AIFD COMMENDS THE NYPD ON THE RELEASE OF ITS REPORT: “RADICALIZATION IN THE WEST: THE HOMEGROWN THREAT”

PHOENIX, ARIZONA:

1. The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) commends the New York City Police Department on the release of its comprehensive report on Radicalization in the West: the Homegrown Threat.

2. While extensive more thorough review of the report will take some time, AIFD endorses the central approach of the NYPD report which looks into ideological correlates and preliminary stages of radicalization. AIFD, thus, in essence is in agreement with an overriding statement within the report which states, “becoming a jihadist is a gradual, multi-step process that can take months, even years, although since 9/11 the pace has accelerated.”

3. AIFD further brings to your attention a statement within the report that,

“The subtle and non-criminal nature of the behaviors involved in the process or radicalization makes it difficult to identify or even monitor from a law enforcement standpoint. Taken in isolation individual behaviors can be seen as innocuous, however when seen as part of the continuum of the radicalization process, their significance becomes more important.”

a. This report should remind American Muslims and all Americans that this is not a conflict against a tactic of terror but rather an ideology. This report begins to dissect the ideologies and stages which lead to radicalization.
b. This report reminds us that in areas where law enforcement cannot effectively monitor errant behavior, it is thus incumbent upon reformist, anti-Islamist Muslims to intellectually combat the Jihadi-Salafi influences within the Muslim consciousness. This is a role which protesting Islamist organizations abrogate.

4. The NYPD Report may provide the beginning of an answer to the long awaited question of how can we begin to search for clues to radicalization before an attack is actually planned and executed. At first look, it appears to be an outstanding diagnostic evaluation of the process that leads to the formulation of an intent to commit terror and the previous steps leading toward the radicalization of Islamists. Within this understanding of the process that leads toward Jihadi-Salafi radicalism are elements of the ideological battlefronts in this war which are necessary to defeat political Islam, Islamism, jihadism, salafism, caliphism, and Wahhabism (all elements of the same theocratic fundamentalism which threatens America and the free world).

5. AIFD remains disappointed that so-called “leading” American Muslim organizations continue to respond reflexively on behalf of the American Muslim community to the release of vital analyses like this report with their same tired message of obfuscation, denial, and victimization. Fear mongering about “profiling” dismisses necessary diagnostics in smart counterterrorism.

6. CAIR and MPAC both disseminated press releases on August 15, 2007 which we believe inappropriately critique elements of the report that discuss specific symptoms among many which radicals may exhibit in their path toward radicalism. These Islamist organizations do Muslims a great disservice by dodging the central importance of the way in which a series of behaviors and ideological transitions serve as milestones in the development of a jihadist. It is certainly much easier and more comfortable to their Islamist constituencies which often lack moral courage to remain in denial and focus on victimization rather than connect the dots of political Islam, salafism, Wahhabism, and ultimately the possibility of jihadism and terror.

7. This continuum is essential to understand and expose since only we, as Muslims, can ideologically counter it if we so choose. Our security remains perilously hinged on we as Muslims exposing the dangers of fundamentalism and political Islam. If Muslims were to proactively do work like that revealed by the NYPD study, it would be a major step in demonstrating our patriotism as well as becoming part of the solution rather than the problem through inaction, denial, and ignorance.

8. AIFD is concerned that the knee-jerk response of national Islamist organizations to complain about a fear of “casting suspicion upon all Muslims” is not only intellectually wanting but also at best blatant denial by attempting to deflect any deconstruction of political Islam and salafism as a root cause of terrorism.

9. We must acknowledge as patriotic American Muslims that there is often subtlety and a malignant attitude hidden in individuals who may be precursors to terrorists as evident in the examples provided in the NYPD report of cells discovered in previous attacks or attempted attacks. Islamists cannot have it both ways which is to say that the Muslim community reports every concern over violence and is “proactive” all the while dismissing valid reports and analyses of ideological root causes as “casting suspicion”.

10. Understanding the ideological footprints which create a radicalized Islamist is vitally necessary in detecting and preventing future tragedies from occurring. Vigilance and caution is far different from blanket suspicion.

11. If only these supposedly leading Muslim organizations understood, articulated, and led the charge to formulate profiles of ideological transformations which leads to jihadism, it would do a lot more to prevent the casting of suspicion than their empty premature protestations.

12. We as Muslims and as Americans need to acknowledge that radicalization does not happen overnight. It is a long process which involves many steps as identified by the NYPD report. These steps may take years and it is more than appropriate for our security agencies with our full assistance to probe, understand, and combat these areas.

13. AIFD since its inception in 2003 has stressed that the process that leads to radicalization is driven by political Islam and the religious legitimization of a theocratic state. Until the organized Muslim community articulates the role of political Islam in each of these steps of radicalization security agencies like the NYPD and Homeland Security will not make any headway in securing the homeland.

14. Rather than divert attention to a baseless fear of suspicion which is not yet even proven, AIFD calls upon all Muslims to lead the effort to proactively combat Wahhabism, Salafism, Islamism, and Jihadism in all of its latent forms and at every one of its developmental stages. This is an ideological battle that only we as Muslims can win.

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Contact: M. Zuhdi Jasser, AIFD Chairman, AIFD, 602-254-1840, Email: info@aifdemocracy.org, Web: www.aifdemocracy.org

JD Hayworth Show- PBS Documentary to air in Arizona Today

JD and Zuhdi discuss the issues behind the documentary by ABG Films set to air this evening on KAET Channel 8- local PBS.

JD Hayworth Show- PBS Documentary to air in Arizona Today

JD and Zuhdi discuss the issues behind the documentary by ABG Films set to air this evening on KAET Channel 8- local PBS.

A Forum to Oppose Muslim Radicals

Tonight, Islam vs. Islamists will finally air on local public television.
The Public Broadcasting System removed the film from its highly publicized “America at a Crossroads” series that explores the relationship of Islam and the United States. Islamist sympathizers within the Corporation for Public Broadcasting censored the film.

Islam vs. Islamists is being released following an agreement with Oregon Public Broadcasting, but its distribution will be light. In Arizona it will be shown after primetime with virtually no publicity.

The suppression of the film was part of the persistent marginalization of Muslim moderates who are anti-Islamist. It sends a dangerous message to other like Muslims searching for courage to speak out. Only anti-Islamist Muslims can defeat the root cause of global radical Islamist terror, which is political Islam or Islamism.

Islamism is a movement that seeks to put into place governments or societies in which the Quran is not only a source of law but the source of law. When holy books become the source of law we become a theocracy. Islamists may believe in democracy, election and parliaments, but they do not support governments that don’t promote Islam.

The film profiles the deep internal struggles within the Muslim community of anti-Islamist Muslims across America, Canada and Europe. As one of the Muslims depicted in Islam vs. Islamists, it was validating to know that a wider American audience would actually begin to get a fair glimpse of what happens to Muslims who speak out against the entrenched Islamist power structures in our community.

Throughout the world, we are demonized and ignored by imams and adherents to political Islam, despite our love for our faith. PBS validated the suppression of those ideas through its marginalization of this film.

Before 9/11, many anti-Islamist Muslims hoped that slow generational change would topple the Islamists controlling our communities. Now, after 9/11, many of us have been moved into rapid action, calling on the controlling Islamists to separate their political agendas from the beautiful faith of Islam.

Within the mosques, this debate has generally not evolved. Often anti-Islamists are metaphorically pushed to the back of the mosque. Outside the mosque, blind political correctness conveniently hands over the mantle of Islam to the Islamists and their brand of politics.

This global conflict is between ideologies. Terrorism is not the enemy. It is a means to the ends of militant Islamism. While only a minority of Muslims support terror, the greater question remains, “How many Muslims are willing to stand up and counter the ends of the political Islamist state?”

Phoenix, with its large Muslim population, has innumerable opportunities to begin opening the doors of debate about Islamism and create an ijtihad or modern interpretation that separates Islam from the political agenda of Muslims.

To counter the Islamist imams and the Islamist political parties who call themselves “leading Muslim organizations,” a forum must be available.

This documentary was certainly a first step in the long Muslim journey to rescue spiritual Islam. The next time someone asks, “Where are the voices from the center?” — the answer tonight is on Channel 8 (KAET).

M. Zuhdi Jasser is a physician in private practice and a former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander. He is chairman of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy. He can be reached at Zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org.

Tonight on TV

WHAT: Islam vs. Islamists, followed by a panel discussion on Islam hosted by John Hockenberry and featuring representatives from the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

WHEN: 10 p.m.

WHERE: Channel 8 (KAET).