AIFD Opposes Claims that NYPD Bows to Islamic Pressures

STATEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AIFD reconfirms support for NYPD Report on Radicalization

Phoenix, Ariz. (September 9, 2009) – Dr. M.Zuhdi Jasser, Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) released the following statement regarding the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) clarification in the report “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat”.

“CAIR and other Islamist group’s collective victory dance over the New York Police Department’s inclusion of a clarification page in its report Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat is incorrect and overblown. The clarification page in no way changes the important work that the NYPD accomplished with this watershed report. Instead of bowing to the Islamists as has been widely reported, the clarification marginalizes the complaints that CAIR and other organizations have leveled against the report and makes readily apparent what anyone could have derived from the original report.

CAIR’s protests against the NYPD are yet another example of CAIR’s victimization of the Muslim community and its use of Islam to forward its own agenda while hiding CAIR’s complicity in the efforts of Islamists in America. The goal of the protests is to deceptively shift the focus from the very real concerns of the theological underpinnings (i.e. salafism) which fuel the radicalization of some American Muslims to an exaggeration of the victimization of Muslims by the New York Police Department. Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat should be a tool that American Muslims utilize to protect our faith and the liberty of our community members.”

AIFD stands by its original statement from 2007 commending the efforts of the New York Police Department

About the American Islamic Foundation for Democracy

AIFD’s mission is to advocate for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution and demonstrate that the separation of mosque and state and the tenets of Liberty and Freedom are integral to the Muslim Faith. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/

‘Islam on Capital Hill Event” does not represent all American Muslims


NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Islam on Capitol Hill Event” does not represent all American Muslims

March on Washington is just another cover for Islamist agenda

Phoenix, Ariz. (September 25, 2009) – The event in Washington D.C. that is supposedly bringing together thousands of American Muslims to pray for the “soul of America,” has at its core an agenda of political Islam, which is in direct conflict with Western democracy. The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is today speaking out against the event and the ideologies that are behind it.

The threat of Islamist inspired homegrown terror is growing in the United States with new arrests almost every month if not every week. The Capitol Hill event would be infinitely more impactful if its leadership focused on rallying against the ideologies within our own Muslim communities which fuel terrorism and radicalization and how we as American Muslims need to be the instrument of that change. Instead the organization is focused on a message of supremacy of Muslims saying “Our time has come.” They are propagating a message of Muslim first and American as necessary for political gain.

“If this event were about Muslims owning up to their responsibility to counter the Islamist ideas which fuel terrorism committed by Muslims, I would be all for it,” said Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, President of AIFD. ‘That simply is not the case though. This organization is just another example of how Islamists politicize the faith and seek to centralize their political power as a faith group.”

The organizers identified thus far are proven radical Islamists. One of the planned speakers Imam Sheikh Ahmed Dewidar advocated for conspiracy theories about 9/11 stating on the Muslim Brotherhood website (ikhwanonline.com):

“Whether or not these events were planned, or pinned on the Muslims, or something else-[it] provided an opportunity for the American government to legislate dubious laws that restrict the growth and presence of Islam in the U.S.”

Hassen Abdellah is an attorney who has represented convicted and suspected terrorists. Abdellah came up with the idea for the rally with Imam Abdul Malik. His own Facebook page attributes to him the following, “So no we don’t want to democratize Islam, we want to Islamize democracy. That’s what we want.”

Other more covert Islamist groups like ISNA have refused to participate but suspiciously avoided the topic of political Islam and seem in their comments to only have a quarrel over strategy. CAIR originally linked the prayer announcement on their site but has recently removed it.

“This event shows no condemnation by name of Muslim terrorist organizations, or any condemnation of core Islamists ideologies which fuel Islamist separatism and radicalism like the treatment of apostates and blasphemy under shar’iah law (Islamic jurisprudence), the abuse of women’s rights, and the incompatibility of the Islamic state and shar’iah with western democracy.” said Jasser. “I challenge the organizers to condemn political Islam so we know where they stand on this central fuel of Islamist terrorism.”

AIFD is the most prominent American Muslim organization confronting the ideologies of political Islam and openly countering the belief that the Muslim faith is inextricably rooted to the concept of the Islamic State. AIFD believes that Muslims can better practice their faith when they are liberated by the separation of mosque and state.

About the American Islamic Foundation for Democracy

AIFD’s mission is to advocate for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution and demonstrate that the separation of mosque and state and the tenets of Liberty and Freedom are integral to the Muslim Faith. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/

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