CIP 2013 Appeal For End-of-Year Donations

by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz
CIP
December 30, 2013

http://www.islamicpluralism.org/2330/cip-appeal-for-end-of-year-donations

To supporters of the Center for Islamic Pluralism [CIP]:

As subscribers to our website will know, the Center for Islamic Pluralism is an international network of Muslim scholars, clerics, intellectuals and journalists in more than 32 Muslim countries and Muslim-minority communities.

CIP is entering its 11^th year, having stood throughout for moderate, traditional, conventional, spiritual, and even conservative Islam in the face of radicalism and extremism.

Our reputation has expanded globally and new contacts are made almost daily, from the U.S. to Africa and India.

Our organization is unique in maintaining a close watch, through observers and correspondents, on developments in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey, as well as South Asia, Western and Eastern Europe, and North America. We have produced many detailed accounts of social and political events in these countries and regions, all characterized by irreducible repudiation of fundamentalist Islamic fanaticism and violence. Numerous articles and interviews by our members are featured in leading media platforms and in multiple languages, including in Russia and China.

For example, we have been firm in opposing concessions to the bloodthirsty dictatorship in Syria and in exposing its support by Iran and Hezbollah.

We have published path-breaking commentaries on social reforms in Saudi Arabia, which are slow but, we believe, real. At the same time, we have criticized the headlong program of the Saudi commercial elite for an uncontrolled and, we believe, inappropriate transformation of Mecca, and the ambitions of Wahhabi clerics for destruction of holy sites in Medina.

We have provided inside, detailed perspectives on the rise and crisis of Islamist governance in Turkey.

We have exposed persecution of spiritual Sufi Muslims in Iran, Pakistan, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, and Macedonia, and publicized Sufi protests against radicalism among Indian Muslims, as well as in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Mauritius,

We have opposed the penetration in the West of Islamist ideology and shariah-based legal norms, a concept alien to traditional Islam, which prohibits export of Islamic law to non-Muslim countries and calls on Muslims to obey and accept the laws and customs of the countries to which they may migrate.

We have taken the initiative in combating the scourge of female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan, Indonesia, and other Muslim societies, as well as in Muslim-minority communities.

We have intervened actively to oppose the penetration of radical Islam in the Balkan countries, especially Kosova.

We have advocated moderate and peaceful protest against the persecution of Muslims in Eastern Turkestan, occupied by China, and in Myanmar [Burma].

We offer partnership with believers of goodwill from all religions.

We continue to organize and recruit staff in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere.

CIP does not and has never received official funds or backing from any government. We depend entirely on private donations for the maintenance of our activities. Our members and correspondents have dedicated themselves fully, hourly, and daily to defense of moderate Islam and rigorous combat against the distortion of Islam in the service of violent ideologies. With your help, we will continue in our steadfast opposition to all such intrigues and atrocities.

CIP is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt public charity. Contributions are deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code. It is qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers, and gifts under sections 2055, 2106, or 2622 of the code. Checks dated up to December 31, 2013, may be sent to the address below and will be acknowledged by a receipt qualifying the donation as tax-exempt:

Center for Islamic Pluralism
1718 M Street NW #260
Washington, DC 20036 USA

If making a donation, please inform us of such through a message to the e-mail address from which you received this message.

With many selams to moderate Muslims and our friends throughout the world.

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz

Executive Director

Center for Islamic Pluralism

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