Tag Archive for: Zuhdi Jasser

Three-minute video blog: Dr. Jasser on the Muslim Brotherhood and how to push back to achieve real liberty

Dr. Jasser sat down to share his thoughts on the latest news from Egypt, including the new Islamist, anti-freedom constitution. He says that it may take a while to defeat the well-organized machine of political Islam, and that the answer is in non-Islamists organizing like never before.

Click here: Dr. Jasser on the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi.

AIFD demands an immediate retraction: Roger Anghis’ messy misspeak is defamatory – and dangerous

UPDATE, September 12, 2012, 2:00 pm: Following a phone call from our office, Pastor Anghis has corrected the side-bar quote on his original piece. We thank him for making this correction. We ask Pastor Anghis to follow up with correcting this piece in the other places where it was published. (Here is an example.) A full retraction would also be appreciated, given the gravity of the error.

UPDATE, September 10, 2012, 1:00 pm: Pastor Roger Anghis has amended his article on “News With Views.” As of this update, he has corrected the body of the article, removing Dr. Jasser’s name. Unfortunately, the sidebar on the right-hand side of the News With Views article still attributes a treasonous quote to Dr. Jasser. Pastor Roger has also not corrected this article in the other locations where it is published, nor has he issued a public retraction and apology. We ask Pastor Roger to please make every effort to thoroughly correct this error.

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AIFD is alarmed by a serious and dangerous error in a recent blog published by Paster Roger Anghis. In this blog, Pastor Anghis alleges that our founder, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, is the imam who was slated to appear at “Jumah at the DNC.” In what we hope is an unfortunate (though no less defamatory) misprint, Pastor Anghis attributes treasonous, anti-American sentiments to Dr. Jasser:

Screencap of comments on Pastor Anghlis' blog

“What is disturbing is one of the imams that was slated to speak, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. He has called for the overthrow of the ‘filthy’ Unites[sic] States government and the installation of shariah law and for the replacing the United States Constitution with the Quran.” – Pastor Roger Anghis, here.

Pastor Anghis goes on to say that, in an effort to promote Islam, Dr. Jasser has asserted that “Muslims are indigenous to America.” Dr. Jasser has said no such thing.

Dr. Jasser and AIFD actually broke the story on Jumah at the DNC. We draw Pastor Anghis’ attention to the following videos:

Dr. Jasser on Fox and Friends on August 5, 2012, discussing who the organizers of “Jumah on the DNC” are and why we should be concerned, including Imam Siraj Wahhaj’s statement that the Constitution should be replaced with the Quran;

Dr. Jasser on Varney & Co. on August 29, 2012, about why the DNC should disassociate itself as much as possible from the radical figures spearheading “Jumah at the DNC”;

Dr. Jasser on Fox and Friends on September 2, 2012, discussing the DNC’s last-minute distancing from this event, and Jibril Hough’s anti-American, Nidal Hasan-esque comments;

Dr. Jasser on GBTV on September 3, 2012, speaking with Glenn Beck about how all Americans, especially Muslims, must speak out against the radical views of those who organized “Jumah at the DNC” and all Islamist theocrats.

Perhaps Pastor Anghis simply made a terrible mistake in his article. However, as an individual publishing articles he knows are made available globally, Pastor Anghis has a responsibility to be more cautious. Indeed, all those publishing on matters of such grave public concern run the risk of endangering others when they are as sloppy as Pastor Anghis has been here. Even if retracted immediately, damage may already be done.

Dr. Jasser has been a consistent voice against Islamism, and has been a vocal advocate for the protection of the United States Constitution through the separation of mosque and state. He has served the United States as a lieutenant commander in the Navy, and has been a leading voice against efforts to implement Sharia law in the West and even in Muslim-majority nations.

Pastor Anghis’ comments amount to accusing Dr. Jasser of treason and radicalism. These accusations are dangerous and, because they are patently false, illegal. This is deeply hurtful and as harmful to Dr. Jasser as well as the many liberty-minded Muslims who work with him. Dr. Jasser leads a team of liberty-minded Muslims who combat radical ideologies at great personal risk. We ask that those who claim to speak against Islamism not further compromise us with defamatory and dangerous rhetoric.

We further ask that Pastor Anghis retract his comments about Dr. Jasser immediately, and issue a retraction and public apology in each location where his article may have been published.

John Walker Lindh: A Terrorist Manipulating Islam, Aided by Western Islamists and their Sympathizers

 

John Walker Lindh

John Walker Lindh, infamously serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban, is now seeking new ways to insult the United States, including insulting the many liberty-minded Muslims who value our nation’s freedoms.

The prison where Lindh is held has had a generous policy for its many Muslim prisoners. Until they were disciplined for not responding to a fire alarm, the prisoners were permitted to gather in congregation for three of the five daily prayers. Now, the prisoners are only permitted to gather for the Friday afternoon “jummah” prayer.

Lindh is not satisfied with this accommodation of his religious beliefs and practices. He has asserted that the prison’s restriction on gathering for prayer is an infringement on his religious rights, and that he must gather with other Muslims for the daily prayers. He has even brought his case to court, suing the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the right to pray in congregation more than once per week.

Islam does not require Muslims to perform their daily prayers in congregation, and allows for Muslims to miss the Friday prayers if circumstances make attending them impossible. Imam Ammar Amonette of Richmond, Virginia has commented on Lindh’s case, affirming this widely-known Islamic guideline. Despite this, Lindh continues to insist that he receive special treatment.

This kind of arrogance is no surprise coming from a notorious terrorist convicted of numerous crimes against the United States and innocent people everywhere. It is also a hallmark of the Islamist mindset, which seeks to use the freedom and reason of the West in its quest to defeat it. Islamists relish the opportunity to demand even accommodations well outside of mainstream Islamic practice: niqabs (face-veils) in the courtroom, extra congregational prayers for terrorists. Islamists make these absurd demands with full knowledge that they act against both non-Muslims and the majority of Muslims worldwide. They view their mission as a holy war, in which they seek to defeat all people who believe in freedom and the preservation of human rights. To them, no sacrifice is too great – and those Muslims who won’t fight alongside them are primary targets.

This is not the first time Islamists in the prison system have petitioned for special privileges: in 2009, Randall T. Moyer (a former spokesman for the Muslim American Society, or MAS and member of the “Virginia Jihad Network”) was housed in the same prison as John Walker Lindh, and also sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons for additional congregational prayer rights. Louay Safi, former director of leadership development for the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), backed Moyer’s request, saying that Moyer’s demands followed the “prophetic tradition,” and that Muhammad promised greater rewards to those who pray in congregation. (Read more about Safi and his career in ISNA’s leadership here and here.)

The ACLU is defending Lindh, and they may be well-intentioned in doing so. We certainly support protecting civil rights for all Americans.  By choosing to support Lindh, however, the ACLU seems to be trying to support an identity group – Muslims – but are instead supporting Lindh’s Islamist interpretation of Islam, which actually subjugates individual Muslims and restricts their rights. Islamism doesn’t value individual liberty, freedom of expression, or civil rights.

As liberty-minded Muslims, we are intensely grateful for the freedoms granted we enjoy in the United States, where we are freer to practice our faith than we would be anywhere else in the world. We believe that John Walker Lindh’s demands for greater privileges are not just unreasonable, but also dangerous. He, like other Islamists, seeks to define Islam as a faith utterly incompatible with modernity, freedom, and human rights. We urge those who may be swayed by Lindh’s argument to recognize that they may be setting a dangerous precedent by helping to advance a jihadist’s interpretation of Islam, which seeks to strip us of the very liberties that make us who we are.

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Disturbing: a jihadi song in in honor of John Walker Lindh, aka Mujahid Sulayman al-Faris.