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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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Subject: Here We Go Again, by Ambassador (Ret.) John
R. Malott
Friday, 15-Feb-2002 9:27 AM
Here We Go Again
By Ambassador (Ret.) John R. Malott
It looks like a new smear campaign has started against
a certain
"former leader" of Malaysia. Now he is being accused
of
contributing USD 10 million to radical Islamic
organisations in
the United States, money that in turn allegedly
supported
extremist activities, possibly including terrorism.
And once
again, Malaysia's politicians and unquestioning press
are
whipping themselves into a public frenzy without
having done
their homework. Calm down, people.
The New Straits Times and Bernama both have reported
that Shaykh
Muhammed Hisham Kabbani, the leader of the Islamic
Supreme
Council of America (ISCA), said that a "former
Malaysian minister
funded organisations in the US which may have links
with certain
extremist groups elsewhere," and because of that,
"Malaysia got
connected with terrorist activities."
And now for the background, which is available openly
on the
internet.
Shaykh Hisham Muhammad Kabbani, a Sufi cleric, was
born in Syria
and graduated from the American University of Beirut.
He received
his Islamic Law Degree in Damascus. In 1991 he was
sent to
America to establish the foundation of the Naqshbandi
Sufi Order.
Since then he has opened thirteen Sufi Centers in the
United
States and Canada. (For further information on ISCA,
see their
website at www.islamicsupremecouncil.org).
Shaykh Kabbani has often criticized other Islamic
leaders for
their failure to condemn those who espouse more
extremist forms
of Islam. In this regard, his views seem no different
from those
of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose
recent
article in Time magazine ("Who Hijacked Islam?") made
the same
point.
According to a 1999 article in the Washington Report
on Middle
East Affairs, Shaykh Kabbani has been at odds with
mainstream US
Islamic organisations almost since his arrival here in
1991. In
1998, ISCA's magazine, The Muslim, described a series
of
confrontations between various U.S. Muslim groups and
the
Shaykh's followers.
That article says that leaders of other U.S. Muslim
organisations
were unwilling to participate in Shaykh Kabbani's ISCA
conventions in 1996 and 1998, and that there also were
ugly
scenes at a number of meetings of the Islamic Society
of North
America (ISNA). Shaykh Kabbani's followers were not
invited or
allowed to participate in those ISNA meetings after it
was
rumored that he was "a Zionist agent" and that his
organisation's
magazine "was sponsored by Zionist funding."
The Washington Report says that the Muslim article
implied that
the dispute was a religious as well as organisational
one, over
differing interpretations of Islam. Shaykh Kabbani is
a Sufi and
the majority of American Muslims are Sunni.
But the differences within the US Muslim community
were
transformed into a political issue as a result of a
speech that
Shaykh Kabbani made at the US State Department in
1999, where he
said that funds collected by Muslim groups in America
for
humanitarian aid were being used to buy weapons to
fight in the
name of Islam; that extremism had spread to 80 percent
of the
Muslims in the US; and that more than 80 percent of
the 2,000
mosques in the US were being run by extremist
ideologies.
(Since ISNA - the organisation that had not allowed
his
participation at its annual meetings - provides
support to 80
percent of the mosques in the US, there was an
implication that
the Shaykh was singling out ISNA. Astute Malaysian
readers will
recall that ISNA was the group that "disinvited" Prime
Minister
Mahathir from making a speech in Chicago in 2000 but
which
invited Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah to address them in
2001.)
Shaykh Kabbani also charged that extremist ideology is
getting
into US universities through various Muslim clubs. He
said that
Iran is hiring nuclear scientists to miniaturize
nuclear
warheads, and that if these small warheads reach
American
universities, "you don't know what these students will
do."
Finally, he said that "those advising the U.S.
government are
extremists themselves." The Washington Report says
that this
apparently was a reference to national Muslim leaders.
The outrage from major American Muslim and Islamic
groups was
instantaneous. Those present asked Shaykh Kabbani to
say whom he
was talking about, and what his evidence was, but he
did not do
so. Subsequently, eight of the major Islamic groups in
America
issued a statement saying that "Mr. Kabbani has put
the entire
American Muslim community under unjustified suspicion.
In effect,
Mr. Kabbani is telling government officials that the
majority of
American Muslims pose a danger to our society.
Additionally,
Islamophobic individuals and groups may use these
statements as
an excuse to commit hate crimes against Muslims...We
therefore
ask Mr. Kabbani to promptly and publicly retract his
statements,
to apologize to the American Muslim community, and to
exert his
utmost effort to undo the damage these statements have
done. The
issue is not that of a mere difference of opinion
within an
American religious community, but involves the
irresponsible act
of providing false information to government
officials."
The joint press release was issued by the American
Muslim
Political Coordination Council, American Muslim
Alliance,
American Muslim Council, Council on American Islamic
Relations,
Muslim Public Affairs Council, Islamic Circle of North
America,
Islamic Society of North America, and the Muslim
Students
Association of USA and Canada. Additional Muslim
groups
subsequently associated themselves with the statement.
A prominent Muslim leader in America told me on
Wednesday that to
this day Shaykh Kabbani has never provided any
evidence for his
assertions at the State Department, or apologized. As
a result,
he basically has been ostracized from the majority
Muslim
community in the US. When told what the Malaysia press
articles
said, the Muslim leader commented, "Isn't it
interesting that he
makes these accusations but does name names or provide
any
evidence. That is the same thing he did at the State
Department
in 1999. Who gave the money and who received it? Who
told him
this? If what he says is true, why doesn't he say so?
And 10
million dollars? No Islamic organisation in America
ever got 10
million from Malaysia."
My point in providing this background is not to take
sides in
what clearly seems to be a religious, political, and
now even
personal dispute within the American Muslim community.
Rather, it
is to point out that such a dispute exists, and that
comments
made in Malaysia should be understood with this
10-year
background in mind.
I agree with Shaykh Kabbani that more moderate Muslim
leaders and
organisations around the world should speak out
against the more
extremist Islamic ideologies that are being propagated
and the
violent actions that sometimes flow from them. But I
disagree
with his assertion that the majority of our mosques
are under
radical influences, or that those Muslim leaders who
advice our
Government are extremists. Yes, there are some Islamic
radicals
in the US, and the Government has shut down two
foundations for
allegedly channeling funds to terrorist groups
overseas.
But the overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans, and
the
mosques and groups with which they are affiliated, are
not
extremist or radical. The organisations that
criticized Shaykh
Kabbani are the very same ones that have met with
President Bush
and members of Congress since September 11; if they
were radical,
they never would have gotten in the front door of the
White
House. Indeed, it was the President of ISNA, the group
that is
the apparent nemesis of both Prime Minister Mahathir
and Shaykh
Kabbani, who read the Islamic prayer at the National
Cathedral
service for the victims of September 11 and later met
with
President Bush at the White House.
Which leads the story back to Malaysia. Shaykh Kabbani
has made a
statement in Malaysia that has all the necessary
ingredients to
condemn the "former Minister." No wonder people leaped
on it so
quickly. Ten million dollars is a lot of money, so it
must mean
that the "former leader" is corrupt. And you say the
money went
to radical Islamic groups? Even better - we've being
trying to
convince people that the guy is an extremist and
dangerous. And
the money was then channeled to terrorist
organisations to boot?
Great -- now we can link him to KMM and al-Qaeda. And
the bad
press we have been receiving in the US? It's all his
fault, too.
It seems like a real gift to those who want to
continue the
campaign to smear the former Minister. But the only
problem is,
no proof and no evidence have been offered to back up
these
assertions. And in the absence of such evidence, such
accusations
- and their repetition - can quickly appear libelous.
Even if a
Malaysian court is not sympathetic to a case brought
by a jailed
former leader, a US organisation falsely accused of
taking money
and channeling it to terrorist groups would not
hesitate to seek
restitution in a US court.
And the bad press? Asked about the Kabbani report,
Deputy Prime
Minister Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said, "Now we
know why
the US and its media made so many accusations against
us."
Actually, sir, no one in America has ever heard these
accusations, because we don't have the pleasure of
receiving the
New Straits Times every morning. In recent weeks, the
New York
Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today,
and Time
and Newsweek magazines all have written major stories
on the
"Malaysia Connection" to al-Qaeda and the September 11
attack.
They are very factual stories and based in large part
on
information from Malaysia's own Special Branch. They
never once
mentioned Shaykh Kabbani or payments to US Muslim
organisations.
Instead, they detailed such things as meetings in
Malaysia
between the hijackers and others, as well as direct
payments and
logistical support from Malaysian sources for the
hijackers and
other al-Qaeda operatives.
The Government of Malaysia does not support terrorism
and
cooperates fully with the United States in opposing
it. However,
they have been embarrassed by these stories, and one
of their
Cabinet Ministers even threatened to sue Newsweek over
its
article. But as more articles came out, it became
harder for the
Government to threaten to take legal action,
especially since the
reporters were quoting Malaysian police officials and
US
diplomats as their sources. So the silly notion of
suing one of
the world's most prominent magazines was quickly
dropped.
This silliness ought to be dropped just as quickly,
before people
get embarrassed again.
--
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