Pfc Nasser Abdo is an unmitigated traitor to the United States

Pfc Nasser Abdo is an unmitigated traitor to the United States

Abdo’s conviction should result in the harshest punishment and a moratorium on CO status for Muslims

PHOENIX (May 24, 2012) – The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) released the following statement from its founder and president Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser regarding the verdict at Pfc. Nasser Abdo’s trial:

“The American Islamic Forum for Democracy is pleased at the jury’s decision to convict Pfc Nasser Abdo on all counts. Abdo is simply a traitor to the United States of America, and his actions are a direct insult both to the uniform of the U.S. Army and in particular to all American Muslim service members. The decision to convict needs to be followed by a sentence that levels the harshest punishment possible, including the military immediately rescinding his Conscientious Objector status. American Muslim soldiers deserve that courtesy.

AIFD would like to take this opportunity to make it explicitly clear that Abdo has departed from mainstream non-Islamist interpretations of Islam and our duties to the United States of America. In fact his interpretation is dangerous and part of a radical Islamist ideology. His statement that “religion is the reason” for his planned attack on Fort Hood is a twisted view of the Islamic faith that should be refuted by all American Muslim organizations. However, it is also a view that should not be ignored and should be confronted in its many manifestations along the path of radicalization. At the time of his arrest in 2011 Dr. Jasser wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “Our armed forces are becoming ground zero for American Muslims in the ideological struggle between Americanism and Islamism. U.S. Army Pvt. Naser Abdo points to that serious conflict.”

Abdo disgraces the pride of being an American which we instill in our American Muslim children. His use of CO (conscientious objector) status is not only false it is un-Islamic. Abdo’s obsession with “Islamophobia” is the same logic that drove the murderous rampage of Maj Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood which he tried to emulate. Abdo’s adherence to the global Islamist ideology above his American loyalty runs to the core of what we Muslims need to fight in real counterterrorism. Abdo’s actions are an affront to every American Muslim who has proudly donned a US military uniform. His assertions are not built on modern Islamic teachings but on a feeble adherence to the global political ideology of Islamism that threatens our security and radicalizes our Muslim youth. His comment to his mother on video played during the trial that, “the reason is religion, mom” speaks volumes, yet again, to the deep need for the Abdo case to spark a move by leading American Muslims to dissect and defeat the theo-political movement (political Islam) that can often end in a militant version of Islamism. American security hangs in the balance.”

About the American Islamic Foundation for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Gregg Edgar

Gordon C. James Public Relations

gedgar@gcjpr.com

602-690-7977