The run up to the final days of the month long observances of Ramadan in America was occasioned by civilian and military trials in Texas regarding American Muslim Jihadis of note in our military, Pvt. Naser Jason Abdo and Maj. Nidal Hasan.  Contrast those developments with President Obama’s comments praising personal aide to Secretary of State Clinton, Huma Abedin, caught up in a swirl of Congressional controversy regarding family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. Then there was the President’s reference to the dastardly murderous attack by a suicidal Neo-Nazi on a Sikh Temple near Milwaukee seeking  protection of Mosques, a reference to a second arson of one in Joplin, Missouri.  All this as Ramadan comes to a conclusion with the Eid al Fitr feast on August 19^th.

Yesterday, ABC News reported that Pvt. Naser Jason Abdo was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences of 60 years each for his plot uncovered on July 11, 2011 at a motel in Kileen, Texas adjacent to Fort Hood.  Abdo was seeking to blow up a local restaurant filled with military service personnel.  According to ABC, FBI investigators who were tipped off by a local gun-shop owner found an arsenal of weapons, bomb-making materials and instructions from al Qaeda magazine InSpire in Abdo’s motel room.  Abdo was AWOL from his 101st Airborne unit at Fort Campbell, Kentucky after his application for conscientious objector status was put on hold for investigation of child pornography charges.  During Abdo’s arraignment following his arrest, he allegedly shouted “Nidal Hasan -Fort Hood 2009”.  Abdo was clearly seeking Jihad against fellow Army service personnel in furtherance of Maj. Nidal Hasan’s November 2009 murderous attack that killed 13 injuring more than 20, some severely, in his rampage at a Fort Hood deployment center.   At his conviction in May, Pvt. Abdo reportedly spat what may have been HIV-infected blood at his guards.   On Thursday in a separate matter, Maj. Hasan was convicted of contempt by the military court for not shaving off his beard as directed. Hasan’s long-awaited courts martial proceeding is scheduled to begin on August 20^th.  That follows the Eid-al-Fitr feast concluding the month long observances of Ramadan.

Coincident with Pvt. Abdo’s conviction, Friday night was the annual White House Iftar Dinner, a tradition begun under former President Clinton, and carried forward by Presidents  Bush and Obama.  President Obama’s remarks while citing American Muslim citizen accomplishments, singled out for special praise Huma Abedin, personal deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ms. Abedin, the highly visible aide to Secretary Clinton has been alleged to have close family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.  See our recent  post of  the Center for Security Policy briefing, “Duty is Calling Us Now”  by Andrew C. McCarthy, former Federal  Prosecutor of the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing.  Watch the abbreviated McCarthy briefing video prepared by our colleagues at Vladtepesblog, here.

Both the Obama Administration and Congressional Republican figures, including  Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham, and House Speaker Boehner have sharply criticized the efforts of five GOP House members led by Rep. Michelle Bachmann. These  Members of Congress  sent requests to the inspector generals of several federal departments and agencies to investigate Muslim Brotherhood influence in our government.   The Washington Post quoted  McCain saying:

Abedin “represents what is best about America: the daughter of immigrants, who has risen to the highest levels of our government on the basis of her substantial personal merit and her abiding commitment to the American ideals that she embodies so fully.”

According to the Washington Post, Rep. Bachman responded  to McCain and other critics saying:

“The intention of the letters was to outline the serious national security concerns I had and ask for answers to questions regarding the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical group’s access to top Obama administration officials”.

Bachmann cited her concerns that Egyptian Hani Nour Eldin, a known member of terror group Gamaa Islamiyya, had been granted a visa to visit the United States and then meet with administration officials while in Washington.

“This is just the latest example of the dangerous national security decisions made by the Obama administration,” Bachmann said. “I will not be silent as this administration appeases our enemies instead of telling the truth about the threats our country faces.”

 Last night at the glittering White House Iftar dinner, The Washington Post noted::

President Obama on Friday voiced strong support for Huma Abedin, saying the top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been “nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear.”

[. . .]

The president called Abedin an “American patriot” and added that the public owes her “a debt of gratitude” because she is “an example of what we need in this country -- more public servants with her sense of decency, her grace and her generosity of spirit.”

The Washington Post referring to the massacre at the Sikh Temple in Milwaukee by a Neo-Nazi suicide terrorist quoted:

Obama said diversity “makes us Americans,” but he warned that tolerance for such diversity is “threatened.”

He cited the recent shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, in which six people were killed by a gunman who eventually shot himself.

“Tonight, our prayers, in particular, are with our friends and fellow Americans in the Sikh community,” Obama said. “We mourn those who were senselessly murdered and injured in their place of worship. . .So tonight, we declare with one voice that such violence has no place in the United States of America. The attack on Americans of any faith is an attack on the freedom of all Americans. No American should ever have to fear for their safety in their place of worship. And every American has the right to practice their faith both openly and freely, and as they choose.”

As noted in The Lede, New York Times blog report on the Murfreesboro Mosque holding Friday Jumaa prayers, Saleh Sbenaty a board member of the embattled Islamic Center of Murfreesboro said:

They were “very concerned” about safety after the Sikh temple shooting and the fire at the Joplin, Mo., mosque.

“Even before those incidents we were the subject of vandalism, intimidation, arson and bomb threats,” he said. “We are not new to this. But we are not going to be deterred. We are not going to give up our rights just because somebody is going to threaten us.”

The Council of American Islamic relations, a Muslim Brotherhood front and one of several unindicted co-conspirators in the 2008 Federal Dallas Holy Land Foundation Trial, quickly seized these attacks to justify more federal protection. The Times noted:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called this week for extra police protection on Muslim institutions after the Sikh temple killings of six worshipers, and after the Joplin mosque was burned to the ground on Monday.

It was the second such arson attack on that mosque. The first was on July 4, and the F.B.I. later released a video of the suspect wanted in that attack.

Sic ignominy Ramadan in America.