Where are the Muslim voices against terrorism… HERE!
by: Craig Wiesner on May 5th, 2010 | 15 Comments »
Just in case someone asks (in person, on the radio, or on some news program on TV) “Where are the Muslim voices condemning the attempted bombing in New York?” you can let them know that some of them are right here. First a video from CAIR and then a transcript from a statement by Naseem Mahdi, national vice president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the U.S.
Council on American Islamic Relations
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 5/4/10) — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today welcomed the arrest of a suspect in connection with last weekend’s failed car bomb attack on Times Square. (View video of today’s news conference.)
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), along with several other national and regional Muslim groups,* said the alleged actions of the Pakistani-American suspect are not representative of the nation’s Muslim community and urged fellow citizens not to allow the incident to be exploited to advance growing anti-Islam sentiment.
In a statement released this afternoon at a news conference in Washington, D.C., CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in part: (View video of today’s news conference.)
“On behalf of the American Muslim community, we condemn the attack in Times Square and thank all those who reported their suspicions, disarmed the bomb or are participating in the current investigation. We welcome the arrest of a suspect and hope that anyone involved in the attack will be apprehended and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
“American Muslims repudiate all acts of terrorism and will continue to work with local, state and federal law enforcement authorities to keep our nation safe and secure. We ask anyone who has information about this attack to contact local police and the FBI. Any person who is afraid to contact the authorities directly should contact CAIR. We will then assist these individuals in contacting relevant authorities.
“In no way, shape or form does this attack represent American Muslims or what they stand for as a faith community. We must also, as a civil rights group, remind everyone that we are a nation of laws and that in our system of justice, every suspect is innocent until proven guilty.
“We urge that our fellow citizens and our nation’s leaders reject the inevitable exploitation of this incident by those individuals and groups devoted to demonizing Islam, marginalizing American Muslims and feeding the unfortunately growing Islamophobic sentiment in our society.”
SEE: Local Pakistani Residents Concerned About Fallout After Arrest
Awad said he has asked CAIR’s New York and Connecticut offices to work with local Muslim communities to offer all possible assistance to investigators.
He also urged American Muslim individuals and institutions to protect against any possible backlash by reviewing advice on security procedures contained in CAIR’s “Muslim Community Safety Kit.”
* Other speakers at today’s news conference included:
- Imam Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom
- Asma Hanif, Chairperson, Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) in the Greater Washington, D.C., Area
- Alejandro Beutel, Government Liaison, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
- END –
Ahmadiyya Muslim leader: ‘Islam condemns terrorism’
Transcript of comments made today at the National Press Club by Naseem Mahdi, national vice president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the U.S.:
“We live in an expanding universe but the world is shrinking daily and it is so highly important for us all to discover and follow the paths that lead to peace.
“I am going to make a few brief comments prompted by the recent attempted bombing in New York, but necessitated by much broader considerations.
“Islam condemns terrorism unreservedly and totally.
“The Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, India, had declared over 120 years ago that there is no place or justification found in Islam for violence whatsoever.
“He said that Islam requires all Muslims to live in peace and harmony wherever they may be.
“It is thus the duty and responsibility of all Muslims living in the U.S. to be loyal to the flag and to be law-abiding citizens.
“It is clear from the events happening all around that a small, fanatic, extremist minority of Muslims has hijacked the faith and continues to mislead and misguide the Muslims and ruin their total life.
“In my considered opinion, such fanatics present a distorted view of Islam based on false and misguided interpretations.
“For example such people say that it is not necessary for a Muslim to follow any non-Islamic government…This is utterly false..
“If the vast majority of reasonable, peace-loving and law-abiding population of Muslims living in the US do not speak out and speak out loudly this will continue and ultimately ruin the lives, economic and social, of all Muslims and the community at large.
“I am calling today on ALL MUSLIMS IN THE U.S. to join me in condemning all actions of violence and terror caused or carried out by anyone whoever he or she may be.
“I call on all of them to boldly claim and express with their tongue and action that they are loyal and law-abiding and obedient citizens of the United States of America.
“This is fully in accord with the teachings of Muhammad, peace be on him, the Holy Founder of Islam, who said that hubbul watanay minal eeman..
“Love of one’s homeland, one’s place of residence, is a part of the Muslim’s faith..
“It is high time that Muslims living in the U.S. wake up to their responsibilities and declare openly and repeatedly and loudly that they stand for peace and loyalty and are proud of it and that this is in fact what Islam itself requires of them.
“Let me end by being totally forthright.
“I say to those among Muslims living in the U.S. who are not loyal or who do not want to be loyal that they are benefiting and enjoying all that this open, free, country has to offer and yet they say that their loyalties are to another country or government.
“I want to say to such people that they are not only living a false and hypocritical life but that they are thus also ungrateful and my advice to them is to be bold and leave and go and live in the lands where their loyalties belong.”
An illustrative perspective: compare how often you have heard it mentioned that the would-be Times Square terrorist was Muslim to how many times you’ve heard it mentioned that the man who was responsible for the police finding the bomb was a Muslim immigrant?
Let me guess….
thanks
Would that be the same CAIR, one of whose founding board members – Ghassan Elashi – was also sometime chairman of the now obsolete “Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development”, an Islamic “charity” which raised millions of dollars for Hamas?
Here’s an article from the Washington Times which recounts five incidents in which CAIR officials have been involved in terrorist activities:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/jul/23/20040723-082950-9083r/
As for the Ahmadiyya Movement’s statement, this is very welome, of course – but it’s admittedly pacific founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (and thus the movement itself) is considered heretical, if not apostate, by “mainstream” Sunni and Shia Islam.
Yes, there ARE plenty of Muslim people who are genuinely, wholeheartedly, opposed to jihadist terrorism, and are willing to say so. Most of them, however, appear to be involved in more secularized, politically progressive work and activism. “Islamic” groups like CAIR seem to be among the least likely places to find genuine progressives.
Have you missed the CAIR dude behaving pretty darned progressive? Just sayin’…
Rob,
Next thing you know some large Muslim organization will ask a gay Jewish man to be a speaker at their annual peace convention… give the interfaith organization he helps lead a peace prize, invite some of his Ahmadiyyah friends to dinner… and then Swami Beyondananda (last page of Tikkun humorist) will close out the evening…….
Progressive Muslims? Can you imagine? You don’t have to. It happened about a month ago.
Find a few Muslim friends to hang out with and watch your perspective change.
“Find a few Muslim friends to hang out with and watch your perspective change”
I have — just as I have German Catholics who happen to be of anti-semitic persuasion — and it hasn’t caused my evaluation of either of the underlying ideologies to change one iota.
Rob,
You have German-Catholic friends who hate Jews? And you’re still friends? I’m confused.
Craig,
“I’m confused”
You said it.
You’re also highly selective about which destructive ideology you choose to turn a blind eye to.
Just because anti-semitic loathing uses something called “religion” as a convenient grubby front, doesn’t make it any less noxious or dangerous.
“Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. Allah willing, before they die, they will experience humiliation and degradation every day… Allah willing, we will make them lose their eyesight, we will make them lose their brains.”
- Khaled Mashal, Hamas leader
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/secondholocaust.html
Rob,
People of virtually all faiths, political ideologies, denominations, political parties, etc… including “leaders” of some of those groups sometimes say and do terrible things. And historically, have said and have done terrible things. Nazis committed horrible crimes against humanity. At the same time, Christians (Catholics and Protestants) risked their lives defying the Nazis, saving many Jews from the ovens. Yet there are people who claim Christianity as their faith today, and in the name of that religion call for violence against Jews and Blacks and Gays. Does that make Christianity “noxious” or “dangerous” to use your words?
Again, I’ll say, that I have Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and atheist friends. We don’t agree on everything (thank goodness). But through those friendships I have found that most people have similar dreams, hopes, wishes and hearts.
Yes – I’ve met a few people that I really don’t like and who don’t like me over the years. I’ve taken my share of attacks against me because of who I am. I’ve seen the destruction of war and I’ve heard the rhetoric of hate from many corners.
I sat on the floor of a home where a family shared the story of how they had been persecuted, tortured, and had witnessed their loved ones tortured and killed. They had suffered at the hands of Americans, yet here they were, welcoming an American into their home sharing what meager means they had, giving me their best bed. They didn’t label me as the enemy.
You’re labeling billions of people as the enemy and throwing the words of a Hamas leader at me as though he represents all of those billions, as though they all think alike.
That, to use your own words once more, is a “destructive ideology.”
Craig,
“Does that make Christianity “noxious” or “dangerous” to use your words?”
Yes, there are certain persistently recurrent themes which are intrinsic to the Christian ideology (e.g. apocalypticism, exclusivism and vitriolic anti-judaism, amongst a number of others) and are indeed noxious and dangerous.
That is why I chose to eschew Christianity.
There are also certain persistently recurrent themes which are intrinsic to the Islamic ideology (e.g. religious imperialism, exclusivism and vitriolic anti-judaism, amongst a number of others) and which are also noxious and dangerous.
“You’re labeling billions of people as the enemy…”
No, Craig, I am not, as you would know very well if you had read what I actually did write.
I know some very likeable people who happen to be Muslim. Of course we share many of the same hopes, fears, dreams, concerns — we are all human, after all.
I also know some very likeable people who happen to be anti-semitic (not flagrantly or obsessively so, they just don’t like Jews much for apparently no very good reason).
The Hamas quote was certainly not put there to suggest that all Muslims share such genocidal loathing of Israelis or Jews. I trust that most do not.
But Hamas gets its ideology straight from the Koran, Sunna and Hadith — and not from the Guru Granth Sahib or the Gathas of Zarathushtra.
Some ideologies simply are more destructive than others. And those who choose to collude with destructive ideologies should be called to account — not pandered to and petted simply because they lay claim to special (religious) status.
Is that difficult to understand?
Rob,
Thank you. It is good to be having respectful discourse.
I think that portions of the sacred texts of most world religions can be used to promote hate, violence, fear, and war. I also think that people with terrible agendas use those sacred texts for their own ends.
I also think that major portions of those same sacred texts can be used to promote love, tolerance, comfort, justice, and peace. And people with good agendas use those sacred texts to guide them in trying to build a more peaceful and just world.
The people with whom I have worked over the past few decades, including Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, Unitarian Universalists, and atheists, are not just likable. I truly do like and trust them. I truly do believe that they are working for a better world.
My experiences have brought me to the place where I have to act out of my developed faith, my view of God and God’s intent for our world.
Byron Bland, an incredible person at Stanford University, who has worked on peacemaking for most of his adult life, teaches that in order to move from the realm of war to the realm of politics, with politics being the place where you can start negotiating peace, you have to be able to picture the other, the one with whom you have been at war, in your shared mutual future. And, of course, the other has to be able to envision the future with you in it. Neither of you has to really like what that picture looks like, but you both have to accept that for politics to begin, for real negotiation for peace to begin, you both have to accept that the other will be part of that shared future.
That’s what it took for Northern Ireland to reach the current state of nervous peace. That’s what it took for South Africa to reach the current state of somewhat fragile peace. That’s what it will take for Israel and her neighbors to reach a state of what for a long time will be nervous and fragile peace.
I think that you would agree that most Muslims would be happy to live in peace with Christian, Jewish, Atheist, Buddhist, and other neighbors. Just as most people would be happy to live in peace with Muslim neighbors. We all need to be able to picture the future with all these others in it. For me, that means accepting what my Muslim friends tell me they find great comfort in. God created all of us, different genders, different tribes, different people, so that we might all get to know each other. Not kill each other. Not convert each other. Get to know each other.
“God created all of us, different genders, different tribes, different people, so that we might all get to know each other. Not kill each other. Not convert each other. Get to know each other.”
Well, we’re certainly agreed on that much!
It’s just a pity that apparently neither Biblegod nor Koranallah could get that message through with any consistency to their self-appointed spokesmen!
From that Think Progress piece (also televised interview on today’s Democracy Now broadcast:
” Aliou Niasse, a street vendor selling framed photographs of New York, said that he was the first to spot the car containing the bomb, which pulled up right in front of his cart on the corner of 45th street and Broadway next to the Marriott hotel.
“I didn’t see the car pull up or notice the driver because I was busy with customers. But when I looked up I saw that smoke appeared to be coming from the car. This would have been around 6.30pm.”
“I thought I should call 911, but my English is not very good and I had no credit left on my phone, so I walked over to Lance, who has the T-shirt stall next to mine, and told him. He said we shouldn’t call 911. Immediately he alerted a police officer near by,” said Mr Niasse, who is originally from Senegal and who has been a vendor in Times Square for about eight years.”
From Newsweek on Wednesday, Franklin Graham, the evangelical leader, sore at being excluded from a Pentagon event because of his attacks on Islam as “evil,” repeats the absurd lie that no Muslim leaders have condemned the 9/11 terrorism (let alone this latest bomb attempt). Graham says (at http://www.newsweek.com/id/237453):
“I am who I am. I don’t believe that you can get to heaven through being a Buddhist or Hindu. I think Muhammad only leads to the grave. Now, that’s what I believe, and I don’t apologize for my faith. And if it’s divisive, I’m sorry. I think yelling “Allahu Akbar” as you’re flying jet airplanes through buildings and killing 3,000 Americans – that was evil and it was wicked. And I’ve not heard one Islamic leader around the world stand up and say that was a terrible thing … ”
And Jon Meacham, the Newsweek editor who is otherwise trying hard to confront Graham in this interview, fails to call him on that last claim!
CAIR was one of those Muslim organizations that condemned the attacks unequivocally the day they happened. See “How American Muslims Really Responded to September 11″ at http://www.mediamonitors.net/riadabdelkarim3.html. For a more general roundup of Muslim condemnations of 9/11 see http://www.muhajabah.com/otherscondemn.php.
“There are no war plans on my desk.”
“The check is in the mail.”
“I had just gone in there to use the bathroom.”
“He said he had just turned 18…”
“I have not heard one Islamic leader around the world stand up and say…”
Need I go on?