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.
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.”
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.
