On Yom HaShoah AIFD remembers the Holocaust

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Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On Yom HaShoah AIFD remembers the Holocaust

 

PHOENIX, AZ (April 7, 2013) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) issued the following statement to mark the day of Yom HaShoah.

“At this point in history with so much transformation and uncertainty throughout the Middle East and North Africa it is very important to take time and commemorate Yom HaShoah, which reminds us of the evil that was perpetrated on the Jewish people in the Holocaust. As we say together a collective – “Never Again!” and pray for all the victims and their families, we should resolve to bring the global community together in eradicating anti-Semitism from the earth.  This day of commemoration ensures that we will never forget.

At AIFD, as Muslims we worry about the rising tide of Islamism in the region and its use of anti-Semitism to gain power. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, President of AIFD provided this testimony linked here to Congress on February 27, 2013 to the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations  on the direct link between Islamism and anti-Semitism and its threat to global security as it spreads among Muslim populations. We must stand in solidarity with the people of Israel and Jews from around the world to ensure that hatred and bigotry cannot dominate the region.  We must stand in the face of the supremacist ideology of Islamism and be outspoken advocates for religious freedoms

Yom HaShoah is an opportunity to remind ourselves what can happen when we allow bigotry to go unanswered and renew our vigilance to protect the rights of all.

We offer a fervent prayer to remind ourselves of the collective strength we have to make sure that the Holocaust is never repeated.”

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

 

MEDIA CONTACTS:   Gregg Edgar
                                    Gordon C. James Public Relations
                                    gedgar@gcjpr.com
                                    602-690-7977

Egyptian Case against Bassem Youssef finally gets attention of US left to Islamist Reality

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Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Egyptian Case against Bassem Youssef finally gets attention of US left to Islamist Reality

Morsi’s Egypt clearly displaying dark repressive reality of an Islamist Constitution but US Embassy Cairo remains tone deaf

 

PHOENIX (April 3, 2013) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith” issued the following statement on behalf of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) on the prosecution and persecution of Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef.

“The Egyptian government’s decision last week to arrest Bassem Youssef, the “Egyptian Jon Stewart”, has once again clearly displayed the threat posed to the people of Egypt by an Islamist Constitution and Islamist idealogues leading.

Youssef was arrested for criticizing Egyptian President Morsi and for criticizing Islam, despite the fact that he is a devout Muslim himself and professes a deep love of his faith and his country.

Morsi’s allies in the Muslim Brotherhood are using the tool of religion and blasphemy to hammer dissent into submission. The arrest of Youssef and several other comedians is just the latest example of political Islam in action. The ideology is based in a supremacist mindset that holds the Islamist interpretation of Islam higher than any individual right to freedom of thought, expression or faith.  It quickly becomes the tool of the dictator to secure power through intimidation.  Youssef himself appeared with CNN’s Christian Amanpour labeling the brotherhoods actions as “fascistic”.

At long last the American Left appears to be stepping to the plate in condemning these actions and awakening to the threat of Islamism upon every citizen. Youssef, a heart surgeon turned comedian, and television host comes from within their ranks.  His arrest sparked Jon Stewart to do a 10 minute monologue that highlighted some of Morsi’s direct statements calling Jews ‘descendants of Pigs and Monkeys’ and Morsi’s hypocrisy on religious freedom.

The Obama Administration continued to falter on the principle of defending religious freedom, when it initially condemned the arrest and actually tweeted the Stewart monologue from a US Embassy Cairo twitter account, only to have Ambassador Anne Peterson soon thereafter remove the post and delete the twitter account.  Peterson is the Ambassador who forbade US Marines from carrying live ammunition when US Embassy Cairo was besieged by protesters and the walls were actually breached.

We cannot condemn the actions of religious suppression and then send $190 million to the government to secure its infrastructure.  We cannot stand with Bassem Youssef and send the Egyptian Government airplanes and tanks.  We cannot call for greater tolerance of religious freedom and label President Morsi an ally in the region all the while his henchmen enforce some of the most repressive restrictions on free expression seen in Egypt in generations.

There is no ambiguity in the intent of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.  Their Constitution clearly lays out their vision for a new Egypt that does not embrace religious freedom or individual rights. Recent scores of arrests of  Bassem Youssef and many others provide a stark reminder of this fact.  The Administration needs to take the lesson that his brothers and sisters on the left side of the aisle are learning and stand on the principles that built this country.

It’s time to cut off all aid to our non-ally Egypt and let the Muslim Brotherhood fail, fall into the dustbin of history and make room for Revolution 2.0 in Egypt for our real allies–those who believe in and represent real freedom.

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

MEDIA CONTACTS:         Gregg Edgar

Gordon C. James Public Relations

gedgar@gcjpr.com

602-690-7977

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Swett and Jasser: Bahrain’s Choice

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By Katrina Lantos Swett and M. Zuhdi Jasser
Roll Call, March 15, 2013 

 

While the world remains riveted to Egypt’s challenges and Syria’s travails, much is also at stake in Bahrain, a strategically vital Gulf nation that is home to the Middle East’s largest U.S. naval base.

Compared to other countries in the region, Bahrain has displayed remarkable tolerance toward its non-Muslim religious minorities, from Baha’is to Christians. Nonetheless, Bahrain has been repressing its Shiite Muslim majority.

Last month marked the second anniversary of Shiite protesters rising up and demanding political reform and an end to the Sunni-led government’s discrimination. Recently, the government proposed dialogue with the opposition. For both human rights and global security reasons, it’s time for real dialogue leading to genuine reform.

In December, we led a delegation to Bahrain from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which we serve. Our aim was to assess religious freedom conditions, particularly the government’s response to recommendations from the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry. Bahrain’s government had created BICI in June 2011 following clashes triggering dozens of deaths and property destruction including the demolition of Shiite mosques and other structures. We met with Bahraini officials, opposition heads, Sunni and Shiite religious leaders, human rights and non-Muslim religious minority representatives, and ordinary Bahrainis.

Our findings support a number of BICI conclusions. While the government understands the need for dialogue, it remains reluctant to embrace lasting reform.

We heard two competing narratives while in Bahrain. The government insisted that Shiite activists are collaborating with Iran to unleash chaos, while the Shiites alleged that the government of Bahrain has committed escalating human rights abuses since 2011 and, with Saudi Arabia’s support, has rejected reform.

We saw no evidence that Iran was behind the protests or that the Saudis were driving the government’s actions. Instead, we found that Bahrain’s problems are homegrown. We saw a pattern of religious bias against Shiites, clear human rights and religious freedom abuses against them after the 2011 protests, and a reluctance to accept full responsibility for the discrimination or the abuses.

The Bahraini government’s deep-seated suspicion of Shiite citizens is evident in its governing system. Shiites routinely are prevented from serving in military combat positions, and there are no senior-level Shiites in Bahrain’s security apparatus, including the military and police.

While some security forces were killed or injured in the 2011 demonstrations, the government’s response further damaged relations. It dismissed Shiite students from universities and government workers from jobs because of their involvement in the protests. It demolished at least 35 Shiite mosques and religious structures within weeks, some of which had stood for decades. It allowed state-controlled media to denigrate Shiite citizens. It reportedly tortured Shiite demonstrators, subjecting some to physical beatings and electric shock, forcing some to stand for hours at a time, and even dousing detainees with urine.

Since that time, we’ve found no indication that the government is critically reviewing its actions and systematically reducing its bias.

While the government has acknowledged the destruction of religious structures and has begun rebuilding, it has not publicly taken responsibility or apologized. Its rebuilding schedule remains unclear.

Only a handful of low-level police officers have been convicted of mistreating detainees during the 2011 uprising. The lack of transparency surrounding these convictions casts doubt on whether the guilty are serving jail time. Meanwhile, human rights activists such as Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Nabeel Rajab remain imprisoned.

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser Testifies Before House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee

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AIFD President and Founder, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, gave remarks today at the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee’s  Subcommittee  Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations.  The hearing was titled  “Anti-Semitism: A Growing Threat to All Faiths.”

Dr. Jasser’s written testimony is available here.

For a PDF version e-mail Norma@aifdemocracy.org.

 

As CIA Director Brennan needs to rethink his position on Islamist ideology

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Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

As CIA Director Brennan needs to rethink his position on Islamist ideology

American Muslim organization concerned by terror experts history in the fight against Islamist extremism

 PHOENIX (February 14, 2013) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith” issued the following statement on behalf of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) in the wake of the delay of the likely confirmation of John Brennan as CIA Director.

“The American Islamic Forum for Democracy is concerned about the direction that the CIA will be steered under the stewardship of John Brennan who is likely to be confirmed in the coming weeks.  Today’s hearings highlighted several important issues, but failed to focus enough on Mr. Brennan’s position or lack thereof on the ideological root cause of Islamist extremism.

The CIA is on the front lines of the byproduct of an existential war against the ideology of political Islam (Islamism).  It’s byproduct includes Al Qaeda and the global array of radical Islamist organizations and nation-states. It is by far and away the greatest threat posed to the national security of the United States in the 21st century. Of all people in our government, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency whose operatives engage in counter-intelligence across the world needs to fully and unapologetically understand and be engaged in the war of ideas against this ideology.

AIFD has been critical of Brennan in the past for comments and apologetics he has proffered as the Obama Administration’s counterterrorism point person. His involvement in the creation of the toothless National Strategy for Counterterrorism and his remarks at New York University in 2010, highlight serious concerns about Brennan’s dedication to this fight against Islamism.

In the National Strategy, the guiding document for the U.S. government’s counterterrorism strategy, Brennan’s report uses the term “ideology” over 20 times, but fails to identify political Islam or any ideology for that matter as the ideology we need to defeat. His report does not name jihad, salafism, the Muslim Brotherhood, or any other derivative of the global movement of Islamism.  If we cannot name the threat, how can we defeat it?  In his remarks at NYU Brennan seemed more concerned with offering apologies about the U.S. and downplaying if not denying the prevalence of Islamist extremism for what he emphasized as “the actions of our own government [that] have at times perpetuated [ignorance, prejudice and discrimination].”

The Obama Administration has been completely absent in the battle of ideas against political Islam. If confirmed, Brennan is poised to take over a CIA which has among other portfolios –The Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program. Mr. Brennan has demonstrated no acknowledgement let alone desire to lead or expand such a vital program with the CIA under his stewardship. If he is unable to comprehend the central ideas of Islamism which threaten Americans across the world today, is he the best choice for CIA director? With the growth of Islamist leadership throughout the Middle East the threat is becoming more significant. If confirmed, as Director at CIA, AIFD implores Mr. Brennan to rethink his position regarding political Islam and refocus the agency commitment to winning the battle of ideas for liberty and against Islamism.  Our commitment to American principles is the key to victory in this war.”

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

MEDIA CONTACTS:         Gregg Edgar

Gordon C. James Public Relations

gedgar@gcjpr.com

602-690-7977

Where is the US Government in defense of Pastor Abedini and religious freedom?

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By 

Published January 27, 2013

Read this at FoxNews.com

 

Recent news of the January 21 Iranian trial of Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini before a Revolutionary Guard Court lit up social media and religious freedom activists and circles with sheer outrage over his plight and the rampant increase in Iran of persecution of religious minorities. But is religious liberty and these litmus cases a priority for the leader of the free world?

Pastor Abedini did nothing more than convert from Islam to Christianity 13 years ago and begin preaching his message in an underground network of churches in Iran. He then came to the United States and became an American citizen raising his family in Idaho. His family reported that he returned last fall to Iran to start an orphanage and was snatched from a bus by the Iranian regime on Sept. 26, 2012.  He was sent to the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran. The regime’s bogus claim? He was undermining their authority and national security. Many of the claims from the Iranian State News Agency on this case and others have been proven patently false throughout. Yet there has been little public repudiation from President Obama.

The judge assigned to the case has been sanctioned many times by the European Union for his court actions and sentences. Last week it was even reported that the pastor and his attorney were not allowed to attend their own trial. Sadly, but not surprisingly, Pastor Saeed stands now convicted to eight years in prison in an Iranian gulag. This American citizen, who, like so many of our families came to the U.S. for religious freedom, went back only for charity work and is now jailed, having lost the freedom of his adopted nation.

With all the information known on this case, why the irresponsible neglect from the bully pulpit of the White House? The administration embarrassingly so far could only muster a statement from National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor saying, “We remain troubled by the case of U.S. citizen Saeed Abedini, who was arrested by Iranian officials more than three months ago on charges relating to his religious beliefs; we call upon Iranian authorities to release him immediately.” Yet, hypocritically, in June 2009, when two Current TV reporters were imprisoned in North Korea, the Obama White House and Clinton State Department made the reporter’s plight a top priority. They even dispatched former President Bill Clinton as an envoy who was then thankfully able to secure their release.

One cannot help but realize that even though our nation was founded on the “first freedom” being religious freedom, the defense of that freedom abroad is sadly no longer “first.” Secular, a-religious causes like that of so many courageous reporters seem easier for many on the left to defend and trumpet against nebulous universally decried fascists like the president of North Korea. However, when the victims are targeted for minority religious speech and liberty, their causes seem all too often to be less palatable to reflexively defend. This seems especially true for this administration when the religious repression is found to be in the hands of Islamists — a theocratic form of fascism.

As a devout Muslim, relishing my American freedoms, I know that if the freedoms of Christians, Baha’is, Jews, Hindus, other Muslim sects or atheists are trampled upon, so too soon will mine. In countries like Iran, the defense of religious freedom is the most accurate barometer upon which we can hold their nations regularly accountable to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, we run from the confrontation.
Is the Obama White House fearful of confronting Iran?

History has shown that when Islamists see the defenders of freedom withdraw from conflict with their supremacist goals, they push forward even harder against religious minorities with abandon. This is not  just about one pastor, or one American citizen, it is about our credibility as a nation, which defends religious liberty domestically and abroad.

Paul Marshall recently laid out how flagrant and rampant these cases have become with now too many to count — including Pastor Yusef Nadarkani, Pastor Vruir Avanessian, Behzad Taalipasand and Mohammed-Reza Omidi to name a few of the ever growing number of Iranians and Americans persecuted in Iran for their ‘first freedom.’ Fifty members of the House of Representatives recently implored Secretary of State Clinton in a letter to leave “no stone unturned” in gaining the release of Abedini. It is time to hold up cases like Pastor Saeed’s and tirelessly demand accountability and reform inside Iran for every prisoner of conscience. Such a policy from the White House, while perhaps angering Islamists (a good thing), could ultimately also free many innocents and move to reawaken the Green Revolution that we abandoned in 2009.

This administration has proven over and over again to be unwilling to take on Islamist ideologies and defend their victims on the front lines. Whether it be the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, or the Khomeinists of Iran, the Obama White House has dodged any diplomatic engagement that pushes directly up against a confrontation between western values of freedom and liberty and Islamist values of theocracy and the empowerment of the shar’iah of the Islamic state.

The passive-aggressive nature of White House policy towards Iran has led to the outsourcing of the Syrian conflict to Bashar Assad’s allies (like Russia). It has led to a signal of our weakness in preventing their nuclear ambitions. It has led to the often overt bypassing of EU and American economic sanctions with impunity. And now it is leading more and more to the lonely abandonment of icons of religious freedom inside Iran.

M. Zuhdi Jasser is the author of the recently released book, A Battle for the Soul of Islam (Simon & Schuster) and is President and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is also a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (the opinions here are his own).

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/27/where-is-us-government-in-defense-pastor-abedini-and-religious-freedom/#ixzz2JEhuliIM

Obama Administration Arms our Enemies

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Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Obama Administration Arms our Enemies

Military equipment transfer underscores lack of understanding of Brotherhood’s ideology

 PHOENIX (January 25, 2013) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith” issued the following statement on behalf of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy on the Obama Administration’s decision to allow the transfer of 16 F-16 fighter jets and 200 Abrams tanks to Egypt which is now controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood:

“The decision of the Obama Administration to allow the transfer of sophisticated military technology to Egypt underscores its dangerous foreign policy position of “normalization” with regards to the Muslim Brotherhood.  This administration has at every step of the way facilitated the ascension of a political party in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, which lives and breathes anti-westernism and anti-freedom policies.

The Muslim Brotherhood is founded on an ideological belief in Islamist supremacy. The Egyptian state Constitution just ratified in Egypt and drafted by members of the Brotherhood is Islamist and included radical salafist positions that denies other faiths equality, calls for shar’iah as the law of the land and empowers the Islamist Al Azhar University to serve as morality police just to name a few problems of this supremacist document.

Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, leader of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is on record numerous times supporting the terrorist organization Hamas and has recently come under scrutiny for comments he made in 2010 where he called Jews “the descendants of apes and pigs.”

Yet this is the man that the Obama Administration relied on to bring a negotiated settlement between Hamas and Israel.  He is the man that the administration believes can be a responsible owner of 16 F-16 fighter jets and 200 Abrams tanks.

The White House mistakenly views the election of Morsi as a victory for the democratic process, completely ignoring the fact that the Brotherhood was simply the most organized political entity in the country and in no way represented the vast number of liberty minded protestors who had brought down the reign of Hosni Mubarak.

Islamists movements like those epitomized in the Muslim Brotherhood will never be genuine allies with the West or any free secular societies based in liberty.  Even the most basic understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists reveals that their world view is incompatible with nations based in liberty and freedom. Would our government ever have found it appropriate during the Cold War or even since to transfer arms to “non-Soviet” communist regimes? Never, because the worldview of the communist ideology in nations like China, Cuba, and others is inherently incompatible with ours.

Call it ignorance, wishful thinking, or willful blindness, anyone who justifies sending arms to the Muslim Brotherhood ignores the central fact that Islamist ideology is both completely incompatible with secular societies based in reason and liberty and also sworn to the defeat of free secular societies. Just like with Iran in 1979, we are now destined to ultimately be in conflict with the MB led Egyptian government run by Islamists. We cannot and should not engage a government like the MB of Egypt without understanding their Islamist ideology. The MB is guided by a theocratic mindset which seeks a global evangelism of their political platforms. Their political oxygen is vis-à-vis the empowerment domestically and abroad of the Islamic state(s). Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood have long openly preached hatred of the west, hatred of Israel and Jews, and outright misogyny. When they do not, they are often just giving their critics “what they want to hear”.

No sane American who values our national security would think twice about sending F-16s or any of our military technology to Islamist nations because of their inherently anti-Western ideologies and behaviors. This is disastrous for our national security.

The fact that this transfer is happening in the wake of a now obvious ascent of radical Islamist groups in North Africa with Al Qaeda attacks in Algeria and the radical Islamist offensives in Mali is simply astonishing.  37 western hostages were killed by Islamists who essentially emanate from the same ideology as the Brotherhood. Even Secretary Clinton in her Benghazi testimony yesterday stated that “the jihadist ideology is rising rampantly in the region and needs to be countered.” How does one say that and then send arms to the Islamists?”

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

 

MEDIA CONTACTS:         Gregg Edgar

Gordon C. James Public Relations

gedgar@gcjpr.com

602-690-7977

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Government Should Protect Nonbelievers

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Government Should Protect Nonbelievers
By: Katrina Lantos Swett and M. Zuhdi Jasser
The following Op-Ed appeared in the Richmond Times on January 20, 2013

On Wednesday, the United States observed its annual National Religious Freedom Day. This day commemorates the Virginia General Assembly’s adoption in 1786 of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and celebrates the enshrining of this right in the U.S. Constitution and our country’s culture.

While religious freedom is an integral part of our heritage, it also is misunderstood. A key misunderstanding concerns the matter of belief. Simply stated, religious freedom means not only the right to believe, but the freedom to disbelieve — to embrace any religion and to reject every religion.

People express their religious freedom by choosing theism, atheism or any other response to ultimate questions. Religious freedom allows them to follow wherever their conscience leads.

Through such documents as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, nations around the world have acknowledged on paper that freedom of religion or belief is an inalienable human right.

These documents capture the broad essence of the right, speaking of “freedom of thought, conscience and religion.” Yet according to a Pew Research study released last August, nearly 75 percent of the world’s population lives in countries in which this fundamental freedom is significantly restricted.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we serve, has found that countries that typically persecute atheists also target members of disfavored or minority religious communities and individuals belonging to majority faiths who dissent from government-sanctioned interpretations.

In a number of nations, disseminating atheist views is specifically prohibited or restricted. Among these countries is Egypt, which USCIRF recommended in 2012 that the State Department add to its list of the world’s worst religious freedom violators. Just last month, Alber Saber was given a three-year jail sentence in Egypt for “offending” religion as a result of administering an atheist Facebook page.

Another such country is Indonesia, which USCIRF continues to monitor due to its permitting serious religious freedom abuses. Last June, Alexander Aan, a 31-year-old civil servant, was sentenced in Indonesia to a 2½-year prison term for creating a Facebook group supporting atheism and posting questions about the existence of a deity and cartoons depicting and insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Both of these cases underscore how states that persecute atheists violate not only freedom of religion or belief, but other precious freedoms, including freedom of expression. They remind us that, in the end, freedom is indivisible. There is no bright line that can be readily drawn in the sand to separate them.

The implication is clear. Those who stand unequivocally for other freedoms, including freedoms of speech and press, association and assembly, also must support religious freedom, just as those who stand for the right of believers to follow their conscience must do the same for nonbelievers.

While history bears stark witness to the persecution of atheists in the name of belief and believers in the name of atheism, the call of conscience requires us to pursue a brighter path of freedom and dignity for all. Thus, as we mark National Religious Freedom Day, we’d do well to recall these wise words from the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom:

“No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever … nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.”

For believer and skeptic alike, freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief merits our firm support around the world.

Katrina Lantos Swett is the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. M. Zuhdi Jasser is a USCIRF Commissioner. To learn more about the commission, go to uscirf.gov. 

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact Samantha Schnitzer at sschintzer@uscirf.gov or (202) 786-0613.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress.

Visit our Web site at www.uscirf.gov
Katrina Lantos Swett, Chair • Mary Ann Glendon, Vice Chair • William Shaw, Vice Chair
Elliott Abrams • Sam Gejdenson • Robert P. George • Azizah Y. al-Hibri
M. Zuhdi Jasser • Jackie Wolcott, Executive Director


732 NORTH CAPITOL STREET, NW SUITE A714
WASHINGTON, DC 20401
202-523-3240 | 202-523-5020 (FAX)

America must protect religious freedom abroad

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By M. Zuhdi Jasser, Published January 20, 2013, | FoxNews.com

In the mid-1960s my family fled the oppressive Baath regime of Syria for liberty’s shores in the United States.  Raised in Wisconsin as an American Muslim, I learned that my faith was best served by a nation founded in liberty with a Constitution that guaranteed genuine religious freedom.

As I watched the Arab Awakening unfold in 2011 and 2012, I had high hopes that my co-religionists might finally be lifting the yoke of their oppressive secular dictators for the freedom that I have enjoyed here in the United States.  But now as 2013 opens, we are witnessing the frightening ascension of an even greater oppressive force than the dictators who had a stranglehold on the region for almost five decades — Islamism (political Islam).

Islamism combines the autocracy of the secular Arabist dictators with  unrestrained religious supremacy. The primary battle front, where Islamists suffocate their enemies, is on religious liberty. The plight begins in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where the royal family, in a bid to maintain power, essentially gave control of religious life to the radical Wahhabi elements within the country.  The petro dollars of the Kingdom have spread this lethal Islamist ideology around the world.  They are joined by the Qatari through arms like the Al Jazeera Media Group, which, after decades of failure, just recently acquired access to more than 40 million American homes through the purchase of Al Gore’s Current TV.

The recipe is simple: Islamists are government theocrats who promote a particular version of an Islamic doctrine  in order to impose their fascist interpretation upon all citizens. They use elections and so-called “democracy” in order to empower a single version of Shariah – their interpretation of Islam’s legal framework for the “Islamic state.” Islamists exploit their own perceived divine mandate to justify a litany of draconian laws upon their people.  The most obvious permutation of those laws leaves no room for religious tolerance let alone religious liberty.

Make no mistake, the victims of Islamist control are both religious minorities and those with dissident beliefs, whether Muslim or non-Muslim who are against the theocrats.

Throughout the region we are seeing a significant increase of oppression of religious freedoms.  In Pakistan this week, the Ambassador to the United States has been indicted by the Pakistani Supreme Court under blasphemy laws for simply saying that the country needs to rework its blasphemy law.

In Iran, we continue to see case after case of devout Christians, Baha’i, and Islamic apostates who face death penalties for expressing their religious beliefs. It is not a coincidence that this plight coincides with a government that at the same time is pounding its collective Islamist chest in seeking nuclear arms and feeding the genocide against an entire dissident citizenry in Syria.

On Monday, a 32-year-old Christian pastor, former Muslim, and American citizen, Saeed Abedini will stand trial for supposedly “compromising national security.”  His real crime to the Iranian theocrats is his own human expression of religious freedom through the development of an underground network of home churches. He will face the infamous Islamist Judge Abbas Pir-Abassi, known for sending innocent dissident believers to Iran’s dungeons.

In Egypt, with the ink hardly dry on the new Egyptian Islamist Constitution, the Muslim Brotherhood has wasted no time in bringing their Islamist justice to the people of Egypt. Nadia Mohammed Ali was sentenced this week to prison along with her children and the clerks who documented their Christian identity cards. The plight of Christians signals the future of religious freedom for all in Egypt. Ali and her children are now imprisoned simply for their chosen faith of Christianity.

The silence from devout Muslims around the world must end. It is time to rise up as free-thinking Muslims against governments and groups like the Muslim Brotherhood which exploit the faith of Islam for their own supremacist mission. The essential fuel of Islamist political parties and systems is the idea of the “Islamic state.” Nadia and her family are canaries in the coal mine of the Islamic state. The silence from the White House also must end. We must stand with Nadia as human beings. An Obama Doctrine is nowhere to be found and at this point the administration is unlikely to ever lay out a coherent foreign policy strategy with regards to religious liberty in the Middle East. Real global leadership for human rights needs a Liberty Doctrine. Free-thinking Muslims, however, are most directly positioned to repair this rupture within our collective soul.

The stifling of religious freedom is a natural evolution of an Islamist system fueled by an obsession upon one faith and its divine mandate. As a Muslim, I know the Islamist state will never evolve into genuine democracy. I reject the entire notion of the Islamic state and I see no other way to defeat Islamism but through the separation of mosque and state. Mollifying Islamism into some kind of tolerant form is a fool’s endeavor with example after example in Islamic history of failure. That is why my family came to the U.S.

In the U.S., I learned that whether I am in the minority or the majority, the only way to realize religious freedom is to live in a society where its governmental laws are based in reason and government stays out of the business of determining which religious legalisms are righteous. There are sadly hundreds to thousands more cases like these of courageous religious minorities and also dissident Sunni and Shiite Muslims from within the majority in countries like Egypt and Iran who are at the tip of the spear. They are often alone cutting through the battle raging inside the soul of Islam and Muslim communities across the world.

As leaders of the free world, our nation can choose to abandon these canaries in the Islamist coal mine or we can lift up their plights as beacons of freedom that can ultimately defeat Islamism.  It is time to call out the governmental oppressors of innocents like Nadia Mohammed Ali in Egypt or Saeed Abedini in Iran for what they are—ruthless fascist theocrats (Islamists) who use religion as a tool to destroy the spirit of their citizenry.

If the United States stands for anything we need to vigorously and consistently stand for the protection of religious freedom abroad that is not only enshrined in our own founding documents, but in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which we are supposed to protect.

M. Zuhdi Jasser is the author of the recently released book, “A Battle for the Soul of Islam” and is President and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Ariz. He is also a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (the opinions here are his own).

USCIRF Calls Charges against Iranian-American Pastor Bogus, Urges Immediate Release

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The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released the following press release. Dr. M.  Zuhdi Jasser, AIFD President &  Founder of AIFD is a member of the Commission.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

USCIRF Calls Charges against Iranian-American Pastor Bogus, Urges Immediate Release

 

January 16, 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C. — USCIRF today called for the immediate release of Saeed Abedeni, an Iranian-American pastor reportedly awaiting a January 21 trial on trumped-up national security charges that date back to 2000 when he lived in Iran.

Mr. Abedini married an American in 2002 and has lived in the United States since that time.   He became a U.S. citizen in 2010 and periodically has travelled back and forth to Iran. According to sources familiar with the case, Mr. Abedini was arrested in Iran in September 2012 for his involvement with the underground house church movement.  Mr. Abedini’s lawyer was unaware of the charges until January 14, when he was informed the trial would be held on Monday, January 21.

“The national security charges leveled against Mr. Abedini are bogus and are a typical tactic by the Iranian government to masquerade the real reason for the charges: to suppress religious belief and activity of which the Iranian government does not approve,” said USCIRF chair Katrina Lantos Swett.  “USCIRF calls on the Iranian government to release Mr. Abedini immediately and unconditionally.”

Mr. Abedeni’s trial reportedly is scheduled to be heard by Judge Abbas Pir-Abbassi of Branch 26 of Iran’s Revolutionary Court.  “Judge Pir-Abbassi is notorious for conducting swift trials and imposing lengthy prison terms, as well as the death penalty, without any semblance of due process,” said Lantos Swett.

In 2011, under the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA), USCIRF called on the U.S. government to impose travel bans and asset freezes on three “hanging judges” — Judge Pir-Abbassi, Judge Salavati, and Judge Moghiseh — for committing serious human rights abuses against Iranian citizens, including religious minorities.  In April 2011, the European Union imposed sanctions for human rights violations on all three judges.  The U.S. government has yet to follow suit.

During the past year, religious freedom conditions continued to deteriorate in Iran, especially for religious minorities, most notably Baha‘is, as well as Christians and Sufi Muslims, who have experienced   physical attacks, harassment, detention, arrests, and imprisonment.  In recent years, high level Iranian government officials and clerics have called for an end to Christianity in the country. Supreme Leader Aytaollah Khamenei publicly stated that “enemies of Islam” are using the spread of Sufism, the Baha’i faith, and Christian house churches to weaken the faith of young people in society.

Since 1999, the State Department has designated Iran as a country of particular concern, or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.  USCIRF continues to recommend that Iran be designated as a CPC.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner please contact Samantha Schnitzer at (202) 786-0613 or sschnitzer@uscirf.gov.

 The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress.

Visit our Web site at www.uscirf.gov
Katrina Lantos Swett, Chair • Mary Ann Glendon, Vice Chair • William Shaw, Vice Chair
Elliott Abrams • Sam Gejdenson • Robert P. George • Azizah Y. al-Hibri
M. Zuhdi Jasser • Jackie Wolcott, Executive Director

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