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Executives & Directors
President
 
Immediate Past President
 
Secretary
 
Treasurer
 
Director - Sergeant at Arms
 
Director
 
Director
 
Director
 
Program Chair
 
Chair - Club Rotary Foundation
 
Co-Chair - Interact Club of Apache Junction High School
 
Bulletin Editor
 
Webmaster
 
Club Information
Welcome to our Club!
Superstition Mountain
Service Above Self
We meet Wednesdays at 12:10 PM
Gold Canyon Golf Resort
6100 S. Kings Ranch Road
Gold Canyon, AZ  85118
United States
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District Site
 
VenueMap
Venue Map
Stories
GUESTS AND VISITORS
One visitors today was prospective member Cheryl Kramer from Dubuque, IA. Matthew Boswell from Ace Hardware was here representing his boss Brian Kabat.  Todd Kopcha, our speaker, was a guest of the club. He was accompanied by his brother-in-law Greg Dean.
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND CLUB BUSINESS
1. There are 3 days left in the Chandler Horizon "Golf Shoot Out" event.  Lots of cash prizes to be won - some BIG ones for aces.  See their web site for more information.
2. Harvey Clark acted on behalf of Curt Ward of the Gilbert Rotary Club to present the Gilbert club's trading banner to President Ed Shockley.
Curt visited our club last week.
3. The drawing was worth $164 today. Jacquie Smith won the drawing and $10 but missed the joker.  So the pot continues to grow.
 
SPEAKER
Harvey Clark introduced our speaker.  Todd Kopcha is a special agent for the FBI from the PHX office.  He has been with the FBI for 20 years.  Todd heads the local Joint Terrorism Task Force.
He reminded us that the first ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in the U.S. took place in Phoenix.  He is going to speak today about the ideological stance of ISIS and how to differentiate among the various forms of Islam in the world.
 
There are 1.4 million Muslims in the world.  Seventy per cent are Sunnis and thirty per cent are Shiaas.  Of the Sunnis, 95% are Sufis who tend to be less violent in their views than the other 5% who are Salafis.  ISIS and El Qaeda are Salafist in orientation.  The Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood are from the Sufi tradition.
 
The Salafis believe that the only true form of Islam is that which follows the practices of the earliest believers.  So they are very pious, believe states should be governed by Sharia law, wear beards, have certain clothing styles, etc.  Those who don't follow their conservative views are considered apostates. ISIS believes in imposing Salafist views and monotheism by force. Taweed means "One (God)" and when you see pictures of ISIS fighters, they are often holding up one finger to symbolize one God. They see terror is a legitimate weapon in achieving their goals.
 
In July of 2014, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared himself the caliph of a new caliphate which included large swaths of Iraq and Syria that were predominantly Sunni areas of these countries.  This is where the fighting is going on currently - e.g., Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
 
ISIS and other terrorist groups are very effective at using social media to spread their views and to recruit new adherents.  They use You Tube, instructional videos, blogs, on-line forums and on-line magazines. Al Queda publishes "Inspire".  ISIS published "Dabiq" which has now been retitled as "Rumiyah" since they lost control of Dabiq in Syria.  Todd passed around downloads of these magazines and they are truly shocking in their content. The most effective recruiter of Americans is Anwar al-Awlaki who, even though he was killed by a U.S. air strike, continues to have an impact via his writings and his videos.
 
 
MAY BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES
BIRTHDAYS
Debra Jusko - May 2
Brian Kabat - May 3
Larry Wight - May 12
Jeannie Anderson - May 23
Bob Crow - May 23
Len LaFlesch - May 25
WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES
Ed and Cassandra Shockley - May 5, 11 years
Mike and Jackie McCord - May 27, 10 years
CLUB JOIN ANNIVERSARIES
None in May
UPCOMING PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
May 17 - Mark Lamb - Pinal County Sheriff
 
May 24 - Jeff Downing - GCUMC Food Bank
 
May 31 - Ed Koeneman - Sons of the American Revolution
 
June 7 - Harold Crist (Pres/CEO) and  - Pinal Partnership
             Melissa Johnson (Exec. Dir.)
 
June 14 - Diane Fischer - Health South East Valley
 
June 21 - Tina Staukas (Dep.Dir.) - Homeland Security & Emergency Mgmt. - PHX
 
June 28 - Club President Ed Shockley - Transition meeting
 
 
 
 
 
 
June 11-14 - Rotary International Conference - Atlanta
 
June 23-24 - District Conference - Flagstaff, AZ
 
September 14-26 - Rotary Trip to South Africa (Blessman)