Lying For Allah?

In a comment to my post about Amnesty International head Irene Zubaida Khan's irresponsible comparison of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to a gulag, reader Mohammed al-Thawra al-Iraqi mentions taqqiyeh:

...in Islam the principle of "taqqiyeh" means it is a duty for a Muslim to lie and be deliberately untruthful if that is going to enhance Islam.

I have no doubts that Chairwoman Zubaideh Khan of Amnesty International, a Muslim, is purposefully lying in order to cover up for the crimes of her religion.

And I know this because I am a Free Muslim.

While I've seen no hard evidence, other than AI's choice of targets, to back Mohammed's opinion, I thought it might be useful to explore taqqiyeh (also, taqiyeh, taqiyah) and what it means. My own understanding (garnered mainly, I'm afraid, from James Clavell's novel Whirlwind) of taqqiyeh was that it applied in individual cases of personal danger, i.e., a Muslim is permitted to lie without sin about his faith in order to save his life.

However, internet citations show that taqqiyeh is used in a more generalized way to counter perceived threats against the Muslim faith. This is from Global Security:

Knowing what was discussed behind the scenes at all of these meetings might be more enlightening, but this is quite unlikely due to the normally closed and secretive nature of the clerical community and its policies of razdari (secrecy; not revealing honest information about the inner workings or internal discord among the clergy) and taqiyeh (dissimulation; misleading strangers about one's own true beliefs or intentions).

This article from Free Republic, written before the 9/11 attack, describes how the principle of taqqiyeh is used to "...infiltrate and destroy kafir [infidel] countries..."

There is some indication that use of taqqiyeh to further Islam is more accepted among Shiite than Sunni Muslims. Unfortunately, its very existence makes it more difficult for honorable and honest Muslims to be taken at their word.

Is Irene Zubaida Khan deliberately perverting the official goals of Amnesty International to defeat the infidels? Her choice of targets for slander (America and the West) and the principle of taqqiyeh indicate that it's a possibility.

Update: Amnesty International's contributions to the Democratic Party are discussed at The Jawa Report.