It has taken four years for our public articulation of the ﾓwar on terrorﾔ to finally begin to identify the enemy with its real name. We are no longer dancing around a concept of terror which is a tactic but rather bringing into the crosshairs an ideology which engenders terrorism against America and its allies. Without a doubt, our greatest assets in this war are Muslims dedicated to rooting out the ideology which engenders terror, hate, and intolerance. There are certainly a number of individuals within the Muslim ummah who have been working to expose Islamism and create an alternative ideology. But there have been only a few rare institutions being created to establish a body of thought which counters Islamism and presents a central nature of Islam which is equal to other faiths and pluralistic in every respect. The Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) based in Washington, D.C. is one of those organizations for which we have all been waiting. Even more potent than individual Muslims who take stands against political Islam are organizations and think tanks which begin to develop a body of thought which will live on for generations to represent moderate Muslim thought. Through the leadership of Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, CIP is positioning itself as a conservative moderate Muslim American voice. CIPﾒs mission, now nearing completion of its first year of operation is a breath of fresh air and clarity from a truly moderate Muslim organization. It states the following as its formative principles: – Foster, develop, defend, protect, and further mobilize moderate American Muslims in their progress toward integration as an equal and respected religious community in the American interfaith environment – Define the future of Islam in America as a community opposed to the politicization of our religion, its radicalization, and its marginalization, which has taken place because of the imposition on Muslims of attitudes opposed to American values, traditions, and policies – Educate the broader American public about the reality of moderate Islam and the threat to moderate Muslims and non-Muslim Americans represented by militant, political, radical, and adversarial tendencies. Executive Director Schwartz just returned from Slovenia and Croatia where he participated in university and think-tank conferences on European Islam and the “Balkan Muslim model.” A landmark European Declaration of Muslims was presented in Slovenia by Mustafa Ceric, the chief Muslim scholar of Bosnia-Herzegovina, representing a major step forward in the establishment of a moderate pluralistic Muslim model. To quote Schwartz in his review of his trip on behalf of the U.S. state department and CIP: In Zagreb, Ceric criticized those who speak of “Christian Europe” firstly for ignoring the continent’s Jewish history. His text never refers to jihad, unbelievers, or war between the worlds of Islam and the West. Nor does it cite controversial hadith or oral sayings of Muhammad. Rather, Ceric quotes from the philosopher John Rawls, basing his conception of Islam’s future on “the principles that free and rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality as defining the fundamental terms of their association.” Back in the United States, CIP is a refreshing alternative from the so-called ﾑestablishedﾒ Muslim leadership in America. There are a number of organizations which present themselves as representatives of American Muslims but have never established any credibility in the non-Muslim American community. They have also conveniently and completely avoided any internal Muslim issues such as anti-terrorism, human rights, womenﾒs rights, pluralism, anti-Semitism, and democratic reforms. They ignore reformist Muslims and leave them to be attacked by the extremists basically tacitly endorsing the extremists. CIP has demonstrated that credibility which so few have. As executive director, Schwartz has come to the defense of a number of outspoken fellow reformists who have been intimidated by the Wahhabi lobby. Last year, he came to the defense of a Muslim, Fatima Agha, at Rutgers University in New Jersey who tried to protest against the oppressive tactics of the Wahhabi power mongers at the Islamic Society of Rutgers University (ISRU). He brought national attention and the light of day to the intolerant extremist tactics of the leadership of ISRU. Schwartz has established credentials as an outspoken critic of Wahhabism and is one of Americaﾒs foremost experts in the area. He is the author of The Two Faces of Islam and a regular contributor to the Weekly Standard and TechCentral Station. Having the privilege of being one of the founding members of CIP, its mission has obviously always been very near to my heart as I have been working locally in Arizona on many similar missions since 2000. The group of founders includes, Kemal Silay (President of CIP), Imam Subhy Mansour (religious consultant), Jalal Zuberi (Southeast U.S. region), Imam Khaleel Mohammed (Pacific Coast region), and Salim Mansur (Canadian region). In fact on March 24, 2006, CIP again demonstrated its refreshing clarity in its response to the report of the Afghanistan Apostasy Trial. Nearing the completion of its first year, CIP is set to be one of Americaﾒs leading conservative Muslim organizations based upon a moderate ideology of pluralism and unencumbered by apologetics and victimization. With its focus on stamping out Wahhabism and fundamentalism within the Muslim community, the entry of CIP into the American Muslim mosaic is long overdue.

It seems the issue of cartoons is much in the news these days. As a devout moderate Muslim, I was just recently portrayed in the local Muslim newspaper, Arizona Muslim Voice, as a ravenous dog ﾗ on the leash of our state newspaper, and devouring an imam. Despite the fact that being portrayed as a dog is profoundly offensive if not downright hateful in our Middle Eastern culture, there was hardly a ripple of outrage in the local Muslim community. It seems that in the local Muslim community it’s all right to make a vilifying cartoon of me, a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander and medical officer, but certainly not one of bin Laden or al-Zawahiri. I have yet to see them publish one cartoon against the enemies of America in this so-called Muslim newspaper. Only a few weeks after my caricature, the riots around the Danish cartoons erupted across the globe. True to form, the eruption came months after their printing, only after many so-called imams acting as warlords took the cartoons to the Muslim mimbars (pulpits) of the Middle East. As many this week have said, this is not about cartoons. This all got me thinking about what drives people. I was born in America, raised a Muslim and a conservative. I have long struggled with what it is that makes my own reflexive passions, and my primary mission, so different from those of the mobs and even from so many of my Muslim neighbors in America. What is the fuse that, once ignited, turns normal people into a mob clamoring for Islam and often for blood? This question leads me to the subject of our dreams. There are some in my faith who dream of a new Caliphate, a world ruled by and for Islam. It is a seductive call to many in my faith, as dreams always are. But it is anathema to me. I do not believe that we were meant to be one thing, because that, in itself, takes away our free will. My dream can only be real if it is only mine ﾗ if it is rooted in the individual success. Once the community or the so-called ummah takes it on as a communal success, it is no longer a dream but an imposition, a violation of freedom and liberty. Dreams are a funny thing. For example, it is a dream for me that I may one day make the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. But the very thought of living there, makes me feel all hollow inside. Is that not a peculiar thing ﾗ that the holiest place for me to visit would not be a holy place for me to live. That is because the hajj is a dream of mine, a pillar of my faith, but living there would be my reality. The difference between a dream that is fleeting and one that is real always comes down to the question of free will. If I would live there, I would not be free and no devotion that is coerced can ever be true. That is why my first allegiance is to this country. Without its freedoms and protections, my faith would be something much smaller. That is also why my dream has always been one of a pluralistic, democratic society where all religions and people can feel welcome. Islamists, from the radical to the moderate, would argue that in their dream the will of the majority and the Islamic state become one. What instilled my intense love for the United States from a young age was that our democracy has a Bill of Rights that upholds minorities, prevents oppression by the majority, and keeps religious scripture out of government ﾗ the antithesis of Islamism. The Muslim mobs we see inflamed are not al-Qaeda, but they are enraged Islamists driven by a fear of losing the ideological world war to the West. They fear the West, which honors the individual first and the community second ﾗ put another way, America first, and the ummah second. They fear more than anything having to compete in a non-theological legislature by the legal merit of the logic of their principles, rather than from behind the corrupt cloak of their theological monopoly on sharia. The next question flowing from all this is, “How can we create a new dream for people so driven towards rage?” Dreams are the product of our imagination. If we can visualize something, then we can imagine it becoming a reality. And that is why I am so enthusiastic about the liberation of Iraq. If I were to live in the Middle East, all I would see around me in government would be thugs, despots, oil monarchies, and radical theocrats ruling the people in a sea of corruption. How would I be able to imagine freedom where there is none to be found? That is what we are doing in Iraq. We are giving people in that region a sense of what could be. Without a reality in which liberty can thrive, the vacuum is filled by corruption. The reality is replaced by false dreams of a world in which no freedom-loving Jeffersonian Muslim would ever want to live. I would like to end with my own cartoon. In it, I see all the compassionless theocrats and obscenely rich despots on a ship named al-Titanic leaving the Middle East forever ﾗ and, on the shore, the Muslims, Jews, Christians, and all people of faith joyously dancing in victory for the advent of a new Middle Eastern pluralism. Now, that would be a cartoon worth getting excited about. ﾗ M. Zuhdi Jasser is the chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Ariz. This column originally appeared online at this link at National Review Online.

Since the riots in France broke out this fall, many have analyzed the root causes of the rage within the “French” Muslim community. It would be a grave mistake for us to avoid the greatest lesson of the riots: This disaffection, although caused partly by immigration, unemployment and segregation, really is about the spiritual character of a nation. Many have been quick to compare America’s challenges with its own Muslim population to Europe’s, but there is a central difference. America is a place where all spirituals paths are supported. It is a country where God is freely talked about in its founding documents. This gives great support to all faiths, especially those in the minority. It gives all people of faith a sense that they belong here. This language reaffirming man’s spiritual nature is what is sorely missing in Europe. If one takes away that foundation, one is left with a cold secularism that, in turn, becomes the most attractive breeding ground for religious fanatics. In that anti-religious environment, where is the truly devotional to turn? On one side there is the “God is dead” people, and on the other is the “Your God is dead” people. To someone who simply is trying to practice his faith, this is a toxic environment indeed. That brings us to the real tragedy of Europe. Never before in man’s history has mostly an entire continent thrown off its religious traditions and devotional practices as Europe has. This is obvious to any tourist who visits there. They will find its churches cold and, above all, empty. Europeans proudly think of themselves as living in a post-Christian era and, because of that central fact, they have lost the true language to talk with their restive Muslim population. On the other side, the Islamists dream of creating a new global order that will rise over the ruins of a godless Western world. They want to create a new Caliphate, and now Europe is clearly in their sights. The de-Christianization of Europe has left it wide open for invasion by an ideology like Islamism that promises the whole package of God, faith, community and nation. This fanatical sect of Islam can only take hold in an environment where despair and godlessness prevails. In this war against Islamo-fascism, France has been a consistent example of what not to do. First was to create a society that is hostile to religion. Second was to invite millions of immigrants whose primary identity was that of their religion. Third was to segregate them in bleak, jobless ghettos. Fourth was to react to this discontent with indiscriminate hard-line measures such as the one that has outlawed religious head coverings (whether they be scarves, turbans, yarmulkes or the wearing of crosses) in schools and government. These laws banning “conspicuous” symbols of faith are France’s latest version of the Maginot Line. They have given the country the illusory sense of security while actually strengthening the hand of the Islamists. To the writers of this piece, a Muslim and a Sikh, the error of the French Laicite policies could not be more obvious. In its broad-brush attempt to dampen religious fanaticism, it has alienated people of faith, who see this ruling as unfair and coercive. We once again are thankful to be citizens in our nation where public displays of faith, whether in prayer, headdress, assembly or place of worship, are seen as strengthening not weakening the nation. The real answer to the Islamists lies in the foundations of this country, which speak about God, liberty and equality for all. In essence, America as an idea is the real antidote to the ideology of Islamism. This idea combines two counterbalancing concepts: the importance of religious liberty and the importance of separation of church and state. American secularism is successful because it allows for the individual to freely choose his faith in a veritable “free market” of religions. Only in this environment can a relationship with God truly be free of coercion. Judaism and Christianity have learned this in their history of reform. Muslims can only learn this if we rely on the success of the American concept of religious liberty. In summation, the Muslims of Europe can’t be bought off, even if the French treasury was an overflowing surplus of wealth. Like all other human beings, what they really want is to be understood and respected. And God is the coin of the realm with them. Europe has lost the language to talk to people of faith. It has lost that experience. Both sides now can only look at each other as some sort of strange mutant creatures with no commonality among themselves. When Christian Europe deserted it principles, its practices and its pieties, it created a vacuum that increasingly has been filled by a version of Islam that wants to reclaim its past glories by controlling Europe. M. Zuhdi Jasser is chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix and can be reached at zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org. Soul Singh Khalsa is a Sikh minister and novelist in Phoenix and can be reached at soulkhalsa @cox.net. This column originally appeared in the Arizona Republic on November 28, 2005 at this link.

As we all began digesting the news of last week’s terrorist attack, most of America’s Muslim organizations issued what has become a predictable, yet empty, round of condemnations. Articulated in press releases, these rote statements are not backed up with sincere attempts to acknowledge and fix the problems within Islam. Listening to these empty pronouncements, I can’t help but ask: Where is our Muslim responsibility–our duty–to protect the world from the actions of our own? It is time for us Muslims to take ownership of our faith by moving beyond empty condemnations and ensuring that Islamo-fascists–those who seek to create an Islamic totalitarian theocracy through the use of any and all means–have no place in our world. These fascists are Muslims who have hijacked and twisted our faith. They subscribe to a medieval code where the ends justify the means. And you can hear their rhetoric not only in the Middle East; radical imams preach in London and in many cities in the U.S. Cutting off this lifeblood and its ideology should be the focus of our collective Muslim response. Many well-meaning Muslims react to news about Muslim terrorists by insisting that anyone who commits violent acts is, by definition, not part of Islam. But who are we fooling? The Islamo-fascists did not come out of thin air. They use our scripture, our prayers, our language, and our tradition–and they come from somewhere within our community. These killers are doing incomprehensibly evil actions across the world in the name of our religion, and because of that, my fellow Muslims and I should act now–decisively, publicly, and in tandem with our leadership–against Islamo-fascism. To argue whether they are Muslims or not–and what is a ‘true’ Islamic society–is only deflection and denial. Every time I experience the joy and spirituality of joining with my Muslim brothers and sisters in devotional prayer, I feel a perfect harmony of thought and movement as we bow and say God’s praises together. Islam is a religion of community, and I know I can walk into any mosque in the world and join the congregation in reciting the same prayers I say at home. While my faith is very personal, without that communal energy, my religion is not complete. But with spiritual fulfillment and community connection come responsibility. Moderate, moral Muslims–that is to say, the vast majority of the world’s Muslims–may see these Islamo-fascists as far removed from our reality; however the unforgiving truth is that we are responsible as a group for our weakest and also for our most corrupt and deranged. Islam has no formal clergy, and so it falls to the community as a whole, all of us, to take on this challenge. Denial serves nothing but the empty ego and is destined to fail. As Muslims we must help bring these barbaric Islamists to justice and assist in dismantling the systems that create them. How many wake-up calls do we need? Most faith groups have at some point in their histories seen their compasses falter, as deviants exploited their altars. However, those same faith groups have also eventually assumed responsibility for exposing, exterminating, and marginalizing the cancers who are their own. The need for Muslims to act now cannot be overstated, for it becomes exponentially more difficult after each horrific bombing. My fellow Muslims must immediately–and in large numbers–become proactive in the war against militant Islamists, or soon it may be too late. We owe it to the nations in which we live, as well as to our truly pluralistic faith. Many people ask what they or their communities could possibly do to counter a cancer like Islamo-fascism. But all Muslims–and all Muslim organizations–can play an active role in this battle. What it would mean to take a true stand against terror Read more >> _Related Features Explaining the London Bombings The Qur’an on Jihad and Violence Fundamentalism & Violence The immediate reaction to the London devastation should be declaration after declaration by Muslim leaders around the free world that we will immediately redirect all of our resources to combat al Qaeda and every other militant Islamist organization, in order to extinguish their barbarism. These barbarians should hear words from moderate Muslims around the globe that make them fear they will never again find a single religious haven for their ideology. As pluralistic Muslims take away from them the mantle of faith and the acceptance of their formative ideologies, they will be left with nothing but the depths of their own evil. It’s time to build an anti-terror ethos within the Islamic community. We can publicly embarrass radical imams and organizations who preach hatred. We can publicly expose the twisted interpretations of the Qu’ran and Muslim teachings perpetuated by radical Islamists who justify killing innocent people in the name of our God. We can focus the public agenda of American Muslims on publicizing our commitment to our citizenship oath and to the American secular form of democratic government. We need to force a public debate with the Islamists, not run from it. By constantly reasserting Muslim critiques of Wahhabism, Salafism, and other fundamentalist Islamist ideologies that feed terrorist networks, we will fight terror at its core. It is time to ensure that Islamic sermons around the world teach Muslims to dismantle terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbullah, and any group that harbors, teaches, and trains the world’s future Islamo-fascists. In addition, we must root out all hate and intolerance from the educational texts in our mosques, which we use to teach our youth and our co-religionists. Anti-Semitism, anti-Western feelings, and chauvinism should be combated directly by American Muslim organizations. And we need to teach our Muslim-American youth to feel a sense of responsibility to our America, which gives us freedom and liberty. Why is it that so many people from every minority in America are dying to liberate Iraq and Afghanistan and free the world from the Islamo-fascists while so few American Muslim organizations have actively encouraged military service since 9-11? We should sponsor public campaigns to encourage our community to join the military and law-enforcement agencies. What better way to ensure that enforcement of the Patriot Act does not unfairly target Muslims than to have American Muslims within law enforcement? Allegiance to our country is in fact a deeply Islamic obligation. The war against Islamo-fascism has many fronts, and moderate Muslims need to be leading the struggle. We must always remember the Qu’ranic teachings on peace and justice, such as: “Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor, for God can best protect both. Follow not the cravings of your hearts, lest you swerve, and if you distort justice or decline to do justice, verily God is well acquainted with all that you do.” (Qu’ran 4:135). At its core, “terror” is simply a barbarically evil tactic in a war of ideologies. Muslims, and only Muslims, hold the keys to the flood gates that can drown militant Islamists in their own twisted interpretations of scripture. But time is running short. Muslims must realize the challenge before us and step forward on all these fronts or risk losing our freedoms and our faith to the barbarism of Islamo-fascist terror. It is time that the majority of Muslims said, “not on our watch.” M. Zuhdi Jasser is a Phoenix, Ariz., physician. He is chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. He is also a founding board member of the Center for Islamic Pluralism. He can be reached at Zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org This column originally appeared at Beliefnet.com and can be found at this link.

Hezbollah, the so-called Party of God, the terrorist Shiite Muslim Lebanese political party organized a sickening demonstration on Tuesday in Beirut. Hundreds of thousands of Hezbullah supporters gathered March 8 in the middle of Beirut cheering, “thank you Syria” and “no foreign interference.” This demonstration was clearly bolstered by the Syrian puppet Lebanese government, which comically advertised that 1.5 million of the 3.7 million Lebanese attended. Of the few hundred thousand who actually attended, many were Baathists of Syria and thousands of others bused in under Hezbullah and Syrian coercion. Finally, the world witnessed and paid attention to how the Baath, the Hezbullah and their despotic ilk have for decades run so-called demonstrations that are actually pure stage productions to wield a false sense of influence and emotion. While Assad speaks of withdrawal, this demonstration was a show of force in order to maintain control of Lebanon in Syrian absentia vis a vis Hezbullah even if his Baathist thugs retreat from Lebanon with their tail between their legs. “Sheikh” Hassan Nasrallah, the chief fascist Islamist barbarian of the Hezbullah terrorist hate group took the opportunity to spew his hate of Israel and America during the demonstration. Just a few weeks earlier, he gave a sermon to his fellow hate-mongers and followers which would make Bin Laden proud. Where is the Arab revulsion at the psychopathic hypocrisy of Hezbullah and Nasrallah’s pronouncement of gratitude to Syria? Droves of Middle Easterners have been cheering blind nauseating support for Hezbullah’s supposed influence on Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon while they now sit in complete hypocritical silence at the withdrawal of the incomparable Syrian despotism. Which part of Syrian oppression was Nassrallah thanking? Was it the robbery of billions it stole from the Lebanese people over 30 years? Was it the dictatorial suffocation of free markets and free trade in northern Lebanon and in Syria. Was it for Syria’s importation of militant Islamism and fascistic hate for non-Muslims from Iran into Lebanon? Was it for the militaristic and chaotic climate Syria’s Baathist instilled in Lebanon and thrived on maintaining? Was it the absence of elections or true Lebanese representation and imposition of a Syrian government in Lebanon he was thanking? Their demonstration spewed the tired hatred against America and Israel. Make no mistake, the masses gathered were basically glorifying all of the evil of the Syrian Baathist and Alawite war crimes committed over decades. Yesterday’s demonstration was medieval cheering for the mass murders committed by the Assad regime like that against the people of Hama in 1982. They were cheering for the Alawite Stalinist-like murder of over tens of thousands from Tadmur to Hama on and on at the hands of the Alawites. Every one of the millions of Syrians and Lebanese who have felt the pain of the decades of oppression by Assad’s thuggish regime will look upon the demonstration as an identifier of accomplices and facilitators of Alawite oppression and status quo. The status quo the demonstrators love is one of despotism, medieval autocracy, deep-seated fear, persecution, and suffocation politically, religiously, and economically. In Syria and in Lebanon, the Assad regime of the father and now the son have violated the rights of every Syrian man, woman, and child and have extended for 30 years that violation into northern Lebanon with impunity. The Lebanese have finally moved with the world at their side to get Assad’s regime out of Lebanon. But, Hezbullah wants the continuation of this history of corruption and the malignant iron hand on the Lebanese and Syrian people. This speaks volumes about Hezbullah’s pathetic so-called freedom fighting that is really veiled Islamo-fascism. It is beyond reason that in 2005 a demonstration with this much underlying illness goes on with little recoil from the world, especially the Arab and Muslim world. It is about time for parties of freedom and liberty to join with media attention at labelling Hezbullah for the farce which it is – a false representative of Lebanese freedom and in reality a representative of Islamist theocratic despotism, hate, and racism. The Lebanese people showed their true will a few days ago with rally after rally against the Syrian occupation and against true foreign intervention over the Lebanese people. We are not fooled by this stage show. Now more than ever it is obvious that these militant Islamists never cared about Lebanese independence from Israel. Someone needs to break it to them that Israel left for many reasons, none of which were related to his so-called resistance from the evil of their terrorism. The Hezbullah leadership are in fact the grandparents of suicide bombing among radical Muslims. In fact, their Al-Manar “Jihad (TV) network,” until reason prevailed and it disappeared from the airways in the U.S., regularly glorified suicide bombing and leaned on religious radicals who feed this ideology of hate. In fact, some could say one of the reasons Israel may have stayed longer than it actually desired in Lebanon was to avoid being perceived as acting in response to Hezbullah’s terror. Now in some kind of twisted logic, Nasrallah expects us to believe that he cares about the Lebanese and thus desires continued occupation from the fascists of Syria’s Baath? In the end, Nasrallah knows that his pathetic survival is dependent upon Assad, and that even if he pulls out, Assad remains his lifeline. Iran recently declared that it would stand behind Syria as an axis. The axis of Iran-Syria-Hezbullah are now well delineated. We can place them in the cross-hairs of our collective political pressure of isolation or we can watch their reign of terror continue in Lebanon. Syria appears to be leaving, however begrudgingly. Lebanon may soon be sovereign again, but this will need a concerted effort against Hezbullah by moderate Muslims and the Lebanese majority. The next step must be the marginalization of Nasrallah and the exposure of his criminality. His facilitation must cease and his fascism must be exposed by all freedom-loving Arabs and Muslims alike. Hezbullah, the Iranian government, and Syria’s Baath care only about their fascist Islamist theocratic dreams in Lebanon and around the globe. For those interested, find Nassrallah’s writings and read them. His virtual “Mein Kampf” about an “Islamic state based upon Hezbullah’s sharia in Lebanon” is well-described. His website is thankfully no longer readily available, but his writings and sermons certainly are. This column originally appeared at the Arizona Republic at this link.