!["Salaat ul-janaza [Funeral service] of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi Al Maliki, The Grand Mosque in Mecca, October 2004](../../images/janazahmalki.JPG)
WahhabiWatch 2005
WahhabiWatch 2005
WahhabiWatch 2006
WahhabiWatch 2007
WahhabiWatch 2008
CIP WahhabiWatch #17: URGENT: Schwartz on CAIR Harassment of Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, tcsdaily.com, December 22, 2005
Four years after September 11, 2001, numerous non-Muslim Americans
repeatedly ask, “Why do American Muslims stay silent in the face of
extremism and terrorism? Why do they not act to cleanse their
religion of the reputation it has acquired?”
Paradoxically, Muslims in the US and Great Britain are, today, far
more dominated by Islamist extremism than their counterparts in
various Muslim countries. In many lands where the majority follows
Islam, a struggle is underway between mainstream moderates and
radicals inspired by the ultra-Wahhabi preachers of Saudi Arabia,
the agitators of the Muslim Brotherhood in various Arab countries,
and the virulent and volatile adherents of Pakistani jihadism. In
some places, from Bosnia-Hercegovina to Indonesia and from Morocco
to Mozambique, the moderates are winning. Yet the Islamic
communities of the U.S. (dominated by the Saudis) and Britain (run
by radical Pakistanis) suffer under a totalitarian regime of
thought-control. What happens when ordinary
Muslims rebel against radical domination in America? They are
ostracized, thrown out of mosques, and subjected to extraordinary
public insults and threats. I myself was harassed in a Long Island
mosque in 2003, as noted in this
article. Shia mosques are excluded from “Sunni,” i.e.
Wahhabi-controlled bodies, and numerous incidents of expulsions of
individual Shias from Sunni mosques in the U.S. have been reported
to the
Center for Islamic Pluralism, which I have established. |
The “Wahhabi Lobby” -- an assemblage of groupings,
headed by the Hamas- and Saudi-backed Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) -- controls the public
life of many American Sunnis. It demands certification as
moderate, but not in recognition of real moderation or
loyalty to the American constitutional tradition. Instead,
their demand for recognition and respect is a preemptive
strike to shield them from a proper understanding and
appreciation of their tactics and aims.
And how does the CAIR gang react when a moderate Muslim activist
raises a dissenting voice? It betrays its guilt: accused of
extremism, CAIR reacts by the extremist methods of menace and
hate-mongering. The latest such case
involves one of the founders of the Center for Islamic
Pluralism, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. Jasser
is a mild-mannered and manifestly moderate individual with a
column in the Arizona Republic, the largest daily in the
state, on Islamic affairs. Dr. Jasser previously founded the
American Islamic Forum for Democracy. He is knowledgeable
and devoted to the religion of Islam.
Cartoon Controversies Readers around
the world have lately been treated to the despicable spectacle
of Islamist rhetoric turned against
Danish cartoonists, as if the spiritual force of the faith
were so weak that trivial media products in the West could
threaten it. Compared with the malicious tone of images employed
by cartoonists in most Arab countries, the works of the Danes
were innocuous. But the U.S. has had more
than one “cartoonist case” -- and the latest involves none other
than an Arizona Republic editorial caricaturist
named Benson. The Republic published a work by Benson
questioning why so many mosques are centers of
extremist agitation. The cartoon included nothing offensive
to moderate Muslims; it simply dramatized an obvious fact. CAIR, which serves as the U.S. equivalent of the
Saudi mutawwiyyin or religious militia, leapt into
hysterical action, calling for an apology from the
Republic for publishing Benson’s cartoon. CAIR, as
usual, freely indulged in overheated rhetoric and
unjustified demands. It utilized a local extremist scandal
sheet posturing as a “community paper,” the Muslim Voice,
with which it has close ties, to stir venom against the
Republic, Benson, and Dr. Jasser. They did so only
because both are published in the Republic, and
because, in the words of the Islamist complainants, “Many
Muslims and Islamic organizations in the Valley were
outraged by the cartoon and articles printed in the Arizona
Republic Newspaper. One of the writers was M. Zuhdi Jasser
who wrote articles that led to Benson’s poor depiction of
Muslims.” The link between Benson and Dr. Jasser was purely
one of common opinions to which the Islamists objected,
including Dr. Jasser’s frequent criticism of CAIR. In a gross cartoon, the latter two were
portrayed as voracious dogs eating a
Muslim. Curiously, the “Muslims” in the cartoon, both
victim and protestors to the Republic, are portrayed
in Wahhabi dress, with skull caps of a kind few wear in
large parts of the Muslim world but that everybody wears
when they join the Wahhabi cult. But
the intent of the cartoon is more important than its details.
The motive of the CAIRites in Phoenix is to punish the
Republic for printing a cartoon to which they object, and to
silence Dr. Jasser. The portrayal of this gentle and sincere man
as a vicious canine, is the epitome of totalitarian
conditioning. It is comparable to the Jew-baiting cartoons of
the Nazi era or the anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim caricatures
that appeared in Serbian media at the beginning of Slobodan
Milosevic’s dictatorship. The editor of
Muslim Voice is Marwan Ahmad, an appointee to the Phoenix
Human Relations Commission. Yet at his paper’s
website, we find his signature over an editorial blaming
Israel for the death of American service personnel in Iraq. What possible justification may be advanced for
treating CAIR and papers like the Muslim Voice as
anything other than an intrusion of radical ideology and
extremist habits into the social life of American Muslims?
Numerous “community” periodicals like Muslim Voice
have been established around the U.S., are distributed free
in mosques and Islamic schools, and are often the only media
read by the Muslim rank-and-file. In tandem, CAIR utilizes
the camouflage of an alleged civil rights organization to
enforce political and social submission to the dictates of
the primitive clerics in the Saudi kingdom. Why should this
be encouraged in America? A terrible
blow has been inflicted on the religion of Islam in America by
the refusal of the religious “establishment” -- including CAIR,
the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and other entities
-- to abandon and denounce the radical legacy present in their
formation and displayed in their long service. They hate Dr.
Jasser because he dares to expose their continued devotion to
radicalism and their refusal to abide by American norms of
religious respect and public dignity. Non-Muslim Americans as
well as moderate Muslims must rally to Dr. Jasser and assist him
in his just struggle. The Arizona Republic should
be commended for providing him a platform, and must stand by its
cartoonist, Benson. Dr. Jasser’s case
illustrates why American Muslims stay silent: because the price
of speaking out is immediate, coordinated attack. Sometimes the
Wahhabi offensive on American soil is accompanied by physical
threats; violence is not excluded. Born Muslims, living “in the
community,” seldom came to America expecting to find Islam in
this country run by Wahhabis -- to the immigrant, it was
inconceivable that such a situation would be permitted in the
US. And yet, thanks to the Saudis, it came to pass, and just as
President Bush should push the Saudis to quit financing
radicalism, ordinary Americans should write groups like CAIR out
of the roster of respectability. These are militants with an
incurable penchant for intimidation. Their psychological reign
of terror in America must end no less quickly than the literal
bloodshed brought by their mentors in Iraq.
Stephen Schwartz is author of
The Two Faces of Islam. |
CIP WahhabiWatch #16 – “These Wahhabi bastards” in Kosovo, December 12, 2005
“Danger! ‘Wahhabis’ on the march in the Albanian lands”
By Zekeria Idrizi [Islamic commentator]
From the Kosovo Albanian daily Koha Ditore, Prishtina, November 15, 2005
I have hesitated to approach the phenomenon of our Albanian “Wahhabism” and “Wahhabis” (if you can call them Albanians!), who, over the past 20 years, have sunk roots across our Illyrian-Dardanian-Albanian lands. I have hesitated for the simple fact that I thought that Washington, that is, the Bush administration, is currently dealing with this problem. But, the phenomenon of “Wahhabism” has assumed wide and alarming proportions in all Albanian lands and in the Albanian diaspora in the West. They are visible everywhere with all their eccentricities – long beards, Asiatic costumes, short trousers, wives covered by black dresses (which remind you of Slav Orthodox nuns), and an extremely radical and vulgar vocabulary. God, they only need to bring camels from the deserts in order to conform completely – of course, according to them – to the “Sunnah” of the Prophet! For this reason, citizens of Shukp/Skopje [in Macedonia] call them “bearded men,” “Selamalejkums,” “mujahedin,” “Taliban,” and so on. Their eccentricity is really out of this world for our European environment and for our national traditions. Finally, their entire extreme and radical doctrine, ideology, and practice stands against our religious doctrine, which has been embedded in our tradition during the centuries since our forefathers embraced the Islamic faith. Our Wahhabis want, among other things, to uproot our traditional religious doctrine – the Hanafi madhdhab [school of Islamic law] – and replace it with the rigid doctrine of “Wahhabism.” What an absurdity - they want to remove the extremely tolerant and rational teachings of our Hanafi madhdhab with the extreme, stale, infantile, and irrational teachings of Saudi Wahhabism! With their deranged views and propaganda, they have created indescribable confusion and chaos in our lands – in mosques, streets, homes, religious ceremonies and celebrations, electronic media and the press, Internet, and so on. Praise be to God, why do we, Albanians, need Saudi Wahhabism, which, as a religious and ideological trend, opposes the study of general and Islamic philosophy in the universities of Saudi Arabia? Which denies rationalism, moderation, and human intellect? This is because, according to them, it is haram for a Muslim to think with his or her own head! Oh God, what misery! Why do we need the Afghan Taliban, who turned stadiums into criminal courts and places for the punishment of women, and who strictly forbade the use of radios, television sets, and computers in Muslim homes, as we enter the third millennium? Why do we need this sect, which has sown hatred, divisions, and fratricidal war everywhere? Why do we need this nihilistic religious philosophy that wants to uproot every trace of culture and civilization, this philosophy that denies every national value, and every historic treasure of our religious and national heritage? The alarm bells are already ringing. In Kosova these Wahhabi bastards have started to desecrate our graves and our monuments “in the name of religion.” This is really terrible and disturbing. If nothing is done to prevent these acts of vandalism, I fear that tomorrow it will be too late. I think that there are many factors that stimulate the expansion of this Wahhabi ideology among Albanians. On this occasion, I will mention some of the main factors – of course, from my point of view. First, it is the indolence, confusion, and at times extreme passivity and lack of unity among our Islamic theologians and leaders. This has created a large vacuum among us, which the Wahhabis have cleverly and quickly used to their advantage. Second, it is the Albanian Muslims’ very superficial knowledge of our Hanafi legal doctrine in particular (I am not even going to mention other religio-legal doctrines of the Islamic world: Shafi’i, Hanbali, and Maliki) and the Islamic religion in general. This is the main reason why the Wahhabi sect has been so successful in Albania, since the long period of atheism there had created fertile ground for their sophisticated propaganda. Third, there is the lack of values in modern secular society, vulgar and extreme materialism, such as drug abuse, prostitution, pedophilia, the hippie movement, pornography, exhibitionism, and other pseudo-values that have led many of our young people into chaos and confusion, and to the abyss. They spend every day in search of a way out of this chaos. Strangely enough, many of them find salvation in religion. What religion is that? Of course, in that religion, or rather in that religious sect that has the most rigorous, most dogmatic, and most extreme rules. Unfortunately, from the psychological viewpoint, the pathological cases in society in the past will remain such even when they embrace a religion, including Islam, or, in some cases, even if they promote “jihad” in the streets of Illyria, wearing all kinds of Arab-Asian dresses and using very coarse language. Moreover, this phenomenon is widespread not only in the Albanian world. This is a universal phenomenon. In the Western world, the number of satanic sects and their extreme members are continuously rising. We already know about collective suicides in religious temples and collective sexual orgies of “religious” hedonists. And fourth, there is the social-economic factor. After the disintegration of the Socialist-Communist system, especially after the end of the wars in our ethnic lands, many Arab-Islamic charities have infiltrated the country and have been propagating sectarian ideas under the guise of humanitarian work, making their meagre assistance conditional on conversion to the “new religion.” According to them, from a “deviant religion” (Hanafi madhdhab) into “genuine orthodox Islam” (Bin Ladin’s Wahhabism)! In their efforts, they have opened hundreds of free Islamic schools for our young people. In this respect, they are having great success in spreading Bin Ladin’s ideas among Albanian youth. In addition to this, there is also the miserable state of our Islamic religious administration and their professional staff (low salaries of imams, mujezins, and religious teachers). Unfortunately, as a result of this situation, a considerable number of theologians and imams have fallen victim to Wahhabi propaganda. They get hefty salaries from Wahhabi centres in the Islamic world to spread their ideology in the Albanian world. These are not just empty phrases and unsubstantiated claims. They are well-documented facts. Many times I have said to ignorant Albanian Wahhabis (who think that they have become “Muslims” by growing a beard and by reading two or three religious brochures): “You are nothing but small fry in comparison with your mega-bosses, who are traitors of the religion of their forefathers and whom I blame the most. This is because they are the cause of all this chaos and drama in our universe.” The alarm bells are already ringing. Dozens of mosques in Illyrian lands have been usurped by the Wahhabis! Oh god, this is terrible! The monumental mosque in Shkup, Jahja Pasha Mosque, has fallen into their hands. The beautiful new mosque in the Dizhon neighbourhood [in Macedonia] started to stink of “Wahhabism” from the day it was opened. There are many other mosques, too. Their goals do not end here. This is just part of the wider efforts to take over from within all Islamic fortresses, that is, all religious administrations in the [Balkan] Peninsula. There is already a danger of our religious community offices being turned into “boutiques” of Arab dresses and, god forbid, stables for camels. In this respect, our religious-Islamic establishments should show vigilance and a higher sense of responsibility in order not to fall prey to such perfidious traps. As early as 1995, I was banned, as a result of strict censorship, from reading the presentation, “Religious Sectarianism Among Albanian Muslims Serving Pan-Slavic Ideology,” which I had prepared, at the scientific seminar, “The Islamic Faith in Post-Communist Albania,” in Durres, Albania. I only realized why when I found out that the seminar had been organized by an Arab “Wahhabi” association. I mention this fact in order to stress that I warned about the dangers of the “Wahhabi” phenomenon from very early on. To be honest, it is not by accident that the “Wahhabi” phenomenon emerged at such a sensitive time for our national cause, when we were in danger of being biologically exterminated. It was quite typical that the political-military establishment of the Slav-Orthodox Serbs would allow this despicable phenomenon to spread in our ethnic lands because “Wahhabism” did the dirty work for Pan-Slavism by sowing division among Albanians over religious nonsense coming from Bin nLadin types and by portraying Albanians as “Islamic fundamentalists” in the eyes of the international community. This has always been the case since this religious sect first emerged on the scene in the Saudi desert at the beginning of the 18th century, when its founder, Muhammed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab, lived. At that time, this alleged scholar [allowed] military-political cooperation between the Saudi Muslims and Anglo-French Christians in the war against the Ottoman Empire. It is worth mentioning that the Ottoman governor of Egypt, Muhammed Ali Pasha, that great Albanian, was sent by the Sultan to crush the uprising of the fanatic Saudi Wahhabis in blood. The Albanian Wahhabis are zealous workers. They carry out with precision the orders that they receive from Arab shaykhs. They have been setting up publishing houses to publish titles with a Wahhabi-Salafi message and newspapers with the same message. They also produce various videocassettes and CDs, set up Internet sites, and conduct a range of other activities in order to increase their membership. They have even managed to pollute our air, apart from everything else. However, my optimism about the situation is based on the following: all of our Islamic religious administrative bodies have stipulated explicitly in their constitutions and statutes that only the Hanafi legal doctrine is to be practiced. The majority of the Islamic intelligentsia among us support this view. Religious teachers in medresas and theological faculties preach this doctrine. The same situation exists in lower religious schools and classes (excluding those that have fallen into the hands of “bearded men”). Also, the majority of Albanian Muslims in the country and in the diaspora practice their rites in accordance with the Hanafi doctrine. For all these reasons, all practices outside it, that is, all Wahhabi-Salafi practices, are in fact subversive, extra-institutional, underground actions. As I said earlier, our doctrine is tolerant, rational, and scholarly. And are tolerance, rationalism, and scholarship not the distinguishing characteristics of our nation? Thank god that we are Hanafi. In that way, the values of our culture and civilization are closer to those of Europe and the United States. * * * * * [Adapted from BBC Monitoring as posted at www.csees.net/index.php?page=news&news_id=47946&country_id=5] CIP WahhabiWatch #15, Schwartz on Kosovo Independence As a Bulwark Against Islamist Extremism, The Weekly Standard, 12/09/2005 THE DAILY STANDARD www.weeklystandard.com Too Much "Help"? Things look promising in Kosovo, despite the tender ministrations of the United Nations.
by Stephen Schwartz Prishtina, Kosovo Isolated by the Albanian language, an ancient Indo-European tongue with no obvious relatives, as well as by the long-standing hostility of their rapacious neighbors, the Kosovars have preserved much in their culture that is old and valuable. But young Kosovar Albanian intellectuals and civil society activists are aware they have a lot of catching up to do. And they are eager to get the process in motion. The march of new Europe into global politics may prove surprising at many points. Western pundits once predicted that the Czech Republic of Vaclav Havel would inspire a neo-hippie revival, with a vision resuscitated from 1968. Instead, Catholic Poland, which just elected a militantly anti-Communist and pro-American government, has demonstrated that, in line with the religious sensibilities of its population, it will not accept "European" imposition of liberal standards on abortion and homosexuality. Given that many new European countries are traditional in their approach to religion and culture, more such declarations should be expected. For their part, Kosovar Albanians are touching in their devotion to the United States and to the American model of entrepreneurship and popular sovereignty. Rumsfeld's trope about the European schism is so popular among them that it confers upon him an exaggerated reputation as an intellectual--one Albanian author asked me if it is true that the defense secretary is a Straussian. (I recommended he examine Rumsfeld's speeches online and read Leo Strauss's works for himself.) Still, even five years after their rescue from Slobodan Milosevic by NATO firepower, Kosovars see themselves at the beginning, rather than the end, of a process of liberation. Communism--which most Albanians viewed as nothing more than an ideological mask for Slavic imperialism--is gone, and Serbia is held at bay by NATO troops. But the "international community" administering Kosovo embodies a new colonialism, represented by the United Nations, the European Community, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. (The OSCE uses American tax dollars to engage in such antics as offering to monitor the 2004 U.S. presidential elections for possible fraud.) The United Nations administration is identified by most Albanians with a deliberate policy of preserving the old Communist economy by blocking privatization, which leaves Kosovo with an unemployment rate above 60 percent. In confronting the U.N.'s occupying authority, the Kosovars say they find themselves in a situation more like that of Belarus, which groans under a neo-Stalinist dictatorship, than that of Poland. Furthermore, thanks to the enthusiastic endorsement of the Clinton State Department and its permanent staff as long as Colin Powell was in charge, the United Nations, OSCE, and their accomplices set up draconian restrictions on media and other public activities in the province. Political and cultural meetings, creation of print and broadcast media, and educational activities all require the permission of the international bureaucrats. (And many of those whose misrule has created discontent in Kosovo have, unfortunately, moved on to work in Iraq.) The most interesting political group in Kosovo, a movement titled Self-Determination (Vetevendosja, in Albanian), cannot function as a legal entity or launch a newspaper because it is denied registration under European-fostered rules for civic advocacy. So Self-Determination has recourse to other means: Its members prowl abroad by night, adding spray-painted letters to the ubiquitous U.N. initials on white "international" vehicles, so they read "FUND," "the end" in Albanian, or "TUNG," "good-bye." Self-Determination activists who have appeared at public events have been arrested and beaten, just as in Communist times, except that the police abusing them are Germans and other foreigners rather than Albanians or even Serbs. Self-Determination was founded in 2004 as the continuation of a small human-rights group, the Kosovo Action Network (KAN), backed by Alice Mead, an American children's author long known for her interest in the plight of Kosovars. KAN addressed some long-standing topics, such as the fate of Albanian prisoners missing and presumed dead in Serbia, but it also took on an issue that the United Nations has ignored: education. Neglect by the U.N. local administration has led to several strikes by grossly underpaid teachers, who receive less than 200 euros a month. Doctors are paid marginally better, but drivers, translators, and even cleaning staff in "international" offices--sometimes the sons and daughters of teachers and doctors--can make four or five times that amount. Security guards are often the best-paid local personnel. Although Albanians do not attack foreigners, the "internationals" are visibly afraid of the populace. Self-Determination is the main force exposing these distortions in the lives of Kosovars, and its main spokesman, Albin Kurti, a 30-year-old former student leader, is the very symbol of protest. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Milosevic regime in 1999, during the NATO intervention, for serving as a public representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). At the end of 2001, Kurti was released, but expressed his outrage that hundreds of other Kosovars arrested with him remained behind bars in Serbia, declaring that he had never asked for a pardon or amnesty. The tall, articulate Kurti spoke late last month at the London School of Economics on the negotiation of Kosovo's final status, which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently put near the top of the U.S. global agenda. When I met Kurti in Kosovo a few days later, the first thing to strike me about him was his deep voice, which gives him considerable gravity. His main argument for the independence of Kosovo is that, without it, the territory cannot take on the state debt it needs for economic progress, which he affirmed should be based on free-market principles. The United Nations remains his main target: "We are fighting the U.N. on the basis of U.N. principles of decolonization," he said with a laugh. He also described an independent Kosovo as a bulwark against Islamist extremism, with Kosovar Albanians at least 85 percent Muslim. Traveling inside the province, I was amused to observe the mutual astonishment of a high NATO officer and a representative of Catholic Relief Services, after their conditioning by misreporting on Iraq, when they were repeatedly told by high Kosovar Muslim dignitaries that among Albanians, the distinction between Sunnis and Shias is irrelevant. At the same time, Saudi charities under investigation for terror financing continue to operate in the territory, pursuing the ideological agenda of Wahhabism, the state religion of the Saudi Arabia. But Wahhabis are treated with open contempt by Albanian Muslims, who upon observing the fanatics' Arabian style of dress, peculiar beards, and other characteristics, call them "space aliens." Nevertheless, Kurti warned that the longer Kosovo independence is delayed, the more young people will be drawn to Wahhabi radicalism. In London, Kurti lashed out at the United Nations for preventing the civic development of the province, so that political involvement leads to corruption, and vice versa. In words that apply as much to Putin's neo-authoritarian Russia as to Kosovo, Kurti declared, "Corruption is inseparable from the antidemocratic character of the system. You can't fill a non-democratic system with honest people." United Nations functionaries and other "internationals" worry that an independent Kosovo would fuse with the country to its southwest, to form a "greater Albania." But Kosovar Albanians repudiate the notion, evincing the same lack of enthusiasm South Koreans express about the concept of immediate unification with the Communist north. Albania proper is poorer, more violent, and even more corrupt than Kosovo, and, besides, the Kosovars increasingly demonstrate a commitment to the development of a permanent, independent cultural identity. A similar sense of cultural differences saturates the struggle for civic reform in Albania, which is centered in the northern city of Shkodra, traditionally Catholic and fiercely anti-Communist. EN ROUTE TO KOSOVO, in Shkodra I met the dissident journalist and author Blendi Kraja, who agrees with Kosovar intellectuals that northern Albanians have a distinct character that should be reinforced, not drowned by merger in a common state. Kraja has undergone considerable harassment from Communist-era cultural commissars who retain their power, and who act in alliance with judicial and other authorities left over from the Stalinist dictatorship that ruled--and ruined--the country from 1944 to 1991. In a situation as surprising to foreigners as the lack of a Sunni-Shia divide, Kraja, a Muslim, is struggling to revive the audience for Albanian Catholic authors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and to immortalize their martyrdom (most were brutally killed) at the hands of the Communist order. But Kraja has other, and more interesting plans: He wants to publish the Federalist Papers, selections from Franklin, Madison's Notes of the Constitutional Convention, and the outstanding speeches of the American presidents in cheap Albanian-language editions. Meetings with individuals like Kurti and Kraja reinforce a sense of possibility about the Albanians' entry into modern Europe. Yes, only 6 million people speak their language; but fewer speak Finnish or Danish, which has been no obstacle to entrepreneurship, accountability, or democracy in Finland or Denmark. Besides, like the Finns and Danes, the Kosovar Albanians have proven eager to learn English. Once the United Nations and its satellites have been removed from Kosovo, the future of the Albanians may be brighter than many expect: The newest members of political Europe could someday be among the most prosperous and successful. Stephen Schwartz is a frequent contributor to The Weekly Standard. CIP WahhabiWatch #14: Center for Islamic Pluralism Greets and Supports Orthodox [Jewish] Union Statement on Jordanian Atrocities, November 10, 2005 The Center
for Islamic Pluralism expresses its appreciation and support for the
action of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the
leading Orthodox rabbinical organization, in extending condolences
to the monarch of Jordan in the aftermath of the horrific attack by
Wahhabi fanatics. We have, and need have, little to add to the OU
statement except our shame and regret that Islam, which we believe
must worship a God of mercy and compassion, has been traduced in the
service of terror and tyranny. We affirm that the OU provides a
sane and respectable model of how a body of Muslim ulema should
conduct its affairs in America, rather than in the model of the
Wahhabi lobby. Qur'an 28:17: "[Prophet Musa
a.s.] said, 'O God, because of the forgiveness you have granted me I
swear I will never serve an evil-doer.' "
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz Executive Director, CIP CIP WahhabiWatch #13: Morgana Sinclair on "Radical Islam's Rules" in The Weekly Standard, November 7, 2005
The Two Sharias: Islamic law is open to
interpretation. 11/07/2005, Volume 011, Issue 08
|
| © Copyright 2005, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved. |
WahhabiWatch #12: Schwartz in Jamestown
Foundation's Terrorism Monitor on Nigeria, October 21, 2005
http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369814
Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Nigeria
Nigeria, a major oil producer, is the most populous African country
with around 130 million people, of whom half are Muslim, 40 percent
are Christian and 10 percent follow indigenous faiths. Nigeria has a
civilian government, but is troubled by widespread corruption and
uneven institutional development.
At the end of September
2005, Nigerian oil production was temporarily stopped by threats of
violent protest from the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force,
headed by an adventurer known as Mujahid Dokubo-Asari. Asari, as he
is commonly called, is 40; he was born to a Christian family and
named Dokubo Melford Goodhead, Jr. Asari is a member of the Ijaw
ethnic group, which counts several million people, mainly Catholics
and other Christians, although their beliefs also include local
spiritual traditions. They represent a majority in the main Nigerian
petroleum zone. Asari became Muslim in the 1990s and, after failing
in an attempt to enter the legal profession, embarked on an equally
unsuccessful political career. But notwithstanding his Islamic
rhetoric and reported devotion to the faith and his militant stance,
his goals are separatist, rather than theological or ideological
[1].
Furthermore, as a southerner and Ijaw, he is out of
touch with the majority of Nigerian Muslims. It is increasingly
clear that Nigeria has been a target for aggressive, radical Sunni
Muslim agents supported by religious charities and other outreach
(da’wa) groups headquartered in Saudi Arabia. In recent times, the
main aim of Islamists in Nigeria has been the establishment of
extreme Shari’ah, along the lines of the Wahhabi sect, as the
exclusive law in the Muslim states of the north.
In addition
to penetration across the border with Chad, the activities of Saudi,
Sudanese, Syrian, and Palestinian representatives in Nigeria is
cause for concern. More important, “scores of Pakistanis” have been
arrested in the West African country and charged with inciting
violence since September 11, 2001, and early in 2004 a rebellion by
a group calling itself “Taliban” broke out in Yobe state, on the
northern frontier of Nigeria [2].
A “Taliban” cleric, Alhaji
Sharu, told police he had received funds for the Nigerian network
from al-Muntada al-Islami [3], an agency headed by Dr. Adil ibn
Muhammad al-Saleem and based in Britain, but associated with the
official Saudi state charitable and da’wa institutions, the Muslim
World League (MWL), World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY),
International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), and al-Haramain
Islamic Foundation. All these groups are alleged by American and
international investigators to be terror-financing bodies. Including
al-Muntada al-Islami, they are together represented in the U.S. by
the “Friends of Charity Association,” with a website at
www.foca.net, and by the Washington attorney Wendell Belew.
In a recent statement, Belew disclosed, with no-doubt-unintended
humor, “FOCA’s representatives have met with senior Bush
administration officials to offer cooperation in the form of
exchange of financial, human resource, organizational and other
information about our members. Though these offers have been
declined by the administration so far, we are actively cooperating
in similar efforts with various members and committees of Congress”
[4]. Belew also represents Dallah al-Baraka Holding Co., a Saudi
business giant.
In turn, Dallah al-Baraka is headed by Saleh
Abdullah Kamel, whose name appears in the “Golden Chain,” a roster
seized by Bosnian authorities in Sarajevo in March 2002, which
records Saudi donors to bin Laden and his associates. Kamel is
listed in the “Golden Chain” as a supplier of funds to Adil
Abdeljalil Batterjee, founder of the Benevolence International
Foundation, also designated a terror-financing entity by the U.S.
Treasury Department. Kamel and Batterjee continue to walk the
streets of the kingdom unmolested. In the aftermath of the
al-Muntada al-Islami scandal in Nigeria—in which Nigerian police
charged that “millions of dollars” had been sent from Saudi Arabia
to finance local religious conflict—the influential Nigerian branch
of the Qadiri Sufi brotherhood held demonstrations calling for the
expulsion of Wahhabis [5]. Qadiris are known for their Islamic
activism and participation in combat in locations as diverse as
Kosovo, Chechnya, and, recently, in Iraq.
Given the status
of Nigeria as an ideological arena for radicals, it should perhaps
come as no surprise that a prominent cleric from the ranks of the
Shi’a Muslim minority in the turbulent northern state of Kaduna,
Sheikh Ibraheem el-Zakzaky, recently told the Daily Independent, a
major national paper: “Al-Qaeda does not exist, please. It is
non-existent. It exists only in the records of the CIA. Otherwise,
Al-Qaeda does not exist anywhere in the world. Similarly, bin Laden
does not exist. Those sites in the Internet have been traced to
Texas in the United States of America.” Asked if he believed bin
Laden is alive, sheikh Zakzaky commented, “I don’t know whether he
is alive or not…The United States government, which claims to be the
strongest in the world, is fighting someone who does not have a
base, no government, no anything, no palace, why can’t they go and
fight China?” On the topic of the July bombings in London, he
declared, “Nobody planted those bombs in London except Tony Blair.
The British government is behind it” [6].
Zakzaky summarized
the 45-year legacy of Nigerian independence as one of bad leadership
because people are bad. But other Islamists in Nigeria have embarked
on a campaign against the country’s Shi’a minority. Sunni-Shi’a
conflict had already broken out in the northern state of Sokoto in
May 2005, when Sunni fanatics attempted to prevent Shias from
entering a local mosque. A considerable Nigerian immigrant community
resides in the U.S. cities of New York and Washington, and Shias
among them are perturbed by a late report from the large northern
city of Kano, posted on a popular Nigerian Islamic website,
www.gamji.com.
The report’s author, Mahmoud Mustapha, warns,
“Since Malam Ibrahim Shekarau assumed office as the third civilian
governor of Kano state on May 29, 2003, Shi’a followers in this
Sunni-dominated city have been under threat of attack from
bloodthirsty Wahhabis that have taken control of the machinery of
government… [T]he government sponsored a systematic and sustained
media campaign against Shi’a followers on its radio station, which
refers to suicide attacks by Iraqi Wahhabi dissidents against Shias
and their places of worship as Jihad. With this campaign they intend
to instill in the minds of the people of Kano the desire and the
zeal to attack and kill Shias in the name of Jihad, knowing very
well the strong support and respect the Iraqi dissidents enjoy from
the majority of the Sunnis in Kano” [7].
The Kano state
government allegedly seeks to use 9,000 sharia militiamen or hisbah
to harass Shias. The hisbah draw a monthly budget from Kano state of
54 million naira ($385,714) and now work as traffic officers. But
Abdullahi Tanko, head of the state Sharia Commission administering
the hisbah, has initiated an effort to label Shias a threat to
public order by equating them with the “Maitatsine,” a millenialist
and militant reform sect with a few thousand adherents, derived from
Islam but extremely heterodox. The sect was founded by Alhajji
Muhammadu Marwa, a Cameroun-born figure, and was blamed for bloody
clashes in northern Nigeria in 1980 and 1982.
Tanko
complained on official Kano state radio in mid-September 2005, “The
Shi’a are fast gaining ground in Kano, like wild fire… in every nook
and corner of this state, and if we don’t act fast and decisively we
will be faced with a disaster worse than Maitatsine.” Mahmoud
Mustapha, writing on these developments, argued, “It is no
coincidence that Tanko made this statement a day after Al-Zarqawi,
the leader of the terrorists in Iraq from whom the Wahhabis take
[their] lead in fighting Shias all over the world, declared a war
against the Shi’a in Iraq.” Mustapha further predicted, “Once the
attacks start in Kano, they will be extended to other ‘sharia
implementing states’ with similar hisbah outfits. Al-Qaeda in
Nigeria is born!” [8]
Although such a portrait of the
Nigerian situation may seem sensationalized, it is clear that as the
dominant power in the entire West African region, the country will
remain a major focus of extreme Islamist attention. In addition,
Muslim activists in the West African diaspora living in the U.S.
insist, in dismay, that Nigeria, which lacks the widespread
influence of Sufis and other mystics found in the coastal
Francophone states such as Senegal, is especially susceptible to
radical agitation. Finally, Nigeria is also characterized by
polarization of Muslims against Christians. In these conditions,
Nigeria must be considered a country at serious risk of becoming a
major new front for Islamist terrorism.
Notes:
1. See
www.unitedijawstates.com/articles_abidde.htm.
2. Marshall, Paul,
“Nigeria: Shari’a in a Fragmented Country,” in Radical Islam’s
Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Shari’a Law, Lanham, Md.,
Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
3. See www.almuntada.org.uk/.
4.
See www.foca.net/Pr_20050923-Nam.stm
5. Marshall, op. cit.
6.
Bakoji, Sukuji, “We’ve bad leaders because we’re bad –Zakzaky,”
Daily Independent [Lagos], Sept 30, 2005, at
www.independentng.com/life/lssep300506.htm.
7. Mustapha, Mahmoud,
“Kano Shias Under Wahabi Threat,”
www.gamji.com/article5000/NEWS5105.htm
8. Ibid.
WahhabiWatch #11: CIP-Backed Suit vs. Wahhabi Monopoly on Hiring of Muslim Prison Chaplains, October 16, 2005
Subject: URGENT: FOR ALL SHIA MUSLIMS
To: Ahlulbaytmosque@aol.com
Brothers and Sisters of Islam:
THE AHLUL BAYT MOSQUE, INC., (formerly the "Brooklyn Mosque"),
an American Shia Community of all nationalities comprised mostly
of African American, West Indian and Hispanic American Shias
(located in Downtown Brooklyn) URGENTLY needs your support for
the Shia Muslim Inmates of the New York State Department of
Corrections ("NYSDOC").
Shia Inmates are currently
SUFFERING UNDUE HARDSHIPS in their struggle to practice Islam
according to the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt.
Consequently, the Shia Community of the New York State prison
system is currently in litigation against the NYSDOC (in Federal
court) for violations of their religious rights, guaranteed by
the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. THIS IS AN
UNPRECEDENTED CLASS ACTION SUIT THAT MAY DRAMATICALLY CURTAIL
THE ONGOING HARSH TREATMENT OF SHIA INMATES THROUGHOUT THE
ENTIRE U.S. PRISON SYSTEM.
In this regard, below please
find a link to an online Petition, which we respectfully request
that you sign; however, the rules state that you should be a
resident of the United States.
To sign the online
Petition, please access it by clicking on the link
below.
http://new.petitiononline.com/SNYSDOCS/petition.html
Finally, PLEASE "FORWARD" THIS EMAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU
CAN IN
ORDER FOR US TO OBTAIN AS MANY SIGNATURES AS
POSSIBLE. Your
participation will greatly facilitate the
struggle to secure the religious rights of Shia Muslims in New
York prison (and, potentially, throughout the United States).
Thank you very much for your support and may Allah (SWT) reward
you for
your efforts.
Sheikh Kadhim Mohamad
Islamic Scholar and Imam of the
Ahlul Bayt Mosque, Inc.
543 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11217
Office: (718)
852-1390
Email:
ahlulbaytmosque@aol.com
WahhabiWatch #10 Europe's Wahhabi Lobby: Extremists get together to worry about intolerance
|
Europe's Wahhabi Lobby Extremists get together to worry about intolerance. by Stephen Schwartz 10/06/2005 12:00:00 AM http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/174gxfos.asp
|
WahhabiWatch #9 – September 23, 2005 – More Wahhabi Mischief in DC
Stephen Schwartz has received a letter complaining about his article “Naming Names,” which appeared on The Weekly Standard website on September 21 and may be accessed on this site [www.islamicpluralism.org/articles/namingnames.htm].
A D.C. attorney, Wendell Belew, objects to comments in the article, on behalf of a “Friends of Charity Association” (FOCA) with a website at www.foca.net.
Mr. Belew states in his letter that FOCA’s membership includes the three official Saudi agencies most responsible for the global campaign to Wahhabize Sunni Islam: the Muslim World League (MWL), World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), and International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO). The role of these agencies as accomplices of terrorism and preachers of hatred, especially against Shia Muslims, as well as against other non-Wahhabi Muslims and non-Muslims, has long been demonstrated beyond discussion. All three were featured prominently in the government report on which Mr. Schwartz commented.
But Mr. Belew is too modest. The FOCA website further discloses that its membership includes the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Wahhabi indoctrination network ordered shut down in various countries for its activities supporting terrorism. Outstanding among the nefarious efforts of Al-Haramain has been its publication of a “Wahhabi Qur’an” in English (see www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/653wwewi.asp).
On April 8, 2005, the Saudi-based Arab News [see www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=61775&d=8&m=4&y=2005] reported on a press conference held in Riyadh, at WAMY headquarters, attended by Saleh Al-Wohaibi, WAMY secretary-general and occasional accomplice of America’s top apologist for the Saudis, James Zogby of the Arab American Institute (AAI) [see www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=8466].
Mr. Belew availed himself of WAMY’s hospitality to offer the bizarre allegation that the Saudi authorities had taken action against al-Haramain, on the territory of the kingdom, as a factor in the American presidential election.
In addition, Mr. Belew represents Dallah al-Baraka Holding Co., a Saudi business giant. As Mr. Schwartz noted in a 2003 article in The Weekly Standard
[see www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/978uclzj.asp], “The head of the Dallah al-Baraka Group is Saleh Abdullah Kamel, whose name appears in the ‘Golden Chain,’ a roster seized by Bosnian authorities in Sarajevo in March 2002, listing Saudi donors to bin Laden and his associates. Kamel is named as a supplier of funds to Adil Abdeljalil Batterjee, founder of the Benevolence International Foundation, designated a terror-financing entity by the (U.S.) Treasury Department.” Disgracefully, the Saudi authorities allow Messrs. Kamel and Batterjee to walk the streets of the kingdom unimpeded.
In his letter to Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Belew admits, with no-doubt-unintended humor, “FOCA’s representatives have met with senior Bush administration officials to offer cooperation in the form of exchange of financial, human resource, organizational and other information about our members. Though these offers have been declined by the administration so far, we are actively cooperating in similar efforts with various members and committees of Congress.” (Emphasis added.)
That the administration has had the good sense to rebuff such blandishments is cause for celebration. Similarly, Mr. Schwartz rejects any editorial critiques by Wendell Belew, FOCA, or their Wahhabi masters. The only solution to the problems created by MWL, WAMY, IIRO, and Al-Haramain is their complete dissolution as organizations, and the trial and punishment of all those responsible for their many crimes, accompanied by a thorough audit of all their financial activities and subsidies around the world, especially their involvement with Americans.
WahhabiWatch #8 – Kosovo and the Threat of Terrorism
[Note: CIP WahhabiWatch was suspended for three weeks and is now resumed.]
Kosovo and the Threat of Terrorism
By Edita Kuçi-Ukaj* From
http://shkoder.net/fjala/2004/eukaj1.htm
Translation by Center for Islamic Pluralism
The Albanians traditionally and even spiritually have resisted in a large measure the continuing foreign attempts to jeopardize the harmony of Albanian inter-religious relations. That is why they never joined religious extremist groups of any kind. However, after the liberation of Kosovo, some negative phenomena appeared that had never before been seen in the spiritual and psychological worlds of Albanian life (geographically, culturally and in its mentality Kosovo always felt it belonged to the West).
Some extreme phenomena are related to the influence of foreign organizations that flooded Kosovo with who-knows-what underlying missions and goals. Operating under a religious cover they caused spiritual deformations, which flourished because of our indifference and tolerance. We seem to accept everything among us now, be it bad or good.
Social degeneration hidden in religious garb and brought in by some of the numerous foreign organizations is best exemplified by the phenomena of Wahhabism – a radical Islamic sect embodying an extreme ideology of exterminating all those who think differently from their way. This new segment in the Albanian culture introduces negative values into our national identity. Therefore it is regrettable that we remain silent about it. Rational minds that really want to see development and wholesome progress in a Kosovo integrated into Western institutions should not stay quiet; they should use every possible means to fight these phenomena, which have nothing in common with the Albanian tradition.
The political, economic, and civilized future that we are looking forward to building for our country is a totally different reality. Therefore, we must act today, because tomorrow may be too late. Instead of keeping silent, we must talk and act to stop this growing phenomenon and denounce it as foreign to our world.
Albanian society, using its strongest mechanisms, should look for the best forms necessary to interrupt this propaganda which has nothing in common with traditional Albanian Islam. Lost in the daily routine of their lives many Kosovar citizens fail to notice what is becoming part of their new reality, while someone looking from the outside immediately wonders if the main trend of our culture is changing course. How can something like this happen? Where are we headed? These questions call for urgent answers before the new phenomena escalate with negative effects in a wide dimension of the general social-cultural situation.
To an Albanian citizen who returns after a period of time to the motherland these phenomena look disturbing, complicated, and potentially dangerous.
I re-emphasize that these unfortunate phenomena appeared only after the war. I am talking about young males with longer beards and shorter pants, girls with their faces covered that identify themselves today as sympathizers of extremist groups involved in ‘jihad.’ They are usually simply influenced by propaganda or social-economic interests, but more often are naively unaware of what they are doing.
By no means would I want to insult anyone’s religious feelings. However, we were always known for our dedication to the old motto “the religion of Albanians is the Albanian nation.” The problem emerges from this derivative sect of Islam known as Wahhabism.
Several scholars have written about the ideology and behavior of this extremist stream, identifying the permanent potential dangers it represents to human society in general. For example, the publicist and author Stephen Schwartz (The Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role on Terrorism) analyzes many problems related to this sect. From his viewpoint this is clearly an extremist movement founded under the pretext of ‘reforming’ Islam in the 18th century, in remote central Arabia. Wahhabism continues to produce a dangerous movement on the global level, using a strategy based on suicidal terror to realize their interests. Wahhabism considers the Shias to be non-Muslims and unworthy to live with only two choices in front of them, reform or expect to be fought. This sect has always attacked the traditional and spiritual Islam prevailing in Turkey, Central Asia, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and in some parts of the Balkans.
Wahhabism and Neo-Wahhabism (coming from Egypt and Pakistan) inspire the biggest number of violent Muslim extremists in the world today. They represent an ultra-radical form of Islam whose promotion is sponsored reportedly by the regime of Saudi Arabia. Its influence is spread to Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. They violently attack nearly everyone: Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, non-Wahhabi Sunnis and Shia Muslims. This sect is present in the countries with terrorism problems, as the author I mentioned above emphasizes. For example the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is representative of Wahhabism.
In his earlier book Kosovo: Background to a War**, Stephen Schwartz offered data showing how dangerous this sect was becoming in the Albanian lands and especially to Kosovo.
According to the ‘Saudi Joint Relief Committee:’
- 4,087,353 Saudi riyals were spent for Kosovo, half to sponsor religious propaganda;
- 388 Saudi missionaries traveled to Kosovo with the goal of converting Albanians to Wahhabism.
From the rest of the money:
- 581,250 riyals was spent to build 37 mosques
- and 222,150 riyals were invested in two schools.
The strange fact that much more was spent for propaganda and mosques than for humanitarian goals should alarm us.
We know how Serbia has always endeavored to portray the Albanian struggle for liberty: as an Islamic holy war against Western Christianity.
Even the war waged by the Kosovo Liberation Army is portrayed by the Serbs as a religious war.
Hence their tendency to present their war in Kosovo as a war against terrorism, claiming that Albanians are a danger to every country where they live.
Some say that Serbia has even sponsored the Wahhabi missionaries in Kosovo to help them strengthen Islamic radicalism and destroy the Albanian inter-religious tolerance.
No one says outright that Albanian boys and girls who come under Wahhabi influence are subsidized in some way by Serbia. I do not believe this and many Albanians also do not. However, we must analyze the facts free from emotions and euphemisms. At least vigilance must never be absent when faced with this phenomenon. Recently, even [the writer Ismail] Kadare raised his voice about this danger threatening our nation. If we do not fight this phenomenon we risk bringing on a future including terrorist attacks against cultural and economic centers, harming Western interests in Kosovo. These things are already happening in Turkey and some predict that soon the Balkans will see similar terrorist acts.
This threat may be real, considering that Wahhabism has brought suicide attacks to many
countries in the world. Wherever this sect is present there is terrorism. Or a potential for the kind of terrorism that does not spare any means or method.
Many political figures have already declared: if necessary preventive measures are not taken, destabilization is very likely in Kosovo and Albania.
We have been a very tolerant, civilized, and European people for a long time and therefore the West is popular among us. However, it seems we are trying to do the contrary now, distorting our identity, jeopardizing our future, and sabotaging our national
aspirations… We must hone our vigilance against people who work against our national interests. All institutions beginning with the Islamic Community of Kosovo, the political parties, and public institutions, the entire social opinion should denounce decisively this phenomenon. We must react because it has not been part of our culture in the past and should not be part of it in the future.
We have an historical chance, maybe the last one, to integrate into the civilized western world. This is the aspiration that we have cherished for centuries.
It is the ideal for which we have sacrificed so much, even the lives of some of the best among our sons and daughters, and we must not allow that the blood that they shed go to waste. We have been very strong and we have outlived many of our enemies but we still need to fight, now with maturity, knowledge and standards to define a new future for the young generations and to make our old dreams come true.
* The author of this article has completed academic work in Peace and Conflict Studies and is now studying International Affairs in Malmo, Sweden.
WahhabiWatch #7, August 19, 2005, Letter of American Muslim Congress to Idris Mosque in Seattle and American Muslim Establishment
American Muslim Congress
1049 Clinton Avenue, Irvington, New Jersey 07111
August 19, 2005
The Board of
Trustees
Idris Mosque
1420 N. E. North Gate Way
Seattle,
Washington 98125
Sallamun Alaikum
On the afternoon of Saturday, July 23, 2005 a noted Shia scholar, Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini, visited your Mosque and after Dhuhr prayers was invited by your resident Imam Jamil Abdul Razzak to give a lecture. Sayed Al-Qazwini chose the topic of unity and after his lecture he offered to accept questions from the members of the congregation. The session was uneventful until two individuals became confrontational and taunted the guest scholar for not being forthright and stating that unity is not possible with Shias because they are najis [impure] and kafirs [unbelievers]. This ensued after Sayed Al-Qazwini explained to the audience the need for all Muslims to unite as they follow the same Quran, offer the same prayers, and perform the same Hajj. These men who were bent upon fitna [discord] would not heed to the call of unity [and] ordered Sayed Al-Qazwini to leave the Mosque. Jawad Khaki the President of the Ithna-Muslim Association of the Northwest was accompanying Sayed Al-Qazwini as both he and the Idris Mosque Imam Jamil Abdul Razzak witnessed the incident and felt deeply embarrassed.
Sayed Al-Qazwini, after his return to Los Angeles, contacted Jawad Khaki and requested him to document the incident for follow up. An incident report was prepared and then distributed by Sayed Al-Qazwini’s organization. The community at large became quickly aware of the incident. We were greatly distressed to see the humiliation of a very notable Shia Imam at the hands of the two most misguided individuals, apparently iterating the Wahabi fitna about the Shias. Jawad Khaki received urgent requests from all across North America to investigate the incident. Also, numerous Islamic organizations from the U.S and Canada approached you to seek a prompt and swift conclusion of this matter. In good faith, Jawad Khaki contacted the Idris Mosque and met with the management to deliberate and seek a just and equitable redress for this unfortunate incident. His efforts to bring awareness in the greater Seattle Muslim community have only been met with attacks on his person. The irony, that both, Imam Qazwini and Jawad Khaki are amongst the foremost proponents of intra-faith relations in America, is now lost on the Shia leadership here.
Regrettably, almost three weeks have gone by and not much has yet been done in terms of a comprehensive internal investigation by the Idris Mosque. This is a very serious matter, and even more so, because there appear to be some elements within the body of Mosque management who are in state of denial and deception, and seem knowingly disregarding potential for division and strife within the Muslim Community. These people are using every tactic to stonewall not just the investigation of the matter at hand, they are implicating very well meaning people such as Jamil Abdul Razzak and blaming him for creating this unfortunate incident.
Innuendoes and accusations are being lobbed while the personal integrity of this Muslim leadership team is being questioned. Also, the journalist Stephen Schwartz who picked up the news (...) and went on to expose this hate crime has been called a so-called "Muslim." We have known Steve Schwartz for many years and know that he is a Sunni Sufi Muslim. More importantly, he is the first journalist in North America who in his book The Two Faces of Islam has exposed the ills of the world wide Wahabi and Salafi movements. It is not for us to defend Stephen Schwartz. He is recognized by many as an authority on Islamic affairs in North America as well as an author of international repute. He can take care of himself.
Our concern is with the management of the Idris Mosque. Some in the Idris Mosque attempted to refute the account of events provided by Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini even though the Imam of the Idris Mosque Jamil Abdul Razzak corroborated it in its entirety. A swift and straightforward investigation of the matter and holding to account the two miscreants would have avoided all the polarization generated by this incident. The acts of subterfuge and cover-up are dangerous trends and the national notoriety of the Idris mosque appears to be totally self inflicted. What happened in that Mosque on July 23, 2005 is symptomatic of what is going on in the Muslim community at large. There exist a significant number of Wahhabi/Salafi members in most of these congregations who thrive on perpetrating acts of hatred and bigotry against Shias and non-Wahabi Muslims. What is really problematic here is that this Wahabi/Salafi faction is in a state of denial and deception.
The reality is that to shield or suppress the evidence in [the] Al-Qazwini matter will have grave consequences. Such a stance by the management of Idris mosque is dangerous and can disturb the equilibrium in the Muslim community not just in the greater Seattle area but in the rest of North America. No matter how many Fatwas and pronouncements CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, MSA and other Muslim organizations issue disassociating themselves from terrorism and assuring that Islam is a religion of peace and not hatred, the non-Muslim community will not believe a word of it after they find out about episodes such as what happened in Seattle.
The incident that took place in the Idris Mosque is not an isolated one. We can provide documentary evidence of more than a dozen cases of defamation and discrimination against Shias resulting from the wicked and vicious Wahabi/Salafi doctrine of exclusion. Our Sunni brothers (particularly the one from Hanafi, Shafaii and Maliki Schools) are even bigger victims of this injustice. Who is a Muslim and who is not? This score will Inshallah be settled on the day of judgement and not before. It is Allah (swt) not people who make this judgement. In the meanwhile, we urge you to hold the two persons accountable for their actions, if they are indeed part of the management of your mosque, we expect you to expose them, expel them and publicly renounce them, in the interest of accountability and transparency, lest someone accuse the Idris mosque of harboring these Wahabi elements and be a potential incubator of Al-Qaeda type elements in our very midst. Not doing anything would be tantamount to doing just that - harboring potential terrorist -and then the accusation against the Idris Mosque would only be fair. In the name of justice, equity and fairness, the cornerstones of the great faith of Islam, we implore you to do the right thing and be an example to others. To protect the sanctity of the house of Allah, whose trustees you are, you have no other option.
cc:
Council on American- Islamic Relations
Islamic Society of North
America
Islamic Circle of North America
Universal Muslim
Association of America
Center For Islamic Pluralism
Muslim
Students Association
Muslim Students Association (Persian
Speaking Group)
Muslim Pubic Affairs Council
World
Federation of Khoga Shia Ithna – Asheri Muslim Communities
North
American Shia Ithna Asheri Muslim Communities
WahhabiWatch #6, August 17, 2005
| Terror on the Internet |
| By Stephen Schwartz |
British prime minister Tony Blair, as an element of his new, "changing-the-rules" approach to abating terror, has declared that his government will draw up "a list… of specific extremist websites," with which "active engagement… will be a trigger for the Home Secretary to consider the deportation of any foreign national." To certain Americans the notion is abhorrent, to others debatable, and to still others, necessary and overdue.
Some hold to an interpretation of freedom of expression based on
maximum indulgence of the inciters of and recruiters for terrorist
atrocities as a libertarian principle. Others who object to
suppression of terrorist websites in the
I have tended to subscribe to the latter theory; my book The Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role in Terrorism was based in great part on internet research. But that was a product of the first phase of the Wahhabi war against the world, when research seemed more important than preventive and preemptive action against the threat of bloodshed.
Today I agree with the approach of Prime Minister Blair. We who work to combat Islamist terror have developed networks of informants to keep us aware of the enemy's rhetoric, such as hardly existed four years ago, and it now appears more urgent to shut down the use and abuse of the internet to carry out the destruction of human life, than to let them flourish for monitoring purposes.
A specific example has come to my attention, involving a site
maintained in the
HCY advocates violence against Shia Muslims, in English and in the
Urdu language (spoken in
The tone of HCY is unambiguous. Its discourse characterizes Shia Muslims in bigoted terms, telling Sunnis,
"you must not socialize with them, or eat with them or marry them, either with a Sunni man marrying a Shia woman or the opposite. You should not extend greetings to them. The curse of Allah be upon them."
The site declares that Shias are not Muslims, employing the anti-Shia idiom common in Saudi-financed hate literature:
"... they are known as Rawafid [rejecters of or deserters from religion]. If you meet them then KILL THEM for they are polytheists."
Here, as I have repeatedly argued elsewhere, is the ideology that
leads directly to the mass killings pursued in
This repellent and dangerous website comprises a chatroom, and
offers hateful books and fatwas in English against Shias [www.kr-hcy.com/askimam/index.shtml].
The literature made available includes an infamous Saudi-sponsored
pamphlet by Saeed Ismaeel,
The Difference Between the Shiites and the Majority of Muslim
Scholars, printed by the World Assembly of Muslim
Youth (WAMY), an official Saudi state organ and financial accomplice
of al-Qaida, and distributed by its office in Alexandria, Va. The
WAMY office in
The Haq Char Yar site
is registered to a postal boxholder in
WahhabiWatch #5, August 5, 2005:
New Saudi/Wahhabi Invasion of Kosovo
Editor’s Note: While the CIP WahhabiWatch concentrates on the activities of Islamist radicals on U.S. territory, we occasionally receive important materials on Saudi and other extremists abroad. The present report, from the largest daily newspaper in Kosovo, is especially significant in light of recent charges that Balkan Muslims are involved in terrorism.
From Koha Ditore, Prishtina, Kosovo, August 3, 2005
[Translation by Center for Islamic Pluralism]
Destructive Interpretation
By Ilir Dugolli
Saudi organizations flocked to Kosovo after the war ended, and they began an effort to eradicate everything they perceived as outside the dogma of Wahhabism (gravemarkers, decorated mosques, etc). However, at every step they faced the resistance of the Albanians. With the war having just ended, the Albanians were horrified by this new form of destruction, a “peaceful” and much better camouflaged one targeting local religious and historical symbols, customs, and the unique indigenous understanding of faith. On numerous occasions foreigners were prevented from locally imposing their “correct interpretation of Islam,” as the Kosovars remained true to the spirit of their centuries-old traditions.
Today, desecration of graves marked by stones, by inscriptions of the names of the dead, or by any kind of photograph of the deceased, is one of the most alarming signals of a new trend which, at the moment, seems unstoppable. To make things worse, no measures are being taken to stop this phenomenon. In fact, the vandals operate stealthily, which makes it harder to act against them. However, there is something clear and out in the open: the sense that now the violence and the destruction are inspired by the open preaching of some of our own imams.
Images from the localities of Sharban and Koliqi – where cemeteries have been systematically vandalized at night – remind people of Afghanistan under the Taliban. Coincidentally, some local Muslim clerics are becoming “inventive” in their interpretations of the sacred scriptures. Rather than base their teachings on the word of God they are promoting the word of mouth. It is not the aim of this article to deal extensively with the public utterances of the imam in Koliqi who preaches against raising gravemarkers. Suffice it to say that his interpretation is considered baseless. No rule against gravemarkers is mentioned in the holy book of the Muslims, so putting names or markers on graves is considered neither haram (forbidden) nor makruh (not specifically forbidden but better avoided).
The interpretation offered by the imam of Koliqi can be based only on the extreme doctrine of Wahhabism, if it is not simply a misunderstanding of one of the hadith of Muhammad. The Prophet asked his followers to refrain from venerating his image, with the aim of discouraging the return of idolatry among the Arabs. I will not allow myself to evaluate the competency of the imam of Koliqi, despite the fact that at least in this case he shows a lack of understanding of Qur’an, the interpretation of its ayat, and the necessary limits of a cleric’s discretion.
The main issue here is that even if it possible, through creative interpretation, to argue that Qur’an forbids the use of gravemarkers, this does not justify the destruction of and vandalism against the memory and sensitivities those who have a different understanding of the faith. No one is permitted to incite religious violence in Kosovo, but unfortunately this is what has happened in Koliqi and elsewhere, as the phenomenon is spreading.
We must not forget that freedom of expression, which is used by some people to justify their poisonous words, implies a dimension of responsibility. This is quite clear in countries where people believe in freedom, rule of law, and democracy. Incitement of hate may not be shielded from the law even when delivered in the form of religious sermons. Inciting hate is not only against every essential principle of justice and ethics, but it runs against the very foundations of Islam.
What conclusion may be drawn from the words of this imam when he admits having told his jama’at a few months ago, “if you don’t take them down (markers and photos on the graves) I will do it”? He gives himself the right to “correct” generally accepted practices through which Albanians honor the memory of their dear ones in eternal repose. This dangerous rhetoric and interpretation of religion has never found a place among us. It is only now that through the help of foreign organizations roving freely in Kosovo, they try to impose their ideology on that part of the society left helpless, outside of local and international institutional care. These poor people on the edge of survival are also served by local imams of questionable knowledge, who seem unaware of the effect of their own words. What other actions can be produced by sermons against the “unbelievers” and people of other faiths? If someone destroys the graves belonging to people of the same religion, believing that he is serving God or an imam, how much farther will he go?
The Sunni tradition is often praised for the absence of a hierarchy such as exists in most of the other religions. Among Albanians, this absence has helped to thwart any potential “interpreter of God’s word” from imposing his views on those who have a different understanding of religion and on the secular institutions of our society. Now, we have imperfect, mortal, and sinful imams claiming to hold the license for interpretation of God’s word, and the edge of the abyss seems to come nearer. A growing number of people believe in and work for the return of Shari’a law for the entire society, and for the unrestricted operation of the religious institutions.
As the situation worsens in Kosovo, and popular dissatisfaction and resentment increases, this will slowly open the way for some clerics who have it made their mission to fight against every “deviation” from their strict dogma. From this point of view, sermons like those in Koliqi are encouraging the devoted to accept violence. Today this violence targets graves, tomorrow it may easily send us to the grave.
WahhabiWatch #4, July 29, 2005:
Wahhabi War of the Worlds Comes to Seattle
http://www.techcentralstation.com/072905H.html
On July 22, the day after Phase 2 of the London terror bombings, the domination of American Islam by the Saudi-financed Wahhabi conspiracy was dramatized with the arrest of a Saudi subject, Abdullah Alnoshan, 44, employed by the infamous Muslim World League (MWL). Alnoshan was detained at his Alexandria, Va. residence by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Washington Post reported that the MWL, an official arm of the Saudi monarchy charged with charitable work to advance global Wahhabism, remains a target of investigation by Treasury and other federal officials. The MWL, which was crucial to the organization of al-Qaida, should have been shut down by U.S. authorities long ago. It goes without saying that the Saudi regime itself continues to drag its feet in rooting jihadist radicals out of its state institutions. Saudi state clerics utilize every Friday prayer assembly to recruit for mass murder in Iraq.
Yet a movement for liberal social reform has also begun to make its appearance on Saudi territory. Meanwhile, paradoxically, American Islam even in the panicked aftermath of the London atrocities has, if anything, become more hardened in its devotion to Wahhabi separatism. In the final accounting only the United States today has a Muslim community from which pluralism in leadership and theology is lacking. This is not an exaggeration or a joke. Every other Muslim community in the world is divided between jihadists and antijihadists. Apologists for religio-ideological aggression -- Islamofascism -- now enjoy predominance only in American Islam.
An example of the miserable conditions of suppression, intimidation, and conformism under which the American Muslim "silent Sunni majority" must pray and otherwise follow their religion came in Seattle the day after the MWL raid on the other side of the country, and two days after the second round of London blasts.
A microcosm of the Wahhabi War of the Worlds was seen in the Emerald City on July 23, when one of the preeminent Iraqi Shia clerics in America, Sayed Mustafa al-Qazwini, Imam of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County, California, stopped for afternoon prayer at the Idriss Mosque, located at 1420 NE Northgate Way in Seattle. Idris in Arabic is the name of a Prophet, but considering the behavior that occurred there recently it might better be called Iblis or the Devil's Mosque. For when Sayed Mustafa al-Qazwini appeared at the sacred house to pray on American soil, he was rudely insulted and ordered to leave by two Wahhabi thugs, identified as an Algerian and Egyptian, who called him an "unbeliever" because he is a Shia Muslim!
I know Sayed Mustafa al-Qazwini quite well and have defended him in the past. He is a man of religious moderation and cultivation, but he is also independent-minded and has spoken critically about the situation in Iraq and other sensitive issues. He has participated in meetings of radical Islamist groups. But he is nobody's puppet. He is not my front man or President Bush's servant or a Zionist pawn. He is a learned and sincere Shia cleric. Above all, he does not counsel separatism or violence to Muslims living in America; he supports the argument of the Iraqi Shia marja, or clerical authority, Ali Sistani, who writes that a Muslim living in the West has given, and must abide by, an oath to live in peace with non-Muslim rulers and neighbors.
Sayed Mustafa al-Qazwini was ordered out of a Seattle mosque by a man whose demeanor was that of a potential assailant. According to one of several eyewitnesses, who wrote an account of the incident and circulated it by e-mail, but whose name cannot be released, "when everyone completed their prayers, a couple of attendees at the mosque (one claiming to be on the Managing Committee) approached [al-Qazwini] and started a discussion in Arabic, The people who approached Sayed Mustafa said that [Islamic] unity is not possible and Muslims must fight their own. Sayed asked [them,] 'who are the people from within who Muslims must fight?' He was told, 'the Shia as they are Kafir [unbelievers].' [A] person who claimed to be on the Program Committee made it clear to Sayed Mustafa that he was not welcome in the [Idriss] Mosque. Sayed explained that he read [a] sign at the entrance of the mosque which said this was Allah's place and for worship."
The abuse directed at Sayed Mustafa al-Qazwini embodies an irony, in that on July 28 the so-called Fiqh Council of North America, a section of the Wahhabi lobby concerned with Islamic legal doctrine, issued a widely-advertised fatwa against terror. The apparent purpose of the fatwa was to reassure non-Muslim Americans about the peaceful nature of Islam. The real aim was diversionary -- to provide cover for the Wahhabi lobby while it continues to accommodate the ideology that promotes extremism throughout the Sunni community. Of the 18 original signatories to the fatwa, only one was a token Shia -- Hassan al-Qazwini, brother of Mustafa. Hassan al-Qazwini became prominent at the beginning of the Iraq war when he was photographed with President George W. Bush. Thus while Hassan al-Qazwini's name is manipulated by the Wahhabi lobby to cover up its hypocrisy, his brother is subjected to obloquy in a Wahhabi mosque.
Such incidents are anything but rare. I myself was forced, with several born Muslim companions, to leave a Wahhabi-controlled mosque on Long Island in 2003. Agha Shaukat Jafri, the main leader of the Shia Muslim community in New York, commented this week, "discrimination and personal insults by Wahhabis against Shias are continuous in America. Earlier this year, in Louisville, Ky., a Shia from Pakistan, Kashif Haider, who had become active in the local Sunni mosque, was the object of a resolution by the board of the mosque declaring that no Shia could ever be elected a trustee. For some time, our community and supportive lawyers have pursued an ongoing discrimination complaint, on behalf of Shia convicts, against harassment and threats from Wahhabi clerics in the American federal and local prison systems. Late last year one of the Shia plaintiffs was stabbed in a New York prison. The hate speech employed against Shia students at Rutgers University has become a cause for protest as well [see here and here]. The Wahhabi lobby in America may condemn terrorism in the abstract but they will never accept Shias as Muslims and will never denounce the violence against our people in Iraq. What happened to Sayed Mustafa in Seattle is part of a global struggle."
Since the late 1990s, the allegation that 80 percent of major American Sunni mosques are under control by the Saudi Wahhabi cult has caused controversy among American Muslims. The Saudi-financed sect, which is more a power ideology than a religious manifestation, inspires al-Qaida and justifies attacking non-Wahhabi Muslims in countries like Iraq, Morocco, Turkey, and Indonesia, as well the West.
Defenders of extremism, as well as those intimidated by the "Wahhabi lobby" of American Islamic community groups, deny the breadth of the Wahhabi problem in American Islam. Yet Shia, Sufi and other Muslim leaders insist the 80 percent figure is accurate. Let me direct readers to the comments of an Egyptian Muslim dissident, Shaykh Ahmed Subhy Mansour, who is my cofounder at the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP - www.islamicpluralism.org), in Washington, DC, on this point.
This does not mean 80 percent of American Muslims are Wahhabis. It does mean that Saudi and Pakistani money has financed a radical network of clerics who occupy the heights of community leadership in American Islam. MWL and the American and other Muslim clerics it has subsidized for travel to and training in the Wahhabi Saudi kingdom bear responsibility for bloodshed in New York, London, Madrid, Sharm al-Sheikh, Casablanca, Istanbul, Beslan, Bali, the cities and shrines of Iraq, and Saudi Arabia itself, no less than the actual perpetrators of terrorist acts. They have openly funded and incited the worldwide Wahhabization of Sunni Islam for a quarter century.
At a crucial moment not so long ago, Sayed Mustafa al-Qazwini supported the U.S.-led action liberating Iraq from Saddam. Today his fellow-Muslims and his non-Muslim neighbors in America must enable pluralist Muslims like him to be heard, even as some of his opinions may need to be countered and opposed. Wahhabism in America must not be allowed to soil the First Amendment by using it as a screen hiding Saudi interference in our domestic religious and spiritual life. The property status, financing, and foreign affiliations of mosques that throw out Muslim clerics for their unorthodoxy, and that otherwise teach hateful and radical doctrines, should be investigated. Those directly controlled by Saudi Arabia or by other foreign extremists must be reorganized as terror-free zones, autonomous entities that are appropriate for religious standards in America -- or shut down.
WahhabiWatch #3, July 22, 2005
The False “Mahdi” Brays Loudly
“Mahdi” Bray’s name excites questions as well as jokes. On becoming Muslim, did he really imagine himself the “mahdi,” the Islamic equivalent of “messiah” Can one imagine a convert to Judaism naming himself Moshiach, or to Christianity, taking the name of Jesus? Further, the individual in question brays like a donkey as spokesman for the so-called Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation, a front for the ultra-radical Muslim Brotherhood, based in North Africa. [see] But he has a long résumé as a promoter of radical Islam, including employment by the phony moderates of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), and he has brayed in his eponymous manner on behalf of the criminals in the Northern Virginia “paintball jihad” conspiracy [see].
The latter network was composed of Wahhabi bandits, who harassed the authentic friends of Bosnian Islam in America, while recruiting for terrorist operations to be carried out in Afghanistan and Kashmir, since bloodshed had ended in the Balkans.
“Mahdi” Bray’s exercises in illiteracy and intrigue are characterized by hysterical improvisation, as he rushes back and forth, up and down, seeking to establish a place for himself, and his cohort of dupes, as American Muslim leaders. On Monday, July 25, “Mahdi” Bray will unveil a new such gambit in Washington, DC, at the National Press Club. There he promises the inauguration of a campaign entitled “Faith Over Fear and Justice for All,” allegedly created “by American Muslims to combat terrorism.” This event will feature participation by the infamous “Muslim Student Association” (MSA), the chief agency of radical Islamist indoctrination on North American college campuses and, among other items, the publisher of works by the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.
The braying pseudo-mahdi has stated, “MAS Freedom renews its condemnation to terrorism and its commitment to exonerate Islam from terrorism and deny terrorists any religious/ideological or political legitimacy. Given the intricacies of such phenomenon (sic), MAS Freedom believes that beefing up intelligence and security measures, while vital and crucial, will not solve the problem, especially given that we are dealing with people who are religiously misguided, erroneous, and socio-politically desperate.” How, one must ask, were the members of the Northern Virginia plot “socio-politically desperate”? They were well-fed products or residents of the United States, South Korea, and Pakistan, and on American soil they enjoyed every freedom and all opportunities, including those of education, income, and the “fun” of “playing paintball” to simulate the mass murder they intended on foreign territory, while fantasizing that they could participate in bloody attacks on this country.
The false “mahdi” further declaims, “For those who keep insisting on condemnation of terrorism from the Muslim Community be advised that we are beyond condemnation, it is time for action (sic). We are at the stage of mobilizing our community to combat terrorism wherever it occurs.” Really? Does that mean he will mobilize Muslims to combat his former associates in Northern Virginia, and their fellow-terrorists in Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, as well as in the United Kingdom and the U.S.? Is the “mahdi” of the asinine (a term defined in dictionaries as “utterly stupid or silly; of, relating to, or resembling an ass; from Latin asinus, ass”) prepared to denounce the latest atrocities in Egypt and Israel? The pseudo-mahdi’s record does not inspire confidence in this area.
But “Mahdi” Bray has also lately opened his mouth, or kicked with his hooves, in a different direction, which should be of interest to observers of radical anti-Americanism.
In recent years, discredited and bedraggled Western leftist groups, whose ideology was defeated by the pre-Taliban Muslim fighters of Afghanistan and the ensuing collapse of the atheist Soviet Union, have treated American Muslims as handy sheep to be herded into the ranks of demonstrators against the Western coalition fighting the global war on terror. If the spectacle of a braying donkey leading a parade of such victims is repellent in itself, it is especially disgusting to imagine a Muslim “leader” rounding up his cobelievers in the service of antireligious fanatics. But such is the reality of the alliance forged in the West between leftists and Islamists – an alignment also expressed in the comments of London mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone, blaming the atrocities in his city on the commitment of Prime Minister Blair to the liberation of Iraq.
“Mahdi” Bray has been prominent in the latest effort to fill the depleted ranks of the radical left with ordinary Muslims, focussing on a Washington parade to be held on September 24, 2005. But since the donkey is not the brightest creation of Allah (swt) it should come as no surprise that the false “mahdi” has gotten himself badly entangled in the internal politics of the anti-democracy movement.
Thus, “Mahdi” Bray has come out in strong support of the ANSWER faction of the anti-American campaign. He has denounced its rival, known as United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), as nothing less than “segregationist,” because the latter called a rally separate from the former, although in the same city on the same day [see]. The ideological conception that would supposedly justify the braying pseudo-mahdi’s use of this highly-loaded term – playing the “race card” as a feature of Islamist/leftist subversion – is that UFPJ is allegedly insufficiently pro-Palestinian.
In reality, both ANSWER and UFPJ are front groups for radical leftists who recruit neofascists no less than naïve Muslims, in the fashion of the post-Soviet “red/brown” alliance of Communists and Nazis against democracy and Jews. And neither ANSWER nor UFPJ has clean hands on Muslim issues.
Indeed, one might take pleasure in the ridiculous “mahdi” delivering a solid kick to the heads of UFPJ, which is mainly a creature of the pathetic American Communist Party – and which, of course, offered full-throated support for the Sovietization of Afghanistan. But UFPJ and its Communists no longer get much Russian money, which is why they no longer occupy much of a place in American politics. A glance through their list of supporters [see] reveals a leftism that has become absurd in its circus-like character, as well as despicable in its revival of the “red/brown” front of the Stalin-Hitler pact. UFPJ includes such neofascist entities as “American Renaissance,” which fans anti-immigrant fears, and Antiwar.com, the scurrilous website run by the deranged Dennis Raimondo, who claims Israeli complicity in the events of September 11, 2001 and the recent London bombings – and that’s just under the letter “A”.
Running down the rest of the alphabet, one would be hard-pressed to decide which component is more ludicrous. Here are the highly inclusive Marxist Feminist Lesbian Jamican (sic?) Radical Poets of New Jersey (website broken), alongside the hitherto-unknown Metro Detroit Labor Party (no website), and something with the eloquent if vague name Operation Revolution (no website either). Also participating are the bizarre-sounding Pirates Against Bush, of Massachusetts (again, no site to check), and, with no website but hailing from the hollers of West Virginia, the impressive Socialist Organization for Relief, Tradition, and Opposing Fascism – another triumph of rhetorical inclusiveness. A further inventory of these flyspeck enterprises, most of which lack the resources, stamina, or continuity to occupy a presence on the internet, would serve no purpose.
But “International Member Groups” of UFPJ also comprise the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam as well as the sinister-sounding “Death Sector (Philippines).” And UFPJ includes the paramilitary Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a front for jihadists in Pakistan who bear moral responsibility for the new London atrocities. One might imagine that in rejecting this extremist menagerie, notwithstanding his entertaining accusation that this super-diverse bunch are “segregationist,” “Mahdi” Bray had undergone an attack of common sense. But one would be wrong in such an assumption, for the ANSWER gang for whom he prefers to bray his praises has a public record of support for the Milosevic government in Serbia, which killed 250,000 Bosnian Muslims.
Advice for the American Muslim: do not follow the path of the donkey. Avoid the political entrapment schemes of “Mahdi” Bray and all his atheist, leftist friends and rivals. Leave the process in Iraq to the Iraqis and, above all, their Shia and Kurdish majority, who support the Western coalition; encourage the Palestinians to settle their affairs non-violently. Break the addiction to paranoid fantasies about President Bush and America, and follow the traditions of the faith of Muhammad aleyhisalaam, by protecting your selves, your families, and your future in a country that has offered you, as members of working and middle class families, more freedom and prosperity than any other state in history. Let the fake “mahdi” bray alone in the barnyard of false ideologies.
CIP WahhabiWatch #2 – July
18, 2005:
Pakistani Radical Islamists: Who's Minding Washington?
By Stephen Schwartz
The main perpetrators of the terrorist assault on the
The jihadism of JI and its satellites and allies is at least
murderous and at worst genocidal. Their takeover of the Pakistani
military and its intelligence system were crucial in Saudi control
over the Taliban state in neighboring
Now here's the interesting news: precisely while
Over the weekend, the South Asia Tribune revealed that Durrani had come to the U.S. capital as a guest of the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), which describes itself indulgently as "shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves." IGE was founded by Robert A. Seiple, who served for two years as "U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom," a mainly ceremonial post. Seiple is also the former head of a major relief organization, World Vision, Inc.
Durrani's tour of
What legitimate purpose, in line with
Indeed, the Hasba Act which Durrani handed out in
In fighting radical Islamist terror, both the
The beliefs that impel the Wahhabi War on the World have nothing to do with either political protest or deep religious beliefs. Normal protest, even when it becomes violent, increases and decreases in reaction to events. Intense Muslim commitment drives believers away from terrorism as much or more than toward it. The proliferation of Islamist extremism, like that of pro-Moscow Communism in the past, is dependent on money, a leadership structure, and the seduction of power. Cut off the money and the heads of the conspiracy and the threat will diminish immensely. Without the power represented by the Saudi state and the Pakistani military intelligence services, terrorist ideology will lose its ability to capture and pervert the minds of susceptible recruits.
Dialogue with terrorists and their enablers is not possible. The
following message should be delivered to men like Durrani: the
moderate Muslims of the world will be helped to defeat you -- you
are doomed. It may not be too late for the
The author is Executive Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism.
CIP WahhabiWatch #1 – July 8, 2005:
IN THE SHADOW OF LONDON
The first CIP WahhabiWatch column is written in the aftermath of the brutal assault on the London transport system, which killed at least 50 people and left hundreds more injured. The organizational provenance of this latest horror is secondary (see “It’s Still the Saudis,” The New York Post, July 9, 2005 in CIP Articles). A single ideology guides the current terrorist campaign, whether it strikes in the U.S., Spain, Britain, or in such Muslim countries as Indonesia, Turkey, and Morocco. The name of that ideology, which masquerades as an expression of religious faith, is Wahhabism.
The Wahhabi lobbies in the U.S. and Britain have manifested their alarm over the consequences of the continuing terrorist offensive. Here in America, CAIR, ISNA, and MPAC issued statements impressive in their forthright condemnation of the London bombings. However, examined more closely, these statements often betray weakness in the rejection of extremism, while other Lobby groups, such as ADC, ICNA, and MAS reveal something much worse: an outrageous desire to shift responsibility for terror and its consequences onto the Western governments and public.
Let us first deal with the latter examples. ADC was the long-time political “business” of Hussein Ibish, a proud atheist and self-proclaimed “decadent” who professes hatred for Islam and other religions, but who has made a living out of claiming to be a “progressive Muslim.” “Progressive” he may be, if that term is understood as a cover for “radical leftist,” in the same way “Salafi” is a camouflage term for “Wahhabi.” But an aggressive, genuine “unbeliever” like Ibish has no standing to speak for Islam.
ADC sees in the London events an opportunity to stir up fear of reprisals among Muslims, i.e. to support and aggravate the Wahhabi claim that Islam is under global attack. ADC has even assumed a transatlantic posture, issuing an “advisory” warning to “members of the Arab-American and Muslim-American communities,” but adding, in a self-righteous tone, “This statement may also be applicable to members of the Muslim and Arab-British communities. ADC feels it prudent to issue this advisory statement due to historically documented hate-motivated attacks and acts of unlawful discrimination following similar terrorist attacks” (see www.adc.org/index.php?id=2539).
In reality, as every Muslim living in the West knows very well, the non-Muslim majorities in the United States, Spain, and Britain have maintained an extraordinarily forbearing attitude toward their Muslim neighbors, during the Wahhabi war against non-Wahhabi Muslims and the West. Authentic hate attacks on Muslims have been very few, and far outweighed by expressions of kindness, support, protection, and human solidarity extended to Muslims by non-Muslims. Notwithstanding the complaints expressed by Islamist radicals, and ongoing grievances over U.S., British, and Israeli policies, the U.S. in particular remains the country where ordinary, middle-class Muslims live best, enjoy the most opportunities, and share the greatest protection of their freedoms. Ordinary Muslims in America live better than any except the very rich in most of the Muslim world.
Indeed, part of the problem in Britain
has been that the authorities have failed to curtail open extremist
preaching and recruitment in the Muslim communities there. Muslims
living in Britain have even gone to Iraq to join the Wahhabi legion of
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a criminal terrorist of the worst kind, in
murdering the Shia and Kurdish population, as well as killing Sunnis
committed to the new Iraq and members of U.S.-led coalition military
forces (see “70 British Muslims join Iraq fighters,” by
David Leppard
and Hala Jaber, Sunday Times of London, June 26, 2005, at
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1669637,00.html).
Nevertheless, ADC continues to point the finger at non-Muslims, rather than placing blame where it belongs: on well-subsidized ideological extremists within our ummah. In bold, capital letters, the organization identified the groups it considers at risk:
“1) IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS PLACED IN PHYSICAL DANGER BECAUSE OF YOUR ETHNICITY, RELIGION, OR NATIONAL ORIGIN:
“2) IF YOUR PLACE OF WORK, PLACE OF WORSHIP, OR SCHOOL IS IDENTIFIED WITH ARABS AND/OR MUSLIMS:
“3) IF YOUR CHILD CAN BE IDENTIFIED AS ARAB OR MUSLIM, OR MAY BE CONFUSED FOR BEING OF MIDDLE-EASTERN ORIGIN…”
In the twisted logic of ADC, terrorism is bad because it leads to attacks on Muslims by their non-Muslim neighbors, when in reality almost no such attacks have occurred. The question of how ADC acquires the standing to advise the “Arab-British” community (a politically-correct neologism) needs little commentary; the peers and disciples of Hussein Ibish (Hates Islam) are capable of anything.
It is undeniable that terrorism puts all Muslims living in the West at risk. But it is also undeniable that the risk can only be alleviated by defeating the terrorists, not by generating irresponsible rumors and groundless anxieties.
ICNA, a paramilitary extension of the bloodthirsty Pakistani jihadist movement – responsible for many attacks on Pakistani Shia Muslims as well as support for terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere – adopted an even more absurd stance. It condescends to advise the British Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and other non-Muslim public to “remain calm.” Further, ICNA declares, “As citizens we also hope innocent people will not be targeted in backlash following this terror attack. Learning from experience after 9/11, we also express the profound hope that civil liberties will not be a further casualty of this tragic event, in the Great Britain or around the world” (See www.icna.org/pr_london_attacks.htm)
To emphasize the point made above, the absence of a serious anti-Muslim backlash in the U.S. and Spain (indeed, in the latter case the “backlash” worked to the benefit of the Wahhabi terrorists in Iraq) makes such statements ridiculous. Civil liberties remain fully protected in the United States. Still, on what basis does ICNA, which in the past denied altogether the political and constitutional legitimacy of the Western system of civil rights, claim solicitude for such liberties now? How did ICNA, which specializes in intimidating Pakistani-born Muslims and others critical of radical Islamist activities in the U.S., ever act to prevent denial of the civil liberties enjoyed by ordinary Londoners on their way to their workplaces or homes when terror struck the tube and bus systems? Free access to public transportation was never made a statutory right in the West, because nobody in cities like Madrid or London ever imagined that the openness and convenience of transit systems would be make them “soft targets” for Wahhabi terrorists.
Where does ICNA protest the violation of the civil liberties of the Shias in Pakistan, who are constantly subjected to murder? How has ICNA worked against the denial of civil liberties for women, Shia and other non-Wahhabi Muslims, and ordinary subjects, as well as non-Muslim guest workers, in the Saudi-Wahhabi kingdom? Those who claim to defend freedom must show that their commitment is complete, not partial, and not limited to advocacy for our own community. Muslims can only stand in defense of our own freedoms in the West and worldwide to the extent that we defend the rights and liberties of non-Muslims. How else do we interpret the surat of Qur’an that command us to respect the People of the Book?
MAS, a front for the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan ul-Muslimun), expressed itself in similarly objectionable vocabulary: “We also call upon all Americans, media outlets and government officials to continue to be clear and careful in seeing these crimes for what they are, and not link, nor associate them, with any faith or religion. These are crimes against humanity perpetrated by evil individuals and have absolutely nothing to do with any religion or faith” (see www.masnet.org/takeaction.asp?id=2594).
Unfortunately, however, we must ask how to define “these crimes for what they are,” if they are not an expression of a warped, ideological phenomenon within the ranks, but not the grace, of Sunni Islam – an embodiment of Wahhabism, the cancer and syphilis of our ummah? The terror in London is associated with Islam not by governments, media, or private non-Muslim individuals, but by the perpetrators who falsely claim they act on behalf of Muslims everywhere.
Typical of Ikhwan arrogance, MAS goes on to “call upon our government to address the scourge of terrorism through a comprehensive approach where the root causes are addressed and eliminated, without unduly relying solely on the use of force.” What “root causes of terrorism” exist in Britain, where Muslims have lived for generations, accumulated wealth, attended the finest universities, and generally enjoy security and peace? None whatever; although Britain is hardly characterized by the blessings of social mobility seen in the United States, its government does not interfere with the adhan, or anything else involved in the preaching and teaching of Islam. Mosques have existed in England for more than a hundred years.
But notwithstanding media clichés, handily shared with the extremist enemy, terrorism is not about “root causes”; its roots are in finance, and the monetary resources that foster extremist violence are found in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other countries where the Wahhabi and neo-Wahhabi movements (such as the Ikhwan) enjoy power and influence. The dependence of terror on cash always has been and always will be.
The problem of extremism in the name of our religion is addressed by CAIR, but in a faulty, if not a deceptive manner. CAIR exhorts us to sign a petition, written in the style of a grade-school class asking for more milk with its cookies, in which it is said, “We, the undersigned Muslims, wish to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent… We repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group or individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts.” But petitions to Wahhabi murderers are simply meaningless. Will Zarqawi heed such a petition? Will he or Bin Laden hear the pleas of simple Muslims in Iraq, in Afghanistan, or in the West, whose blood they spill and whose peace they constantly deny? It is absurd to imagine such a thing. CAIR’s petition is offered as a cover for its persistent efforts to place blame for the global crisis, in which Islam is being dragged toward hellfire, on the West.
If CAIR were sincere and straightforward in its opposition to terrorism, it would cease apologizing for terrorism in Israel, which it blames on the Jews, and in Iraq, which it blames on the U.S.-led coalition. It would end its long-standing effort to identify our religion with its political ideology. It would break its ties with the Saudi kingdom, which include direct funding and other visible expressions of support. It would dedicate itself to the improvement of Muslim life among the law-abiding citizens and residents of the greatest and most generous government in human history, that of the United States. But CAIR cannot accomplish such a worthy and necessary aim. It is stuck on the crooked path of radical apologetics.
Muslims throughout the world must take control of our own destinies, ridding our ummah of the illnesses of pseudo-religious ideology. Wahhabism is a treatable cancer, and the Wahhabi syphilis can still be eradicated. But this will not be accomplished by petitions. It will only be accomplished by uniting Muslims with the will of the Western nations to end terrorism by militarily defeating terrorists, by ending terrorist financing, preaching, and recruitment, and by introducing religious democracy throughout the Muslim world. These principles have existed in our religion since the time of the Prophet Muhammad aleyhisalaam. Their restoration, refinement, and reinforcement are imperative. In these terrible moments, the non-Muslim world looks with understandable anguish at our ummah and asks, what has become of this people? If we cannot answer this question with open hearts and clear, pure intentions, we have nobody to blame but ourselves for the consequences that befall us.