The Walid Shoebat Show and "America is Beautiful, but she has an ugly side"-Neil Young

[Melbourne, Fl. February 25, 2008] Nearly every one of the 2,000 seats at The King Center in Brevard County was filled with fannies attached to American fundamentalists [a fundamentalist is anyone who has quit thinking] who paid $18.00 for a seat and upwards of $1,000.OO to attend the pre-show meet and greet with the 'three stooges' of fundamentalism at the "WAKE UP AMERICA! Confessions of 3 X-Terrorists" show.

"Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani [who was a no show last night] are the three stooges of the Christian right. These self-described former Muslim terrorists are regularly trotted out at Christian colleges…to spew racist filth about Islam on behalf of groups such as Focus on the Family…Curly, Larry and Mo, who all say they are born-again Christians, engage in hate speech and assure us it comes from personal experience. They tell their audiences that the only way to deal with one-fifth of the world's population is by converting or eradicating all Muslims." http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080211_the_war_against_tolerance/

This event was sponsored by Project: Restoration, an "educational performing arts ministry that emphasizes Hebraic teaching and support of Israel. [Whose] mission [and] ministry is to restore the biblical and historical truth of God's word regarding His commandments, His people, His land, and His coming kingdom [by working] together with Christian and Jewish communities to bless Israel and the Jewish people. [For they] believe that we are living in a time spoken of by prophets as the end of times when Israel will be a "cup of trembling in the hands of the nations" and that we must stand with Israel and the God of Israel [for the] Restoration of the Kingdom of Israel and the return of Israel's King, Yeshua ha Maschiach (Jesus the Messiah)." http://www.project-restoration.org/mission.htm

Missing from their website and the rhetoric from the speakers on Monday night, were the teachings of Jesus who warned that, "What ever you do unto the least; you do it unto God…Stop judging…Stop condemning…Forgive and you will be forgiven…For the measure with which you measure [any other] will be measured back unto you."-[Luke 6:36-38] Also missing in action was Jesus' promise that, "the Peacemakers shall be called the children of God."-Matthew 5:9

While the teachings of Jesus were neglected, I was most encouraged when Walid kicked off his show claiming that the "stupid" New York Times and a "stupid" journalist who interviewed his relative Kamal Younis [this reporter!] were smearing his good reputation of being an ex-terrorist by exposing his fabricated biography.

From his pulpit, Walid insisted that his father is a fundamentalist and that Kamal Younis's brother Jawad lost his arm making a bomb and is an attorney who defends other terrorists.

On February 3, 2008, I published my interview with Kamal Younis: USA Air Force Academy Feb. 6, 2008: Failure of Intelligence to Support the Troops:

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=791&Itemid=197

On February 5, 2008, I received an email threat of a lawsuit from Walid's handler unless I apologized and recanted what I reported. I emailed him back that I would do neither and took Walid up on his offer to engage in a dialogue. I have yet to receive either a reply or a legal notice, but I did publish that email threat and parts of Walid's epistle defending his terrorist past with my side of a dialogue on the 7th of February:

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=795&Itemid=197

I have known Walid's relative, Kamal Younis as a friend since 2003. I met him through the non-profit Interfaith Olive Trees Foundation for Peace dedicated to raising awareness of and funds to purchase fruit bearing trees on both sides of The Wall in Israel Palestine who hope to replace the over one million trees destroyed by The Wall. The International Court of Justice in the Hague has deemed The Wall is illegal and it must fall. Reported in the august, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, "Financed with U.S. aid at a cost of $1.5 million per mile, the Israeli wall prevents residents from receiving health care and emergency medical services. In other areas, the barrier separates farmers from their olive groves which have been their families' sole livelihood for generations." [Page 43, Jan/Feb. 2007]

During my five trips to Israel Palestine, I went to Walid's birthplace; Beit Sahour, a suburb of Bethlehem. I was treated as beloved family by his peaceful relatives who fed me, gave me a bed and then accompanied me for two days through the Dheisheh refugee camp, which is 100% Muslim and a five minute taxi ride from the Church of The Nativity in The Little Town of Bethlehem: Occupied Territory. Over half of the 11,000 resident refugees of Dheisheh are children under 18 and they exist on less than one square kilometer of the 'Holy' Land. I interviewed old men, dozens of teenagers and mothers, but I did not meet any fundamentalist terrorists.

Eighteen year old Mohammad, a member of R.R.; Refugee Rappers told me, "When I was a child I had a dream that I would take my people; my country and fly away to another planet and another life. My homeland is Zakariyya and Telasafi [west of Hebron] and my grandfather told me that the issue is in my hand; it's my responsibility to get out of the desert. Balfour and King Hussein, they left my people in the desert and nobody can help us to get out, except ourselves."

Mohammad rapped, "Seems to people it's hard to be what you want to be. But if I want to speak about my life I have four words; Blood, Night, Land and Hope. This means Philistine [Palestine]. Our word to all people we are here to be or not to be; Philistine [Palestine]. Those four words also represent the colors of the Palestinian flag; red, black, green and white."

Shepherded by a relative of Walid's, I met fifteen year old Adam who volunteers his time at the IBDAA [Arabic for "to create something out of nothing"] Cultural Center http://www.ibdaa194.org a grassroots organization providing social, educational and cultural programs for children, youth and women in the 60 year old refugee camp.

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