4/26/2018: FBN – Coast to Coast with Neil Cavuto: Supreme Court considers Trump’s travel ban: Ideological Security OR Faith-based Ban

American Muslim, M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., calls for immediate apology from Senator Christopher Murphy after smear against AIFD from the Senate floor.

PRESS RELEASE
American Islamic Forum for Democracy

Contact: Mischel Yosick
480 225 7473 mischel@zliberty.com

April 25, 2018

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) commits takfir against Muslims at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) calling us “anti-Muslim” and “intolerant” from the Senate floor.- April 25, 2018

Today, April 25, 2018, Senator Christopher Murphy (D-CT) took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to smear American Muslim leaders in the Muslim Reform Movement as collateral damage in the course of his scorched earth partisan attack against Secretary of State-designee Mike Pompeo. On the floor of the Senate he said,

“Mike Pompeo was deeply intertwined with this network of anti-Muslim organizations. There was a really interesting study that I hope some of you will take a look at that details this network of organizations. They have fairly innocuous sounding names, like the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, the Middle East Forum, The Investigative Project on Terrorism… Those sound like things that I might be for, but if you really take look at what they do, they preach intolerance”.

He labeled our organization among others as an “anti-Muslim” organization.

Do we need to remind Senator Murphy who obviously knows little to nothing about Islam, Muslims, or any of the dynamics within the American Muslim community, that declaring any group of organizations let alone American Muslims as being anti-Muslim is the equivalent of declaring Takfir (the declaration by radicals that a Muslim has left Islam and is an apostate, an infidel, or an enemy of Muslims)? Does Senator Murphy really think it appropriate to say the same thing about us on the floor of Senate that would be said about us by theocrats on the floor of tyrannical Islamist governments in “Islamic Republics” like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or Sudan? Does he not understand that such declarations are essentially declarations of apostasy or death threats?

It is a sad day in American discourse when a United States Senator motivated by partisan extremism willfully slanders and maligns an American Islamic organization. Never mind that our AIFD happens to actually be dedicated to countering Islamist radicalization and leading efforts at reform in order to defend the homeland. The sad truth Senator Murphy ignores, is that had he actually read the work we have done with former Congressman Pompeo (R-KS), he would have learned that we, for example, joined the Congressman in exposing the radical Islamist ideology of a radical imam, Sheikh Monzer Taleb, preaching in Congressman Pompeo’s backyard in Wichita. To us, there is nothing more pro-Muslim. Unfortunately, Senator Murphy prefers to read from the scripture of American Islamist talking points handed to him and his staff. (See: It’s Not Islamophobic to Protest a Pro-Hamas Speaker)

We call attention to the Senate floor video clip from today and demand an immediate apology from Senator Christopher Murphy (D-CT) and a retraction of his statement labeling AIFD and other anti-Islamist, anti-Jihadist Muslims and leaders as anti-Muslim and intolerant.

We certainly welcome any conversation with the Senator’s office and hope that in the future he would avoid using the talking points handed to him from separatist American Islamist organization.

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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 M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.
Dr. 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 founder of Take Back Islam and a co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement.

4/26/2018: “Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) commits Takfir against Muslims at the American Islamic For Democracy calling them anti-Muslim and intolerant”.

 

4/23/2018: At University of Notre Dame discussing: Taking On the Islamist Establishment

Watch our Critical Thinking Unit event, "Taking On the Islamist Establishment", featuring Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. Sponsored by the Notre Dame College Republicans and the Notre Dame Young Americans for Freedom

Posted by The AHA Foundation on Monday, April 23, 2018

 

Article posted on the Daily Caller by author Soraya Deen: MSA calls Zuhdi Jasser an Islamophobe and an anti-Muslim bigot.

Only Free Speech Can Stop Radical Islam

Founder of the Muslim Women Speakers Movement
4/18/2018

One of the greatest challenges facing the United States is how to confront violent radical Islam. And moderate American Muslims have a crucial role to play in facing this problem head on and promoting a real and honest dialogue—free of political correctness and comforting lies—about the true nature of radical Islam.

A study done by the Pew Research Center on Muslims and Islam found that 49 percent of Americans find U.S. Muslims anti-American. About a quarter say there is a fair amount of support (24 percent) for extremism among U.S. Muslims; 11 percent say there is a great deal of support.

Islam desperately needs a revaluation and American Muslims must lead the way in openly calling for reform. We must candidly and honestly admit and acknowledge that some challenging verses in our scripture have given doctrinal legitimacy to violent extremism and our failure to recognize this fact and educate the community on the contextual realities has legitimized the violence.

Our continued refusal and unwillingness to acknowledge this phenomenon has frozen much of our faith to a 7th century dogma. Our rush to blame, shame and obstruct the very few who call for reform and change undermines the freedom of expression which is a hard and long fought battle and a strongly enshrined American value.

Just recently the vicious attacks by the Muslim Student Association of Duke University on Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, an American Syrian who reads and understand the Arabic Quran and is one of the pioneers of the Muslim Reform Movement, necessitated that meeting venues be changed and event sponsorships rescinded. He was called an Islamophobe and an anti-Muslim bigot. Journalist, Jennifer Kabbany noted “Jasser’s talk has generated heated protest from Duke’s Muslim Students Association, which has denounced the Muslim reformer and his planned speech. So intense is the controversy surrounding this event that the Alexander Hamilton Society had revoked its sponsorship and the remaining sponsors—the Duke Political Union, College Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty— renamed the talk from “The American Muslim Identity: Patriot or Insurgent” to simply “The American Muslim Identity,” The MSA went further to allege potential for harm and the lack of safety on campus if Dr. Jasser spoke at Duke.

This dangerous posture of the irrational fear of the exchange of ideas is too dangerous to be left without scrutiny because at risk is our safety and security and the steps we must all take to combat violent extremism. It is also dangerous because it stifles the voices of a vast majority of Muslims here and abroad who genuinely support reform and are desirous of acknowledging how a political Islam has swept across our nation and the world.

I recall with sadness the slings and arrows that came my way for calling out radical Islam. This too found its origins at Duke by a well-respected scholar there, the first Muslim chaplain and the founding director of Duke University’s Center for Muslim Life, a maverick who initiated the MLI (Muslim Leadership Initiative program), a forum that brings together Muslim leaders committed to better understanding American Jews, Zionism and Israel. I was a Fellow of the program until that day when the chaplain from Duke said to me that my fellowship was rescinded because of my associations with certain right groups and my stance on the call for Islamic reform.

Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center published a list of individuals it labels as particularly threatening anti-Muslim extremists. In the list were prominent practicing Muslim liberal thinkers and reformers.

I have watched with great dismay the compromises that we continue to make in the name of religious sensitivities. If we continue to silence Muslim reformers, it will become nearly impossible for Muslims to abandon an extreme belief in religious purity and embrace a pluralistic nation.

All religions are a set of ideas and must be open for critique. Sadly, in the Muslim world we believe that Islam is above and beyond critique — that Islam, and only a group of Muslims, have everything to teach the world but nothing to learn from it. This is quite contrary to the great mosque at Cordoba, in A.D. 785, a thriving cultural and intellectual center. It was a center for learning that attracted Jewish scholars, philosophers, poets and scientists. Non-Muslims played an important part in the intellectual life of Cordoba. True and lasting commitments to preserve intellect through and across lines of faith took root here.

It’s time for American Muslims to open any and every channel of review of our faith, scripture, and traditions. We must carefully, candidly, and collaboratively address the causes of radical Islam. And we must share some responsibility for the global trends in all terror committed by Islamists. Crucial to reform is the need to engage and empower Muslim women in religious leadership and promote gender equality in our mosques. We must teach our youth a new brand of Islam, one that is compatible to American values and not that of the Middle East.

Only free speech and an open and honest discussion on campus, in the media, and in our daily lives as citizens about the threat posed by Islamic radicalism will allow moderate voices to come to the forefront to expose and drown out radicals.

Soraya Deen is the founder of the Muslim Women Speakers Movement and a co-founder of Peacemoms, a group which promotes dialogue between Muslims and Christians

4/16: Varney & Co. – After Syrian chemical attack, U.S. France & U.K. take out facilities suspected of production

In response to the chemical attack in Douma, Syria U.S., France and the U.K. launch missile strikes on facilities suspected of being part of the chemical weapons program.

4/15: KPNX – U.S., France & U.K. launch missiles in response to Syrian chemical attack

In response to the chemical attack in Douma, Syria U.S., France and the U.K. launch missile strikes on facilities suspected of being part of the chemical weapons program.