Tarek Fatah's Blog, page 11

Face Off with 10 Indian Journalists on India’s ABP News Network’s ‘Press Conference’

U.S. Muslim leader calls on Obama Administration to “stop protecting” America’s enemy Saudi Arabia

Phoenix, AZ (May 18, 2016) – American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) President Dr. Zuhdi Jasser has called on the Obama administration to stop protecting our enemies, after Obama’s veto threats over the Senate’s decision to unanimously approve the Justice against Sponsors of Terrorism Act that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia over its role in the terrorist attacks.

Dr. Jasser states: “This bipartisan legislation gives families of 9-11 victims a chance for the first time at vindication against the root cause of radical Islamists that attacked us on 9-11 and continue to attack us through ISIS and all the other forms of violent Islamism.”

“We at AIFD thank the U.S. Senate for its courage in tearing down the wall of protection that has long existed for the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading disseminators of the radical Islamist cancer that is Wahhabism.”

Dr. Jasser called today on the Obama administration to back down from their veto threat against the unanimously passed Senate Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act and for the Obama administration to stop protecting our enemies and stop marginalizing Muslim reformers inside and outside the Kingdom.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest claimed that this legislation would put Americans at risk of legal retribution abroad yet he ignorantly ignores the years of “libel tourism” that has attempted through the courts to suppress the free speech of Americans and the West against Saudi Wahhabism and Islamism.

Indian Muslims fighting for ISIS has a history, says Sultan Shahin. 100 years ago 18,000 left India to fight for the Ottomans

“From the Indian Subcontinent alone, less than a hundred years ago, at least 18,000 Muslims left their homes, even government jobs, and marched off to fight for the last Ottoman Caliphate. This was madness, pure and simple. Most ruined their lives and some died. But they are considered ghazis [fighters] and martyrs [shaheeds]. Important clerics including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad [who later became the first education minister of India] issued fatwas calling for Jihad or Hijrat (emigration) from British India, which was considered Darul Harb (Land of conflict, ruled by infidels), as a religious duty.”

The Islamic Army of the Ottoman Caliphate had over 18,000 Indian volunteers who came to fight the jihad, but only found defeat and no recognition by either the Turks or the British.

Sultan Shahin is a leading Islamic reformer in India, currently the editor of NewAgeIslam.com, a reformist website, which publishes articles on the struggle within Islam, especially with regard to radicalization in India.

On February 3, 2016 Sultan Shahin delivered a speech at a counter-terrorism conference in the Indian city of Jaipur where he called for reform from within Islam. “Moderate, progressive Muslims must urgently evolve and propagate an alternative theology of peace and pluralism, human rights and gender justice,” he said.

Following are excerpts from his speech:

“Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has attracted over 30,000 Muslims from 100 Countries, but This should not have come as a surprise to us in India”

“The ease and swiftness with which the so-called Islamic State and the self-declared khilafat [caliphate] of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has attracted over 30,000 Muslims from 100 countries around the globe in just one year has surprised many. But this should not have come as a surprise to us in India.

“From Indian Subcontinent alone, less than a hundred years ago, at least 18,000 Muslims had left their homes, even government jobs, and marched off to fight for the last Ottoman Khilafat. This was madness, pure and simple. Most ruined their lives and some died. But they are considered ghazis [fighter] and martyrs. Important clerics including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad [who later became the first education minister of India] issued fatwas calling for Jihad or Hijrat (emigration) from British India, which was considered Darul Harb (Land of conflict, ruled by infidels), as a religious duty.

“So, for a large section of Muslims the lure of a Khilafat that would rule the world, eliminate all other religions, particularly all forms of idolatry, establish the truth of Islam, is nothing new. When Baghdadi announced his khilafat, it was welcomed in many Muslim newspapers in India. An influential cleric from Nadwatul Ulama [madrassa in the northern Indian city of Lucknow], went so far as to post a letter to the so-called Khalifa on his Facebook page, addressing him as Emir-ul- Momineen, spiritual leader of all Muslims. He faced no protest, not even from Nadwa or Darul Uloom Deoband.

“With the so-called Islamic State proudly broadcasting its monstrous brutalities and inhuman practices like sex slavery, the community is embarrassed and support is now muted. But this can only be described as hypocrisy. India’s most popular Islamic preacher and Ahl-e-Hadithi televangelist Zakir Naik has been saying for years, that ‘Allah has made halal [permitted] for Muslims [to have] sex with slaves and women captured in war.’ Muslim religious leaders have never protested. But when ISIS takes these fatwas and Wahhabi/Salafi teachings to their logical conclusion, actually kidnaps and makes Yazidi, Christian and Shia women sex slaves, the community is embarrassed and some clerics start saying Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

“[N]ot only does [the] Koran specifically forbid all violence against innocents and repeatedly warns against aggression, but the Prophet himself avoided violence as much as possible in the most trying times of Islam’s infancy.”

“Global Muslim Missionary Organization Tablighi Jamaat… Which Has Up To 150 Million Adherents In Over 200 Countries Now, Focuses Entirely On Segregating Muslims From The Mainstream”

“It is true that madrassas and mosques do not overtly preach violence and terrorism. But it is also true that textbooks in madrassas do preach supremacism, xenophobia, exclusivism and intolerance. Thus they do the groundwork for militant ideologies by instilling in their students a binary thinking of Muslim/Kafir [infidel] as opposites who cannot co-exist. As a result, some Muslims self-segregate and alienate themselves from the mainstream. A global Muslim missionary organization Tablighi Jamaat, for instance, which has up to 150 million adherents in over 200 countries now, focuses entirely on segregating Muslims from the mainstream, asking them to maintain a separate identity, and prohibiting them from following any customs they may have in common with the non-Muslim majority. This Wahhabi/Salafi organization was recently banned from university campuses in Pakistani Punjab but faces no such restriction in India.

“Indeed, a Muslim is bombarded from all sides with sermons calling for Jihad; a Jihad, which is shorn of all its spiritual content and used simply as a synonym for qital, warfare. Even historical fiction written by 20th century Urdu novelist Nasim Hejazi, for instance, can be taken as a call for Jihad, far more effective than any overt Jihadi literature. In most popular Urdu fairy tales, Dastan-e-Amir Hamzah, for instance, the central character is fighting with demons who do not believe in oneness of God and are thus kafir. The devotional poetry a Muslim listens to at Sufi shrines contain lines like the following: ‘Aaj bhi darte hain kafir Haidari Talwar se,’ meaning, even today the kafirs are afraid of the sword of Hazrat Ali, the fourth caliph. Even the first biographies of the Prophet written by Arabs called them ‘Maghazi Rasulullah,’ meaning battle accounts of the Prophet.

“The first Muslims, the Arabs, could not celebrate his devotion to peace, moderation, Huqooqul Ibad (human rights) and mystical approach to religion. They could only hail him as a hero presenting him as a great warrior which he was not. He barely lifted a sword once or twice, 14 years after prophethood, at the age of 54, purely in defense. The prayer a Muslim has been hearing week after week in every Friday sermon for 1400 years is for victory over kuffar (infidels), establishment of the true religion of Islam, dominance over the whole world, elimination of idolatry from the planet, and so on, all generating supremacism, exclusivism, xenophobia and intolerance.

“The idea of a permanent confrontation with the ‘kafir’, thus, runs through our veins. In verses often quoted by militant ideologues, God assures Muslims in two places in Koran (8:12 and 3: 151) that ‘He will cast terror into the hearts of the Kuffars (Unbelievers).’ This is a contextual verse, like some others, similarly militant and intolerant, revealed during the course of the existential wars waged by the Muslims in early Islam. Any rational Muslim would say today that these contextual war verses do not apply to us anymore. But you will not find even those moderate scholars seeking to refute terrorist ideologies saying that. In fact, the refutations go on to actually justify the core theology of terror and violence.”

“Apocalyptic prophesies are one of the chief tools used by ISIS to attract Muslim youth to be part of an End-of-Time War”

“A hundred thousand copies of an Arabic book titled ‘Refuting ISIS’ has recently been distributed in Syria and Iraq. It is also available online in English. The author Sheikh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi is, of course, sincere in his refutation. But he too quotes from the same set of end-time prophesies, seeking to prove that [ISIS leader] Baghdadi and his clique are idiots and should be fought, thus giving credibility to these same series of millenarian prophesies. So what he actually ends up doing amounts to strengthening ISIS’ propaganda of the allegedly coming apocalypse. Unlike Al-Qaeda, which did not talk so much about apocalypse, ISIS vision is largely apocalyptic.

“They base the justification for their war as being the prophesied end-times war. They sacrificed many men capturing a militarily insignificant town called Dabiq (which is also the name of their mouthpiece) because the end-times prophecies refer to a war in this town.

“Apocalyptic prophesies are one of the chief tools used by ISIS to attract Muslim youth to be part of an end-time war. These end-time prophesies can only by questioned fruitfully by questioning the credibility of narrations that were collected up to 300 years after the demise of the Prophet and attributed to him, not by calling them akin to revelation. Some of these prophesies also come from speculative readings of two allegorical verses in the Koran: 4:159 and 43:61. Muslims have been asked not to speculate about their meaning and leave them alone. But, of course, Muslims do, and the result is prophesied scenarios of apocalyptic wars.

“Similarly, in its core theology even the 14,000-word fatwa issued recently (August 2015) by 120 scholars from around the world, agrees with the militant ideologies. Their ‘Open Letter to Al-Baghdadi’ also calls Hadith akin to revelation, knowing full well that all justifications of killings of innocent civilians come from a hadith attributing to the Prophet permission for killing of innocents in an attack at Taif by the use of catapult (manjaniq): (Sahih Muslim 19:4321 & Sahih Bukhari 4: 52:256). This hadith is also used by Al-Qaeda to justify use of weapons of mass destruction.

“In point 16, Hudud (Punishment), the moderate fatwa establishes a general rule: ‘Hudud punishments (death for apostasy, etc.) are fixed in the Koran and Hadith and are unquestionably obligatory in Islamic Law.’ Having accepted the basic premise of the Baghdadi tribe [of ISIS] it goes on to criticize its implementation in the so-called Islamic State. But once moderate ulema [scholars] have accepted the basic premise of Hudud (Punishments) based on some verses of Koran and Seventh century Bedouin tribal Arab mores being ‘unquestionably obligatory in Islamic Law,’ what difference does actually remain between moderation and extremism?

“In point 20 of the fatwa, the moderate ulema seem to be justifying the destruction of idols and Sufi shrines, by talking of the supposed Islamic obligation to destroy and remove all manifestations of shirk (idolatry), only opposing the destruction of graves of the prophets and their companion.

“In point 22 of the Open Letter, titled ‘The Caliphate,’ the moderate ulema again concur with the basic proposition of the Baghdadi clique: ‘There is agreement (ittifaq) among scholars that a caliphate is an obligation upon the Ummah. The Ummah has lacked a caliphate since 1924 CE.’

“This moderate fatwa even expresses belief in the theory of abrogation, whereby terror ideologues debunk peaceful Meccan verses that came at the beginning of Islam. Thus, like Sheikh Yaqoobi’s ‘Refuting ISIS’ this fatwa too strengthens the terrorist ideology, while criticizing its practice.”

“The commonly accepted theology of most Muslims agrees with the following (seven) features of the Jihadist Theology” – God as Implacable, Koran as Uncreated, Hadith, Sharia, Jihad, Hijra, and the Caliphate

“This is not surprising. The commonly accepted theology of most Muslims agrees with the following features of the Jihadist theology:

It regards God as an implacable, anthropomorphic figure permanently at war with those who do not believe in His uniqueness, as against the Sufi or Vedantic concept of God as universal consciousness or universal intelligence radiating His grace from every atom in the universe;
Koran as an uncreated aspect of God, a copy of the eternal Book lying in the Heavenly vault. Hence all its verses, in their literal meaning, have to be treated as an eternal guidance to Muslims without any reference to context;
Hadith or so-called sayings of Prophet Muhammad… as akin to revelation, even though they were collected two to three hundred years after the demise of the Prophet;
Shari’a laws as divine, even though they were first codified 120 years after God announced the completion of the religion in one of the last verses in Koran;
Jihad in the sense of Qital (warfare) as the sixth pillar of Islam;
Hijra (migration to Darul Islam – abode of Islam – from Darul Harab – Land of disbelief and conflict) as a religious duty and an act of devotion;
A caliphate is an obligation upon the Ummah (global Muslim community).”

“Twentieth century scholars like Syed Qutb (1906–1966) of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Abul A’la Maududi (1903–1979), of India and later Pakistan, who founded Jamaat-e-Islami, are considered the two fathers of modern Islamist terrorism or Jihadism. More contemporary ideologues who have contributed enormously to the Jihadist discourse are Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (1941-89) and Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi (Born: 1959), etc.

“It is not possible to accept classical theologians and reject their modern militant offshoots”; “No surprise that some of our educated, 21st century, Internet generation youth choose to rather be honest terrorists than dishonest hypocrites”

“Many Muslim scholars would distance themselves from these militant scholars today. But the reason Jihadism is so influential and attractive to so many is that the Jihadist theology is based on the popular theology propounded by major classical Arab theologians like Ibn Taimiyya (1263-1328), and Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab (1703-1792) or for that matter major Indian theologians like Mujaddid Alf-e-Saani Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564 –1624) and Shah Waliullah Dehlavi (1703–1762).

“For hundreds of years now, major Muslim theologians have been engaged in creating a coherent and comprehensive theology of supremacism, intolerance and violence in order to expand the Islamic reach. They have conclusively made the lower form of Jihad, i.e., warfare, compulsory for all able-bodied Muslims. Luminaries of Islam have established a theology which basically says that Islam must conquer the world and it is the religious duty of all Muslims to strive towards that goal and contribute to it in whatever way they can. All these theologians present in essence a supremacist, exclusivist, xenophobic and intolerant view of Islam and wield enormous influence on our clergy today.

“It is not possible to accept classical theologians and reject their modern militant offshoots just as it is not possible to reject Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and accept Zakir Naik simply because the latter is not actually having sex with sex slaves as Baghdadi is. Our radicalized youngsters can very well see the hypocrisy of those who on the one hand revere Taimiyya, Wahhab, Sirhindi and Waliullah and on the other hand claim to oppose Qutb, Maududi, Azzam and Maqdisi and their followers like Osama bin Laden and Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi. No surprise that some of our educated, 21st century, internet generation youth choose to rather be honest terrorists than dishonest hypocrites like their parents, community leaders, politicians, madrassa teachers, mosque imams, intellectuals, etc. who keep saying Islam is a religion of peace while also professing belief in the core theology of Jihadism, equating it with Islam.”

“The idea of Jihad against the ‘Kuffar’ (non-Muslims) and Hijrat (emigration) to the so-called Islamic State as a religious duty is preposterous at a time when millions of Arab Muslims are marching almost barefoot to Europe, the so-called ‘Darul Harb’ (the domain of the infidels)”

“One of the key instructions of God was moderation in matters of religion (Koran: 4:171 and 5:80). This was repeated often by the Prophet ‘Beware of extremism in religion, for it destroyed those before you.’ (Sahih al-Jami’ nos. 1851 & 3248, M.N. al-Albani, no. 2680, and & Al-Sahihah of M.N. Al-Albani, no. 1283.) But extremism has been endemic in Islam, present almost from the beginning of Islamic history. Muslims fought among themselves and quite vehemently even before the collection of Hadith which they now consider divine, and codification of Shari’a which they consider their religious duty to impose on the world.

“Muslims have still not found an antidote to militant verses in the Koran. Considering all verses of Koran as providing eternal guidance undermines the universality of essential, foundational, constitutive, verses that were revealed largely in the initial years of Islam in Mecca. We received very good advice from Pope Francis recently (September 2015), which is consistent with several verses in the Koran. Describing the holy Koran has as a ‘prophetic book of peace,’ Pope Francis asked Muslims to seek ‘an adequate interpretation.’ The Koran also asks Muslims repeatedly to reflect upon the verses and find their best meaning, as in Chapter 39: verse 55; 39:18; 39:55; 38:29; 2:121; 47:24, etc.

“Calling Hadith and Shari’a divinely inspired and fundamental elements of Islamic faith is irrational. Saying that it is a Muslim’s primary religious duty to help establish God’s sovereignty on earth and impose ‘divine’ Shari’a Laws on the globe is only a way to intensify extremism which goes against the basic tenets of Islam. The idea of Jihad against kuffar and hijrat (emigration) to the so-called Islamic State as a religious duty is preposterous at a time when millions of Arab Muslims are marching almost barefoot to Europe, the so-called Darul Harb, seeking refuge, a refuge that is denied to them by the so-called Darul Islam in the Arab world.

“Muslims will just have to abandon the generally accepted current theology that leads to violence and supremacism. We will need to revisit all our literature, even popular fiction and romance, and explain to our youth that we are now living in a multicultural, multi-religious world where a binary thinking of Muslim/Kafir as opposites and permanent war with them or self-segregation is just not viable. Even Saudi Arabia, which teaches in its schools the worst forms of intolerance, xenophobia, supremacism and exclusivism, has to deal with all religious communities.

“ISIS may be militarily defeated tomorrow and even go out of existence. But this will not solve the problem of Muslim radicalization. If our madrassas and educational institutions continue to prepare the ground for self-segregation and militancy, expounding the current theology, mixed with narratives of victimhood and marginalisation, Islam will continue to be hobbled, Muslims will continue to struggle to fit in the way of life in contemporary world.

“Moderate, progressive Muslims must urgently evolve and propagate an alternative theology of peace and pluralism, human rights and gender justice, consistent in all respects with the teachings of Islam, and suitable for contemporary and future societies, while refuting the current theology of violence and supremacism. Unfortunately, as we have seen above, the task is not so easy. Radicalization has not just happened overnight. Jihadi theology has evolved over hundreds of years. Major theologians who have studied Islam independently have brought to us a political version of Islam, stripping the religion of all its spirituality.

“While it is primarily the duty of Muslims to fight this ideological war within slam, this is no longer just a Muslim concern. The world too must confront Muslim scholars with the supremacism and extremism present in their theology and ask them to rethink Islam. Progressive Muslims should join the rest of the world to defeat extremism in Islamic theology.”

Source: NewAgeIslam.com (India), February 3, 2016.

Afghan Youth Mock Islamic Prayer Ritual

This is what happens when religion is thrust down one’s throat by force feeding it in every aspect of a person’s private and public life. Here, a group of Afghan Muslim youth risk their lives as they mock the Islamic prayer ritual and then post it on the Internet.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/9od0tsbxsv2qaxz/Afghan%20youth%20mocking%20Islamic%20prayers.mp4?raw=1

To the scores of Muslims offended by this video, I say why are you angry? Shouldn’t you be angry that you pray to God five times a day without understanding one word of what you are saying in your supplication? That you’ve been reduced to parrot-like existence blindly following Arab pagan practices as if Allah has his ears shut to the billions who will never even indulge in what to them appears as yoga rituals?

Reflect on what I said instead of cursing me or sharpening your butcher’s knife like your Bangladesh assassins who kill at will in the name of Allah, the all Merciful.

Toronto Sun vs. Toronto Star – Rebutting the ‘Islamophobia’ Slur hurled by Islamists

“Instead of falsely accusing others [Toronto Sun and PostMedia newspapers] of Islamophobia, perhaps [Haroon] Siddiqui should reflect on his own lack of contribution in fighting the forces of international jihadism. Perhaps the [Toronto] Star should as well, given its editorial policy of giving a voice to some of Canada’s most radical Islamist groups. Because at every opportunity Siddiqui and the Star have had to do so, including the reporting of his recent lecture in the Star, they have chosen the wrong side.”

May 4, 2016

The Toronto Star’s Glass House

Tarek Fatah

The Toronto Sun

Former Toronto Star columnist and editorial page editor Haroon Siddiqui recently accused Sun Media and Postmedia of pandering to Islamophobia.

SunMedia and PostMedia newspapers accused by Toronto Star’s Islamist columnist Haroon Siddiqui as anti-Muslim

Notwithstanding the fact that Sun Media and Postmedia give far more prominence to secular liberal Muslim columnists than the Star, it’s time to put Siddiqui’s role as an editor and columnist in perspective, as he fanned the flames of victimhood among Muslims, while looking the other way as Islamism spread.

Let’s begin with 2001.

In February, 2001 while the 9/11 terrorists, 15 of 19 of whom turned out to be Saudis, were arriving in America and planning their attack, the Star’s Siddiqui was on a tour of Saudi Arabia writing a series of positive columns about the medieval dictatorship.

On Feb. 4, 2001, Siddiqui praised developments in the Kingdom, showered accolades on then crown prince Abdullah and said this about the unelected Saudi Consultative Assembly:

“Members are grilling cabinet ministers, even if away from live television cameras. Whatever else their shortcomings, neither group is short on talent. Eighteen of the 24 ministers and 58 of the 90 Majlis members have PhDs – surely the most educated lawmakers anywhere.”

If Saudi Arabia — with its medieval treatment of women, fanatical religious police and global funding of Wahhabism, the extreme religious theology of the jihadists — struck Siddiqui’s fancy, the Islamic Republic of Iran came in for equal praise.

On Feb. 27, 2000, Siddiqui wrote: “Iran has reconfirmed its position as the most democratic country in the Muslim world, with arguably the freest press and certainly the best record on gender equality.”

He went to say, “it is stunning how revolutionary Islamic Iran has empowered women, after initially suppressing them.”

Remember, he’s talking about Iran, which would go on to violently suppress demonstrations for democracy in 2009 and is a known state sponsor of terrorism.

Two days after the horror of 9/11 struck America, on Sept. 13, 2001, Siddiqui was at the ready with a column deflecting blame from the terrorists, who had taken radical Islam to its logical extreme.

Instead, Siddiqui wrote that the attacks “represent the dark underbelly of globalization”, meaning Western capitalism.

“America was targeted,” he speculated, “because it … is indifferent to the suffering of too many peoples, from Afghanistan to Chechnya to the Middle East …”

In the post-911 era, Siddiqui was often the champion of all things Islamist, including Muslim mediation/arbitration courts for divorce proceedings in Canada, while attacking Muslim opponents of sharia.

Siddiqui, for example, mocked a Quebec Muslim legislator, Fatima Houda-Pepin, who led the charge against creeping sharia, as “reportedly not a practising Muslim” and suggested she was “reviled” by many Muslims.

On Jan. 21, 2001, during an infamous case of a young Nigerian woman who was sentenced by a Nigerian sharia court to 100 lashes, he trivialized the outcry against the punishment.

Defending sharia as “good law,” Siddiqui wrote, “The sharia, however, is popular. It has restored order to a corrupt, lawless society.”

Instead of falsely accusing others of Islamophobia, perhaps Siddiqui should reflect on his own lack of contribution in fighting the forces of international jihadism.

Perhaps the Star should as well, given its editorial policy of giving a voice to some of Canada’s most radical Islamist groups.

Because at every opportunity Siddiqui and the Star have had to do so, including the reporting of his recent lecture in the Star, they have chosen the wrong side.

The Toronto Sun vs. The Toronto Star – Rebutting the Islamophobia Slur by Islamists

“Instead of falsely accusing others [Toronto Sun and PostMedia newspapers] of Islamophobia, perhaps [Haroon] Siddiqui should reflect on his own lack of contribution in fighting the forces of international jihadism. Perhaps the [Toronto] Star should as well, given its editorial policy of giving a voice to some of Canada’s most radical Islamist groups. Because at every opportunity Siddiqui and the Star have had to do so, including the reporting of his recent lecture in the Star, they have chosen the wrong side.”

May 4, 2016

The Toronto Star’s Glass House

Tarek Fatah

The Toronto Sun

Former Toronto Star columnist and editorial page editor Haroon Siddiqui recently accused Sun Media and Postmedia of pandering to Islamophobia.

SunMedia and PostMedia newspapers accused by Toronto Star’s Islamist columnist Haroon Siddiqui as anti-Muslim

Notwithstanding the fact that Sun Media and Postmedia give far more prominence to secular liberal Muslim columnists than the Star, it’s time to put Siddiqui’s role as an editor and columnist in perspective, as he fanned the flames of victimhood among Muslims, while looking the other way as Islamism spread.

Let’s begin with 2001.

In February, 2001 while the 9/11 terrorists, 15 of 19 of whom turned out to be Saudis, were arriving in America and planning their attack, the Star’s Siddiqui was on a tour of Saudi Arabia writing a series of positive columns about the medieval dictatorship.

On Feb. 4, 2001, Siddiqui praised developments in the Kingdom, showered accolades on then crown prince Abdullah and said this about the unelected Saudi Consultative Assembly:

“Members are grilling cabinet ministers, even if away from live television cameras. Whatever else their shortcomings, neither group is short on talent. Eighteen of the 24 ministers and 58 of the 90 Majlis members have PhDs – surely the most educated lawmakers anywhere.”

If Saudi Arabia — with its medieval treatment of women, fanatical religious police and global funding of Wahhabism, the extreme religious theology of the jihadists — struck Siddiqui’s fancy, the Islamic Republic of Iran came in for equal praise.

On Feb. 27, 2000, Siddiqui wrote: “Iran has reconfirmed its position as the most democratic country in the Muslim world, with arguably the freest press and certainly the best record on gender equality.”

He went to say, “it is stunning how revolutionary Islamic Iran has empowered women, after initially suppressing them.”

Remember, he’s talking about Iran, which would go on to violently suppress demonstrations for democracy in 2009 and is a known state sponsor of terrorism.

Two days after the horror of 9/11 struck America, on Sept. 13, 2001, Siddiqui was at the ready with a column deflecting blame from the terrorists, who had taken radical Islam to its logical extreme.

Instead, Siddiqui wrote that the attacks “represent the dark underbelly of globalization”, meaning Western capitalism.

“America was targeted,” he speculated, “because it … is indifferent to the suffering of too many peoples, from Afghanistan to Chechnya to the Middle East …”

In the post-911 era, Siddiqui was often the champion of all things Islamist, including Muslim mediation/arbitration courts for divorce proceedings in Canada, while attacking Muslim opponents of sharia.

Siddiqui, for example, mocked a Quebec Muslim legislator, Fatima Houda-Pepin, who led the charge against creeping sharia, as “reportedly not a practising Muslim” and suggested she was “reviled” by many Muslims.

On Jan. 21, 2001, during an infamous case of a young Nigerian woman who was sentenced by a Nigerian sharia court to 100 lashes, he trivialized the outcry against the punishment.

Defending sharia as “good law,” Siddiqui wrote, “The sharia, however, is popular. It has restored order to a corrupt, lawless society.”

Instead of falsely accusing others of Islamophobia, perhaps Siddiqui should reflect on his own lack of contribution in fighting the forces of international jihadism.

Perhaps the Star should as well, given its editorial policy of giving a voice to some of Canada’s most radical Islamist groups.

Because at every opportunity Siddiqui and the Star have had to do so, including the reporting of his recent lecture in the Star, they have chosen the wrong side.

Indian Muslims going to fight for ISIS has a history, says Sultan Shahin. 100 years ago 18,000 left India to fight for the Ottomans

“From the Indian Subcontinent alone, less than a hundred years ago, at least 18,000 Muslims left their homes, even government jobs, and marched off to fight for the last Ottoman Caliphate. This was madness, pure and simple. Most ruined their lives and some died. But they are considered ghazis [fighters] and martyrs [shaheeds]. Important clerics including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad [who later became the first education minister of India] issued fatwas calling for Jihad or Hijrat (emigration) from British India, which was considered Darul Harb (Land of conflict, ruled by infidels), as a religious duty.”

The Islamic Army of the Ottoman Caliphate had over 18,000 Indian volunteers who came to fight the jihad, but only found defeat and no recognition by either the Turks or the British.

Sultan Shahin is a leading Islamic reformer in India, currently the editor of NewAgeIslam.com, a reformist website, which publishes articles on the struggle within Islam, especially with regard to radicalization in India.

On February 3, 2016 Sultan Shahin delivered a speech at a counter-terrorism conference in the Indian city of Jaipur where he called for reform from within Islam. “Moderate, progressive Muslims must urgently evolve and propagate an alternative theology of peace and pluralism, human rights and gender justice,” he said.

Following are excerpts from his speech:

“Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has attracted over 30,000 Muslims from 100 Countries, but This should not have come as a surprise to us in India”

“The ease and swiftness with which the so-called Islamic State and the self-declared khilafat [caliphate] of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has attracted over 30,000 Muslims from 100 countries around the globe in just one year has surprised many. But this should not have come as a surprise to us in India.

“From Indian Subcontinent alone, less than a hundred years ago, at least 18,000 Muslims had left their homes, even government jobs, and marched off to fight for the last Ottoman Khilafat. This was madness, pure and simple. Most ruined their lives and some died. But they are considered ghazis [fighter] and martyrs. Important clerics including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad [who later became the first education minister of India] issued fatwas calling for Jihad or Hijrat (emigration) from British India, which was considered Darul Harb (Land of conflict, ruled by infidels), as a religious duty.

“So, for a large section of Muslims the lure of a Khilafat that would rule the world, eliminate all other religions, particularly all forms of idolatry, establish the truth of Islam, is nothing new. When Baghdadi announced his khilafat, it was welcomed in many Muslim newspapers in India. An influential cleric from Nadwatul Ulama [madrassa in the northern Indian city of Lucknow], went so far as to post a letter to the so-called Khalifa on his Facebook page, addressing him as Emir-ul- Momineen, spiritual leader of all Muslims. He faced no protest, not even from Nadwa or Darul Uloom Deoband.

“With the so-called Islamic State proudly broadcasting its monstrous brutalities and inhuman practices like sex slavery, the community is embarrassed and support is now muted. But this can only be described as hypocrisy. India’s most popular Islamic preacher and Ahl-e-Hadithi televangelist Zakir Naik has been saying for years, that ‘Allah has made halal [permitted] for Muslims [to have] sex with slaves and women captured in war.’ Muslim religious leaders have never protested. But when ISIS takes these fatwas and Wahhabi/Salafi teachings to their logical conclusion, actually kidnaps and makes Yazidi, Christian and Shia women sex slaves, the community is embarrassed and some clerics start saying Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

“[N]ot only does [the] Koran specifically forbid all violence against innocents and repeatedly warns against aggression, but the Prophet himself avoided violence as much as possible in the most trying times of Islam’s infancy.”

“Global Muslim Missionary Organization Tablighi Jamaat… Which Has Up To 150 Million Adherents In Over 200 Countries Now, Focuses Entirely On Segregating Muslims From The Mainstream”

“It is true that madrassas and mosques do not overtly preach violence and terrorism. But it is also true that textbooks in madrassas do preach supremacism, xenophobia, exclusivism and intolerance. Thus they do the groundwork for militant ideologies by instilling in their students a binary thinking of Muslim/Kafir [infidel] as opposites who cannot co-exist. As a result, some Muslims self-segregate and alienate themselves from the mainstream. A global Muslim missionary organization Tablighi Jamaat, for instance, which has up to 150 million adherents in over 200 countries now, focuses entirely on segregating Muslims from the mainstream, asking them to maintain a separate identity, and prohibiting them from following any customs they may have in common with the non-Muslim majority. This Wahhabi/Salafi organization was recently banned from university campuses in Pakistani Punjab but faces no such restriction in India.

“Indeed, a Muslim is bombarded from all sides with sermons calling for Jihad; a Jihad, which is shorn of all its spiritual content and used simply as a synonym for qital, warfare. Even historical fiction written by 20th century Urdu novelist Nasim Hejazi, for instance, can be taken as a call for Jihad, far more effective than any overt Jihadi literature. In most popular Urdu fairy tales, Dastan-e-Amir Hamzah, for instance, the central character is fighting with demons who do not believe in oneness of God and are thus kafir. The devotional poetry a Muslim listens to at Sufi shrines contain lines like the following: ‘Aaj bhi darte hain kafir Haidari Talwar se,’ meaning, even today the kafirs are afraid of the sword of Hazrat Ali, the fourth caliph. Even the first biographies of the Prophet written by Arabs called them ‘Maghazi Rasulullah,’ meaning battle accounts of the Prophet.

“The first Muslims, the Arabs, could not celebrate his devotion to peace, moderation, Huqooqul Ibad (human rights) and mystical approach to religion. They could only hail him as a hero presenting him as a great warrior which he was not. He barely lifted a sword once or twice, 14 years after prophethood, at the age of 54, purely in defense. The prayer a Muslim has been hearing week after week in every Friday sermon for 1400 years is for victory over kuffar (infidels), establishment of the true religion of Islam, dominance over the whole world, elimination of idolatry from the planet, and so on, all generating supremacism, exclusivism, xenophobia and intolerance.

“The idea of a permanent confrontation with the ‘kafir’, thus, runs through our veins. In verses often quoted by militant ideologues, God assures Muslims in two places in Koran (8:12 and 3: 151) that ‘He will cast terror into the hearts of the Kuffars (Unbelievers).’ This is a contextual verse, like some others, similarly militant and intolerant, revealed during the course of the existential wars waged by the Muslims in early Islam. Any rational Muslim would say today that these contextual war verses do not apply to us anymore. But you will not find even those moderate scholars seeking to refute terrorist ideologies saying that. In fact, the refutations go on to actually justify the core theology of terror and violence.”

“Apocalyptic prophesies are one of the chief tools used by ISIS to attract Muslim youth to be part of an End-of-Time War”

“A hundred thousand copies of an Arabic book titled ‘Refuting ISIS’ has recently been distributed in Syria and Iraq. It is also available online in English. The author Sheikh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi is, of course, sincere in his refutation. But he too quotes from the same set of end-time prophesies, seeking to prove that [ISIS leader] Baghdadi and his clique are idiots and should be fought, thus giving credibility to these same series of millenarian prophesies. So what he actually ends up doing amounts to strengthening ISIS’ propaganda of the allegedly coming apocalypse. Unlike Al-Qaeda, which did not talk so much about apocalypse, ISIS vision is largely apocalyptic.

“They base the justification for their war as being the prophesied end-times war. They sacrificed many men capturing a militarily insignificant town called Dabiq (which is also the name of their mouthpiece) because the end-times prophecies refer to a war in this town.

“Apocalyptic prophesies are one of the chief tools used by ISIS to attract Muslim youth to be part of an end-time war. These end-time prophesies can only by questioned fruitfully by questioning the credibility of narrations that were collected up to 300 years after the demise of the Prophet and attributed to him, not by calling them akin to revelation. Some of these prophesies also come from speculative readings of two allegorical verses in the Koran: 4:159 and 43:61. Muslims have been asked not to speculate about their meaning and leave them alone. But, of course, Muslims do, and the result is prophesied scenarios of apocalyptic wars.

“Similarly, in its core theology even the 14,000-word fatwa issued recently (August 2015) by 120 scholars from around the world, agrees with the militant ideologies. Their ‘Open Letter to Al-Baghdadi’ also calls Hadith akin to revelation, knowing full well that all justifications of killings of innocent civilians come from a hadith attributing to the Prophet permission for killing of innocents in an attack at Taif by the use of catapult (manjaniq): (Sahih Muslim 19:4321 & Sahih Bukhari 4: 52:256). This hadith is also used by Al-Qaeda to justify use of weapons of mass destruction.

“In point 16, Hudud (Punishment), the moderate fatwa establishes a general rule: ‘Hudud punishments (death for apostasy, etc.) are fixed in the Koran and Hadith and are unquestionably obligatory in Islamic Law.’ Having accepted the basic premise of the Baghdadi tribe [of ISIS] it goes on to criticize its implementation in the so-called Islamic State. But once moderate ulema [scholars] have accepted the basic premise of Hudud (Punishments) based on some verses of Koran and Seventh century Bedouin tribal Arab mores being ‘unquestionably obligatory in Islamic Law,’ what difference does actually remain between moderation and extremism?

“In point 20 of the fatwa, the moderate ulema seem to be justifying the destruction of idols and Sufi shrines, by talking of the supposed Islamic obligation to destroy and remove all manifestations of shirk (idolatry), only opposing the destruction of graves of the prophets and their companion.

“In point 22 of the Open Letter, titled ‘The Caliphate,’ the moderate ulema again concur with the basic proposition of the Baghdadi clique: ‘There is agreement (ittifaq) among scholars that a caliphate is an obligation upon the Ummah. The Ummah has lacked a caliphate since 1924 CE.’

“This moderate fatwa even expresses belief in the theory of abrogation, whereby terror ideologues debunk peaceful Meccan verses that came at the beginning of Islam. Thus, like Sheikh Yaqoobi’s ‘Refuting ISIS’ this fatwa too strengthens the terrorist ideology, while criticizing its practice.”

“The commonly accepted theology of most Muslims agrees with the following (seven) features of the Jihadist Theology” – God as Implacable, Koran as Uncreated, Hadith, Sharia, Jihad, Hijra, and the Caliphate

“This is not surprising. The commonly accepted theology of most Muslims agrees with the following features of the Jihadist theology:

It regards God as an implacable, anthropomorphic figure permanently at war with those who do not believe in His uniqueness, as against the Sufi or Vedantic concept of God as universal consciousness or universal intelligence radiating His grace from every atom in the universe;
Koran as an uncreated aspect of God, a copy of the eternal Book lying in the Heavenly vault. Hence all its verses, in their literal meaning, have to be treated as an eternal guidance to Muslims without any reference to context;
Hadith or so-called sayings of Prophet Muhammad… as akin to revelation, even though they were collected two to three hundred years after the demise of the Prophet;
Shari’a laws as divine, even though they were first codified 120 years after God announced the completion of the religion in one of the last verses in Koran;
Jihad in the sense of Qital (warfare) as the sixth pillar of Islam;
Hijra (migration to Darul Islam – abode of Islam – from Darul Harab – Land of disbelief and conflict) as a religious duty and an act of devotion;
A caliphate is an obligation upon the Ummah (global Muslim community).”

“Twentieth century scholars like Syed Qutb (1906–1966) of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Abul A’la Maududi (1903–1979), of India and later Pakistan, who founded Jamaat-e-Islami, are considered the two fathers of modern Islamist terrorism or Jihadism. More contemporary ideologues who have contributed enormously to the Jihadist discourse are Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (1941-89) and Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi (Born: 1959), etc.

“It is not possible to accept classical theologians and reject their modern militant offshoots”; “No surprise that some of our educated, 21st century, Internet generation youth choose to rather be honest terrorists than dishonest hypocrites”

“Many Muslim scholars would distance themselves from these militant scholars today. But the reason Jihadism is so influential and attractive to so many is that the Jihadist theology is based on the popular theology propounded by major classical Arab theologians like Ibn Taimiyya (1263-1328), and Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab (1703-1792) or for that matter major Indian theologians like Mujaddid Alf-e-Saani Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564 –1624) and Shah Waliullah Dehlavi (1703–1762).

“For hundreds of years now, major Muslim theologians have been engaged in creating a coherent and comprehensive theology of supremacism, intolerance and violence in order to expand the Islamic reach. They have conclusively made the lower form of Jihad, i.e., warfare, compulsory for all able-bodied Muslims. Luminaries of Islam have established a theology which basically says that Islam must conquer the world and it is the religious duty of all Muslims to strive towards that goal and contribute to it in whatever way they can. All these theologians present in essence a supremacist, exclusivist, xenophobic and intolerant view of Islam and wield enormous influence on our clergy today.

“It is not possible to accept classical theologians and reject their modern militant offshoots just as it is not possible to reject Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and accept Zakir Naik simply because the latter is not actually having sex with sex slaves as Baghdadi is. Our radicalized youngsters can very well see the hypocrisy of those who on the one hand revere Taimiyya, Wahhab, Sirhindi and Waliullah and on the other hand claim to oppose Qutb, Maududi, Azzam and Maqdisi and their followers like Osama bin Laden and Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi. No surprise that some of our educated, 21st century, internet generation youth choose to rather be honest terrorists than dishonest hypocrites like their parents, community leaders, politicians, madrassa teachers, mosque imams, intellectuals, etc. who keep saying Islam is a religion of peace while also professing belief in the core theology of Jihadism, equating it with Islam.”

“The idea of Jihad against the ‘Kuffar’ (non-Muslims) and Hijrat (emigration) to the so-called Islamic State as a religious duty is preposterous at a time when millions of Arab Muslims are marching almost barefoot to Europe, the so-called ‘Darul Harb’ (the domain of the infidels)”

“One of the key instructions of God was moderation in matters of religion (Koran: 4:171 and 5:80). This was repeated often by the Prophet ‘Beware of extremism in religion, for it destroyed those before you.’ (Sahih al-Jami’ nos. 1851 & 3248, M.N. al-Albani, no. 2680, and & Al-Sahihah of M.N. Al-Albani, no. 1283.) But extremism has been endemic in Islam, present almost from the beginning of Islamic history. Muslims fought among themselves and quite vehemently even before the collection of Hadith which they now consider divine, and codification of Shari’a which they consider their religious duty to impose on the world.

“Muslims have still not found an antidote to militant verses in the Koran. Considering all verses of Koran as providing eternal guidance undermines the universality of essential, foundational, constitutive, verses that were revealed largely in the initial years of Islam in Mecca. We received very good advice from Pope Francis recently (September 2015), which is consistent with several verses in the Koran. Describing the holy Koran has as a ‘prophetic book of peace,’ Pope Francis asked Muslims to seek ‘an adequate interpretation.’ The Koran also asks Muslims repeatedly to reflect upon the verses and find their best meaning, as in Chapter 39: verse 55; 39:18; 39:55; 38:29; 2:121; 47:24, etc.

“Calling Hadith and Shari’a divinely inspired and fundamental elements of Islamic faith is irrational. Saying that it is a Muslim’s primary religious duty to help establish God’s sovereignty on earth and impose ‘divine’ Shari’a Laws on the globe is only a way to intensify extremism which goes against the basic tenets of Islam. The idea of Jihad against kuffar and hijrat (emigration) to the so-called Islamic State as a religious duty is preposterous at a time when millions of Arab Muslims are marching almost barefoot to Europe, the so-called Darul Harb, seeking refuge, a refuge that is denied to them by the so-called Darul Islam in the Arab world.

“Muslims will just have to abandon the generally accepted current theology that leads to violence and supremacism. We will need to revisit all our literature, even popular fiction and romance, and explain to our youth that we are now living in a multicultural, multi-religious world where a binary thinking of Muslim/Kafir as opposites and permanent war with them or self-segregation is just not viable. Even Saudi Arabia, which teaches in its schools the worst forms of intolerance, xenophobia, supremacism and exclusivism, has to deal with all religious communities.

“ISIS may be militarily defeated tomorrow and even go out of existence. But this will not solve the problem of Muslim radicalization. If our madrassas and educational institutions continue to prepare the ground for self-segregation and militancy, expounding the current theology, mixed with narratives of victimhood and marginalisation, Islam will continue to be hobbled, Muslims will continue to struggle to fit in the way of life in contemporary world.

“Moderate, progressive Muslims must urgently evolve and propagate an alternative theology of peace and pluralism, human rights and gender justice, consistent in all respects with the teachings of Islam, and suitable for contemporary and future societies, while refuting the current theology of violence and supremacism. Unfortunately, as we have seen above, the task is not so easy. Radicalization has not just happened overnight. Jihadi theology has evolved over hundreds of years. Major theologians who have studied Islam independently have brought to us a political version of Islam, stripping the religion of all its spirituality.

“While it is primarily the duty of Muslims to fight this ideological war within slam, this is no longer just a Muslim concern. The world too must confront Muslim scholars with the supremacism and extremism present in their theology and ask them to rethink Islam. Progressive Muslims should join the rest of the world to defeat extremism in Islamic theology.”

Source: NewAgeIslam.com (India), February 3, 2016.

Young Indian Muslims challenge me on India’s state broadcaster ‘DoorDarshan’

‘Doordarshan’ is India’s state broadcaster that pioneered television across India and is watched by hundreds of millions across Hindustan. On April 6, 2016 during my recent visit to India, DD’s Urdu Television network that is seen by 90% of Indian Muslims, specially in India’s rural agricultural heartland invited me to have a frank exchange with young Indian Muslim women and men. Here is the exchange, at times animated between India’s future and the “Indian born in Pakistan.”

Sparks fly as I run a Gauntlet of 10 Indian Journalists including a Hardened Hostile Islamist on India’s ABP News Network

Pakistan’s ‘Indian Spy’ clamour is its attempt to hide Islamabad’s Genocide in Balochistan

On Wednesday, March 30, Arnab Goswami host of Times Now’s nightly show ‘NewsHour’ in India discussed the latest propaganda stunt pulled off by Pakistan in arresting an Indian businessman and posting the man’s ‘confessional video’ on Pakistan TV channels.

The panelists included exiled Pakistani-Canadian journalist Tarek Fatah, former Indian military man Maroof Raza, Brig Javed Hussain (Retd), Former Pakistan Army Special Forces officer, Dr Seshadri Chari, Member, National Executive & Convenor, Foreign Affairs Cell of India’s ruling BJP party; Rashneek Kher, Founder Member, Roots in Kashmir; Lt Col Shafqat Saeed (Retd), Defence Analyst; Brig Nadir Mir (Retd), Defence Analyst & Author; and Air Vice Marshall Abid Rao (Retd) of the Pakistan Air Force.

Here is the full hour video of the heated exchange between the two sides: