An American Muslim Journal

Camp Wellstone - Grassroots Political Training in Schaumburg IL 9/9/11 to 9/11/11

The local organization, American Muslim Democrats - NW Chicago, posted an announcement today about Camp Wellstone training coming to Schaumburg, Illinois on the weekend of September 9, 2011 through September 11, 2011.

This is the time for progressives to get trained-up to defeat the tea party in the elections of 2012!

 

GOP and Muslims are perfect together | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/31/2011

Memo to Republicans: Muslims are cultural conservatives, too. And if you can stop maligning them for a moment, they might move over to your column.

via www.philly.com

I think what Professor Zimmerman is saying here is partially true.  In my youth I was a Republican in large part because I believed that it was most consistent with my faith.  Some 20+ years later I understand my faith and politics differently and that has led me away from the Republican Party (their hate helped move me a long but I think I would have left eventually nonetheless).  If the Republicans can get over their bigotry against Muslims, then Prof. Zimmerman's prediction might come true.

I hope not.  Yes, I do want the Republicans to stop being bigots (anti-Muslim and anti- everything else they get whipped into a frenzy over), but I don't want my co-religionists and fellow Americans to flock to the Right.  That would be wrong.

For American Muslims whose faith guides their individual political choices, I think those politicians who can strike a balance between securing individual freedom while making sure that the vulnerable segments of our society (the children first and foremost but also the homeless, the mentally ill, the unemployed, the working poor and so on) are not left in the lurch, will be most attractive to us.

Social values - sexual preference, abortion, and so on - are important issues to me and to many American Muslims but to think that American Muslims (or Muslims across the world) have a unified opinion on these issues would be incorrect.  These are personal matters and personal choices that are between individuals and God.  I'm pro-choice but I would want my wife to have an abortion.  I believe that homosexuality is a sin but so too is pre-marital sex in Islam.  Again, these are matters between individuals and God.  Frankly, I don't want promiscuity and lewd behavior in public spaces whether its between heterosexuals or homosexuals, but it is not for me to judge others on the basis of their personal choices.  

Furthermore, we've got many more important public and societal issues that we need to address and fix before we can even have time to debate the sinfulness of private adult activities, behaviors and choices. Food insecurity, food deserts, the evisceration of our civil liberties, homelessness, un- and under-employment, discrimination, un- and under-insured families, the rapidly deteriorating environment, our over-dependence on oil and the impact of our country's overall lifestyle and our foreign policies that secure that lifestyle are all issues that demand our attention ahead of sexual preferences and abortion.  

I hope that American Muslims will come to look deeper into their faith and into their duty as Americans in order to avoid flocking to the Republican Party (assuming it eventually abandons its anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies).  Muslims in America and abroad are charged to work for the common good of their neighbors and of humanity, and today's Republican Party does not work for the common good.

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To understand what Republicans and conservatives really want read George Lakoff's essay on Alternet (click here).

King Hearing Falls Short, As Predicted says Investors Business Daily

Sheesh!  Even the Investors Business Daily is piling on Rep. Peter King for his pathetic hearings.  Make no mistake, I don't think too kindly of some of the IBD editorials (they sometimes like to slum in the gutter by promoting bogus charges against legitimate American Muslim organizations).  I'm pointing them out, however, because EVEN THEY berated Rep. King for the way he failed to conduct a meaningful hearing.

IBD wrote:

Reviews of Rep. Pete King’s opening round of hearings into “Muslim radicalization” are lousy...  King, the Republican head of the House Homeland Security Committee, deserves thrashing...  King didn't even come close to delivering what he advertised with his investigation, titled "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response"...  He said FBI agents and other cops working terrorism cases constantly complain about the lack of cooperation from the Muslim community. Mosque officials and other Muslim leaders actually encourage such resistance, he said...  Yet the seven witnesses King called to testify included no national law enforcement officials to back him up. Nor did he subpoena any of the offending Muslim leaders to address these allegations under oath.

Huh!  Imagine that!  And why, IBD, do you think that is?  Is it that Rep. King's staff lost the notebook with the names and numbers of all the many law enforcement folks that supposedly told Rep. King about the alleged lack of cooperation of American Muslims?  Hmmm?  No, I don't think that's it.  I think it's because that was a wild claim that Rep. King can't back up.

Gov. Christie nominates Sohail Mohammed - an American Muslim lawyer - for a seat on the NJ judiciary

It's long overdue and quite fitting that qualified American Muslim attorneys seek and secure judicial appointments.  I applaud Gov. Christie of New Jersey for appointing Mr. Sohail Mohammed to the NJ state judiciary.

via The New York Times:

The lawyer, Sohail Mohammed, worked in the aftermath of the attacks to try to foster trust between American Muslims and law enforcement, particularly federal officials. He is a board member of the American Muslim Union. Mr. Christie, a United States attorney, was a regular guest at that group’s annual Ramadan dinner and spoke highly of Mr. Mohammed’s work.

Furthermore:

Mr. Mohammed helped arrange a law enforcement job fair at a Paterson mosque in which young Muslims were encouraged to apply for jobs with law enforcement agencies. The session also featured a question-and-answer session for mosque members with the police and prosecutors.

Plus:

He was also asked to give many training sessions to F.B.I. agents on Islam and Muslim culture.

This is great news for everyone in New Jersey and it's a great lesson for other state bars across the country. I think the time has come for an American Muslim to be appointed to the bench in Illinois (especially in Cook County and the collar counties where close to 400,000 American Muslims reside).

So, what's the next step in Illinois?

 

Muhammad Ali Hasan joins the Democratic Party after bad experiences with Republicans

I've never heard of this fellow - Muhammad Ali Hasan - but apparently he's very well known in Colorado, and among Republicans, and according to the Colorado Independent Mr. Hasan has switched parties and is now a Democrat.  From one reformed Republican to another I say to Mr. Hasan - Welcome to the party!

The Colorado Independent describes Mr. Hasan this way:

Muhammad Ali Hasan, a member of the wealthy and influential Colorado Republican Hasan family and a past state House and treasurer candidate, said he is switching parties. Speaking at the University of Colorado-Boulder on his experience growing up Muslim in the American West and later in conversation with the Colorado Independent, Hasan said he is ending his affiliation with the party for the bigotry he believes has shaped Republican politics over the last year. The FOX News regular and founder of Muslims for Bush said he met recently with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the controversial Democratic leader won him over.

The only question I have for Mr. Hasan is why it took him so long to see the light?  This article says that he found bigotry shaping Republican politics over the last year.  What!?  This bigotry goes back a lot longer than just the past year Mr. Hasan!

The bigotry of the past year may be the most virulent it has ever been, but it has been within the Republican Party for a long time prior.  And at the end of the day the bigotry against Muslims is simply not an important enough issue (for them politically) to cause otherwise good and decent people within the Republican Party to raise their voices against this ugliness.

I've met Republican politicians in my life and thankfully I can say that many of them were not anti-Muslim or anti-Islam.  At the same time, I know that these folks opted not to raise their voices when other fellow Republicans - individually and sometimes through the Republican Party - said or did bigoted things. This notion that the bigotry is new within the Republican Party is a silly notion.

I know that there are other, more well known, American Muslims who have committed themselves to public service and still view themselves as Republicans.  I applaud them for their fortitude, and I suspect that they look beyond the ill-conceived policies of the day and focus more on the core principles that underpin their conservatism.

One person that comes to mind when thinking about principled American Muslim members of the Republican Party is  Suhail Khan.  Mr. Khan has served in many capacities for a range of Republican politicians and in various conservative policy positions.

I guess what I'm saying is that Muhammad Ali Hasan's change of political affiliation is not really all that noteworthy.  He was never a very significant figure within the Republican Party and his reasons for leaving the party are fairly pedestrian.  It remains to be seen what Mr. Hasan can accomplish as a Democrat.  What he does from this point forward is what may be truly newsworthy.

In the end I wish them all well - the Muhammad Ali Hasans and the Suhail Khans - because they are putting themselves out there and doing yeoman's work in the area of American Muslim civic engagement. 

Renee Ellmers thinks all Muslims are terrorists...um, unless each one can prove otherwise?

 

Renee Ellmers is the republican candidate for Congress in North Carolina.  She thinks all Muslims are terrorists.  Watch her campaign ad and her interview with Anderson Cooper and see and hear for yourself.

Wow.  Her position is that since she doesn't know that the Muslims involved with Park51 aren't terrorists, then it makes sense to presume that they are terrorists.

I wonder if that twisted reasoning applies across the board or just with Muslims?  It really doesn't matter how she answers this question, does it?

Shame on Ellmers.  And shame on the people in her district who embolden her to use this garbage in her campaign.

As an aside, I read her bio and learned that she is a mother.  I feel sorry for her boy (she speaks of her son in her bio).  A parent who espouses these views will likely impart these biases to her children.  Someone call child protective services.

Glenn Beck contradicts himself again, praises Dr. King and slams Obama for having the same religious outlook

Everyone knows that Glenn Beck talks about of both sides of his mouth.  At his rally over the weekend he wanted to bring our country "back to God" or "closer to God" and then later, after the rally, used the media attention from his little stunt to continue attacking President Obama's faith.

Today's Seattle Times reported this:

Beck, on his Fox News show last Tuesday, said that liberation theology is at the core of Obama's "belief structure."

"You see, it's all about victims and victimhood; oppressors and the oppressed; reparations, not repentance; collectivism, not individual salvation. I don't know what that is, other than it's not Muslim, it's not Christian. It's a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ as most Christians know it," Beck said.

Really Mr. Beck?  Is that what it is?  So, any faithful Christian who is concerned about the poor and about economic injustice is engaged in a "perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ"?

I wonder what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would think about that Mr. Beck?  Weren't you supposedly trying to honor Dr. King with you tea party rally today?

Well, the good news is, this duplicity by Glenn Beck will eventually make its way onto the John Stewart show and provide us all with a lot of laughs!

President Obama, Muslims and Terrorism - M. Zudhi Jasser thinks Obama is not doing enough

M. Zudhi Jasser recently wrote this:

I hope after Nidal Hasan, after the American jihadis in Pakistan, and now after the Christmas bomber radicalized in London, that you see our need for clear leadership against political Islam and its ubiquitous permeating militant manifestations. We need a leader who recognizes that this conflict is most significantly within Muslim communities as we Muslims struggle with the conflict between theocracy and democracy, sharia and liberty, Islamism and freedom, and salafism and modernity. The longer you squander your leadership and stay silent on this, the more vulnerable we will be.

Via NRO

Didn't Dr. Jasser listen to President Obama's speech to the Muslim world?  In that speech President Obama made it quite clear that America's fight is with violent extremists within the the Muslims world and not with Islam.

President Obama is handling our foreign affairs and our national security a lot better than his predecessor.

Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman: Young, headstrong, sometimes right, sometimes wrong - but 4 years in jail? That is unjust!

I believe in the freedom of expression.  God created humanity with the power to think and the freedom to exercise that power.  Expression is the articulation of person's thoughts and beliefs and he or she must be largely free to do so.

Freedom of expression is not an absolute right though.  There are limits.  American secular law (as well as other nation's laws) creates numerous exceptions to the freedom of expression.  Essentially these exceptions are the result of a balancing between one person's freedom of expression and his obligations to others.

Freedom is at the core of Islam.  And while a Muslim majority state may develop laws to protect (or regulate) the right of free expression based on the principles and commandments of the Quran (and as expounded upon by the Sunnah), God does not prohibit an individual's right to think and believe and express himself.  I'm sure there are many Muslims who would like to muzzle anti-Muslim and anti-Islam expressions but such beliefs run afoul of Islam's core value of freedom.

Blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, then 22, was arrested in 2006 and charged with publishing opinions aimed at disturbing public order, insulting the head of state and defaming Islam. He was expelled from al-Azhar University, Egypt's most prestigious seat of Islamic learning.

via Reuters

I've read some of what Kareem wrote.  He must not have been attending classes at Al-Azhar University because his understanding of Islam is deranged.  I am speaking in particular about his March 25, 2005 blog post entitled "The Naked Truth about Islam..." (it was originally written in Arabic) which has been reproduced, along with his other writings, at FreeKareem.org.

This blog post is the product of a frustrated, angry and demoralized person.  It seems to represent a mix of disgust over some very disgusting things (the looting and pillaging of Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt in 2005) and his angst over studying Islamic Law when that was not what he wanted for himself.  Remember, he was only 21 when he wrote "The Naked Truth about Islam..." and he wrote it a day after seeing some truly horrible things.  I think that's a lot of mitigation.

But regardless of the existence of mitigating factors, Kareem should not be imprisoned for his words.  That is wrong and it is un-Islamic.

In my professional life I've been assailed for holding very strong views on the freedom of expression.  Even to this day people try to use what I've said and what I've done vis-a-vis the freedom of expression to attempt to smear my reputation.  Most recently some extremist Muslims have taken to "outing" my support for freedom of expression in support of allegedly anti-Muslim/anti-Islam speech by sending annonymous emails to my mosque and to the leaders of other mosques in my community.  So, I understand the vitriol that is directed at Kareem as he languishes in an Egyptian prison, jailed for his words.

Thankfully, I live in America and so far most of our civil rights and civil liberties are intact.  So I am going to exercise those rights to speak out for Kareem.  I don't like what he said and I don't share his opinions, but I cannot sit silently while he is imprisoned for his ideas.  That is neither humane nor Islamic.

Visit FreeKareem.org and find out about what has happened to Kareem.  In his case the Egyptian dictatorship is using Kareem's words about Islam as cover to suppress his other, more political commentaries about the Hosni Mubarak regime.  But rest assured that there are extremist Muslims running around in our own communities with some narrow understandings of Islam and these folks too would be keen and eager to mete out similar punishments to those of us who challenge their rigid set of interpretations.

So, regardless of what you think of Kareem's ideas, you should consider adding your voice to help all people around the world who are oppressed for their beliefs and for their words.  Kareem is among them.

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Note: I realize that there are many other individuals throughout the world who are being held by oppressive forces simply because of what they believe and this blog post is in now way suggesting that this person's plight is more or less important than the others.

Domestic radicalization and FBI-American Muslim Relations: What is the best strategy?

Should the 5 young American Muslims picked up in Pakistan be charged with any crimes in the United States?

"Charging them and throwing them in jail is not the solution," said Nihad Awad, national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which approached the FBI on behalf of the families. "The government has to show some appreciation for the actions of the parents and the community. That will encourage other families to come forward."

The men, ages 18 to 24, traveled overseas just after Thanksgiving without telling their families and were arrested near Lahore on Dec. 8. A Pakistani court this week ordered them held for up to 10 more days of interrogation, but officials say their likely return to the United States could take months. Pakistani officials say the men were in touch with a Taliban recruiter and were aiming to join up with al-Qaeda and battle U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

No one has been charged, and the men's friends and spiritual advisers say they never saw any sign of radical beliefs or activities.

Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, where any criminal case would probably be brought, declined to comment. But law enforcement sources say prosecutors are likely to consider charges that include providing material support to terrorist organizations. Prosecutors face complexities that include whether the men's reported admissions to Pakistani authorities are admissible in a U.S. court and whether any statements were coerced.

Via the Washington Post

Did these 5 guys actually commit any crimes by the time they were apprehended?  What is to be gained by not charging them?  Does a greater prospect of domestic radicalization portend an even more strained relationship between American Muslims and the FBI?

There is an argument for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to be lenient with these 5 young men.  There is a lot to be gained for restraining the full force of the law and instead trading leniency for a more concrete and collaborative strategy that brings together the American Muslim community and the FBI in order to curtail future radicalization within the American Muslim community and to also accelerate the weeding out of those violent extremists who now dwell amongst us.  Also, these men may be good candidates for de-programming or de-radicalization.  With that de-programming comes the opportunity to learn a great deal about what caused them to snap in the first place.

Some of the questions I would like answered include: (1) How did these 5 young men conceal their hatred for America so well?  (2) Was the radicalization an acute event with some particular event causing these young men to snap?  (3)  What kind of religious environment did they have in their home?  and (4)  What kind of involvement did they have in their mosque and how did they view that involvement (were they using the mosque as a cover or did they in fact seek and receive spiritual guidance there)?  These are some of the questions I would like to have answered, because I think answers to these questions will be helpful in understanding the thinking of these young men.

If Holder decides to prosecute them aggressively with the severest possible charges, then we run the risk of these men becoming recalcitrant and opting to use the criminal prosecution as a soapbox for their ideas.  The recent prosecution (and conviction) of Ehsanul Islam Sadequee in Atlanta, GA for terrorism related charges is an example of just such a situation.  Sadequee, a 23 year old U.S. citizen, opted to defend himself, and in so doing, he seems to have squandered his opportunity to defend himself in exchange for sermonizing and speech-making on Islam.

On the other hand, being lenient could send the wrong message to other would be hirabis.  Being lenient on these 5 young men may suggest to other would be violent extremists in our midst to continue with their schemes and plots with greater impugnity.

The one factor that may (should) tip the scale in favor of leniency is the fact that the families actively sought the help of the FBI.  That is precisely the kind of cooperation the FBI wants.  The American Muslim community in the DC area is no stranger to the sordid history of the FBI with American Muslims but they recognized that the FBI is a valuable resources in protecting American Muslims as well as the broader community and in the interest of protecting these 5 young American Muslims, the families reached out.  Thankfully, and possibly as a direct result of this early outreach, these 5 young men were scooped up in Pakistan before they could harm anyone (including themselves).

Sooner or later we will reckon with the fact that we cannot alienate and marginalize American Muslims and still expect to garner this community's support in rooting out extremism within the American Muslim community.  Partnering with the American Muslim community is the only way, short of shredding our Constitution, to combat home-grown hirabah.  This is an opportunity to begin mending fences and building some trust between the American Muslim community and the FBI.