8/21/13 A Maverick in his Own Mind

Read the entire story at AmericanThinker.com

Excerpt from the article:

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, author of the book A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save his Faith, told American Thinker that he has tried on numerous occasions to meet with Senator McCain, especially since he resides in Arizona, but was told the Senator is too busy. “This conversation on McCain’s part is quite premature. It shows the unbalance since Morsi usurped power starting last November, which would have been a good time for Senator McCain to become critical. It was necessary to remove Morsi because he had the Egyptian government entrenched in Islamism.” He suggests to Senator McCain that America not take sides, and thread the needle. Dr. Jasser states the need for a transition plan. He is hoping that instead of cutting the aid, which takes away any leverage, the U.S. should designate a portion to building up the political infrastructure and supporting the liberal political parties that advance democratic ideas.

8/30/13 Valley families keep close eye on Syria

Read the entire article at YourWestValley.com

“We’re anxious to have the cavalry come with missiles and arms and training and protection for the border, but also we want it done right,” said Zuhdi Jasser, a local physician and president of the American Islam Forum for Democracy.

Jasser says when you think it can’t get any worse– it does.

“There’s only one of two ways it’s going to end. Either Bashar’s generals and officers will be dead, or the Syrian people will be dead,” Jasser said.

8/5/13 Al-Qaida chief’s message led to embassy closures

Source:  Military Times

WASHINGTON — An intercepted secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and his deputy in Yemen about plans for a major terror attack was the trigger that set off the current shutdown of many U.S. embassies, two officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

A U.S. intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat said al-Zawahri’s message was picked up several weeks ago and appeared to initially target Yemeni interests. The threat was expanded to include American or other Western sites abroad, officials said, indicating the target could be a single embassy, a number of posts or some other site. Lawmakers have said it was a massive plot in the final stages, but they have offered no specifics.

The intelligence official said the message was sent to Nasser al-Wahishi, the head of the terror network’s organization, based in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

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8/1/13 Al-Qaeda Is Back! Killing Bin Laden was never enough.

Source: National Review Online

By all accounts, the attack was planned with care and executed with precision. At two notorious Iraqi prisons, Abu Ghraib and Taji, al-Qaeda combatants last week used mortars, small arms, suicide bombers, and assault forces to free 400 prisoners, including several who had been on death row. AQ spokesmen hailed those released as “mujahedeen,” holy warriors, who will rejoin the jihad on battlefields throughout the Middle East and beyond. Soon after, we were seeing headlines such as this: “Al Qaeda Is Back.”

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8/21/13 Syrian nerve gas attack latest genocidal act of tyrannical Assad regime

Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Syrian nerve gas attack latest genocidal act of tyrannical Assad regime

Enough is enough with Syrian death toll well over 100,000 redlines have vanished and the U.S. must provide genuine leadership

PHOENIX (August 21, 2013) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith” released the following statement on behalf of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) following reports of a nerve gas attack near Ghouta by the Syrian Army.

 “Reports indicate that the Syrian Army has killed hundreds with a nerve gas attack in the Ghouta region.  The Syrian Army fired rockets on civilians including women and children.  Medical experts on the ground indicate that incoming patients were convulsing and foaming at the mouth demonstrating classic nerve gas symptoms with little bomb trauma.

This attack is a significant escalation of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime and quite revealingly brazen considering the presence on the ground of apparently useless UN inspectors only a few miles away in Damascus.  The Assad regime clearly feels no restraint from attacking its own people with the most horrific weapons in its arsenal and shows no fear at all from any U.S. or western response.

Enough is enough – The Obama Administration needs to act. The current “Darwinian” Obama strategy will only allow the genocide to continue while the U.S. will be forever impotent in the future of Syria and the region. After over two years of wanton killing by Assadists, the U.S. is positioning itself squarely on the wrong side of history as over 100,000 Syrians have been killed and millions have been displaced from their homes by a genocidal tyrant. US inaction is only empowering and entrenching the evil of Assadists and their masters in Tehran while the Syrian people are left to be more and more radicalized or for dead.

Today’s use of chemical weapons flies yet again in the face of United Nations arms declarations. How much more evidence do we need in order to invoke the wrath of the world against the Assad regime? How much documentation from human rights organizations, media, and governments do we need to enforce international U.N. standards? If we have no doubt about the growing genocide in Syria and the crimes against humanity being committed, what purpose does the U.N. or NATO for that matter serve? It cannot be more clear that Assad will do anything to hold onto power.

More and more Syrian people are dying because the west is not engaged. Assad cannot be allowed to continue his barbarism. We are asking President Obama to step up and present a strategy that lays out for the leaders of the free world how they will usher the Assad regime into the dustbin of history!”

 

  

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/.

 

8/5/13 Muslim Leader Calls on US, Obama to Stop Ignoring Saudi Arabia’s Religious Freedom Violations

Source: The Christian Post

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, vice chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), called on the State Department to reconsider Saudi Arabia’s religious freedom violations and identified with Raif Badawi, a Saudi website editor who was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes on Monday

“Our goal is to highlight to the American people that the State Department can no longer give this indefinite waiver to Saudi Arabia,” Dr. Jasser, author of A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told The Christian Post in an interview Thursday.

According to the vice chair, Saudi Arabia “fits the textbook” of a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in which religious liberty is violated. “If we were to write…how you would define a Country of Particular Concern that restricts religious freedom, Saudi Arabia would be the poster country,” he said.

Jasser compared his own organization to Badawi’s website. “What does the American Islamic Forum for Democracy do?” he asked, rhetorically. While Jasser’s organization freely “talks about classical liberal ideas and freedom as having a room for discourse that everyone deserves a right to discuss and have an opinion about Islam,” Saudi Arabia arrested Badawi “for simply wanting to have this conversation.”
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Misguided “Million Muslim March” Won’t be just be Sparse – it’s also a Disgrace

A “Million American March Against Fear” sounds like a benign, if not positive, way to commemorate the upcoming anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Imagine: Americans of all backgrounds and faiths joining in one voice, telling the terrorists that no, they have not won; that despite the evil our country has endured at their hands – we still stand against fear. Because they have not made us afraid, we have won.

Unfortunately, the “Million American March Against Fear” is no such event. Its title is a mere reworking of what its organizers previously called the “Million Muslim March.” Organized by the previously unknown American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC), it will feature speakers from a multitude of Islamist groups (including CAIR-Los Angeles and the Muslim American Society), and is heavily supported by  9/11 “truther” groups. The group’s leader, MD Rabbi Alam, has long been known as an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist, and his colleagues are no better. AMPAC’s national communications director, Dr. Kevin Barrett, was identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a vicious anti-Semitic proponent of 9/11 conspiracy theories. He also boasts of publications in Iranian and Russian media on his bizzare website, “Truth Jihad.”

Last night, Dr. Jasser debated Christopher Phillips, who has previously been quite active with Occupy Wall Street and its affiliates. Last evening, he was representing AMPAC. In a stunning display, Mr. Phillips was unable to unequivocally deny the problematic nature of the group organizing the demonstration on September 11.  When asked about AMPAC’s troublesome history as advocates of 9/11 “truther” theories and proponents of anti-Semitic rhetoric, Phillips dodged questions, shouted illogical responses, and seemed shocked and offended to be asked about his own group and its leadership. Most revealing of all, when asked if groups like Hamas and Hezbollah were welcome at his event, Phillips replied: “everyone is invited.” His only condition was that the event itself not be violent. It seems that AMPAC chose Mr. Phillips to represent them on national television to communicate that theirs is no longer an explicitly “Muslim march.” What was communicated, however, is that their event is just as offensive  as we first believed. (See Dr. Jasser commenting further on the event here.)

If AMPAC sought to demonstrate against fear, it would organize a demonstration against those who intend to strike terror into the hearts of innocent people by protesting the ideology of Nidal Hasan, whose trial is currently underway in Texas; or join those of us who address, honestly and openly, the cause of radicalization that lead to the terrorist attacks in Boston in April of this year. They would demonstrate in solidarity with Christians in Egypt who have seen their places of worship and their businesses destroyed by vigilantes who plunder and burn while screaming the name of our God. We have repeatedly seen Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups refuse to address these issues (and demonize us for doing so). Now we see some of their leadership trickling to attend AMPAC’s circus on the Hill.

To the American Muslim Political Action Committee, we say: America already stands against fear. We do this by protecting the American values of liberty and freedom, of truth and resilience in the face of terror. We do this by fighting the very ideology which attacked us on September 11, 2001 and again on April 15, 2013 – and which has sought to attack us countless times in between and after. We stand against terror, against anti-Semitism, and against the toxic ideology you have claimed will bring a “million Muslims” to the capital of this great nation. We take heart, knowing this will not happen – and we remain steadfast in our condemnation of your event, your ideology, and your goals.

To watch the video of Dr. Jasser debating Chris Phillips of the American Muslim Political Action Committee: