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AMP Comment – February 14, 2010
Fresh attempt to destroy national
American Muslim organizations
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
In a fresh attempt to destroy the national American Muslim civil advocacy groups, the Dallas Morning News (DMN) has published an article smearing the largest Muslim American organization, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
The DMN article written by Brooks Egerton under the title “U.S. torn over whether some Muslims pose threat or offer insight” resorted to half-truths and twisted facts to smear the ISNA. The article also tried to link ISNA with terrorism through guilt by association. It attempted to project ISNA as an arm of a foreign organization, the Muslim Brotherhood.
To malign ISNA’s Communications Director, Dr. Loui Safi, the DMN article makes reference to a 15-year-old conversation that reportedly was part of an FBI eavesdropping on Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian political activist and former professor of the University of South Florida. The writer used a brief exchange that was incidental to a telephone conversation that took place in 1995. He concludes after citing two lines of a conversation that Dr. Safi agreed that “Jews controlled the U.S. government.”
Obviously, there is a deliberate attempt to build on a couple of sentences translated from Arabic and taken out of context to insinuate that Dr. Safi harbors anti-Semitic prejudice. There was no reference to Jews in the exchange, and Dr. Al-Arian expressed a tired conspiracy theory expression about Zionism and Dr. Safi responded with a bland statement to move on to the main subject. Anyone aware of Dr. Safi’s statements in condemning anti-Semitism or his involvement in interfaith dialogue with Jews and Christians knows that the picture DMN depicts is completely false and misleading.
The article suggested that ISNA is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood and promoting its agenda as outlined in the documents on the Muslim Brotherhood released as evidence during the Holy Land Foundation trial. Tellingly none of these documents cited any quotes or materials from the Muslim Brotherhood to support the allegations. The DMN report’s assertion that ISNA is a member of a foreign organization with plans to “overtake the United States” is based on a document in Arabic dated May 19, 1991, and signed by an obscure author. The document is allegedly written as a blueprint for gaining control over several Muslim American organizations. and named ISNA as one of the prime targets of the author’s ambition. The Muslim basher writer has used this murky document to brand ISNA as a Brotherhood vehicle.
It will not be too much to say that anti-Muslim hate mongers have been working hard to defame Muslim Americans and discredit their mainstream organizations in the same way the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was used by anti-Semitic pundits against Jews.
The Dallas Morning News assault on ISNA is not surprising in the post-9/11 America. We see similar attempts to destroy leading American Muslim civil advocacy groups.
Last year, four Republican congressmen which have been dubbed by Washington Independent as ‘the Anti-Muslim Bigot Caucus at the Capitol Hill’ had accused, another leading American Muslim civil advocacy group, the Council on American-Muslim Relations (CAIR), of attempting to plant spies in key Congressional offices in order to affect policy.
On October 14, 2009, the four congressmen - Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) held a bizarre McCarthy-era like press conference accusing the CAIR of "trying to infiltrate the offices of members of Congress by placing interns in the offices." The four are the Republican members of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus.
The congressmen formally asked the House Sergeant at Arms to launch an investigation of the Council for American-Islamic Relations. The lawmakers also wanted a Department of Justice investigation to find out "if CAIR was successful in placing interns" with key congressional committees, including the Intelligence and Homeland Security panels.
The four lawmakers quoted various excerpts from a yet-to-be released Islamophobic publication entitled, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America" by two well known anti-Islam and anti-Muslim writers, Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry. The book includes a forward by Congressman Myrick. Sperry authored in 2005 a book that accused Muslim Americans of infiltrating Washington, and attacked Islam as a violent religion. Similarly, Gaubatz has in the past targeted Islam and Muslims, called Islam an "evil ideology," and worked for an anti-Islam group that sought to make "adherence to Islam" punishable by a 20-year prison term. Dave Gaubatz, wrote last year that “a vote for Hussein Obama is a vote for Sharia Law.”
Ironically, Congressman Franks used his remarks to link CAIR to terrorism and encourage Americans to look to “moderate” Muslim organizations like the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a tiny group launched in 2003 whose founder president M. Zuhdi Jasser has the distinction of winning the Community Leadership Award of the FBI which has been accused of infiltrating and spying against the Muslim community.
It is not surprising that in the post-9/11 America, the Muslim community has witnessed a systematic campaign to defame and dislodge established prominent Muslim civil rights advocacy groups. The object was to silence genuine Muslim voices. At the same time, attempts were made to establish and prop-up compliant fringe Muslim groups such is the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. In November 2004 the Progressive Muslim Union (PMU) in North America was established with great fanfare but failed to attract any following in the seven-million strong American Muslim community. It was dissolved by its disappointed founders. Not rusprisingly, in an attempt to malign ISNA and its Communications Director, Dr. Loui Safi, the Dallas Morning News has quoted the founder of one such fringe group, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Zuhdi Jasser.
Reverting to the Dallas Morning News article, it is interesting to note that there were more than 200 comments on the article in one week. Almost all the comments were supportive of the article aimed at distorting the image of Islam and discrediting a leading American Muslim organization. It is not difficult to understand why such overwhelm support and January 21 Gallup report provides some insight. According to the report - titled "Religious Perceptions in America: With an In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam," - more than 4 in 10 Americans (43%) admit to feeling at least "a little" prejudice toward Muslims. The Gallup survey also found that among the four religions – Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the Islamic faith is viewed most negatively.
Unfortunately, Islamophobia remains a popular sport for the mainstream media, some politicians and Muslim bashers as fear mongering remains the government policy in Obama administration too. To borrow Tom Engelhardt, as a result, more than eight years after 9/11, an amorphous state of mind has manifested itself in the actual state as a kind of Fear Inc. A number of factors have clearly gone into the creation of Fear Inc. and now insure that fear is the drug constantly shot into the American body politic. The fear of terrorism has been institutionalized in our society.
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