Commentary: M. Zuhdi Jasser: Why ‘tough love’ is best answer for Arab world

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The Dallas Morning News, 9/26/12

As American stature and our embassies are attacked across the world, the U.S. needs to develop a clear vision of who we are and what we stand for in the free world. Anti-Islam films and cartoons are but cheap distractions. The challenge before the world could not be clearer — into the abyss left by ruthless dictators is a widening front in the battle for the soul of Islam:

Will Muslim majority societies heed the call of the Arab spring for the rights of the individual? Will they defend the rights of the minority over the collective, over the tribe, over the clerical oligarchs? Or will they just trade one autocracy for another? And will the U.S. stand on the principles we were founded on?

New ideas to the region like individual liberty and the separation of mosque and state are not turned on like a light switch. They are nurtured in a soil that has been tilled for critical thinking. Middle Eastern soil today is far from that. What we see today is more of the past battles between the evils of secular Arab fascism and theocratic fascism. In the information war between them, the liberals and secular democrats have been absent. Meanwhile, the fascists lie in wait for openings like the film and cartoons that exploit the imagined threat of American imperialism in order to legitimize their own ascendancy.

Islamists use these invented crises of faith to motivate spiritual fervor for the “Islamic state” and its legal instruments of shariah like blasphemy laws. While the Obama administration fecklessly condemns the violence and dissociates itself from “the video” grievance — rather than standing firm in defense of free speech and religious liberty — the Islamist agenda advances in full gear.

Consider the proclamations emanating from Al Azhar University, the world’s leading Islamist institution in Cairo. The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayyeb, condemned the West summarily telling Egyptians in reference to the film that “the West throughout history has not treated Islam with respect, but showed hostility [against it], and chosen the path of conflict, rather than understanding.

The Islamist narrative is that the defense of liberty is a license to denigrate Muslims and Islam. The U.S. has so far offered a paltry defense leaving reformers, secularists and our real allies ill-equipped and helpless.

Our motherlands face a number of hurdles before they even begin to enter modernity. But to patronize their societies with a different set of human standards than those embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a moral relativism that insults every Muslim.

Tough love is the highest form of respect. Demanding the minimum standard of non-violence is not enough. Moral relativism is exactly what the newly elected theocrats of the Muslim Brotherhood and their mentors at Al-Azhar want in order to widen rather than breach the divide between liberty and Islam.

We still have no strategy to engage real allies of liberty: the silent majority of liberals on the ground in the Middle East. We must signal to them that when it comes to democracy, there is no compromise on the defense of freedom of speech and that defense is inextricably wedded to the first freedom — freedom of religion.

For Muslims, we know well in the stories of the Prophet Muhammad that he sustained considerably more criticism than this movie, cartoons or any attacks of speech bring to bear. He either responded in silence or compassion.

As the old guards rush to fill the power vacuum, the voices of the “Arab Spring” standing up to the tyrants need to know the free world is on their side. The defense of free speech and religious liberty is not a war against faith, but a war against the oligarchs, the despots and the theocrats that would usurp their freedom. Any assumption otherwise is a bigotry our nation fought against not for.

M. Zuhdi Jasser is the author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith” and can be reached at zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org.

Hamas and the old/new American crescent

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Hamas and the old/new American crescent

MWC News, Aug. 20, 2012

If the outcome of the so-called “Arab Spring” has been the accession to power of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and a similar Islamist movement in Tunisia, and the strengthening of sectarian and tribalist jihadists in the guise of “fighters for democracy” in Libya and Syria (the temporary defeat of the Bahraini and Yemeni peoples’ uprisings notwithstanding), the recent admission of Hamas to the ranks of forces that not only do not threaten American interests in the region, but also would like to work to enhance them is a notable transformation.

Qatar has been the mover and shaker in this battle to extend and upgrade the informal international legitimacy that Hamas has in the eyes of the people of the region and Third World allies to the official level of Arab and Western governments. That Hamas, with Qatari support, was the first Islamist party in the Arab world that won a solid electoral victory in 2006 did not serve to grant it the legitimacy it deserved in the eyes of the United States, the most formidable anti-democratic force in the region and the world.

Instead, it galvanised the US, Israel and the collaborationist Palestinian Authority to stage a coup against it to deprive it of that victory. Having understood that the electoral strategy failed to have Hamas replace Fateh at the helm of the PA, Qatar and the top leadership of Hamas realised that the “Arab Spring” offers important new opportunities in this regard.

Slowly but surely, Hamas was pulled out of Syria and is being fully taken out of the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah alliance that threatens US-Israeli-Saudi strategy in the region, not only by transferring its top leadership from Damascus to Qatar, but also through a major rehabilitation effort of Hamas in Jordan, whose King Abdullah had exiled members of the Hamas leadership in 1999 on the orders of the US and Israel.

Read more

Morning Bell: New Wave of Attacks on U.S. Embassies

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Morning Bell: New Wave of Attacks on U.S. Embassies

Amy Payne, September 13, 2012, The Foundry

Protesters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Yemen today and set fire to a building. Like the mob in Egypt on Tuesday, they tore down the American flag. Reports are also circulating of a separate protest in Tehran today with about 500 Iranians chanting “Death to America.” Meanwhile, a onetime mentor of Osama bin Laden called on his followers to replicate what happened in Libya and Egypt.

Following the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other embassy staff, it is realistic to fear other attacks on U.S. diplomats. “Our men and women—in and out of uniform—are out there every day, protecting us and our interests. And that will always make them a tempting target,” Heritage expert Jim Carafano reminds us, commenting on the attacks in Libya and Egypt. Heritage’s Jim Phillips wrote in June about a larger Iranian campaign to assassinate foreign diplomats, including Israeli and Saudi diplomats, in at least seven countries over 13 months.

At this time, America’s first priority is the security of our personnel, and President Obama has ordered heightened security at America’s posts around the world.

We cannot allow terrorists and rioters to dictate U.S. missions and policy, and Washington must avoid knee-jerk reactions, such as yanking foreign aid, before we know the facts on the ground. As Phillips explained, the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Egypt reflects the internal divisions in that country. At the same time, while there are dangerous anti-American factions in Libya, there are also many that appreciate the U.S. assistance and, and according to some reports, fought to help protect the U.S. compound before it was overrun.

There are still too many questions to be answered about the origins of the attacks, the state of security at the U.S. facilities, and the responses of the host governments. We should get the facts before we draw too many conclusions about what happened and why, much less what this should mean for the future of U.S. policy.

That said, this is no cause for declaring a moratorium on debate about U.S. policy in the region. There is plenty worth debating.

President Obama has consistently shown more enthusiasm in engaging hostile regimes in the Middle East than in protecting the interests of allies such as Israel. He has shown more concern about restraining Israel from acting than stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

In fact, this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. is “not setting deadlines” for Iran and still considers negotiations “by far the best approach” to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public response was that “Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”

President Obama made matters worse by declining an offer from Netanyahu to meet when Netanyahu visit the U.S. later this month—despite the fact that Obama found time in his schedule for an appearance on David Letterman’s late-night comedy show and an interview with Miami rapper and radio personality DJ Laz.

The United States’s dysfunctional engagement with Israel and Iran is not the only problem. From North Africa through sub-Saharan Africa, al-Qaeda and its affiliates seem determined to plant the flag for new Afghanistans. Across the Middle East, the Arab Spring is far from unfinished business. Current U.S. policies clearly aren’t working. It is time to change course.

 

Israel, America Bashed at Iranian-Inspired DC Rally

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Israel, America Bashed at Iranian-Inspired DC Rally

Investigative Project on Terrorism, Aug. 20, 2012

Claims of Jewish control of the media and American politics and alleged war-mongering by Israel and America dominated speeches Friday at an Iranian-inspired rally in Washington, D.C.

“If you love America, you love lying, you love rape, you love murder, you love killing,” said Abdul Alim Musa, imam of Washington D.C.’s Masjid Al-Islam and head of a separatist movement called As-Sabiqun. “And then, the Zionist, diabolical, sinister Israeli. Nobody in history, they cry about some Holocaust, we had five or ten people get killed.”

Similar rallies were held in New York, Chicago, Detroit and other cities. The rallies were promoted by American University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, and through personal Twitter posts by Cyrus McGoldrick, advocacy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) New York chapter.

Resolutions adapted by Quds Day organizers endorse Hamas rule and call for a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The “one-state” idea is a non-violent means of eliminating Israel, because the greater number of Palestinians would eliminate Israel as a Jewish state. “We support a peaceful dismantling of the Zionist State and a referendum with participation from the Christians, Jews and Muslims within the present day borders of the Zionist State, as well as participation from Palestinians within the occupied territories and refugee camps scattered across the region in deciding their fate,” a resolution reads.

The resolutions dismiss Palestinian terrorism as “side issues.”

The crowd at Washington’s Dupont Circle was reminded that Quds Day is the creation of Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the day to call for Israel’s elimination, calling it “a cancerous tumor.”

“Many of the problems facing the Muslim world are due to the existence of the Zionist regime,” Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad’s statements were condemned as “outrageous and hateful” in a rebukefrom European Union foreign affairs director Catherine Ashton. “Israel’s right to exist must not be called into question,” she said.

But Ahmadinejad made similar statements earlier this month, blaming 400 years of problems on “the horrendous Zionist clan” dominating global politics, media and economics. “Any freedom lover and justice seeker in the world must do its best for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the path for the establishment of justice and freedom in the world,” he said.

Iran’s Lebanese-based terrorist proxy issued more specific threats Friday, boasting the capability to inflict mass casualties on Israeli civilians.

“Hitting these targets with a small number of rockets will turn … the lives of hundreds of thousands of Zionists to real hell, and we can talk about tens of thousands of dead,” said Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Unlike previous Quds Day rallies in Washington, this year’s event featured softer rhetoric and no Hizballah flags. But speakers still pushed anti-Semitic theories and strident anti-Israeli and anti-American rhetoric. A compilation of examples appears below.

“The reality is in this country, the Zionist thugs who manipulate politics and the media as well, they often want us to hide to keep the message of support for the Palestinian people only off to the side,” said Eugene Puryear of the leftist ANSWER Coalition. “And I think it’s very important to note that we will not hide anymore.”

Though Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria continues to slaughter civilians, no speaker mentioned the plight of Syrian citizens. Rather, it is Israel that is responsible for “one of the greatest crimes going on in the world today,” Puryear said. “It is “the most divisive force, really one of the most divisive force (sic), along with the U.S. imperialist government, who are their allies, and the entire world, in sowing strife and destruction, everywhere they go.”

American politics is held hostage by candidates to Jewish interests, said Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin. She said there was no difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian issue or on whether to attack Iran to stop its nuclear weapons program. That’s because “both of them [are] pandering for the votes of a very small minority of people in the United States and [are] really looking for money for their campaigns.”

Mauri Saalakhan, a writer and conspiracy theorist, discussed a poster showing Muslims either imprisoned for terrorism-related convictions or killed in U.S. drone strikes to argue that “the devastation that is taking place in Muslim lands, in occupied Philistine, or as it is commonly known today – Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Yemen, in Pakistan and many of these other countries in the international community – It is also taking place here in America.”

Defense attorney Lynn Stewart, who was convicted of helping her client, blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahmansend messages to other terrorists, is imprisoned “because she was willing to represent Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman a little too effectively,” Saalakhan claimed. Abdel-Rahman is considered the spiritual leader behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was convicted in a subsequent plot to bomb New York City tunnels and landmarks.

Others on the poster include “Lady al-Qaida” Aafia Siddiqui, Palestinian Islamic Jihad board member Sami Al-Arian, Luqman Abdullah – a Detroit imam killed by FBI agents trying to arrest him after he opened fire first, blind, al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and Ali al-Tamimi who was convicted of urging followers to fight American troops following 9/11.

But it was Musa who was the most explicit, placing Israel in a “triangle of terror” along with the United States and Saudi Arabia. Terrorism by al-Qaida and the Taliban are ruses, he said, called in “any time there is an internal need to subvert the Muslims” and to justify killing Muslims and destroying Islam.

Musa made similar comments Friday in an appearance on Press TV, Iran’s English-language media outlet, discussing the “triangle of terror” and Israel’s control over the global media. Press TV also did a feature report on Friday’s rally.

Quds Day is a hate fest centered on a call to destroy an existing country. The speakers in Dupont Circle may have been more subtle than Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah, but their message, made clear in resolutions, was no less violent. It’s not about Israeli policies. It is Israel’s very existence that they want eliminated.

 

Bashar al-Assad attends Eid prayers in Damascus – video

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Bashar al-Assad attends Eid prayers in Damascus – video

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, makes his first public appearance in six weeks, attending Eid prayers at a Damascus mosque. Assad hasn’t been seen in public since a bombing in the Syrian capital last month that killed the defence minister and three other top security officials.

A New Birth of Freedom: the Gettysburg Address, 149 Years Later

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149 years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln gave one of the briefest and most iconic speeches in American presidential history: the Gettysburg Address.

In it, President Lincoln remarked that while what we say in times of conflict can easily be forgotten, the sacrifices of those who fight for liberty will not be – as long as we, the living, remain “dedicated to the great task remaining before us” – remaining ever committed to the pursuit and protection of liberty for all.

The Gettysburg Address

November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser: The Battle for the Soul of Islam

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Dr. Zuhdi Jasser: The Battle for the Soul of Islam

August 13, 2012, Jeanette Pryor Blog

Last night I began to read A Battle for the Soul of Islam by Zuhdi Jasser, a physician who founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Jasser, a physician and former U.S. Naval officer, brings a great deal of clarity to a very sensitive and sometimes confusing question, the distinctions between Radical political and Moderate spiritual Islam.

There are many excellent books and documentaries about the real threat we face from Radical Islam including The Third Jihad, a film Dr. Jasser narrates, that exposes the systematic objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood for the radicalization of Islam in America. Jasser’s greatest contribution might be his clarifications concerning Moderate Islam.

Daily experience clearly shows a differentiation between radical and normal Muslims; those who seek to impose Sharia upon others through violence and those who go about their own lives without a desire to force this conviction upon anyone.

I had, before reading Battle,  adopted too academic an understanding of this question. Many books about Radical Islam and Antisemitism in the Muslim world pore over the original texts and history of Mohammad’s life to document their essentially militaristic proselytism and misogyny.

Reading Jasser’s book and watching the Third Jihad, I realized that it is very easy, as it was for me in the past, to consider this in too academic a fashion. Authors I read concluded that since Islam appeared to be essentially violent or essentially political, then those Muslims who lived a purely spiritual form of Islam were not really Muslims, simply interpreting the faith to suit their own needs.

Even if all the scholarship in the world demonstrated that Islam has been more frequently interpreted in a legalistic or literal manner, it is not the texts or even the life of Mohammad that determine how Islam is lived, but the individuals who embrace it.  You cannot, as I formerly and erroneously did, conclude that because texts and history are being used to support violence, there is no such thing as Moderate Islam. Just because exegetes can demonstrate the legitimacy of a radical interpretation of Islam, this cannot mean that Islam is itself a necessarily radicalizing philosophy since so many, like Jasser, find in Islam the inspiration for a life of service to others and respect for their fellow-man.

Jasser’s book implores fellow Muslims not to give the narrative of their faith to the terrorists or the academics, but to become the voice of the non-politicized true Moderate Islam that is lived everyday in the real world. In Battle for the Soul of Islam, the author advocates a form of Islam that would be a social organizing principle implemented through force. Since he rejects the idea and practices that enslave women to men or permit abuse, Zuhdi retains the humanitarian and charitable exhortations in the texts of his faith. This personal and non-coercive form of Islam, he states, is precisely what is meant by Muslims who consider themselves to be “moderate.”

Jasser speaks of “separation of mosque and state” as the defining element of moderate Islam, the forgoing of any attempt to use the government to promote the imposition of Sharia on others. This is profoundly different from Radical Muslims who dream of precisely that, to have all freedoms denied to those who do not wish to live according to Sharia. Because Jasser sees the daily machinations of political Islam in our country to slowly bend our laws to the process of social Islamization, he calls on fellow-Muslims who do not want this form of Islam to gain control of the public space.

Human beings and our ideas are complex, not easily reduced to definitions or clear-cut categorizing. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Jasser for his work because I  have a better understanding of Muslims who do not wish to live a literal form of Islam and respect for the subjective desire they have to live a peaceful version of their faith.

A blessed Eid al-Adha and a Reminder of the Importance of Service

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Eid al-Adha, or “the festival of the sacrifice,” is an Islamic holiday which commemorates the Prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael as a sign of his devotion to God. It also marks the conclusion of the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.

Each Eid al-Adha, Muslims make a special effort to provide relief to those in need. In many parts of the world, this has included the distribution of meat (from a sacrificed animal, like a lamb) to the hungry.

We at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy want to take this opportunity to wish our Muslim members and supporters a blessed Eid al-Adha, and to reaffirm our commitment to serve our country and our fellow Americans in every aspect of our work.

Muslim Liberty Project youth

Our Muslim Liberty Project works with youth ages 15-30 to develop the next generation of leaders focused on advocating individual liberty through the development of a healthy American Muslim identity. Having recognized that with freedom comes the responsibility to serve others, our youth have committed themselves specifically to community service and interfaith efforts. Recently, Arizona-area members of our Muslim Liberty Project joined a group of Christians to serve 200 healthy meals to those in need. Following their day of service, volunteers engaged in meaningful conversation about scripture, prayer and fellowship across faith traditions. To see photos of this event, please click here.

AIFD joins Christians in serving meals to those in need

This Eid al-Adha weekend, our Muslim Liberty Project youth have decided to participate in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, aiming to raise awareness about breast cancer and engage both Muslims and non-Muslims about the importance of women’s health and safety. MLP’s last planning meeting brought in fifteen new Muslim members excited about joining the cause!

We hope to share photos of this weekend’s events with you as soon as we have them. To see more of our Muslim Liberty Project’s activities, see these albums:

Muslim Liberty Project retreat, 2011

Muslim Liberty Project retreat, 2012.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to sharing more of our youth’s accomplishments soon!

Egypt’s Mursi accused of stifling dissent in media crackdown

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By Yasmine Saleh, Reuters, Fri, Aug 17

CAIRO (Reuters) – A media crackdown in the first month of Mohamed Mursi’s rule has raised fears Egypt’s Islamist president is moving to stifle criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood.

This week, formal accusations by state prosecutors were filed against two journalists, while an issue of the newspaper al-Dostour was confiscated by the state’s censorship unit – disappointing those who believed last year’s overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak would lead to greater media freedom.

Mursi, who resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood when he was elected in June, saying he wanted to represent all Egyptians, has also named Salah Abdel Maqsood, a former colleague from the Islamist group, as information minister.

“The Brotherhood’s recent actions against the media are harsh and unacceptable and tell us that we are going backwards and that things are managed the same way they were during Mubarak’s time,” rights activist Gamal Eid told Reuters.

The crackdown on media is also worrying the United States, which for years has secured the loyalty of one of the Arab world’s most influential states with substantial financial aid, now running at about $1.55 billion a year.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday that Washington was “concerned by reports that the Egyptian government is moving to restrict media freedom and criticism in Egypt.”

The Brotherhood has repeatedly denied any intention to censor opinion, saying it wants only to stop media reports which might incite violence or unrest, or which personally insult the president.

“Those who filed the complaints against the journalists with the public prosecutor are not all from the Brotherhood. There were also ordinary people upset about the disgusting insults that some media have been publicizing,” Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan told Reuters.

One of the two charged journalists is Islam Afifi, the editor of the daily al-Dostour newspaper, whose August 11 issue was confiscated. Afifi was sent to a criminal court after the state’s public prosecutor charged him with insulting Mursi and inciting the overthrow of Egypt’s ruling system.

The other one is Tawfiq Okasha, owner and the main host of an Egyptian television channel called Al-Faraeen who was also sent to a criminal court on accusations of inciting people to kill Mursi and insulting him. The prosecutor ordered the channel be taken off air.

Al-Faraeen TV channel is privately owned by Okasha, a strong opponent of Mursi and Islamists. Okasha had previously said in one of his talkshows that Mursi and his group “deserve to get killed”.

A Brotherhood lawyer also filed a complaint on Wednesday with a state prosecutor, accusing three prominent editors of Egyptian dailies including Afifi of insulting Mursi.

“I accused them of insulting the president and spreading false information that could destroy the state and create panic among the people,” lawyer Ismail al-Washahy told Reuters. “Most of what they published had nothing to do with media but were pure insults with no proof,” he added.

CODE OF ETHICS

The issue of Dostour newspaper that was banned ran on its front page a long list of accusations against the Brotherhood. It said the group was leading Egypt to “its worst decades … filled with killing and bloodshed.”

Afifi accused the Brotherhood of trying to stifle dissent. “It is an orchestrated campaign against the media by the Muslim Brotherhood. They want to silence any opposition to their policies,” Al-Ahram online news website quoted him as saying.

An earlier issue of Dostour released on June 21, before the results of the presidential elections were announced, ran a front-page article accusing the Brotherhood of planning a “massacre in Egypt” if Mursi lost.

The newspaper was bought three years ago by the Wafd Liberal party, a party whose critics said allowed itself to be used as a “friendly opposition” under Mubarak while the Brotherhood was officially banned.

Many Egyptians were upset with the media after the revolution which toppled Mubarak, saying it had misunderstood the responsibility that comes with media freedom. Some said journalists had often crossed the line in making personal insults and accusations without proof.

However, many critics are asking for a mechanism to implement a code of ethics, rather than taking criminal action against journalists.

“There are certainly violations in the media, but there are also ways to punish journalists other than dragging them to courts or prisons,” rights activist Eid said.

Three Egyptian columnists including prominent novelist Youssef El-Qaeed said earlier this month their columns had been removed by a new committee of editors used to supervise state-run newspapers for including anti-Brotherhood opinions.

The editors were chosen by the upper house of parliament, which is dominated by the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.

Others left their columns empty in protest at the selection of the new editors.

“This white space… is in protest against the Muslim Brotherhood’s conquest over the newspapers and media outlets that belong to the Egyptian people,” columnist Gamal Fahmy wrote on the top of his empty column in al-Tahrir newspaper on August9.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; in Washington; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

9/11 Anniversary lost in presidential race

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Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

9/11 Anniversary lost in presidential race

11 years following attack American Muslim Organization calls on candidates to maintain vigilance in the fight against radical ideology

 

PHOENIX (September 11, 2012) The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is calling on President Obama and presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney to use the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to reengage the national discussion into the root causes of this horrible attack that claimed nearly 3,000 American lives.

 

With the understandable concerns over the U.S. economy driving the 2012 president race, both the Administration and the Romney campaign seem to be content to not engage on important issues in the global arena. But eleven years since the attacks on our country the U.S. still has done little to address the ideology of political Islam which is the root cause that led Al Qaeda and 19 hijackers to attack our country.  In fact with the Islamist political victories in the Middle-East since the “Arab Spring” it is clear that the ideology of political Islam, and the radicalism that is borne within the ideology, are growing in a post 9-11 world.

 

“We need our national leaders to reengage on the 9/11 issue,” said Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, author of the A Battle for the Soul of Islam. “The threat that the United States faces is ever more real and it needs a national focus on fighting an ideology that is at complete odds with American Liberty. President Obama and Governor Romney need to be advocating for a Liberty Doctrine in the Middle East so that we can eventually have an impact on the breeding ground of hatred against our country.”

 

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy has long advocated that the solution to the ideological war against militant Islamism is the development of a Liberty Doctrine. The United States needs to develop an unfaltering commitment to advocating the principles of our country. These ideas are the greatest tool we have to combat the morally bankrupt ideologies that have shackled the people of the Middle East for generations.  As we saw with the fall of communism it is the ideals of individual liberty and freedom that can change the world.

 

“The lesson from the attacks of 9/11 is that the U.S. has to enter the ideological battle against our enemies,” said Jasser.  “We can no longer idly sit by and allow the secular fascists and the theocrats to destroy movements for liberty. If we can become champions for liberty in the Middle East, we can begin to inoculate the people of the region to the supremacist mindset that creates the ideological underpinnings of Islamist inspired terrorism.”

 

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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