12/15/2014 Pro-Democracy Muslim Promotes ‘Sunlight’ to Combat Radical Islam
Source: Jewish Exponent
Zuhdi Jasser, 46, was amazed to hear his pro-democracy views become the target of a verbal attack in front of his family by the imam of the Phoenix mosque he attends.
As the American-born son of Syrian refugees from that country’s dictatorial Baathist regime, Jasser has made a name from himself as a devout Muslim and avid supporter of democracy, helping to found the American Islamic Forum for Democracy in the wake of
Speaking to about 25 guests at a StandWithUs luncheon on Dec. 10 at the Duane Morris law offices in Center City, Jasser explained how an August interview on Fox News, during which he slammed Islamic leaders such as fellow guest Imam Muhammad Siddeeq of the Nur-Allah Islamic Center in Indianapolis, Ind., for their failure to speak out against terrorist groups like ISIS and Hamas, became the topic of a scathing rant by the imam of Jasser’s own mosque.
“The imam called out against me just two months ago in the largest sermon of our annual services at the end of Ramadan,” said Jasser, who also spoke to an audience of 120 at Penn Valley’s Har Zion Temple the evening before the luncheon. “The sermon went from being about Islamophobia and about Ramadan to being about ‘a Muslim amongst us who is not one of us.’ ”
Jasser added that the imam called him a hater of Islam and “compared me to the hypocrites in the Koran, which basically is apostating me.”