Dr. Zuhdi Jasser discusses the beating of Aiya Altameemi by her mother Yusra Farhan
Dr. Jasser joined KTVK’s Carey Pena to discuss a recent incident of honor abuse in the Phoenix area.
Anatomy of a smear: ‘The Third Jihad’ Strikes Back
The director of ‘The Third Jihad.’ Wayne Kopping, produced this outstanding response to the New York Times smear against his film and Dr. Jasser.
Syrian People are paying for Western inaction with their lives
Statement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Syrian People are paying for Western inaction with their lives
Obama administration needs to lead the world in providing direct aid to the Syrian people to stop the genocide in Syria
PHOENIX (February 14, 2012) – Dr. Zuhdi Jasser on behalf of the Syrian Democratic Coalition released the following statement regarding the escalating humanitarian crisis in Syria and the inability of the Obama administration to lead the world with a coherent strategy and action to directly aid the Syrian people in their quest for freedom rather than simply words:
“After over a year of demonstrations and over 7,000 Syrian men, women and children killed by Assad’s killing machine for simply wanting their freedom, it seems that there is no end in sight to the brutality of Bashar al-Assad and his military and no hope from the West or the UN for navigating a path forward for a Syria free of tyranny.
Bizarrely the United States and its western allies seem to be following the lead of the Arab League and its friends at the United Nations, cliques of autocrats often no better than Assad himself rather than lead free nations and immediately implement a clear strategy to end Assad’s regime. Britain’s foreign minister William Hague essentially took western intervention off of the table when he flatly stated ‘I don’t see the way forward in Syria as being western boots on the ground in any form, including in any peacekeeping form.’ Few are actually calling for “boots on the ground” but a Kosovo style solution with targeted bombing of military facilities and armamentarium would have essentially the same impact it did against the Serbs for the Bosnians giving in this case the Free Syria Army room and momentum to gain position, time, and safe zones. Hague’s comments seem to rather reflect a raising of the white flag in the face of determined opposition from Iran, Russia, China, and of course Syria itself.
The US’s attempt to bring together “Friends of Syria” is admirable but only one component of what should be a far more forward and comprehensive strategy to bring down the Assad regime and help foster a genuine transition toward democracy. The paralysis of the US and the West due to a fear of what may come next, sentences the Syrian people to their current miserable condition and bloodshed at the hands of the Baathist butchers in control of the Syrian military. Any transition will be messy but let us not let fear of change become accomplices in a horrific genocide occurring in towns across Syria. In the last week alone the city of Homs has seen continued shelling of neighborhoods, daily death tolls in the hundreds and an attempt to smother a town into silence by cutting off food, water and electricity.
There is no excuse whatsoever in 2012 for massacres like Homs to occur with inaction from the US and the free world. Shortsightedness may paralyze our weak leaders but in the end once the Syrians have rid themselves of Assad and all of his corrupt military leaders enacting kill orders across their nation against their own people, they will not forget how little the US openly did inside Syria to counter the forces of evil in Syria. If we have any desire to bring liberty to Syria rather than see it become Islamist, American soft power and some hard power must be utilized or all the Syrian people will know is how we sat silent as Iran, Russia, China, and Hizballah armed the Syrian military and they were aided only by a few Arab League nations. This is not the American legacy our families came to the US knowing and loving.
A Kosovo style solution with bombing, military air support, black ops and intelligence support, humanitarian aid, border aid with safe zones, genuine economic isolation through comprehensive sanctions (in addition to sanctions against direct Syrian supporters ie. Russia, China, Iran, and Lebanon) is possible and the only genuine support that will be in any way meaningful to the Syrian people. Any other so-called support with repeated diplomatic meetings, delay tactics, empty statements at press conferences is empty and transparently useless. The Syrian people know who is coming to their aid and who is not.
When Jay Carney on the behalf of the White House stated last week that the ‘right solution is a political solution‘ for Syria this demonstrates such a profound ineptness and inability to articulate and understand the evil that is Assad and his military leadership that the US has fallen to an all-time low in its reliability in defending liberty abroad.
American diplomacy has taken a tragic turn when it is the UN’s Ban Ki Moon who is advocating the loudest for the freedom seeking people of Syria. Strategically Syria represents our greatest opportunity against the Iranian crescent of control through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. As an ethnically and religiously diverse nation Syria stands as the Arab nation ultimately most likely to arise out of both secular fascism and Islamist fascism.
Our inaction is being paid for with the lives of the Syrian people. The Security Council gridlock will do nothing to change the situation on the ground. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov told a news conference that ‘We should first have peace,’ before we agree to the Arab League proposal. Hypocritically the Russians are best suited to bring that peace by ceasing the arming and fueling of Assad’s military. The Syrian government does not make its own weapons. The United States needs to step away from the table at the UN and stop grasping at straws for a solution and seize the opportunity to lead for there to be any hope for change within the Middle East.”
About Syrian Democratic Coalition
The Syrian Democratic Coalition (SDC) is an emerging coalition of diverse Syrian organizations coming together to help bring an end to the Assad regime and promote the transformation of Syria into a secular democracy based in liberty. The coalition is founded upon a belief in the separation of religion from state and is dedicated to establishing a new constitution and transparent federal republic in Syria, based in reason that equally protects minority rights, promotes gender equality, and embraces the rights and liberties of every individual as enumerated in the United Nations Declaration for Human Rights. This growing coalition crosses all ethnic, religious and tribal lines to represent all Syrians. It currently includes members of Save Syria Now!, the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, the Union of Syrian Arab Tribes and the Syrian Christian Democratic Movement.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Gregg Edgar
Gordon C. James Public Relations
602-690-7977
American Muslim leaders support “The Third Jihad”
NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
American Muslim leaders support “The Third Jihad”
Decry New York Times attack on film
WASHINGTON, DC (February 1, 2012)-The American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) has expressed serious concern at the vilification of the documentary The Third Jihad by the New York Times, which appears to be echoing and amplifying the party line of well-known Muslim Brotherhood supporters in the U.S. In its public statement, the AILC warned about the grave dangers of instrumentalizing Islam, from either end of the political spectrum:
“Well-intentioned Muslims and their allies on the left (including the New York Times) should beware of politicizing Islam, or seeking to prevent rational discourse concerning the very real threat posed by “radical Islam” to Western societies, and to Muslims at large. For those who deny a threat whose existence is self-evident to a majority of our fellow citizens, will share in the responsibility if and when that majority loses patience amid the heat of a future crisis-lashing out at Islam itself, and all Muslims, for the behavior of Muslim supremacists, whose ideology our intellectual and political elites have so dismally failed to acknowledge or address.
In light of the swirling controversy over the New York Police Department’s use of a film, The Third Jihad, for training purposes, we feel it is our civic, moral and religious duty to publicly address a number of issues raised by this controversy.
We have viewed The Third Jihad, and regard the information presented therein to be both factually accurate, and important for our fellow Muslim and non-Muslim citizens to understand, debate and address.
The Third Jihad explicitly distinguishes between the religion of Islam, and the highly politicized ideology of religious hatred, supremacy and violence characteristic of political Islam, often referred to as “Islamism.” While the film does not examine the pluralistic, tolerant and spiritual traditions of Islam that lie at the heart of our own understanding thereof, this does not imply that the film is inaccurate in its depiction of what it specifically terms “radical Islam,” as exemplified by movements such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Wahhabism (aka “Salafism”) and the Muslim Brotherhood.
We agree with the view expressed in the January 24, 2012 edition of the New York Times, that The Third Jihad is “a dark film” and “an explosive documentary.” However, contrary to the Times’ insinuation, this is not because of any falsehoods contained in the film. Rather, both the violent-and non-violent, subversive-methods employed by Islamist movements to achieve their goal of political domination are indeed “dark” and highly disturbing (hence, “explosive”) to most people who come to recognize, but do not share, the Islamists’ worldview and agenda.
Significantly, since the attacks of 9/11, the NYPD has evidenced greater courage and recognition of the factors that cause radicalization among Muslims, than have the various federal agencies explicitly tasked with defending our nation and its people. Notwithstanding Islamist claims to the contrary, we believe there is nothing inappropriate about the NYPD or other security agencies using the film The Third Jihad to help their staff understand and recognize the ideology of religious hatred, supremacy and violence that underlies and animates Islamist terrorism.
The NYPD’s initial denial of having widely used the film for training purposes-and subsequent public apologies issued by Commissioner Kelly (“It shouldn’t have been shown”) and Mayor Bloomberg (“Somebody exercised some terrible judgment. I don’t know who. We’ll find out.”)-are in and of themselves deeply troubling, and say far more about the current state of American society than about The Third Jihad itself. In fact, these public denials and apologies demonstrate the remarkable success achieved by the Islamist lobby in North America, which seeks to prevent any and all public discussion of the supremacist political ideology that non-violent Islamist organizations share in common with terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. In other words, the behavior of the NYPD, in this matter, tends to confirm the film’s thesis.
Islamist groups and their allies are, predictably, now seeking to exploit the opportunity presented by the current controversy over The Third Jihad to call for “oversight,” “corrective training” and “participation” by the “Muslim community” (i.e., Islamists!) in all counter-terrorist programs initiated by the NYPD.
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition recognizes and deplores the rise and spread of genuine Islamophobia in North America and Europe. However, we ascribe this rise of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim attitudes primarily to the actions of Muslims themselves (i.e., Islamists), whose efforts to establish an Islamic caliphate, an Islamic state, and/or to impose an antiquated and falsely-divinized human understanding of Islamic law upon others by force, dominate our daily headlines, and inevitably generate a strong sense of disgust-and visceral mistrust-among many of our fellow citizens.
Any and all efforts to conceal the Islamist agenda, or render its discussion beyond the pale of acceptable discourse-by branding such talk as “Islamophobia” or “hate speech”-threatens not only our common freedom and security, but the very future of Islam itself. For the Islamists’ prime goal is the silencing of Muslim opposition, and of any voice in the Muslim world that would challenge their monolithic, sterile and shallow understanding of Islam, which lacks the spirituality that enables religion to serve as a true path to God.
Islamist opposition to The Third Jihad, a film narrated by Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, clearly demonstrates this point. The Islamists’ uproar is driven by a desire to stifle alternative and truly moderate voices such as that of Dr. Jasser, a member of this coalition whom we know to be a devout Muslim committed to the highest values of Islam, and to our nation’s founding principles. The New York Times’ decision to embrace the Islamist “party line” on this matter hinders sincere efforts to identify and address the ideological source of Muslim radicalization, and to promote true reform within Islam, consistent with its primary message of universal love, compassion and mercy for all God’s creatures.
The current, highly-politicized nature of public discourse about Islam, in the West, is thus deeply worrying to us. Those who are truly Islamophobic often fail to acknowledge any redeeming qualities in Islam, or the faith of observant Muslims. Instead, they tend to demonize Islam, and seek to convince the majority of our fellow citizens that Islam itself is the threat, because its “true” and “authoritative” teachings are ostensibly identical to those of the Islamists.
Simultaneously, many on the left minimize or dismiss the threat posed by Islamists and instead proclaim Islam to be purely “a religion of peace,” while depicting the dire warnings of their political opponents as the raving of xenophobic and delusional hate-mongers, who seek to ostracize, and victimize, Muslims in general.
The result of these conflicting views is institutional paralysis in the West, and a complete lack of societal consensus as to the nature of the threat we face from “radical Islam,” and how we should address it.
For those who seek clarity amid the chaos of this dispute, it may be helpful to realize that those at both ends of the political spectrum, described above, share one salient feature in common with the Islamists themselves: i.e., they seek to instrumentalize the religion of Islam for political purposes.
Thus, an essential step towards establishing a rational, sound and mutually beneficial policy towards Islam and Muslims is for the U.S. and other Western nations to depoliticize this issue and create a bi-partisan/international consensus. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to greater polarization in the coming years, and the likely emergence of a societal consensus in the West whose demographics were on stark display in the summer of 2010, in polls concerning the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”: i.e., approximately 30% in favor, and 70% opposed. In Europe, this is the path of ethnic and religious cleansing, advocated by Anders Breivik and a rising populist movement. Here in the U.S., it is similarly the path of fear and hatred. To willfully and/or blindly continue along this path-especially at a time of nuclear proliferation and widespread political instability in the Muslim world-is the height of irresponsible folly.”
About the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC)
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) is a diverse coalition of liberty-minded, North American Muslim leaders and organizations. AILC’s mission advocates for defending the US Constitution, upholding religious pluralism, protecting American security and cherishing genuine diversity in the faith and practice of Islam. AILC provides a stark alternative to the Islamist organizations that claim to speak for what are diverse American Muslim communities. For more information on AILC, please visit our website at http://www.americanislamicleadership.org/.
MEDIA CONTACT: Gregg Edgar
Gordon C. James Public Relations
602-690-7977