Tag Archive for: islamists

July 25, 2019: Daily Caller – JASSER: American Islamists Come Out To ‘Party’

ZUHDI JASSER
AMERICAN ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY
July 25, 2019
2:30 PM ET

JASSER: American Islamists Come Out To ‘Party’

If Islamism (political Islam) was a sport, the convening members of the Muslim Collective for Equitable Democracy Conference in Washington, D.C. this week would be in the American Islamist Olympics finals, the dream teams of Islamist all-stars from a host of American Islamist lobbying groups.

Gone are the days of hidden dissimulation, or “taqqiya,” operating under elusive conference titles like “reviving the Islamic spirit” or “social justice,” or “fighting Islamophobia.” Now this new “Muslim Caucus” openly seeks Muslim power and all of whatever that means to them.

How fitting that the “Muslim Caucus Education Collective’s” slogan reads “Muslim Americans Organizing to Win?” Their homepage description in fact states:

“This is our moment to come together and organize as one constituency, bridge traditional advocacy, and policy organizations and grassroots groups to work together in building Muslim American Electoral Power at the local, state, and national level to build our power beyond 2020.”

That verbiage is the “sine qua non” of political Islam and its attendant Islamist movements. Hassan al-Banna (Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood founder), Mawlana Maududi (Pakistani founder of Jamaat e-Islami), Recep Erdogan (Head of Turkey’s AKP) or Ayatollah Khomeinei (Head of Iran’s Islamic Supreme Council) would all be so proud.

These Americans may try to claim stark divisions with Islamism’s founding fathers, but essentially, their attempt to collectivize and empower Muslims as one political and national identity sprouts directly from the seeds of 20th century political Islam and is undergirded by most Islamic teachings and interpretations of sharia that are theocratic or Islamist. The classically liberal anti-Islamist reformists are a minority among Muslim leaders but we exist and are the only means to defeat Islamist movements.

Attendees at this conference came in buoyed by a sycophantic Leftist media anesthetized by identity politics, and also buoyed by the unrepentant unchecked Islamist radicalism of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Component organizations of their “collective” like the notorious Hamas sympathizing, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) are now marketing their fundraisers as rooted in building “Muslim power.”

This theocratic tyranny is only viable as an Orwellian collective when it brainwashes Muslims to believe that the Islamic faith is a single political, legal, cultural, and governmental ideology, state, and global caliphate — in other words — full throated Islamism. The indoctrination begins as a political collective.

For anyone just now paying attention to this “Muslim Collective,” we Arab or Muslim Americans have seen this show before. It is no exaggeration to say that this conference was essentially the founding of a new American political party. In Egypt, it is the Muslim Brotherhood. In Iran, it’s the Khomeinists, In Pakistan, it’s the Jamaat e-Islamiya. In the United States, it’s the Muslim Caucus Education Collective.

We at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) have been laser focused since 2003 on our mission to “protect the U.S. Constitution, freedom, and liberty through the separation of mosque and state.” To that end we convened in 2015 a coalition of anti-Islamist reformers we all dubbed, the Muslim Reform Movement. Most of us would have nothing to do with anything called a “Muslim collective.”

While catering to their favorite collectivist identity group bloc, 2020 Democratic Party hopefuls are tripping over themselves to attend this “Islamist Constitutional Convention.” What a great place for the Democratic Party to float lies about America while they further radicalize Muslims with contrived “Muslim bans” and “deportation of citizens.”

The “Red-Green Axis,” from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Omar in the U.S. to Nicolas Maduro and Erdogan abroad, contrives “Islamophobia” as bigotry with generations of cooperation at the United Nations. American Islamists are now in high gear to kindle that in the Halls of Congress and with presidential hopefuls.

Some naysayers may say that any “faith group” is by definition a “collective.” There are some legitimate functions of a faith collective that survive modernity and liberalism. After we Muslims abandon Islamism with deep reforms, I see that collective circumscribed to recognition of the authenticity of the Arabic script of the Quran (with vast division on interpretation), to our faith calendar and holidays, and to performance of the Hajj (pilgrimage) to name a few.

But even in our worship services, mosques are better served with more division, not less. Real diversity is not ethnic nor racial. It will be seen in new diverse schools of thought rooted in modernity rather than the few dominant ones now rooted in the 12th century.

We tell our Muslim youth in our Muslim Liberty Project at AIFD to see their political activism whether locally or nationally primarily through the lens of their American identity which is infused by their personal morals, ethics, and values. Certainly, faith plays a role in that, but never as a political “collective” identity. Islam is in a very different time in our faith’s historical arc at this time than that of other religions in the west. We still have not defeated the theocrats that dominate our faith leadership across the planet.

It is important to note that when our government, media, and interfaith communities do seek input from American Muslim activists and thought leaders, it should first and foremost be ideologically diverse and inclusive across the spectrum of American Muslim ideologies both Islamist and anti-Islamist.

This collective conference or Muslim Caucus this week seems to be led predominantly by Islamists with rare exception who matter little in a conference whose very existence defines Islamism. This is not just because they are all of the Left. Muslim Republican collectivism would also make no sense unless your mission is to empower Islamists. Islamist groups like the “Republic Muslim Coalition” are just as dangerous and separatist on the right as these are on the left. Infusing Islamist proclivities into politics whether right or left is disastrous for freedom and liberty regardless of what side of the aisle.

When we lobby our representatives, our specific faith identity or strain is of no consequence. Similarly, when we go to pray at the mosque, the political identity of those with whom we pray, side by side, should also be of no consequence.

In essence, I and many reformed, westernized, patriotic American Muslims reject the entire premise of this Muslim collective conference. This “collective’s” effort to proclaim and invoke “Muslim power” is offensive and antithetical to both our faith values and our Americanism.

This domestic and global battle within the House of Islam is not just about the political activism of a few million Muslims in America. The success or failure of American Islamists will impact the confidence of Islamist movements across the planet whether political or militant. Omar is already becoming an Islamist icon on Qatar’s al Jazeera and Iran’s PressTV.

This is all especially poignant given the context of where Islam and Muslims are in their legal, social, political, and cultural history at 1,440 years old. The radical, bigoted ideas of members of Congress like Omar and Tlaib are not created in a vacuum. They are byproducts of an Islamist farm team in America spanning the spectrum from non-violent to violent. Their “Muslim collective” is their defining flag. It is their party.

3/30/2018: The Mere Suggestion of Islamism Triggers Islamists

March 30, 2018
by M. Zuhdi Jasser

 Invited on Campus

I was honored to be invited by the Duke College Republicans, Alexander Hamilton Society, and Young Americans for Liberty to speak to Duke University students on Monday, April 2, 2018. The topic I am set to speak on is “The American Muslim Identity: Patriot or Insurgent?”.  Anyone who follows our work, or has even looked at any of our ubiquitous public work, are aware that at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, we see our American Muslim identity through the lens of liberty, freedom, and the separation of mosque and state. Our legacy and rai·son d’ê·tre is reform against Islamism and for individual liberty and human rights.

Contrary to the fabrications spread about our work by American Islamist groups, we seek to offer Muslims alternative choices and critical thinking with a far more diverse identity than the theocratic and fundamentalist and monolithic one of Islamism (political Islam) which the Islamists monopolize. We also strongly believe that the predominant precursor of violent Islamism and its attendant oppressive forces including but not limited to terrorism is non-violent Islamism. Our mission has both the benefit of providing food for the independence of free-minded, critical thinking Muslims while also being a counterweight against oppressive Islamist forces which are theocratic, autocratic, monarchical, and kleptocratic.

Triggered

The mere title of my talk, the mere suggestion of a talk on Islamism juxtaposing the idea of a “salafi-jihadi insurgency” with American patriotism triggered the Duke Muslim Student’s Association (MSA). Apparently, it was, wait for it….  the word insurgent that triggered them? Yet, the MSA’s across the nation are triggered even when I debate other Muslim organizations, when I’m appointed to a US Commission, and any time our ideas get a seat at the table they monopolize. They are predictably exercised over the term Islamism, terrorism and jihad among many others which acknowledge central ideas that need to be honestly targeted for reform. Their response should make any professor who wants their students to engage in critical thinking chagrined.

They re-posted ad-hominem Washington D.C. Islamist lobby talking points with not one iota of actual substantive analysis or evaluation of any of my previous speeches, commentary, books or book chapters, or multiple submissions of congressional testimony. The promoters of “agitprop” who claim to represent Muslim students at Duke University were then followed by an unsigned editorial from the Duke Chronicle which continued the temper tantrum over a Muslim led conversation about ills of Islamism (Islamic theocracy) and solutions that can be found in Americanism (See my speech in Philadelphia on Americanisim vs Islamisim as an example). Never mind the fact that much like the rest of society, odds are very high that the majority of Muslims at Duke University do not feel represented by Duke MSA and their Islamist agenda. The esteemed Chronicle even seemed to make being a physician into a pejorative. Their vacuous research couldn’t even get my specialty correct. I’m an internist with additional specialization in nuclear cardiology and medical ethics. Never mind researching the greater than 15 years of our public material which has stood the test of time.

 

So who’s the bully?

The MSA’s bullying behavior got to the point where the Alexander Hamilton Society, an original sponsor of the event withdrew its support and posted apologies. It stands as no small irony that Alexander Hamilton was a founding father and an author of our Constitution and nation founded upon a revolution against theocracy and for liberty—the very central mission of all of our work at AIFD against Islamism (theocracy). Imagine Alexander Hamilton apologizing to a student association of the Church of England about making Christians feel targeted?

 

What exactly did the MSA say?

The Duke MSA’s primary concern appears to be what they call the binary nature of the title of the April 2, 2018 talk which has yet to be given. Yet, they ignore the fact that their entire identity politic narrative approaching Muslims as a single monolithic collective is actually worse than a binary. Apparently, their radicalization of Islam and Muslims is a suffocating Muslim identity monolith that should never be questioned let alone debated from other devout Muslims who cannot even be allowed the space to love our faith. Never mind that hundreds of books and events have begun conversations with a binary of extremes in order to discuss therein the shades of grey. Their problem with the title was an ‘agitprop’ deflection. After all, hypocritically,  when their Islamist or apologist allies pose these dichotomies and they know the answer rests in their favor, they cheer {i.e see apologetic book Good Muslim Bad Muslim}. But when an anti-Islamist Muslim poses the dichotomy and educates the masses about Islamist theocracy, they bully us into silence. As Quilliam Foundation, one of our partners in the Muslim Reform Movement has written in the United Kingdom, “It’s the Salafi-Jihadi Insurgency stupid”.

The MSA advertised their protest as a Teach in Against Islamophobia and Racism. There you have it. Even an American Muslim speaker who may echo the ideas of Mustafa Akyol, Fatima Marnisi, Bassam Tibi, Asra Nomani, Raheel Raza, Usama Hasan, Arif Humayun, and so many other reformers engenders the deceptive agitprop of radicalization of Muslims as one race and dissident ideas as “Islamophobia” or a blasphemy to their singular interpretation of Islam. I hate to break it to these students, but being Muslim is an adherence to a very diverse set of idea(s), a diverse interpretation of a faith- Islam. Being Muslim, believing in the idea of Islam, is not a race.  Certainly, Muslims have equal rights of every citizen and should not compromise any of their civil rights for their personal faith practice. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the cabal of Muslim majority regimes across the planet, created the trigger-word out of the way they control speech in their own regimes. Anyone who criticizes their regimes from Iran to Saudi Arabia is arrested for blasphemy and “criticizing Islam” since the President and leaders in effect act as “God”. The term “Islamophobia” is an oppressive concept which imparts rights upon an idea- Islam. Ideas do not have rights, people do. Blasphemy laws, like the term “Islamophobia” try to obstruct any honest conversations about faith. If any country in the world can and should be able to have constructive public conversations about the threat of theocracy (Islamism), it is the Unites States founded upon the defeat of theocracy.

 

So who is actually defending diversity?

 Diversity among Muslims is not only about ethnic diversity or racial diversity (immutable identities), it rather about choices, about ideological diversity. There is little to no ideological diversity among the Islamist establishment organizations on campus and nationally which claim to speak for Muslims. Contrary to the fabrications of the Duke MSA postings, I have never claimed to speak for Islamist groups like the MSA, but I have tried to give voice to reformers, critical thinkers, secularists, and free thinkers left out of almost every conversation in the West on Muslims and Islam. In fact, I proudly reject any identification with organizations who have an Islamist world view.

In social media posts the MSA felt it necessary to make some assertions about how they see their identity. We at AIFD and the Muslim Reform Movement (MRM) are working to create the middle ground where the authentic conversations which need to take place about sharia texts, misogyny, anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, intolerance, extremism and deep reform can actually be publicly had.  We see the Muslim Reform Movement and its two page declaration as a beautiful Muslim led journey of healing and authenticity.

 

So now we respond to the Duke MSA and ask our fellow Muslims:

  1. Are you tired of making excuses about Muslim led violence?
  2. Are you tired of hiding the fact that you are Muslim? 
  3. Are you tired of being called to defend the assumptions made about your faith with no clear public stance from Muslims against the theocratic underpinnings of mass Islamist movements?  
  4. Are you tired of the judgement and shaming by other Muslims if you happen to muster the courage to speak out?
  5. Are you tired of the denial and dismissals by the “Islamist Establishment” who in every press release claim to “be THE Muslim community”?
  6. Are you tired of the arrogance from the Islamist establishment who believes that even in the United States, intellectual laity have no rights nor qualifications to challenge the ideas and authenticity of Islamist theocratic authority?
  7. Are you tired of exaggerated excuses; like “Islam means only peace”?
  8. Are you tired of Muslim leadership in America heaped in deep denial?
  9. Do you believe that a more open, self-critical, reformist approach by American Muslims against Islamist causes of radicalization would go a long ways towards melting away any bigotry that might exist against Muslims?
  10. Are you tired of Muslims who obsess with and blame America for every Muslim problem instead of focusing on and targeting the Islamist tyrants who torture imprison, and dehumanize Muslim fighters of liberty across the planet and even preach hatred here at home?

 Well, we leaders and activists of the Muslim Reform Movement were and are…and in our Declaration we outline strategies and practices that can help us out of the crisis we faceLet’s talk about the issues we know we are up against.  Are you ready to address the lack of humanity and biases within Saudi Wahhabism? Iranian Khomeinism? Syrian Assadism? Hizballah? Hamas? Muslim Brotherhood? Jammat Islamiya? Taliban?  And any other global salafi-jihadi movement?

 

I invite you to attend this event about the American Muslim identity and the irreconcilable battle between Americanism and Islamism that can only be reconciled by the separation of mosque and state by leading Muslim reformers. Note change of venue: Devil’s Den, 309 Oregon Street, Durham, NC.

 

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 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.

 

Press Release: Sentencing is a stark reminder of the global Islamist threat.

PRESS RELEASE
American Islamic Forum for Democracy

Contact: Mischel Yosick
480 225 7473 mischel@zliberty.com

May 10, 2017

Sentencing of Indonesian Christian Governor of Jakarta on blasphemy charge is a reminder of the rising global Islamist threat.

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) condemned the sentencing of an Indonesian Christian politician, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, for “blasphemy.” The sentencing of Mr. Basuki, the Jakarta governor, also known as “Ahok” was heavier than what prosecutors asked for – rather than the two years probation they requested, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., founder and president of AIFD, released the following statement:

“The fact that Mr. Basuki was even brought up on charges of ‘blasphemy’ – a truly invented ‘crime’ – is horrifying. The reality of his sentencing should alarm all people, not just Christians, and not just Indonesians.

Indonesia has long enjoyed the reputation of being a model of Muslim moderation and pluralism, yet its problem of Islamism is real: from soaring rates of female genital mutilation (FGM) to violent protests against authors and artists for ‘blasphemy,’ the country is undergoing an ugly and dangerous radicalization that will hurt, kill, and traumatize its citizens and leak across its borders, threatening global security. Mr. Basuki was a governor whose election had only improved Indonesia’s global reputation. His sentencing proves that those who are loyal to Islamist forces no longer care about upholding this image for Indonesia, instead they seek a more sinister role in the world.

Ahok’s case again proves that the nation is on the front lines of this global existential battle against Islamism.

We urge Indonesian citizens to challenge their religious establishments – particularly the Nahdlatul Ulama – to take swift and bold action to condemn and dis-empower those who support and promote punishments for blasphemy, and to demand that their government do the same. I visited Indonesia during my time on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, and know that this evil does not represent them. Their government must do better to protect and represent the will of its people.”

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M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. is a guest on Arizona Originals with Jason Issak

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser – American Islamic Forum for Democracy and Physician

Today’s guest, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, has served as a US Navy physician, was hand selected to serve for two years as one of three attending physicians for the US Congress (including the US Supreme Court Justices), and has practiced medicine in Arizona.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

 

 

 

5/5/2017 : M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. joins Fox Business’ Making Money discussing refugees and how the influx into the U.S. has decreased under President Trump and the importance of ideological vetting.

5/4/2017: M Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. joins i24 News’ discussing the recent meeting of President Trump and Mahmoud Abbas and the anti-Semitic programs on Palestinian TV and other outlets.

5/4/2017 – M. Zuhdi Jasser sounds off on the female genital mutilation case.

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser on FBI Director James Comey addressing the arrest of two doctors accused of female genital mutilation

 

4/7/2017: AIFD President’s, M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. Statement on US Airstrikes in Syria

Syrian-American Reformer Commends Syria Strikes, Urges Vigilance

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) welcomes the news of targeted strikes in Syria, meant to send a message to Bashar al-Assad and his allies that the use of chemical weapons will not stand. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, the son of Syrians who fled the regime of Bashar al-Assad’s father, today said:

“When news broke that the United States had begun a narrow campaign of targeted strikes against regime targets in Syria, I felt immediate gratitude – on behalf of my family members there, and for our country, which has watched in horror for six long years as the Assad regime has carried out mass torture and murder of its civilians. While I am hopeful that these strikes are indicative of a bolder, firm Syria strategy – I am under no illusion that they will end Assad’s murderous rule, or that any transition in Syria will happen swiftly or easily. In many ways, we who have loved ones in Syria, and we who care about the human condition – are taking what we can get here – with hope that there will be more, even bolder action in Syria. What this action by President Trump does indicate is that the needle of American policy in Syria is moving closer to being on the right side of history. To secure our place there, however, we must remain vigilant, remembering that a conflict with Assad is necessarily a conflict with Russia, with Iran, and with Hizbollah. These limited, targeted strikes should continue, focused on reducing Assad’s access to resources, especially weapons. Every reduction in his assets is a a reduction in his capacity to murder and maim civilians. By reducing a dictator’s capacity to kill, we have a chance of re-establishing America’s position in the world as a moral authority, and we can begin again to re-commit ourselves to the sacred commitment of ‘never again,’ something Barack Obama failed to do.”