge find; it is a speech given by the man who inspired Fort Hood jihadist Nidal Malik Hasan – Anwar al-Awlaki. The speech (seen at the bottom of this post) was given at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention on September 1, 2001 – just ten days before 9/11. Note that shortly after the 3:00 mark, al-Awlaki refers to the speaker who preceded him on the stage as Dr. Siddiqi; this was likely the ISNA President at the time – Muzammil Siddiqi.

That would be the same Muzammil Siddiqi who was welcomed into the Bush White House after 9/11. This photo is from 9/26/01 and it shows Bush meeting with then ISNA President Siddiqi in the Roosevelt Room.

Poole points out that one of al-Awlaki’s co-panelists at that speech – Hamza Yusuf – is one of the keynote speakers at the ISNA conference this year. Incidentally, the man who holds Siddiqi’s position today is none other than Mohamed Magid, who was in attendance at the recent White House Iftar dinner and seated at a table with Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin, a woman with irrefutable familial ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, (the force behind the ISNA) as well as to the Saudi Royal family:

It’s important to remember that al-Awlaki himself was welcomed by the Pentagon to a now infamous plush luncheon just a few months after 9/11. Based on what is now known, Awlaki was connected to the hijackers through a mosque that some of them attended. How thoroughly has Magid been vetted and, for that matter, Abedin?

Some other takeaway lines from al-Awlaki’s speech…

4:30 Mark – “The Muslims were not only tolerant (with other religious groups when Muslims were in power) but they had the best track record of tolerance in the world.”

6:00 Mark – Saladin was “too tolerant” during the Crusades. He then says that Muslims should focus on being more tolerant of one another than of non-Muslims. It is apparent here that al-Awlaki is advocating for Muslims to put aside differences with each other for some perceived greater good, presumably focusing on differences with infidels. Talk about dog whistle racism!

10:10 Mark – Did al-Awlaki almost refer to “enemies” and “infidels” before catching himself?

18:00 Mark – “Some people, they’re troublemakers; you can’t do anything about it; they’re troublemakers.” (oh, the irony).

In short, the essence of al-Awlaki’s speech is simple to discern. He was attempting to unify Muslims against non-Muslims through… tolerance of each other. Ain’t it funny how tolerance is such a key word when talking about Muslim / non-Muslim relations today?

When groups like the ISNA talk of encouraging non-Muslims to have ‘tolerance’, what they really mean is that non-Muslims should accept the intolerance of Muslims who are tolerant of each other. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what al-Awlaki is saying here. However, there are, no doubt, closed-minded rocket scientists who will refuse to do so.