A Memo to American Muslims

IJTIHAD ^ | M. A. Muqtedar Khan

[Justin Thyme]

Excellent piece. This is the thorough explanation to which we hear reference on TV about the peaceful Islam. A recent PBS special talked long and hard about the history of Islam, and the way in which it benefited with world with things like the introduction of the scientific method, creation of hosptials, etc. Of course, it also seriously glossed over the negative and violent parts....

I do believe that being radical and militant is not a prerequisite for Muslims. And that there is a side to it that is peaceful and tolerant.

The real sad thing is that the views expressed by Dr. Khan have by and large been the unspoken side. There may be a few religious leaders who have made a point to distance from terrorism and violence, and some have condemned the 9/11 attacks. It just seems like it's been a silent minority, rather than the silent majority, which I think it might really be.

Hopefully more religious and political leaders in the Islamic world will follow Dr. Khan's lead.

[mountaineer]

Debbie Schlussel's 10/9/01 column from www.townhall.com:

Radical Islam's phony patriotism
While President Bush – and now, Oprah – continue to paint a rosy picture of the American-Arab Islamic community, this picture is not entirely accurate. Certainly many American Muslims are loyal and peaceful, but these moderates are not represented in the Islamic leadership that President Bush and the media have recently courted and presented to America. Moderate American Muslims, like Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani and Khalid Duran – who are to be commended for their courage and patriotism for opposing terrorism – are frozen out by the American Muslim mainstream (and by President Bush and Oprah).

Instead, Bush and media icons embrace radical Islamic leaders in America and abroad as symbols of peace and tolerance.

Take Imam Hassan Qazwini, cleric of the Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in America, based in Detroit. Like many U.S. Islamic leaders, he openly promoted terrorism and hatred, but now preaches a saccharine love of America.

Saturday, Qazwini held an open house for non-Muslims at his mosque, at which he professed love for America. He recently told the Detroit Free Press that he and his congregants are "praying for the victims ... for unity and solidarity. ... [F]ellow Americans ... we are not the enemies; we are peaceful citizens." He also appeared at a unity prayer session in Detroit.

But, on Nov. 15, 1998, I attended a religious service at Qazwini's mosque that was anything but pro-American and peaceful. Dressed undercover as a Muslim woman, I watched invited speaker Louis Farrakhan preach hate and violence to a very receptive audience of over 1,000 primarily Arab Muslim-Americans.

It was chilling to watch their and Qazwini's frenzied applause and wild cheering as Farrakhan preached about how our government was occupied by "forces of evil" and "people in positions of power with a Satanic mentality" and urged, "We should perform a jihad (holy war). [They are] frightened, and we must frighten them even more." Qazwini and a man whom I believe to be Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab-American News, called Farrakhan "our dear brother," "a freedom fighter" and "a man of courage and sacrifice." (Siblani denies this and claims it was Nouhad El-Hajj, publisher of the Arab American Journal, but Siblani's publication openly praises Farrakhan and his sentiments.)

Ironically, the week before, Qazwini and Arab-American leaders protested the movie, "The Siege," in which Arab terrorists blow-up hijacked buses and buildings in New York. Imagine that.

When campaigning in Michigan, Bush met repeatedly with Qazwini, and when he held his January press conference announcing his "faith-based" initiative, Qazwini was front and center among the religious leaders on stage at the White House. Bush introduced him as "my friend from Michigan," and according to the Detroit Free Press, Qazwini met with Bush at his Texas ranch in December "to advise him on formulating the pair of executive orders issued" for the program. Qazwini's mosque, which cheered for Farrakhan's jihad against America, will certainly be a major recipient of our "faith-based" tax-money.

In 1998, Mothers Against Teaching Children to Kill and Hate, was founded to combat Palestinian Authority official textbooks' "portrayal of Western society as the enemy of Islam and the Arab World." According to a 1999 Detroit News article, "In one translation, a lesson on verbs uses the sentence, 'The soldier sacrificed himself as a martyr for his homeland.'" Arab-American leaders Jim Zogby, who heads the Arab American Institute, and Imad Hamad, Detroit leader of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee – the primary Arab American civil rights organizations in America – justified this to the News, with Hamad saying that Arabic language is "vague," with "different meanings." No, the Arabic I studied is very clear and so is its meaning in the Palestinian textbooks. Why have these Arab American leaders who now claim to be against terrorism, defended schoolbooks that educate their Middle Eastern relatives in the currency of hate against the West?

Then there is Muqtedar Khan. A political science professor at Michigan's Adrian College, he is supposed to be a moderate Muslim American. A frequent op-ed writer in the Detroit News and several other publications, he is on the board of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy and the executive committee of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. But Khan's Feb. 8 Detroit News opinion column attacking one of the world's most peaceful, humane religious leaders – the Dalai Lama – belies the moderate tone Khan tries to present. Khan is upset that the Dalai Lama is respected and "legitimized ... by bestowing upon him a Nobel Peace Prize." The Dalai Lama's crime (according to Khan)? He actually opposes forcible conversions to Islam. What nerve.

Khan has written for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, which is linked to the extremist Liberty Lobby, runs ads for Holocaust deniers and links to Arafat terrorist organization Fateh.org (which features a picture of a dead baby killed by Fateh snipers and a chat-webmaster with the name of "Abu Jihad" – "Father of the Holy War").

In another recent Khan gem, he attacks President Bush and urges Arab-Americans to support Democratic Congressman David Bonior for governor of Michigan, due to Bonior's opposition to the use of secret evidence and profiling against terrorists-measures that could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks.

Spencer Abraham, now Bush's Energy Secretary, was Michigan's U.S. senator and Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chairman through the end of 2000. As the only Arab-American U.S. senator and representing a state with the heaviest concentration of Arab-Americans, Abraham unfortunately caved to the pressure of Arab-American Muslim leaders, such as the Arab-American Institute's Zogby, on national security and funding matters. According to the Detroit News, Abraham is to blame for delaying systems that would improve tracking of foreign visitors, something that Arab American groups actively opposed. These systems also might have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks.

Abraham, in the middle of a tight re-election bid and enlisting Michigan Congressman Joe Knollenberg, sought over $268 million in tax-funded USAID grants for Hezbollah terrorist-controlled Southern Lebanon, also at Zogby's request. Hezbollah, which means "Party of Allah" in Arabic, has targeted and murdered many Americans. Reports show that millions in USAID grants to Afghanistan were misspent on terrorist activities of the Taliban.

Oprah, in her Friday show – "Islam 101" – presented viewers with Jordanian Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, as an example of a moderate, modern Islamic woman. But Queen Rania's husband, King Abdullah, rules precariously over a country where Osama bin Laden is the most popular figure, where radical Islamic fundamentalism rules, and where most women do not live the liberal, modern life of the queen. In another example of the "moderation" of her religion and her country, Rania is a very lucky woman. While the majority of her country is made up of Palestinians, they are subjugated by the rule of the Hashemite minority – her husband and before him, his father, King Hussein. In September of 1970, her "moderate" country killed over 10,000 of her fellow Palestinian Jordanians.

It's time for President Bush and the media to stop promoting in phony liberalism of radical Islamists. Giving voice to truly moderate, patriotic Islamic leaders in America is vital to a successful war against terrorism.

[truth_seeker]

The culture of hate and killing is tearing away at the moral fabric of the Muslim society.

The culture of hate and killing is.....the moral fabric of the Muslim society.

[Sabertooth]

Bump this.

It really wasn't the attacks of 9/11 that caused my eye to jaundice against Isalm. And that's true even though I immediately knew in my gut that rabid Islamic extremists were responsible when I saw the second plane hit the WTC.

No, what has convinced me that Islam is not a "religion of peace," this article notwithstanding, is the tepid, whiney, "blame Israel" response from the overwhelming majority of Moslems who've cared to speak on the record about the Attacks of 9/11.

If there were "peaceful" Moslems out there in any great number, the press would be parading them around on every nightly newscast. Instead, there were news blackouts of the gleeful Moslems in this country and around the world who cheered the evil actions of the terrorists.

Ostensibly, this was to protect the so-called "peaceful" Moslems from an angry backlash.

I'm certainly open to my mind being changed on this, but I'll bet that the writer of this article finds himself hiding from a fatwa long before either bin Laden or Sadaam Hussein does.

[MHGinTN]

Hear, hear! Thank you Dr. Khan. Good find, jalisco.

[eclectic]

This person is not a religious authority, his words will have no impact whatsoever.

[mercy]

This man should say goodbye to his family tonight because he will very soon be dead.

****I invite you to ask yourself this question, would Muhammad sanction such an act?***

In a new yourk minute!

I SALUTE the author of this article and for his sake I pray that salvation after death is somehow possible. His heart is surely open to the Truth he just could not accept 'in this life.'

DEPORT NOW!!!

IT IS LIFE OR DEATH

[packrat01]

Many muslims NOT in the U.S. consider efforts like THIS PIECE to be the real hijacking of their religion. This, and it took a month to get it out?

Someone twisted his arm, I'd bet.

[Republic of Texas]

" Wow. The first Muslim who I have heard to raise his voice against the crimes of his own people. If more Muslims spoke in this way I could see a mutual trust developing. As it is, however I can not. (my bold)

3 posted on 10/12/01 12:05 PM Pacific by Straight Vermonter "

I can't put it any better, but I'd like to emphasize it one more time.

[ninachka]

It is time that we acknowledge that the freedoms we enjoy in the US are more desirable to us than superficial solidarity with the Muslim World. If you disagree than prove it by packing your bags and going to whichever Muslim country you identify with. If you do not leave and do not acknowledge that you would rather live here than anywhere else, know that you are being hypocritical.

I wonder how many of these hypocrites he is speaking of will follow his advice? I also wonder who will be the first so-called cleric to issue a fatwah against him...I pray for this man...I think he just put his life on the line.

[Koblenz]

Nice essay, but the reason you posted it was presumably because it says something few other Muslims say. That's what so disheartening about this whole aspect. The fact that 19 crazies flew airplanes into the WTC and Pentagon was of course horrible, but you could always say that there were so few Muslims that advocated violence and terrorism. Now there are huge protests all over the world, and Muslim countries' governments are giving, at best, lukewarm support, and presumably so that they can merely keep getting subsidies and economic aid. So few muslim countries have come out full force to support us, except Turkey, which has a strong secular tradition.

I don't dislike Islam because 19 crazies were suicide bombers. But I have real reservations when it appears as if these guys weren't so far out of the mainstream thought of this religion.

[NCLou]

You are absolutely correct. If Muslims want to truly feel at home in America, some brave Muslims must actively take part in rooting out these networks and cooperating with law inforcement. There is simply no other way to get intelligence from within these circles.

For example, the Mafia flourished behind omerta, the unfamiliar Italian culture, a foreign language and other insulating factors for years, until Italian Americans in law enforcement had the courage to fight their "own people", often at the expense of being welcomed in their communities.

Some of the pioneering investigators like Frank Salerno and later Joe Pistone (Donnie Brasco), just a couple examples, made progress that an Anglo never could, because they shared a culture. Giuliani was a mob-busting prosecuter, knowing he would achieve fame and headlines for busting his "own kind". Even if it was politically motivated, it was effective.

Until American Muslim agents are infiltrating terrorist cells for the CIA and FBI (and maybe they are, but I doubt it), and other American Muslims are taking action in fighting the bad among their own, Muslims in this country will rightly or wrongly be feared by Americans.

[Paradox]

BUMP! This guy hits the nail on the head, and he is "one of them". As someone else noted, he is Indian, and not Arab. I have a great admiration for the Indian people, and have known quite a few of them.

There have been a few other essays like this (One was from a Muslim in the US Armed Forces) from Muslims, and they are very much welcomed. It doesn't change my opinion on the majority of muslims, but it is a start, and a shining beacon for Muslims who wish to leave the 16th century behind and enter the 21st century.

[Steve0113]

I don't dislike Islam because 19 crazies were suicide bombers. But I have real reservations when it appears as if these guys weren't so far out of the mainstream thought of this religion.

Dittos.

[Gritty]

This article by Dr. Khan is an excellent one. Unfortunately, others like it have been very few and far between, leading one to believe this thinking within Islam is an aberration rather than the rule.

Look for Dr. Khan to get the "Salmon Rushdie treatment", price on his head and all.

[celtic gal]

Let's hope this man and his family are secure. It took real courage for him to make the statement he has. It is well said and frankly, he speaks to all of us, Christian, Jew, Muslim or whatever religion we practice.

[Northeast]

Nice Catch Mountaineer! This guy is a Fraud. I went over to his web site to read a few of his other articles and it's more of the same we're hearing from other quarters.

Palistinians are victims of Israeli terror, GWB is dangerous and not as "concerned" about the Palistinians as Clinton was, UN should send in Peace keepers.

Though he does tend to place blame on Muslims on occasion, he still toes the party line.

Regards

[anothergrunt]

" Wow. The first Muslim who I have heard to raise his voice against the crimes of his own people."

Problem with that statement is, Muslims are no more a "people" than Catholics are a "people". Catholic France regularly battles with Catholic Italy. Muslim Iraq battles with Muslim Iran. Can anyone show me the difference?

American Muslims are just that, Americans. My family originated in Germany and the family fractured over support of Hitler even after World War II started (my side of the family was on the right side even though their most brilliant member (me) wasn't born until three years after the war ended). Our fight shouldn't be with these people. After all, they left that mess to come here. Those who don't support the US will spawn those who do and then die off.

The fight must be with the facist states of the Middle East. They're the ones who sponsor, fund, and hide the terrorists who do their dirty work. We have to destroy these governments and keep coming back until they can separate the religious fanatics in their midst from the seats of power. We've shoved the worst of our bigots into the corner and they must do the same.

[hflynn]

Ask him to call for the Taliban to hand over Bin Laden and his co-horts. I have a feeling he would tell you that would not be possible. Also, read the article carefully. The writer slips a little anti-semitic bullshit in and of course gives the Islamic line that the United States is partially responsible for 9-11.

[gargoyle]

...eloquent eloquence gets my attention every time, need I say bumped?