January 12, 2006
by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE – Death threats forced a Presbyterian-related conference center in Florida to shut its doors briefly last month and to cancel a scheduled youth-leadership event for a Muslim group that was forced to meet in a secret location.

Law-enforcement officials said the threats were credible.

The controversy arose after an Internet blogger (author of a personal Web log) alleged that a person scheduled to speak during the New Year's Eve event had ties to Al-Qaeda, the terrorist group led by Osama Bin Laden. The writer, who described the gathering as a "children's jihad retreat," repeated his claims on a Fox News program, Your World with Neil Cavuto.

After other bloggers picked up the allegations, anonymous callers bombarded the Muslim American Society (MAS) of Tampa with threats. One caller threatened to paint the bodies of the conference organizer and his secretary with pig fat and set them on fire.

The camp also was flooded with hate mail and menacing emails.

Tampa police and federal authorities assured the leaders of Camp Cedarkirk that there was no reason to cancel the event or advise would-be participants to stay away because of links to terror.

The camp, midway between Sarasota and Tampa, is independently operated but receives financial support from Peace River and Tampa Bay presbyteries, both of which have representatives on its board of directors.

MAS relocated its weekend retreat for about 50 young adults to an undisclosed site.

The camp reopened without incident on Jan. 3.

At press time, no Presbyterian official had released statements on the incident to the media, although letters have been sent to churches within the two presbyteries.

"It is unbelievable how fast people believed something that is not real," said the Rev. Debra Bronkema, who co-directs the camp with her husband John, a former PC(USA) mission co-worker in Honduras. .".. One person makes allegations and they take on a life of their own."

Bronkema said the camp's board reluctantly closed the facility for the holiday weekend out of concern for the security of the Muslim group and that of 25 Christmas International House guests – college students from other nations with nowhere else to stay over the semester break.

All of the students were quickly relocated. Camp volunteers also were evacuated.

Camp Cedarkirk's directors issued a statement in which they said MAS had described its program as "a peaceful time apart, to learn peacemaking (and to) experience the beauty of creation and recreation."

The statement added: "The Society provided us with copies of their curriculum, inviting our staff to be present at their event, so that we could see first-hand the peaceful nature of their program."

Joe Kaufman, a right-wing blogger for Americans Against Hate and the host of The Politics of Terror radio show, leveled the accusations in an article headlined "A New Year's Jihad Retreat." He alleged that two of the conference speakers had ties to radical Islam and one to the terror group Al-Qaeda.

Kaufman reported that one of the conference speakers, Mazen Mokhtar, was investigated by the U.S. government on suspicion of recruiting terrorists for Taliban, Chechen rebels and Al-Qaeda shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Mokhtar was not arrested then, and federal authorities assured camp officials that there was no reason to prohibit his participation.

According to The Presbyterian Layman, Elder Larry Reud of First Presbyterian Church of Bradenton, FL, subsequently launched an email campaign to solicit protests against the use of the camp until the presbyteries "had an opportunity to understand" the MAS.

Kaufman also questioned statements attributed to Mokhtar affirming the humanitarian efforts of Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, and seemingly defending suicide bombing as legitimate within Islamic law.

According to MAS officials, Mokhtar's computer was seized in federal raids after 9/11, but he was not charged and his materials were returned.

Mokhtar did not respond to a request for an interview. However, he told The St. Petersburg Times that his theme for the event was the story of Joseph, found both in the Koran and in the Bible. He denied that he has ever affirmed attacks on innocent people.

"The whole case was dismissed without even questioning him," said Mohamed Moharram, MAS's organizer, referring to the earlier investigation.

Kaufman did not respond to an interview request, but his blog suggests that he believes the PC(USA) supports terrorists.

He calls the church a "dangerous organization," citing its use of financial pressure to engage corporations who profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine and criticizing two meetings in southern Lebanon between church-sponsored fact-finding delegations and Hezbollah, an insurgency group that is on the U.S. State Department's terrorist-watch list.

Hezbollah fought an 18-year guerilla war to force Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon. That area is now under Hezbollah's control and it includes a Christian population. Although Hezbollah is under international pressure to disarm and has not done so, its political wing has constitutional legitimacy in mainstream Lebanese politics.

Kaufman did not interview the camp staff before posting his blog, Bronkema said, but Fox News invited Bronkema to debate him – an invitation Bronkema declined.

About 10 students stayed away from the retreat out of fear for their safety.

Moharram and Bronkema said they remain committed to interfaith dialogue. "We share the same vision (for dialogue)," Moharram told the Presbyterian News Service. "We've both been attacked the same way."

Presbyterian News Service