Zudhi Jasser offered to debate me, here is my response

March 12, 2014

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser

President

American Islamic Forum for Democracy
P.O. Box 1832
Phoenix, AZ 85001

Dear Dr. Jasser:

As-salaamu alaykum. I am responding to your recent letter in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood and out of respect for your past service in our nation’s military.

Under your leadership American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is embedded with groups that are dedicated to spreading false information, fear, and distrust of Islam and Muslims. As such, I see no benefit from a debate as that would entail offering you a legitimizing platform. Severing your deep ties with Islamophobic groups by returning their money and awards, and resigning from your positions with them would dissolve much of the reason for your proposed debate.

I was disappointed that shortly after your letter was delivered to me it was posted online. Your choice casts your outreach as a publicity stunt, rather than an attempt at serious discourse. Given my belief that the public should be able to read both views and draw their own conclusions, I will post this letter online as well.

According to your letter, AIFD focuses on the “need to advocate the principles of the U.S. Constitution.” We agree. No debate needed. CAIR values, advocates for, and has pursued legal action to protect free speech, freedom of expression, and to preserve our nation’s Constitution. As I and other CAIR staff have been quoted as saying, “The Constitution is the law of the land, and we like it that way."

However, AIFD “applauded” SQ 755, an amendment to Oklahoma’s state Constitution that would have implemented state-sponsored discrimination against Islam. CAIR challenged that law in court due to the law’s violations of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The courts agreed with CAIR’s challenge, not AIFD’s position, and struck down the amendment.

Similarly, AIFD supported the New York Police Department’s warrantless, broad-brush spying on American Muslims. Americans have opposed unchecked invasions of their privacy since the founders stood up to King George's Writs of Assistance. There will never be a time when we should abandon such values.

Further, you frequently argue a need for separation of church and state. CAIR has a long established position on this issue. In 2005, a CAIR staffer wrote, “Just as I want my government to not establish a particular religion, I also desire that they not prohibit its free exercise.” In 2010, another CAIR staffer wrote, "America's historic success in avoiding Europe and Asia's religious conflicts has been based on our ability to uphold the Constitutional separation of church and state." Calling for the release of a Christian in Afghanistan who had been arrested due to his faith, CAIR noted, “Religious decisions should be matters of personal choice, not a cause for state intervention.” The pattern in these statements is plain for objective observers.

Perhaps where we do differ is that CAIR believes that a person’s faith should inspire their public service and need point only to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King as one example of this. CAIR also believes that Americans should be free to incorporate guidance from their own religious tradition to resolve commercial, communal, matrimonial or other civil conflicts, so long as any agreement complies with U.S. law.

CAIR believes that if we were to allow our faith to receive unequal treatment under the law, then we would be abandoning our duty to other minority faiths and paving the way for them to be similarly targeted. Our faith impels us to be a benefit to humanity and to prevent harm from coming to humanity. This means obeying the law of the land, and advocating for a society in which all individuals are judged on merit, not faith, race, ethnicity or other factors.

CAIR is dedicated to protecting the U.S. Constitution which affords equal protection to fringe groups like AIFD, the Ku Klux Klan, ACT! for America, anti-Semites and anti-government movements, we believe the intolerance these groups represent should be relegated to society’s margins, not offered a place in mainstream discourse.

The vision and ideas that CAIR represents enjoy popular support among American Muslim and other communities. Your vision and ideas enjoy popular support among Islamophobic groups, who have rallied to your defense.

For example, on Monday the anti-Muslim hate group ACT! for America distributed a piece by John Guandolo defending you. Guandolo falsely claims "it is a permanent command in Islam for Muslims to hate and despise Jews and Christians." Guandolo also claims that CIA Director Brennan is a secret Muslim agent for a foreign power.  It is well-documented that your work garners funding from anti-Islam groups, which you accept. Your work garners accolades from anti-Islam groups. In 2008, you accepted a “Defender of the Home Front” award from Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy. Gaffney was a key witness for the plaintiffs in a controversial 2010 lawsuit against a mosque being built in Tennessee, where he promoted the conspiracy theory that mosques want to “destroy western civilization from within.”

CAIR engages in a healthy and productive exchange of ideas with Muslims of differing viewpoints on a daily basis. However, as long as AIFD accepts financial support, awards and positions of leadership from the U.S. Islamophobia network, it will remain a fringe group. After this letter we will not engage directly with you until you choose to sever your deep ties with the groups that are dedicated to spreading false information, fear and distrust of Islam and Muslims.

Sincerely,

Corey Saylor
Director, Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia

NPR: Muslim Women Challenge American Mosques: 'Now Is The Time'

[Saylor note: A solid NPR piece by Monique Parsons. Edina Lekovic is a long-time community servant who has my respect. I fully support  increasing the leadership roles of women in Muslim institutions, we have lots of qualified candidates. I am a long time opponent of the many subpar "sisters prayer areas" I have seen.]

Most American mosques do a poor job of including women, according to a recent study co-sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America. Sometimes that means subpar women's prayer spaces, a lack of leadership roles or little programming relevant to women.

For Edina Lekovic, a recent visit to a mosque meant being asked to use a separate entrance from the one men use. Lekovic works for the Muslim Public Affairs Council and sits on a regional Islamic advisory board in Southern California. She goes to mosques a lot for meetings and Friday prayers.
"I was walking towards the front door only to be told by a boy of no more than 12 years old — he pointed to the side of the building and said, 'Oh, the sisters' entrance is over there,' " she says.

Lekovic is religious: She covers her hair and doesn't mind praying separately from men as is Islamic custom. But entering through a different door? "And I sort of stopped dead in my tracks and looked around for an adult figure that I could have the conversation with," she says.

Nobody else was around. "So I looked at this 12-year-old boy and said, 'There's a separate entrance for women? Why is that?' just to see what he would say, and he sort of shrugged his shoulders and said, 'It just is,' " she says.

Lekovic is also a teacher, and she decided to seize the moment. "My final response to him was, 'Well, the mosque that I go to on the other side of town has everybody walk through the same set of doors,' " she says.

Lekovic says there was a time she might have slipped in the side entrance, quietly fuming. But things are changing. Just a few years ago, a woman's place in the mosque was a fringe issue.
"There was to some degree pushback around this, like, 'We're dealing with enough challenges right now,' that you know, 'Wait your turn' was kind of the attitude," Lekovic says. "Today more and more women are saying, 'Now is the time.' "

Lekovic says there is a rich history of Islamic teachings that preach equality for women. But she also gives credit to a 34-year-old Chicago woman named Hind Makki. Last year, Makki started an online project called Side Entrance, where women from around the world share photos of their prayer spaces. Not all the photos are negative. Submissions range from isolated, moldy storerooms to soaring, lushly carpeted halls.

"The tag line is: 'We showcase the beautiful, the adequate and the pathetic,' " says Makki.
The project began when she snapped photos of women's prayer spaces in some Chicago mosques and posted them on her Facebook page. One showed women praying behind a tall room divider, blocking views; another looked like a walk-in closet with a curtain-covered window. The photos went viral.

"I got a lot of response, and one of the most interesting type of responses I got was from men who had no clue," Makki says.

While some accused her of airing dirty laundry, many Muslim men started asking how they could help.

"They just had no idea that this was somewhat typical of women's experiences at a mosque — that you go to a mosque and you don't see a dome; you don't see the imam, certainly; you don't see the architecture — you see a big wall in front of you," she says.

Shahina Saeed is on the board of directors of the Islamic Society of Orange County, one of the oldest and largest mosques in Southern California.

"I'm surprised that in a big city like Chicago there's a place like that where the women can't even see what's going on in front of them. I would not be comfortable in a space like that," she says.

At the Islamic Society of Orange County, women pray in a big loft with an outdoor patio and views of the imam and the mosque's colorful glass dome. They can also pray on the main floor in an area beside the men. Saeed says she feels at home here. The Islamic Society of North America study found that more women showed up for events at mosques like hers: those with female board members, female speakers and attractive women's prayer spaces.

Lekovic says this conversation is about more than side entrances.

"Part of what's at stake is the question of where Muslim women will put their talents. Now, if the mosque is an environment in which they see that the fruits of their labor will be beneficial to the community, they will put their time and energy there," she says.

National Muslim leaders are paying attention. The Islamic Society of North America is urging mosques to recruit more female board members, and a recent conference centered on a campaign to improve women's prayer spaces.

Islamophobia 2013: Lawmaking that makes me mourn for our democracy

Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City) is a former teacher and the daughter of a Baptist pastor. Governor Mary Fallin signed Kern's anti-Islam bill into law in  April 2013.

Wishful thinking, I know, but one would hope a history of personal prejudice might disuade other lawmakers from endorsing her bill, but apparently not.

In 2011, Kern was reprimanded by the Oklahoma House for disparaging women and ethnic minorities. As reported by The Oklahoman, "During a debate Wednesday night on the House of Representatives floor, Kern said minorities earn less than white people and women
earn less than men because they don't work as hard and have less initiative."

In 2008, Kern expressed her view that, "Gays are an even bigger threat than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat."

Her bill's easily identifiable genesis in a hate movement also had no impact on the legislative process.

In 2010, Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly approved the “Save Our State Amendment,” a state constitutional amendment that specifically banned judges from considering Islamic religious principles.

In 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court's decision to block amendment's implementation. The lower court had agreed with arguments that the amendment would unconstitutionally disfavor an entire faith and deny Oklahoma's Muslims access to the judicial system on the same terms as every other citizen.

While the legal issues were being settled, legislators went back to the drawing board to find a way to achieve the goal of vilifying Islam without breaking the law.

The resulting bill was Kern's HB 1060. 

It’s wording is clearly lifted from American Laws for American Courts (ALAC). Kern acknowledged that her 2011 bill was copied almost word-for-word from the ALAC template, which was authored by a man known for writing “most of the fundamental differences between the races are genetic."

Further, reporting revealed that she consulted with the Center for Security Policy (CSP) on her 2011 bill and “some of the momentum for her bill comes from the work of Brigitte Gabriel.” I have documented the Islamophobic nature of both CSP and Brigitte Gabriel.

Like many legislators using ALAC, Kern has argued that her bill does not single out Muslims or Islam. However, as Kern herself pointed out, “Because of the careful planning and thought behind ALAC's wording, from a practical standpoint, it is effective in preventing the enforcement of any foreign law—including Shariah law—that would violate U.S. and state constitutional liberties or state public policy.”

I am all for protecting constitutional liberties, maybe Oklahoma could pass something to protect its citizens from the NSA. Instead, elected officials there choose to pursue a fantastical hobgoblin and reward a prejudiced lawmaker and her prejudiced bill with a seal of approval.   

Islamophobia 2013: "It is, in laymans terms," not the Islamic apocalypse

In March, Tennessee state legislators Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) and Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma) discovered that a Muslim footbath had apparently been stealthily installed during renovations to Tennessee’s state Capitol building.

A concerned Ketron went and spoke to the Senate clerk about it.

 

Legislative administration director Connie Ridley explained away the possible apocalypse of Islamic pre-prayer hygiene rituals by clarifying the purpose of the suspected foot cleansing device: “It is, in layman's terms, a mop sink."

 

Ketron and Matheny have a history of puzzling efforts to protect America. Not allowing the Constitution to get in the way of what struck them as a good idea, the two men had previously introduced legislation that would have effectively banned being a Muslim in Tennessee.

 

(Saylor note: This is the first in a brief series of posts running from now until the end of the year examining some of the incidents, and issues that came up regarding Islamophobia in America in 2013.)

 

 

Dawud Walid: Attack against pilgrims calls for renewed intrafaith cooperation

Attack against pilgrims calls for renewed intrafaith cooperation

By Dawud Walid 

(As published in Arab American News)

Thursday, 10.24.2013, 09:12pm

News that Michigan Muslims were attacked at Hajj recently, due to sectarianism, increases the need for American Muslim leaders and activists to cultivate a spirit of constructive engagement among the followers of Islam, especially in America.

I personally know some of the Shia Muslims who were reportedly beaten, choked, threatened with rape, and called “kafirs” (disbelievers) in Mina.  I have no reason to doubt that this incident happened, as I have witnessed sectarian harassment up close, while visiting Saudi Arabia and other places.  Moreover, in the past decade, we have seen certain regions ravaged by sectarian violence, including numerous bombings at houses of worship during Friday prayer sermons

It is a mistake to act as if sectarianism does not exist among Muslims; as if ignoring the problem will make it go away.  Moreover, it is irresponsible to say that the mere mention of it is somehow promoting it.  It must be approached, head on, with spirituality as the guide, as well as wisdom. In February 2006, after the bombing of Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) saw an opportunity to bring the Metro Detroit Muslim community together by, not only asking its religious leaders to denounce sectarianism, but by also creating a platform that could bring them together.  This area of cooperation was needed, in order to robustly challenge Islamophobia, which is a common enemy to all Muslims and to the integrity of America as a whole.  I was part of the effort, which organized imams for bi-weekly meetings over a span of months and produced scholastically correct replies to common attacks used by anti-Muslim bigots against the Qur’an, Prophet Muhammad (prayers and peace be upon him and his family) and the Prophet’s wives.  These answers can be found online, under “Imams Defend Prophet (S).”

These meetings birthed the practice of Detroit area imams attending and speaking at events, hosted at Islamic centers of different schools of thought, as well as the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan Imams Committee monthly meetings, which are now under the banner of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC).

In 2007, Michigan imams showed leadership, by signing the Muslim Code of Honor, which affirms that Muslims should respect differences of opinion within Islamic theology and jurisprudence and not to pronounce “takfir” over other Muslims, calling them nonbelievers.  In September of this year, a number of national Islamic organizations, including the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and CAIR, signed onto a similar code that rejects sectarianism among Muslims.

We ought to demand that Islamic scholars overseas and governments abroad vigorously denounce violent sectarianism and grant all people of faith equal protection under the law.

However, our primary concern should be on working towards better cooperation among Muslims of all schools of thought in America.  We face challenges that range from Islamophobia to the crisis of drug and alcohol use among our youth, which Muslims have a vested interest in addressing with our intellectual and financial resources.  We simply cannot allow voices of intolerance to concretize the community discourse to the point that we divide ourselves to the detriment of our collective interests in America.

As pilgrims return home, it is my hope that our community renews its commitment to a key principle of Hajj, which is the unity of the collective interests and welfare of all people under their Creator.  We will never eradicate sectarianism, but we can work, in our own way, to marginalize those who seek to promote intolerance and hatred and who falsely fly the banner of Islam.