02/26/2016 AIFD Condemns so-called “Compromise” on FGM, Demands Evaluation of Doctor Ethics

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(Phoenix, AZ, February 26, 2016) AIFD is both outraged and gravely disappointed to learn of the recent “compromise” position offered by physicians Kavita Shah Arora and Allan J. Jacobs in the Journal of Medical Ethics on the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Arora and Jacobs refer to the practice, which mutilates, maims, tortures and in many cases is responsible for killing millions of women and girls worldwide – as “female genital alteration,” as though the bodies of women and girls are a pair of pants or a dress. We at AIFD do and will continue to call female genital cutting what it is: mutilation.

Arora and Jacobs acknowledge that women and girls must be “protected,” but rather than introducing measures to do so, they suggest that practitioners of female genital mutilation make “small nicks” on the genitals of girls and women, or that they remove the clitoral hood – the skin protecting the glans of the clitoris, covers its shaft, and forms part of the structure of the labia minora. Basic information as to the structure of the female anatomy, the practice’s dangerous link to extremist ideology, and the horrific psychological impact of it all seem to be lost on these gynecologists, who make the following egregious and dishonest assertion:

“De minimis procedures such as removal of the clitoral hood or a ritual nick on the external female genitalia (Categories 1 and 2) cause little or no functional harm. Therefore, it is difficult to characterize them as unethical or a human rights violation.”

The clitoral hood serves protective, immunological, and erogenous purposes. The structure of this hood varies from woman to woman; some women have clitoral hoods that do not retract fully, thus leaving these women vulnerable to even more severe cutting should a practitioner be trying to remove the hood. Not only is removal of the clitoral hood or “nicking” of the clitoris immensely cruel, it is also dangerous. Removal of the clitoral hood on infants, children, and many women would necessarily lead to the cutting and damaging of the clitoral shaft and the clitoris itself, as well as the labia – especially in environments where blades and other implements are used.  Of course, there is also the risk of infection and excessive bleeding and the certainty of trauma. Scar tissue from “nicking,” particularly on women prone to keloid scarring and difficult healing, can inhibit erogenous response and cause discomfort.

In addition to sacrificing girls and women to physical torture by proposing a “compromise,” these Arora and Jacobs are ceding to extremist interpretations of Islam and radical tribal culture. Female genital mutilation is advocated by misogynists, many of whom are radical Islamists; and is carried out in families who seek to forcibly deny girls and women their bodily autonomy and normal healthy sexuality. This procedure serves no purpose other than to diminish the sexuality of women in the name of religion and/or culture.  By publishing this article, the Journal of Medical Ethics sets back anti-Islamist reform against Islamist misogyny hundreds of years. They ultimately gave approval to a barbaric procedure inside the pages of a leading journal, now broadcast across most major Western media outlets.

Allowing a girl or woman to be forcibly mutilated in any way sets the stage for  male-dominant psychological torture, control, and dehumanization of that woman in her family forever. Whether it’s a so-called “nick” or a more extensive cut, the authors’ inability to forcefully reject this practice in its entirety is an act of complacency, and a medically unethical act of criminally negligent proportions.

Survivors of and advocates against FGM join us in rejecting this “compromise” on female genital mutilation. Survivors like Khadija Gbla, Hibo Wardere (who said that Shah and Jacobs are “glorifying mutilation”), Leyla Hussein (who is also a psychotherapist), and others; as well as organizations like No FGM Australia and Amref Health Africa (lead by Dr. Githinji Gitahi, a gynecologist) – have come out forcefully against Arora and Jacobs. These are individuals and organizations who have experienced and who are surrounded by the horrors of FGM in all its incarnations.

We at AIFD stand with the survivors of FGM, and with the doctors, mental health professionals, and community organizers who have dedicated their lives to ending any and all forms of this horrible practice. We reject interpretations of our faith which condone this practice, and we continue to demand reform within our community to end the misogyny which allows it to continue. We condemn and demand the exposure of those scholars who promote FGM as a means to constrain the sexuality of women, of which they are terrified. We recognize that “compromises” on FGM are dangerous and actually empower misogynistic theocrats.

AIFD President Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a physician in private practice and a leading ethicist in the national medical community, had this to say: “As a bioethicist of 20 years, as a lifetime anti-Islamist Muslim dedicated to reform, and a man who has a wife and a young daughter, I am beyond horrified by the position of these so called ‘ethicists.’ There is NO compromise against the immorality and barbarism of FGM. To offer any compromise sacrifices girls and women to barbarism and sets the movement for women’s rights in Muslim communities back hundreds of years.”

We condemn in no uncertain terms the morally bankrupt, vile positions of Drs. Arora and Jacobs, and call on the medical community to reject their “compromise.” We further urge an immediate investigation into the ethics of these two gynecologists, who have betrayed the population – women and girls – they are charged with healing. They have handed girls and women over to a legacy of misogyny, pain, torture, and death.

 

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02/18/2016 Phoenix Terror Trial: we will Continue to Speak Out – will America Listen?

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(Phoenix ,AZ, February 18, 2016) This week marks the start of a case absolutely everyone should be paying attention to: the trial of Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, 44,  who is charged with helping to facilitate the armed attack on the “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contest in Garland, Texas on May 3rd, 2015; as well as a bomb plot against the 2014 Super Bowl.

Just a few days after the attack against the cartoon event, one of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy’s (AIFD) own staff members, Courtney Lonergan, was interviewed in the local media about her work against radicalization. Lonergan, like Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, is a convert to Islam. Like Abdul Kareem, she has been a part of the Phoenix Muslim community for years. However, unlike Abdul Kareem, Lonergan refused to buy into the Islamist narrative that being offended – by a cartoon, for example – is the same as being attacked. Further, she refuses to buy into the narrative that her faith must be in conflict with her American identity. As such, Lonergan has been at the forefront of our efforts to engage Muslim youth against radicalization, and has facilitated our youth initiative, the Muslim Liberty Project, for several years as our Director of Community Engagement.

Chilling to note is that years ago, Lonergan herself went to the leadership of the local Muslim community, concerned that Elton Simpson – one of the Garland attackers – and Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem  – seemed to have extreme views.  She was dismissed. It was her experience with the local community that sent her looking for a group like AIFD. Yet most reports like this one from KPNX Channel 12 give Islamic Community Center of Phoenix mosque president and Islamist apologist  Usama Shami an unchecked platform to deceive the public falsely stating that:  “These guys they just came at some point and left. They tried to contribute to the community by volunteering and this and that, but that’s about it.”

Courtney’s story is not unique among those of us here at AIFD and the Muslim Reform Movement who are working to combat political Islam, and all of the ills stemming from it, from misogyny and gender-based violence to anti-Semitism and the censorship of dissidents.

It seems that the U.S. government should be listening to Muslims like us – and that any Muslim groups namely Islamists  who attack Muslims like us should be dismissed as enablers of radicalization.

It also seems that major Muslim organizations in the U.S. should be clamoring to defend and support their Muslim brothers and sisters who raise an alarm about men like Abdul Malik Abdul Karim and Elton Simpson.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true: groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and their ilk have repeatedly been given access both to major media and the halls of power. Further, their leaders – like CAIR-Arizona’s own Imraan Siddiqi – have not just failed to stand with those Muslim who are vocal against Islamism – they attack us with enormous vitriol and vulgarity.

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, AIFD president and co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, had this to say about the role of Islamists like CAIR in the Phoenix trial, and our responsibility to combat them: “With America’s first terror  trial against a domestic  ISIS operative, reform minded patriotic Muslims are asking yet again will this be the wake up call when media, government,  academia,  and the American public will own up to the unchecked conveyor belt of radicalization which Islamist supremacist identity groups like CAIR and their affiliated Islamist mosques and imams facilitate?”

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Zuhdi Jasser: Don’t let the Khan Family’s Sacrifice be Used as a Political Wedge

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Phoenix, AZ., (August 2, 2016) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, lends advice to Donald Trump, following his recent feud with the Khan Gold Star family.

Dr. Jasser states:

“Gold star families – those whose loved ones have lost their lives in the service of this great nation know no single party or faith. They are first and foremost America patriots of the highest order. If they are people of faith, their faith may guide them in healing from their loss.

It is reprehensible that any public official or candidate would see fit to attack such a family. It would be my hope that any candidate for office would lift up, support, and honor the parents of a fallen soldier, regardless of the faith he or she professed, national origin or the color of their skin. Like any person, a gold star parent has the right to be critical of a public figure – but no public figure should attack such a parent in the way that Mr. Trump has attacked the Khans. It seems that Mr. Trump’s advisers should urge him to speak only from prepared statements, leaving off-the cuff statements and 140 character comments off limits.

Attacking the Khans helps no political party and certainly doesn’t help the United States or bolster our national defense. If anything, the Khans’ sacrifice speaks to what I have been saying for decades: that American Muslim youth need to be taught that their country is worth that ultimate sacrifice, before any other identity group; and that the “Islamic State” must never be embraced, only fought – even if it is to the death. It is in fact an attention to the national spirit of those American Muslims willing to risk that ultimate sacrifice that holds within it that antidote to Islamist radicalization and allegiance to the global jihad.

The only party worthy of such venom here are those who are “jumping blindly on the bandwagon” to support the Khans here – the Islamist groups who otherwise condemn and abuse patriotic and reformist Muslims every day who have been championing the cause of heroes like Humayun Khan for years while calling for reforms against global movements that demonize his service and American exceptionalism. Also worthy of critique is the mainstream media, who ignore or even vilify American Muslim patriots.

If the media truly wants to honor the memory of Humayun Khan, they will do an immediate about-face, and support American Muslims like us at AIFD, who have always stood with our servicemen and women and have consistently championed with the exceptionalism of the American defense of liberty. Sadly most of the Muslim voices currently responding to this controversy are apologists for Islamism and its theocratic movements across the world.”

 

About AIFD

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy is a non-profit organization based in Phoenix, Ariz. dedicated to providing an American Muslim voice advocating genuine Muslim reform against Islamism and the ideologies which fuel global Muslim radicalization. AIFD’s mission is to advocate for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. In December 2015, AIFD convened and helped launch the Muslim Reform Movement, a coalition of over 12 Muslim organizations and leaders dedicated to reform for values of peace, human rights and secular governance.

 

About Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser is the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a think tank dedicated to protecting American national security against the global threat of Islamism. AIFD promotes reform-minded Muslim voices for liberty, and is shaking the hold which Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood have upon Muslim leadership. Dr. Jasser is the author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith.” He is also a Co-Founder of the Muslim Reform Movement. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser is the host of “Reform This!” on the Blaze Radio Network.

 

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03/30/2016 As A Muslim, I Don’t Believe Monitoring Muslims To Prevent Terrorism Is Islamophobic.

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Source: Independent Journal Review 

 

In the wake of every terrorist attack, a national discussion always ensues on what can and should be done to prevent further attacks. While this knee-jerk reaction is understandable, it is a symptom of the problem, not a step in the right direction. These conversations may make public commentators, policymakers and media personalities feel like they are creating solutions – but the reality is that cure for the cancer of radical Islam must be identified and targeted at its source: the ideology of Islamism, or political Islam; and that can only be done from within Muslim communities.

As I have argued for decades, the problem of Islamism is deep-rooted, widely spread across the earth, and backed by some of the most money-rich and ruthless governments on Earth. While far from all Muslims are Islamists, and even fewer Muslims are violent Islamists, the fact is that these bad actors exist and are a force to be reckoned with in our communities – and many Muslims to be sure have been intimidated, brainwashed or otherwise pressured against exposing them.

Recently, presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz came under intense scrutiny for suggesting that Muslim communities be secured and monitored in order to identify and address radicalization. The backlash he faced is not unfamiliar to me – but as a Muslim, I’ve come under a particularly vicious type of attack for making similar comments.

 

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