The TN Muslim Advisory Council Organized to Protect Political Islam From an Anti-Terrorism Bill

Objectively analyzed and sourced from the Koran, Hadith and Sira, The Center for the Study of Political Islam International (CSPII) notes that jihad is a “major part of Islamic doctrine”, “a crucial part of Political Islam” and is targeted to “strive against kafirs (non-Muslims).” https://www.cspii.org/methodology/research-reports/jihad/

Additionally, CSPII notes that there at least five forms of jihad, including “violent jihad.”

The dictates of political Islam are found in Islamic Sharia law a legal code based on three texts—the Koran, Sira (the life of Mohammed) and Hadith (the traditions of Mohammed). As summarized by CSPII, “[t]he vision of jihad is found in the Koran, the strategy is found in the Sira and the tactics are

found in the Hadith. The entire doctrine found in the Trilogy of Koran, Sira and Hadith is codified in the Sharia law.”

Political Islam, is easily understood as the parts Islam directed outward to the kafir which is expressed in a variety and in ever expanding ways. An example of non-violent jihad was the dismissal of a university art professor who showed an image of a 14th century painting of Mohammed. Her contract was not renewed because of the offense experienced by Muslim students. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/art-professor-sues-firing-showing-prophet-muhammad-images-rcna66250

Consider also the emerging pattern of publicly funded schools and universities complying with demands for halal food offerings which is much more advanced in Europe. The UK MEND organization (Muslim Development and Engagement) promotes halal in schools as a means to “nurtur[e] Muslim identities in schools”. 

Then there is the other kind of jihad – the violent type.

Memphis native Carlos Bledsoe, aka, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad and jihad

An example of political Islam’s “violent jihad” backdrop to Tennessee’s 2011 anti-terrorism legislation, was the 2009, self-described jihad terrorism at the Little Rock Arkansas Army recruiting center committed by Memphis native Carlos Bledsoe, aka, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad.

And the connection between Bledsoe’s jihad and the Tennessee Muslim Advisory Council? Short answer –  a naieve and weak-kneed governor bought a contrived sob story about an anti-terrorism bill alleged to have made following Islamic sharia law, a felony. Haslam fell for all of it and then did whatever he could to appease and validate the fiction this grouop continues to perpetuate.

How valid is this advisory council if it was founded on highly questionable grounds? Good question for Tennessee’s next governor. It’s a pretty good bet that the Syrian and Iraqi refugees that Marsha wanted to import in unlimited numbers, would want an Islamic advocacy group.

As you read about what happened under governor Bill Haslam’s leadership, consider that a Marsha Blackburn administration would likely have produced the same result.

Using a smear campaign about the 2011, anti-terrorism bill, a group calling themselves the TN American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC) organized that same year. They were abetted in secret behind closed doors with the support and assistance from Governor Haslam’s Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security. Indeed, it was heralded and congratulated by its then Director failed gubernatorial candidate, Bill Gibbons.

In short order the arrangement evolved into a partnership between AMAC and the state’s Office of Homeland Security. While AMAC lobbied against the anti-terrorism legislation they were also training law enforcement and safety personnel. At the same time, four of the sitting AMAC members formed another organization for the specific purpose of lobbying at the capitol.

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While rallying against the anti-terrorism bill, the director of AMAC’s lobbying organization brought in Hamas-linked CAIR to assist in their efforts.  

No matter that three years prior to CAIR’s first (but not last) involvement in Tennessee politics, CAIR failed to have its unindicted co-conspirator status in the Holy Land Foundation case removed. CAIR was named based on evidence of its ties to Hamas, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization. Presiding federal judge Solis confirmed CAIR’s unindicted co-conspirator status and ruled that the government had introduced extensive evidence tying CAIR to Hamas.

Metro Council member Zulfat Suara served as AMAC’s leader from shortly after they organized until 2019, when she ran for her first Metro Council term. Sabina Mohyuddin, a founding and sustaining member of AMAC who lobbied against the anti-terrorism bill, took over the leadership after Suara; Mohyuddin currently carries the title of Executive Director while Suara served as Treasurer, only recently leaving the AMAC board. 

Mohyuddin loves to repeat the patently inaccurate characerization of the 2011 anti-terrorism legislation as the “anti-sharia” bill. Never mind that the legislation at the center of this story specifically stated that it did not apply to the peaceful practice of any religion. The written legislative findings also made clear that the sole target was political Islam and not the protected religious worship of Islam. Still not good enough for the Islamists. Could it be because of that thing they call jihad? Or is it sharia law? Or is it political Islam? Or is it all three?

If she read the bill and didn’t understand it or didn’t read it but misrepresents it anyway, either way, it puts her credibility and her organization on very shaky ground.

What they created around the anti-terrorism bill has been one of AMAC and Sabina Mohyuddin’s favorite tactics to support their objectives grounded in political Islam.

Why the 2011 anti-terrorism legislation?

After 9/11, most states, including Tennessee, passed anti-terrorism laws to ensure that cases by-passed by the federal government could be prosecuted in state courts. For example, the Oklahoma City bombing relied on a state statute for punishment. A New York case involving two men who purchased hand grenades and other weaponry planning to blow up a large Manhattan synagogue, were arrested and charged by the FBI but were prosecuted by the state under its anti-terrorism statute.

The Little Rock Arkansas jihad terrorism case, the backdrop of the 2011 Tennessee legislation, was prosecuted by the state of Arkansas, not by the federal authorities.

With documented incidences of homegrown terrorism occurring betwen 2001 – 2011, there was legitimate concern that there was no lawful mechanism that would enable state and local law enforcement to intervene before acts of terrorism were committed by being able to reach those who plan, finance and also help others who commit acts of terrorism. So Tennessee put together a bill modeled after federal legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld as constitutionally sound.

Against national news of terrorist acts, in 2009, the newly minted convert Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, aka, Memphis native Carlos Bledsoe, committed his own self-described jihad terrorist attack: 

“By his own account, he was preparing for jihad.” 

“Muhammad [Bledsoe name change after conversion], said he’d have killed more soldiers had more been in the parking lot. He told the detective he wasn’t guilty of murder, that the shooting was an act of jihad. Muhammad also told police there were at least six Molotov cocktails in a milk crate in the bed of his truck – green and clear bottles filled with gasoline and oil and duct taped.”

“And compared to what I had planned originally it was like a grain of sand,” Muhammad wrote about the attack. “One crusader dead, one wounded, 15 terrorized, big deal. Nidal Malik (Hasan, the accused Fort Hood shooter) is the real Islamic warrior, and my plan A was on that scale.”

“I knew this would end with the enemies of Allah killing me. But the good thing is – Martyrs don’t die! Allah says, “Don’t think of those who are killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Rather they are alive with their Lord and they have their provision!” (Qur’an 3:169) And that’s what I believe. The jihad lives on. May Allah accept my jihadi operations and grant me what he promises all of the … (martyrs) Ameen.”

https://archive.knoxnews.com/news/state/muslim-who-shot-soldier-in-arkansas-says-he-wanted-to-cause-more-death-ep-407169853-358338211.html

Despite specific language in the 2011 bill protecting and exempting “the peaceful practice of any religion and in particularly the practice of Islam”, Mohyuddin and her fellow travellers, abetted by a highly compromised Tennessean reporter, launched a smear campaign claiming that the bill was an attempt to punish the practice of Islamic sharia law.

Mohyuddin went so far as to insinuate that the legislation would make practicing Islam a felony.

What the codified Tennessee law actually says is that it is a felony for anyone to knowingly help a designated entity with money, advice or any other aid. It also retained the language protecting the peaceful practice of any religion.

But cowardly leadership amended the critical state’s Attorney General designation authority out of the 2011 anti-terrorism bill; this would have enabled the AG to designate entities committed to carrying out terrorist acts in the state that threaten the security and safety of Tennesseans.

Fast forward to recent news from Florida. Where Tennessee’s cowardly leadership failed, Florida and Texas took action grounded in facts and documented reality.

Last week, Governor DeSantis used Florida’s terrorism designation law to designate CAIR and Antifa as domestic terror groups. On July 7, 2026, CAIR lost again when a federal judge denied their motion to stop being designated as a terrorist organization in Florida.

In addition to evidence produced in the Holy Land Foundation trial tying CAIR to Hamas (see above), it should not be forgotten that in 1994, CAIR’s national director Nihad Awad publicly declared his support for the Hamas terrorist organization.

AMAC’s former long-standing leader Zulfat Suara has expressed interest in serving as Davidson County’s next (most likely Mamdani style) mayor. Reading the contrived origins of her organization, it’s drift into attacking Zionism and endorsing the blatant falsehood of Israel committing genocide in Gaza, along with her support for known Jew-haters and the heinous self-described socialist Bernie Sanders https://dailyrollcall.com/metro-councilman-jacob-kupins-favs-tn-rep-aftyn-behn-metro-council-member-zulfat-suara/, it matters more than ever who Tennessee elects as its next governor.

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TN Must Stand Against Smuggling Unaccompanied Alien Children!

Since we can’t count on Congress to get this done, it will have to come from the state legislature. 

The federal government has known for decades that parents, other relatives and sponsors in the U.S. whether here legally or illegally, have been paying coyotes and other criminal entities to smuggle children to the border who then enter as unaccompanied alien children (UAC). But Congress is too dysfunctional (even when Republicans are in the majority), to do anything about it. State legislators on the other hand have the authority to effectively address the issue. Criminalizing child smuggling is a way that helps protect children, disincentivizes illegal immigration to the state, and makes it clear that the state government will not abet facilitating illegal immigration or turn a blind eye to anyone who does.

Ignoring this practice is unfair to the children and unfair to American citizens and legal immigrants.

Whether a person uses a child to help get them over the border more easily, albeit illegally, or pays a coyote to smuggle a child over the border to reunite with a “biological relative” who may themselves be illegally in the country, using children in this way must stop. 

The first situation was sickeningly and tragically illustrated in a recent case of a 2-year old abandoned on the highway by his father with whom he was traveling. According to the mother, the toddler would make it easier for his father to get across the border – “‘they were going through like this with minors…”’ 

2-year old abandoned by his father and the coyote; toddlers (parents in the U.S.) dropped over the wall

While Tennessee’s state legislators can’t do much about the first scenario, they do have the authority to address the situation (like the toddlers) where someone in Tennessee facilitates the smuggling of a child who will cross the border illegally as a UAC and eventually reunite with a family member or sponsor in the state.

During the General Assembly’s first Joint Study Committee on June 18, 2021, Rep. Ryan Williams (R-  Cookeville), raised an important issue relative to the UAC arrivals in Tennessee. In fact, Tennessee’s GOP Congressional delegation should also pay attention to what Rep. Williams had to say.

Williams talked about his constituent who had travelled to another state to pick up his adoptive child. But before he was able to legally bring his child home to Tennessee, he needed Williams to help him get the paperwork required by the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children corrected. This paperwork creates additional hurdles that must be satisfied before being able to legally bring a minor child across state lines and if not followed to the letter of the law, it can jeopardize the adoption.

BTW, Williams came through for this family.

So here’s the point – an illegal alien living in Tennessee can facilitate the smuggling of a child to the U.S. border without any penalty – federal or state. But a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant  can be penalized if paperwork is faulty? The issue has nothing to do with whether there is a biological connection between the adoptive parent and the child or the smuggling facilitator and the child. It’s about complying with the law.

It’s important to note that smuggling is not the same as trafficking. Human smuggling is defined as:

“the importation of people into the United States involving deliberate evasion of immigration laws. This offense includes bringing illegal aliens into the United States as well as the unlawful transportation and harboring of aliens already in the United States.”

Trafficking on the other hand, is about the exploitation of people using force, fraud or coercion for a sought after objective. It can include for example, sex trafficking, debt bondage and involuntary servitude.

Lt. Gov. McNally and Speaker Sexton are so concerned about Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) being ferried into Tennessee, that they authorized a joint legislative committee to look into the issue; presumably with some intent to determine legislative options in response.

The committee has already held one meeting and has another scheduled for July 13th providing a platform for Blackburn and Hagerty’s offices to wave their consultation bill around and yack about the importance of “transparency”. 

Blackburn’s been in Congress long enough to know that bringing home a “transparency” bill with the laughable “consultation” provision which is legislator talk-speak for sounds good, doesn’t really do anything of consequence to address the problem at home. Shows you how little Hagerty understands that he just obediently tags along after Marsha. 

And like Mark Green’s new UAC bill, Blackburn and Hagerty appear to be unwilling to take on the child smuggling problem. Green’s bill allows a child smuggled over the border to override the governor’s veto regarding UAC placements in Tennessee. And the “biological relative” in his bill can also be an illegal alien.

Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson), who is on the Joint Study Committee, has said he doesn’t want the Chattanooga facility to reopen or any other facility like it to open in Tennessee. Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), who is also on the Joint Committee, has made it clear that he wants more of these children brought to Tennessee so they can be reunited with “loved ones”. As it turns out, UAC smuggling is more often than not, financed by the parents who themselves are in the U.S. in violation of the immigration laws.

Only time will tell whether the Joint Study Committee is a pro forma or whether state legislators are serious about trying to address the problem. If instead they insist that “immigration is a federal issue” then remind them that 2022 is just around the corner and it looks like that four of the Senate members on the Joint Committee could potentially face a primary if necessary.

Useless Bills on UACs Arriving in Tennessee

There’s the Bill who as the chief executive of the state government either doesn’t have a clue what is going on in his administration or what his politically appointed commissioner is doing to facilitate the welcoming of the arrival of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) who were smuggled into the U.S. illegally more often than not, by parents who are also here illegally. But more than likely, and from all indications, he’s actually known all along.

Haslam feigned the same surprise about UAC arrivals during the 2014 surge. And we all know that Haslam was okay with illegal immigration going so far as to try finishing his run as governor by giving illegal alien students the parting gift of in-state college tuition.

The other useless bills are the ones being filed by Tennessee’s U.S. Congressmen who also have no clue what’s going on in the state they represent .

Blackburn, Hagerty and Fleischmann are giving each other high fives for quickly filing a bill that makes it look like they are doing something to address the arrival of the UACs.

Maybe someday the “Migrant Resettlement Transparency Act” will get yet another untimely after-the-fact federal report published but their bill is both unlikely to see the light of day and is highly unlikely to stop federal dumping of illegal aliens in Tennessee. Tim Burchett is a co-sponsor of Fleischmann’s bill.

The trio insist that before the federal government transports more UAC illegal aliens into Tennessee, details about the kids must be disclosed and that the “Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security consult with governors and mayors of affected jurisdictions before any federally directed, administered or funded resettlement, transportation, or relocation of illegal aliens”. 

Consult ? A completely meaningless standard. Consult is the same requirement in the Refugee Act of 1980, which simply means that the federal government tells the state what the federal government intends to do but the state has no option to stop the federal government from doing what they told the state they would do. Consult means like when the Biden administration asked Bill Lee’s office if Tennessee would open an emergency shelter for UACs and Lee said no, but not to worry, because his administration had already approved the Baptiste Group in Chattanooga to take care of the problem.

Let’s imagine the consultation with comrades Nashville Mayor John Cooper and Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon:

Feds: Buenos días mayor. Have you talked to the parents who want their children brought to them? Do you have the list and can you tell us how many children we will be transporting? Are the parents all paid up with the coyotes or are you covering the cost?

Mayors: We are all set to go here! We assured the parents that it doesn’t matter if they are also here illegally because we at least can say we are good Christians and that always trumps lawbreaking.

Then there’s Mark Green’s new bill which he’s using to try and recover from his first UAC bill disaster. In a recent interview, Green still insists that UACs are refugees even though the law is clear that UACS don’t magically get converted into refugees just because the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement takes custody.

“Making those guys be classified as migrants keeps the legal status in a way that the federal government can’t force them on Tennessee.”

What is Green talking about? The UACs already have a status and it’s called illegal. The federal code, as in U.S. law, clearly states that UACs have “no lawful immigration status in the United States” – they are illegal aliens! There is no “automatic refugee status” as Green claims. Even funnier is that a Tennessean reporter gets that as Green admits, his bill still lets DHS house UACs in HHS contracted facilities like the one run by Baptiste Group in Chattanooga.

So while Hagerty, Blackburn, Fleischmann and Green try to out-UAC each other, they continue to ignore the growing adult worker illegal alien population in Tennessee which is a MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM. Just take a look at the numbers reported by Customs & Border Protection and see how much cheap labor Republicans protect for their big dollar cronies. 

And why aren’t they talking about what Biden and his DOJ are doing to make asylum more easily and more widely available? Shortly after taking office Biden issued an executive order directing the new Attorney General Garland to put new regulations in place to undo the multiple ways in which the Trump administration tightened some of the vaguest and most flexible standards for getting asylum including based on domestic violence and family relationships. So now, “married women in Guatemala who are unable to leave their relationship” can once again be used as a reason to be granted asylum.

As Julie Kirchner who writes the Immigration Journal points out, the “dramatic” asylum changes are coming at the same time that the Biden administration will be rescinding the Title 42 public health authority which the Trump administration used to turn people back from the border. Once Biden pushes these and other changes through, loosening and opening all avenues to enable pretty much any illegal alien to enter and stay in the U.S., all this GOP yakking about transparency and reclassifying UACs, will prove meaningless. Check out these numbers from CBP:

 

Hagerty & Blackburn Were Against Election Fraud Before They Certified It

Six days after Tennessee’s two Senators voted to certify the electoral college votes, One America News questioned why the Democrats were being allowed to divert attention away from the “mounting” evidence of election fraud, including a number of the easiest to question:

Pennsylvania – 205,000 over-votes (meaning more votes than registered voters); 682,000 votes illegally processed due to lack of oversight.

Georgia – 66,248 underage voters; 10,315 dead people voted; 2,560 convicted felons voted; 4,502 unregistered voters voted.

Arizona – 36,400 non-citizens voted.

These and many more election irregularities such as those related to absentee ballots are catalogued in the three-part Navarro report which concludes that “[t]here was no single ‘silver bullet’ that allegedly won the election for Biden; instead it was ‘death by a thousand irregularities’ in any given battleground state; and, most importantly with respect to the question as to whether the election may well have been stolen, the narrow alleged Biden ‘victory’ margins in each of the six battleground states were dwarfed by the number of potentially illegal ballots.”

On January 2, four days before the electoral college votes reached Congress, Hagerty and Blackburn surprised Tennesseans with a strong, forthright commitment to object to certifying the electoral vote:

Tennesseans elected us as their United States Senators to represent their views and values in Washington and to always fight for them, which is why we have concluded without any reservation that we will stand against tainted electoral results from the recent Presidential election. We know that our elections, built around the Electoral College which is a fundamental element, are the envy of the world. Protecting their integrity and ensuring the results are free and fair are critical to maintaining the trust of our own citizens. Since November 3, hardworking men and women from across Tennessee have contacted us to justifiably express anger and concern that some states conducted the recent election in a manner that did not respect the rule of law and may have violated many of their state constitutions as well as Article II of the U.S. Constitution. Many are concerned about the sanctity of the one person one vote guarantee. Our founders understood that it is ultimately the peoples job to preserve the sanctity of these most fundamental American systems, and so they charged the peoples representatives in Congress with a specific role in the process. We plan to exercise that role fully in the new Congress.” — Senator Marsha Blackburn and Senator-elect Bill Hagerty

Big bold words which Hagerty and Blackburn ditched after the Antifa riot as if somehow it justified their back-pedaling. The feckless and insincere Benedict Arnolds reversed course, voted to certify what they previously claimed were “tainted electoral results” and hand the country over to the tyranny of a Biden-Harris-Pelosi-Schumer administration.

Unlike the intelligent and principled Sen. Josh Hawley from Missouri, Hagerty and Blackburn showed how little respect they have for legal voters in Tennessee – including the ones who have given them the privilege of serving in the U.S. Senate. They’ve shown Tennesseans how quickly and easily they will concede and have yet to explain how or why they now believe that election fraud is acceptable.

Even if one believes that the responsibility to address the electoral shenanigans rests with state legislatures, members of Congress have the statutory option and the representative duty, to question, debate, and if necessary, object to electoral outcomes.

Once the Capitol was secured and the electoral vote count resumed, Hawley continued explaining his objection to Pennsylvania and the “unprecedented interference of the Big Tech corporations in this election in favor of the Biden campaign, not just in Pennsylvania but everywhere.” Hawley’s wife and child had been threatened in their home by protestors the night before Congress’ counting of the electoral votes. Hawley refused to be intimidated either by the harassment of his family or the pathetic “riot” at the Capitol – he moved forward offering making his statement of objection because he refuses to “bow to a lawless mob.”  

In stark but sadly, predictable contrast, Hagerty and Blackburn put their own political careers ahead of their oath of office. They put their own self-interests ahead of their representative duties. They fled from upholding the Constitution.

Hagerty used President Trump’s endorsement to fool the uninformed voter and when the going got tough on January 6th, Hagerty showed Tennesseans that he is neither loyal to the one that brung him to the dance and that he is sufficiently arrogant to take voters for granted.

Blackburn’s betrayal is the best evidence that she has been in D.C. waaaaaay too long!

Both have impugned their credibility and indelibly proved they can’t be trusted – as if they ever could. It remains to be seen whether Hagerty’s new fixer-smoother-over Jim Henry, a long-standing Republican political insider, can gloss over the fact that Hagerty has always been an Establishment RINO.

Let’s see how creatively Hagerty and Blackburn explain selling-out Republicans in Tennessee – that is, if they ever bother to explain themselves. It also remains to be seen the effect these sell-outs have on the Tennessee GOP.