US born son of Ethan Allen furniture CEO Farooq Kathwari - died fighting Jihad
Reader comment on item: No American Muslim Terrorists? [A Reply to Spencer Ackerman]

Submitted by Ben van de Polder (United States), Dec 12, 2005 at 15:56

Dr. Pipes rightfully proved that Spencer Ackerman was dangerously wrong in contending that American Muslims do not turn to terrorism. He cited the case of a Muslim father who wrote to a forum for advice on how to dissuade his third son from martyrdom.

One such case is that of Irfan Kathwari, the American born son of furniture tycoon Farooq Kathwari. The US born millionaire's son is believed to have joined with Jihadists (who were connected to either Jaish Mohammed or Lashkar e Taibar), and died while carrying out an attack in Afghanistan.

Farooq Kathwari's brother Rafiq, a journalist and photographer, (who was also employed at w Ethan Allen) wrote a piece glorifying Irfan's death entitled; "My Nephew the Jihad Fighter" and a poem honoring him as well.

Farooq Kathwari and his family continue to be high profile promoters of the 'Kashmiri separatist cause' whose efforts to disengage from Indian and Pakistan are also supported by the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Last year Farooq Kathwari spoke at the radical Islamist ISNA convention on the subject of Muslims and business. Kathwari has also started 'The Irfan Kathwari Foundation' to commemorate his son's martydom and death as Jihad fighter, which funds Islamist activities. http://biz.yahoo.com/t/63/2890.html

Ethan Allen shareholders might be interested to note that CEO Farooq Kathwari's political project, the "Kashmir Study Group", gives it's email and physical address as the Ethan Allen company premises.http://www.kashmirstudygroup.net/
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1075

One blogger blamed Farooq Kathwari for his son's decision to leave America and wage Jihad:

"...Farouq Kathwari Pres. of Danbury based Ethan Allan Corp. also did
something equally stupid in filling his son's head usual Islamic nonsense. As a
result he too took leave from Harvard Medical School to go fight in
Kashmir. He did not know any Urdu or anything else about the conflict
except that it was a fight between good and evil. Good meaning of
course Islam and Hindu were no doubt the evil.

On an excursion in Kashmir his group saw an Indian military truck and decided to engage it by opening fire. The Indian soldiers returned fire and a shell fragment from a grenade severed an artery causing him to bleed to death. His comrades left his body on the scene for the Indian soldiers to find, where upon they found documents revealing his identity. American Embassy was informed which arranged his body to be send back to Connecticut.

At his funeral services a Jewish boy who was a childhood friend got up and shouted at his parents that "my friend lies in that box today because YOU filled his head with hatred" No other words were spoken afterwards.."

:http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/597

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