American Islamic Forum For Democracy

[Arrow]

This link is posted for those on the site that want to hear the moderate voice of American citizens that hold to the Muslim faith. Their love of freedom is alive and well out there in the Phoenix Valley of Arizona.

Arrow~


American Islamic Forum For Democracy

American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) was formed in March of 2003 by a group of Muslim professionals in the Phoenix Valley of Arizona. The group's founder is M. Zuhdi Jasser. M.D.

He felt that AIFD could formally articulate the fact that in commentary and scholarship that many Muslims believe that they are able to practice their faith more freely and more Islamically (in a personal and secular fashion which is most suited to preserve one's faith) in America than in any other place in the world.

AIFD seeks to make a small contribution to the body of thought which articulates an understanding of Islam which separates religion and state and is in complete harmony with the U.S. Constitution and our citizenship pledge.

Through these founding principles of constitutional, secular (religious freedom free of theocracy and government coercion, and Islamic hegemony), AIFD would also serve as an example of an American Islamic institution which can be a leading voice for liberty-minded Muslims in America in the war on terror. Through regular commentary AIFD will intellectually stand against the religious fanatics who exploit the religion of Islam for a nihilistic, anti-American anti-Western war. In fact a major component in the war on terror is the intellectual deconstruction of the claim Islamo-fascists have upon the religion of Islam. AIFD was formed as an unmistakable expression of American liberty and freedom in an attempt to take back the faith of Islam from the demagoguery of the Islamo-fascists.

With the common vision above, the Board of Directors met in the fall of 2002 and formulated its Bylaws and Founding Principles with unanimous agreement. In 2003, efforts have been directed toward networking with interfaith organizations, the establishment of a presence on the web, and contribution to the local discourse on Islam and its comfortable coexistence among the other religions of America.

Explore the site beginning here:

http://www.aifdemocracy.org/about/

[reconeil]

Good luck to "Them",...just like the rest of We likely: "Infidel Targets of Opportunity".

If all honestly stated & not just show-biz,...THEY TOO will no doubt be mercilessly targeted
by Fanatically Radical Islamic Extremists.

Maybe even more so?
Islamo-Facists not well known for ignoring Fellow Muslims NOT TOEING The Infidel Murdering line!

Besides, even Muslims are fair game for Fatwahs and/or typical Islamic Ordered Murderings.
Authors, comedians, politicians & folks in general have already found that out, to their dismay.

Neil

[Arrow]

M. Zuhdi Jasser, Chairman, Board of Directors
　
M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. is the President and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). A devout Muslim, Dr. Jasser founded AIFD in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States as an effort to provide an American Muslim voice advocating for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, and the separation of mosque and state. He is leading the fight to shake the hold that the Muslim Brotherhood and their Network of American Islamist organizations and mosques have on organized Islam in America.

A former Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy, Dr. Jasser served 11 years as a medical officer. His tours of duty included Medical Department Head aboard the U.S.S. El Paso which deployed to Somalia during Operation Restore Hope; Chief Resident at Bethesda Naval Hospital; and Staff Internist for the Office of the Attending Physician to the United States Congress. He is a recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal.

Dr. Jasser is a nationally recognized expert in the contest of ideas against Political Islam and American Islamist organizations. He has spoken at hundreds of national and international events including college and universities, places of worship, government venues, and many other public functions. On October 1, 2009, Dr. Jasser briefed members of Congress on the threat of Political Islam. He regularly briefs members of the House and Senate congressional anti-terror caucuses. In 2007 and 2008, Dr. Jasser lectured on Islam to deploying officers at the Joint Forces Staff College. In 2007, Dr. Jasser was part of a select group that briefed Admiral Mike Mullen on the "Contest of Ideas with the Muslim World." Dr. Jasser was presented with the 2007 Director's Community Leadership Award by the Phoenix office of the FBI and was recognized as a "Defender of the Home Front" at the annual Keeper of the Flame Dinner of the Center for Security Policy.
　
　
Sid Shahid, Director of Research and Publications

Sid Shahid is Director of Research and Publications. Sid joined AIFD in 2005 because he believes in the core values of pluralism, separation of religion and state, and the spiritual practice of Islam. He became an AIFD Fellow in 2007.

He is a modern Muslim who believes in the greatness of America. He directly assists AIFD founder Dr. Jasser with the intellectual product of the organization, including research and the formulation of AIFD positions. Sid also contributes to the organization as a writer and columnist.

Sid has a distinguished twenty-year career in Federal service that has included positions in the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Education in the field of investigations and compliance. His highest award is the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

Leadership link here:

http://www.aifdemocracy.org/about/members.php

[revwardoc]

If these guys want to join the fight against radical Muslim, then welcome to them. If they just want to sit and preach about how they're against the radicals but don't do anything about it, then they should get the hell out of the way and keep quiet. ACTIONS talk; bullsh1t walks.

[Arrow]

YouTube- Controversy over Mosque at Ground Zero-...

[Arrow]

D. M. Zuhdi Jasser

Americans know better than any citizenry how foundational the fight against theocrats can be to defending the ideas of liberty and freedom. This war against militant Islamism will not be won militarily. It will not be won by non-Muslims. It can only be won by taking sides in the civil war within the House of Islam. So far the advance of the ideas of political Islam globally has been relatively unopposed. The advocates for liberty within Muslim communities domestically and around the world are being abandoned for the “short Peace” rather than the BigPeace.

Thomas Jefferson most poignantly reminded the nation in its Declaration of Independence about “self-evident” truth:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

That was July 4, 1776. On July 4, 2010, thankfully, many of us do not limit ourselves to old-fashioned media in print and television. If we did, we would have lost the fact that those universal principles of human rights are our greatest bulwark against political Islam – the root cause of Islamist terror. In fact, I have dedicated my life’s work to Islamic reform and the separation of mosque and state – true religious freedom. The advocacy of those principles by devout Muslims is the only chance at inoculating Muslim youth against the anesthesia of Islamist supremacism.

The greatest threat today to world peace is radical Islamism and the platform of political Islam that feeds it. Its time to stop playing defense and play offense against political Islam. It is time to advance further the long overdue war of ideas within the House of Islam for Muslims who believe in liberty and against those who believe in political Islam.

Link to complete statement here:

http://bigpeace.com/mzjasser/2010/07/04/we-hold-these-truths-to-be-self-evident/

[reconeil]

Can't disagree with You & that wisdom similarly displayed by that wise fellow being interviewed on the Fox News Channel.

Still, it is a-freakin-shame that such National Survival Common Sense is pretty-much kept-
under-the-rug by and/or secreted,...BY BOTH mainstream press/media & U.S. Goverment.

BOTH obviously see nothing wrong with absurdly mixing Islamic Faith & State, ALSO.
I truly pray for us One & All (no pun intended). Someone better,...FOR REAL!!!

Only about one-third of Americans are HONESTLY INFORMED by FNC.
The other two-thirds are purposefully kept duped or deceived & ignorant & blissful,...
by both mainstream press/media & government (foreign Zealot Supremacists also).

Sad, but true: "Pilgrims".

Neil

[Arrow]

Thank you for the reply, Neil. I admire the work of this man, his courage and the courage of those that stand with him. I don't know him personally and came across his website while doing some research. He no doubt has put his life and the life of his family on the line with his outspoken, public declaration against militant Islam.

Dr. Jasser and I hold different faiths but as Americans we are in complete agreement in regard to our first amendment right of freedom to worship as we please without interference by the state.

Constitution of the United States: Bill of Rights

linked below:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rights1.asp#1
　
Neil, thanks again for your post and reminder that "someone better" pray.

Arrow

[darrels joy]

American Muslims Make Video to Rebut Militants
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

A recent spate of arrests of Muslims accused of terrorism in the United States has revealed that many of them were radicalized by militant preaching they found on the Internet.

Now nine influential American Muslim scholars have come together in a

YouTube video" target="_blank">YouTube video

to repudiate the militants’ message. The nine represent a diversity of theological schools within Islam, and several of them have large followings among American Muslim youths.

The video is one indication that American Muslim leaders are increasingly engaging the war of ideas being waged within Islam.

“We need to shepherd our own flock and to say that, theologically, these things are unacceptable,” said Imam Suhaib Webb, the educational director for the Muslim American Society, a grass-roots group in Santa Clara, Calif., who is among the nine in the video. “The Prophet Muhammad, when on the battlefield, saw that amongst the enemy there were innocent women and children killed, and he was openly angry. He is prohibiting us from killing the innocent. It is very clear.”

Mr. Webb said in an interview on Friday that as a white convert from Oklahoma, he had become deeply alarmed in the past year at the number of converts who had been arrested on charges of planning or carrying out violence in the name of Islam.

In July alone, one American convert in Virginia and another in Alaska who were arrested and accused of having ties to terrorism were both said to have been influenced by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born militant cleric now hiding in Yemen who maintains an active Web site.

Ihsan Bagby, an associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky, who is also in the video, said, “We’re hoping that that loner out there who, because of internal turmoil, starts listening to the wrong people, that this message also filters into his ear.”

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said of the video: “It can be a powerful outlet. It is the kind of thing that, formatwise, is matching what’s being done by the jihadist groups.”
He said that some of the scholars in the video were politically controversial but had credibility among many Muslims because they were not seen as “sell-outs.”

“Some would argue that they might be more effective than those perceived as more establishment figures,” said Mr. Gartenstein-Ross, the author of “My Year Inside Radical Islam.”

Among the nine are several converts to Islam who are popular because they are steeped in both American culture and Islamic scholarship. They include Sheik Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, scholars who have founded Zaytuna College, an Islamic seminary in Hayward, Calif.
The video, which is about five and a half minutes long, opens with ominous music, like that used in some of the jihadists’ propaganda videos, and the words “Believers Beware: Injustice Cannot Defeat Injustice.”

“Many people are saying that there are so many issues of injustice taking place around the world,” Imam Mohamed Magid, leader of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, a mosque in Virginia, says in the video. “That is true, we acknowledge the injustice taking place around the world. But we believe there is a way to address the injustice — not by taking innocent people’s lives.”

Edina Lekovic, director of policy and programming for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the advocacy group that produced the video, said they intentionally chose scholars who represent a diversity of theological streams.

“We didn’t want to just target the liberals or the conservatives or ultraconservatives,” Ms. Lekovic said. “The point was to show that no matter where you stand on the religious spectrum, we all have a shared belief and shared outrage by the events that are taking place.”

She said the only criticism the council had received was that there were no female scholars in the video — a fact she attributed to scheduling problems. She said the council expected to make another video that would include women. The group is also preparing another version, without the music, for Muslims who consider music haram, or forbidden.

Mr. Magid said in an interview: “This is the beginning of a greater effort. Imams have to be virtual imams, answering questions on the Web, having blogs. We have to have open discussions for youths to talk about what is frustrating them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us...er=rss&emc=rss