LoneStarTimes.com is challenging mainstream media reporters to ask tough questions of Dallas-area Imam Yusuf Kavakci, who stirred controversy last April with his prayer before the Texas state senate.

Imam Kavakci will be speaking at a Dallas-area Islamic conference this Saturday, June 30th.

Joining him on stage will be …

• His daughter, who has given a speech (starts on page 3 of pdf) in which she praises Palestinian Islamic Jihad sleeper agent Sami Al-Arian; AND
• A man named Jamal Badawi, who has been identified by federal prosecutors as having participated in fund-raising activities on behalf of a HAMAS front-group.

A full and expanding list of questions for Imam Kavakci can be found at the end of this post. Earlier installments in this series can be read here and here.

To highlight our challenge, LST is posting a fatwa (or “religious ruling”) issued by the Imam every day this week. Members of the media who would like to access or receive copies of our original source documentation should contact us via email at “lsteditorsATgmailDOTcom.” We’ll be happy to oblige.

So far, we have not been contacted by a single reporter asking for documentation of these religious rulings, nor do we have any indication that someone covering the press conference on Saturday will be asking any of the questions we outline. (Although we did get a fair-minded mention on the blog of the alt-weekly Dallas Observer.)

Readers may wish to begin to (politely and rationally, PLEASE) contact members of the media (especially in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area) and encourage them to notice. If nothing else, we don’t want folks to be able to say “I didn’t know.”

Today’s fatwa from Imam Kavakci, issued on 6/25/02, comes from “Thomas,” a man looking for some practical pointers on how to destroy the Jewish state.

Thomas asks:

Salamu Aleykum,

May Alah forgive me for this question I ask you. I know for a fact that if a person converts to Judaism he will be granted entry and citizenship into Israel. As a convert to Islam from christianity. It would be easy for me to “convert” to Judaism just to get an Israeli passport. If more Muslims did this then perhaps the population of Israel could change. Obviously I would not really be converting, I would be falsely converting to Judaism while maintaining my faith as a Muslim. If granted an Israeli passport I could freely travel to help our Palestinian brothers in the struggle, including opening up a legal clinic for Palestinians. Being an Israeli citizen I would have certain protections.

Would such a conversion be prohibited? Please advise.

Imam Kavakci–future prayer leader of the Texas Senate–responds:

You raise a very interesting point, but I am not sure how this can practically work in today’s chain of events in Palestine. Perhaps as an individual to do such a thing may understandable and away to serve the Palestinian population But if this happened on a mass numbers may raise different problems. One may take this as an individual approach to help the Ummah, but as a group one may need the approval of Muslim leadership and scholars to prevent any unforeseen consequences from happening.

Let’s review.

According to Imam Kavakci it is completely kosher if you want to…

• Deceive Jewish religious authorities by faking adoption of their faith;
• Obtain travel documents and citizenship from a foreign state under false pretenses; and
• Seek to subvert the distinctive character of the only Jewish state on the face of the Earth.

However there is one caveat–your plan just might not be practical on a mass scale, so be sure to check with a few more Imam’s before encouraging friends to join your theologically duplicitous, deceptive and anti-Semitic conspiracy.

Nicely done, Senator Shapiro.

Stay tuned to LoneStarTimes.com for tomorrow’s fatwa, when Imam Kavakci gives intolerant extremists like Dan Patrick a lesson in how to celebrate religious diversity and inter-faith dialog.

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Below is our ever-expanding list of questions we challenge the mainstream media to ask Imam Kavakci.

QUESTIONS RELATED TO HAMAS FUNDRAISING

On Saturday, June 3oth, you are scheduled to share the stage in Dallas with a Mr. Jamal Badawi, who has been identified by federal prosecutors as having “participated in fund-raising activities on behalf of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development,” a HAMAS front-group.

• Will you commit to refusing to appear on stage with (and thereby implicitly conferring legitimacy upon) Mr. Badawi?
• Will you use your considerable authority within the Dallas Muslim community to ensuring that Mr. Badawi is disinvited from speaking at this conference?

It was recently revealed that you sit on the board of directors of a group that federal prosecutors have identified as unindicted co-conspirators in the trial of a HAMAS fund-raising sleeper cell set to begin in July.

• Why do you think this group on whose board you sit was identified by federal prosecutors in this way?
• What steps have you, as a member of the board of directors of this group and a respected religious authority in your community taken to ensure that no money raised for ostensibly charitable purposes has been directed towards terrorist groups like HAMAS?
• Do you agree or disagree that HAMAS is a terrorist group? Feel free to offer any explanation you wish to afterwards, but first please just answer with a simple Yes or No.
• Do you agree or disagree that it is improper for charity to flow even to the widows and orphans of HAMAS suicide bombers, since providing for surviving family members only makes it more likely that terrorists will be willing to act?

QUESTIONS RELATED TO SAMI AL-ARIAN

In 2002 your daughter gave a speech (starts on page 3 of pdf) in which she praises Palestinian Islamic Jihad sleeper agent Sami Al-Arian, who she believes is being “persecuted” by the US government.

• Do you agree with your daughter’s assertion that Sami Al-Arian has been persecuted by the United States government?
• Do you agree or disagree that Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a terrorist group? Feel free to offer any explanation you wish to afterwards, but first please just answer with a simple Yes or No.

QUESTIONS RELATED TO JIHAD IN PALESTINE

Imam Kavakci, you have stated that in any country, “people who have been invaded or their homes and lands are taken away from them, have the right to defend themselves, their families, and their properties against the aggressor.”

• Do you believe that in Palestine, Zionists have been aggressors and have invaded and taken away the homes and land of local Arab communities?
• Do you believe that local Arab communities in Palestine have the right to defend themselves, their families, and their property against Zionist aggression?
• What forms can this defense and resistance against aggression take?
• Are there any acts of resistance against aggression that are completely prohibited, no matter the circumstances or whom they are directed against?

QUESTIONS RELATED TO AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI

• Do you completely condemn, or do you sympathize in any way with the teachings of Iranian Revolutionary cleric Ayatollah Khomeini?

QUESTIONS RELATED TO SHEIKH YUSUF AL-QARADAWI

• Do you completely condemn Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi for his advocacy of suicide bombings in Israel and his exhortation to jihad against the Jews, or do you stand by your earlier praise for him as a “quality” Islamic scholar?

QUESTIONS RELATED TO HASAN AL-TURABI

• Do you completely condemn Hasan al-Turabi for giving Osama bin Laden sanctuary in Sudan and instigating jihad against Sudanese Christians and animists, or do you stand by your earlier praise for him as a “quality” Islamic scholar?