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  johnpi 9:37 pm on February 20, 2010 | 3 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: anti-Muslim fearmongering (41), civil liberties (37), civil rights (42), Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, ex-extremists (4), ex-islamists (3), ex-Muslim (2), moderate Muslims, Obama and Muslims (2), Rashad Hussain (2), Sami Al-Arian (2)

  Long Wars Journal publishes a very personal defense of Rashad Hussain, Obama’s newly-announced envoy to the OIC, written by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross.

  Before I address the various controversies that have surrounded Rashad, I’d like to make clear that I have known him for a considerable length of time, since 1998. Those familiar with my own biography will realize that I was a practicing Muslim back then. So I have known him as a co-religionist; and know him now as someone who worships a different God than I do, but whose religious practice I respect.
  ….

  I think the dozen years in which I have known Rashad and had the opportunity to assess his beliefs and character provide important context for this defense. Many of the attacks on him are the proverbial view from 50,000 feet: and it is sometimes easy to misunderstand what you see from that distance.

  I’m surprised to see this coming from Gartenstein-Ross, who (according to his Wikipedia bio) has worked for Smearcaster Steven Emerson (also one of the media persecutors of Sami al-Arian) and who wrote a book, “My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir” that the Wiki bio says has been called the American version of Ed Hussain’s “The Islamist.” Here’s the first sentence:

  Before I was an FBI informant, an apostate, and a blasphemer, I was a devout believer in radical Islam who worked for a Saudi-funded charity that sent money to al-Qaeda.

  Here, he offers an insight into Rashad’s remarks about al-Arian:

  Rashad’s concerns about the al-Arian prosecution, and other prosecutions that he discussed in that context, stemmed not from an Islamist ideology but rather from a civil-libertarian ideology. It is clear from his 2004 speech that Rashad is a Kerry-supporting Democrat rather than a bin Laden-supporting jihadist.

   

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  johnpi 8:44 am on February 13, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: moderate Islam (13), moderate Muslims, moderates (6), tariq ramadan (16)

  Tariq Ramadan’s article in The New Statesman, ‘Good Muslim, bad Muslim.’

  It’s hard to excerpt a Ramadan article and do representative justice to the whole of his points, but I found this interesting:

  Those of us who consider ourselves reformists are often attacked in internal Muslim debates for having “gone out of Islam” in our search for context and new understandings of religious texts. In the west, as well as in Asia and Africa, including in some Muslim-majority countries, I have repeatedly been called a kafir (disbeliever), a murtad (apostate) or an impostor seeking to adulterate Islam and destroy it from within. This happens to a large number of Muslim reformists – who, paradoxically, are at the same time considered “fundamentalist” and “extremist” within some right-wing circles in the west.

  More troubling, perhaps, and making outside categorisation even more hazardous, is the tendency for some reformist, rationalist or mystic groups to develop, internally, the same dogmatic attitude towards their Muslim co-religionists, casting doubt on their legitimacy in the most categorical and exclusivist fashion. Moderation is multidimensional, and is not expressed only with reference to the west or to “non-Muslims”.

   
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  johnpi 8:02 am on February 13, 2010 | 3 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Extremism (166), moderate Islam (13), moderate Muslims, moderates (6), Terrorism (399)

  New Newsweek article: ‘How moderate Muslim leaders waged war on extremists—and won.’

  More than eight eventful years have passed, but in some ways it still feels like 2001. Republicans have clearly decided that fanning the public’s fears of rampant jihadism continues to be a winning strategy. Commentators furnish examples of backwardness and brutality from various parts of the Muslim world—and there are many—to highlight the grave threat we face.

  But, in fact, the entire terrain of the war on terror has evolved dramatically. Put simply, the moderates are fighting back and the tide is turning. We no long-er fear the possibility of a major country succumbing to jihadist ideology. In most Muslim nations, mainstream rulers have stabilized their regimes and their societies, and extremists have been isolated. This has not led to the flowering of Jeffersonian democracy or liberalism. But modern, somewhat secular forces are clearly in control and widely supported across the Muslim world. Polls, elections, and in-depth studies all confirm this trend.
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  The most influential statement on Islam to come out of the post-9/11 era was not a presidential speech or an intellectual’s essay. It was, believe it or not, a United Nations report. In 2002 the U.N. Development Program published a detailed study of the Arab world. The paper made plain that in an era of globalization, openness, diversity, and tolerance, the Arabs were the world’s great laggards. Using hard data, the report painted a picture of political, social, and intellectual stagnation in countries from the Maghreb to the Gulf. And it was written by a team of Arab scholars. This was not paternalism or imperialism. It was truth.

  There are a lot of assertions made in this article that are disputable.

   
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  johnpi 8:24 pm on January 12, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: liberal muslims (5), moderate Islam (13), moderate Muslims, muslim liberals (7), Progressive Islam (13), progressive muslims (6), right-wing extremists (20), right-wing morons (71), secret agents cyber-terror (5)

  Tired of trying to co-opt moderate, liberal, and progressive Muslims, some rightwingers are now resorting to identity theft.

  Richard Bartholomew writes that Gina Khan, a Muslim activist against extremism in the UK, is listed as an officer on the Facebook page of the group that calls itself the ‘The Cheerleaders’, a bunch of self-described anti-Islamist vigilantes, who have excelled at threatening mostly moderate and progressive Muslim bloggers, and especially liberal critics of conservative politicians in the UK, like blogger Tim Ireland. (Again, I see this theme of ‘Eurocon’ extremists using an anti-Muslim platform to attack a bigger ideological target, European liberalism – which has been done before).

  After I published a mocking post about them last year, the Cheerleaders – or the individual who pretends to be the group – threatened several Talk Islam contributors and published their home addresses online. They (or he) also sent mail to at least one TI contributor’s house.

  (More …)

   
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  johnpi 1:17 pm on January 10, 2010 | 37 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Extremism (166), fatwa (20), fatwas (16), moderate Muslims, Terrorism (399)

  Imams in US and Canada jointly declare in new fatwa that an attack on either country constitutes an attack on all 10 million Muslims living in North America.

  A group of Canadian and U.S. Islamic leaders on Friday issued a fatwa, or religious edict, declaring that an attack by extremists on the two countries would constitute an attack on the 10 million Muslims living in North America.

  The 20 imams associated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada said this marked the first fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the U.S. to be attacks on Muslims.

  “In our view, these attacks are evil, and Islam requires Muslims to stand up against this evil,” the imams said in their fatwa.

   
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  johnpi 8:30 am on January 4, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Eboo Patel (4), Extremism (166), moderate Islam (13), moderate Muslims, moderates (6), Terrorism (399)

  Eboo Patel explains to non-Muslims what extremists want to do to moderate Muslims in a USA Today column yesterday:

  …if one of those guys had a single bullet in his gun and you and I were up against the wall, he would shoot me first. He hates me more because not only do I not follow his perverse vision of Islam, I also represent an alternative interpretation.

   
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  johnpi 10:37 pm on December 12, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: moderate Islam (13), moderate Muslims, Pakistan 5 (15), Zamzam (7)

  Jummah prayer at Howard University’s dental school after arrest of one of the students there in Pakistan.

  The speaker at Friday prayer services at Howard University’s dental school stressed to worshippers that Islam is a religion of moderation.

  Ramy Zamzam, a student at the dental school, is among five men detained in Pakistan after they allegedly sought to join up with terrorist groups.

  In a brief sermon, Sultan Chaudhry, who serves as president of the dentistry school’s student council, said: “Muslims have to follow the middle path with no extremes on either side.”

  Chaudhry also said Islam promotes “human dignity and honor” and has a set of universal values that are “positive and life-affirming.”

   
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  buzz 5:56 pm on December 9, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: minaret ban (6), moderate Muslims, Religious Bigotry (5), switzerland (23), The Swiss Miss (2)

  Alternate take on the Swiss Ban on Minarets from Islamabad Blogger

  …The request of the Turkish minister to pull out deposits from Swiss banks is not going to work. We can defeat extremists by convincing the people of Switzerland that Islam is not related to violence. Those who justify violence in the name of Islam are not our representatives. If we are able to defeat these elements, winning back the support of the masses in Western societies would not be very difficult. Unfortunately, those who believe in peace, non-violence and modernity in Muslim societies are unorganised and their voices are weak. Our support should be with the Swiss government, which still stands for human rights and freedom of religion, and those who rejected the extremists’ propaganda and voted against the ban.

  Complete article.

   
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  aziz 11:08 am on October 19, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: censorship (44), moderate Islam (13), moderate Muslims, VSP

  Silencing the muslim world’s reformers: awesome essay about how state censorship is shutting down voiices of moderation and liberalism in the muslim world. The issue of free speech is a core concept that should be at the root of Obama’s “new relationship” with the Ummah.

  Since moderates are indeed the extremists, it makes sense that the regimes fear them.

  via POMED, one of the truly “VSP” essential blogs about foreign policy and the Islamic World.

   
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  johnpi 7:17 am on October 19, 2009 | 21 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: extremists (14), Islamophobes (7), moderate Islam (13), moderate Muslims

  Moderate Islam: “the most radical form of the religion.”

  To say that Islam and the Muslims of Europe and North America are under pressure is an understatement. In fact, the Muslims feel under siege. On one side of the squeeze are certain non-Muslims who do not wish Islam to be seen as a religion of peace, moderation and ethical values that cuts across faiths traditions and cultural systems.

  Whether out of Islamophobia or political convenience, people of this persuasion love to demonise Islam and Muslims as the main sources of violence and terrorism in the modern world. They have succeeded in turning this image of violence and terrorism into a dangerous stereotype, a self-evident truth that needs no substantiation. The fact that the majority of Muslims speak against violence and terrorism, regardless of its origins or the identity of its perpetrators, cuts no ice with these confirmed Islamophobes and political opportunists.

  From the other side, Islam and Muslims have come under attack from within the fold by a small minority of extremists who wish to hijack the peaceful message of Islam, replacing it with bloodthirsty assertions about what true Islam really is. These Muslims believe that interpretations of Islam that speak of peace, moderation and the ethics of justice and toleration are acts of surrender to the power of anti-Muslims who wish to destroy Islam from within.

  The logic of both parties is the same: a moderate Islam that is willing to live in harmony with itself and at peace with others if they are willing to do the same, is a historical aberration, a posture of dissimulation and deceit, or an abominable act of surrender to the enemy. The implacable enmity of these two camps to a moderate Islam loyal to its universal truths and values paradoxically makes it the most radical form of the religion.

   
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  johnpi 8:16 pm on August 10, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: moderate Muslims, moderates (6)

  “Muslim Camp” draws teens to combat extremism.

  Like any rousing Islamic preacher, Muhammed Tahir ul-Qadri’s voice rises to a shout and his index finger jabs as he hammers home a point.

  But rather than angry calls for jihad (holy war) or a vitriolic denunciation of the West and its aggressions against Islam, Qadri’s message, equally forcefully delivered, is about moderation, peace, inclusion and understanding.

  Addressing a packed auditorium from a raised platform, his words beamed on to large screen behind him, more than 1,000 young followers hang on his every word, even as his lecture moves into its fourth uninterrupted hour.

  “Islam is not a religion of seclusion, it is not a religion of detachment,” he thunders from the dais, occasionally pausing to wipe the sweat from his brow or adjust his spectacles.

   
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  johnpi 5:22 pm on August 10, 2009 | 9 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 'the Martin Luther of Islam', Free Muslim Coalition, Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism, Islamic Supreme Council of America, Kamal Nawash, moderate Muslims, Pajamas media (3), Project Nur, right-wing (96), US Muslim population (4)

  Over at the Pajamas Media, an article titled, “A moderate Muslim revolution” with the good news that Islamic extremists are on the run everywhere from their co-religionists.

  As one might expect from an American right-wing website, no article about Muslims or Islam is complete without an obligatory shot at CAIR:

  The United States is seeing moderate Muslim organizations rise up to compete with Muslim Brotherhood fronts like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has seen a dramatic decrease in support from the Muslim American community. The American Islamic Forum for Democracy, American Islamic Congress, Free Muslims Coalition, Islamic Supreme Council of America, and various groups and individuals dedicated to supporting democracy and human rights in overseas Islamic lands are becoming a force to be reckoned with for extremists. Even without the foreign funding enjoyed by more prominent Muslim organizations, these groups are making tremendous inroads.

  The American Islamic Forum for Democracy is primarily a one-man show based around M Zuhdi Jasser the deeply compromised Muslim neoconservative who was the star of “Third Jihad,” both of which (Jasser and the movie) have been discussed previously on Talk Islam.

  The other three groups have never appeared in posts or comments here at Talk Islam, so here’s a bit more about them:

  (More …)