(Tallahassee, FL) Investigative journalist and Chairman of Americans Against Hate Joe Kaufman and Florida Security Council cameraman J. Mark Campbell were assaulted, on Thursday March 11, by a member of United Voices for America (UVA), a Florida Muslim lobby group.
UVA was in Tallahassee for its second annual event, entitled Muslim Capitol Day.
According to the lieutenant in charge of the Capitol Police, the perpetrator of the attacks, Profesor Bassem Alhalabi, was charged with simple battery for each incident. The two assaults happened on two separate occasions, both on the same day.
Alhalabi is a professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), a director and co-founder of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), and a former associate of convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian.
In June 2003, Alhalabi was found guilty of illegally shipping a $13,000 military-grade thermal imaging device to Syria.
United Voices for America (UVA) is headed by Ahmed Bedier, the former Executive Director of CAIR-Tampa and the former unofficial spokesman for Sami al-Arian. Bedier was present, during the attack on Campbell.
In May 2007, Rafiq Sabir, a member of Alhalabis Islamic center was convicted of material support for al-Qaeda.
A more detailed investigation of these assaults and who the real Professor Alhalabi is will follow shortly.
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Joe Kaufman is the Chairman of Americans Against Hate, the founder of CAIR Watch, and an investigative journalist for FrontPage Magazine.
In September of 2003, Joe was invited by Florida Speaker of the House Johnnie Byrd to give expert testimony in front of law enforcement and government representatives at a forum on terrorism and homeland security held in Punta Gorda, Florida.
Amongst other accomplishments, in December of 2006, Joe convinced U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer to rescind an award her office had given to a leader of the Hamas-affiliated Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Joe has spoken at the conferences of the Middle East Forum, the Intelligence Summit, America's Truth Forum and Hadassah, and he was the keynote speaker for Islamofascism Awareness Week at UCLA in October of 2007. Joe has been featured on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC and has appeared on numerous local and national television and radio talk shows.
Founded in August of 1998, Americans Against Hate (AAH) is a civil rights organization and terrorism watchdog group, whose goal is to be an active voice against those who spread bigotry and violence.
There is no question that our focus has changed, since the events that occurred on September 11, 2001. Now, more than ever, there is a need for an organization such as ours -- to speak out against hatred, even when it is politically incorrect to do so, even when it entails criticisms aimed at certain religious sects.
For far too long the free world has sat back and ignored the violent hatred that was growing within undemocratic (and even certain democratic) nations. We therefore unequivocally support our government's -- and any other willing government's -- war on terrorism.
AAH welcomes the participation of individuals from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, who come together for one common cause -- to fight against those who advocate and/or are affiliated with groups involved in White Supremacy, Radical Islam and other violent movements.
While we understand that hate has been around since early in man's existence, we look forward to the day when our organization will be unnecessary and irrelevant, when the world's inhabitants can truly live in peace with one another. Until then, we will do our best to live up to our name, as Americans Against Hate.
