Egyptian and Chechen Elections; The Plot Against America

It seems that the democratic revolution in Egypt isn’t so democratic now that the Muslim Brotherhood has done so-well in the elections. The Mubarak thugs are back out; the religious neighborhoods are once again targeted for police violence, Mubarak’s security people are at the polling places intimidating people and voters have been randomly arrested before they even get a chance to vote. This is democracy on the Algerian model; that is we will hold elections and if our guys don’t win we will cancel or tamper with them. What is the US saying about the anti-democratic methods of its close friend and ally? I am still waiting. Human rights organizations are already condemning the practices of the Egyptian government in regards to these elections.

Chechen Elections

New elections are also being held in Chechnya and while the Russian-government and her allies in Chechnya are celebrating the elections as a victory against separatists these elections have about as much credibility as the Egyptian elections. Last night Frances Channel Two had an interesting piece on the elections and of how the real power in Chechnya comes from muscle and the gun. Pro-Russian militia leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of the ex-Chechen President (who was assassinated), controls a militia of several-thousand and has a charismatic personality and operates under the slogan “American uniforms, Russian weapons, the religion of Islam, and the culture of Chechnya is unbeatable.”

However, while I think these elections are not serious and Kadyrov is somewhat of a colorful young character, I do think that the way to proceed in Chechnya is through international pressure and the democratic process. The Chechen people have suffered enough from war, and have suffered far more than the Palestinians and Kashmiris, but do not get a tenth of the attention.

The Plot Against America

I know a lot of people do not like Phillip Roth, but I do (when he is not going on and on about sex) and The Plot Against America, which I have just finished, is even better than American Pastoral and the Counter Life two books I also greatly enjoyed. Roth masterfully tells the story of how his childhood in Newark, NJ would have changed if Charles Lindbergh would have been elected President in 1940 over Franklin Delano Roosevelt (the greatest American president of them all in my opinion). Lindbergh, along with Henry Ford, was a Nazi-sympathizer and they were both isolationists who wanted America to stay out of the Second World War, and ran on the platform of keeping America out of war. In the book Lindbergh wins in 1940 and life changes dramatically for the young Roth and his neighbors in their Newark Jewish ghetto. Honestly a lot of what Roth says in the book about how Lindbergh would have negatively impacted the life of Jews is happening today for Muslims under the Bush Administration only under different circumstances. Four main Jewish characters arise from this time of crisis in the community; the idealist who will not compromise with evil, the opportunist who finds a way to cash in and move-up the social ladder under Lindbergh, the selfish and greedy individuals who are only out for the themselves and are oblivious to the plights of others, and the ordinary people who live in fear and silently despise the regime. Lets see; CAIR, Irshad Manji, the brother who owns the liquor store on the corner and your average Muslims just trying to live their lives in this climate of fear.

Tookie Williams and the Gotti Brothers

Tookie Williams Execution

Stanley “Tookie” Williams is the founder of the Crips street gang that along with the LA based Bloods gang have controlled the streets of black Southern California for decades and after 1988, when the movie Colors came out, spread all across the nation and led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people (mostly young black men) in cities such as Houston, New Orleans, St. Louis, Cleveland and Atlanta.

There is no doubt that what Tookie Williams started has been catastrophic to black people and the poor. What started as a local menace became a national menace after Colors; remember crack had just hit the streets a year or two prior and AIDS was spreading and the Bloods and Crips became the Wal-Mart of crack in the American streets (outside of the Northeast). Let us not also forget that Williams was convicted of four murders connected to robberies and we should not forget those victims but there is something bigger to this than Tookie.

In the 1990’s, with journalist Barbara Becnel, Tookie Williams began writing a series of award-winning children’s books and set up an internet-based Street Peace Project and formulated the Tookie Protocol for Peace program that is a framework for gang-treaties and has worked successfully in cities such as Newark, NJ.

In other countries and conflicts it is common for the government to intervene and offer clemency to those involved in conflicts if they agree to cease hostilities and work towards a peaceful solution. In recent years this has been done in Palestine and Ireland. In the US, it seems that the government doest have the vision of the British and Israeli governments and does not see the big picture (or has malice) and instead of bringing an end to street wars would like to see them continue so that another generation can die off and/ or rot behind bars.

In recent days celebrities such as Jamie Foxx, who starred in Redemption a film based on the life of Tookie Williams, and Snoop Dogg have publicly protested against the upcoming December execution of Williams. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has agreed to meet with all interested parties this week in consideration of a clemency.

Read this piece by Phil Gasper for more insight.

The Gotti Brothers

For those of you unfamiliar with the saga of Irv and Chris Gotti and “Supreme” it goes like this; Supreme was a major-player in the dope-game in Queens in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He got locked-up and he was looking for a way to invest his money and two young hip-hop entrepreneurs, the Gotti brothers (no relation to John they are African-American and Filipino), supposedly received money from him to start the Murder, Inc. record label which went on to have major success with artists such as Ja-Rule and Ashanti and was perhaps best known to some for its feud with 50 Cent.

If the allegations brought by the feds are true or not I do not know (and really don’t care to be honest) that the Gotti brothers laundered money for Supreme; what we do know is that there has always been a connection to hip-hop and the streets. Today we see the glorification of bling-bling and all of the trappings of conspicuous consumption by hip-hoppers (that white kids eat up) with no appreciation of the roots of this mentality. Back in the day, in the early days of hip-hop and in more general the streets, you sported a gold chain, new sneakers and fresh clothes and maybe even a nice car as an acknowledgment that you were a hustler. It spoke to the fact that you made something out of nothing and you didn’t need rich parents or a degree to come-up. You could not sport these things if your parents bought them for you, if you acquired them by working a “square job”, etc. That mentality was transferred to hip-hop and now you have people who have never hustled a day in their lives, and don’t have any hustle in them, dressing like they are thugs and hustlers when in reality they are just spoiled kids with no maturity and no class (even Lil Bow Wow can act tough now).

The Gotti brothers were different than the pop-gangstas you see today; these are real cats from Queens who came up the old-fashioned way and they may pay for it with lengthy prison-sentences. If they are guilty, what does it say? All it says to me is that people with no access to banks or corporate America found another way to get paid. It’s that simple.

I met Chris Gotti, who also works in boxing, at several boxing events in New York, and was exited after talking to him about the new and refreshing ideas he was looking to bring to the fight game. Along with Fat Joe, Damon Dash, James Prince and Jay-Z he is a part of a growing number of hip-hoppers who are getting involved in the sport of boxing. The long-term prospects for some of his fighters looks good, but just having his prize prospect Jaidon Codrington knocked out in eighteen seconds on Showtime gave Chris another headache I am sure in addition to the big one he already has from the feds.

Padilla Indictment a Complete Joke; Media Duped Again

Padilla Indictment a Complete Joke

It looks as if the federal government has screwed-up again. For three -years we all thought that Jose Padilla was being held as an enemy combatant, with no legal rights as declared by the president, because he had planned to ignite a “dirty bomb” in the streets of an American city and blow-up apartments buildings. The public was led to believe that he was such a serious threat that he could not be trusted in the American criminal justice system. Rather, fearing what would happen in our court system, the Bush Administration fought bitterly through the courts to keep Padilla held as an enemy combatant with no legal rights even though he is an American citizen showing their contempt for the courts in the process.

From the beginning everyone who was watching closely knew this case was about precedent; Bush wanted to show us that he had the right to hold American citizens with no due process if he deemed them to be enemy combatants. No need for all of the formalities and precedent it was time to go back to the days of the Wild West where the sheriff could be the judge, jury and executioner. While critics thought that this action was draconian and un-American, we at least thought that Padilla was being held on strong evidence and the media had all but convicted him of the dirty-bomb plot. Well, it turns out that the Padilla case belongs right along with the WMD case in Iraq and other blunders of this administration.

Having its hand forced by the prospect of an upcoming negative court ruling the federal government finally issued an indictment against Padilla and gave him his day in court. Strangely, this man who was supposedly dining with bin Laden, a full fledged al-Qaeda member, and a dirty bomber was not charged with any of those things.

What was he charged with? Padilla was charged with training in a camp in Afghanistan to go and fight against the brutal Russian invasion of Chechnya; that is hardly terrorism, maybe naive and foolish, but not terrorism. A major difference exists between those who seek to physically defend oppressed Muslims by military means from invading armies and those who seek to bomb and kill innocent civilians.

The government also alleges that Padilla was a part of a cell, and what did this so-called cell supposedly do? They raised money to give to charities helping suffering Muslims in Chechnya, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Since when did donated to those in need become terrorism? Of course the government alleges (more than likely falsely based on the evidence) that some of the charities had connections to terrorism, and some have been shut down; but since when did the onus come on the donator? Donations sent to these charities were given with the intention of helping orphans, widows and the distressed; the Muslims who I know that donated to these charities didn’t even connect their giving to the political situations in these areas or any political groups. Will all of the hundreds of thousands of American-Muslims who donated to these charities be prosecuted?

If this is all the government has then a great injustice has been committed against Padilla, and those around him, and this will only add to the growing amount of injustices that this government has perpetrated against its Muslim citizens. However, living in the climate we are in (where men such as Sheikh Ali al-Timimi are serving life in prison for having a unique opinion) I have no doubt that if Padilla and the rest of the brothers go to trial they will be convicted; that is American justice under the Bush Administration.

Let this also be a lesson to all American-Muslims; beware of the knock at the door in the middle of the night. We are no longer safe and we are no longer free. We are living under siege.

On a final note it is interesting to see why Padilla was charged with this and not John Walker Lindh. Lindh kept his white privilege even as he fought alongside the Taliban (whom I despised). Americans said he was naïve and misguided (hardly the case, but he was no terrorist either) and Padilla is a Puerto Rican ex-gang member that could strike the fear into white Americas hearts and be so easily vilified in the mainstream media and was made into an unsympathetic character. The media looked at Padilla and decided not to give him any benefits of the doubt and the Bush Administration knew that is precisely what would happen. Call Padilla the anti-Chalaby; call the media duped twice.

Thanksgiving: Thanking God or Just Another BS Holiday

What the hell is Thanksgiving anyway? It is supposed to be a holiday that is dedicated to the history of European pilgrims coming to the shores of the New World and surviving the elements and thanking God for it in a communal meal.

Of course we also know the history of these events and that the pilgrims could not have survived without the help of the indigenous peoples and their knowledge of the terrain. So as the pilgrims thanked God for surviving they were ungracious towards their hosts and the history of the American continents bares this out as those pilgrims helped to begin a process that lead to the largest genocide and land theft in the history of humanity.

What does that mean today? Should American families cease to celebrate this holiday and the fact that they are getting a four-day weekend?

Growing up I knew Thanksgiving was about two things; football and gluttony. On Thanksgiving no one had anything to say about thanking God for living another year or for our blessings; rather it was all about stuffing our faces with turkey, mashed potatoes, cheesecakes and apple pie and watching football. In America, where families are often small or spread out across the country, or even if the family lives in the same city often does not get see one another, Thanksgiving is also a chance for families to catch up on all the gossip and see who is getting fat and who is broke.

Because of the nature of the family gatherings for this holiday it is often the only time when the entire extended family is together and so this holiday is important to a lot of people who want to see those loved ones they don’t often see. It is also a time when you can turn the clock back and all eat at the same table just like you did when you were kids; only this time you are not gong to be forced to eat your vegetables or get a whoopin if you cut up at the table.

As I do not like turkey and think that it tastes dull and bland unless it is smoked, I have usually just eaten some potatoes and the like and then went straight for the desert and I can remember one Thanksgiving as a kid where I ate two whole pies by myself. After stuffing my face I would sit down and watch football and usually fall asleep on the couch around half time and awake periodically in the second half when a big play was being made which raised the noise level in the room.

So again, what does Thanksgiving mean? To you average American it doesn’t mean shit, it has nothing to do with God, and even if you don’t wanna see your family at least you got the day off of work. It is just another bullshit holiday and a time to rest; no one is giving thanks to God to anything outside of maybe a two-minute prayer before a glutinous meal.

Is anyone thinking about the indigenous peoples on this day? Are the crimes of our American ancestors even considered on this day? Or is it just another mindless American holiday?

As Muslims we have the two Eids to celebrate as the Messenger of Allah (s) said in a hadith and those are the only two holidays I observe. I do not celebrate Thanksgiving, every few years I may stop be my grandparent’s house for a short time and eat a little bit just to make them happy, but I do not celebrate this holiday that has nothing to do with God and everything to do with over-consumption.

Richard Cohen at the Washington Post has a different take.

Read this on Indigenous Peoples Day

The Ahmed Abu-Ali I Knew

I first met Ahmed Abu-Ali at the Dar al-Hijrah Masjid when he was a young teenage student at the Islamic Saudi Academy. He was a bright student and went on to become the class valedictorian.

Ahmed would sit at the back of the Dar al Hijrah Masjid in Falls Church, VA and study his school books and then read the Quran and books of tasfeer. He was a shy young man with a baby face and he didn’t like to talk too much. It took me a few times of meeting with him to really get to know him. He was born in America and came from a prominent Palestinian family in the DC area who are very active in the Muslim community.

Over the years I got to know Ahmed much better as we would hang-put on occasion and attend the same classes at various Masjids. One year we also worked together as camp counselors at the Dar al Hijrah Youth Camp in Virginia and we shared our frustration in dealing with unruly and spoiled suburban Muslim kids.

Originally Ahmed had planned to go into medical school and become a doctor; but then he decided that he would devote himself full-time to religious studies and he began attending the Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America in Fairfax, VA and would later attend the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia.

I never knew Ahmed to be a violent or extreme person, as a matter of fact he once held me back from attacking a group of Sudanese Dinkas who at punched a Muslim brother in front of the Sudanese embassy, but Ahmed was searching. Like many young serious Muslims who grew-up at Dar al Hijrah or around MAS circles (Muslim American Society) he was frustrated by their lack of adherence to the Sunnah on a number of matters and felt their ideology was overly political. When he began attending classes of Salafi scholars and lectures he appreciated the knowledge of the Sunnah they presented; but didn’t like their almost total ignoring of the political. When Ahmed was accepted to school at Medina he hoped to make the most of his opportunity and gain knowledge that would be beneficial to himself and the Muslim community. I believe, that if he would have completed his studies that Ahmed would have been a major scholar of the deen in years to come.

For those of you unfamiliar with his story he was arrested while taking his final exams in Medina in 2003. He was held in Saudi custody for two-years where he claims he was tortured, and medical professionals have attested to that fact, and eventually sent to the US for prosecution; and this is where things get complicates in my opinion.

There are certain Muslim organizations and leaders who I believe wanted to make the case of Ahmed a cause celeb and wanted to highlight some particular issues on the back of Ahmed. Rather than having his welfare foremost in their minds they had their political agendas in mind.

The government of Saudi Arabia stated that they held Ahmed for two-years at the request of the US and were ready to release him at any time. Representatives of Ahmed in the US demanded that he be released or charged. The government, who until then were content to have him in a Saudi jail, had no plans to charge him, but when their bluff was called they came up with a terrorism indictment that alleged while in Saudi Arabia Ahmed became involved with al-Qadea members who discussed terrorist attacks in the US with him including a plan to kill the President of the United States..

In their rush to get Ahmed out of Saudi Arabia, where they believed he was being tortured and where they believed his rights as an American citizen were being denied, the supporters of Ahmed forgot that if he came to the US it was almost a guarantee that he would spend the rest of his life in an American jail. In Saudi Arabia Ahmed would have eventually been released and been able to go to Jordan. That is the culture of the region; few spend life in prison for anything and many are relesed when the rulers change. These brothers showed a faith in the US criminal justice system based on fantasy; any Muslim going before an American jury, for anything, in these days is in big trouble. When you are going before a jury on terrorism charges in the backyard of the capitol then you are almost guaranteed to be convicted and we have seen that time and time again over the last three years.

Those around Ahmed failed him in this regard. However his family only had the best intentions in their hearts and were just given bad advice by those around them. I am afraid that when his mother walked into an American courtroom wearing a full-veil and his father with a full beard and their son named Ahmed sat on trial it was all over before it started.

This is a tragedy, and I am not talking about in the sense of innocence or guilt, I am talking about the tragedy of a brilliant young man who will in all likelihood be spending the rest of his life in an American prison who at most mouthed off a little bit, but never hurt anyone.

Death of American-Muslim Pioneer Amir Ali

For those of you who did not have the privilege of knowing Amir Ali, may Allah have mercy on his soul, he was a pioneer in Islamic education and Dawah and was based in Chicago. For years he operated the Islamic Reading Room (a Muslim library) next to the Muslim Community Center Masjid on the North Side of Chicago on the corners of Elston and Pulaski.

Br. Ali was also the founder of the Institute of Islamic Information and Education (an organization whose pamphlets on Islam can be found at Masjids all over the world) and the American Islamic College (a Muslim institution of higher learning in Chicago founded along with his wife Miriam Ali). He was also heavily involved in the Radio Islam project and was a frequent lecturer to Muslim and non-Muslim audiences. Br. Ali focused on Islamic education and counseling to Muslims and Dawah to non-Muslims. In his work; Br. Amir Ali always held firm to the Quran and Sunnah and sought to purify his soul through adherence to the Sunnah and that is the methodology he taught.

A native of Pakistan, Amir Al was always fully committed to the cause of Islam in America and had a particular love for the American-Muslim. I can still remember the day when two young adventurous American-Muslims, Ismail Royer and I, traveled to Chicago flat-broke just to explore the Muslim community. We would have been in bad shape if we had not been taken in by Amir Ali and Juan Lopez (another dear Muslim brother). He sat us down firmly and gave us everything from advice on school to advice in choosing a suitable mate and sent us away with gas money alhamdudilah.

The American-Muslim community will miss Amir Ali. Insh’Allah his work will inspire others to embark on a similar mission.

“Political Earthquake” In Israel and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has shocked the world and announced that in his meeting with Labor leader Amir Peretz he will notify him that he wants elections to be held within ninety-days and that he is leaving the right-wing Likud party that he helped found. Sharon is founding what he is calling a “centrist party dedicated to working for peace”. This will likely create an all-out war in Israeli politics and could permanently alter the political landscape in that country.

Most outsiders view Israeli politics as only being about the Arab-Israeli conflict; but Israeli politics is far more complicated than that. The Likud Party is not only made-up of security hawks, but is also the party of Israeli business and the secular wealthy elite. Because of the issue of security; Likud has been able to recruit the working-class of Israel to vote against their economic interests in the past and that is how Likud has grown to such prominence. “You can’t trust Labor with security”, that is the Likud strategy, does that sound familiar? Labor has been the party of farmers, workers, the poor and labor-unions (which are very strong in Israel) traditionally. However, just as is the case in America and much of the West with the left, the Labor Party has lost much of its base because it is now dominated by the secular and affluent urban elite.

The religious parties of Israel, and they are many but the most prominent are SHAS Party (which is a Sephardic religious party), Degel Ha Torah and the National Religious Party and for the first time in Israeli history Jerusalem now has an orthodox mayor. Of recent years the Shinui Party, a strict secular party, has been founded and came to prominence in order to fight against the growing power of the orthodox establishment within Israel. This party tends to be made up of the same class of people who form the neo-cons in America who are tough on law and order and defense; but are culturally secular and liberal. The Meretz party is the main far-left party in Israel and they are the fierce advocates of Israeli workers and they also are the most vocal of all the Israeli parties in their support of Palestinians. Smaller parties also exist that are centered on a particular issue, Russian immigrants, and Israeli Arabs.

Other than the Arab-Israeli conflict there are massive fights within Israel centered on educational spending, privatization and the rights of workers, and the huge and often bitter religious-secular divide. But, at the end of the day, the security issues are first in the minds of most Israelis when they go and vote. The new Labor-leader Peretz, who came to the fore on economic and union issues will now have to fight the perception that he is too dovish and not sufficiently tough enough in how he will deal with the Arabs. Likud will run in the elections as the party who will be the toughest against the Arabs and hold firm against the Palestinians. Sharon will try and portray himself as someone who can make a peace-deal with the Palestinians that puts Israeli security as the top priority.

A lot of what is going to go on in Israeli politics over the next ninety-days will be continent on if Hamas is able to have electoral success in Gazan elections. If Hamas participates; they will likely dominate the elections in the way they dominate life in Gaza. This will benefit Sharon or Likud and Israel will get a right-wing government who will promise not to deal with Hamas. If Hamas remains the behind the scenes player that they are now, and doesn’t participate in elections, then Labor will benefit and Israel could get a Labor-led government or a Sharon government in coalition with Labor.

Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

In the first round of parliamentary elections in Egypt Muslim Brotherhood members secured twenty-percent of the seats in the Egyptian Parliament. What was the response of the Hosni Mubarak government to the success of the largest grassroots movement in Egyptian society? He ordered the intelligence services to crackdown on the non-violent Muslim Brotherhood (who are officially banned). We will have to wait and see if the US, who is claming to be fighting for democracy in the Muslim World, will come to the aid of a legitimate political party or if the anti-Muslim ideologues within the administration will support the Egyptian police-state tactics.

Muslim Answers to the Questions of Dennis Prager

In a Sunday op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times radio talk-show host and writer Dennis Prager posed five questions for Muslims to answer. I have long-admired the intellect of Prager (even if I routinely disagree with him) and was a big fan of his TV show before it was cancelled; it was too smart for TV. Insh’Allah I will try and answer the questions of Mr. Prager.

(1) Why are you so quiet (regarding condemning terrorism)?

I think that Muslims have not been quiet on this topic. Going back decades certain Muslim groups, most notably some Salafi and Sufi organizations, have written numerous rulings and opinions condemning terrorism. You could not find in recent years a terrorist incident occurring in a Muslim country where the religious authorities do not condemn such an act. You are right to sense that there is a war of ideas in the Muslim World and that many, for whatever reason, have embraced political terrorism as a legitimate form of resistance to a world order they see as unjust. However, not only do I disagree with them but the great-majority of Muslims disagree with the advocates of terrorism. Like in anything the zealot by the nature of his zealotry will dedicate more of their time to the furtherance of their agenda so the numbers look worse to the outside eye than what they actually are. In the US all of the major Muslim organizations have been quick to condemn acts of terror such as 9-11, 7-7, and the Madrid, Bali, and Amman bombings. The only area in which I will give American-Muslim organizations a failing grade is in their reluctance (and sometimes an outright refusal) to condemn acts of Palestinian terrorism.

On the Tucker Carlson show you said you were not merely seeking verbal and written condemnations from Muslims; rather you are looking for street rallies in the Muslim World condemning terrorism. We have recently seen this in Jordan (if the rallies where genuine) and it has happened other places such as at the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia after the 9-11 attacks.

(2) Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?

It depends on what you mean by the term terrorist. There are a number of those referred to by Israel as “Palestinian terrorists” who are wanted by Israel for being terrorists who are Christians. George Habbash, a Palestinian militia leader is a Christian, Sirhan Sirhan (who killed RFK) is a Palestinian Christian and a disproportionate number of Fattah operatives over the years have been Christians. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also has a large number of Christians in its ranks.

If you are specifically referring to suicide bombers then you may be right and this would be because certain Islamic scholars and groups have subscribed to the wrong idea that it is Islamically lawful to commit suicide in the furtherance of a just cause and in the process have created a “cult of the martyr” in Palestine and are exporting it. .

(3)Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?

Let’s set aside the word “free” for a minute and the question of whether men were actually born to be “free” (free from what?). There are a number of Muslim countries with some form of democracy and others are working hard towards his goal. You have to remember that the collapse of the corrupt Ottoman Empire didn’t happen until the 1920’s and they had unjustly ruled much of the Muslim World until that point. Then you had the long period of European Colonialism in the Muslim World which exploited the resources of the Muslim World and created many obstacles to democracy. This was followed by the Cold War in which the Super Powers played chess with Muslim countries. The US supported its dictators who violently repressed any democratic movements (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey, etc.) and the Soviets did the same thing (Yemen, Syria, etc.).

In the post Cold War period there have been advances towards democracy in the Muslim World; but anyone who thinks that democracy in the Muslim World could or even should look like it does in the West is being naïve. Does Israeli democracy look like American democracy? Absolutely not, and it shouldn’t.

(4) Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?

Much of the Muslim World is similar to Latin America in that this is a time pf political and economic turmoil and social upheaval. In Latin America and other places the masses have embraced Marx and Lenin as the source of their inspiration; in the Muslim World the masses have embraced Islam as their inspiration. In the furtherance of their political causes Muslims often use Islamic justifications for what they may be doing and sometimes these acts are good and sometimes they are evil. When the poor are being fed and the sick being cared for Islam never gets the credit; when buses and pizzerias are blown-up Islam gets all the credit from the media.

(5) Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?

I do not know if that is factual in the majority of Muslim countries. In some Muslim counties the treatment of religious minorities is very poor; but in others relations are good. Saudi Arabia, for example, has not done a very good job in protecting or accommodating its religious minorities. However some of the restrictions, such as there being no other houses of worship in Mecca or Medina, are religious in nature. That is similar to the Israeli injunction against proselytizing to Jews in public. In Sudan there have been problems; but the conflict with Dafur (which is a Muslim area) is not religious in nature, and the conflict with the South was largely with the leftist Sudan people Liberation Army who were not exactly Christian freedom-fighters. Groups who use every opportunity to campaign against Muslims and in their histories have never shown any concern whatsoever for Africa have tried to use Sudan to further their political agendas.

Finally, and this was not one of your questions. You mentioned the French riots in your piece with the connotation that the riots somehow were motivated by the religion of Islam. The facts say otherwise; the rioters may feel isolated because they are Muslims, but they rioted not in the name of Islam but in the name of youth rage and poverty and many non-Muslim African rioters rioted with them. Mr. Prager you should know as a Jew and a student of Jewish history that the French are not always courteous to those they perceive as outsiders.

The Lunacy of the AIDS Debate

I think that we can all acknowledge that there is an international crisis regarding AIDS. In some parts of the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the problem is an actual epidemic that is crippling societies. Millions are dying each year and while medicines exist that can prolong the life of those who are HIV-positive there is nothing that can be done to outright cure AIDS. This has created a global conflict between activists and governments of developing countries on one side and the pharmaceutical industry and the US who has tended to back that industry up on the other side.

Today maybe the face of the global anti-AIDS fight is Bono the lead singer of U2. His organization DATA (Debt, Trade, Aids, Africa) has been a forceful public advocate for AIDS victims. But behind the public face of Bono there is a raging political and cultural debate on how the AIDS threat should be countered.

When AIDS first came to light in the 1980’s, when gay men were dying by the thousands in American cities all of the sudden, conservatives in America labeled AIDS a plague from God. Conservative writer and thinker Pat Buchanan stated that “they (homosexuals) have declared war on God and God has now declared war on them.” The US government under the Reagan administration was slow to react to the AIDS crisis because of elements in the GOP that didn’t want the hands of the government to assist those who were sinful and being punished by God. C. Everett Coup, the Surgeon General of the time, took the first step within that administration to address the AIDS problem and to begin to educate the public about the use of condoms and the causes for AIDS and how it is spread. Coup argued that never before had the medical community been asked to judge people on how they got sick. Since that time US policy has gradually progressed, however slowly, towards taking a more aggressive stance towards the disease and greater public education towards the disease.

Today you have two main camps in America regarding this issue and both are profoundly wrong. The first group is the liberal anti-Aids activists. They stress government funding of AIDS treatment, researches into cures, and the distribution and promotion of condoms. Under no circumstances will these liberal groups suggest that people should change their lifestyles or out control sexual behaviors. For them the proliferation of AIDS is preferable to what they perceive as “puritanical” sexual teachings and practices. It is obvious that teaching abstinence to pre-teens and people on the edge of starvation and to teach that sex should be reserved for marriage if it were adhered to would bring the AIDS to an almost standstill ( outside of blood transfusions, drug users, etc.) . But these liberal groups will not do this because their first enemy who they must fight is traditional moral values and hey, if a few-hundred million have to die to protect the positions of the elite in Manhattan and San Francisco, then so be it. Recently the NOW program on PBS went to Uganda and talked to those treating AIDS and the commentator remarked that many conservative groups in the US sought to export their morality to Africa in order to fight AIDS; he failed to mention that it goes both ways. One more note; in Muslim Africa AIDS is not a serious problem although in some Muslim areas AIDS does exist. In Christian and Animist Africa AIDS is a plague of biblical proportions. Why is this? Is it because Muslims know how to use condoms better as the liberals would have you believe? Or is it because of lifestyle and moral decisions made?

On the other side of the equation you have the conservatives who are too ideological. They deny the reality that American-teens are having more sex than a Saudi prince in Las Vegas. While they are ranting in church about the evils of fornication their daughters are out in the parking lot giving head to the preacher’s son because she “doesn’t want to have sex before I’m married.” Sex is a reality and it must be dealt with and if everyone is not going to live up to proper moral standards then they should not kill themselves and others in the process and the best way to do this is to promote the use of condoms. This should be the case here in the US and abroad; anything else is ideological nonsense. Condoms should be available at all public schools, colleges, community centers and health centers. Men in these days should remember that your dick is a loaded gun that can kill ( or be suicidal), but you can put a bullet-proof vest on it and that is a condom and if you don’t have a couple of bucks for a condom I don’t think it would hurt society to provide one for free. After all; how much will it cost the government to treat the disease if you get infected?

Confronting the Minutemen and Other Anti-Immigrant Groups

Omar Rosario, a good friend of mine in Northern Virginia by way of the Boogie Down Bronx , recently had a verbal confrontation with a group of Minutemen members outside of a local 7-11.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Northern VA , the Latino immigrant community and how 7-11 plays a role in it all this is how it is; since there are no bodegas or neighborhood stores (or real neighborhoods for that matter) and the lack of a real white working-class in Northern Virginia, day-laborers ( who are 99% Latino in that area) get up early in the morning and stand in front of 7-11’s for mostly white men in pickup trucks and vans to pick them up for construction, plumbing, landscaping, carpentry, roofing, moving and any other kind of work you can think of. It is the common belief that these men work for pennies and that is really not the case; some do get ripped off by greedy exploiters but because there are so many jobs in that area even these day-laborers can afford to be choosy and negotiate payment.

If you haven’t spent time in Northern VA it is almost impossible to describe how heavily saturated this are is with immigrants. There is a huge Latino population made up primarily of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Bolivians and Peruvians. Along with that there is a large East African, Arab, Afghan, Asian, South Asian and West African population. You can go to the supermarket and it is like Brooklyn or Queens in that you may walk up and down the aisles and not find any native-born Americas.

VA may be cosmopolitan in these areas; but it is still America and it still has that strong southern influence. Because of this there has been a major anti-immigrant sentiment building in Northern VA. The Republican candidate for governor recently tired to exploit these concerns to no avail in the gubernatorial election, but those sentiments are still present. Out of this feeling a local chapter of the anti-immigrant militia the Minutemen has been founded (along with an anti-Muslim website called NorthernVirginiastan). This group has been hanging out in front of 7-11’s and taking photos of the day-laborers and of the license plates numbers of those picking the workers up and generally harassing people.

For those of you unfamiliar with their arguments the anti-immigration movement argues that an over saturation of immigrants drive wages down for American workers, pollutes the culture because these immigrants refuse to fully adapt to white American cultural norms and creates an overcrowded environment. Pro-immigrant groups argue for looser borders where there can be a free flow of people back and forth betwen borders and where immigrant workers can fill the void in the job market. They also argue that America is a nation of immigrants and it is hypocritical for any American other than a Native American to be anti-immigration and I fall into this camp. Furthermore I will say that as much of the anti-immigrant is also anti-labor; I will say that the immigration issue is really not about immigration at all but is about race and about the fear of the browning of America.

When Omar saw these Minuteman taking photos of the day-laborers he decided that he would take photos of them. He then had them get in his truck and ride around the block with him and had the Latino day-laborers take photos of the Minutemen.

Omar yelled to the minutemen that he had just arrived to VA himself and the Minutemen snarled at him and asked where he came from. “The Bronx muthafucka” was his response.

It reminded me of my experience in St. Louis in front of the International Institute building when I arrived to protest against an anti-immigration rally. This rally was co-sponsored by the Council of Conservative Citizens and the National Alliance. As this is St. Louis they where mostly protesting against Bosnians and other Muslim immigrants and I felt the need to show up. When I walked up to the crowd one of the neo-Nazis approached me and said “hello, brother” and I said “Man, I aint your brother, I’m here to protest.” The thing about it was I was the only counter-protester there and the National alliance members were taking my photo and trying to intimidate me but I had my own chants like “More immigrants and less rednecks” and “GED convention on South Grand”. But, I was able to recruit several pedestrians to join my counter-protest which I considered a success.

Also

Some Lehigh Valley, PA Voters Offended By Voting at a Mosque

Causes for Poverty and Some Cab Stories

A have had a lot of interaction with some readers about issues of poverty. Some believe that it is the responsibility of the government to provide a comprehensive plan to combat poverty and all of its ill-effects and I do agree with them. The government has a responsibility to care for the weakest in society and to provide a social safety net and any modern society should provide universal health-cared and education to its citizens.

However, people are fooling themselves, when they think that the government can erase poverty. Poverty is not just about the lack of money and access to capital; it can also be about behavior, culture, education, addictions and family history. If someone is in poverty due to addictions they will remain in poverty until the addiction is cured and if the government can provide the individual with rehab that is only a partial solution since rehab only works in a minority of the instances it is used. An individual who has dropped out of school at an early age, comes from a dysfunctional family where the basic essentials of life were not learned or taught, and/ or has severe behavior problems will not be able to overcome poverty unless those issues are addressed.

Several years ago Minister Louis Farrakhan was asked what he thought would happen if African-Americans received reparations for the 400 years of oppression they have endured at the hands of white America and Minister Farrakhan responded that “Cadillac would become the richest car maker in the world.” He was joking, but there was honesty behind his joke; if you have bad spending habits with a little money they aint gonna get no better when you got a lot of money. I have worked in a couple of bodegas and am a cabbie now and on what is referred to by some as “Mothers Day” (the first of the month when mothers get their welfare checks) there is a spending frenzy. I have witnessed mothers come in and spend half of the food stamps they get on chips, candy and soda and today I have mothers I pick up from the projects to gamble the money away on the casino. Would their poverty be decreased by multiplying the amount of money they get? No, poverty is decreased when the society meets the individual half way; the society makes a commitment to helping the poor and the individual makes a commitment to helping themselves.

When the welfare-reform debate was raging in the mid-nineties I was working for ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) a grassroots organization dedicated to fighting for the working-poor ( although not always effectively). One day I was petitioning the neighborhood in the fight for a living-wage (which I still support) when I came across Sheikh Abdul-Rahman and I told him what I was doing. The sheikh responded that “the people cannot solve the problem because as they are now they are the problem.”

What did the sheikh mean? The sheikh, a man who grew-up in the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn (that Jay-Z would later make famous), an African-American, product of a single-parent household, ex-pimp, ex drug-dealer, ex-con and a Black Panther leader had seen it all in his day and he believed that unless the individual reforms himself and then his family that there can be no government solutions. What the government would give would be received in a “getting-over spirit” and the individual would merely pursue the self-destructive lifestyle with state subsidies.

The sheikh told the story about being in Oakland in the 1960’s with the Black Panther leadership and of how they had a genuine grassroots movement dedicated to black self-determination. He told of how all these beautiful visionaries around him had brilliant minds and hearts of gold; but were self-destructing with drug usage, womanizing, and out of control lifestyles. The sheikh realized then that any political movement that at its core didn’t address the spiritual needs of the individual and instill moral discipline into the adherent was doomed to failure. That is why many from that movement along with Sheikh Abdul-Rahman (who was already a Muslim), including Abdul-Alim Musa, Jamil al-Amin and others, would go on to embrace Islam and become Muslim leaders.

I have noticed these same things in my lifetime from different angles. I have witnessed the political activists and anti-war protesters who have been very lousy and inconsiderate in their personal lives; they want the state to be generous but personally they will kick the homeless people out of the way to get to the next protest rally. They will be unjust to those around them and then want the state to be just. This filters down to the poor. In high school I can remember standing at the bus stop (which I rarely caught but did that day and it wasn’t even from my home) and hearing a group of girls talk about what they wanted to do when they grew-up and the one girl said; “I cant wait to get my check and get my own apartment” and the others chimed in and agreed with her. For those of you who don’t know she was referring to a welfare check and a Section 8 apartment. That was her ambitions and that was her dream, to be on welfare and get an apartment. Could you blame her? She lived in a complex where there were maybe 200 women, 20 men, and maybe 200 to 300 children with a lot of baby-daddies floating in and out. One day I sat and tried to think of who I knew in that complex who had a job and I could only think of eight or nine people. The rest got welfare or SSI checks or hustled; selling ass, boosting, selling dope or letting people sell dope out of their apartments. What kind of dreams does a kid who grows up in this environment have? That is why I believe, that even though Welfare Reform isn’t perfect (especially when it comes to health care and day care) it is worth something just to see a parent get out of the door and go to work everyday even if it is a sub-standard job; let the child see someone get-up and go to work everyday.

Cab Stories

On a daily basis I get my fair share of everything society has to offer. Tonight was no different as I took a group of doctors to a strip-club, picked-up a straight –couple at a gay bar, talked about the riots in France with a French physician, picked sore losers off the gambling boats, a Crackhead from a crackhouse, a few businessmen going to the nicer sections of town, a couple of college students going to an “earthy” party, a Canadian oil executive , a group of college students from Spain, and a ghetto ass white chick with her friend going to K-Mart with rollers in her head. Driving a cab is like being in prison; you can’t make moral judgments about those around you and what they are doing. Most of my passengers know that I am a Muslim; I have a beard, I have verses of the Quran decorating my dashboard, and sometimes I will have Islamic books out in the open. Occasionally my passengers want to discuss Islam with me and for the most part they are tolerant. Because I believe political correctness is bullshit I will tell you that I have never had an African-American in my cab say anything bad about Islam or make remarks, and this goes for the other Muslim drivers here too, but many of the drivers get anti-Muslim remarks made to them, but not me, constantly by white passengers ( particularly white men). Are we just supposed to be PC and ignore this and say no there is not a problem in white America of racism and hatred of Muslims? Should we follow the advice of Muslim Wake-Up and FMAT and others and believe if we ape these people enough they will love us? Or should we recognize there is a problem, get in where we fit in and then deal with it?

One more note on the Cabbie tip. I didn’t get this girl tonight but I thought about her. She is a waitress at a fairly nice restaurant and every night she brings home her tips to her husband and if she doesn’t bring enough he beats her and makes her sleep on the back porch. People have tried to get involved and help but she refuses the offers. Does that make you realize what kind of lousy people there are out there or what?

Discrimination of Observant Muslim Women in Turkey and the Powder Keg in Jordan

The European Commission on Human Rights has ruled that it is acceptable for the Turkish state to discriminate against hijab-wearing Muslim women who under Turkish law cannot enter official government buildings or universities. The Turkish Attaturkian cult state deems that to be educated you must have no remnants of Islam. This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of young Muslim women having to flee the country to pursue their college educations and millions more who couldn’t afford to do so being denied their college-education. The so-called liberal and open-minded Europeans have ruled that anti-Muslim (and in general anti-religious discrimination) is acceptable in the EU version of human rights where all things of all sorts of manners are tolerated as long as you are not Muslim. In the brief supporting the hijab-ban the EU court issued a ruling that read more like an anti-Muslim political rant than a legal ruling.

Like the hijab-ban in France rather than force integrating Muslim women into French or secular Turkish society this will further ghettoize these women and deny them access to the economic mainstream of the society. Instead of creating more educated women; these measures benefit the few secular-elites and harm the great many. In Turkey this also acts to distort the political dialogue as the best and brightest of religious Turkish women are forbidden from participating in the political process because of the hijab-ban.

Jordan

The American media is giddy about the anti-terror protests in Jordan. Now, I am not in Jordan, but I know how many (if not most) Arab protests work, especially those that are pro-government. What tends to happen is that the government will give most government employees the day off of work and those who are off work will be required to attend the demonstration or rally and to bring their families. That is why in any Arab country, within 24 hors, you can produce a rally with hundreds of thousands of people. When I lived in Palestine people who hated Fattah and Yasser Arafat would get a knock on the door to attend a rally the next day and they would show up with big photos of Arafat and a Palestinian flag with their families. So I wouldn’t take too much stock in what you are seeing today in Jordan. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that many Jordanians are very upset about the deaths of so many Jordanians and the negative effect this will have on the Jordanian economy, all I am saying is this looks like a state-produced rally.

Looking to the future we should keep in mind that Jordan is a majority-Palestinian nation. In the past the government has had a rocky relationship with its Palestinians and has outright been at war with Palestinians at times. Since Jordan signed the peace treaty with Israel, and the two nations have developed strong economic ties, many Jordanians have received tremendous economic benefit from this while the bulk of the Palestinian community in Jordan are greatly angered by the relationship. Non-Palestinian Jordanians dominate the military and the security services and priority number one is always to keep a mindful eye on the Palestinians and the Islamist organizations.

Another factor is that currently in Jordan there are a large number of Iraqi refugees which include both Sunni and Shia. It has been documented that in the past many Iraqis living in Jordan have been involved in the insurgency. Couple this with the fact that the Jordanian government has close ties to the US, and that many American private contractors and mercenaries are staying in Jordanian hotels and basing their operations in Amman then we have the recipe for turmoil. Since the bombing of the hotels many Jordanians are now blaming Iraqis and are now calling for revenge against those Iraqis living in Jordan. This could get ugly if Jordan erupts in nationalist violence.

Many critics of the War on Iraq warned the war would spread across the Iraqi border into the greater Arab world and engulf the entire region in turmoil; spreading to Jordan today and where else tomorrow?

Terrorist Attacks in Jordan

I guess we are all just getting the news of the terrorist attacks in Jordan. It appears as if the majority of the casualties are coming from a Jordanian Muslim wedding party. The only public figure to be killed thus far is the Palestinian Intelligence Chief.

What is the rationale for this attack? Is it that Jordan is a pro-American government and that these hotels house many American and British mercenaries? If that is the case then I guess they backfired because most of the people killed didn’t have shit to do with the War on Iraq. Many Muslims will be quick to say that this was a Mossad plot or some nonsense of that nature; but I think we all know that there are Muslims stupid enough to do something like this. We should all be praying for the victims and their families and for those who committed this atrocity to be brought to justice.

European Civil War?

News has it that the French riots have now spread to Germany and Belgium and Europeans are fearing that the entire continent may erupt in rioting.

Over the last several years immigration has become the major political issue in Europe as European politics have moved slightly to the right over this issue and the nations of Central and Western Europe have one by one passed tough new immigration laws.

Muslims are the Latinos of Europe; a large and vibrant immigrant group with borders to the land they are immigrating to. In the days of the past it was the Jews who were the scapegoats for all things evil in Europe; but today Muslims, and to a lesser extend black Africans, are blamed for all of societies ills as far-right groups once clearly out of the mainstream of European life are now gaining popularity and mainstream acceptance.

Europe resents its large immigrant population and I hear this not only in the media but in my conversations with white Europeans from across the political spectrum. At the same time Europeans are opting to not get married, not have children ( or only have one or two if they do decide to become what the cultural-elite call “breeders”), and are refusing to take jobs they feel beneath them and rely on a generous state social welfare system. Therefore they may not like their immigrants; but they need them. If Europe doesn’t want immigration, which it so desperately needs at this time, then they will have to radically alter their lifestyles and start having more children. Other than that, what do Europeans want? If they are choosing lifestyles of idleness, wine and coffee drinking and moral relativism then they are openly choosing for a non-European future. Muslim and black immigrants are merely taking advantage of this opportunity and in the process helping both themselves and the countries they live and work in.

In Europe there may be grumbling about immigration from the man on the street, just as you see in the US; but both here and there economists and business leaders are almost unanimous in there support for greater levels of immigration.

What many young Muslims are saying in Europe; who are by all rights European, is that they need to be respected just like other citizens. Europe needs their Muslims and needs to respect them for who they are and respect Islam, and the same goes for the black African and Caribbean peoples in Europe. It is not possible for one to have there cake and eat it too; you cannot educate young Muslims in the fine European schools and then tell them they have to be second-class citizens. You cannot pass laws that are disrespectful to Muslims, like the French hijab ban, and then expect the Muslims of France to accept that with a smile. Certain elements in European politics have decided they want to declare war on the Muslim population; but they do not have to torch cars and loot stores, because they are schmoozing with the owners of the stores and have a private fleet of cars and they make the laws. They issue wordy documents and statements that attack Muslims and send the working-class attack dogs out to enforce their edicts while claiming to be tolerant and open-minded. These young Muslims in the streets, who are misguided for the most part, do not have the power of the European political elite; they cannot pass laws, buy off opponents or go to war. What they can do is erupt out of frustration and rage and tell Europe that they are here to stay and Europe better get used to it. Their actions may not be rational; but they are from the heart. Like in any riotous situation those closet to them will suffer the most and the European-elite will be immune from the misery; but they will take notice.

The European governments will respond. A commentator on the BBC last night remarked that if the French elections were held today the far-right party would win. I predict that there will be a rapid-growth in the far-right parties of Europe and that Europe will be entering a period of long and bloody political turmoil if they do not come to terms with the problem they have and address the situation from a point of mutual-respect.

The French editorial pages all now have one theme; is this the beginning of a long-series of violent confrontations between white European and Muslims and African immigrants or is this an isolated incident? Time will tell.

In other news we have all seen that a number of Muslim have been arrested in Australia in connection to a terror plot and that a group of their friends beat-up some Australian media personnel. Ill have to keep my eye on that situation and until we know more I really can’t comment. In US elections the Democrats won in VA and NJ; but Mad Mike prevailed in NYC to the delight of the latte and S&M crowd.

Confusing Terms and Movements: Salafis and The Muslim Brotherhood

The Islamophobic lobby continually makes the mistake of labeling the Muslim Brotherhood as a “Wahabbi” or a Salafi movement; which is clearly not the case. In doing this they lump Muslim Brotherhood influenced groups like CAIR, MAS, ICNA, the MSA, and even ISNA in the Salafi camp and this is incorrect.

The Salafi Dawah and the Muslim Brotherhood have two distinctly different histories and ways of thinking. The Ikwaan (MB) was founded in 1920’s Egypt by Hasan al-Banna after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire as a way to socially and political revive the ummah. While the Ikwaan remain committed to Sunni orthodoxy, they have never been religiously stringent or overzealous, and have accepted a wide flexibility of religious thought amongst its membership.

The Salafi Dawah, which for the sake of argument we will say began with Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Wahab in 18^th century Arabia, although it is important to note that the word “salafi” means a calling to the ways of the first three-generations of Muslims and as Muhammad Abdul-Wahab merely expanded on the earlier work of Ibn Taymiyah, Ibn Kathir and others, who sought to return Islam back to the understanding and practice of the earliest generations it can be said that he did not bring anything new but a resurgence of the way the deen was once practiced.

To be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood you have to be selected by people who are already members, belong to a local organization or chapter and adhere to the rules of the organization or you can be thrown out. Also, for the most part and in most places, membership is a secret (even if a poorly kept one).

Salafis have no membership cards and membership dues. One cannot be kicked out of the Salafis and anyone can become a Salafi unlike the Muslim Brotherhood where you have to be deemed talented or of use.

Religiously the Salafi Dawah teaches that there is no need to adhere to a madhab in light of the modern sciences of Fiqh and hadith; Muslim Brotherhood members as a rule follow madhabs. Salafis firmly guard against biddah (unlawful innovations); biddah is not a serious issue for most of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Most Salafis largely ignore and are indifferent to the social and political problems of Muslims throughout the world; the Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated to political justice and empowerment for Muslims and the creation of a more equitable Islamic social paradigm.

The scholars of the Salafis are largely, but not exclusively in Saudi Arabia, and include the late Sheikh Abdul-Azziz Ibn Baz and Sheikh Muhammad Nasser-ud-deen al-Albani (May Allah be pleased with them and have mercy on them). The Muslim Brotherhood, were in constant criticism of these men during their lifetimes and preferred the teachings of the likes of Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

In America, especially in Arab dominated Masjids and communities, and mostly oblivious to the average Muslim, Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood have bitterly fought for control over hundreds of Masjids and Muslim organizations. That is why it is humorous when people call CAIR a “Wahabbi” organization. I once sat in the CAIR national headquarters in Washington, DC when CAIR employees described Salafi Masjids as “worthless”.

Each group has its benefits and shortcomings. The Muslim Brotherhood has great organizational skills and is politically savvy and they established the bulk of the American-Muslim and European-Muslim establishment and are the leading Islamic political force in almost every Muslim country. Salafis have major weaknesses in the areas of politics and community involvement; but are strong in areas of Islamic knowledge and practice. If either group was perfect the ummah would be in better condition; but like the rest of us they need encouragement and room to grow.

Some confuse the two groups on accident and others do so on purpose. Those who don’t like either group try to pin the ones shortcomings on the other. For those who put everything bad in the Muslim World on so-called “Wahabbis” (as Hamza Yusuf did at the White House) then the term becomes a McCarthyite term that can ruin someone who is even suspected of being a Wahabbi as the FBI goes door to door in the Muslim community asking Muslims if they are “Wahabbis”.