Dr. Zuhdi Jasser launches “Reform This!” podcast on the Blaze Radio Network

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PHOENIX, AZ (May, 13, 2016) – Muslim reformer Dr. Zuhdi Jasser is launching the first of its kind podcast on an American radio network, hosted by a Constitutional conservative, patriotic American Muslim.

This Saturday, May 14th at 12:00 p.m. EST, “Reform This!” with Dr. Zuhdi Jasser will launch on the Blaze Radio Network. Listeners can also find the podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play Music.

In “Reform This!,” Jasser describes the journey he’s taking with listeners in America and the free world, as he addresses issues of the day and boldly breaches the fault lines that lie between the West and the Islamist mindset.

Dr. Jasser is a former US Navy Lieutenant Commander, a conservative, a patriot, a physician, and an American Muslim. A frequent television commentator on Blaze TV, Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC, he is also a co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement.

Weekly, Jasser will cover the timely and most controversial issues on homeland security, national security, foreign policy, religious liberty, human rights, and general politics that few have the courage to confront. If you are looking for hope and have asked where the courageous voices of pro-American Muslims are, take a listen to “Reform This!”

Jasser will use this program to unapologetically educate, empower, and engage listeners on the most important frontlines of the day in the domestic and global war against Islamism and its jihadists.

In this week’s premier episode, Dr. Jasser explains why our daily terminology is so important and the bedrock of honest debate and ultimately reform. He uses the latest move by Al Jazeera and Islamist pundits to move not only away from naming “Islamism” for so long but now, even trying to redefine and abandon use of the term “radicalization”.

Finally, he will discuss where Americans can find hope in this era of our pathological ideological appeasement and the evolving genocidal crises in the Middle East. Dr. Jasser will also introduce the ideas of the Muslim Reform Movement which he co-founded along with 14 other leading Muslim reformers in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

A new episode of “Reform This!” will go live every Saturday at 12:00 p.m. EST, all links can be found at The Blaze Radio Network.

 

03/17/2016 AIFD Welcomes Guilty Verdict in Phoenix Terror Trial

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(Phoenix, AZ, March 17, 2016) We at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy commend the jury in the trial of Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, who had the fortitude and courage to deliver a guilty verdict in the first ISIS-related trial on U.S. soil. We know the hours of deliberation and the nature of the case must have been trying, and the burden of carrying out justice heavy. This is an example of our justice system doing its job and setting a strong example for those who might seek out a path like that pursued by Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem.

This case hit close to home for us at AIFD. When the news broke that the suspected gunmen and those who aided them had ties to Phoenix – and then when the names were released – AIFD’s own director of community engagement sprung into action: it turned out that two of the men involved – Elton Simpson and Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem – were familiar faces. Courtney Lonergan, also a convert to Islam, had years ago gone to local Muslim leadership with concerns about these men. While they were not yet expressing the wish to commit acts of violence, they were espousing radical rhetoric.

When Courtney raised her concerns, she was dismissed. This is unfortunately the case for many Muslims who go to their local Muslim leadership with such concerns. Worse is the way those Muslims who speak out are treated by the so-called leaders of our community: we are maligned and harassed, our detractors going so far as to harass our families and loved ones. Not even our children have been immune to harassment from Islamist groups like CAIR.

This guilty verdict is a step in the right direction, but it is not the solution to the problem. Now, Muslims and non-Muslims around the country must stand together to address all the factors that lead to radicalization: communities which marginalize certain groups, anti-Blackness in  mosques and Muslim communities, the radically anti-Western rhetoric of some within our community, and the deep connection many in our faith community continue to share with Islamist groups and international funders with malignant intentions.

This verdict is vindication, but it is also a call to action – one we thank the jurors for declaring when they took the stand for justice and against terror. May we in the Muslim community, alongside our non-Muslim allies, make sure that their labor was not in vain.

 

About Dr. Zuhdi Jasser M.D.

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.

 

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03/03/2016 AIFD Pres. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser to speak at CPAC 2016, Joins Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union

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(WASHINGTON, D.C, March 3, 2016) – Dr. Zuhdi Jasser M.D., President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and a co-Founder of the Muslim Reform Movement will speak at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference taking place March 2nd – March 5th at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington D.C.

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser will first lead a ‘CPAC Conversation with Dr. Zuhdi Jasser’ on Thursday, March 3 (4:10 PM ET): “Political Islam: How Patriotic American Muslims Defy the Radical Islamists”.

He will then also participate in a panel chaired by KT McFarland, Fox News Contributor, on Saturday, March 5 (10:15 AM ET): “Europe in Chaos”. Please see details at agenda links.

Dr. Jasser looks forward to speaking to #CPAC2016 on his work and the best path forward for America in implementing a coherent strategy for promoting liberty and advancing American security against the threats of domestic and global Islamism.

We will post and distribute the video of Dr. Jasser’s presentations as soon as they are available.

We are also pleased to announce that at  the Board of Directors meeting of the American Conservative Union (ACU) on  March 2, 2016, Dr Jasser was selected  to serve as an ACU board member for 2016-2017.

Please follow us on Twitter @aifdemocracy or follow Dr. Jasser @DrZuhdiJasser, follow #CPAC2016 hashtag and listen and watch  for Dr. Jasser with media hosts present at #CPAC2016

 

About CPAC

The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual political conference, the centerpiece of the American Conservative Union,  attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States. CPAC is hosted by the American Conservative Union. CPAC combines ideas with action to leverage the strength of thousands of grass-roots activists to break through the resistance of Washington’s powerful elites. More than 100 other organizations contribute to the annual event in various ways.

 

About Dr. Zuhdi Jasser M.D.

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.

 

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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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02/03/2016 Muslims ask Obama: Please Don’t Defer to Islamists in First Mosque Visit

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(FEBRUARY 3, 2016, PHOENIX, AZ): Today, President Obama will visit a U.S. mosque for the first time in his presidency. Unfortunately, rather than a necessary and important step in the right direction, this visit is more of the same from the political establishment: politicians once again granting a platform and recognition to problematic mosques and religious institutions.

Alarmingly, it seems that the mosque the president plans to visit – the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB) – sympathizes with Islamist ideology. The ISB links to radical Islamist cleric Yusuf Qaradawi, its leadership has called homosexuality a “mental disorder,” and has endorsed calls for gays to be “harmed.” The mosque also endorses the gender apartheid bolstered by many mosques around the country, separating men and women during prayer and most functions. Its website is shrouded in a typical Islamist secrecy regarding its history, leadership, affiliations, and ideology. Their denials this week are meaningless in the absence of transparency.

It appears that President Obama’s judgement here is at best compromised, at worst influenced by the same Islamist elements the administration has been empowering since the day he took office. Unfortunately, this mosque visit appears to be more about using Muslims as a political prop for a partisan agenda, giving the appearance of a commitment to diversity. Instead the White House is empowering Islamists who by definition reject almost every measure of intra-faith diversity.

If President Obama wanted to reach the Muslim community in a meaningful way, he would visit the mosque of a Muslim minority sect or group, or a mosque embracing full gender equality. He would further defend and stand with these groups against Islamist attacks.

AIFD is a member organization of the recently launched Muslim Reform Movement a Western coalition of Muslim leaders and organizations dedicated to universal human rights and secular governance. Leaders of the Muslim Reform Movement will be holding a “Pray-in Protest: For women’s rights at mosques” at the Islamic Society of Baltimore during President Obama’s visit.  Women will enter the mosque and attempt to pray in congregation with men and will also protest outside, visible to the press. You are welcome to join us.

12/7/2015 AIFD RESPONDS TO PRES. OBAMA’S ADDRESS AGAINST TERRORISM

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M ZUHDI JASSER

PRESIDENT AMERICAN ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY
“We are pleased with much of what the President had to say, noting that he seems to have shifted from more coddling language to what sounds like a firmer stance against terror. What remains to be seen, however, and what would demonstrate a meaningful and demonstrative shift toward REAL solutions – is if his engagement of the Muslim community changes. In order to be successful in obliterating violent extremism, President Obama must start at the root of the root – political Islam – the seed from which groups like ISIS grow. The President was right – many Muslims, including myself – have and do serve our nation in the military, law enforcement, and other roles essential to keeping us safe. And we need his leadership, too.

We invite the President to begin working with the real reformers and change agents from within the Muslim community, such as those of us who met in Washington, D.C. last week at a summit to craft and announce the launch of the Muslim Reform Movement. In our declaration, we outlined multiple principles consistent with President Obama’s stated values: equality of the sexes, protection for sexual and religious minorities, and the separation of mosque and state and so on. Further, though, we asked our fellow Muslims to denounce armed jihad and the notion of a caliphate and Islamic states. If President Obama is serious about the need for Muslims to ‘decisively and unequivocally’ reject the ideology fueling terrorism, he will stand with us as allies, recognizing us reformers as the solution to this increasingly dangerous global crisis.”

Declaration of the Muslim Reform Movement / Signed by AIFD (December 4, 2015)

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MUSLIM REFORM MOVEMENT

(VIDEO: Press Conference of Launch)

PLEASE SUPPORT AND SIGN OUR DECLARATION AT CHANGE.ORG

 

Preamble

We are Muslims who live in the 21st century. We stand for a respectful, merciful and inclusive interpretation of Islam. We are in a battle for the soul of Islam, and an Islamic renewal must defeat the ideology of Islamism, or politicized Islam, which seeks to create Islamic states, as well as an Islamic caliphate. We seek to reclaim the progressive spirit with which Islam was born in the 7th century to fast forward it into the 21st century. We support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by United Nations member states in 1948.   

We reject interpretations of Islam that call for any violence, social injustice and politicized Islam. Facing the threat of terrorism, intolerance, and social injustice in the name of Islam, we have reflected on how we can transform our communities based on three principles: peace, human rights and secular governance. We are announcing today the formation of an international initiative: the Muslim Reform Movement.

We have courageous reformers from around the world who have written our Declaration for Muslim Reform, a living document that we will continue to enhance as our journey continues. We invite our fellow Muslims and neighbors to join us.

DECLARATION

 

A. Peace: National Security, Counterterrorism and Foreign Policy

  1. We stand for universal peace, love and compassion. We reject violent jihad. We believe we must target the ideology of violent Islamist extremism, in order to liberate individuals from the scourge of oppression and terrorism both in Muslim-majority societies and the West.
  2. We stand for the protection of all people of all faiths and non-faith who seek freedom from dictatorships, theocracies and Islamist extremists.
  3. We reject bigotry, oppression and violence against all people based on any prejudice, including ethnicity, gender, language, belief, religion, sexual orientation and gender expression.

 

B. Human Rights: Women’s Rights and Minority Rights

  1. We stand for human rights and justice. We support equal rights and dignity for all people, including minorities. We support the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
  2. We reject tribalism, castes, monarchies and patriarchies and consider all people equal with no birth rights other than human rights. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Muslims don’t have an exclusive right to  “heaven.”
  3. We support equal rights for women, including equal rights to inheritance, witness, work, mobility, personal law, education, and employment. Men and women have equal rights in mosques, boards, leadership and all spheres of society. We reject sexism and misogyny.

 

C. Secular Governance: Freedom of Speech and Religion

  1. We are for secular governance, democracy and liberty. We are against political movements in the name of religion. We separate mosque and state. We are loyal to the nations in which we live. We reject the idea of the Islamic state. There is no need for an Islamic caliphate. We oppose institutionalized sharia. Sharia is manmade.
  2. We believe in life, joy, free speech and the beauty all around us. Every individual has the right to publicly express criticism of Islam. Ideas do not have rights. Human beings have rights. We reject blasphemy laws. They are a cover for the restriction of freedom of speech and religion. We affirm every individual’s right to participate equally in ijtihad, or critical thinking, and we seek a revival of ijtihad.
  3. We believe in freedom of religion and the right of all people to express and practice their faith, or non-faith, without threat of intimidation, persecution, discrimination or violence. Apostasy is not a crime. Our ummah–our community–is not just Muslims, but all of humanity.

 

We stand for peace, human rights and secular governance. Please stand with us!

 

Affirmed this Fourth Day of December, Two-Thousand and Fifteen

By the founding authors who are signatories below

 

#MuslimReform

Twitter: @TheMuslimReform

Instagram: @TheMuslimReform

Facebook: Muslim Reform Movement

Email: MuslimReformMovement@gmail.com

Website: www.MuslimReformMovement.org

Please sign our declaration at  www.change.org

 

Founding Signatories

 

Tahir Gora,

Author, Journalist, Activist, Toronto, Canada

Tawfik Hamid

Islamic Thinker and Reformer, Oakton, VA, USA

 Usama Hasan

Imam, Quilliam Foundation, London, UK

 Arif Humayun

Senior Fellow, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Portland, OR, USA

Farahnaz Ispahani

Author, Former Member of Parliament, Pakistan, Washington, D.C., USA,

M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.

President, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Phoenix, AZ USA

Naser Khader

Member, Danish Parliament, Muslim democracy activist, Copenhagen, Denmark

Courtney Lonergan

Community Outreach Director,  American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Professional facilitator

Hasan Mahmud

Resident expert in sharia, Muslims Facing Tomorrow, Toronto, Canada

Asra Nomani

Journalist, Author, Morgantown, WV, USA

Raheel Raza

Founder, Muslims Facing Tomorrow, Toronto, Canada

Sohail Raza

Vice President, Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations

Salma Siddiqui

President, Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations, Toronto, Canada

 

                  …affirmed at 8 AM this Fourth Day of December, Two-Thousand and Fifteen

 

PDF FILE OF DOCUMENT

12/1/2015 Summit of Western Muslim voices of Reform against the Islamic State and Islamism

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(Washington, D.C.) This founding summit will take place this week in Washington D.C. and will include over 20 Muslim reformers who are against the ideology of Islamism (political Islam). Summit attendees are from the UK, Canada, Denmark and the United States of America.

The thought leaders will gather for the first of its kind, high profile foundational meeting in Washington D.C. This week’s meetings will set the foundations in the long-overdue, deep needed reforms against the ideologies which inspire the Islamic state and inspire global Islamist movements.

Many of these leaders will gather to discuss their calls to action as Muslims with a press conference to announce their findings, strategy and goals for long needed reforms within the House of Islam at the National Press Club this Friday, December 4, 2015 at 8:00 a.m.

Please join us as these leaders come together to call upon their co-religionists to end the apologetics and begin the tough work of global reforms against the ideologies that inspire political Islam and radical Islamism.

Read more

10/15/2015 AIFD Calls on the Parliament of the World’s Religions to Hold Speakers Accountable

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This year, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) will be represented at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, convening in Salt Lake City this weekend and opening today. We are sending a representative to the Parliament to engage with interfaith leaders on behalf of liberty-minded Muslims who embrace a pluralistic interpretation of Islam and promote the value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

The Parliament of the World’s Religions began convening in 1893, a meeting considered to be the birthplace of the global interfaith movement. This year marks the first Parliament held in the United States since 1993.

We at AIFD share many of the Parliament’s values: we stand for the equal rights of women and girls, we work to support emerging leaders, and seek to end violence. We are especially pleased that the Parliament has taken an important step in addressing horrors like honor-based violence and child marriage, something we have long urged religious leaders to do. Because of these shared values and the undeniable importance of the Parliament in the area of interfaith relations and religious freedom, AIFD must highlight the troublesome inconsistencies between the Parliament’s stated values and some of its leading sponsors and speakers.

A “major sponsor” of the Parliament is the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), founded by the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2011. Serving as the chair of the Parliament’s Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees is Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, founding Chairman of the Sound Vision Foundation behind the “Stand with the Prophet” rallies nationwide. According to recent emails distributed by the Parliament (and Mujahid’s facebook posting), this year’s keynote address will be offered by Saudi Arabia’s Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid, the current mufti of the Grand Mosque of Mecca and a recent head of the Kingdom’s Majlis al-Shura. He is notably the author of an apologetic and widely distributed paper on jihad we find immensely troubling, especially considering current global challenges with regards to radical Islam. This was published by Abdul Malik Mujahid himself, who praised it as “so heart evoking and encouraging.”  “Major speakers” at this year’s Parliament include even more individuals backed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, such as Georgetown University’s John L. Esposito.

The problems with a Saudi funded, Saudi backed and Saudi-heavy Parliament on the World’s Religions are obvious – even glaring. The inconsistencies between the Parliament’s stated aims and its apparent willingness to be backed and essentially owned by the House of Saud raise concerns about the Parliament’s legitimacy, sincerity, and efficacy.

Saudi Arabia’s record on women’s rights; its refusal to grant even the most basic rights to religious minorities within the Kingdom; its regular use of and exportation of vile Wahhabist and other Islamist “hate speech” against all who don’t embrace their dangerous, fatalist interpretation of Islam; its veritable enslavement of migrant workers from Africa and Asia, who work for the wealthy but remain in dire poverty, often subjected to violence (including rape) by their Saudi “employers”; its oppression, torture, and murder of dissident youth who challenge the status quo – these are all well-known crimes against the very declarations this year’s Saudi-backed Parliament promotes. These are all also counter to the spirit of the Parliament itself, and are a deep cancer to the interfaith movement worldwide and the honest promotion of the values of the UDHR.

We believe in looking at the whole picture. Otherwise we as participants especially on American soil become tools in legitimizing and laundering the domestic injustices of theocracies like Saudi Arabia. Because we believe in the power of interfaith engagement to address some of the most urgent problems facing the global community – especially those human rights abuses committed in the name of religion and/or culture – we propose that the Parliament, along with its attendees, demand that all speakers, including Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid and Abdul Malik Mujahid; as well as all panel speakers, publicly sign a document affirming all of the Parliament’s declaratory positions.

Should the Parliament’s sponsors, speakers, and Board of Trustees refuse to sign onto these declarations both as individuals and on behalf of their local and national governments, the Parliament should immediately cease engagement with them in any form – especially financially. The Parliament cannot claim an honest commitment to these noble ideals while taking checks from the very regime which makes achieving them impossible. Will attendees and speakers enjoy the comfortable, prestigious environment of the Parliament, and even be willing to promote the fact that they are attending, while Raif Badawi languishes in prison under false accusations of apostasy and more? Will those pleased with the Parliament’s stance on women comment on the horrendous treatment of women in Saudi Arabia, where the concept of male guardianship leads to unspeakable evils? Will those who believe the Parliament supports interfaith peacebuilding and youth engagement speak up about the case of Ali al-Nimr, a Saudi and Shia Muslim who, at the age of 17, was arrested for allegedly “attending anti-government protests?” Many believe he was both targeted and punished so harshly because of his Shia faith. Raif Badawi, a devout Muslim was flogged by the Saudi regime in front of the largest mosque in Jeddah to make an example of him for his “speech crimes against Islam” and because he “liked” a Christian Facebook page. This is how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia actually handles intra-faith engagement, and the empowerment of youth who seek to change the status quo. If Ali were an American, perhaps he would be attending this year’s Parliament (many feminists, minority rights activists and others will be attending this year’s Parliament) rather awaiting his execution in Saudi Arabia, where he has already been tortured. This is not to mention the utter absence of any freedom for minority faiths to practice or build houses of worship in the medieval Kingdom. Radical Islamists like ISIS learn how to persecute minorities and behead dissidents from Wahhabi led societies like Saudi Arabia. The association of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the worlds worst offenders of religious freedom, with the Parliament is an inexplicable frankly embarrassing relationship.

AIFD encourages attendees to make their voices heard on these issues, and commits to highlighting positive efforts made toward getting the Parliament’s backers, organizers and speakers to commit to the Parliament’s declarations. In return, we ask attendees to demand this from the Parliament.

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M. Zuhdi Jasser, MD President and Founder, American Islamic Forum for Democracy

AIFD is an organization dedicated to providing an American Muslim voice advocating for liberty and genuine Muslim reform against Islamism and the ideologies which fuel global Muslim radicalization. Dr. Jasser has testified to Congress on numerous occasions as an expert on Muslim radicalization, foreign policy (Syria, Egypt, Middle East), anti-Semitism, and international religious freedom to name a few.

Dr. Jasser has authored numerous articles, is a contributing writer to a number of books and appears in several documentaries. He is a frequent guest on multiple national news outlets including the Fox News Channel, CNN, and MSNBC in addition to being a frequent guest on many national radio programs. He is the author of the book, The Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot Fight to Save His Faith, published by Threshold Editions of Simon and Schuster in 2013.

He served 11 years as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy and is a recipient of the Meritorious Medal. He is currently a respected physician in private practice in Phoenix, Ariz. specializing in internal medicine and nuclear cardiology.