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Yes, lets imagine a world WITHOUT MUSLIMS, shall we?
Without Muslims you wouldn’t have:
Coffee
Cameras
Experimental Physics
Chess
Soap
Shampoo
Perfume/spirits
Irrigation
Crank-shaft, internal combustion engine, valves, pistons
Combination locks
Architectural innovation (pointed arch -European Gothic cathedrals adopted this technique as it made the building much stronger, rose windows, dome buildings, round towers, etc.)
Surgical instruments
Anesthesia
Windmill
Treatment of Cowpox
Fountain pen
Numbering system
Algebra/Trigonometry
Modern Cryptology
3 course meal (soup, meat/fish, fruit/nuts)
Crystal glasses
Carpets
Checks
Gardens used for beauty and meditation instead of for herbs and kitchen.
University
Optics
Music
Toothbrush
Hospitals
Bathing
Quilting
Mariner’s Compass
Soft drinks
Pendulum
Braille
Cosmetics
Plastic surgery
Calligraphy
Manufacturing of paper and cloth
It was a Muslim who realized that light ENTERS our eyes, unlike the Greeks who thought we EMITTED rays, and so invented a camera from this discovery.
It was a Muslim who first tried to FLY in 852, even though it is the Wright Brothers who have taken the credit.
It was a Muslim by the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan who was known as the founder of modern Chemistry. He transformed alchemy into chemistry. He invented: distillation, purification, oxidation, evaporation, and filtration. He also discovered sulfuric and nitric acid.
It is a Muslim, by the name of Al-Jazari who is known as the father of robotics.
It was a Muslim who was the architect for Henry V’s castle.
It was a Muslim who invented hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes, a technique still used today.
It was a Muslim who actually discovered inoculation, not Jenner and Pasteur to treat cowpox. The West just brought it over from Turkey
It was Muslims who contributed much to mathematics like Algebra and Trigonometry, which was imported over to Europe 300 years later to Fibonnaci and the rest.
It was Muslims who discovered that the Earth was round 500 years before Galileo did.
The list goes on………..
Just imagine a world without Muslims. Now I think you probably meant, JUST IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT TERRORISTS. And then I would agree, the world would definitely be a better place without those pieces of filth. But to hold a whole group responsible for the actions of a few is ignorant and racist. No one would ever expect Christians or White people to be held responsible for the acts of Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma bombing) or Anders Breivik (Norway killing), or the gun man that shot Congresswoman Giffords in head, wounded 12 and killed 6 people, and rightly so because they had nothing to do with those incidents! Just like the rest of the 1.5 billion Muslims have nothing to do with this incident!
The ability to "feel something" and consequent actions are two separate matters in Islam.
Those on the Autism Spectrum (like many) don't have the ability to "feel emotions" like normal people but doesn't absolve them from actions.
Similar is the case of impulses i.e. a person can have the impulse to do something (no matter how strong) but as long as it is not acted upon there is no sin in fact such a person will be rewarded.
Let's suppose I am a Psychopath or on the Autistic Spectrum or have (strong) Homosexual urges in the eyes of Shariah it doesn't matter and what matters is the action.
Let's see if a person has compulsive thoughts of the worst kind, again as long as as he or she doesn't act upon these, he or she will be fine.
The problem with the West is that characters like Sherlock Holmes fascinate people and people think that its legitimate to "act" upon Psychopathic or Homosexual tendencies.
This is because the West has no concept of Aakhirah, this life is it for them so they teach it to be "true" to your feelings and impulses. Islam on the other hand teaches you to weigh your impulses and thoughts in the scale of Quran and Sunnah and then act.
Islam also teaches you that if you have thoughts and impulses which are "not normal" you are being rewarded for not acting and resisting.
Islam say that if you fall in love and there is no Halal way to act upon this impulse and you remain chaste you die as a Shaheed. Western Psychology tells you that you may become a Serial Killer if you have unfulfilled Love issues!
Let me admit that my false hope was of the tide turning in favour of Islam and hence Muslims post US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Clearly my hopes were belied by Allah swt.
Of course we, I too, accept the course of things preferred by our Lord Most wise.
The natural question will be what is happening.
This too I have answered earlier. Basically there are no magic solutions in this world. There might be magic events but life as a whole is not a bag of magic tricks.
Life is all chore, mundane and meticuluos series of events.
You have to work systematically for long periods to change your worldly situation.
You have to change from inside and demonstrate it clearly and loudly and only then you get the gift of God - changing of circumstances for you.
This world is test and a trial for us.
To hope for and expect miracles is of course Islamic but that is not the main course of events.
Rasoolallah saw planned and executed every operation meticulously.
Clearly no short cuts for us too.
And it will also involve significant sacrifices.
More than we have been hitherto making.
Will, then, the tide turn?
No.
One more step is left inbetween.
Allah swt said, " Do you think we shall accept it just like that when you say we believe?"
"And we tested earlier communities so much that the Messengers amongst them cried when will Allah's help come?"
After that Allah swt's help should arrive.
But I admit, once again, that I am perplexed.
Sacrifices of the believers have been going on for quite sometime.
I do wish for the tide to turn.
Where is thy Help O our Lord Most High?
Ann Corcoran
Steven Emerson
Brigitte Gabriel
Frank Gaffney
Pamela Geller
John Guandolo
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
David Horowitz
Ryan Mauro
Maajid Nawaz
Robert Muise
Daniel Pipes
Walid Shoebat
Robert Spencer
Covering Anti-Muslim Extremist Groups
Download a PDF of this report.
Executive Summary
Ever since the Al Qaeda massacre of Sept. 11, 2001, American Muslims have been under attack. They have been vilified as murderers, accused of conspiring to take over the United States and impose Shariah religious law, described as enemies of women, and subjected to hundreds of violent hate crime attacks. A major party presidential nominee has even suggested that America ban Muslim immigrants.
Fueling this hatred has been the propaganda, the vast majority of it completely baseless, produced and popularized by a network of anti-Muslim extremists and their enablers. These men and women have shamelessly exploited terrorist attacks and the Syrian refugee crisis, among other things, to demonize the entire Islamic faith.
Sadly, a shocking number of these extremists are seen regularly on television news programs and quoted in the pages of our leading newspapers. There, they routinely espouse a wide range of utter falsehoods, all designed to make Muslims appear as bloodthirsty terrorists or people intent on undermining American constitutional freedoms. More often than not, these claims go uncontested.
A coalition of four research and civil rights groups — the Southern Poverty Law Center, Media Matters for America, the Center for New Community and ReThink Media — banded together to prepare this manual. Our hope is that journalists and others will use it as a guide to effectively counter these extremists and their damaging misinformation. These propagandists are far outside of the political mainstream, and their rhetoric has toxic consequences — from poisoning democratic debate to inspiring hate-based violence.
The Columbia Journalism Review has said as much, pointing out that misinformation and falsehoods in media “may pollute democratic discourse, make it more difficult for citizens to cast informed votes, and limit their ability to participate meaningfully in public debate.†It advises reporters to “use credible sources; don’t give credence to the fringe,†and sharply criticizes “the politicians and pundits who seek personal and ideological gain by starting or spreading false memes.â€
To give an example: One of the extremists profiled in this guide has said that 480 million to 640 million Muslims “support the notion that it’s okay to bomb the World Trade Centerâ€; another claimed that 180 million to 300 million Muslims “are willing to strap a bomb on their bodies … and blow us all up.†In fact, terrorism expert Peter Bergen polled other extremism experts in 2014 and concluded that the real number of Muslims in terrorist groups was between 85,000 and 106,000. That means that fewer than one in every 15,000 Muslims is part of such a group.
It doesn’t stop there. The anti-Muslim extremists profiled here have, between them, claimed that Islamic extremists have infiltrated the CIA, FBI, Pentagon and other agencies; asserted that there are “no-go zones†in Europe where non-Muslims including police are afraid to enter; suggested that there is a Muslim plot to impose Sharia religious law on U.S. courts; and claimed that President Obama is a secret Muslim. These claims, along with many others, have been shown conclusively to be false.
This misinformation and hateful rhetoric have consequences. When huge numbers of Americans believe that a majority of Muslims are terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, it can hardly be a surprise that some percentage of them engage in hate crime attacks. After all, they learned of the threat they believe Muslims pose from sources who were presented by the media as authoritative experts.
This country faces an array of complex and daunting problems, the threat of terrorism indisputably among them. Let’s not make them worse by allowing self-described “experts†to propagandize our fellow Americans with defamatory and frightening falsehoods. Our media, in particular, has the opportunity to present an objective picture that illuminates, rather than distorts, reality.
The Profiles: 15 Anti-Muslim Extremists
What follows are profiles of 15 anti-Muslim extremists who are frequently cited in public discourse. These spokespeople were selected on the basis of their presence in national and local media and for the pernicious brand of extremism and hate they espouse against Muslim communities and the Islamic faith. While not intended to be an all-encompassing list, this group of propagandists are at the center of what is a large and evolving network of Islam-bashing activists, elected officials and their surrogates. Groups currently designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are marked in headlines and text with an asterisk (*). Three groups that the SPLC will list as hate groups in 2017 are marked with a cross (+). This field guide can be viewed online and monitored for additional updates.
Ann Corcoran — Refugee Resettlement Watch+
Ann Corcoran, a Maryland-based activist who started the blog Refugee Resettlement Watch+ (RRW) in 2007, is fond of describing immigrants as “migrant hordes,†wants a moratorium on Muslim immigration, claims there is a Democratic plot to bring in Muslims to create new party voters, and accuses immigrant-run stores of illegally trafficking in food stamps. Corcoran also routinely links to white nationalists like Jared Taylor, the editor of American Renaissance* who once said black people are incapable of sustaining civilization, and lauds European anti-Muslim extremists like France’s Marine Le Pen and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders. She has published essays in the racist journal The Social Contract,and the Council of Conservative Citizens*, which has described black people as a “retrograde species of humanity,†ran a live feed of her articles on its home page. Corcoran also loathes Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, saying in 2016 that they had a “lust for more third worlders to be resettled in small town America!†Corcoran’s main thrust is the government’s “grievous error†in taking in Muslim refugees, who she accuses of engaging in “civilizational jihad†aimed at imposing Shariah religious law on the U.S. with a worldwide caliphate as the final goal. “They are using our Constitutional freedoms and American good will to push a quiet form of jihad in towns and cities, large and small, right under our noses,†she wrote in her 2015 screed, published by the far-right Center for Security Policy* and entitled “Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra [Migration] to America.†In the biography of her Twitter page, she warns that “immigration (legal and illegal), if not slowed in 2017, will destroy America.â€
IN HER OWN WORDS
In an Aug. 4, 2016, post on RRW, Corcoran wrote: “Go to any seedy neighborhood (like the ones I saw in Toledo [Ohio] recently) and there is an immigrant-run convenience store it seems on every block. There is no way they are all making a living selling bread, milk and cigarettes. My guess is that many are participating in what is known as trafficking in food stamps.â€
Corcoran issued a warning in a Sept. 17, 2015, radio interview that Obama and others were seeking to alter America: “There’s going to be a demographic examination of your town to see how diverse you are, and you will be rewarded if you’re sufficiently diverse and you will not be rewarded with government grants and so on and so forth if you’re insufficient in the diversity area. It is really, he [Obama] is changing America by changing the people.â€
“All the vetting in the world isn’t going to save us from the toddlers coming in with Mom and Dad from Africa and the Middle East who thumb their noses at the ‘good life’ and become radicalized 20 years down the road,†Corcoran wrote on Nov. 17, 2015, warning against allowing any refugees into the U.S. “The only true solution is a complete moratorium on Muslim immigration.â€
On May 8, 2015, Corcoran told Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson that refugee resettlement programs were part of a Democratic plot to gain votes. “I think that it is partly driven by progressives looking for reliable left-wing Democrat voters, that’s a driving force,†she said. “I think there’s a certain amount of wanting to rub diversity in the noses of conservative communities and places where there isn’t a lot of diversity and just bringing them in and push the whole multicultural meme of us.†She added that refugee resettlement is “an existential threat†to America that is more dangerous that terrorist attacks.
Corcoran called for a national debate on refugees and immigrants, focusing on the alleged dangers of Somalis, in a Nov. 19, 2009, RRW post. “Frankly, we have made a grievous error in taking the Muslim refugees, Somalis in particular, who have no intention of becoming Americans,†she wrote in that piece. “They are here to change America. Unfortunately, political correctness and a worshipful attitude toward multiculturalism have blinded us.â€
In a July 6, 2014, blog post, Corcoran compared refugee resettlement workers to people with too many pets. She said: “These people remind me of animal hoarders with a psychological ailment who fill their homes with cats, don’t have the finances to care for them properly, and don’t know when to stop.â€
Calling for her readers to back Donald Trump in an Aug. 7, 2016, blog post, Corcoran warned, “If he loses, the flood gates will open to the third world like we have never seen before. And you will be silenced!â€
On the RRW page headlined “Diversity,†Corcoran offers as a resource a link to “The Myth of Diversity†by white supremacist Jared Taylor. In the essay, Taylor calls diversity “one of the most obviously stupid propositions ever to see the light of day†and adds, “Explaining why diversity is bad for a country is a little like explaining why cholera is bad for it; the trick is to understand how anyone could possibly think it was good.†On the same page, Corcoran links to other white nationalist essays like “The Age of White Masochism,†and anti-multicultural stemwinders such as “Plan to Destroy America.â€
Steven Emerson — Investigative Project on Terrorism
Steve Emerson is a self-described “expert on terrorism†who has claimed that the Obama administration “extensively collaborates†with the Muslim Brotherhood; asserted that Europe is riddled with “no-go zones†and is “finished†because of Muslim immigration; and stated that 480 million to 640 million Muslims “support the notion that it’s okay to bomb the World Trade Center,†among other things. A reviewer for The New York Times Book Review said a 1991 book he co-authored on terrorism was marred by “a pervasive anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.†Despite this sorry record, Emerson, a former journalist who started the Investigative Project on Terrorism in 1995, has been repeatedly interviewed on Fox News, testified on several occasions to Congress, and been cited by government officials as an authority. But Emerson’s reputation took a huge hit in January 2015, when he claimed that Birmingham, England, was a “no-go zone†for non-Muslims and that in parts of London “Muslim religious police ... actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone†not wearing “religious Muslim attire.†British Prime Minister David Cameron responded by calling Emerson “clearly a complete idiot,†and Ofcom, which regulates the British media, said the comments were “materially misleading.†In 1997, Emerson was accused of giving The Associated Press documents he claimed were from the FBI but were really written by him. The Tennessean reported in October 2010 that in 2008, Emerson’s nonprofit Investigative Project on Terrorism “paid $3,390,000 to [Emerson’s for-profit firm] SAE Productions for ‘management services.’ Emerson is SAE’s sole officer.†The paper quoted Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, saying, “Basically, you have a nonprofit acting as a front organization, and all that money going to a for-profit,†he said. “It’s wrong. This is off the charts.â€
IN HIS OWN WORDS
In a Jan. 7, 2015, interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Emerson expounded at length on his baseless claims about “no-go zones.†“Throughout Europe, Sean, you have no-go zones. … This goes on in Belgium, this goes on in Sweden, in France, it goes on it Italy, it goes on throughout Europe. So there are no-go zones,†he told Hannity. “These are semi-autonomous countries within countries, in which the federal governments there have basically surrendered their autonomy, surrendered their authority.â€
In the same Jan. 7, 2015, interview with Fox News, Emerson claimed that Department of Homeland Security officers in overseas U.S. embassies have “been told to look away†when foreign visa applicants have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban, “even to ISIS,†and to allow them to come to the United States despite those links. “I can tell you that personally,†Emerson insisted without evidence, calling the alleged practice “Orwellian.â€
“I think they’ve reached critical mass, frankly,†Emerson said of Europe in the same Jan. 7, 2015, Fox News interview. “I think Europe is finished."
Emerson promoted his film, “Jihad in America: The Grand Deception†in a Sept. 23, 2012, Fox News interview, saying it “show[ed] the extensive collaboration between the Obama administration and the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. It’s pretty shocking.†He continued: “I think Mr. Obama is not necessarily a Muslim, I don’t believe that; I think he’s pro-Islamist.â€
In a bizarre March 17, 2011, comment to TV host Glenn Beck, Emerson claimed without evidence that “in Mexico today, they’re teaching Palestinian militants how to dig tunnels that will evade detection in Gaza.â€
On Jan. 11, 2015, Emerson told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who wholeheartedly endorsed his claims, that “these no-go zones exist not only in France, but they exist throughout Europe,†describing them as “zones where Shariah courts were set up, where Muslim density is very intense, where the police don’t go in, and where it’s basically a separate country almost.†He went on to claim that in Britain, “there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don’t go. And [in] parts of London, there are actually Muslim religious police that actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone who doesn’t dress according to Muslim, religious Muslim attire.†In fact, Birmingham is about 22% Muslim, and the no-go zone claim was entirely false. In the end, Fox News apologized four times on air and Emerson said he’d committed a “terrible error.†Neither mentioned that he had made similar claims repeatedly, including four days earlier on Fox.
On Sept. 7, 2011, speaking on the “Truth That Transforms with Jerry Newcome†radio show, Emerson said that “at least 30% to 40% [of Muslims] support cultural jihad. That is, at least, they support the notion that it’s okay to blow up a bus of Israelis, it’s okay to bomb the World Trade Center, it’s okay to impose the Shariah, the code of Islamic law, it’s okay to beat women or wives as part of Shariah.†With 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, Emerson was claiming that 480 million to 640 million Muslims support Islamist terrorism, an exponentially overblown assertion, according to several serious polls.
On April 19, 1995, the day of the Oklahoma City bombing, Emerson claimed that the attack had “a Middle Eastern trait†and added that Oklahoma City was “probably considered one of the largest centers of Islamic radical activity outside of the Middle East.†He was entirely wrong on both counts.
Brigitte Gabriel — ACT for America*
The founder of ACT for America* in 2007, Brigitte Gabriel has been described by The New York Times Magazine as a “radical Islamophobe,†and it’s not hard to see why. In a 2007 course at the Department of Defense’s Joint Forces Staff College, she said that any “practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah … who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day — this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen of the United States.†The same year, The Australian Jewish News quoted her saying, “Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim.†Four years later, ACT published a claim on its website that “[t]ens of thousands of Islamic militants now reside in America, operating in sleeper cells, attending our colleges and universities.†Also in 2011, Gabriel was quoted claiming that Islamist radicals had "infiltrated us at the CIA, at the FBI, at the Pentagon, at the State Department."
IN HER OWN WORDS
On Sept. 27, 2014, Gabriel told an audience at the conservative Values Voter Summit that “180 million to 300 million†Muslims are “radical Islamists who are willing to strap bombs on their bodies and walk into this room and blow us all up to smithereens.†The same month, Peter Bergen, a real terrorism expert with the New America think tank, surveyed other experts and concluded there was a global total of 85,000 to 106,000 Muslims belonging to jihadist groups — at the most, then, about 0.006625% of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims.
Gabriel told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Jan. 7, 2015, that Muslims were invited to Europe to help it rebuild after World War II, then “started multiplying†even as they refused to assimilate. Europe, she said, is “paying the price†because it “ignored the cancer growing in its body when it was at Stage Two.†“Today,†she added, “Europe and its cancer is at Stage Four.â€
Gabriel claimed on Fox News’ Jan. 8, 2015, edition of “The Kelly File†that Muslims’ “ideology … forbids them to assimilate†to European culture. She also described the Muslims who have come to Europe as “not educated.â€
On Sept. 26, 2015, Gabriel told the right-wing radio program “Breitbart News Saturday†that because of Muslim immigration, “Europe will no longer be Europe by 2050. Europe has already become Eurabia. Europe is Eurabia right now.†Addressing the Syrian refugee crisis, she claimed most of the refugees weren’t Syrians and weren’t fleeing war: “They are people trying to suck off of the people in the West. They know they can get a free ticket for money.â€
In her 2006 book, Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America, Gabriel asserted that “the Arab Muslim world, because of its religion and culture, is a natural threat to civilized people of the world.â€
In a March 7, 2011, New York Times article, Gabriel was quoted warning that jihadists were subverting government agencies. “America has been infiltrated on all levels by radicals who wish to harm America,†she said. “They have infiltrated us at the CIA, at the FBI, at the Pentagon, at the State Department.â€
Frank Gaffney Jr. — Center for Security Policy*
Frank Gaffney Jr. is a former Reagan administration defense official who is gripped by paranoid fantasies about Muslims destroying the West from within, suspicious that Barack Obama was actually born in Kenya, and a proponent of a new version of the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee to root out suspected Muslim subversives. In 1988, Gaffney founded the Center for Security Policy* (CSP), which has gone in recent years from a hawkish think tank on foreign affairs to a promoter of baseless conspiracy theories and groundless accusations, not to mention terrible data. (The CSP organized a wildly unscientific “poll,†cited by Donald Trump, that claimed that 25% of Muslims agreed that violence against Americans in service of jihad was justifiable. Reputable polls show vastly lower numbers.) Gaffney claims that the Muslim Brotherhood has massively infiltrated the government (and, without any evidence at all, that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is an agent of the group). In 2011, he accused prominent conservatives Grover Norquist and Suhail Kahn, who directed Muslim outreach efforts for the Bush White House, of infiltrating the government for the Muslim Brotherhood. As a result, the Conservative Political Action Conference — run by the American Conservative Union, on whose board Kahn sat — temporarily banned him.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
In a June 9, 2009, column in The Washington Times, Gaffney said: “With Mr. Obama’s unbelievably ballyhooed address in Cairo … there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself.†His “evidence†included the fact that Obama mentioned the “Holy Koran,†knew some things about Islam, and used the phrase “peace be upon them†when mentioning Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
In the same 2009 Washington Times column, Gaffney said Obama “has aligned himself with adherents to what authoritative Islam calls Shariah — notably, the dangerous global movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood.â€
“We’re witnessing not just the violent kind of jihad that these Islamists believe God compels them to engage in, but also, where they must for tactical reasons, a more stealthy kind, or civilizational jihad as the Muslim Brotherhood calls it,†Gaffney said in an Oct. 24, 2011, article in Newsmax. “We’re witnessing that playing out, not only in places in the Middle East but also in Europe, in Australia, in Canada and here in the United States as well.â€
On the Jan. 12, 2015, edition of Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine,†Gaffney claimed that President Obama is “engaged in basically trying to enforce Shariah blasphemy laws†and added that “most of those who are being brought here†— a reference to Muslims — are bringing “no-go zones†as their “preferred practice.†No responsible authority believes that there are no-go zones, or places non-Muslims supposedly fear to venture, in America.
“Another question yet to be resolved is whether Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States,†Gaffney wrote in the Oct. 14, 2008, Washington Times when Obama was first running for president. “Curiously,†he added, “Mr. Obama has, to date, failed to provide an authentic birth certificate.â€
In the same 2008 Washington Times column, Gaffney claimed that “the latest indication [is] that the Democratic candidate [Obama] hopes to win the White House by relying, in part, on the Jihadist vote.†He warned that “between $30 million and $100 million†of the money Obama had raised in small donations, not requiring donor disclosure, came from places where “Islamists are active.†According to the Federal Election Commission, “Foreign nationals are prohibited from making any contributions or expenditures†in U.S. elections.
When asked at the 2015 Western Conservative Summit about Somali refugees, most of whom are Muslim, working at meat processing plants in the U.S., Gaffney responded: “I don’t know about you, but it kind of creeps me out that they are getting jobs in the food supply of the United States.â€
In an Aug. 2, 2016, post on his website, Gaffney said: “Incredibly, this repressive Shariah doctrine is being insinuated into this country not just by Islamists. They are being aided and abetted by some on the political left — a reality made all the more bizarre, and outrageous, given the fact that women, gays and Jews are among the left’s principal constituencies.â€
Attacking a law requiring public assistance agencies to offer voter registration opportunities in November 2013, Gaffney said that Obama was “promoting creeping socialism.†He continued: “The process lends itself to abuse and fraud. And allies of the President say the goal is to register 68 million, most low-income voters. If successful, expect a permanent majority demanding government handouts — and the end of America as we have known it.â€
Pamela Geller — American Freedom Defense Initiative*, Stop Islamization of America*
Pam Geller is probably the best known — and the most unhinged — anti-Muslim ideologue in the United States. She is the movement’s most visible and flamboyant figurehead and a woman who is relentlessly shrill and coarse in her denunciations of Islam. Aside from the more absurd claims on her old Atlas Shrugs* website, like the assertions that President Obama is the “love child†of Malcolm X and that he was “involved with a crack whore,†Geller is known for statements like the one she made on Fox Business in 2011: “Islam … is an extreme ideology, the most radical and extreme ideology on the face of the earth.†Geller, the co-founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative* and Stop Islamization of America*, made her name opposing the Park51 project in New York City in 2010, labeling it a “victory mosque†being raised by Muslims on “conquered land†to celebrate the 9/11 attacks and insinuating without evidence that its financing might be tied to terrorists. Geller has a special hatred for Obama, who she says is “a third worlder and a coward†who seeks to “appease his Muslim overlords,†“a muhammadan†who “wants jihad to win.†Geller, who is Jewish, has spoken to a neo-fascist group in Germany and has invited a notorious British nationalist group, the violently inclined English Defence League (EDL), to speak at a rally. In 2013, she and Robert Spencer were banned from entering the United Kingdom to speak to an EDL rally for fear of stirring “inter-community violence.†In 2015 in Garland, Texas, Geller sponsored a “Draw the Prophet†cartoon contest — an obvious provocation aimed at Muslims, who regard graphic depictions of Muhammad as blasphemous — which drew two angry U.S.-born jihadists who were killed when they attacked the event. An ardent defender of Israel, Geller has described the press there as largely “Jewicidal.â€
IN HER OWN WORDS
After it was revealed that Anders Breivik —who in 2011 murdered 77 peoÂple he believed were facilitating Muslim immigration into Norway — had cited Geller 12 times in his manifesto, Geller shrugged off any responsibility. “If anyone incited him to violence,†she said, “it was Islamic supremacists.â€
In an April 29, 2011, post on Atlas Shrugs* (now PamelaGeller.com), Geller wrote, “President Obama is indeed a bastard, literally and figuratively.â€
On the May 9, 2014, edition of Fox News’ “Hannity,†Geller said, “Obama has sided with jihadists at every turn.†She concluded a list of claims there with, “He sided with Al Qaeda and [the] Muslim Brotherhood in Syria.â€
On Feb. 14, 2011, Geller told the host of Fox Business’ “Follow the Money†that Arabic “is the language of Islam and it is a spearhead of an ideological project that is deeply opposed to the United States of America.â€
Geller compared the proposed Park51 Islamic center in lower Manhattan to celebrating the Ku Klux Klan on the Aug. 11, 2010, edition of Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.†“Would you build a Ku Klux Klan [sic] at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama?†she asked, referring to the black church in Birmingham where a 1963 Klan bombing left four young girls dead.
In another attack on Park51, Geller said on the May 15, 2010, edition of Fox News’ “Huckabee†show that the proposed project “basically embodies the very ideology that inspired those attacks on 9/11.†She said it was “an outrage, an insult,†that would be “humiliating to the families and to all Americans.â€
John Guandolo — Strategic Engagement Group // Understanding the Threat+
John Guandolo came to anti-Muslim extremism after a stint in the Marines and another in the FBI, where he moved into anti-terrorism work after the 9/11 attacks. But he quit the FBI in December 2008, just as he was about to be investigated by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility — a married man, Guandolo had admitted to having affairs with female FBI agents and a confidential source he was assigned to protect during the corruption case of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.); he also solicited that witness for a $75,000 donation for an anti-terrorism group. Since starting work in that year as vice president of the Strategic Engagement Group, Guandolo has developed a reputation for making outlandish accusations. Most remarkably, he claimed in 2010 that John Brennan, then President Obama’s nominee to lead the CIA, was a secret convert to Islam who had aided the Muslim Brotherhood. Snopes, a fact-checking service, said that that was “unfounded†and referred to Guandolo’s “demonstrated inclination to make claims without factual basis.†Similarly, National Public Radio reported in 2011 that Guandolo, in one of many seminars he offers to law enforcement, had suggested to a Columbus, Ohio, class that Omar al-Omari, a college professor who worked with local and national officials to do Muslim outreach, was tied to terrorism — a claim rebutted by officials of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Columbus police department. In 2012, Guandolo created Understanding the Threat+, a consulting company meant to spread his message to law enforcement officials and others. In remarks over the years, Guandolo has said that 80% of U.S. mosques were run by the Muslim Brotherhood, which he claimed “has organizations in every locale across the United States,†and should therefore be shut down by the authorities; charged that Obama had purposely placed “communists, Marxists and jihadists … inside our systemâ€; and said, despite the Constitution’s clear wording to the contrary, that mosques “do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.â€
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Speaking at a Tennessee church in November 2011, Guandolo said local mosques were fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood. Of mosques in general, he said, “They do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.â€
On a June 18, 2016, radio show, Guandolo said Americans would soon see “dozens of jihadis doing multiple operations in conjunction with the Marxist and socialist groups like Black Lives Matter, which will be, you know, burning and looting cities like they did in Ferguson [Mo.] and Baltimore.â€
When one of his law enforcement trainings was canceled after criticism from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Guandolo wrote a June 2, 2016, article accusing CAIR of being a “terrorist organization.†He added: “Suit wearing jihadis are no less dangerous than ISIS soldiers on the battlefield.â€
On a June 13, 2016, radio show, Guandolo told Virginia host Rob Schilling that Democrats were bringing “tens of thousands of jihadis†into the country as refugees. He added derisively that Democrats are then “shocked or feign shock when something like what happened in Orlando [Fla.] happens,†a reference to the murder of 49 people a day earlier.
Guandolo told WorldNetDaily on April 3, 2016, that the U.S. should arrest “all of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the U.S., shutting down their organizations and all Muslim Brotherhood mosques, which is 80% of them.â€
On Feb. 8, 2013, Guandolo told a radio show that John Brennan, who would soon be confirmed to head the CIA, had “interwoven his life professionally and personally with individuals that we know are terrorists and he has given them access†to top federal officials, according to Salon. He added that “Mr. Brennan did convert to Islam when he served in an official capacity on behalf of the United States when he served in Saudi Arabia,†and that that “was the culmination of a counterintelligence operation … to recruit him.â€
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born activist who says she endured female genital mutilation and fled civil wars and an arranged marriage in Africa. She then moved to the Netherlands and became a parliamentarian for a time. But key parts of the story she told Dutch immigration authorities and the public there turned out to be false — she had never witnessed any civil war, attendees said she was at her wedding despite her claim to have not been present, and her husband paid her way to Europe and later granted her a divorce. Leaving the Netherlands after quitting its Parliament in disgrace, Hirsi Ali became a citizen of the United States, accepting an invitation to join the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Although she now positions herself as an ex-Muslim champion of women’s rights, her anti-Muslim rhetoric is remarkably toxic. In 2007, she told Reason magazine that the West should “defeat†Islam and that “we are war with Islam.†The same year, she said that Islam was “the new fascism†and a “destructive, nihilistic cult of death†in an interview with The London Evening Standard. In 2014, Brandeis University withdrew its offer of an honorary degree for her, saying that it had been unaware of her vitriolic attacks on Islam. While in the Netherlands, she wrote the script for a short and provocative film about women and Islam directed by the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in the street by a jihadist a short time after its release. The murderer left a note threatening to also kill Hirsi Ali pinned to his victim’s body with a knife.
IN HER OWN WORDS
In her 2007 interview with The London Evening Standard, Hirsi Ali “advoÂcated the closing of Islamic schools in the West and said that ‘violence is inherent in Islam,’†according to a later account in The New York Times.
In her 2007 Reason interview, she said, “There comes a moment when you crush your enemy†militarily, and added, “There is no moderate Islam. … [T]here’s really only one Islam, defined as submission to the will of God. There’s nothing moderate about it.†She also told the journal that she had sought to “get rid of†all Islamic schools in the Netherlands while living there.
In a July 11, 2009, essay for the online World Post, Hirsi Ali criticized President Obama for denouncing “Islamic extremism without once assoÂciating Islam with extremism.†She threw cold water on the idea of the U.S cooperating with Muslims in order to battle jihadist extremism.
In an Aug. 18, 2010, Wall Street Journal op-ed, “How to Win the Clash of Civilizations,†Hirsi Ali said that Islam “is at war with America†and wrote that Western civilization “needs to be actively defended†against Islam.
Appearing on the March 23, 2015, edition of “The Daily Show,†she said, “If you look at 70% of the violence in the world today, Muslims are responsible.†Experts said the claim appeared to be bogus, and she later amended it to say 70% of fatalities “were in wars involving Muslims,†including civil wars.
David Horowitz — David Horowitz Freedom Center* // FrontPage Magazine
David Horowitz is a former hardline Marxist who, with all the customary zeal of the converted, has made a career of maligning supposedly left-wing scholars, accusing an array of enemies including prominent conservatives of being agents of the Muslim Brotherhood, and publishing reckless attacks on “the American left, whose agendas are definitely to destroy this country,†as he told Al Jazeera in 2008. He added, “The American left wanted us to lose the Cold War with the Soviets and it wants us to lose the war on terror.†After his repudiation of leftist politics, Horowitz started the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, a group meant “to establish a conservative presence in Hollywood,†which was rebranded as the David Horowitz Freedom Center almost two decades later. The center publishes the online FrontPage Magazine, edited by Horowitz, and in recent years it has also become the premier financier of radical anti-Muslim extremism. In 2006, Horowitz wrote The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, a McCarthyist book that was pilloried by Free Exchange on Campus, a coalition of 10 influential groups including the American Association of University Professors, in a major study called Facts Count. The study concluded that “Horowitz’s research is sloppy in the extreme†and rife with “inaccuracies, distortions and manipulations of fact.â€
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Horowitz told the Columbia Spectator for its Oct. 15, 2007, edition that “somewhere between 150 million and 750 million Muslims support a holy war against Christians, Jews, and other Muslims who don’t hapÂpen to believe in the Quran according to Bin Laden.†As noted above (see Brigitte Gabriel), respected terrorism expert Peter Bergen surveyed other experts in 2014 and concluded that the global total of extremists belongÂing to jihadist groups was somewhere between 85,000 and 106,000 of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims.
Horowitz’s center placed an ad in an April 2008 issue of a campus newsÂpaper, The Daily Nexus, claiming that the Muslim Student Association was “founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the godfather of Al Qaeda and Hamas, to bring jihad into the heart of American higher education.†In fact, it had worked with Jewish campus groups, according to faculty members.
Speaking on May 12, 2008, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, after running his April Daily Nexus ad attacking the Muslim Student Association, Horowitz said, “There is a movement for a second Holocaust of the Jews that is being supported on this campus by the Muslim Student Association!†He also described the traditional Arab keffiyeh headdress for men as a symbol of terrorÂism, according to a report in the Santa Barbara Independent.
In his 2006 book, The Professors, Horowitz defended the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, saying, “It is now known … that McCarthy underesÂtimated the extent of Soviet infiltration in American government and that virtually all individuals called before congressional committees were involved in a conspiratorial network controlled by the Kremlin.†As pointed out in Facts Count, it is false that all or most of those who were called were involved in such a network. It is also untrue that McCarthy’s wild accusations were an underestimate.
In just one example of the propaganda in his book, The Professors, Horowitz wrote of widely respected Reconstruction scholar Eric Foner, “Professor Foner participated in an anti-war ‘teach in’ at Columbia University, where he invoked Communist Party icon Paul Robeson as a model of patriotism.†In his attack on Foner, Horowitz also noted that another professor at the teach-in had maligned the U.S. military and said he'd like "to see a million Mogadishus." But at the teach-in, Foner cited Robeson, who also has been honored on a U.S. stamp, only by saying, "The patriot is the person who is never satisfied with his country" — hardly a pro-Communist slogan. And Horowitz also failed to mention that Foner had criticized his fellow professor's comment about the military on the very same day as the teach-in, calling it "reprehensible."
Horowitz told Fox News on Sept. 3, 2010, that university professors are “recruiting for radical parties, terrorist-supporting parties, no question.â€
On March 24, 2005, Horowitz claimed “there are only a couple of degrees of separation between anybody on the left and the terrorists — and that includes people in the Democratic Party, even those who are anti-terrorist.â€
Ryan Mauro — Clarion Project+
Ryan Mauro is a “national security analyst†with the Clarion Project+ (formerly, the Clarion Fund), an organization known for making and distributing millions of DVDs of anti-Muslim films that portray, among other things, the threat of Islamism as akin to Nazism. One of them, “The Third Jihad,†was described by The New York Times editorial board as “a hate-filled film about Muslims†that “argues that the real agenda for Islamists in America is to infiltrate and dominate the country.†Earlier, while working at the LGBT-bashing Christian Action Network, Mauro was the producer of similar propaganda film, “Sacrificed Survivors: The Untold Story of the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque.†(The Park51 development it attacked was in fact not a mosque and was not located at Ground Zero.) Mauro also is known for vigorously pushing the false claim of “no-go zones†in France. (Like other Muslim-bashers, he confused a government list of “sensitive urban zones†for a list of no-go zones.) He has accused Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie of being “in bed†with the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2005, at age 18, Mauro wrote a book, Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq, that its Amazon description boasts “reveals the truth about the existence of Iraqi WMD programs and their movement into other countries, Saddam Hussein’s role in helping Osama bin Laden attack the free world, and the ongoing treachery of so-called allies.†Such claims about Iraq have been conclusively debunked. Past and present members of Clarion’s advisory board include extremists Frank Gaffney, Walid Phares and Zuhdi Jasser, who narrated Clarion’s 2005 film, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,†28 million copies of which were distributed as newspaper inserts in swing states shortly before the 2008 election that first brought Barack Obama to office. Several investigators have reported that The Clarion Project+ long shared an office and staff with Aish HaTorah, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish outreach organization.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
In a January 2015 appearance on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,†Mauro showed a map showing 20 American cities that he said housed one or more “radical Muslim organization[s].†Concerned officials in Oak Brook, Ill., contacted the FBI but were told that the two groups there mentioned by Mauro were not jihadist and that there were “no threats or concerns,†a village official said.
In a July 9, 2010, article on Islamist Watch while he was still a Christian Action Network official, Mauro said, “The French government actually has a website where it tabulates 751 ‘sensitive urban zones,’ which have been accurately described as ‘no-go zones.’†Actually, there is no such thing as no-go zones, as even Daniel Pipes, the originator of the no-go zone myth, has admitted. The 751 zones were areas where urban blight and poverty were serious problems.
“Islamist groups are, as we speak, hard at work creating Muslim states-within-states in the U.S.,†Mauro claimed in the same July 9, 2010, article. He then referred to 22 Muslim enclaves, such as Islamberg, N.Y., and to allegations that they have been used for “paramilitary training.†Law enforcement officials in Islamberg and elsewhere have refuted these baseless claims, which Mauro nevertheless termed “a profound challenge to America’s constitutional order.â€
In a Feb. 17, 2010, article in David Horowitz’s FrontPage Magazine, Mauro wrote that the Muslim Public Affairs Council was “an organization whose extremism has been catalogued.†In fact, the group has worked to ensure that mosques are not used as bases for terrorism, among other things, and no responsible official has accused it of supporting jihadist violence.
In a fawning review of his Death to America book in American Thinker — a right-wing journal featuring writers like attack dog Ann Coulter — Mauro is characterized as “connect[ing] both [Iraqi] Republican Guardsman Hussein Hashem al-Hussaini and suspected Iraqi agent Ramzi Yousef to the 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Witnesses saw al-Hussaini there with Timothy McVeigh, and Yousef taught bomb making to Terry Nichols during their simultaneous stay with the Philippines’ Abu Sayyef terror group.†In fact, no credible evidence — other than the wild theories of McVeigh’s defense attorney — backs either of Mauro’s claims.
Maajid Nawaz
Maajid Nawaz is a British activist and part of the “ex-radical†circuit of former Islamists who use that experience to savage Islam. His story, which has been told repeatedly in the British and American press and in testimony to legislators as well, sounds compelling enough — Nawaz says he grew up being attacked by neo-Nazi skinheads in the United Kingdom, spent almost four years in an Egyptian prison after joining a supposedly nonviolent Islamist group, but had a change of heart while imprisoned and then returned to England to work against the radicalization of Muslims. But major elements of his story have been disputed by former friends, members of his family, fellow jihadists and journalists, and the evidence suggests that Nawaz is far more interested in self-promotion and money than in any particular ideological dispute. He told several different versions of his story, emphasizing that he was deradicalized while in Egypt — even though he in fact continued his Islamist agitation for months after returning. After starting the Quilliam Foundation, which he describes as an anti-extremism think tank, Nawaz sent a secret list to a top British security official that accused “peaceful Muslim groups, politicians, a television channel and a Scotland Yard unit of sharing the ideology of terrorists,†according to The Guardian. His Quilliam Foundation received more than 1.25 million pounds from the British government, but the government eventually decided to stop funding it. One of Nawaz’s biggest purported coups was getting anti-Muslim extremist Tommy Robinson to quit as head of the violence-prone English Defence League, trumpeting his departure at a press conference. But Robinson later said Quilliam had paid him some 8,000 British pounds to allow Nawaz to take credit for what he already planned to do. Shortly afterward, Robinson returned to anti-Muslim agitation with other groups.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
In the list sent to a top British security official in 2010, headlined “Preventing Terrorism: Where Next for Britain?†Quilliam wrote, “The ideology of non-violent Islamists is broadly the same as that of violent Islamists; they disagree only on tactics.†An official with Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit told The Guardian that “[t]he list demonises a whole range of groups that in my experience have made valuable contributions to counter-terrorism.â€
In a Nov. 16, 2013, op-ed in the Daily Mail, Nawaz called for criminalizing the wearing of the veil, or niqab, in many public places, saying: “It is not only reasonable, but our duty to insist individuals remove the veil when they enter identity-sensitive environments such as banks, airports, courts and schools.â€
According to a Jan. 24, 2014, report in The Guardian, Nawaz tweeted out a cartoon of Jesus and Muhammad — despite the fact that many Muslims see it as blasphemous to draw Muhammad. He said that he wanted “to carve out a space to be heard without constantly fearing the blasphemy charge.â€
Nawaz, who had described himself as a “feminist,†was “filmed repeatedly trying to touch a naked lap dancer,†according to an April 10, 2015, report in the Daily Mail. The paper apparently got the security film from the owner of a strip club who was incensed by Nawaz’s claims to be a religious Muslim.
Robert Muise --- American Freedom Law Center*
Robert Muise is the senior counsel of the American Freedom Law Center* (AFLC) and also its co-founder, along with anti-Muslim ideologue David Yerushalmi. The main activity of the center, whose mission is “to fight for faith and freedom,†has been to push a model statute written by Yerushalmi prohibiting the imposition of Shariah religious laws on U.S. courts — an impossibility, in criminal law, under the Constitution. As a lawyer, Muise has defended anti-Muslim propagandists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer’s ads attacking the Muslim faith as protected free speech, and defended the owners of a Florida gun shop and an Oklahoma gun range who refused to serve Muslims. He also defended a retired Marine who was charged with breaking Camp Lejeune, N.C., rules banning offensive stickers by driving a vehicle emblazoned with “Disgrace My Countries [sic] Flag And I Will Shit on Your Quran,†among other things. Earlier, Muise was with the right-wing Thomas More Law Center, where as senior trial counsel he filed a suit against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 that contended that “the sole purpose of this law is to criminalize the Bible … and [impose] long jail sentences to silence Christians†from describing homosexuality as a sin. The claim was ludicrous — the law actually included explicit guarantees of free speech and religious liberty. Muise also once gave a 40-minute interview to the blatantly anti-Semitic American Free Press.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
In an April 8, 2013, AFLC press release, Muise said: “It is crucial that Americans understand the threat our Nation faces from sharia-adherent Islam, especially from stealth jihadists who covertly seek to perpetuate sharia into American society.â€
In a July 5, 2012, interview with the National Catholic Register, Muise said, “Most people don’t know that 80% of the mosques in the United States distribute literature that promotes violence against nonbelievers.†He cited a study co-authored by fellow AFLC extremist David Yerushalmi.
“Secular progressives have an agenda and know that Christians and Christian principles are their main obstacle,†Muise, an observant Catholic, said in the same July 5, 2012, interview with the National Catholic Register. “They don’t want us to be able to fight back. At the end of the day, it’s a battle between good and evil.â€
Muise told Fox News on June 29, 2010, that “t’s probably not a coincidence in a city where you have the largest Muslim population in the United States that you have police who are persecuting Christians.â€
Discussing his defense of the owners of a Florida gun shop and an Oklahoma gun range who refused to serve Muslims in a Feb. 17, 2016, Reuters article, Muise said, “The law does not require a gun shop or gun range owner — owners of an inherently dangerous business — to equip or train the next jihadist.â€
Attacking the federal hate crimes law in 2010, Muise said that “opponents of Christianity†were “continuing to press and fight as long and hard as they can to ensure that, you know, their really deviant sexual behavior is elevated to a special protected class … and they … want to silence Christians who oppose it. … [T]hey really want to equate the biblical teaching of homosexuality with racist speech… . I mean, this is all part and parcel of a really grand plan.â€
On May 23, 2014, Muise told TV host Glenn Beck that America was “the chosen nation†and that it was “founded on Judeo-Christian principles.†“We have many domestic enemies,†he said, “and we’re going to fight them.â€
Daniel Pipes — Middle East Forum
Daniel Pipes, who founded the Middle East Forum in 1990 and is still its president, has an apparently respectable background as a professor at leading schools including Harvard University, where his father once taught, and the University of Chicago. But he largely left academia in 1986, telling an interviewer for Harvard Magazine that he had “the simple politics of a truck driver, not the complex ones of an academic.†And that self-assessment does not seem off base. In 2010, Pipes attacked Feisal Abdul Rauf, who was trying to build an Islamic center in lower Manhattan, and his wife, calling them “unsavory Islamists†and saying “this initiative carries the unmistakable odor of Islamic triumphalism†and “should be barred from opening.†In fact, Rauf is a well-known moderate who conducted trainings for the FBI and the State Department after 9/11 and spent a career trying to improve relations between Muslims and the West. In 2002, Pipes organized Campus Watch, a website widely accused of McCarthyism after publishing dossiers on college professors he deemed “hostile†to America. In 2004, Pipes endorsed the internment of ethnic Japanese in American prison camps in World War II and held that up as a model for dealing with Muslims today. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Pipes also was the original source of the much-ridiculed claim that there are hundreds of “no-go zones†in Europe where Shariah law prevails and where non-Muslims, including police, are afraid to go — a claim Bloomberg described as “totally false.†In 2013, after visiting Europe, Pipes took it all back, saying he "regret[ted] having called these areas no-go zones." Pipes’ Middle East Forum is a major funder of Muslim-bashers even more radical than himself.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
In a Sept. 10, 2014, article in The National Review, Pipes reacted furiously to President Obama’s “preposterous claim†that the Islamic State was “not Islamic†in nature. Contrary to Obama’s “idiocy,†he said, the infamous terrorist organization is “100 percent Islamic … profoundly Islamic.â€
Pipes criticized the “hypocrisy†of authorities who say they are not profiling Muslims, calling it “best to be honest and open about necessary preventive actions, however distasteful they may be†in a Dec. 22, 2005, article.
In an April 21, 2013, article, Pipes speculated that jihadist attackers might soon dress in the full-body coverings worn by ultra-conservative Muslim women and called for their banning. “One must expect future non-suicide bombers to turn to niqabs or burqas,†he wrote. “But why wait for them to engage in more murders? Why close the barn door only after the horse has run away? Far smarter would be to ban whole-body covers in public places now.â€
Pipes attacked The 99, a comic book with Muslim superheroes that was lauded by President Obama, in an April 17, 2012, article. “[T]o the Islamic indoctrination of Western children, already present in schools through textbooks … now add comic books and the many spin-offs,†he said. “The 99 might be fine for Muslim children … but non-Muslim children should not be exposed to missionizing propaganda of this sort,†he concluded.
One day after the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing, Pipes told USA Today: “People need to understand that this is just the beginning. The [Muslim] fundamentalists are on the upsurge, and they make it clear that they are targeting us.†In fact, the bombing was carried out by Timothy McVeigh, an antigovernment American extremist who had nothing to do with Islam.
Walid Shoebat — Shoebat Foundation*
Walid Shoebat is a Palestinian American who claims to have been a Palestine Liberation Organization terrorist and who now spends his time flinging crude insults at Muslims and smearing virtually anyone who disagrees with him on any point. But like so many on the “ex-terrorist†Muslim-bashing circuit, the claims from Shoebat, who is now an evangelical Christian, are extremely dubious, as shown in serious investigations by CNN, The Jerusalem Post and others. For instance, officials in Israel could find no evidence that he once bombed an Israeli bank or spent time in Israeli jails, as he claims. Shoebat, who has been used as a “terrorism expert†on CNN and elsewhere, has asserted that all Muslim organizations in America “should be the No. 1 enemy,†described Muslims in Brussels, Belgium, as “bearded boiling brussel sprouts that stink till high heaven,†and smeared the Muslim Gold Star father who criticized Donald Trump as an Islamist operative. Shoebat’s Shoebat.com blog is filled with vicious attacks on Muslims and non-evangelical Christians from both Shoebat and his filth-spewing son, Theodore Shoebat. The younger Shoebat has called for “Those Who Refuse to Submit to Christian Society,†along with LGBT people, to be put to death, and boastfully referred to himself as a “proud fascist.â€
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Walid Shoebat has called Islam “the devil,†according to a June 26, 2010, Washington Post story that questioned his claim to have been a terrorist.
In an undated YouTube video, Shoebat said of President Obama, “If Islam is not playing the major role in Antichrist spirit, why do you think the devil wants to appoint somebody connected to Islam in the White House?â€
In an Aug. 18, 2010, appearance on “Fox & Friends,†Shoebat said of Feisal Abdul Rauf, who was then trying to build the Park51 Islamic center in lower Manhattan: “His support of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic jihad movement has been expressed by him in the Arabic language. … This is straight support for terrorism.†In fact, Media Matters consulted two scholars of Islamic movements, asking them to read the Arabic newspapers that Shoebat cited. One of them called Shoebat’s claims a “blatant misrepresentation†and the other said the articles citing Rauf did “not show any support for terrorism.â€
Shoebat claimed in a May 26, 2016, appearance on the One America News Network that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight and the Egypt Air flight that had recently crashed were destroyed by Muslim pilots wanting to be jihadist martyrs. There was no evidence for that claim, and none has emerged since.
In the same May 26, 2016, interview, Shoebat said he had stopped flying as a result of fearing Muslim pilots. “I stopped flying even in the U.S. two years ago,†he said. “I completely — I flew 3,000 flights to get my message out to this country. Finally, I realized, I get into an airline where I see 20 Yemeni students, it’s terrifying. I do not know if the pilot is Muslim or not.â€
“All Islamic organizations in America should be the No. 1 enemy,†Shoebat said at a 2010 speaking engagement in South Dakota, according to a July 14, 2011, CNN investigative piece. “All of them,†he added. The same story quoted Shoebat claiming that law enforcement could easily have stopped the 9/11 attacks by looking for “zabibahs,†or marks on the foreheads of Muslims caused by bowing their heads to the ground during prayers: “[H]ad we looked at the zabibah only, we would have deflected a suicide action of killing 3,000 Americans.â€
On April 22, 2013, Shoebat blamed multiculturalism for the Boston Marathon bombing. “There will be more to come, as long as we keep observing the modern world’s sick obsession with multiculturalism,†he and his son wrote in an essay, “The Tsarnaev Brothers and the Coming Savage Empire of Islam.â€
Robert Spencer — Jihad Watch* // American Freedom Defense Initiative* // Stop Islamization of America*
Robert Spencer is commonly referred to as one of the few real intellectuals in the anti-Muslim movement, and it is true that he is the author of more than a dozen books, two of which made the New York Times Best Seller List. But Spencer is entirely self-taught in the study of Islam, he has partnered with a woman known as one of the least reasoned enemies of Islam in the country, and he is given to the same kinds of extravagant, and often provably false, claims that characterize most Muslim-bashers. Spencer has complained of “Shariah enclaves†and predicted that they will grow across America; referred to Barack Obama as “the first Muslim presidentâ€; claimed that Islam “mandates warfare against unbelievers†and said that “traditional Islam is not moderate or peacefulâ€; and even suggested that the media may be getting money to depict Muslims in a positive light. Spencer started his own anti-Muslim website, Jihad Watch*, in 2003. In 2010, he co-founded both the American Freedom Defense Initiative* and Stop Islamization of America* with Pamela Geller. In 2013, he and Geller were banned from entering the United Kingdom for at least three years because the pair’s views “foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.†Spencer wrote a Nov. 8, 2011, article in Crisis magazine with a recommended reading list that included such white nationalist books as Jean Raspail’s 1973 Camp of the Saints, an intensely racist novel that depicts France overrun by swarthy hordes of non-white immigrants from India. In his Crisis article, Spencer described multiculturalism as a “heresy†that is intent on “denigrating and ultimately destroying the Judeo-Christian West.â€
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Angered at news about the production of a new line of halal-certified soups, Spencer reacted on Oct. 5, 2010, with a blog post headlined, "Campbell's Soup goes halal with approval from Hamas-linked ISNA."
In a Jan. 14, 2006, post on Jihad Watch, Spencer wrote: “[T]raditional Islam itself is not moderate or peaceful. It is the only major world religion with a developed doctrine and tradition of warfare against unbelievers.â€
After the Conservative Political Action Conference made it clear that it was not then welcoming anti-Muslim extremists like him, Spencer described the extremely conservative gathering as a “Shariah-compliant conference.†He was speaking to anti-LGBT radio host Bryan Fischer on March 14, 2013.
A students organization conducted a programme on above topic and we got to hear a Jama-at-e-Islami and two Barelwi speakers. The JI guy bombarded us with intense decibels and he was argumentative. He had theological background.
The first Barelwi speaker was of political science background and he was against demonstration for protecting Shariah in India.
Third speaker, again a Barelwi, started off by quoting the Old Testament. That is when I left.
I doubt that the students will be left with any clear message.
There should have been academic clarity in this campus, I mean AMU, about such emotive issue like Triple Talaq. I did not find it in this programme.
I have written a lot about a friend, late Dr Farhan Mujib, on this blog. Once, while browsing books in a section of the Maulana Azad Library of the Aligarh Muslim University, he said that Maripat don't you think that one I shall get a book that will change my life. He had spoken the truth. I was always looking for such a book. I did not know that the same was the case with him.
Only much later I realized that the most relevant book in that category is the Noble Qur'an. I also did not know that any other book will be far behind of the divine revelation. These two points must be kept in mind before exploring the type of lists that this blog post is about.
Such lists are not entirely useless. These do serve a purpose but your grounding in Islam must be strong enough before you can take optimum advantage of such offerings.
For the moment I offer my views of the books in the linked list - 27 books that can change your life for ever.
'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy
This book at the moment has 4223 customer reviews on Amazon. That says a lot about a book. It is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that also was classified as a notable book by the New York Times. It is about how a father an son duo face life in war ravaged America when the civilization is destroyed and lawless bands prowl.
America is just five centuries old for us and it has gathered in that small duration of time enormous amount of experience that it aspires to dominate the human social psyche. Hence every experience from there is supposed to be ultimate and the last word in that walk of life about which they choose to talk. Muslim experience never comes to their radar, same for Indian experience or Asian experience. Even European experience is a second grade loser. They certainly assert universality for their experience combined with superiority. their universality is tempered by the fact that they borrowed orientalist mindset about the Muslim world from Europe. Their superiority is their own biased construct.
Moreover the US is superpower in an advance state of decline. Keeping that in mind we can always have a look at their experience. They had no right to dominate the world for half a century but the fact remains that they did. Even today we do not have a substitute for what they have been. For a 2006 book the present novel is hugely successful. On my part I do not wish to change my life for ever on the basis of a depressing narrative of devastation even if it full of love's dedication and the narrative is lyrical.
(1) Mufti Abdul Qawi Sahab (DB) was arrested by Indian Police.
He was kept in custody for months.
Then he was released.
It was early in 2014.
The accusations were related to Ahmedabad blasts.
(2) This year Dr Zakir Naik has been shut out side India.
Government has tightened its grip on his Islamic Research Foundation.
For this the government has used very far fetched arguments, laws and clauses.
These two episodes will give a rather scary picture of the ground reality for Muslims.
In deed the ground level situation for Muslims in India as well as the world is quite bad.
But I still feel that the situation is not completely gloomy.
My feeling is that we can talk academically about encroachment upon Muslim life space.
MuftiSays 887 Posts
Sunni Forum 8000 Posts
An Alig's Armchair 1188 Posts
Thus Spake Hazrat Shaikh 2240 Posts
Kamalat-e-Kalimia : Adjusted in Inflating SF Posts
This will be about 12000 posts.
In this the 2240 posts on Thus Spake are really one paragraph posts because these are reporting on the the sayings of my Shaikh. Rest of the posts could be a long article of a few pages or simply a link or a comment or a paragraph. It is difficult to average out these to calculate the amount of the material I have produced myself.
Add to this thousands of posts on the FB in last few years.
If I am allowed to shun humility for a moment then it will amount to prodigious output. It will be like 14000 paragraphs of dense material. Assuming that seven such paragraphs would be enough to fill a page it means that I might have written about 2000 densely packed pages on non-leisure material. Of course this is certainly an under estimation but that is alright.
Of course it amounts to nothing in concrete terms for all of this is either on the net or disappeared even from there (all the SF posts).
I suppose I should write down those 2000 pages in print form. If I had already done that then it would have taken a load off my mind - I would have cheated myself into believing that I have done a part of my duty as a Earthian. Alas that is not true.
So be friendly and push me to do that - write books. Apart from papers, those dry Physics kind papers.
No matter how much we try to run away from ground realities, do sweet talking and keep on emphasising on the need and importance of unity of the Muslim Ummah, the fact is that we continue facing the punishment of the violation by Muslims of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)’s warning 1400 years ago that ‘Never draw your sword against the other of my ummah, Once if it is, it will not go back in its sheath till the Doomsday.’ (Mishkat-ul-Masabih).
The smouldering fire of hatred among Muslim Ummah that flared up and caused the great tragedy of Karbala is refusing to die down till today. This could be one of the other several methods of the Master of the universe to test His servants. But to pass this test, the only way, it seems, is to adopt the middle path, avoid reviving old controversies and stop behaving like eye witnesses to those painful tragedies that took place long gone years ago, and move forward. Let’s not forget that on the Day of Judgement we will be questioned about the role we are playing in the world we are living in and not about the actions of previous generations. Therefore we need to play our role with open hearted honesty and fairness being prepared to denounce the wrongs and injustices being committed before our own eyes today.
After the overthrow of Raza Shah Pehelvi and Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 a very attractive and inspiring slogan, ‘La Sunnia, La Shi’ia, Islamia Islamia’ (No Sunni, No Shi’a Only Islam, Only Islam) was heard from Tehran. After several centuries the news of the overthrow of a powerful and autocratic king and implementation of Islamic laws in its place, such a slogan was sweet music to the ears of every Muslim who had longed for unity in the Ummah and Supremacy of Islam.
In those days I was a student at Aligarh. Contrary to the belief that only Sunnis belonging to a certain organisation sympathised with the Islamic Revolution of Iran, each and every Muslim who was opposed sectarianism and division within the Ummah welcomed it and I was one of them.
Injustice and oppression is a curse and must be deplored regardless of where it is done and who is the oppressor and who the victims are. Iran is justified in protesting, and has every right to do so, against the unfair treatment meted out on Shi’as in the Gulf. But should the country demanding justice in other countries not set its own house in order first? Why does it brand and condemn everyone who raises the issue of injustice with Iranian Sunnis labelled as wahabis, Saudi agents or the supporters of Al Qaidah or Daesh?
I remember the speech delivered by Shi’a a’lim late Maulana Kalbe Abid Saheb in Kennedy Hall in which he said that to call the Islamic revolution of Iran a Shi’a revolution was sheer injustice. Explaining his point further he said that Iran being a Shi’a majority country the implementation of Shi’a jurisprudence there was natural. Just like the implementation of Sunni jurisprudence would be applied when an Islamic revolution takes place in a Sunni majority country.
Few months later news came of the executions of Shia ulema in Iraq and a protest meeting was held in Kennedy Hall and that was attended by many Sunni and Shi’a ulema who deplored Saddam Hussain’s brutality in the strongest possible language.
When I compare today’s sectarian-hate-filled atmosphere to that environment echoing by the chants of La Sunnia, la Shii’a, Islamia Islamia, it looks like a dream shattered. But it is not that the massacre in Syria today has broken this dream. The task of creating cracks in it had started from Iran itself and what we have witnessed in Syria now is merely a climax.
In those days of the success of Islamic Revolution in Iran and in the mesmerising atmosphere of slogans calling for the unity of Ummah, I had befriended with some Iranian students who used to give me several Iranian publications to read. It was through these publications that I learnt about Iranian scholar Dr Ali Shariati and had a chance to read some of his writings. I also read his Sociology of Islam and was impressed by him.
Then to my surprise all of a sudden Dr Shariati’s writings stopped coming in those publications and then I learnt that he had lost all the love between him and the mullahs. Had he not died in suspicious circumstances in 1975, then he could have also been one of those who were sent to gallows after being tagged as foreign agents.
My illusion about Iran’s Islamic revolution got started dissipating while I was still a student when I came across blasphemous writings in some Iranian publications against some companions of the Holy prophet. However, when it was pointed out these publications were removed from the Iranian centre/library that had been established by Iranian students in Dodhpur, Aligarh.
Then a news hotly started circulating in the campus that Ayatullah Khomeini had refused to see a delegation from Lucknow and had asked them go to back and firstly resolve Shi’a-Sunni differences in Lucknow. Only Allah knows how authentic it was. But when you have good opinion or high regard for an individual or a group you tend to believe anything good about them especially when it seems to be fulfilling your own wish. Like many other likeminded students I also believed it.
We can’t judge what is in someone’s heart as only, ‘Allah knows what is in your hearts. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Forbearing.’ (Qur’an, 33:51). But from all the news coming out of Iran later it started becoming pretty clear that the call of unity of Ummah was merely a slogan.
News now had also started coming of ‘exporting’ the Iranian revolution to other countries. It is nature’s phenomena that during any water seepage, water first makes its way through the weakest seam. For Iran the weakest point was its neighbouring country Pakistan. News of Iranian literature being spread in Pakistan were already in circulation. Then in 1982 a Shi’a-Sunni riot broke out in Karachi making an Iranian diplomat lose control over his hidden desire and prompted him to declare, ‘This is the beginning of an Islamic Revolution in Pakistan.’
Pakistan protested against the statement and, as far as I can recall, Iranian Government had to recall that diplomat. However, it would be unfair not to blame Saudi Arabia and Iran both for the present spread of sectarian hatred in Pakistan. However it is a separate topic to explore.
After coming to London in 1983 I had the chance to interact with some more Iranian students. After talking to them I learnt that to them excepting their own government, each and every government in the world was hypocrite. And those simple minded people who wanted to give them some latitude and still had good opinion about their sincerity and were still optimistic about the ‘Islamic Revolution’ attributed it to their youthful zeal and inexperience. But when I talked to Shi’a friends from Pakistan I had an interesting observation. They were opposed to Zia-ul-Haq not for his wrong policies and dictatorship but for sectarian reasons. It was interesting to see their enthusiasm for Islamic Revolution in Iran but a distaste of Islamisation in Pakistan. It was all right, in the name of unity, for Sunnis in Tehran to be denied the right to build a separate mosque of their own but in Pakistan introduction of compulsory Zakat by the government was unfair (in Fiqha-e-Jafriah government cannot force the people to pay and collect Zakat from its citizens).
There is no doubt that Saddam Hussain was a brute dictator. One of his several other mistakes was the attack on Iran. No Muslim as well can agree with the racist ideology of Pan-Arabism of Gulf states. Feeling threatened by an ‘Islamic Revolution’ in a Muslim country, the weak governments of these states persuaded and helped Saddam to attack Iran in 1980 and supported him in the eight year long war that ended in 1988. However, the then President of Syria Hafez al Assad, an Alawite Baathist— regarded by the Mullahs of Iran as a kafir — and who believed in the philosophy of pan-Arabism and secularism supported the Islamic Iran against the Baathist, and an Arab, Saddam Hussain who had much common with him. And the Mullahs, who regarded everyone else except themselves as hypocrites, welcomed the support of a secular Baathist. Later they supported Syria at every step and the ugliest climax of which has been their connivance in the massacre in Aleppo.
There is no doubt that Saddam Hussain was a brute dictator. One of his several other mistakes was the attack on Iran. No Muslim as well can agree with the racist ideology of Pan-Arabism of Gulf states. Feeling threatened by an ‘Islamic Revolution’ in a Muslim country, the weak governments of these states persuaded and helped Saddam to attack Iran in 1980 and supported him in the eight year long war that ended in 1988. However, the then President of Syria Hafez al Assad, an Alawite Baathist— regarded by the Mullahs of Iran as a kafir — and who believed in the philosophy of pan-Arabism and secularism supported the Islamic Iran against the Baathist, and an Arab, Saddam Hussain who had much common with him. And the Mullahs, who regarded everyone else except themselves as hypocrites, welcomed the support of a secular Baathist. Later they supported Syria at every step and the ugliest climax of which has been their connivance in the massacre in Aleppo.
Injustice and oppression is a curse and must be deplored regardless of where it is done and who is the oppressor and who the victims are. Iran is justified in protesting, and has every right to do so, against the unfair treatment meted out on Shi’as in the Gulf. But should the country demanding justice in other countries not set its own house in order first? Why does it brand and condemn everyone who raises the issue of injustice with Iranian Sunnis labelled as wahabis, Saudi agents or the supporters of Al Qaidah or Daesh?
The most ridiculous term being used by the Iranian media is Takfeeri (one who declares others as kafir) for Daesh and organisations like them. If so then who is the biggest Takfiri than Iran itself (or the Shi’as) who have not spared even the most revered personalities in Islamic history?
Almost everyone in the Sunni world has condemned the crimes of Daesh. Many scholars have gone as far as declaring them as non-Muslims. But, sadly, except the former Secretary General of Hezbullah, Subhi al-Tufayli, there has been no condemnation from any other Shi’a of the massacre of innocent men, women and children in Syria. Far from deploring the annihilation of civilians they have instead condemned Subhi al-Tufaili as a Saudi agent.
When it comes to playing politics, Iran has not hesitated in using even as important act of obligatory worship as Hajj. Instead of training its pilgrims to maintain decency and unity during Hajj, it continues to defend their chants of marsias and the slogans of ‘Ya Hussain‘ when millions of Muslims gathered there are busy glorifying Allah SWT and reciting Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik. I am sure everyone who has had the privilege of performing Hajj will have seen them doing so while going from Mina to Muzdalifa.
The fact is that there is a large Sunni community in Iran about that not much is known in the outside world. Like the Shi’as, they had played equally important role in overthrowing the Shah. Even in the first Majlis (Parliament), formed after the Revolution there were three Sunni members: Maulana Abdul Aziz, Hameedullah Muradi (both elected from Sunni majority province Baluchistan) and Allama Mufti Zadeh (nominated).
Despite several attempts, I have been unable to find any Sunni organisation in London that could brief me any further on this subject. However, the news coming from Iran suggests that instead of improving the situation of Sunnis in Iran it has only worsened since 1992, the time when I had interviewed in London Ali Akbar Mulla Zade ,the son of Maulana Abdul Aziz (a graduate of Darul Uloom Deoband), who then headed External Affairs Committee of the newly formed Majlis-e-Ala Ahl-e-Sunnat, Iran.
This interview was published in Delhi based Urdu weekly Akbar-e-Nao, then edited by Mr M Afzal, who later became member in Indian Parliament and also served as an Indian ambassador to Angola and Turkmenistan.
For the interest of the readers I am producing full translation of that interview:
Q: Your father was himself a member of the Majlis and a great supporter of Islamic Revolution. Why are you unhappy with the Revolution?
A: First of all, my father was an elected representative and it was neither a favour to him nor the Sunnis for including him in the Majlis. Secondly in bringing to an end the monarchy and paving the way for the implementation of Islamic rule, Sunnis had made as much sacrifices as were offered by the Shi’as because we believed that after the King was gone, Iran would become an ideal Islamic state. But when the Government was formed and country’s constitution was formulated, Shi’ism was declared as the official religion of the state and a clause was added in it making it necessary that only a Shi’a could hold the office of the president, vice president or other high posts. This triggered protests by the Sunnis. Baluchistan was worst hit. Following this a delegation, including my father Maulana Abdul Aziz and myself, met Ayatullah Khomeini and drew his attention towards the issue. Khomeini agreed with us at that moment.
Later my father also delivered a speech in the Parliament and said in an unambiguous term that if these conditions were not removed, Islamic Government would meet the same fate as that of the one led by the King. That speech is on record.
When protests in Baluchistan got intensified, Ayatullah Khomeini sent the then Foreign Minister Dr Ebrahim Yazdi to Baluchistan to assess the situation there. After coming back Dr Yazdi recommended that not only Shi’ism should not be declared as the state religion but also the condition requiring one to be a Shi’a to occupy the office of the President or other high offices be removed. But the result was nil. Only after few days my father resigned. He did not remain in the Majlis for more than 20 days while other Sunni members did not sign the constitution in protest.
Q: But Iran is a Shi’a majority country. What is so objectionable if Shi’sm has been declared their official religion? Five percent of Sunnis have 12 representatives in the Majils. What is your objection then?
A: Sunni population of Iran is 15 million that comes to around 30% of the total population. Only in Tehran there are half a million of Sunnis but there is not even a single Sunni mosque there.
Q: Is it necessary to divide Mosques on sectarian lines? Can’t Shi’a and Sunni pray together?
A: This question should be answered by the Government. They should tell us why there is not even a single mosque in Tehran with a Sunni Imam in it? Those ones who talk about unity should lead by practical example. You would remember during General Zia ul Haq’s government in Pakistan a legislation was passed making Zakat compulsory for all the Muslims. The Shi’as of the country created a great uproar against it because under Shi’ism the government is not allowed to collect Zakat. As a result they were given exemption from it. Even the Prime Minister’s wife, Mrs Nusrat Bhutto, had obtained exemption from it.
Q: What does Iran’s Islamic Revolution have to do with it?
A: I am coming to that. The Government determined to export their Islamic Revolution all over the world should have asked the Shi’as of Pakistan to pay Zakat for the sake of unity. On the contrary when a Shi’a-Sunni riot broke out in Karachi, an Iranian diplomat fired a statement claiming that that was the beginning of an Islamic Revolution in Pakistan. But neither the Pakistani government could dare protest to Iran nor did the Iranian government sought any explanation from its diplomat for that outburst. How could they? What the diplomat had said was their wish dear to their heart.
In addition, look at Iran’s role in Afghanistan. Only for five million Shi’a population there they are demanding a fleet of 120 members in the cabinet of Mujahideen. While out of 15 million Sunnis in Iran you will not find a Sunni at the post of a minister, deputy minister, diplomat, officer in the army and judiciary, governor general or any other high position. Zahidan, where the Baluchistan University happens to be, and where 90% of the population is Sunni, of the 2000 Students only nine are Sunnis.
Q: You are saying that the Sunni population in Iran is 150 million while general impression is that it would be between 4-5 million. 15 million looks like an exaggeration.
A: I am not surprised at your question. Yes, general impression is that it is 50 lakh (5 million). This is also a fact that Iran was once a Sunni majority country. Three hundred years ago when Shah Ismail invaded and occupied Iran he massacred Sunnis. Only in Azerbaijan three lakh Sunnis were martyred. This is a long story. I would like to mention that personalities like the authors of Hadees books, Muslim and Tirmizi, were all Sunnis. But today Sunnis are found only in the border areas or around hilly areas. This is because when the Safavids attacked Iran, either they could not reach these areas or in order to save their lives Sunnis moved to mountainous areas for shelter and defended themselves there. However, that remaining population is still about 30% of the total Iranian population.
Q: There has not been any news of any suppression or excesses against Sunnis since the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
A: This is exactly our misfortune that the world is unaware of what is happening to us. Things are done in such a sophisticated manner that the outside world gets a completely different impression. After the revolution first they focussed on the Sunni province Kurdistan. With great shrewdness and cunningness they forced Iranian communists to flee to Kurdistan so that they could misguide the people there and the government could have an excuse to declare a war on them. Therefore, Iranian government launched massive air raids killing thousands of innocent men, women and children there . Several villages were completely raised to ground. It was also claimed that they would be treated like kuffars. This was given the colour of a war against Communists. The residents of the villages that were attacked were all Muslims though. those women who were looted were all Muslims and children who were crushed by tanks were Muslims as well. This was followed by a legislation that put the Sunnis in the category of Jews and Christians and they were deprived of all the civil rights.
I have told you about the speech my father had delivered. In his speech in the full house of the Parliament he said, ‘For God’s sake don’t divide the Muslims and don’t deprive the Sunnis of their rights. Don’t revive old hatred and prejudices in Iran. Otherwise your Government will meet the same fate like the Shah and his family.’
No one listened to him he therefore boycotted the Parliament. He met Ayatullah Khomeini but what was the result? There were massive riots in Sunni areas and in [full name of some place that is not legible in the photocopy except the word Bandar] after Friday prayers army attacked the congregators and more than 20 Sunnis were martyred there. Then Turkmen Sahra was attacked and for three days residents were forced to remain confined in their houses. Anyone who dared come out was shot dead.
After this bullets were showered upon the people in Zahedan, the capital of Baluchistan. Curfew was imposed there that lasted for one week. The intention was to terrorise the Sunnis.
But the Sunni ulema, including Maulana Abdul Aziz, Allama Ahmad Mufti Zadeh, Maulvi Abdul Malek, Maulvi Abdul Azeez Al-hiari, Nasir Subhani, Maulvi Ibrahim Madani, Maulvi Nazar Mohammad and several others, continued to raise their voices and reminded the government of Allah’s wrath only to be told that according to a 50 years plan no Sunni would remain in Iran. There would be no Sunni left and thus there will would be no problem there. Ulema were imprisoned and some were martyred. But Allah’s designs are such He brings blessings through tragedies. Had Iran-Iraq war not started no adult Sunni would have been left alive in Iran and to convert the remaining Sunni children to Shiaism would not be a difficult task.
Q: This is all about the past. What’s the situation now?
A: As I have already said not even a single Sunni occupies the post of a minister, ambassador or an army or judiciary officer. Mass media has adopted a policy of creating hatred and hostilities against Sunnis. This includes blasphemy against the first three Caliphs and Ummul-Momineen Hazrat Aisha (RA). The history taught from primary school to university level has been written from Shi’a point of view that is based on hatred and insults cursing the revered personalities of Islam. In education Sunnis have been deprived of their rights. They don’t have the permission to bring out their newspapers and publish books. Bank loans and licenses are available only to Shi’as. Sunni communities are made to fight among themselves and are thus being forced to migrate to Pakistan or other countries and non Sunnis are getting accommodated in places left vacant by emigrating Sunnis. For example Allama Ahmad Mufti Zadeh has been incarcerated and has been kept un horrendous condition. He was one of the three members of the first Parliament. He had performed a leading role in the Revolution and was in those days an apple of their eyes. But today, for speaking the truth, he is being kept in the conditions in which Shah used to put his opponents.
Q: You say you have no say in Iran and no one listens to Sunnis in Iran. Do you intend to start an armed struggle?
A: No we have no such plans. As a matter of fact this is the very first time when we are raising the issue of injustices against us outside the country and have opted for this only when we realised that all our peaceful efforts inside the country are going in vain. In response to our peaceful and sincere requests all we are getting is oppression. Now we are trying to inform the outside world about our plights and whoever learns about our plight gets stunned.
Q: What is the Majlis-e-Ala Ahl-e-Sunnat Iran?
A: This is a united platform of Iranian Sunnis. I am the Incharge of its foreign affairs department. This has been formed to raise our voice against injustices against Sunnis. Efforts were being made for such a platform for quite some time. On 20 April [1991] this was officially formed. It consists of Sazman-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Iran, Jumbish Mujahideen Baluchistan, JumbishPaidari Baluchistan, Ittehad-e-Islami Baluchistan, Mubarazat Ahl-e-Sunnat Iran and other sunni organisations.
Q Why no such effort was made during the time of your father while, as you claim, these problems and issues were there then as well?
A: Such movements were started during my father’s time as well. He had even formed an organisaton, Hizb-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen, But soon after the Revolution the situation those days got in such a way that this organisation could not work as effectively in other Sunni areas outside Baluchistan. Later the Government banned it. But when they felt the need for it they founded, in cooperation with Turkeman Ahl-e-sunnat, another organisation and named as ShuraMarkazi Ahl-e-Sunnat and was known by its abbreviation SHAMS [in Persian and Urdu it means sun]. It was headed by my father and Allama Ahmed Mufti Zadeh. But the government accused it of having Saudi and American connections and banned it too. Organisations like these are not allowed to work in Iran. After this all of such organisations were formed outside Iran and their area of work was very limited. Majlis-e-Ala Ahl-e-Sunnat is the first organisation of its kind with a very wide sphere and represents all Sunnis of Iran.’
Interestingly the same newspaper also carried in its 20-26 March issue, an interview with a Sunni Member of parliament, MaulanaIshaq Madni, that was conducted at the Iranian Embassy in Delhi. For the interest of readers I am producing translation of some of its excerpts as well.
Q: What is the population of Sunnis in Tehran?
A: There is been no census in Iran on the basis of religion. So it is difficult to tell how many Sunnis are there in Tehran.
Q Are there Sunni organisations in Iran?
A: There are organisations in Iran but not on the basis of Shi’a or Sunni sects. Iran meN Shi’a Sunni ki bunniad pe dukan dari nahiN chalsakti [Shi’a, Sunni currency does not work in Iran].
Q: It’s said Iranian Sunnis are not happy with the government. What is your view about it?
A: If some Iranis are unhappy this is not because they are Shi’as or Sunnis but because of their personal interests.
Q: Is it true that there is not even a single Sunni mosque in Tehran while there are hundreds of Shi’a mosques?
A: As far as mosques are concerned, this has not happened after the Revolution. It’s not that there was a mosque that was closed or was handed to another sect…
Q: Did Sunnis also offer sacrifices for the Islamic Revolution and Jang-e-Tehmeeli?
A: Yes, during the Islamic Revolution and Jang-e-Tehmeeli about 11,000 Sunni brothers were martyred or injured.
Q: But you said there has not been a census in Iran on the basis of religion. How did you find out about this number?
A: This number is based on the information received from areas whose populations are purely Sunni or have Sunni majority.
Urdu version of this article appeared on Star News and Millat Times.
Acclaimed Indian novelist Anita Nair, who has brought to the fore tales from Quran for children, says it is necessary for children to know that Islam is not a "terrifying religion" as it is made out to be.
Talking about her recently-launched "Muezza and Baby Jaan: Stories From the Quran", Nair said one needs to start combating negative perceptions about Islam with children.
"We need to start with children and it's easier to teach children that Islam is another religion like Hinduism or Buddhism, the scripture is like every other scripture. There is nothing that makes Islam a terrifying religion that people make it out to be," Nair told IANS here on the sidelines of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Fest.
"I know a lot of Muslim writers wanted to do it but were hesitant because it would have been considered a propaganda. I am a Hindu so its not a question of propaganda, it's only about opening up the religion to the public," the best-selling author noted.
Nair, author of "The Better Man" and "Ladies Coupe", also pointed to the absence of writings on Quran.
"There isn't anything written about the Quran. If you look at Bible stories, if you look at Hindu mythology, if you look at Jataka tales, everything is available out there, but there is nothing on Quran. Increasingly, in this time and age, terrorists are using the Quran as a scapegoat to explain what they are doing and that is very sad indeed," Nair said.
The Kerala Sahitya Akademi awardee says her research on the Quran (for an earlier book titled "Idris: Keeper of The Lights) shows it is a treasure trove of beautiful stories.
"Based on my reading of the Quran, (it actually means reading), you realise it's a treasure trove of beautiful stories that explain how to live your life and how to do the right thing. Nowhere does it say that you have to be violent. What has happened is that the interpretations that have come thereafter have corroded the actual essence of Quran," she said.
"I have based this book on a 13th century book by Ibn Kathir, which is basically stories from the Quran, and then I have added on things and embellished it," Nair said.
Hoping adults read the book as well, Nair also vouched for balanced view of things when it comes to school textbooks.
Asked about the recent controversy over the West Bengal government's apparent attempts at "secularising" school textbooks, Nair said: "I am not so sure about that because these children have to grow up in the real world which is not essentially secular, so the approach has to be balanced. And you can't protect the child from not being exposed to the realities of life."
A powerful historical novel from a much loved author The year is 1659. Idris, a Somalian trader, is in Kerala to attend the Mamangam festivities. By a strange twist of fate, he meets his nine-year-old son whose existence he had been unaware of. In an attempt to keep his son close to him, he embarks with him on a voyage that ends in the diamond mines of Golconda. Packed with passion, adventure and fascinating aspects of life in the seventeenth century in southern India, Idris is a page-turner that will intrigue and excite readers everywhere.
Sandhya Srinivasanon on Amazon
November 4, 2014
The 'Keeper of the Light' is a man of such dignity that one can't help but admire him. While reading this book that is almost a travelogue, I kept hoping that none of the very lovable characters were heading towards doom of any sort, and I have to thank Anita Nair for letting me keep my faith in humanity, and the belief that good things happen to good people. I don't know whether this book was meant to be a love story and/or a travelogue but it manages to be both. As this is the first of a trilogy, readers have something very interesting to look forward to - hopefully sooner rather than later.
The pieces about pearl diving and the diamond mining are really descriptive, and are just an example of the depth of research that has gone into the making of this book.
This cannot be undone and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated.
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