12/15/2014 Pro-Democracy Muslim Promotes ‘Sunlight’ to Combat Radical Islam
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: Jewish Exponent
Zuhdi Jasser, 46, was amazed to hear his pro-democracy views become the target of a verbal attack in front of his family by the imam of the Phoenix mosque he attends.
As the American-born son of Syrian refugees from that country’s dictatorial Baathist regime, Jasser has made a name from himself as a devout Muslim and avid supporter of democracy, helping to found the American Islamic Forum for Democracy in the wake of
Speaking to about 25 guests at a StandWithUs luncheon on Dec. 10 at the Duane Morris law offices in Center City, Jasser explained how an August interview on Fox News, during which he slammed Islamic leaders such as fellow guest Imam Muhammad Siddeeq of the Nur-Allah Islamic Center in Indianapolis, Ind., for their failure to speak out against terrorist groups like ISIS and Hamas, became the topic of a scathing rant by the imam of Jasser’s own mosque.
“The imam called out against me just two months ago in the largest sermon of our annual services at the end of Ramadan,” said Jasser, who also spoke to an audience of 120 at Penn Valley’s Har Zion Temple the evening before the luncheon. “The sermon went from being about Islamophobia and about Ramadan to being about ‘a Muslim amongst us who is not one of us.’ ”
Jasser added that the imam called him a hater of Islam and “compared me to the hypocrites in the Koran, which basically is apostating me.”
09/23/2014 Katie Pavlich: Shed political correctness in combatting ISIS
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: The Hill
Three years ago, former Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Pete King, a Republican congressman from New York, announced the first in a series of controversial hearings he planned to hold about combating homegrown terror and radicalization in Muslim-American communities. King’s decision didn’t come out of the blue, but after U.S. Army Pvt. William Long was murdered in revenge by Abdulhakim Muhammad outside of a recruitment center in Arkansas. Muhammad was known as Carlos Bledsoe before converting to Islam and being influenced by radicals.
Minutes after King’s announcement, emotional outrage and hysteria erupted, quickly turning a serious issue into a circus on Capitol Hill and in the media. This behavior continued each time a new hearing was held.
Leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), America’s “largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization,” with close ties to the terrorist group Hamas, took to radio and television airwaves to express their disdain. They declared the hearings a forum for Islamaphobia sponsored by members of Congress and said King was engaged in a witch hunt based on religious bigotry.
When the day of the first hearing came, tensions were high. I remember walking into the committee room and immediately noticing extra security, a lot of it. Political correctness was credited throughout testimony, including by founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, for the expansion of radicalism America.
Years later, while groups like CAIR and their liberal friends in Congress and the White House have been beating society into submission over not discussing Islamic radicalization in our communities, terrorists have continued their plotting and recruiting. Today the United States still faces a serious homegrown Islamic terrorist threat — with a new level of brutality.
On June 25, 2014, a man named Ali Muhammad Brown murdered 19-year-old New Jersey teenager Brendan Tevlin. Tevlin was shot eight times after Brown singled him out while he was alone at an intersection. Just a few weeks before killing Tevlin, Brown murdered three other men across the country in Seattle. Two of them were gay.
08/25/2014 Muslim: I was bullied for criticizing Hamas
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: AZ Central
M. Zuhdi Jasser: Think religious intimidation doesn’t happen in the Valley? Think again.
What happens in Syria, Egypt, Iraq or Gaza has an impact every day right here in the Valley.
Even in America, leading Muslim organizations and clerics bully with threats of ostracism those Muslims who dare to dissent. Old-guard ideologues, too, used to monopoly control, make it crystal clear to their Muslim critics: Take us on and we will make an example of you as a traitor to the Muslim community (the ummah).
On July 28, Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Fitr (Holiday of the Feast) marking the end of our holy month of Ramadan, a spiritual month of daily fasting from all food and drink. In Ramadan, we focus on scripture, self-reflection and atonement. My family and I attended the holiday Eid prayer service at the Islamic Center of the Northeast Valley of which we are longtime members.
Little did we know Imam Yaser Ali, a Valley attorney, would use this otherwise joyous family holiday occasion to target me in the presence of my wife and children.
With more than 500 local Muslims in attendance, he riled up the crowd, demanding a community “effort” against those Muslims “who go on Fox News and speak ill against our Muslim brothers and sisters … who make the mosques look bad.” These individuals, he said, “hate Islam” and “vilify Muslims.”
While Mr. Ali never had the courage to say my name, no doubt remained in the mosque, or later on social media, that he was referring to me. He finished his tirade with “they are not from amongst us … they don’t represent us; we, the Muslim community represent one another, and we care for our brothers and sisters in Palestine.”
Apparently, the Scottsdale mosque’s leadership decided, or at the minimum voiced no disagreement, that for Muslims this Ramadan it is not Hamas, al-Qaida, ISIS, Boko Haram, the Muslim Brotherhood, or the evil regimes from Assad’s Syria to Iran or Saudi Arabia or even radicalized American jihadists in Syria that deserve targeting from the pulpit, but only a local, reform-minded activist — Zuhdi Jasser.
This imam meticulously described what he knows too well would garner me a death sentence as a munafiq (hypocrite), or murtad (apostate), for the crime of riddah (apostasy, treason) according to the interpretation of Shariah law accepted by Saudi Arabia and most Muslim-majority countries.
What was the crime prompting my metaphorical flogging in the presence of my wife, children and friends’ families on this holiday?
A few days earlier I had criticized the radicals of Hamas on national television for their supremacist Islamist doctrine hatched from the Muslim Brotherhood that daily and viciously oppresses the people of Gaza. I urged Hamas to stop the war mongering, refusal of cease fires, and launching of thousands of rockets that victimize Palestinian women, children and families, and I criticized CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).
To Imam Yaser Ali that was worthy of takfir, a declaration of public apostasy. The mosque board and audience responded to his call to action against me, a Muslim he described as of “those who hate Islam,” with a resounding “inshallah” (God willing).
07/23/2014 US lawmakers seek answers in ‘troubling’ violation of Sudanese Christian woman’s human rights
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: Fox News
As a Sudanese Christian who faced execution for refusing to renounce her faith remains holed up with her family in the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, a host of religious, human rights and immigration experts have been summoned to Capitol Hill to testify about her plight in the war-torn African nation.
The congressional hearing on Meriam Ibrahim, who gave birth while imprisoned in chains, is aimed at raising awareness of what one lawmaker called a “troubling violation of a basic human right.”
“Meriam Ibrahim has been imprisoned in Sudan in fear of execution, chained during the late stages of her pregnancy, forced to give birth in prison, released from prison and re-arrested on flimsy charges,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told FoxNews.com. “This all is the result of her being Christian in a country in which the ruling authorities refuse to recognize the right of people to choose their own religion. Our hearing will examine this troubling violation of a basic human right.”
Smith, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on global human rights, originally planned to hold the event last month, but it was postponed when it appeared Ibrahim, 27, would be released and allowed to leave Sudan. She was ultimately not allowed to leave the country due to issues with her passport and has since been staying at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum with her husband, Daniel Wani, and their two children, Martin and Maya.
07/23/2014 Congress to Sudan: Release Ibrahim family
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: World Magazine
WASHINGTON—Lawmakers on Wednesday blasted the Sudanese government for continuing to prohibit Meriam Ibrahim and her family from leaving Sudan.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, convened the hearing to spotlight the unresolved case of Ibrahim, a 27-year-old woman whose husband and two children are American citizens. Ibrahim was raised as a Christian by her mother, but a Sudanese court in May sentenced her to death for converting from Islam, the religion of her absentee father.
“Her refusal to leave the faith she had practiced her entire life led to her being in mortal fear for her life,” Smith said.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who is not a member of the panel but attended the hearing, gave fiery remarks directed at the Sudanese officials who were likely watching. “We will bring the government down,” Wolf shouted. “If Meriam is not out in two weeks, they should never be removed from the sanctions list.”
Smith originally scheduled Wednesday’s hearing in June, but he canceled it after assurances he received in a meeting with Sudanese officials. Three days later, authorities in Sudan released Ibrahim and her children only to detain them the next day while they were trying to leave the country. Media reports said Ibrahim tried to use forged travel documents, but they actually were improper travel documents.
07/23/2014 Meriam Ibrahim Is Free From Sudan
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: National Journal
Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman who’d been sentenced to death under Islamic law, arrived in Rome on Thursday, less than a day after U.S. lawmakers held a hearing in search of ways to help her.
Ibrahim and her two children were accompanied on the flight by Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Lapo Pistelli, who posted a photo from the trip on his Facebook page, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Federica Mogherini, Italy’s Foreign Affairs minister, called the development a “great joy” and thanked the “efforts of many” within the Italian government.
It isn’t immediately clear whether the U.S. State Department was involved with her flight to Italy. The flight was provided by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s office.
But a State Department spokesman told National Journal on Wednesday that Ibrahim and her two children “have all the documents they need to enter the United States as soon as the government of Sudan allows them to exit the country.”
Pistelli told Reuters that Ibrahim plans to stay in Rome briefly before traveling to the United States.
Ibrahim, her husband, and two young children were reportedly staying at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum before they left for Rome, although the State Department had declined to discuss the family’s location for safety reasons.
07/14/2014 Blasphemous Oppression In The Name of Islam: Hold Pakistan Accountable For Persecuting Religious Minorities
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: Forbes
The world is aflame. Religious minorities are among those who suffer most from increasing conflict. Pakistan is one of the worst homes for non-Muslims. The U.S. government should designate that nation as a “Country of Particular Concern” for failing to protect religious liberty, the most basic right of conscience.
Religious persecution is a global scourge. Many of the worst oppressors are Muslim nations. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iraq, and Egypt are all important international actors. All also mistreat, or acquiesce in the mistreatment of, anyone not a Muslim. Some of them even victimize Muslims—of the wrong variety. (In Syria it is opponents of the government which do most of the persecuting.)
Islamabad is another frequent offender. The most recent State Department report on religious liberty in Pakistan noted that “The constitution and other laws and policies officially restrict religious freedom and, in practice, the government enforced many of these restrictions. The government’s respect for and protection of the right to religious freedom continued to be poor.”
Minority faiths face violent attack. Believers are killed, churches are bombed, buses are attacked, homes are destroyed, social gatherings are targeted. Warned the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in its recent report: “In the past year, conditions hit an all-time low due to chronic sectarian violence targeting mostly Shia Muslims but also Christians, Ahmadis, and Hindus.” Last year the Commission cited a spike in violence against Shiites as well as “numerous attacks against innocent Pakistanis” of other religions.
07/09/2014 Liberty and the Secular State: Guarantors of Religious Freedom for Muslims
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: Berkley Center
M. Zuhdi Jasser, July 9, 2014
EDITOR’S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.
Islam’s holiest month, Ramadan, is a time for intense personal and community reflection. As we abstain from all food and drink from sunrise to sunset, we are given an opportunity to feel a new level of gratitude for our blessings, as well as to share more of what we have with the less fortunate. No denials, no excuses.
As Americans, we are free to accept or reject any tenet of our individual religions. Individuals are also free to reject faith entirely without fear of state reprisal. As a practicing Muslim, I fast during Ramadan, observe the five daily prayers, give to charity, read Qur’anic scripture, and adhere to a range of guidelines prescribed by my faith, such as abstinence from alcohol and pork. I have practiced my faith not just as a civilian, but also as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy. I have never experienced any conflict between my American identity and my Muslim faith. If anything, the fact that we have the freedom to practice any religion or none makes me freer to practice my faith with sincerity than I would be in any Muslim-majority society where a particular interpretation of the faith is coerced. In many Muslim-majority societies, the fast is enforced by law or social coercion, prayer times are mandated, and work schedules are modified during the month of Ramadan.
As a Muslim, I must ask myself: Is a coerced practice of Islam as meaningful—and as rewarded by God—as one freely chosen? The logical answer is no, that in order to sincerely practice one must have the choice not to. “Doing good works” requires no personal fortitude if no other option exists.
Freedom of religion is the first right in the US Constitution because without it, no other right can stand. The Founding Fathers, who espoused a range of personal views when it came to God and faith, shared a common commitment to individual liberty. It was their vision that America would be a nation wherein faith would be a matter of personal choice and the expression of it an inalienable and protected right. It is this understanding that my family embraced as patriotic Americans the moment they arrived here in the 1960s to escape the persecution of Syria’s Baathists.
Contrarily, while it is certainly true that anti-Muslim bigotry exists—including efforts by some to prevent the building of mosques and to restrict our religious rights—it is also true that we Muslims, like all Americans, are protected by the United States Constitution and a whole host of laws protecting our civil rights. Further, Muslims are not alone. Other religious minorities, in fact, continue to face a much higher level of persecution than we do. According to the FBI, 66% of hate crimes against religious groups over the last decade targeted members of the Jewish community, while 12.1% of these crimes targeted Muslims. Some Muslims point to the rise of “anti-sharia” legislation as an indicator of the oppression of Muslims in the United States. Indeed, bills like the one proposed in Tennessee have been far too broadly written, seeming to make any gathering of Muslims an illegal act. (This bill was later amended). Yet, on the other hand, those bills which did not explicitly identify sharia but more appropriately targeted those foreign laws which violate American standards of gender equality and religious freedom (like the Michigan law) were in fact supported by many Muslims, including our American Islamic Leadership Coalition. On either side of this debate, the American system is designed to give us room to comfortably support or actively dissent against policies and people who fail to fairly represent us.
06/07/2014 In Response to Attack on Jewish Center, Southern Poverty Law Center Releases Report Attacking Jews, Defending Hamas
/in AIFD in the News/by AIFDSource: Frontpage Mag
After Frazier Glenn Cross, an anti-Semite who repeatedly quoted fanatical left-wing anti-Semite Max Blumenthal, launched an attack near a Jewish community center, the Southern Poverty Law Center rushed to cover up and lie on behalf of Blumenthal.
The SPLC claimed falsely that Blumenthal “does not despise Israel” when even the Forward, a left-wing paper, describes him calling for the ethnic cleansing of its Jewish population.
Now the SPLC, a profitable mail order enterprise operating under the guise of a civil rights group, exploited the very anti-Semitic attack it tried to cover up by attacking Jews.
The targets of its “White Homicide” intelligence report, even though the victims in the Cross case were also white, include David Horowitz, as the SPLC defaults to one of its favorite obsessions, Islamophobia.
What does any of this have to do with the Frazier Glenn Cross shootings? Nothing. The SPLC, as even most liberals know, is a profitable mail order operation that piggybacks on any incident to roll out its usual sloppy and poorly researched screeds. It is however particularly insulting that it is exploiting an anti-Semitic incident it lied about it… in order to attack Horowitz, myself and other Jews.
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s White Homicide report is, true to form, a scattershot collection of drive by attacks. Its targets include Homicide star Richard Belzer (also Jewish) for spreading JFK conspiracy theories, Rush Limbaugh and former Saturday Night Live star Victoria Jackson.
The basis for the SPLC’s attack on Horowitz was a discredited report from the Center for American Progress by Wajahat Ali, an Islamist who was on record as targeting Muslim reformers like Irshad Manji and Zuhdi Jasser with nasty slurs. Ali was on the board of the MSA, which his report and the SPLC attacks Horowitz for condemning.
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