The Eagle deeply regrets the recent act of vandalism that took place in the Muslim prayer room and condemned it in an editorial. The idea that something The Eagle fairly and accurately reported and extensively documented could be tied to what has been called a crime of bias by University Chaplain Joe Eldridge is utterly wrong and untrue.
To clarify, the series of articles about WAMY published by The Eagle reported five things:
1. The World Assembly of Muslim Youth, which was headed by former Muslim Chaplain Fadel Soliman, is under investigation by the Senate Finance Committee for ties to terrorism.[1] A letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated WAMY "spends $2.7 million annually in support of the Palestinian intifada in addition to $70 million it has collected for this purpose as WAMY offices worldwide." The Eagle also reported that a report to the United Nations tied the charity to al Qaeda.[2]
2. The book that Soliman provided to the school to prove that there was nothing wrong with his group included anti-Semitic passages.[3] The Eagle published a translation of two pages from a long chapter containing those viewpoints. The book was written by WAMY's former president, Dr. Maneh al-Johaini, and contrary to Qassim's letter, the book we were provided with was published in 1997, not "30 years ago."
3. The Eagle consulted a number of experts and translators to verify our reporting.[4] In each case, the experts unanimously verified that a.) WAMY is an extremist group, b.) WAMY published numerous anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and anti-Shi'a Muslim writings, c.) WAMY and its affiliates have been raided, investigated or even deported from India, Pakistan and the Philippines for aiding terrorism or militant groups. In fact, in the 9/11 Commission, WAMY was one of the few groups that was singled out as "spread[ing] Wahhabi beliefs throughout the world."[5] Wahabbism is the austere form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia.
4. This summer, The Eagle followed up the story by reporting that about 50 agents from the FBI, U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Joint Terrorism Task Force raided WAMY's regional offices in connection with a terrorism investigation and that its computers and files were seized.[6]
5. While The Eagle did not report any specific evidence that showed Soliman himself shared these extremist views, The Eagle editorial board thought it was reasonable to ask him in two editorials to either separate himself from WAMY or from AU and the MSA.
The Eagle strongly denies that we had any motive in pursuing this story, other than to report truthfully on WAMY. If someone types "WAMY" into an Internet search engine, one can find numerous articles in the mainstream media, including The BBC, Christian Science Monitor and The Washington Post, which verify The Eagle's account of the group.
The Eagle pursued, researched and interviewed many different people over a period of four months and ultimately only included things in the story that were corroborated by more than one source.
This was one of the most controversial stories The Eagle ever published and we stand by it not because we have an agenda, but because this story is integral to the AU community.
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[1] Available online at
HODGES: OK, anything else in there that [unintelligible]
SOLIMAN: Actually, you bring a Christian Arab if you do not trust my translation.
HODGES: OK.
SOLIMAN: You can read this (to others in the room).
HODGES: Um, 'cause my translator said that Jews look for control of the world economically primarily and through that they try to fight the whole world.
PERSON 1: This line here?
HODGES: Uh the whole, the first ten lines.
SOLIMAN: I want to tell you something. If you investigated this translation and you found that it has completely nothing to do with these words, are you going to trust this translator again?
HODGES: No.
SOLIMAN: OK. Then you should do that. All right, what I said here is that the religion that Moses, peace be upon him, came with was a pure, religion was a pure oneness of God but the followers that came after Solomon, they disowned it and that is how today Judaism existed. And that is how this Judaism existed. OK. If you found that this is not the words...
HODGES: I promise you. I promise you.
SOLIMAN: Actually this is something that you do for yourself because there are people misleading people, the Americans these days, and these are the people who are translating things like that. They have nothing to do with what you said.
HODGES: Um, I was noticing through the rest of the chapter and [...] there were things on other topics. Zionism was one of them. And I was wondering, uh, what those were about? Like why there was the organs of Judaism and Freemasonry and other things like that?
SOLIMAN: I really did not even ... I started reading, then I didn't continue so I put a mark here that when I continue I would continue here.
HODGES: There are marks further in the book.
SOLIMAN: Look (unintelligible, flips through pages)... Yeah, there are some marks. Maybe I say this is what I should read but, actually, I can bring you any books that I can read from and you will see that no one can read after me. (Unintelligible). So, uh, I can read you whatever you want here and tell you what is. But, are we investigating the book now?
HODGES: I'm just asking you...
SOLIMAN: I am telling you...
HODGES: You are the director and this is the translation...
[4] Available online at
[5] Available online at
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