PRESS RELEASE
10/20/09
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Anisa Abd el Fattah
NAMAW
anisa@namaw.org
National Muslim Woman's organization condemns terrorist attacks on Iran, calls upon UN Security Council to intervene and end all provocations for war against Iran.
Washington DC-Oct.20,2009
The National Association of Muslim American Women(NAMAW), the United State's first and only Muslim woman's pro-life and pro-family organization condemns the recent Jundallah attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran, and calls upon the UN Security Council to intervene immediately to end all acts of provocation aimed at provoking war against Iran.
"We see this as an attempt to push Iran into retaliation and a proxy war with groups operating out of Pakistan," says NAMAW Chairwoman Anisa Abd el Fattah. Abd el Fattah went further, saying: "Failing to get outright US and EU approval for an Israeli or US attack on Iran, we see a new strategy for war. This strategy would provoke Iran into a proxy war with Western funded terrorist groups like Jundullah in Pakistan and the MKO, which has found sanctuary in Europe after being removed from Europe's list of terrorist organizations." "It is our position", said Abd el Fattah, "that these attacks represent an attempt to open a new battlefield in the so called war on terrorism, which many Muslims and others are convinced is merely a Western war against Islam and Muslim countries. Since Israel and its neoconservative supporters in the US, could not get US or EU approval for an Israeli attack on Iran under the false allegation of an Iranian nuclear weapon's program that threatens Israel, these interests seemingly have acted to attack Iran through a proxy. We ask Iran to be patient and not provoked, and to give time for the international institutions to carry out their obligation to do what is necessary to protect innocent civilian life from such attacks and to preserve peace."
We are also calling upon the UNSC to take the steps necessary to address this criminal act against the people of Iran, and to end all such criminal activity against Iran. The UNSC must act to prevent a proxy war that will likely escalate into a full blown war between Iran and the West, and possibly World War III. NAMAW is also calling upon all anti-war NGOs and organizations to step up their activism and to demand that an immediate investigation into these attacks be initiated in preparation for holding those who are responsible accountable before the International Criminal Court.
Finally, NAMAW is calling upon Muslims throughout the world to avoid being exploited by those who claim to be Islamic groups, but who act in the interest of the enemies of Islam. "We should not allow our personal sentiments or religious differences to cause us to assist our enemies as they escalate their war on the Muslim world. We must be wise," said NAMAW's Chairwoman. "The Qur'an teaches us to condemn injustice, even it causes us to be against our own selves. We must not allow the common enemy of Muslims everywhere, to use such crimes to split the international Muslim community and to turn us one against the other. We must stand steadfast for justice, and discourage internecine Muslim conflicts at all costs. We should have learned from our enemy's strategy in Iraq, not to allow sectarianism to split and destroy Muslims.
Until Muslims have functional international institutions of our own to protect our interests, we must encourage the international institutions that exist to act for the benefit of mankind, and to avoid war and to punish illegal and unjust acts of violence. We are also calling upon all Muslim organizations and institutions throughout the world to condemn this criminal attack on Iran and demand an end to all Muslim against Muslim violence.
We send our sincere condolences to the people of Iran as they mourn their losses and express our deep regret over these unfortunate events. Our hearts go out to them in their grief. May God guide and protect us all.
Showing posts with label Muslims. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Muslims. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Should John McCain reject and denounce Minister John Hagee?
The February 26th debate between Democrat’s Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama may have opened a Pandora’s box that will swarm the political debate in this country with issues related to Church and state separation, the true meaning of the US Constitution’s anti-establishment clause, US unconditional support for Israel, and the role of Evangelicals and Jewish groups in shaping US public policy. It may also set off a competition between denominational religious groups of various faiths, all seeking to be represented in the political process and most specifically the 2008 Presidential election.
Hillary Clinton, in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to create a wedge between Obama, AIPAC, the Jewish Lobby, the Jewish community at large, and Evangelicals, while attempting to rattle Obama, opened Pandora’s box when she suggested that Barak Obama should denounce and reject the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan had issued a public statement saying that Barak Obama is the hope of the United States and the world. Clinton premised her demand for renunciation and denouncement of Farrakhan upon previous Jewish accusations that Farrakhan is an anti-Semite. Farrakhan, many Muslims and non-Muslims who know him, vehemently deny the charge, a charge, which seems to surface at least once in every Presidential political cycle. It is a charge that is perhaps part of a larger effort to politically marginalize the US Muslim and Arab American communities, and their various branches of Islam, hoping to prevent our view of the Palestine/Israel conflict, and our critique of US foreign policy in the Middle East from reaching the US mainstream media, or being included in the political dispute over US foreign policy, including the preemptive strike policy and the so-called war on terrorism.
Among the contents of Pandora’s Box, the one that might prove to be the most contentious is the issue of Jewish and Evangelical political activism, contrasted by government pressure and media complicity in discouraging Muslim and Arab political activism and outright ignoring the political sentiments and issues that interest US Muslims and Arab Americans. There is little doubt among Muslims and Arabs that the detainment and imprisonment of US Arab and Muslim pro-Palestinian activists such as Dr. Sami Al Arian, and the raids and attacks on Muslim charities, mosques and organizations by the FBI that began prior to 9/11, and picked up afterwards, were intended to frighten Muslims and Arabs away from mainstream assimilation, and also the political arena. These raids and other acts of intimidation reached their apex during the run up to the Iraq war, which lends to the suspicion that a government and media attempt to silence Muslim and Arab political speech and to prevent Muslim political activism is, and has been underway.
The scurrilous attacks by leaders of the Jewish and Evangelical communities and the talk radio hosts that promote their brand of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim and Arab hatred and hysteria, not only added to the intimidation, but created a rift between US Muslims, Arab Americans and their fellow Americans that has resulted in a general apathy and disinterest in Arab and Muslim 1st amendment rights, even though this apathy threatens the rights of every American to hold a dissenting view, or as members of religious or other minorities, to enjoy unfettered, their Constitutionally protected civil liberties and rights.
In response to Hillary Clinton’s provocation, Barak Obama did reject and denounce Minister Louis Farrakhan. In less than 24 hours after his denouncement of Minister Louis Farrakhan, Republican political candidate John McCain appeared in a televised news conference with the Islamophobic religious extremist and radically pro-Israel, anti-Muslim and Arab activists Minister John Hagee. Hagee is the leader of Christians United for Israel, which calls itself a Christian version of AIPAC. According to Hagee, who is also the head of a mega church in Texas,the primary aim of his organization is to prevent the US from “ramrodding” Israel into giving up too much land to the Palestinians. His organization is opposed to the US roadmap, which calls for a two state solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict. He also preaches that there will be a “pre-tribulation” rapture of Evangelical Christians and Jews who are covered by the Old Covenant, into heaven to meet Jesus. According to Hagee, a Russian/Islamic alliance will prevent Israel from destroying the Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, and as a consequence, God will destroy all Muslims and Russians with his supernatural powers. Hagee also says that the fire and brimstone mentioned in the Biblical Book of Revelations is a metaphor for Israeli nuclear weapons that will rain down, killing all Muslims and Arabs (Hagee, Beginning of the End, pgs. 143-158, and Final Doom over Jerusalem, 144-146).
Hagee’s designation as a Minister and Church leader, as well as the head of an organization that is dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, and all Muslims and Arabs with Israeli nuclear weapons should raise some eyebrows. Why isn’t anyone asking if John McCain should be prodded and forced into rejecting and denouncing the boisterous and unapologetic Hagee’s endorsement? Should Hagee, his organization, or the GOP be subjected to an investigation for what appears to be a clear and brazen breech of the US Constitution’s establishment clause? Should their offices be raided and any or all of them detained for seeking to undermine the peace process? According to the Supreme Court, the establishment clause requires government to avoid excessive involvement with religion. It also prevents the merger of denominational religion with the state, and it prevents the state from promoting one religion, or faith group over another.
Hagee’s brand of Muslim and Arab hatred, and Islamophobia should be no more tolerable to the American public, or government than anti-Semitism. Farrakhan was called an anti-Semite because of his rhetorical comments regarding Zionism’s distortion of the Jewish faith, a position that is supported by many Jews, including Rabbi Dovid Weiss of Neturai Karta, an orthodox Jewish movement that opposes Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish only state in Palestine.
Hagee, on the hand is clearly a racist and religious extremist ideologue that is shamelessly preaching not only outright hatred of Muslims and Arabs, but also their destruction with Israeli nuclear weapons. Should John McCain denounce and reject the political endorsement of Minister John Hagee? Of course he should, but don’t hold your breath because Hillary wont press him on it, and neither will Obama.
The special treatment that such groups have received as a result of their pro-Israel stand, and the protection they receive from their Zionist cohorts in our government includes the absolute acceptance of their hateful and divisive brand of Judeo/Christian political activism, that is perhaps the cause for the chilling, and deprivation of US Muslim and Arab American civil rights and liberties in the US. Consider that Hagee’s crusading is likely also one of the causes of death of nearly 4,000 US soldiers and Marines in Iraq, and more than one million innocent Arab and Muslim Iraqi civilians, along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian and Israeli lives, lost over the years in the ongoing and illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, supported by Hagee and his Judeo/Christian movement, and our government. They are also a major force behind potential wars with Iran and Syria, and they advocate the use of nuclear weapons.
It’s hard to imagine that Hagee’s endorsement will do much to help McCain. It’s pretty clear that it will do nothing to help our country get out of Iraq with honor. Short of nuclear Armageddon, Hagee also has nothing to offer either Israel or Palestine, except more of the same hatred and violence. These are all good reasons to be rejected and denounced if you ask me.
Hillary Clinton, in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to create a wedge between Obama, AIPAC, the Jewish Lobby, the Jewish community at large, and Evangelicals, while attempting to rattle Obama, opened Pandora’s box when she suggested that Barak Obama should denounce and reject the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan had issued a public statement saying that Barak Obama is the hope of the United States and the world. Clinton premised her demand for renunciation and denouncement of Farrakhan upon previous Jewish accusations that Farrakhan is an anti-Semite. Farrakhan, many Muslims and non-Muslims who know him, vehemently deny the charge, a charge, which seems to surface at least once in every Presidential political cycle. It is a charge that is perhaps part of a larger effort to politically marginalize the US Muslim and Arab American communities, and their various branches of Islam, hoping to prevent our view of the Palestine/Israel conflict, and our critique of US foreign policy in the Middle East from reaching the US mainstream media, or being included in the political dispute over US foreign policy, including the preemptive strike policy and the so-called war on terrorism.
Among the contents of Pandora’s Box, the one that might prove to be the most contentious is the issue of Jewish and Evangelical political activism, contrasted by government pressure and media complicity in discouraging Muslim and Arab political activism and outright ignoring the political sentiments and issues that interest US Muslims and Arab Americans. There is little doubt among Muslims and Arabs that the detainment and imprisonment of US Arab and Muslim pro-Palestinian activists such as Dr. Sami Al Arian, and the raids and attacks on Muslim charities, mosques and organizations by the FBI that began prior to 9/11, and picked up afterwards, were intended to frighten Muslims and Arabs away from mainstream assimilation, and also the political arena. These raids and other acts of intimidation reached their apex during the run up to the Iraq war, which lends to the suspicion that a government and media attempt to silence Muslim and Arab political speech and to prevent Muslim political activism is, and has been underway.
The scurrilous attacks by leaders of the Jewish and Evangelical communities and the talk radio hosts that promote their brand of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim and Arab hatred and hysteria, not only added to the intimidation, but created a rift between US Muslims, Arab Americans and their fellow Americans that has resulted in a general apathy and disinterest in Arab and Muslim 1st amendment rights, even though this apathy threatens the rights of every American to hold a dissenting view, or as members of religious or other minorities, to enjoy unfettered, their Constitutionally protected civil liberties and rights.
In response to Hillary Clinton’s provocation, Barak Obama did reject and denounce Minister Louis Farrakhan. In less than 24 hours after his denouncement of Minister Louis Farrakhan, Republican political candidate John McCain appeared in a televised news conference with the Islamophobic religious extremist and radically pro-Israel, anti-Muslim and Arab activists Minister John Hagee. Hagee is the leader of Christians United for Israel, which calls itself a Christian version of AIPAC. According to Hagee, who is also the head of a mega church in Texas,the primary aim of his organization is to prevent the US from “ramrodding” Israel into giving up too much land to the Palestinians. His organization is opposed to the US roadmap, which calls for a two state solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict. He also preaches that there will be a “pre-tribulation” rapture of Evangelical Christians and Jews who are covered by the Old Covenant, into heaven to meet Jesus. According to Hagee, a Russian/Islamic alliance will prevent Israel from destroying the Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, and as a consequence, God will destroy all Muslims and Russians with his supernatural powers. Hagee also says that the fire and brimstone mentioned in the Biblical Book of Revelations is a metaphor for Israeli nuclear weapons that will rain down, killing all Muslims and Arabs (Hagee, Beginning of the End, pgs. 143-158, and Final Doom over Jerusalem, 144-146).
Hagee’s designation as a Minister and Church leader, as well as the head of an organization that is dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, and all Muslims and Arabs with Israeli nuclear weapons should raise some eyebrows. Why isn’t anyone asking if John McCain should be prodded and forced into rejecting and denouncing the boisterous and unapologetic Hagee’s endorsement? Should Hagee, his organization, or the GOP be subjected to an investigation for what appears to be a clear and brazen breech of the US Constitution’s establishment clause? Should their offices be raided and any or all of them detained for seeking to undermine the peace process? According to the Supreme Court, the establishment clause requires government to avoid excessive involvement with religion. It also prevents the merger of denominational religion with the state, and it prevents the state from promoting one religion, or faith group over another.
Hagee’s brand of Muslim and Arab hatred, and Islamophobia should be no more tolerable to the American public, or government than anti-Semitism. Farrakhan was called an anti-Semite because of his rhetorical comments regarding Zionism’s distortion of the Jewish faith, a position that is supported by many Jews, including Rabbi Dovid Weiss of Neturai Karta, an orthodox Jewish movement that opposes Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish only state in Palestine.
Hagee, on the hand is clearly a racist and religious extremist ideologue that is shamelessly preaching not only outright hatred of Muslims and Arabs, but also their destruction with Israeli nuclear weapons. Should John McCain denounce and reject the political endorsement of Minister John Hagee? Of course he should, but don’t hold your breath because Hillary wont press him on it, and neither will Obama.
The special treatment that such groups have received as a result of their pro-Israel stand, and the protection they receive from their Zionist cohorts in our government includes the absolute acceptance of their hateful and divisive brand of Judeo/Christian political activism, that is perhaps the cause for the chilling, and deprivation of US Muslim and Arab American civil rights and liberties in the US. Consider that Hagee’s crusading is likely also one of the causes of death of nearly 4,000 US soldiers and Marines in Iraq, and more than one million innocent Arab and Muslim Iraqi civilians, along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian and Israeli lives, lost over the years in the ongoing and illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, supported by Hagee and his Judeo/Christian movement, and our government. They are also a major force behind potential wars with Iran and Syria, and they advocate the use of nuclear weapons.
It’s hard to imagine that Hagee’s endorsement will do much to help McCain. It’s pretty clear that it will do nothing to help our country get out of Iraq with honor. Short of nuclear Armageddon, Hagee also has nothing to offer either Israel or Palestine, except more of the same hatred and violence. These are all good reasons to be rejected and denounced if you ask me.
Should John McCain reject and denounce Minister John Hagee
The February 26th debate between Democrat’s Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama may have opened a Pandora’s box that will swarm the political debate in this country with issues related to Church and state separation, the true meaning of the US Constitution’s anti-establishment clause, US unconditional support for Israel, and the role of Evangelicals and Jewish groups in shaping US public policy. It may also set off a competition between denominational religious groups of various faiths, all seeking to be represented in the political process and most specifically the 2008 Presidential election.
Hillary Clinton, in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to create a wedge between Obama, AIPAC, the Jewish Lobby, the Jewish community at large, and Evangelicals, while attempting to rattle Obama, opened Pandora’s box when she suggested that Barak Obama should denounce and reject the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan had issued a public statement saying that Barak Obama is the hope of the United States and the world. Clinton premised her demand for renunciation and denouncement of Farrakhan upon previous Jewish accusations that Farrakhan is an anti-Semite. Farrakhan, many Muslims and non-Muslims, who know him, vehemently deny the charge, a charge, which seems to surface at least once in every Presidential political cycle. It is a charge that is perhaps part of a larger effort to politically marginalize the US Muslim and Arab American communities, and their various branches of Islam, hoping to prevent our view of the Palestine/Israel conflict, and our critique of US foreign policy in the Middle East from reaching the US mainstream media, or being included in the political dispute over US foreign policy, including the preemptive strike policy and the so-called war on terrorism.
Among the contents of Pandora’s Box, the one that might prove to be the most contentious is the issue of Jewish and Evangelical political activism, contrasted by government pressure and media complicity in discouraging Muslim and Arab political activism and outright ignoring the political sentiments and issues that interest US Muslims and Arab Americans. There is little doubt among Muslims and Arabs that the detainment and imprisonment of US Arab and Muslim pro-Palestinian activists such as Dr. Sami Al Arian, and the raids and attacks on Muslim charities, mosques and organizations by the FBI that began prior to 9/11, and picked up afterwards, were intended to frighten Muslims and Arabs away from mainstream assimilation, and also the political arena. These raids and other acts of intimidation reached their apex during the run up to the Iraq war, which lends to the suspicion that a government and media attempt to silence Muslim and Arab political speech and to prevent Muslim political activism is, and has been underway. The scurrilous attacks by leaders of the Jewish and Evangelical communities and the talk radio hosts that promote their brand of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim and Arab hatred and hysteria, not only added to the intimidation, but created a rift between US Muslims, Arab Americans and their fellow Americans that has resulted in a general apathy and disinterest in Arab and Muslim 1st amendment rights, even though this apathy threatens the rights of every American to hold a dissenting view, or as members of religious or other minorities, to enjoy unfettered, their Constitutionally protected civil liberties and rights.
In response to Hillary Clinton’s provocation, Barak Obama did reject and denounce Minister Louis Farrakhan. In less than 24 hours after his denouncement of Minister Louis Farrakhan, Republican political candidate John McCain appeared in a televised news conference with the Islamophobic religious extremist and radically pro-Israel, anti-Muslim and Arab activists Minister John Hagee. Hagee is the leader of Christians United for Israel, which calls itself a Christian version of AIPAC. According to Hagee, who is also the head of a mega church in Texas; the primary aim of his organization is to prevent the US from “ramrodding” Israel into giving up too much land to the Palestinians. His organization is opposed to the US roadmap, which calls for a two state solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict. He also preaches that there will be a “pre-tribulation” rapture of Evangelical Christians and Jews who are covered by the Old Covenant, into heaven to meet Jesus. According to Hagee, a Russian/Islamic alliance will prevent Israel from destroying the Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, and as a consequence, God will destroy all Muslims and Russians with his supernatural powers. Hagee also says that the fire and brimstone mentioned in the Biblical Book of Revelations is a metaphor for Israeli nuclear weapons that will rain down, killing all Muslims and Arabs (Hagee, Beginning of the End, pgs. 143-158, and Final Doom over Jerusalem, 144-146).
Hagee’s designation as a Minister and Church leader, as well as the head of an organization that is dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, and all Muslims and Arabs with Israeli nuclear weapons should raise some eyebrows. Why isn’t anyone asking if John McCain should be prodded and forced into rejecting and denouncing the boisterous and unapologetic Hagee’s endorsement? Should Hagee, his organization, or the GOP be subjected to a DOJ investigation for what appears to be a clear and brazen breech of the US Constitution’s establishment clause? Should their offices be raided and any or all of them detained for seeking to undermine the peace process? According to the Supreme Court, the establishment clause requires government to avoid excessive involvement with religion? It also, according to other interpretations, prevents the merger of denominational religion with the state, and it prevents the state from promoting one religion, or faith group over another.
Hagee’s brand of Muslim and Arab hatred, and Islamophobia should be no more tolerable to the American public, or government than anti-Semitism. Farrakhan was called an anti-Semite because of his rhetorical comments regarding Zionism’s distortion of the Jewish faith, a position that is supported by many Jews, including Rabbi Dovid Weiss of Neturai Karta, an orthodox Jewish movement that opposes Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish only state in Palestine. Hagee, on the hand is clearly a racist and religious extremist ideologue that is shamelessly preaching not only hatred of Muslims and Arabs, but also their destruction with Israeli nuclear weapons. Should John McCain denounce and reject the political endorsement of Minister John Hagee? Of course he should, but don’t hold your breath because Hillary wont press him on it, and neither will Obama.. The special treatment that such groups have received as a result of their pro-Israel stand, and the protection they receive from their Zionist cohorts in our government includes the absolute acceptance of their hateful and divisive brand of Judeo/Christian political activism, that is perhaps the cause for the chilling, and deprivation of US Muslim and Arab American civil rights and liberties in the US. If that doesn’t warm your blood, consider that Hagee’s crusading is likely one of the causes of death of nearly 4,000 US soldiers and Marines in Iraq, and more than one million innocent Arab and Muslim Iraqis, along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian and Israeli lives, lost over the years in the ongoing and illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, supported by Hagee and his Judeo/Christian movement, and our government. They are also a major force behind potential wars with Iran and Syria and the use of nuclear weapons to settle such disputes. It’s hard to imagine that Hagee’s endorsement will do much to help McCain. It’s pretty clear that it will do nothing to help our country get out of Iraq with honor. Short of nuclear Armageddon, Hagee also has nothing to offer either Israel or Palestine, except more of the same hatred and violence.
Hillary Clinton, in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to create a wedge between Obama, AIPAC, the Jewish Lobby, the Jewish community at large, and Evangelicals, while attempting to rattle Obama, opened Pandora’s box when she suggested that Barak Obama should denounce and reject the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan had issued a public statement saying that Barak Obama is the hope of the United States and the world. Clinton premised her demand for renunciation and denouncement of Farrakhan upon previous Jewish accusations that Farrakhan is an anti-Semite. Farrakhan, many Muslims and non-Muslims, who know him, vehemently deny the charge, a charge, which seems to surface at least once in every Presidential political cycle. It is a charge that is perhaps part of a larger effort to politically marginalize the US Muslim and Arab American communities, and their various branches of Islam, hoping to prevent our view of the Palestine/Israel conflict, and our critique of US foreign policy in the Middle East from reaching the US mainstream media, or being included in the political dispute over US foreign policy, including the preemptive strike policy and the so-called war on terrorism.
Among the contents of Pandora’s Box, the one that might prove to be the most contentious is the issue of Jewish and Evangelical political activism, contrasted by government pressure and media complicity in discouraging Muslim and Arab political activism and outright ignoring the political sentiments and issues that interest US Muslims and Arab Americans. There is little doubt among Muslims and Arabs that the detainment and imprisonment of US Arab and Muslim pro-Palestinian activists such as Dr. Sami Al Arian, and the raids and attacks on Muslim charities, mosques and organizations by the FBI that began prior to 9/11, and picked up afterwards, were intended to frighten Muslims and Arabs away from mainstream assimilation, and also the political arena. These raids and other acts of intimidation reached their apex during the run up to the Iraq war, which lends to the suspicion that a government and media attempt to silence Muslim and Arab political speech and to prevent Muslim political activism is, and has been underway. The scurrilous attacks by leaders of the Jewish and Evangelical communities and the talk radio hosts that promote their brand of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim and Arab hatred and hysteria, not only added to the intimidation, but created a rift between US Muslims, Arab Americans and their fellow Americans that has resulted in a general apathy and disinterest in Arab and Muslim 1st amendment rights, even though this apathy threatens the rights of every American to hold a dissenting view, or as members of religious or other minorities, to enjoy unfettered, their Constitutionally protected civil liberties and rights.
In response to Hillary Clinton’s provocation, Barak Obama did reject and denounce Minister Louis Farrakhan. In less than 24 hours after his denouncement of Minister Louis Farrakhan, Republican political candidate John McCain appeared in a televised news conference with the Islamophobic religious extremist and radically pro-Israel, anti-Muslim and Arab activists Minister John Hagee. Hagee is the leader of Christians United for Israel, which calls itself a Christian version of AIPAC. According to Hagee, who is also the head of a mega church in Texas; the primary aim of his organization is to prevent the US from “ramrodding” Israel into giving up too much land to the Palestinians. His organization is opposed to the US roadmap, which calls for a two state solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict. He also preaches that there will be a “pre-tribulation” rapture of Evangelical Christians and Jews who are covered by the Old Covenant, into heaven to meet Jesus. According to Hagee, a Russian/Islamic alliance will prevent Israel from destroying the Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, and as a consequence, God will destroy all Muslims and Russians with his supernatural powers. Hagee also says that the fire and brimstone mentioned in the Biblical Book of Revelations is a metaphor for Israeli nuclear weapons that will rain down, killing all Muslims and Arabs (Hagee, Beginning of the End, pgs. 143-158, and Final Doom over Jerusalem, 144-146).
Hagee’s designation as a Minister and Church leader, as well as the head of an organization that is dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, and all Muslims and Arabs with Israeli nuclear weapons should raise some eyebrows. Why isn’t anyone asking if John McCain should be prodded and forced into rejecting and denouncing the boisterous and unapologetic Hagee’s endorsement? Should Hagee, his organization, or the GOP be subjected to a DOJ investigation for what appears to be a clear and brazen breech of the US Constitution’s establishment clause? Should their offices be raided and any or all of them detained for seeking to undermine the peace process? According to the Supreme Court, the establishment clause requires government to avoid excessive involvement with religion? It also, according to other interpretations, prevents the merger of denominational religion with the state, and it prevents the state from promoting one religion, or faith group over another.
Hagee’s brand of Muslim and Arab hatred, and Islamophobia should be no more tolerable to the American public, or government than anti-Semitism. Farrakhan was called an anti-Semite because of his rhetorical comments regarding Zionism’s distortion of the Jewish faith, a position that is supported by many Jews, including Rabbi Dovid Weiss of Neturai Karta, an orthodox Jewish movement that opposes Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish only state in Palestine. Hagee, on the hand is clearly a racist and religious extremist ideologue that is shamelessly preaching not only hatred of Muslims and Arabs, but also their destruction with Israeli nuclear weapons. Should John McCain denounce and reject the political endorsement of Minister John Hagee? Of course he should, but don’t hold your breath because Hillary wont press him on it, and neither will Obama.. The special treatment that such groups have received as a result of their pro-Israel stand, and the protection they receive from their Zionist cohorts in our government includes the absolute acceptance of their hateful and divisive brand of Judeo/Christian political activism, that is perhaps the cause for the chilling, and deprivation of US Muslim and Arab American civil rights and liberties in the US. If that doesn’t warm your blood, consider that Hagee’s crusading is likely one of the causes of death of nearly 4,000 US soldiers and Marines in Iraq, and more than one million innocent Arab and Muslim Iraqis, along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian and Israeli lives, lost over the years in the ongoing and illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, supported by Hagee and his Judeo/Christian movement, and our government. They are also a major force behind potential wars with Iran and Syria and the use of nuclear weapons to settle such disputes. It’s hard to imagine that Hagee’s endorsement will do much to help McCain. It’s pretty clear that it will do nothing to help our country get out of Iraq with honor. Short of nuclear Armageddon, Hagee also has nothing to offer either Israel or Palestine, except more of the same hatred and violence.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Vindicating Islam
Being Muslim in the United States is interesting. It’s very different from being Christian, or Jewish. As a Christian, or a Jew, one can do pretty much anything; good or bad, and no one will attribute it to your religion. As a Muslim, if you do something good, it is assumed that it is because you are not “too” Muslim. On the other hand, if you do something bad, it is said to be exactly because you are Muslim. It’s hard to know whether this is because people in the US don’t feel that Christianity, or Judaism impacts the thinking and behavior of their adherents, or if they believe that Islam employs a special sort of brainwashing technique that every Muslim is subjected to, even if they never attend a mosque, or go to an Islamic school, which is unfortunately true of most Muslims.
Following the attacks on September 11th, quite a bit was written about Islamic schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, even though most of the hijackers supposedly came from Saudi Arabia. A lot was written about Saudi Wahabism, even though it is reported that Osama Bin Laden practiced something called Deobandism, which is said to have actually originated in India, while Al-Qadea’s religious leader is an American Jew named Adam Pearlman who attended Hebrew school. To make sense of these oddities, hoping to understand the impact that we assume education has on Muslim behavior, it would have been helpful, by way of comparison, to also talk about what type of teaching takes place in other schools ran by other religious organizations and sects. In the sixties, when we were trying to figure out what in the world was wrong with African Americans that could lead to riots, we tried to blame it on poor education and poverty, yet ignorance and hunger alone does not cause people to burn down city blocks in their own impoverished neighborhoods. If it did, every major city in the US, and also the rural south, would be on fire, and many Whites, Hispanics, and African Americans would be fanning those flames.
Those who were guiding our post 9/11 discovery of Islam clearly wanted to make an impression, and that impression had nothing to do with fact, and was actually quite a bit of fiction. It was a type of fiction that is malicious. Not only because it led to so much harm to many innocent Muslims and Arabs, and the murders of many non-Muslims who looked like Arabs, but also because it distorted the truth about the beliefs of 1.5 billion human beings with whom we must share a world, in peace. Kind of makes you wonder how and why the idea of perpetual war crept into our national conscience and conversation, along with preemptive strike, and war on terrorism around the same time. It seems that acceptance of any one of these ideas is dependant upon acceptance of the other. For either to become rooted in our national psyche as acceptable, a very formidable enemy must exist, or so we have been told. And so we have the brainchild of Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson, better known as “Islamism.” According to nearly every Zionist pundit writing in our newspapers, or preaching to us after 9/11, “Islamism” is our enemy, and it is what led to 9/11. You are perhaps asking now, what Islamism and Deobandoism, and Wahabism and Adam Pearlman has to do with Islam. The right answer would be nothing the real answer is everything, if you believe the media.
Comparing the technique of Muslim teachers in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Afghanistan, with the techniques employed by Jewish or Christian teachers in Israel, or Rome, might have helped those seeking to understand religious education, that a relationship between religious education and horrendous acts of terrorism is almost non-existent. It may have also helped everyone to understand that religious education is designed to indoctrinate students about how to be righteous according to Books that are said to be Divinely revealed or inspired, and that is why it is usually religious people who send their children to religious schools and not atheists. It is true that “what” is taught is what matters, and not whether it is deemed religious or not, except when you are talking about religious education, and adherents to a particular or any religious faith. So true is this fact, that it is absurd for us to accept that Islam inspired the 9/11 terrorism or any act of terrorism, and more than absurd for us to continue to believe this lie, or to allow those who continue to perpetuate this lie to go unanswered and unchallenged The perpetrators of 9/11 never even went to religious schools. They were not from religious families. They did not expect or seek to die as martyrs as the Muslim bashers and Islamaphobes told us. Instead, they sought to die full of booze, after having spent the previous night at strip joints and with whores.
I mentioned this at a talk that I gave at Columbia University, and after the talk one of the students approached me and said, “what if they thought that by dying as martyrs, they would be forgiven for all of their sins, and so they just had a good time.” Poor child, I thought to myself. He doesn’t understand that people who are taught in religious schools, are not taught that watching naked women swing on poles, drinking booze, and sleeping with whores is a good time. He obviously had not read Emerson’s description of the Islamists mind. Emerson said they hate liberalism, and everything that is part of the Western culture, which is a gross exaggeration. That religious Muslims, like all pious people, abhor sin would have been closer to the truth. Pipes said Islamists are religious fanatics who want to create a paradise on earth, where they eliminate sin and the sinful, another exaggeration, but it at least makes the point that they would not seek nearness to God in whorehouses. It’s as mind boggling as Jews who say that the sole cause for the holocaust was anti-Semitism, even though there were Jewish SS, and Jews who also worked with the Nazis in other ways against their fellow Jews. You can call them self-hating, but you can’t attribute their acts to Judaism, or even Zionism. Similarly, you can call the 9/11 hijackers murdering dogs and cowards, but you can’t call them Muslims, or Islamic, and you cannot blame their behavior on Islam.
It seems that the Muslim organizations, the media and the so-called moderate Muslims have launched another round of Muslim renunciation of terrorism campaign. That’s innocent enough on its face, yet when you think about all of these apologies, you start to wonder if the apologizers don’t secretly feel that perhaps Islam did in some way inspire the behavior of the 9/11 hijackers, and you start worry that all of these apologies might cause others to openly believe the same. Let me take this opportunity to assure everyone that Islam did not inspire 9/11, and to ask Muslim leaders to spare the rest of us the bi-annual ritual of Muslim apology for 9/11. CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, went so far as to send out an e-mail that said, “true Muslims denounce terrorism.” Let me respond by saying that true Muslims also denounce adultery, lying, stealing, and other moral and legal violations of law. Let me add that terrorism is not an Islamic phenomenon. It is an act of violence that is carried out against innocent civilians to achieve political aims. Starving 500,000 innocent children to death, hoping to compel their parents to overthrow a dictator might be included among acts of terrorism, along with 60 years of illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine that has resulted in the murders, displacement and imprisonment of more women and children and other innocent civilians than can be counted. So, if Islam inspired 9/11, who or what inspired the deadly US sanctions against Iraq after the Gulf war, and what inspired the illegal and brutal occupation of Palestine? The answer is that neither, Islam, or Christianity, or Judaism inspired any of these evils, and just as the Church has rightfully refused to apologize for the war in Iraq, and atrocities associated with that war, and Jews have never apologized for the crimes associated with the continued illegal and brutal occupation of Palestine, even though they believe in collective guilt and punishment, and fund the occupation, Muslims should stop taking the blame for 9/11. We should spend our time teaching the truth about Islam and responding to the many lies that have gone unchallenged that seek to link Islam, and Islamic education with terrorism, and that seek to create a relationship between Islam and terrorism that simply does not exist. Most importantly, we must also live our lives in such a way that people come to understand that it’s not our clothes or names, or accents, that make us Muslim. The Qur’an says it is our submission to the Will of God, which is a will of righteousness as understood universally, and not evil. That doesn’t mean that Muslims don’t sin. It means that when we do, we are not practicing Islam, or following Islamic teachings, and that we are uninspired.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)