Tag Archives: Terrorism

Please See It For What It Is

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In the Name of the Kind and Beautiful Precious Beloved Lord

The sectarian violence that has gripped the land of my ancestors, Egypt, has been truly sickening to watch. The attacks on Christians and Christian churches in the past weeks are horrific, and they must be condemned. Not that my condemnation necessarily means much, but at least I – an American Muslim of Egyptian descent – have spoken out against it before God.

This internecine violence the world is currently witnessing is a totally new phenomenon in Egypt. Many of my relatives have grown up in Egypt and they all told me that this Muslim-Christian thing had never existed until after the Revolution. Egyptians always lived together in peace, not caring who is Christian and who is Muslim. One of my patients is an Egyptian Coptic Christian, and she just came back from Egypt, where she stayed at her Muslim friends’ homes and broke the Ramadan fast with them. This is the true spirit of the Egyptian people.

No doubt, there are some in each community who desires to see violence against the other. But, they are a tiny minority. Their rhetoric of violence and exclusion must also be condemned. But, what I can see – and it is clear as day - is that this interreligious violence is being  stoked by nefarious elements within society. And what I urge Egyptians – Christians and Muslims – to see through the aims of those who want Christians and Muslims to attack each other and resist it.

The governing Council must do everything within its power to protect all Egyptian citizens – Christians and Muslims alike. They must do everything within its power – within the rule of law – to stop those who want to attack fellow Egyptians simply because are Christians. Yet, more than this, I urge Egyptians – those with my very same ancestry – to remember who they are: Egyptians, citizens of one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known.

This sort of violence is a stain upon our heritage as people of Egyptian descent.  This violence is beneath both Egypt and her people. The Egyptian people are better than this, and I urge them to remember this fact. And for those Muslims who think that Christians are to be attacked, I remind them that this is totally against everything for which Islam stands. Moreover, it is a direct affront to the directives of our beloved Prophet:

This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.

Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them.

Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.

No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.

Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet.

Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.

The Muslims are to fight for them.

If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.

Their churches are to be respected.

They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.

No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).

Please see this for what it is: evil people trying to destroy all the good which the Revolution has brought by stoking violence between people who are actually brothers and sisters. Do not let the evil ones win.

This first appeared on Beliefnet.

Security and Trust vs Suspicion and Scapegoating

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In the Name of the Kind and Beautiful Precious Beloved Lord

Ever since 9/11, the American Muslim community has been placed under a tremendous amount of scrutiny. Even now, more than ten years after those terrible events, the cloud of suspicion has not lifted over the community. According to a months-long investigation, the Associated Press has published an article claiming that the New York Police Department, with apparent help from the CIA, has engaged in an aggressive intelligence-gathering operation within the Muslim community. According to the article:

The department has dispatched undercover officers, known as “rakers,” into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program. They’ve monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as “mosque crawlers,” to monitor sermons, even when there’s no evidence of wrongdoing…Many of these operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in transforming the NYPD’s intelligence unit.

An enormous amount of taxpayer money, $1.6 billion since 9/11, has been spent on such an operation. In addition, Wired magazine reports that highly inflammatory anti-Islam materials have been used to paint the entire American Muslim community as “violent” and “radical.” According to the article: “The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that ‘main stream’ [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a ‘cult leader’; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a ‘funding mechanism for combat.’”

The facts, however, consistently belie the contention that the American Muslim community is a violent “fifth column.” According to a U.S. Justice Department study conducted by two North Carolina Universities:

Although the vast majority of Muslim-Americans reject extremist ideology and violence, a small number of Muslim-Americans have radicalized since 9/11. In the eight years following 9/11, according to our project’s count, 139 Muslim-Americans committed acts of terrorism-related violence or were prosecuted for terrorism-related offenses that involve some element of violence. This level of approximately 17 individuals per year is small compared to other violent crime in America, but not insignificant. Homegrown terrorism is a serious, but limited, problem.

The reasons for this, according to the study, are: (1) public and private denunciations of violence, (2) robust self-policing practices and community building, (3) heightened political engagement, and (4) an assertive Muslim-American identity which, the study has shown, has served to undercut the radical message that American values and practices are hostile to Islam. Moreover, opinion polls have consistently shown American Muslims to overwhelmingly reject violence against innocent people, much more so than their Christian and Jewish compatriots.

A recent Gallup survey asked if attacks on civilians by individuals or small groups is ever justified, 89% of Muslims said it is “never” justified. This is more than Protestants (71%), Catholics (71%), Jews (75%), Mormons (79%), or those without any religious affiliation (76%). Asked if it was “sometimes” justified, Muslims were the least in saying yes. A more recent Pew survey has reiterated these findings, with 81% of American Muslims believing that suicide terrorism is never justified.

Further, according to Michael E. Rolince, former FBI Special Agent in Charge of Counterterrorism in the Washington D.C., field office:

“We conducted about a half a million interviews post-9/11 relative to the attacks of 9/11, and this is important because your community gets painted as not doing enough and you could have helped. I’m not aware — and I know 9/11 about as well as anybody in the FBI knows 9/11 and that’s not bragging that’s just the reality — I’m not aware of any single person in your community who, had they stepped forward, could have provided a clue to help us get out in front of this.”

He said this in 2005 at the Muslim Public Affairs Committee’s annual convention.

So, why the continued suspicion and mistrust of the Islamic-American community? Leave aside the fact that making sweeping generalizations and painting an entire community with the sins of its criminals is patently un-American. Making all Muslims out to be “terrorists-in-waiting” hurts our national security. As the article in Wired says:

The FBI isn’t just treading on thin legal ice by portraying ordinary, observant Americans as terrorists-in-waiting, former counterterrorism agents say. It’s also playing into al-Qaida’s hands. Focusing on the religious behavior of American citizens instead of proven indicators of criminal activity like stockpiling guns or using shady financing makes it more likely that the FBI will miss the real warning signs of terrorism. And depicting Islam as inseparable from political violence is exactly the narrative al-Qaida spins — as is the related idea that America and Islam are necessarily in conflict.

Now, I am under no illusion of the daunting task of preventing another terrorist attack placed before law enforcement officials all across this country. I think I can safely speak for all Americans when I say that I expect nothing less than a relentless effort on the part of law enforcement to root out every single potential terrorist or terrorist plot. But training law-enforcement officials to fear every single peaceful, law-abiding Muslim citizen sends a chilling message of deep suspicion and mistrust, as well as frank betrayal, when what is needed is even stronger collaboration and cooperation.

The American Muslim community is a willing partner in the fight against terrorists who seek to harm innocent Americans. Many domestic terror plots by Muslims, in fact, have been foiled by the American Muslim community itself. I can see how most Americans would think it to be understandable, if not logical, to spy on the Muslim community, given that Muslim extremists successfully attacked NYC twice. Yet, I fear that such spying will further damage an already frail relationship between the Muslim community and law enforcement, and this is the last thing that either party needs. I hope and pray that, through these revelations, smarter heads in our law-enforcement agencies will prevail.

This article first appeared in Middle East Online.

A Tale of Two Communities

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In the Name of the Kind and Beautiful Precious Beloved LORD

As our country and her people marked the tenth anniversary of the horrific attacks of September 11, an obvious question came to mind: what is the status of the American Muslim community? Are they a supportive minority which loves the country and is committed to fight against extremism in all its forms? Or are they a subversive “fifth column,” seeking to destroy the country with their “Sharia law”? The answer to that question, it seems, depends on whom is being asked.

According to two recently released Pew Research polls, there seems to be two different American Muslim communities. In one Pew poll, 40% of Americans think there is at least a fair amount of support for extremism among Muslims in the United States. When separated by party affiliation, 55% of Republicans have this belief, while 33% and 39% of Democrats and Independents, respectively, think the same. Moreover, 35% of Republicans think Islamic extremism is on the rise, compared with 18% of Democrats and 25% of independents.

Ask Muslims these very same questions, and the answers are quite different. 21% of American Muslims think there is at least a fair amount of support for extremism in the Muslim community. Indeed, 21% still seems like a high number, but it is nearly half the number of non-Muslim Americans who think the same. Only 4% of Muslims think that Muslim support for extremism is increasing, contrasted with 24% of the public. When asked if they think Muslims who come to the US want to adopt American customs, 33% of the general public said yes, while 56% of American Muslims said the same. 

In fact, support of extremism within the Muslim community is “negligible,” in the words of the Pew researchers. Only 8% of American Muslims believe that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets are often or sometimes justified to defend Islam from its enemies. In contrast, 81% of American Muslims believe suicide terrorism is never justified. There is a very small number (5%) who have very or somewhat favorable views of Al Qaeda. Again, these numbers are still too high, but it is not consistent with the perception by some in America that extremism is rampant and increasing among American Muslims.

Why the disconnect? Are American Muslims “lying”? Are they practicing “taqiyya,” or dissimulation? This is laughable. The truth of the matter is, and research has consistently confirmed this, that American Muslims are loyal, patriotic, and mainstream. In fact, despite a belief by a majority of  Muslims that life has become more difficult since 9/11, many more American Muslims believe life is going well in the United States compared to the general public (56% vs 23%). So, again, why the disconnect between perception and reality?

Despite the laudable work of American Muslims since 9/11, there still remains an enormous lack of knowledge about Islam and the Muslim community on the part of the general public. A Gallup poll indicated that 62% of Americans do not personally know a Muslim. This number must be made smaller, because the more people get to know their Muslim fellow Americans, the better they feel about them: “People who know a Muslim tend to be less likely than others to see a connection between Islam and violence,” says Gregory Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum. Furthermore, the concerted and well-funded effort by a very small number of Islamophobes to smear Islam and Muslims has worked to some degree. The constant focus on only negative stories by the media, especially when it comes to Islam and Muslims, does not help, either.

Yet, that should not discourage the American Muslim community at all. It should only serve to increase its effort to reach out and get to know their neighbors. The Qur’an says:
 

“But [since] good and evil cannot be equal, repel thou [evil] with something that is better and lo! he between whom and thyself was enmity [may then become] as though he had [always] been close [unto thee], a true friend!” (41:34)

And it should never be for the sake of good “PR.” Never. Rather, it must be out of a desire to fulfill God’s challenge to the Muslim community: to be the “best nation put forth for humanity” by “enjoining what is good” and “forbidding what is wrong.” It must be out of a desire to help without “recompense from [fellow Americans], nor thanks.” This is because we, as a community, ”stand in awe of our Lord’s judgment on a distressful, fateful Day!” (76:9-10)

Yes, as the next decade unfolds, those who do not want to see American Muslims succeed will most surely continue their efforts. In fact, they will act as Abu Lahab, the Prophet’s uncle, once did: following the Prophet (pbuh) wherever he went and telling the people, “Do not listen to him! He is a lying sorcerer!” But, just as this did not stop the Prophet (pbuh) in his effort, neither should the screams of “taqiyya” from the Islamophobes stop us. Our responsibility is to our Lord to do good on earth as much as possible for His sake.

And when our people see us for who we truly are: Americans just like them, who believe in the very same God as they, and love and care about this country just as much as they do, they will realize that they have nothing to fear. Already, a majority of American Muslims (80%) believe that their fellow Americans are either friendly or neutral toward them. That number can always be bigger, and it is incumbent upon American Muslims to make it so. There will always be Islamophobes who scream into the wind, but with God’s help, those screams can and will, one day, fade completely into oblivion. 

Thank God They Were Caught

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In the Name of the Beautiful and Kind Precious Beloved

Thank God they were caught. Two men – with extensive criminal backgrounds – were arrested on charges of plotting to attack a military processing center in Seattle, Washington. According to the complaint:

Both men are U.S. citizens and converts to Islam, according to the charges. Abdul-Latif is a felon who spent 2 ½ years in prison on robbery and assault charges. Mujahidh had been living in Los Angeles, but came to Seattle as the plan developed, according to the charges. He has no felony criminal history, although he was named in a civil domestic-violence protective order filed in King County in 2007 by his wife.

The men are charged with conspiracy to murder U.S. officers, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (a grenade) and other firearms-related counts. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler ordered them held pending a detention hearing next Wednesday. The maximum penalty for the crimes is life in prison; however, the firearms-related counts carry 30-year mandatory minimum sentences.

There are a number of important points that must be made.

First, thank God they were caught. If what is alleged against them is actually true, it would have been a heinous crime, such as that in Fort Hood, Texas. This is not the way to change policy, and in no way does Islam sanction such methods. If you disagree with our nation’s foreign policy, then you work peacefully to change that policy – not kill and maim people. Period.

Second, the men are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. While the charges are serious, we must let due process take its course. Third, it is important to point out that the actions of these men are an aberration, the actions of a criminal mind (if what is alleged against them is true). They are not representative of the Muslim community, or Islam, or Muslims in general. As the U.S. Attorney said:

These are the actions of individuals who adhere to a violent and extreme ideology and do not represent and should not reflect on the Muslim community as a whole. We hope there is no backlash here. That would not be fair or what we stand for.

Fourth, and most importantly, the plot was foiled by another Muslim. As reported in the complaint:

The complaint details an escalating plot discovered by police on May 30 after Abdul-Latif approached another man who he believed shared a radical Islamic ideology.

The charges allege that Abdul-Latif had known the man for several years and believed he could help him obtain weapons he wanted to use to attack the U.S. military because of events in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.

The man, however, went to Seattle police. The complaint does not identify the informant by name, but describes him as a five-time felon who was paid for his efforts.

True, the informant was not a model citizen. Nevertheless, this shows the fact that – rather than being complicit in terror plots, as Congressman Peter King (R-NY) alleges – the American Muslim community is an active participant in the fight against terror. Many plots, in fact, were foiled by the Muslim community itself.

We love this country, and we are against anyone – Muslim or otherwise – who seeks to harm this country and her people. Thank God these men were caught, and if what is alleged against them is true, may they receive the judgment and justice they deserve.

May God protect our country and protect the Muslim community from barbaric criminals who would do something like this. Amen.

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Another Investigation for Rep. King?: Washington Post

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In the Name of God, the Kind, the Beautiful

Thanks be to the Precious Beloved, this was published today on the Washington Post’s Faith Divide blog, courtesy of my friend Eboo Patel.


The safety and security of the United States and her people is of the utmost importance to every single American, not just to Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. I am confident that any American would do his or her utmost to prevent an attack of any kind against their country. It would make the most sense, to me at least, to examine all sources of threats to the security of the Homeland, in order to get a full, informed view of what threatens the country and how to properly deal with it.

Thus, it was exasperating to read about (and watch part of) Rep. King’s March 10 hearing entitled, “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response.” It was troubling to see Rep. King focus solely on the American Muslim community, as if it was the only source of the threat of terrorism against the Homeland. On the one hand, I am grateful for his and the Committee’s efforts in keeping my family and me safe from terrorist attack. Yet, to see him single out my faith community, to the exclusion of all others, was disturbing to the very core.

It made me wonder: will Rep. King also investigate the extent of the terrorist threat against Muslims in this country and the government’s response? Ever since 9/11, the American Muslim community has been the subject of sustained attack and backlash for the sins of terrorists both home and abroad. Mosques have been firebombed, vandalized, and even burned to the ground. In response to a local, New York City community center project, a man in Madera, California attacked a mosque with a brick and left signs saying, “No Temple for the God of terrorism at Ground Zero. ANB,” “Wake up America, the Enemy is here. ANB” and “American Nationalist Brotherhood.”

Scores of American Muslims , completely innocent of the crimes of the terrorist criminals who may happen to share their faith, have been brutalized, attacked, harassed, beaten, and even killed. Even people who are perceived to be Muslim, such as Sikh Americans, have been attacked. Recently, in California, two Sikh men were gunned down in an apparent hate crime. Also in California, Muslims attending a fundraiser to help combat homelessness and domestic abuse were harassed and subjected to vile insults by “patriots” protesting their presence. Local residents shouted: “You beat your women and you rape your children!” And, “Take your sharia and go home, you terrorist lovers. Your hands are bloody! Your money is bloody! Get out!”

This is not to mention the sustained terrorist threat against abortion clinics, Planned Parenthood clinics, and – sad to say – African-American churches in this country. This is not to mention the fact that African-Americans were subjected to domestic terrorism for over 100 years in this country. This is not to mention to the ever-present terrorist threat against Jews and synagogues in this country. Will Rep. King investigate this? Will he hold hearings into the clear and present danger of violent extremism that emanates from without the Muslim community? In fact, according to a recent study, in 2010, there were more than 30 domestic terror plots. Ten of them were by Muslims.

The threat of radicalization of American Muslims is real, and I do not dismiss it at all. It must be dealt with in a responsible manner. Yet, so should all the threats of violent extremism against America and Americans. Singling out one community for investigation does not make us safer; it does not make us more unified as a people; it only alienates and hurts, and it hands our terrorist enemies – Muslim or otherwise – an unwarranted victory.

Peter King and Other Islamophobes: Middle East Online

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In the Name of God, the Kind, the Beautiful

This was published today in the Middle East Online.

On Feb 10, NY Rep. Peter King, Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, held his first in a series of hearings over the “Radicalization of American Muslims” and what to do about it. Despite numerous voices urging the Republican from NY to broaden the scope of his probe into homegrown extremism and terrorism, King was undeterred, saying: “To back down would be a craven surrender to political correctness and an abdication of what I believe to be the main responsibility of this committee — to protect America from a terrorist attack.”

Most analysis of the hearing has concluded that nothing new was learned, and some have called it “political theater.” Rep. King has promised more hearings, and most American Muslims are bracing for more negative news in the months and years to come. Although King has never advocated hatred of Muslims, his lumping of the entire American Muslim community with the acts of a few terrorists (161 since Sept. 11, 2001, according to a University of North Carolina study) many American Muslims fear King will play right into the hands of those trying to demonize the entire community.

Indeed, there has been a steady and troubling growth of anti-Muslim hatred and fear ever since September 11, and it appears to have accelerated in the last few years. All across the country, people with clear anti-Muslim bias and even overt hatred are being proffered as “experts” on Islam. They are members of panel discussions on Islam; they appear on television programs; they are guests on radio shows; they even are recruited to teach college courses on Islam. All this despite their obvious anti-Islamic agenda.

It is imperative to see through the agenda of Rep. King and the other Islamophobic “experts.” If Mr. King were truly serious about the threat of violent extremism against the United States, he would have also examined the threat from right-wing groups whose rise, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been meteoric since the election of President Obama. In its Spring 2011 report, the SPLC states that the number of hate groups in the United States is over 1,000, a 7.5% increase from 2009. Moreover, according to a UNC study, there were more than 30 domestic terror plots in 2010; only ten were committed by Muslims. Thus, to focus solely on the Muslim threat, to the exclusion of all others, is playing politics in the worst manner ahead of the 2012 election cycle.

As for the Islamophobes posing as experts, many of them do not have even a cursory knowledge or understanding of the Arabic language, which is critical given that the sacred text of Islam is in Arabic. These “experts” continue to peddle old and tired Orientalist claims against Islam, the Qur’an, and the Prophet Muhammad and yet are not called out on it. These “experts” are open in their guile for Islam, yet they are still requested to speak about Islam and Muslims. They are either in it for self-promotion and enrichment, or are part of a concerted effort to disenfranchise the American Muslim community, again for short-term political gain. Contrary to their claims, the good of the country is not in their interest at all.

As I watched part of the King hearing, it was very disheartening and saddening to see the American Muslim community — my community — singled out as the cause of violent extremism and homegrown terrorism. Seeing and reading about the numerous attacks against Muslims and their houses of worship, despite the fact that they have nothing to do with terrorism, serves to dishearten me as well. But, I am not giving up on America that easily. My country is much better than the ignorant acts of a few of my fellow Americans. My people, the American people, are much better than the crimes of a tiny minority. I know that American Muslims will come to be seen as part of the American family. The sooner that happens, the better it will be for the country and the world.

Investigating the U.S. Conscience

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In the Name of God, the Kind, the Beautiful

Thanks be to the Precious Beloved, I was asked (and accepted) to contribute to the blog at the Interfaith Youth Core, the organization run by my great friend Eboo Patel. Here is my first post:

Undeterred by the myriad of protests, editorials, press conferences, letters from his colleagues, and national call-ins to his office, NY Rep. Peter King, Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, will proceed with his hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims. Despite facts to the opposite, Rep. King continues to assert that, in his words, “There is a real threat to the country from the Muslim community, and the only way to get to the bottom of it is to investigate what is happening.”

It is eerily reminiscent of the McCarthy hearings, where Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy was looking for Communists in every corner. Singling out the Muslim community, as if it is the only source of the extremist threat against the United States, does little to make our great nation any safer. Rather, it seeks to divide our country along religious and ethnic lines, fostering the very division and hatred that our terrorist enemies, such as Al Qaeda, would love to see happen in the United States.

The growing cries of protest and discomfort from many segments of our society, including the Obama Administration, is heartening.

Yet, people of faith must also add their voices to the mix. It may be Muslims today, but it will be another group tomorrow, and as people of faith, we cannot stand aside and watch the demonization of a group of Americans for no other reason than they choose to practice Islam as their faith, which is a fundamental right in America.

All of our faith traditions call to do good and resist evil. All of our faith traditions decry the discrimination against people for who they are. All of our faith traditions call for us to be good neighbors to one another, and this hearing is anything but neighborly. It is ungodly and quintessentially un-American. People of faith should lead the vanguard against such hate- and fear-mongering.

Although it is very unsettling to see, I know that our country will survive the King hearings, and I have faith that the Muslim community will only become stronger. There are some who are consumed by their hatred of anything that is unlike them, including some Muslims, but they are a tiny, tiny minority. The overwhelming majority of people have good hearts, and they will not stand for such an affront to all that is dear to us as a people. It seems that Rep. King wants to divide us and make us fear one another. All of us must stand up and resist his aim.

As Terrorist As They Come…

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In the Name of God, the Kind, the Beautiful

The wave of protest and revolution continues to roll all across the Middle East. After Egyptians, with whom I proudly share ancestry, toppled their dictator after a mere 18 days of largely peaceful protest, now their neighbors to the West have done the same. In Libya, the people have stood up and said, “Enough” to their leaders, calling for democracy and the freedom to choose their own path and destiny.

But the regime could not stand this. Numerous reports have surfaced that the regime of Moammar Al Ghaddafi has brought in foreign mercenaries to fight and kill unarmed protesters in the capital Tripoli. Indeed, it is difficult to confirm many of the reports, but they keep coming from many different sources. In fact, another report claimed that two Libyan pilots crashed their planes rather than follow orders to bomb the civilians in Benghazi, the country’s second largest city.

And now it seems the country has been split in two: the eastern half being wrested from the regime, and Tripoli remaining in the hands of a madman who will not flinch at mowing down unarmed protesters in the streets.

It is without doubt that a man who straps a bomb on his chest, walks into a pizzeria in Tel Aviv, and detonates the bomb is a terrorist. It is without doubt that a man, yelling “Allahu Akbar” or “Down with the government,” who flies a plane into a building and killing innocent people is a terrorist. It is without doubt that a person who bombs any house of worship – church, synagogue, mosque, or temple - is a terrorist.

But to bring in foreigners to your country to kill your own people; to order your own Air Force to bomb unarmed protesters in your own country; to gun down protesters chanting, “Salmeya, Selmeya (“Peaceful, Peaceful”), like what I witnessed in a video sent from Bahrain: that is as terroristic as they come.

Why do they do this? Because the people want different leadership? Because the people want a say in how their lives are governed? Because they no longer accept to be treated like insects and animals? Because they want their dignity, long-stripped away from them for decades? Is this the reason to kill innocent people because they dare to stand up and claim their rights?

That’s as terrorist as they come.

What I have seen on the television (and smartphone) screens, what I have read in news reports, and what I have heard on the radio has disgusted me to the core, even more than I was when I witnessed the carnage in Egypt. These brutal dictators are truly criminal thugs, and they have absolutely no legitimacy whatsoever. I pray that the Lord protects the people of Libya, Bahrain, and any other country from the brutality of their leaders and those in charge. And I pray that the freedom I enjoy here in the West comes to every oppressed person on this earth.

Yes, someone who blows himself and others in a crowded market is a true terrorist. But so is a man who orders planes and helicopters to fire upon and kill his own people, simply for raising their voices in protest. That is as terrorist as they come.

The New Egypt: What Role Will the Brotherhood Play?

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In the Name of God, the Kind, the Beautiful

This article was published on altmuslim.

 

Over the past ten days or so, the world has witnessed what was, perhaps even a few short months ago, wholly unthinkable in Egypt. Inspired by events in nearby Tunisia, ordinary people took to the streets all over Egypt, demanding their personal and political freedom, governmental reform, and a change in the current regime and its structure. Their most powerful demand, the immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, is really more of a symbolic gesture, as he represents the very regime structure that needs to change. The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, some even festive, and the actions of ordinary Egyptians has instilled amazement and awe the world over – and enormous pride in Americans of Egyptian descent like me.

For a brief moment, I had thought that the incredulous courage and fortitude of the Egyptian protesters would cause the Government to stand down and acquiesce to their demands for a free and open Egypt. How naive I was. In response to the peace of the protesters, the Government responded with force, brutality, depravity, and violence. When a brutal crackdown by security forces did not force the people to cower in fear, authorities decided to take the police off the streets and replace them with criminals and thugs to pillage at will. Yet, that did not thwart the popular uprising, and seeing that their government as abandoned them, ordinary citizens banded together to clean their streets and protect their neighborhoods.

Yet, the Government’s brutality was not to be outdone. As my cousin recently told me, “Firaoun (Pharoah) has got nothing on Mubarak.” In order to break the protests, “pro-Mubarak supporters,” i.e., government-paid thugs and even some plain clothes security officers, viciously attacked unarmed protesters with knives, clubs, and even guns. Dozens have been killed, and hundred have been wounded. And now, there is a systematic attack on journalists of all stripes, in order to silence their reports and keep the world in the dark about what is happening in Cairo.

Witnessing this unmitigated and brutal depravity (I didn’t think the Egyptian Government could sink this low), so many in America rightly asked the question, “We supported this guy Mubarak?” Indeed, Egypt has been the beneficiary of around $60 billion in U.S. aid over three decades, despite the glaring lack of freedom, repression of the populace, and systematic human rights abuses.

Yet, whenever the United States would “tsk tsk” President Mubarak over his brutal policies and treatment of his people, he would consistently dangle the Islamists in the air. “If it is not me,” he would say, “it will be the Muslim Brotherhood.” Indeed, now there are screams of panic from many talking heads on cable television warning that this current uprising may lead to another Iranian “Islamic Revolution.”

President Mubarak needs to be supported, they say, else the Islamists will be whisked into power and the Arab Republic of Egypt will become the Islamic Republic of Egypt. Egyptian Government officials are also playing into this fear, blaming the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt for the recent violence that has erupted between pro- and anti-government protesters.

Yet, the United States should know better. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt did not publicly get behind the protest movement until well after it started. Haroon Moghul, Executive Director of the Maydan Institute, writes:

And while the Brotherhood is an incredibly large and powerful organization, it is today a product of years of suppression, torture, and intimidation. While it seeks to change society, it does not pursue an explicitly political agenda. Rather, it believes that an ideal politics will be achieved once society is Islamized—in other words, enough introduction of Muslim values into popular culture, and society will simply reform itself—and that includes the state. So while they have political ideals, they certainly don’t have an explicit political program.

Some call the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt the “godfather of Al Qaeda.” Yet, as the New York Times writes:

American politicians and pundits have used the Brotherhood as a sort of boogeyman, tagging it as a radical menace and the grandfather of Al Qaeda. That lineage is accurate in a literal sense: some Qaeda leaders, notably the terrorist network’s Egyptian second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, have roots in the organization. But Qaeda leaders despise the Brotherhood because it has renounced violence and chosen to compete in elections. “The Brotherhood hates Al Qaeda, and Al Qaeda hates the Brotherhood,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. “So if we’re talking about counterterrorism, engaging with the Brotherhood will advance our interests in the region.”

Nathan Brown, a political science professor at George Washington University and director of its Institute for Middle East Studies, has written extensively on the Muslim Brotherhood and told Salon.com:

They certainly take their Islam seriously. But in many ways this is a very conservative movement. The current general guide is a professor of veterinary medicine. He’s a shy guy. These are not fire-breathing radicals at the top of the organization. And whenever somebody talks a little bit too violently and impatiently, they are told either to calm down or to leave the movement.

He also added:

The concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood’s relationship to political violence is not based on hallucinations — it is there. In the 1950s and ’60s the Brotherhood did develop this strain of thought that said, the existing government is not Islamic and therefore some kind of armed clash is inevitable. That strain has basically been repudiated by the Brotherhood.

Most experts note that, if the Brotherhood were to participate in free and fair elections, they would receive about 20-30% of the popular vote, not exactly an “Islamic Revolution” by any means. Furthermore, anthropologist Scott Atran wrote in the Times:

If Egyptians are given political breathing space, [Hisham Kaseem, newspaper editor and human rights activist] told me, the Brotherhood’s importance will rapidly fade. “In this uprising the Brotherhood is almost invisible,” Mr. Kaseem said, “but not in America and Europe, which fear them as the bogeyman.”

Thus, the United States needs to get much more sophisticated in its analysis of Islamists. Yes, there are the radical, fire-breathing Islamists such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban, who have no compunction about killing innocent civilians to get their way. These groups and their ideologies must be fought and defeated. Yet, there are other Islamists that are the antithesis to Al Qaeda, such as the ruling party in Turkey, who have embraced pluralistic democratic systems of government and want to fully participate in them.

Like it or not, Islamic political parties are part of the political fabric in many countries in the Middle East, and it is time we treat each Islamist group as an individual entity, rather than lump them all together as “radicals” and “terrorists.” It is this knee-jerk response to all things Islamist that contributed, in part, to our undying support for Mubarak’s oppressive regime in Egypt.

And as Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official now at the Brookings Institution, told the NY Times: “If we really want democracy in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is going to be a big part of the picture. Rather than demonizing them, we ought to start engaging them now.” Let us hope the Obama Administration takes heed.

Let’s All “Refudiate” Collective Blame

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In the Name of God, the Kind, the Beautiful

This article was also published at altmuslim.

As the shock and horror of what transpired on January 8, when a “deranged gunman” opened fire and killed 6 people outside a Tuscon grocery store, continues to subside, I cannot help but be bewildered by the extreme efforts of some in the punditocracy to deflect any sort of collective blame for what happened. Commentator after commentator, mostly on the Right, continually stress that the actions of this man, Jared Lee Loughner, have nothing to do with the Conservative movement or the millions of Americans who call themselves so. Writing in the National Review Online, Jonah Goldberg states:

The effort to assign blame to conservatives or tea partiers is unfair slanderous nonsense, driven by a desire to demonize fellow Americans and drive conservative views outside the bounds of legitimate discourse. Indeed, even if conservative rhetoric — or, sigh, Facebook maps – were misconstrued by a tiny fraction of a fraction of the roughly 40% of Americans who call themselves conservative to the point where they committed a violent act, it would still be outrageous to assign that intent to mainstream Republican or conservative figures or to the ideas they espouse.

Quoting the sainted figure Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin said: “‘We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.’”

She then continued: “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election.”

To be clear, Mr. Goldberg and Mrs. Palin are exactly correct. It is totally outrageous to assign the blame on an entire segment of the American population for the actions of, to use his words, “a tiny fraction of a fraction” of that segment. Yet, when it comes to Muslims committing violence, such extreme efforts to deflect blame upon all Muslims or Islam itself is almost never seen, even though the acts of violence are committed by said “tiny fraction of a fraction” of Muslims.

Take the recent FBI-orchestrated bombing attempt in Portland, Oregon as an example. The mosque which the bombing suspect, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, attended was revealed, and it was deliberately set on fire. Almost always, when a Muslim suspect is apprehended, the mosque which he either regularly or even occasionally attended is highlighted. Why?

On Jared Lee Loughner’s Wikipedia page, It delineates his history in excruciating detail. Yet, there is no mention of the church with which he may have been affiliated (in fact, it mentions that he was critical of religion). This is completely appropriate, because knowledge of the church with which he may have been affiliated is completely irrelevant. The congregants of that church have nothing to do with his actions.

In her statement, Sarah Palin lashes out at journalists who had the audacity to link the actions of Jared Lee Loughner with her infamous map on which individual Congressional districts, including that of Gabby Giffords, were targeted with graphics of gun cross-hairs: “…journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.” Of course, it is not known for certain that this map was the motivation behind Loughner’s massacre. And so many are quick, rightly, to point this out.

Yet, imagine, for one moment, if a “MuhammadPAC” had published a map of Muslim-unfriendly Congressional districts and had cross-hairs or even little scimitars on them. If a Muslim gunman had then opened fire in one of these districts, is there any doubt that there would be an immediate linkage? Is there any doubt that this gunman, and “MuhammadPAC,” would be considered as full-blown terrorists? Is there any doubt that the entire Muslim community would be blamed for the attack?

Moreover, Mrs. Palin herself used this “collective blame” tactic when speaking out against the so-called “Ground-Zero Mosque,” which is a local, New York issue, and issued a call to the entire American Muslim community: “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.” What does this mean, exactly? Those Muslims who support the Park51 project are not peaceful? And what does the entire American Muslim community have to do with the Park51 project, which is, again, a local New York City issue?

In fact, this sort of collective blame, which the right is vigorously attacking when it seems to be directed at them, seems to be behind the thinking of the new Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King (R-NY). Speaking to Frank Gaffney on his radio show, Mr. King said:

Yeah, and Frank, this is very unusual for our country because despite a person’s ethnic background or religious background, when a war begins, we’re all Americans. But in this case, this is not the situation. And whether it’s pressure, whether it’s cultural tradition, whatever, the fact is the Muslim community does not cooperate anywhere near to the extent that it should. The irony is that we’re living in two different worlds. One is the real world that I find when I’m talking with police officers, talking with federal law enforcement authorities. And when I raise the question of Muslim cooperation, they look at me like ‘oh of course not, no there’s no cooperation, we don’t anticipate that.’ You know, ‘We never expect cooperation.’ They try but hardly ever get it.

Not only is this patently false, as the Muslim community has played an instrumental role in breaking up potential terrorist plots, but it speaks to a larger sense that American Muslims are not “real” Americans. They are foreign, strange, and not to be trusted. This is probably why attacks by Muslims such as Nidal Malik Hassan did not generate such deep introspection about civility, political discourse, and the like. Nidal Malik Hassan, even though he was American-born, just doesn’t seem like “one of us,” whereas Jared Lee Loughner does.

In his moving speech at the memorial service for the dead and wounded in Tuscon, President Obama said:

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -– at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do -– it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds…

I echo this call and urge it be applied to all of America’s citizens, including her Muslim ones. Jonah Goldberg’s words are completely correct, and they apply just as much to the Muslim community as they do to conservatives. Sarah Palin is absolutely right in saying that, “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them…,” and that includes criminals who have a Muslim name or background.

The tragedy in Tuscon has deeply wounded our country, and I hope and pray that we as a country as made stronger as a result of what has happened. And if, God forbid, another Muslim is accused of plotting an act of terror, I hope and pray that people remember the words of our President: “What we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do. That we cannot do.”