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

/in , , /by

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.

###

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”.

/in , , /by

 

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

/in , , /by

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.

/in , /by

Only Free Speech Can Stop Radical Islam

Soraya Deen
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 , , /by

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 , , /by

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.

M. Zuhdi Jasser speaks with Prince William Times, Jonathan Hunley

/in , , /by

Prince William state senator defends Syria–again–in the wake of poison-gas attack

Sen. Dick Black says U.S. retaliation would be ‘wrong’

  • Jonathan Hunley Staff Writer
    Updated 

State Sen. Dick Black, who met with officials with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2016, said Monday he believes Assad’s regime wasn’t behind a weekend poison gas attack and that the United States shouldn’t retaliate.

Black, a Republican whose 13th District includes parts of Prince William and Loudoun counties, said he thinks the attack, which The Associated Press reported left at least 40 people dead, including children, was instead carried out by a group called the “White Helmets” in coordination with a Syrian rebel organization called Jaish al-Islam.

The White Helmets claim to be “unarmed and neutral rescue workers” on their website, but Black said they’re closely aligned with al-Qaida and that Syria is trying to fight terrorists within its borders.

Black also said the U.S. shouldn’t believe information that comes from the White Helmets.

Black, known as perhaps the Virginia General Assembly’s most conservative member, has long been known for his controversial views on Syria and his past support for Assad, who Black has praised for helping persecuted Christians.

In the wake of the Saturday attack, Black again came to Syria’s defense, saying everyone assumes that Syria is to blame after a chemical attack. But, he asked, if the country’s forces are using toxic gas, why don’t they ever use it against military enemies?

Multiple news outlets reported that President Donald Trump is weighing a response to what he called a “heinous attack” Saturday, and one possibility seemed to be that that response would hit Syria.

But that would be wrong, Black said.

“I am absolutely against what is about to be done,” he said.

Black said no one ever mentions the actions of those whom Assad fights, and that the Jaish al-Islam is famous for putting women in steel cages and using them as human shields. The “very vile group” also has targeted schools, he said.

Black said the fastest way to peace in Syria would be for the United States to withdraw its forces from the nation and leave the Syrians alone.

His stances on Syria seem unusual to some, but Black said no one talks widely about the people the nation’s government is fighting in its civil war.

“It’s like there’s one side in the war,” he said.

And Jasser was aghast that Black would say the White Helmets, whom he said are largely doing “God’s work” in humanitarian efforts, would be involved with such an attack.

“So, I think Mr. Black should be ashamed of himself,” Jasser said. “He is un-American.”

Jasser said Black isn’t paying attention to decades of massacres in Syria and that it’s as if he’s listening only to propaganda from Assad, Iran and Russia.

Black should go to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and see how some turned a blind eye to crimes against humanity in that era, Jasser said.

“He’s doing the exact same thing now,” Jasser said.

The mission of Jasser’s organization 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,” according to its website.

M. Zuhdi Jasser with McClatchy Newspapers,Tim Johnson

/in , , /by

Bolton, key Trump adviser, has evolved his views on Syria

BY ANITA KUMAR, FRANCO ORDOÑEZ AND TIM JOHNSON

April 14, 2018 12:51 PM

WASHINGTON

When President Barack Obama contemplated a military strike in Syria after its leader’s use of chemical weapons five years ago, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador John Bolton argued against intervention.

“I don’t think it is in America’s interest,” Bolton said in a FOX interview in 2013. “I don’t think we should in effect take sides in the Syrian conflict.”

Yet for the last week, Bolton, President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, has been pushing for a more aggressive approach to Syria, illustrating his views in the region have changed dramatically as he has become more alarmed about the rise of influence by Russia and Iran, key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“Ultimately, he views the Syrian crisis through the lens of Iran and Iran’s potential dominance in the region,” said Mark Groombridge, a former Bolton aide at the State Department whom he brought as an adviser in 2005 when he became ambassador.

When the United States — along with France and Britain — launched military strikes on sites designed to destroy Assad’s chemical weapons program in Syria on Friday, critics blamed Bolton.

The liberal group People’s Action described him as “John ‘Bomb ‘em all’ Bolton” in a fundraising appeal to supporters Saturday.

Bolton stood near Trump when he briefly addressed the nation about the strikes Friday night, periodically making notes on a yellow legal pad.

U.S. defense officials said the strikes could be repeated if Assad uses chemical weapons again.

But former colleagues say Bolton, now one of the most influential foreign policy voices in Trump’s administration, is focusing less on the use of chemical weapons than on broader geopolitical issues in the Middle East that have evolved in the past half-decade.

“We’re dealing with a very different situation now. Russia and Iran have saved the Assad regime,” said Nicholas Rostow, who served as a national security aide to George W. Bush and has long known and worked with Bolton. “Assad has showed a consistent willingness to ignore his commitment about chemical weapons and to use them.”

Rostow said there’s no conflict with what Bolton previously said about Syria and what he says now. “John is very smart,” he said. “He’ll think next steps.”

Bolton replaced H.R. McMaster on Monday as national security adviser, part of a series of White House staff changes in recent weeks. Trump also nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state after firing Rex Tillerson.

“He’s going to be much more hands on, much more managerial,” said Douglas H. Paal, a former staff member on the National Security Council under former presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Bolton and Trump met regularly during the presidential transition and at the White House to discuss foreign policy. In the last week, he has been a constant presence at Syrian deliberations and was in the Oval Office when Trump called British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran and chairman of VoteVets, a group that opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said it is “a clear indication of what many have warned” that with the hiring of Pompeo and Bolton Trump has assembled “a neocon war cabinet,” referring to the hawkish wing of conservatives known as neo-conservatives.

James Jeffrey, who served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Turkey and deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration, said Bolton was wrong to say that the United States shouldn’t take sides in the civil war, but he said that was also before Russia got involved.

And then there was the politics. Bolton is political, Jeffrey said.

“Remember when Bolton made that comment, it was the Obama administration,” Jeffrey said. “So whatever the administration is announcing to do, as a pundit on the other side, you roll out all the arguments against it.”

Bolton’s next key test will be helping Trump decide next month whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, which he has long opposed. The 2015 agreement was designed to allow Iran to pursue a nuclear program but prevent it from producing a nuclear weapon.

Bolton, an advocate for the use of U.S. military might throughout his career, was one of the architects of Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.

That’s why his views in 2013 on Syria were so surprising. “There’s very little to recommend either side to me, and I think the notion that a limited strike, which is what the president seems to be pursuing, will not create a deterrent effect with respect to either to Syria’s use of chemical weapons or, more seriously, Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” he told FOX.

“I don’t think what Bolton has said in the past on this is so relevant, frankly,” said Paul B. Stares, who worked on the Iraq Study Group and the U.S Institute of Peace, a federal institution that is involved in conflicts around the world. “People change their views, especially those who get read into new sensitive information. They can claim that, ‘I said that when I was ignorant of the facts or not briefed on the facts,’” said Stares, who is now at the Council of Foreign Relations.

Another Bolton ally said the situation in and around Syria has changed drastically in the years Bolton cautioned against a military strike.

“What’s changed in Syria is the significant influence of Iran, of Hezbollah and of Russia,” said Zuhdi Jasser, a Syrian-American who is founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. “It is no longer a civil war … It is a regional proxy war in which the Shia radical Islamists based in Tehran are seeking to homogenize the crescent through Iraq, through Syria and into Lebanon.”

“This is a totally different calculus now,” said Jasser, who has frequently served on panels with Bolton, including Feb. 23 at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives.

Asked at the White House last week about his past views, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed them. “The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president’s,” she said.