The fear surrounding what makes a Muslim has been defined as Islamophobia, an issue permeating politics, pop culture and even the price of gas.

What do radical Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al–Qaradawi and the United States Treasury Department have in common? Disturbingly, both are pushing Shari'a–compliant finance (SCF) as a remedy to the global credit meltdown.

"The collapse of the capitalist system … is proof that it is in crisis and shows that Islamic economic philosophy is holding up," al–Qaradawi enthused at an October forum attended by prominent terrorists and Jew–haters. Muslims, he added, should "profit from the crisis to bring about the triumph of the [Islamic] nation."

At the same time, the Treasury Department hopes that "Islamic economic philosophy" could help right the listing financial ship without poking even more holes below the waterline. According to Arab News, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt explained during an October 25 press conference in Saudi Arabia that "the U.S. government is currently studying the salient features of Islamic banking to ascertain how far it could be useful in fighting the ongoing world economic crisis." In addition, last week the Treasury hosted a half–day seminar entitled "Islamic Finance 101." Though billed as an opportunity for regulators to gather objective information, the event was panned by Alex Alexiev as one–sided and "little more than a government–sponsored promotion of the subversive Islamist agenda carried out under the Shari'a finance guise."

Ali ibn Abi–Talib, the seventh–century figure central to Shiite Islam, is said to have predicted when the world will end, columnist Amir Taheri points out. A "tall black man" commanding "the strongest army on earth" will take power "in the west." He will carry "a clear sign" from the third imam, Hussein. Ali says of the tall black man: "Shiites should have no doubt that he is with us."

Barack Hussein in Arabic means "the blessing of Hussein." In Persian, Obama translates as "He [is] with us." Thus does the name of the presumptive American president–elect, when combined with his physical attributes and geography, suggest that the End of Times is nigh – precisely what Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been predicting.

How far should private entities go to avoid offending the most sensitive Muslims? This question has arisen once again as the soundtrack for a virtual world sparks controversy in the real one.

LittleBigPlanet, a new video game that lets children lead characters through various locales, was recently delayed by Sony due to its use of a song whose lyrics contain snippets from the Koran. The pre–release modification and apology came on the heels of a letter claiming that the mixture of music with Koranic verses would upset some Muslims. (Side note: a Muslim actually wrote and recorded the tune.)

Two influential members of the U.S. Islamic community have offered very different responses to the uproar — and thus contrasting answers to the question that opened this post.

News item: On Sunday, Arab News reported, “The U.S. government is currently studying the salient features of Islamic banking to ascertain how far it could be useful in fighting the ongoing world economic crisis, Robert M. Kimmitt, US deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a press conference held at the US Embassy here yesterday.” The newspaper went on to note that “[Kimmitt] said that experts in the US Treasury Department are currently learning the important features of Islamic banking.”

Islam Awareness Week 2008 is underway at the University of Pennsylvania. Organized by the Muslim Students Association, Islam Awareness Week also has academic sponsors, including the university's Middle East Center.

While "awareness" may be a laudable goal, blatant proselytizing is another matter entirely. Yet today's event, "State and Need for Dawah in the West," promises just that. Here is the description (received by e–mail; emphasis added):

Harvard Chaplain and well–studied individual of Islam, Taha Abdul–Basser will deliver the Friday sermon on the lack of Dawah (invitation) on the part of Muslims in North America, not only to convey a message of submission to God alone but also to wash away misconceptions some share about Islam. Seven years after 9/11, Taha Abdul–Basser will elucidate on the importance of such education, sharing important Prophetic narratives and other occurrences in Islamic tradition that epitomize the magnitude of this act. We expect many non–Muslims to observe our Jummah outside, visually understanding the importance of this holy day.

Islam Awareness Week 2008 is underway at the University of Pennsylvania. Organized by the Muslim Students Association, Islam Awareness Week also has academic sponsors, including the university's Middle East Center.

While "awareness" may be a laudable goal, blatant proselytizing is another matter entirely. Yet today's event, "State and Need for Dawah in the West," promises just that. Here is the description (received by e–mail; emphasis added):

Harvard Chaplain and well–studied individual of Islam, Taha Abdul–Basser will deliver the Friday sermon on the lack of Dawah (invitation) on the part of Muslims in North America, not only to convey a message of submission to God alone but also to wash away misconceptions some share about Islam. Seven years after 9/11, Taha Abdul–Basser will elucidate on the importance of such education, sharing important Prophetic narratives and other occurrences in Islamic tradition that epitomize the magnitude of this act. We expect many non–Muslims to observe our Jummah outside, visually understanding the importance of this holy day.

A proverb advises us that "death cancels everything but truth." Two grief–stricken families recently encountered disagreeable aspects of the truth that death leaves unaltered: aggressive elements of the Islamic community who seek to impose their faith upon others, and multicultural policies that grant certain benefits to Muslims alone.

First, when Shafayet Reja was killed last month in a car accident on Long Island, NY, his parents — one Hindu and one Muslim — decided to cremate his remains. In contrast, Islam requires that bodies be buried. A group of irate Muslims, among them local imams insisting that Reja had practiced Islam, crashed the funeral to demand that the cremation be called off — or else:

Imagine Dodger Stadium full of loud and whooping fans cheering on, not baseball, but your weekly stoning and flogging of adulterers, thieves and other errant citizens of southern California.

This is America under Islamic law, or Shari'a, a system that everyone should fear. Or so, Alan Kornman, director of the United American Committee (UAC) thinks. He continues to fundraise for a freeway billboard in Florida stating, "Shari'a Is Hate," to educate America before it's too late.

As Kornman argues, "under Shari'a law if you are accused of stealing, a hand and foot from opposite sides are amputated. If you are caught having an affair, the woman is stoned to death and the man is given 80 lashes. If you change religions, you can be charged under apostasy laws and given the death sentence by a legal Sharia court."

Islamists cannot tolerate open discussion of their faith and those who act in its name. We witness this phenomenon time and again from the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), which increasingly forgoes combat in the arena of ideas, preferring instead to intimidate or litigate opponents of the Islamist agenda into silence.

The latest example comes in response to the Clarion Fund distributing twenty–eight million DVDs of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West via direct mail and newspaper supplements in September. The film exposes the teachings and consequences of Islamic extremism through media footage and commentary from experts, including Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes.

CAIR has filed complaints with both the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service, alleging that the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of national security issues, violated its tax–exempt status by using the DVD as an election prop in swing states. In its complaint to the FEC, CAIR wrote that "analysts say the distribution of the Obsession DVD was designed to benefit a particular presidential candidate, namely Sen. John McCain."

24–year–old Derrick Shareef was sentenced yesterday to 35 years in prison for planning a terrorist attack on a Chicago mall using hand grenades two years ago. At sentencing, Shareef declared that he no longer believes in violent jihad and has "adopted more positive Muslim beliefs." What these positive beliefs are should be a central concern to the Metropolitan Correctional Center since his attorney cited his rise as the Imam of the Muslim population while interred there.

In 2005, then FBI Director Robert Mueller stated, "Prisons continue to be fertile ground for extremists who exploit both a prisoner's conversion to Islam while still in prison, as well as their socio–economic status and placement in the community upon their release."

As an Imam, Shareef is technically taking on the role of a Chaplain, though it does not seem likely that he applied for such a position given its requirements, including but not limited to a Master of Divinity degree or its equivalent and at least two years of "autonomous experience…in a parish or specialized ministry setting." Shareef was arrested at 22.

The last seven years have been strange ones for American Muslims in politics. That much was evident at this morning's first ever Muslim Democratic Caucus meeting. Aftab Siddiqui, a member of the Texas Democratic Muslim Caucus, walked me through the recent history. Prior to 2000, Muslims hadn't been, as a group, particularly active in national politics. But in the run–up to 2000, a coalition of Muslim groups got together and decided to make a serious play for national political prominence and put feelers out to both the Bush and Gore campaigns. Bush met with them and Gore didn't. They endorsed Bush. (NB: This story is unconfirmed, though there were scattered news reports at the time backing it up.)

This weekend, the "Popular Palestinian Conference 2008" will be held in Chicago, and if past is prologue, a slew of anti–Israel propaganda will be part of the repertoire. The organizers make no effort to conceal their nefarious intentions, titling one of the workshops [emphasis added], "Inserting Palestine into High School Curricula in the US & Empowering Students to Challenge Dominant Narratives" and subtitling the conference, "Palestinians in the US: Reclaiming Our Voice, Asserting Our Narrative." Unfortunately, this "narrative" is a false one in which Israel is the oppressor, the Palestinians its perpetual victims, and the United States an accomplice in crime.

Various Middle East studies academics will be on hand to help propagate this fictitious narrative. UC Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian, a skilled propagandist for Palestinian victimhood in the classroom and a radical activist outside it (he called for an "Intifada in this country!" at a 2004 anti–war rally in San Francisco), will be speaking on a panel titled, "Palestinian Political Prisoners in the US: The Attack on Palestinian Activists and Scholars." Bazian has long perpetuated the idea that off–campus criticism of Middle East studies is a form of persecution. To state the obvious: there are no "Palestinian political prisoners" in the U.S., only criminals convicted through the justice system of aiding and abetting terrorist organizations.

The failure to readily identify the battle between good and evil is a nagging, ongoing, dangerous pattern that shows no sign of easing up any time soon.

This week on Fox News Channel, I appeared on a show and “debated” Ibrahim Hooper, a vocal and forceful representative of CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations. The topic? Whether or not it’s a good idea for a group of Islamic folks, represented by a man once linked by the federal government of plotting to blow up buildings and kill innocent Americans, to be allowed to plaster over a thousand subway cars in New York City with advertisements promoting Islam.

I’m not kidding you.

Despite a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., has continued to use textbooks that teach hatred of everyone not of their specific brand of faith, the U.S. State Department has yet to act to close down the school. Officials of the academy, which has about 1,000 students in pre–kindergarten through grade 12, promised to excise passages in the textbooks that disparage Jews and Christians, but according to an examination by The Washington Post for the 2006–2007 school year, though "much of the controversial material had been removed, at least one book still contained passages that extolled jihad and martyrdom, called for victory over one's enemies and said the killing of adulterers and apostates was 'justified.'"

Once again, Islamic Saudi Academy officials have promised to clean up the text.

Islamofascism: Saudi money buys a lot in Washington, even an extension of a lease to an Islamic school that graduates terrorists and teaches its students it's OK to kill non–Muslims.

A federal panel wants the Islamic Saudi Academy inside the Beltway shut down for promoting hate, something we've urged for years. But remarkably, this madrassa still has powerful backers — including the State Department.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom last week released the results of a probe of the academy, which is financed and operated by the Saudi government. It found the school has failed to eliminate violent and intolerant language in textbooks.

You might expect the lead prosecutor against the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to tout the criminal justice system as the premier strategy to fight terrorism. If so, you're wrong.

It is precisely because of Andy McCarthy's experience in that capacity that he understands –– in a way others can't –– the crippling limitations of law enforcement and criminal prosecutions in combating global terrorism.

Though he led the Justice Department prosecution team that convicted Omar Abdel Rahman, the "Blind Sheik," McCarthy is painfully aware that "as a class, baby–boom attorneys know nothing of war. Prosecutors included." Even this successful effort left way too many militants in place and encouraged the idea that they could attack us with impunity.

Islamofascism: As school officials and secularists turn a blind eye, Muslim radicals in Minneapolis take a publicly funded charter school and turn it into a madrassa.

Flagrantly violating the constitutional ban on state promotion of religion, the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TIZA, herds children into bathrooms to perform ritual Islamic cleansing before leading them into the school gym to pray to Allah each day.

WASHINGTON –– It's a measure of America's multicultural journey over the past half–century that we've gone from "God and Man at Yale" to Allah and Woman at Harvard.

In a contretemps scarcely imaginable in William F. Buckley's day, Harvard has closed one of its gyms to men for six hours a week so that Muslim women can exercise comfortably. "Sharia at Harvard," warned blogger Andrew Sullivan. A Harvard Crimson columnist blasted "Harvard's misguided accommodationist policy."

BOSTON (AP) — In a test of Harvard's famed open–mindedness, the university has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week to accommodate Muslim women who say it offends their sense of modesty to exercise in front of the opposite sex.