Tuesday, February 14, 2017

"Vice Pope" Cardinal Oscar's Soros funding-Has the Vatican Bank acted as conduit , is it in breach of international AML,CTF and KYC regulations?

by Ganesh Sahathevan


The Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR),commonly known as the Vatican Bank,operates as a single customer private banking service, only accepting deposits from organisations within the Vatican.

In its own words:
The purpose of the IOR is one that sets the Institute apart from any commercial financial service provider. It is to serve the global mission of the Catholic Church by way of protecting and growing its customers’ assets and providing them with dedicated worldwide payment services. 


Given the IOR's standing it is in a position to relay funds to almost any part of the world, and with little or no scrutiny. It is not likely to have to face the same questions about source  and use that secular commercial banks and their customers would encounter.

This then brings us to the matter of "Vice Pope" Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga ,his Soros funding, and their financing of  the "Catholic Spring " movement

That the Vatican has off-balance sheet funds is a matter that has now been acknowledged by the Vatican itself(see story below).

It is then not unlikely that Soros and others funding Cardinal Oscar diverted funding into the IOR accounts of one or more of these off-balance sheet funds, from where it could be easily transferred into subsidiary and external funds in any part of the world.

These transfers may well be illegal, for the actual source of funds may not be known.Hedge funds like George Soros's Quantum Funds exist to make money for highly secretive investors. Transferring money that originates from these types of  investors is likely to expose even IOR to breaches of international Know Your Customer (KYC)laws, and possibly Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF)laws. As many a bank has discovered, the fines imposed on those breaching these laws can run into the billions.

Of course, even if these laws have not been breached, there is the not so small matter of not disclosing and not accounting for funds in accordance with Canon Law, and of undermining the Church.
END 


Reference

Vice Pope" Cardinal Oscar's Soros funding and Cardinal Pell's discovery of secret off-balance sheet funds within the Vatican

by Ganesh Sahathevan


Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga

As reported yesterday
"Vice Pope" Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga does not deny being funded by George Soros,and working with the "Catholic Spring " movement

In the above story it was concluded that Oscar appears to be in charge of a slush fund financed by George Soros, which is intended to be used for purposes Oscar sees fit, which may include financing of a "Catholic Spring".

While that story was the result of an independent investigation by this writer
it does seem that the Vatican's Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal George Pell, may have uncovered the existence of similar financial structures, even if he did not quite understand what it is he had uncovered.
In late 2014 Pell announced that he had " discovered that ...... some hundreds of millions of euros were tucked away in particular sectional accounts (of departments within the Vatican ) and did not appear on the Vatican's balance sheet."

What was even more interesting than that revelation was the reaction of the Vatican's Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J, presumably acting under instructions from the  Vatican;s Secretary Of State  Cardinal Pietro Parolin:

It should be observed that Cardinal Pell has not referred to illegal, illicit or poorly administered funds, but rather funds that do not appear on the official balance sheets of the Holy See or of Vatican City State, and which have become known to the Secretariat for the Economy during the current process of examination and revision of Vatican administration, to acquire a more comprehensive knowledge of the latter in view of the planned rationalisation. It is indeed a sign and result of constructive cooperation between the various Vatican institutions.

Moreover, it was known and had been previously explained, also publicly by the Prefecture of Economic Affairs, that the consolidated balance sheets of the Holy See and Vatican City State, presented every year to the College of Cardinals, do not in any way encompass the totality of the numerous administrations under Vatican auspices, but only the main institutions of the Roman Curia and the State.


This statement was curious for Pell did not actually say that the accounts were "illegal".If anything Pell seemed not to understand that financial entities of any sort often have secret reserves, In fact, Pell concluded with some satisfaction that his discovery meant that the Vatican was well able to finance its activities:

“It is important to point out that the Vatican is not broke. Apart from the pension fund, which needs to be strengthened for the demands on it in 15 or 20 years, the Holy See is paying its way, while possessing substantial assets and investments.“In fact, we have discovered that the situation is much healthier than it seemed, because some hundreds of millions of euros were tucked away in particular sectional accounts and did not appear on the balance sheet. It is another question, impossible to answer, whether the Vatican should have much larger reserves.”


It does seem as if there is some concern within the Vatican that slush funds such as that which appear to be controlled by Cardinal Oscar ,  that ought to have been reported and accounted for as required by Canon Law, remain secret. Wikileaks and in time other publications are going to make that task  near impossible, and hence it is best that all concerned come clean,
END


PM Najib may have handed Luconia,Greater Sarawak oil and gas provinces to China: Loss to Malaysia may exceed Badawi's USD 100 billion Brunei deal

by Ganesh Sahathevan

It has been previously reported on this blog that PM Najib has probably handed over control of the Luconia Shoals to the Chinese Government.


Image result for central luconia china

Luconia Shoals Map



The cost to Malaysia of that handing over of control to China is illustrated in the map below, which shows the extent of  the Luconia Province which lies within the  Greater Sarawak  Basin.


'
(Source:Borneo’s Petroleum Plays,Rasoul Sorkhabi, PhD)


While much of the area has been awarded to Shell and others, much remains open.However,
given the territorial conflict that China has brought to bear on the entire South China Sea, it is not unlikely that current concession holders would simply surrender their exploration and production rights.
 While the area is not the easiest to explore nor the most prospective, technological advances (which are quite rapid) can change all that very quickly.Consequently the dollars lost probably exceed that which Najib Razak's predecessor Abdullah Badawi handed over to Brunei. Badawi's predecessor Mahathir Mohamad claims the Badawi give-away is worth USD 100 billion.That figure
has never been disputed by Badawi nor Najib.



(Source:Were Blocks L and M previously part of Malaysia, revisited)

END
.






Saturday, February 11, 2017

Najib's Pedra Branca action: A game of extortion to recover billions frozen by the Singapore Government? Are China & Najib playing the Suzhou Gambit ?

by Ganesh Sahathevan


While this writer has suggested that Malaysia's renewed interest in the Pedra Branca matter may have more to do with China's South China Sea ambition, the matter of PM's Najib's funds in Singapore ought not be disregarded.

It was the Singaporeans themselves who let it be known that they have frozen a number of accounts in Singapore in relation to the 1MDB theft,and it has now been admitted by even Malaysia's Attorney General Mohd Appandi that some USD 620 million of that money was sent back to an account in Singapore (even if he described it as a generous donation that was returned,in part).


These two images from Sarawak Report tell the story.


Image result for Tanore FInance




Related image

The two objectives, doing China's bidding and extorting the return of the funds held in Singapore, need not be mutually exclusive.Everything is negotiable, or to use a term popular in this Trump era, it is all in the art of the deal.Singapore's top leadership understand that,and China and Malaysia know that the Singaporeans can be relied on to hand over cash ,even if it only minimizes the pain.Readers may want to refer to the matter of Suzhou,where Singapore was forced into a loss making minority position despite having seemingly watertight (pun intended) agreements and impeccable connections. 
END




References-Sarawak Report



TANORE FINANCE - Inside Story Of The "Saudi Royal Donation" - The FBI Files Continued

TANORE FINANCE - Inside Story Of The "Saudi Royal Donation" - The FBI Files Continued

Confirmed - no Saudi Royal was involved in the 2013 Tanore Finance Corporation transfers
Confirmed – no Saudi Royal was involved in the 2013 Tanore Finance Corporation transfers
Breaking…
The story of the ‘Saudi Royal Donation’ has gone up in smoke, thanks to the clear and forensic detail provided by the FBI.
Step by step, down to the date of each dollar transfer, the Feds have spelt out in their report how, in just a matter of days, $681 million (RM2.6bn) raised from 1MDB’s so-called Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) bond issue was passed to Najib’s now notorious personal AmBank account in KL.
They point out that this was the very same bank account into which earlier transfers were traced from the previous 1MDB heists, processed through the companies Good Star and Blackstone, which were both controlled by Jho Low.
Tanore Finance, the company which passed on the cash, was in the name of Jho Low’s associate, Eric Tan and a named signatory was none other than the lawyer Jasmine Loo, whom Low had brought from Sarawak’s UBG corporation to be Executive Director of Group Strategy at 1MDB (before using 1MDB’s money to buy out his own and Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s interests in UBG).
Out of $2.7 billion raised from the 2013 TRX bond issue $1.59 billion was immediately siphoned into a network of off-shore funds that had been used before to launder money. These companies passed $835,000,000 straight to Tanore, which in turn passed the $681 million on to Najib’s account, thanks to instructions from Loo.
No Saudi Royal in sight.
Stop pretending folks!
Stop pretending folks!
The scheme laid out by the FBI reveals how a tight group of key players had been brought together by this astonishing theft – a gang that had already been identified by Sarawak Report as we observed their partying and close connections.
These were the people around Jho Low and they include the American Joey McFarland, who had become the Co-Producer of Red Granite Pictures together with Najib’s step-son Riza Aziz.
Red Granite producer, Joey McFarland, has been identified by the FBI as a key player in Jho Low's art purchases using money from Tanore, after opening an account in his name at Christies....
Red Granite producer, Joey McFarland, has been identified by the FBI as a key player in Jho Low’s art purchases using money from Tanore, in his role as ‘authorised agent’ for the Tanore account at Christies….
Joey, who fancies himself as a discerning art collector, was at the centre of a picture-buying spree, in the period after the 2013 election, when Najib sent much of the money back to Tanore from KL.
The FBI details how Jho Low and his gang set about laundering it through art and other high value purchases.
This is the very same party gang, whom Sarawak Report earlier pin-pointed through their online presence, enjoying themselves in the ski centres of the world, cruising on mega-yachts and clubbing in Vegas.
According to their instagram accounts, this tight gang of thieves considered themselves “family” – tied together by their joint misdeeds, which are now bared to the world in this report.
They include Jho Low, Riza Aziz, Jasmine Loo, Joey McFarland, Khadem Al Qubaisi and a pack of Hollywood hangers on, who have been happy to enjoy their lavish hospitality, gambling chips, magnums of champagne, yachts, jets, art auction donations and the like and they include Leo Di Caprio, Alicia Keays, Swizz Beatz and a number of other well known celebrities.

The money trail

There is not a shred of doubt in this indictment that the person identified as ‘Malaysian Official 1′ is Najib Razak.
There are numerous confirmations and clear pointers that the only person to whom the DOJ is referring is the Malaysian Prime Minister and anyone saying otherwise is merely seeking to convince those who have not read the report or the wilfully gullible.
The section on ‘The Tanore Finance Stage’ of the 1MDB theft is as clear an indicator as any of the Prime Minister’s guilt as a mega-thief and liar, in that it deals with the money trail of $681 million, which led from 1MDB’s 2013 bond issue (supposedly for the Tun Razak Exchange project) into Najib’s personal AmBank Account in KL.
The DOJ points out that this is the very same sum and the very same transaction that has been acknowledged by Najib as having entered his account, confirmed by the Malaysian Attorney General.
Except Najib claimed that it was a ‘Saudi Royal Donation’ and said it was later largely returned to the ‘anonymous donor’, whereas the DOJ explains in detail how the money was flashed within two days from the 1MDB bond issue into Najib’s account through a few short banking moves via Tanore Finance which was controlled by Low and his associates.
Squarely said. Is there any Malaysian who can read the above and not conclude that Malaysian Official No 1 is not Najib Razak?
Squarely said. Is there any Malaysian who can read the above and not conclude that Malaysian Official No 1 is not Najib Razak?
Most of the money was indeed returned to Tanore after the election in August the US investigators say, but it was then used by Jho Low and his gang to invest in art, real estate and other business ventures.
The DOJ devastatingly uses Malaysia’s own Attorney General’s statements, made during his bid to ‘clear’ his boss Najib, against himself, as they quote his admissions about the money:
“263.  The Attorney General of Malaysia publicly stated that he conducted an inquiry into the $681 million in payments. In a press release issued on January 26, 2016, the Malaysian Attorney General confirmed that, “the sum of USD681 million (RM2.08 billion) [was] transferred into the personal account of [MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1]  between 22.03.2013 and 10.04.2013,” and that, “in August 2013, a sum of USD620 million (RM2.03 billion) was returned by [MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1]. . . .” The Malaysian Attorney General ultimately characterized the payment of $681 million as a “personal donation to [MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1] from the Saudi royal family which was given to him without any consideration.”
It leaves no doubt that the man in question is Najib, as confirmed by AG Apandi’s own statement.
Sarawak Report has distilled the detailed information provided in Section III of the DOJ indictment on the path of the funds raised by the March 2013 bond issue – see the money trail below:
No Saudi Royal Donor in the trail - only 1MDB and Najib!
No Saudi Royal Donor in the trail – only 1MDB and Najib!

Sky-Box Art!

The gang of conspirators around Najib and Jho Low are thrown into sharp relief by the ongoing story of the Tanore cash flows. The account at Falcon Bank in Singapore was in the name of Low’s associate Eric Tan, says the DOJ, but the day before the transfers to Najib were made 1MDB’s Executive Director of Group Strategy, Jasmine Loo, was added as a signatory. Loo, a lawyer, was also a long-standing associate of Low, having followed him from UBG in Sarawak.
The DOJ make clear that the reason for adding Loo to the account was to facilitate the transfers and it showed a clear purpose to defraud the fund involving some of its most senior officers.
When in August 2013, after the election, the bulk of the money was returned from Najib’s AmBank account to Tanore Finance, it was used for purposes of self-enrichment by the same gang of conspirators with no care for the public purpose of the fund:
Buying art on the Tanore account
Buying art on the Tanore account
The FBI has traced a huge haul of valuable modern art purchased by the conspirators, often at record prices, over the following months via their account at Christies, as Jho Low and his pals started to style themselves as ‘art lovers’ and ‘art patrons’.
Christies allegedly believed that Low was the owner of Tanore and was making purchases for his corporate collection, although Low went to considerable lengths to attempt to disguise his connection by working through Eric Tan as the nominee beneficial owner and Joey McFarland as the bidder for the pictures.
Christies told the FBI that McFarland and Low attended art auctions in New York together and that at those auctions, McFarland would bid for Tanore.
These items are now on the asset seizure list and they include a number of paintings already identified by Sarawak Report:
“..an unnamed work by Mark Ryden for $714,000 (“Ryden work”) and an unnamed work by Ed Ruscha for $367,500 (“Ruscha work”). At a Post-War & Contemporary Evening Sale on May 15, 2013, Tanore purchased Dustheads, by Jean- Michel Basquiat (“Dustheads”) for $48,843,750; Untitled – Standing Mobile, Alexander Calder (“Calder Standing Mobile”) for $5,387,750; and Tic Tac Toe, by Alexander Calder (“Tic Tac Toe”) for $3,035,750….two works of art in a private sale arranged by Christie’s: Concetto spaziale, Attese, by Lucio Fontana (“the Fontana piece”); and Untitled (Yellow and Blue) by Mark Rothko (“the Rothko piece”)…[and]…a work by Vincent Van Gogh entitled La maison de Vincent a Arles (“VAN GOGH ARTWORK”) for $5,485,000.”
Yet, it is clear that art was not in fact the primary love of partying Jho Low and his friends, who even treated their purchasing jobs like further trips to Vegas casinos.
In November 2013 Low had ordered a special ‘Sky-Box’ to entertain his art auction guests at Christies.  A staff email explained to colleagues who were setting up the structure:
“It better look like Ceasar Palace [sic] in there . . .The box is almost more important for the client than the art.”
The DOJ investigation rips apart all attempts by Low to pretend it was not himself behind the art, despite endless subterfuge recorded in emails to disguise his role. Christies apparently tolerated the deceit and kept his identity secret, although Joey’s presence at the auctions alerted SR!

Gift letters – ‘This is definitely not corrupt”!

The fact that these paintings were then “gifted” by Tan to Jho Low and McFarland is the final give-away in the Tanore art buying spree.  However, the DOJ detail a fascinating touch, whereby Jho Low arranged for letters to be sent to justify these various multi-million dollar gifts.
It is a modus-operandi that followers of the donation trails to Najib’s AmBank account will find familiar:
These “gifts” of art purchased by Tanore were memorialized in several “gift letters.” While the body of each letter was identical, each letter referenced a different work or works being gifted,
Likewise, the various ‘donations’ made to Najib via Blackstone, Tanore and a supposed Saudi sheikh (Saud Abdulaziz Majid al-Saud/Prince Faisal bin Turkey bin Bandar Alsaud), were all accompanied by the same pro-forma donation letters addressed to AmBank – and written in similar tone!
“Each of these gift letters was: (a) dated October 2, 2013, (b) addressed to LOW from TAN and Tanore, and (c) contained the subject line: “RE: GIFT OF ART- WORK(S) AS STATED BELOW IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR FRIENDSHIP, YOUR CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD, AND PASSION IN PROMOTING THE UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION OF ART-WORKS …
I wish to gift you ALL of the art-work(s) mentioned in this gift letter in consideration of the followings [sic]:
–  all the generosity, support and trust that you have shared with me over the course of our friendship, especially during the difficult periods of my life; and
– your continuous generosity in providing charitable contributions to advance the well-being and development of our global communities; and
– your passion in promoting the understanding and appreciation of art- works.
287. Each gift letter closes by stating:
All the art-work(s) gifted to you should not in any event be construed as an act of corruption since this is against the Company and/or my principles and I personally do not encourage such practices in any manner whatsoever.
As the DOJ leaves any reader to conclude, this ludicrous and childish denial of specified corruption bears an almost identical flavour to the letters sent to AmBank by the supposed Sheikh donor to Najib Razak – and the author can only be the youthful, ridiculous and party-loving poser, Jho Low
Same style, same denial as the donation letters to Najib - "“The Gift should not in any event be construed as an act of corruption since this is against the practice of Islam and I personally do not encourage such practices in any manner whatsoever…"
Same style, same denial as the donation letters to Najib – “The Gift should not in any event be construed as an act of corruption since this is against the practice of Islam and I personally do not encourage such practices in any manner whatsoever…”

Proceeds of money laundering confiscated in the US

The DOJ as plaintiff then proceeds to demand the confiscation of a number of purchases by Jho Low and others with 1MDB’s stolen cash.
The L’Ermitage Hotel in Hollywood was bought from money which can be traced to the theft of $700 million from the PetroSaudi joint venture, says the DOJ.
The Hillcrest Drive, Hollywood Mansion also bought by Jho Low and then passed to Najib’s step-son Riza was also bought with the same stolen money, along with further funds which were stolen from the later scheme with Aabar.
All the money for the $15,917,189.63 purchase of this house for Riza Aziz came from the money stolen by Good Star according to charts provided by the DOJ, thus wholly vindicating Sarawak Report’s expose back in 2014, for which Riza Aziz’s lawyers sought to sue us.
Likewise, Riza’s fancy New York flat was also purchased from the same theft from the PetroSaudi deal “Funds traceable to the $700 million wire transfer from 1MDB to the Good Star Account were used in 2010 to acquire the PARK LAUREL CONDOMINIUM in New York, New York”
Jho Low even bought himself a Bombardier Jet from the same haul: “In 2010, LOW used funds traceable to the $700 million wire transfer from 1MDB to the Good Star Account to acquire the BOMBARDIER JET, a Bombardier Global 5000 aircraft bearing manufacturer serial number 9265 and registration number N689WM, with two Rolls Royce engines bearing manufacturer’s serial numbers 12487 and 12488, for approximately $35,371,335.”
Low’s Time Warner Building penthouse came from the same stolen money as was the most expensive Hollywood mansion in Oriole Drive, which had also been identified by Sarawak Report as belonging to Jho Low.
Research by Sarawak Report indicates that in 2012 Jho Low purchased the most expensive ever mansion in Hollywood Hills at 1423 Oriole Drive, for just under USD$39million
Research by Sarawak Report indicates that in 2012 Jho Low purchased the most expensive ever mansion in Hollywood Hills at 1423 Oriole Drive, for just under USD$39million

Larry Low

Sarawak Report is also vindicated in its coverage of the role of Low’s father Larry Low in helping him transfer and launder the billions filtched from 1MDB.  Millions were passed from Good Star through Larry’s BSI account.
Low continued to use the Good Star money stolen from 1MDB to fund business venture, such as his prestige purchase of the world’s third largest music publishing company EMI Publishing for over a hundred million dollars and Greene Condominium in New York.
The investigators show how Jho Low’s sudden representation of his previously modest family as extremely wealthy had a purpose.  It was an attempt to convince business partners that his funds came from legitimate family sources, as opposed to being stolen.  It is for this reason says the DOJ, Low funnelled much of the stolen Good Star and Aabar money through his father’s accounts before purchasing concerns such as EMI Publishing:
In materials that LOW submitted to entities with whom he sought to do business… LOW represented that family resources were a significant source of his wealth. By funneling money through his father’s account for a brief period of time, LOW created the appearance that funds in his personal account, which were used to acquire an interest in EMI Partner A, came from his father rather than from Good Star or ADKMIC.
These acquisitions are now set to be confiscated by the DOJ and the fugitive Jho Low has few secrets left in the game he has tried to play, first his his role as ‘youthful business prodigy’ then as a ‘third generation billionaire’.
It is now for all to see that Jho Low is merely a thief who has been assisted by Malaysian Official No 1.

Red Granite and the Hollywood Jet Set – ‘Hollywood Actor 1′ !

The funds used to pay for the prestige production of the Wolf of Wall Street are “directly traceable to the $700 million wire transfer and $330 million wire transfers unlawfully diverted from 1MDB to the Good Star Account”, says the DOJ.
It entirely vindicates Sarawak Report’s original query whether the film was funded by Riza’s friend Jho Low, despite furious denials at the time. Referring to lead actor Leonardo Di Caprio as “Hollywood Actor 1″ the DOJ confirms that Jho Low’s ring of gangsters was behind the film:
“In his acceptance speech upon winning a Golden Globe for his role in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Hollywood Actor 1 thanked “the entire production team,” singling out in particular “Joey, Riz, and Jho,” whom he characterized as “collaborators” on the film. Upon information and belief, this reference was to Joey McFarland, a co-founder of Red Granite Pictures, AZIZ, and LOW”
The DOJ report is as detailed as it is damning and now that the Prime Minister of Malaysia has been revealed to be a common crook, he must leave office.
Najib Razak may yet protest his innocence in the face of the overwhelming evidence and claim that he will be vindicated in court. However, people in positions of leadership can never expect to continue in office with such outrageous and well-founded charges against his head.
If under such circumstances he does not step aside to allow a credible candidate to take his place that in itself would be a criminal act against his people.
Najib must go before he causes further instability in Malaysia.
It's criminal in Malaysia too! DOJ reminds Malaysia's law and order enforcers what their duty is regarding Malaysian Official No 1
It’s criminal in Malaysia too! DOJ reminds Malaysia’s law and order enforcers what their duty is regarding Malaysian Official No 1

Friday, February 10, 2017

Google's opposition to Trump's "Muslim ban": How does Google explain the case of Waleed Kadous,software engineer opposed to the West, and everything it stands for?

by Ganesh Sahathevan 

This article was written by Ganesh Sahatevan and published on the Terror Finance Blog in 2008.
It is reproduced here given the lead role Google , or more correctly its parent Alphabet Inc , is taking against the so-called " Muslim ban" executive order issued by President Donald Trump.




Australian Muslim Activist Coming To USA,courtesy Google Inc.

Mohammed Waleed Kadous, a senior research fellow at the University of NSW,Sydney , Australia in the school of computer science and engineering, has been offered a two-year contract by Google to work in software engineering, reported THE Australian in November 2007((http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22717435-16123,00.html)
Dr Kadous has dedicated his spare time to civil rights. In 2001 he founded the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network which, in conjunction with the University of Technology, Sydney, released a 2004 booklet ASIO(Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) , the Police and You, detailing anti-terror laws.The booklet is essentialy a guide to getting around anti-terror leigislation.
Dr Kadous has told THE AUSTRALIAN that civil rights work helped further his career."My volunteer work has improved my ability to communicate ideas, especially under a lot of pressure," he said."I'm hoping to volunteer for several civil rights groups ... and when I come back to Australia use both the skills I learn from volunteering and from working for Google. Lobby groups in the US have done some amazing work for civil rights."
(http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22717435-16123,00.html)
He is active in the UNSW Muslim Students Society.In one of his Friday sermons he said:
Now, as far as I can see, these are three of the pillars of Western Society. The problem is that these three are Great Lies.
The First Great Lie is that if a majority of people say something is right, then it is right. This Lie is called democracy.......anyone who looks, who reads, who pays attention and applies the Islamic filter - those ``green-coloured glasses'' can see that Western Society is falling to pieces. The idea that I said earlier about the three great lies: I'm not the first person to see these problems - Western intellectuals have been discussing the problems for a long time. All three issues are being discussed right now, but it looks like all three are on a downhill slide, and the West doesn't seem to have anything to slow down these society-breaking developments. So we've got to be here to offer them the right alternative, that is Islam. How many more years do you think Western Society will survive before collapsing? 30 years? 40 years? If it's lucky. I'm telling you now, that there is very little doubt in my mind that within our lifetimes, something is going to happen. And we have to be ready to fulfill our Islamic responsibilities when that happens.
Full article at http://isoc-unsw.org.au/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=73
Waleed Kadous was interviewed on Channel Nine's SUNDAY programme, aired on 16/10/2005.(http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_1891.asp )

His exchange with reporter Adam Shand:
ADAM SHAND: But there is also ambiguity and political orthodoxy inside the Muslim community on the question of home-grown suicide bombers.
WALEED KADOUS: I'm sure that there are some in the community who are involved in terrorism , but it is important not to exaggerate either the threat or the number. I would — actually, can I retract that. Let me just think of a way to phrase that better. If they do exist — and I'm not sure that they do exist — we only have ASIO's word to say that.
See also article by Sharon Lapkin at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=bc38ae46-70c6-4060-81f1-b5d64a56254f

END 

Reference -The Kutbah

Developing an Islamic MindsetPDFPrintE-mail
Written by M. Waleed Kadous   

First Khutbah

In the name of Allah, and praises and peace be upon the Prophet of Allah. I advise us all to fear Allah, and to be conscious of his omniscience, for whoever does so, Allah will provide for him a way out of trouble.
There is no God but Allah the Kind and Merciful, and thanks be to Allah, the lord of the Great Throne. We ask that you bring upon us your mercy and the doors of your forgiveness, and protection from our own sins, and forgiveness of our minor transgressions.
Assalamu Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. May the peace, blessings and mercy of Allah be upon you all.

Introduction

As Soadad explained, Islam is something that is visionary; something that has and we are promised by Allah, will, make the world the best possible place it can be for all of humanity. As the Qur'an says:

arabtext17


You are indeed the best from among the peoples, ordering what is right and forbidding what is evil.
Surah 3 Verse 110But the first step in reestablishing Islam is that you have to want Islam to be in this position and you have to do your part to bring it around. As the verse says, Allah will not change a situation until the people change themselves. Surah 13 Verse 11
So, Soadad has made you see why changing yourself is so important. Now we come to the crux of the question. We now know whatyou want to change - we want to be better Muslims; we want to be part of that solution of the world's problems. So now we ask the question ... how?
Now there's a lot of things that have to happen before we can establish the Muslims ummah. But if we look at the history of the Prophet (SAWS), what do we find? We find that he spent 13 years in Makkah, developing people's Iman, people's belief, with not many rules - most of the Islamic Law comes from the Madinan period; the last ten years of the Prophet's life.
So why'd he spend so much time on establishing faith? I mean as far as many people, what's so tricky about Iman. We all know the Shahadah, but do we understand its ramifications? I really don't think so. We don't understand that the Shahadah has very serious implications for our life.
Now I could give a whole seminar about the implications of the Shahadah, but I'll leave that for another time. I just want to talk about one aspect of Iman, and that is the idea of an Islamic mindset. It is this that I think the Prophet (SAWS) was trying to establish.
A mindset is about the way you see the world, and what you see your role in the world as being. It's a modern word, but it's a very old concept. One hadith Qudsi (a hadith in which Allah speaks to the Prophet [saws]) says in part of it:
When I love [my servant] I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks.
That's what we want Islam to be for us. We want it to be the way we see the world. You know how we describe someone who has a naive view of the world as wearing ``rose-coloured glasses''. Well, what I want us all to have is ``green-coloured glasses'' - we always want to see the world through Islamic eyes. But I can't do this for you. You've got to do this for yourself. But as another hadith says, if you walk towards Allah, he comes running towards you.
The basis of the Islamic mindset is, of course, the Shahadah. But part of the shahadah is believing in Allah and his Messenger, and of course, the Qur'an. It also means that you believe the Qur'an is the ultimate guide to living on this planet. And this means that the belief has effects, it must be reflected through obedience.
This shouldn't be too hard, should it? I mean we know that Islam is part of the fitra, our nature as human beings. Yet most of us don't have and Islamic mindset. Why is that?
The answer is that you can still change someone's mindset, especially if you control them when they are young. And if you live in a Western country, like Australia, then their system will not be designed to give you an Islamic mindset; it will be designed to give you a Western mindset; to appreciate their system. I mean it's not surprising, is it?
So how do they modify our Islamic mindset? The main ways are through the education system, through the media, especially television. And they do it in two main ways: One is through putting down Islam, which makes Muslims not proud to be Muslim. In fact it makes them ashamed to be Muslims, and they're always on the back foot, defending themselves. The other is by introducing their own mindset that is the opposite of that which Islam teaches. What's more they do it in a very subtle and tricky way.
So let's look at the first way they stuff you around and twist your mind. They make you feel inferior by being Muslim. They don't want you to acknowledge Islam's beauty and history. I'll give you some examples:
When I was in high school, which believe it or not, was only 10 years ago, we did ancient history (6000BC to about 100CE) and then we did modern history (1500CE to the current time). Who can see the problem here? Where'd they hide 1400 years? I spent 4 years studying history at school. How much time did we spend on those 1400 years that represent about one fifth of humanity's recorded history? Two lessons. And you know what those lessons were? My teacher actually said ``Well, the reason the Muslims ruled the world at that time was that everybody else was weak''. And then what do they do? They start the history of the modern world talking about the renaissance and give you some fiction about the renaissance being based on the Medici family sponsoring art; when the truth is that any historian will tell you that the European renaissance was largely a result of the Islamic writing and Muslims preserving European books which they themselves had destroyed.
They don't teach you how brutal Europe was. They don't teach you about the Spanish Inquisition. They don't tell you about how nasty the crusades were and how the so-called ``civilised world'' used to act.
They don't teach you that much of the mathematics we need today to design computers and build cars and even our number system, came from the Muslims.
They don't teach you that the Muslims had a glorious history, when the world was at peace for centuries - a period of justice, even for non-Muslims; when some Christians preferred to be under the control of Muslims than to be at the mercy of other Christians. They don't teach you that we advanced knowledge in every field of knowledge of the time, from philosophy to astronomy to architecture and everything in between. They don't teach you that YOU as a Muslim are the heir to this wonderful civilisation. They don't teach you about the brutality of colonialism and the incredibly barbarous things the Europeans did to our home countries, to the Muslim world, using their old favourite: divide and conquer; and that the current decrepitude and poverty in our home countries is the result of them raping our countries for all the resources they could possibly extract.
They teach you evolution as if it's some kind of law; not acknowledging that evolution has serious flaws and isn't even a well-formed scientific theory. They don't teach you what every scientist knows: that science is just a set of ``working hypotheses'', that there's no such thing as Newton's Laws.
They don't teach you that Islam provided a stable economic system without having to use interest; and that in fact, the market instabilities we see around us today are caused mostly by interest and interest-related phenomena.
But the information is all there. Even their historians know this. You read their histories and it's there. They just don't teach it to you.
So what? The result is that you feel as if being Muslim is something to be ashamed of, instead of something to be proud of. You're too busy overcoming your sense of shame and explaining how Islam isn't what they say it is to see that Islam is better than what they have.
And the media is no different. They just create these images of Islam as some sort of evil. Three years ago, I did a survey about the press media and Islam. And it was disgusting. 30 articles. 26 were about war. And the things they said about people associated with Islam; it was just incredible. There is far more to the Muslim world than this. And if you watch television, they play similar tricks. But they do it dirty; they do it by association. For example, they'll discuss daughters who get bashed by their fathers because they didn't accept an arranged marriage (something which in Islam we know is completely unacceptable). And they won't say anything explicitly about Islam - they won't mention it. What they do is they'll put someone making Athan in the background, put up some pictures of women wearing the veil, put a picture of a mosque. They don't actually tell you that it's got nothing to do with Islam; but they're intent on associating it with Islam anyway. As they say ``Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.'' See, the problem is that we don't understand what effect television has on us. Psychologists who have done research in this area will tell you that even though we all know consciously that television is just this electronic gizmo, but that at a deeper level, television is real to us. I mean have you ever sat back and though about how stupid it is that after seeing a scary movie you tell yourself ``It's only a movie''. I mean, well, duh, you obviously know it's only a movie! So why are you saying that? Do you understand now why some scholars are so adamant about TV? That they tell you to switch off the television? I mean you should at least be a little selective.
Again, in addition to what they do tell you, there's a lot they don't tell you, too. Remember the furore over Pakistan having nuclear weapons? Well, do you know that there was a meeting a few weeks before, where India and Pakistan were both saying to the US and other countries that already have nuclear weapons that they were ready to cut a deal on nuclear weapons if the US would cut its own stock? And the US just vetoed it. As one commentator said, what the US is actually saying is: Nuclear weapons in our hands contributes to global security, nuclear weapons in your brown Indian hands, or Pakistani hands contributes to global insecurity. This is hypocritical at best, racist at worst. Let me emphasise I am not making a statement about whether what Pakistan is doing is wrong or right; I am just saying that look at how we only get the information they want us to have. And you know what? A few weeks ago the US Dept of Energy commissioned the world's largest supercomputer. You know what they're going to use it for, right? They're going to use it for nuclear simulations! The thing is the US has enough data from real tests to make good simulations while other countries can't.
Same thing with Iraq. They don't tell you that over 600,000 children have died as a result of UN-imposed sanctions. Again, all the information is there, and if you look for it, you can find it. But it's not publicised. Nobody tells you about it.
Instead, what do they teach you? Well, they do teach you a lot of useful stuff, no doubt about it. But they also teach you some things which are essentially against Islamic teaching. I will highlight three of these. Now, as far as I can see, these are three of the pillars of Western Society. The problem is that these three are Great Lies.
The First Great Lie is that if a majority of people say something is right, then it is right. This Lie is called democracy. And we know that this isn't the case. But they don't really emphasise the effects. They don't tell you that the Nazi Party was the most popular party in the 1933 elections in Germany. They don't tell you that this means something that used to be wrong can become right. Now, in Islam, we know that people can be misled, and that truth is independant of numbers. Truth comes from Allah. One of his names is Truth. So when we build an Islamic state, the starting point is not something invented by man, be it capitalism, communism or whatever, but something from God. Instead, they promote this idea that democracy is the ultimate way to lead and anything that isn't democracy is just plain wrong. There, I said it. Some of you in the audience are going no! but Islam is democratic! You see? You already see democracy as the ultimate form of leadership. You can see it's worked on you! The other thing they don't tell you is that because it's a few rich people who own the media, and control the agenda, that democracy very soon becomes the rich ruling the poor. And they also teach you that religion should have no role in government, when Islam says the complete opposite! As if believing in God doesn't affect how you think a country should be run. In an Islamic state, people have input in the decision-making process, but they can't change the laws.
The Second Great Lie is that satisfaction is only to be had by having material things. This Lie is called materialism. And this one is also a whopper. They don't tell you that scientific research of 30,000 people shows that material wealth is a very, very poor predictor of happiness. They don't tell you that the richest people frequently have the most serious psychological problems and end up dead by suicide, or overdosed on drugs that they took to forget how bad their life was. Instead, you watch the daytime TV shows and what do people on those TV shows do when they're depressed? They go shopping. As if shopping is the ultimate solution to depression! And they do it to kids too. Every cartoon now comes out with a set of merchandise. It's not the Saturday Morning Cartoons any more, it's the Saturday Morning Ads. It's ads within ads. Man, have you seen some of them? Like the new one for shampoo: they say, it's not a shampoo, it's a lifestyle or something like that. Yeah right! Like a shampoo's going to change your life! Or the ads for the new Jeep Cherokee, you seen them? Where the woman gets out of the car and shuts the other woman's mouth? What are they saying? They're saying ``if you own a Jeep, you can impress other women''. Or the TV shows: Better Homes and Gardens, you too can have houses like the rich and famous. We watch TV without thinking what are they really telling us? What does Islam tell us? Islam tells us that, sure, you need some basic material things to survive. But people will never be satisfied with material things, you always want more. And true satisfaction, true peace, true Islam, can only be obtained by making ourselves subservient to the will of Allah.
One thing I haven't figured out yet is why you guys are wearing your fila and your adidas and your nike t-shirts. Why do you buy them? Do you really think Nike shirts are better quality? They're made in Indonesia, just like the rest of them. Yet you pay what, three times as much? For what? You're buying their advertising not the t-shirt!
Why? I asked one of my friends who used to wear shirts like that and he had the honesty to tell me it's for showing off, so you can be accepted by your peers. Fine! Then explain this to me. You're showing off your clothes, but you don't want to show off Islam, when Islam is from Allah, someone who loves you and cares for you; and your T-shirt is from nike, a company who want nothing more than your money? I would really appreciate it if someone, during question time, could explain to me, give me a good reason, why they are wearing a nike t-shirt. I won't rip into you, I promise. I just want to understand why!
The Third Great Lie, and the one that seems to be becoming very strong right now, is that if everybody acts as greedily as they possibly can, then this thing called the market makes sure that everyone gets the best deal possible. This is called Capitalism, or increasingly, Economic Rationalism. It's like the first thing they teach you in economics, about Adam Smith and the ``invisible hand''. What a complete load of nonsense. It's been proven wrong time and time again. They don't tell you about how because of the overemphasis on the market, the difference between the poor and the rich is becoming bigger and bigger. They don't tell you that big international banks tried to wipe out the Australian economy a few weeks ago with a multi-billion dollar attempt to deflate our currency so that they could make a quick buck. They don't tell you that interest is the mechanism used by the first world to keep the third world in debt and that Pakistan pays US$500 million a month in interest alone on its debts. That the IMF won't dismiss the debts of Honduras and Nicaragua, despite Hurricane Mitch; and this means they will be in a debt hole forever, they won't ever be able to get out of. They don't tell you that because rich companies donate to political parties, the environment will be stuffed for the foreseeable future. And what does Islam tell us? It tells us that unconstrained greed leads to destruction of the world. That interest is bad. That hoarding to create a monopoly is not permitted. That deception is not permitted. That we have a responsibility to this planet; that we are its caretakers.
So what we have is a society that stuffs the Muslim around in two ways. First it makes him ashamed to be Muslim. Then it takes his Islamic mindset away and replaces it not with nothing (which is what the people in the West claim it to be), but with something that is the complete opposite of Islam in many, many ways.
How on earth do we fix this problem? I mean we've all been affected by it. Well, the first thing is that you have to learn about the Islamic mindset. And there are lots of ways you can do this. There are now at leat three lessons in English that occur regularly around the place for men and women, young and old. If you don't like going to lessons, fine, there are books. There's also a lot of stuff on the Web. There's too much stuff on the Web. The question isn't where, but which?
Then once you know about Islam, you have to re-evaluate everything you already know. You have to always be thinking: what does Islam say about this? Even when you're at school, or uni, or work and especially when you are watching television, you should always have this Islamic filter in place and be thinking: is this idea in line with Islam or not?
We should never just accept some fact about society or truth because the course or the degree or the television says so. We should always be questioning; never accepting things blindly.
Second thing is to spread this around - to both non-Muslims and Muslims. Make them see that things are not always what they seem and that you have to realise that Western Society today is a network of vested interests. You have governments local and international, media, education, the military and industry. When it serves their interests, they won't tell you the the truth.
Finally, I think that we, as second generation Australians, have a special role to play. Now, I'm going to say something that may offend some older members of the audience, but that is not my intention, and I welcome discussion during Q & A. Most of our parents did not go through high school in Australia, right? So they don't understand the process about how we got indoctrinated. They don't understand how we get twisted and what the average Australian goes through. That means that we have a better understanding of what it means to have been brought up Australian than our parents do. So they didn't understand what they had to provide for us to stop us being indoctrinated and affected.
But what about you? What about when you have kids? What about your smaller brothers and sisters? Are you going to let the same thing that happened to you happen to them? You have a responsibility to ensure that your kids don't end up like you did. If you want to improve the Muslim Ummah, then one place to start is with you, your friends, your brothers and sisters, and when you get to it, your children. You know what the Prophet said when he was ordered to make the revelation public? He gathered the people and asked them: If I was to warn you that over that very hill comes an army that's going to try to take over Makkah, would you believe me? And they said yes! And the prophet said in the same way: I warn you of Allah and the last day.
And it should be the same for us. The same way if your friend or your brother if a car was coming towards him, you'd warn him, that's the way it should be with your Islam and your mindset. If you really care about him or her; you'll try to save them. That's the correct view of it. If you don't do it, then you're not being a true friend or brother or son to them.
But it also means that we have another responsibility. You see, anyone who looks, who reads, who pays attention and applies the Islamic filter - those ``green-coloured glasses'' can see that Western Society is falling to pieces. The idea that I said earlier about the three great lies: I'm not the first person to see these problems - Western intellectuals have been discussing the problems for a long time. All three issues are being discussed right now, but it looks like all three are on a downhill slide, and the West doesn't seem to have anything to slow down these society-breaking developments. So we've got to be here to offer them the right alternative, that is Islam. How many more years do you think Western Society will survive before collapsing? 30 years? 40 years? If it's lucky. I'm telling you now, that there is very little doubt in my mind that within our lifetimes, something is going to happen. And we have to be ready to fulfill our Islamic responsibilities when that happens.
So, in conclusion, the take-home message - the thing I want you to remember from this talk. What we have to do to ourselves is very difficult. We have to undo all the damage that was done to us as children. The damage is done through two main agencies: education and media. These two agencies affect us by firstly destroying our pride in Islam and secondly by replacing the Islamic mindset with the Western mindset, which is built on three lies: Democracy & Secularism, Materialism and Capitalism.
And the only way to fix this is through firstly educating ourselves and secondly always analysing what we see. In addition, for the future, we have to make sure our children, friends and brothers and sisters don't fall in the same trap. And we should always be ready to be called upon by Islam; and I suspect that in the newar future we will be called upon to make a major sacrifice for the sake of Allah.
Thank you, and if you have any questions, I'd appreciate hearing them from you. I also don't mind discussing this sort of stuff with any of you in private after the conference if you have any comments; if you feel I offended you, tell me so I don't do it again.
Wassalamu Alaikum.
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