http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/03/secular-islam-summit- update.html
The Secular Islam Summit By Mike Ghouse, March 6, 2007 It is time for Muslims to speak up and I sincerely hope the Media will give voice to the un-heard. For over 5 years, Muslim have been accused of so many things, one among them is that they do not speak up. The truth is they do, but seldom have they got the print and the air space. The Secular Islam Summit concluded on Monday, March 5th in St. Petersburg, Florida. With the exception of two panelists, every one was a paid Islam basher. This was just another attempt by extremists; in this case, the neo-cons on the other end of the spectrum attempting to turn Islam upside down. It is the Fox telling the hen to change her behavior to survive. The intent of the conference was bad to start with. Due to this fact, not one of the mainstream Muslims, including the progressive ones, chose to participate in the conference. Radwan Masmoudi of Islam For Democracy, Kamal Nawash of Free Muslims and I had serious discussions about the outcome of the summit and decided not to participate in it, as did other Muslim key players. No one wanted to become tools in hands of the neo-con extremists. The need to be represented in the summit became less important than standing by the right thing. "The need for a new, progressive, and modern interpretation of Islam for the 21st century is real and undeniable, as is the need for real reforms and democratization in Muslim societies. However, for that reinterpretation and reform to occur, the effort must be led by Muslims who are proud of their heritage, religion, and culture and who are credible within their community. The people who attended the "Secular Islam Conference" are neither, and that is why this conference was a complete waste of time and money, except perhaps to provide some anti-Islamic voices a podium from which to speak" Radwan Masmoudi, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. The speakers present were all Islam haters with the exception of two token Muslims like Irshad Manji and Hasan Mahmud. By God, the summit was to be about Islam, yet there was not a Muslim Presenter? If the intent was honest, at least half of the speakers should have been Muslims. The integrity of the organizers and the intent of the Summit are questionable, indeed, it is downright dishonest. Here is my take on the hour-long report Glen Beck presented on CNN Monday night. At the beginning, as well as towards the end of show, he highlighted the tangible danger for the delegates that came to the summit; he alluded that they have risked their lives to come to this conference. Glen passed on this claim to the viewers as a matter of fact without even asking the organizers if there was any basis to such claim. It is misleading the American Public with mis-information and erroneously building support for these extremists. He ought to feel guilty for not grilling them to prove it. Raquel Saraswati claimed she was a practicing Muslim, and expressed her fears towards being listed as the 4th ranked person to be ashamed of being a Muslim because she did modeling once. Each one of us bears the responsibility for not advising and guiding those Muslims who have condemned her. Every practicing Muslim recites the following verse at least 50 times a day and I wish they imbibe it. Qur'aan: al- Fatihah 001:004-5 .You alone are the Master of the Day of Judgment, you alone we worship and you alone we ask for help. Wafa Sultan comes out and says: 'You cannot be American and Muslim at the Same Time' . She is filled with rage and tremendous hate for Muslims and Islam. Glen did ask her if it was a cultural issue or an Islamic one which she claimed Islamic. She could certainly hate the individuals who have messed up her life and not blame the religion for it. She is froth with hate and nothing good has come out of her mouth yet. There was another guy interviewed, who did say that the problem is not with the Qur'aan, it was the interpretation.Ahmed Bedier of CAIR Florida stood out as a lone voice of reason and spoke out. He used the words bashing and cashing while questioning Tawfique Ahmed. Even though he was put on defensive twice, Bedier was in tune with most Muslims. I am thankful to Glen for putting him on and pleased that he attended the summit. Manda Zand Ervin - When she said that the Sharia laws treat women and men differently in inheritance rights, she was disingenuous and dishonest with the American Public, as she did not complete the other part about the wisdom of that ruling. She unilaterally declared that in case of a divorce, the boy child goes back to father when he is two years old and said without blinking an eye "that the boy will grow up as an abusive man". She talked about how Caliphate is what Muslims want and then when they have it, they will throw Christians and Jews out in the sea. It was her extremism and the desire to throw Muslims out in the sea that was talking. She failed to tell the public that such view is held by a few extremists like her on the other side. Glen let it ride without asking a few more questions to find the truth. I must praise Glen Beck for his concluding remarks. He talked about understanding the word Jihad, how it is the inner struggle one goes through in figuring the wrong and the right, he is on virtual Jihad. He talked about the need for all of us to fall the defenses we have built against each other. We need to have an open dialogue. Hypocrisy has no place in the civilized world. Amen. Glen, your words were uplifting and hope giving. Mike Ghouse Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio, discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He founded the World Muslim Congress with a simple theme "good for Muslims and good for the world." Mike believes that if people can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge. His articles can be found at http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/ , www.MikeGhouse.net and http://mikeghouse.blogspot.com/ and he can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] References at: http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/03/secular-islam-summit- update.html Islam's Other Radicals ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- At this landmark Summit on Secular Islam, there are no "moderate" Muslims. There are ex-Muslims: People like Ibn Warraq, author of "Why I Am Not a Muslim," who doesn't want an Islamic Reformation so much as he does a Muslim Enlightenment. There are ex-jihadists: people like Tawfik Hamid, who, as a young medical student in Cairo, briefly enlisted in the Gamaa Islamiya terrorist group and who remembers being preached to by a mesmerizing doctor named Ayman al-Zawahiri. There are Muslim runaways: People like Afshin Ellian, who in 1983 fled Iran -- and the threat of execution -- on camelback and is now a professor of law at the University of Leiden in Holland. (Now threatened by European jihadists, he lives with round-the-clock police protection.) There are experts on Islamic law: People like Hasan Mahmoud, a native Bangladeshi who, as director of Shariah at the Muslim Canadian Congress, was instrumental in overturning Ontario's once-legal Shariah court last year. There are even a few practicing Muslims here, such as Canadian author Irshad Manji. Ms. Manji, whose documentary "Faith Without Fear" airs on PBS next month, describes herself as a "radical traditionalist" and draws a sharp distinction between Muslim moderates and reformers: "Moderate Muslims denounce terror that's committed in the name of Islam but they deny that religion has anything to do with it," she says. "Reform-minded Muslims denounce terror that's committed in the name of Islam and acknowledge that our religion is used to inspire it." The difference is not trivial. For more than five years, the Bush administration has been attempting to enlist the support of the so- called moderates in the war on terror -- its definition of "moderate" being remarkably elastic, to put it charitably. To take one example, administration emissary Karen Hughes has "reached out" to such figures as Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, head of al-Azhar theological university in Cairo, with whom she had a "wonderful meeting" in September 2005. Sheikh Tantawi, adept at talking out of both sides of his mouth, had earlier approved a fatwa calling on the Iraqi people to "defend itself, its land, and its homeland [against the U.S. invasion] with all means of defense at its disposal, because it is a jihad that is permitted by Islamic law. . . . The gates of jihad are open until the Day of Judgment, and he who denies this is an infidel or one who abandons his religion." Undersecretary Hughes is not at this summit, of course, nor is anyone else from the State Department, nor is the U.S.-funded al-Hurra Arabic TV station -- facts archly noted by the conferees. In the quasi-official U.S. view, the speakers at this conference amount to an exotic, publicity-seeking fringe group, with whom close association is politically unwise. Al-Jazeera, however, is here, suggesting that the real Arab mainstream better appreciates the broad interest the conference's speakers attract in the Muslim world, as well as their latent power. Perhaps this is the flip side of the appeal of extremist Islam, an indication that what Muslims are mainly looking for are radical alternatives to the unpalatable mush of unpopular autocratic governments, state-approved clerics like Sheikh Tantawi, and Saudi- funded "mainstream" organizations such as the Council on American- Islamic Relations. Radicalism, at least of a kind, is certainly what this summit provides via Wafa Sultan. Dr. Sultan, a Syrian-born psychiatrist now living in the U.S., came to widespread public attention last year after she debated a Sunni cleric on al-Jazeera. "Only Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches," she observed. The televised clip, translated by Memri, has been downloaded on YouTube more than a million times. Dr. Sultan, whose outspokenness has forced her and her family into hiding, is here to receive an award from the Center for Inquiry, the summit's organizer and lead funder. She accepts it by saying: "I don't believe there is any difference between radical Islam and regular Islam." The view is shared by some, though by no means all, of the conferees. "Salafists cannot imagine Islam without the killing of apostates," says Dr. Hamid, who also now lives in hiding. "To them, the religion is a house of cards: Remove one element, and the whole structure collapses." Another conferee subscribes to the Salafist logic, though he dissents from the religion as a whole. "Truth is," he admits, "to be a Muslim democrat you have to be a bad Muslim." In this view, the baggage of Shariah and hadith -- the traditions in which some of the most violent Islamic injunctions are to be found -- are as central to Islam as the Quran itself. Hasan Mahmoud disagrees. "Most Muslims don't even know what the Shariah laws are," he says. "The moment you actually show them what the laws are, they can understand they're unjust." Mr. Mahmoud illustrates the point by observing that, under Shariah, a husband does not require a witness to divorce his wife. "But the Quran says that if you want to divorce your wife, you need two witnesses. With Muslims, this kind of thing works magic." Mr. Mahmoud spreads his gospel partly by way of cheaply produced DVDs, which seems pretty crude until one recalls that Ayatollah Khomeini, during his exile in Paris, spread the gospel of Islamic revolution by way of audiocassettes. Other conferees also have their Web sites: Alamgir Hussain, from Singapore, has islam-watch.org; Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, the conference's moving spirit, puts out IranPressNews.com; other conferees write for MiddleEastTransparent.com and so on. These are the "frugal chariots," to borrow a phrase from Emily Dickinson, that bear the Muslim reformer's soul. A fair bit of U.S. government money is being spent on conference security, including from the FBI. Still, it's remarkable that the government, given the huge resources available from places like the National Endowment for Democracy, provides no funding or support for this conference or its various participants. Here are two questions for the government: If Mr. Warraq, Dr. Sultan et al. are really irrelevant to the larger Muslim debate, why are the jihadists so eager to kill them? And if the jihadists want to kill them, don't they deserve support as well as security? URL for this article:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117314819125027850.html REAKING NEWS - 3/6/07 Wafa Sultan: 'You Cannot be American and Muslim at the Same Time 'CAIR Rep Slams 'Secular Islam Summit' (CNN's 'Glenn Beck Show') FL Paper Says 'Secular Islam Summit' Sponsor May Have Violated IRS Regs (SP Times)Intelligence Expert: 'This is Not a Mainstream Conference' Intelligence Organization 'Does Not Exist in IRS Records' Islam Expert: 'It's Everyone Known for Damning Islam' Contributor Denied Visa 'Because of Alleged Ties to the Russian Mafia' Konica Minolta: 'We Never Agreed to be a Part of It' INCITEMENT WATCH: WAFA SULTAN SAYS 'YOU CANNOT BE AMERICAN AND MUSLIM AT THE SAME TIME' - TOP CNN's 'Glenn Beck' Show, 3/5/07http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZXj2shOzkYOne of the main speakers at the so-called "Secular Islam Summit" last night told CNN's Glenn Beck that Islam cannot be reformed. Wafa Sultan told Beck: "Believe me, personally, I don`t believe Islam really can be reformed unless we recreate a totally new belief system...I don`t see any difference between radical Islam and regular Islam...You cannot be American and Muslim at the same time."-----CAIR REP SLAMS 'SECULAR ISLAM SUMMIT' - CNN's 'Glenn Beck' Show, 3/5/07http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=OUJErMA4d9Q-----INTELLIGENCE CONFERENCE DRAWS CRITICISM - Members of the former Holocaust Education Center worry its name is being misused. MEG LAUGHLIN, 3/6/07http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/06/Southpinellas/Intelligence_con feren.shtml John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor who is a hosting a three-day conference in downtown St. Petersburg on international intelligence and terrorism, says he "may know more intelligence secrets than anyone alive."But Loftus' claims, which include allegations that the Bush administration concealed the discovery of large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, have been widely questioned by intelligence experts. "This is not a mainstream conference with recognized names in the field," (TOP ) said Victoria Toensing, a Washington lawyer and former MSNBC legal analyst who established the terrorism unit for the Department of Justice during the Reagan administration."I've been in the intelligence and terrorism world a long time, and I would not suggest going to this conference for intelligence or terrorism information," she said.Loftus, 57, has attracted about 400 people to the conference at the Hilton. But he has drawn criticism from former representatives of the International Holocaust Education Center, who are concerned that Loftus is using the name of the now-defunct educational arm of the museum to gather tax deductible contributions for his intelligence activities. According to federal tax filings, Loftus is the registered agent of the International Holocaust Education Center, a tax-exempt charitable organization founded over 11 years ago in St. Petersburg. Its purpose was to educate the public about the Florida Holocaust Museum, of which Loftus is the vice chairman.But by 2005 members of the board of directors of both organizations decided the job was being done sufficiently by the museum and the education center was no longer necessary. Loftus, with the blessing of three board members of the Holocaust education center, was allowed to continue to use the center's name. This allowed him to preserve the center's tax-exempt status.Walter Loebenberg, who founded the Holocaust education center and approved of turning the name over to Loftus in 2005 because of his high regard for him, says that he knew Loftus was doing intelligence work at the time. . .Jay Snyder, who was the registered agent for the Holocaust Education Center until Loftus took over the name, says he holds Loftus in high esteem but is "surprised that John did not change the name of the organization in IRS filings to reflect the new intelligence direction.""I didn't know he hadn't already done that," said Snyder.Loftus abbreviated the full name of the International Holocaust Education Center to IHEC in the 2004-2005 tax filings. On the Web site for the Intelligence Summit, he said that IHEC stood for Intelligence and Homeland Security Education Center. But the intelligence organization does not exist in IRS records. "What's the difference?" asked Loftus. "Both organizations are charities fighting terrorism. Both are for the good of America. "IRS spokesperson Gloria Sutton says there's a big difference: "If a tax-exempt charitable organization changes the name, the purpose or the structure, it must let IRS know by corresponding with us. And, it must remain neutral and nonpartisan."Florida IRS investigator Norm Meadows: "We are scrutinizing exempt charitable organizations because abuse is occurring that often has to do with charities misrepresenting their purpose."The Intelligence Summit and the affiliated Secular Islam Summit are billed as "non-partisan, non- profit," forums that "use private charitable funds. "The Intelligence Summit, which costs $425 to attend for private citizens, continues through Wednesday. The Secular Islam Summit, which was covered by CNN commentator Glenn Beck, ended Monday. In promotional literature it claimed to "feature the courageous voices of those who stand against radical Islam and speak against the violence of Islamist jihad. "Experts on Islam question the summit's nonpartisan status."Legitimate scholars are horrified by the lineup. The speakers are extreme in their views. Basically, it's everyone known for damning Islam," said Yvonne Hadad, a Georgetown University professor who teaches "the history of Christians and Muslims.". . According to IRS documents, the main donor to the International Holocaust Education Center from 2004 to 2005 was Michael Cherney, a Russian aluminum tycoon who gave the organization $100,000 that year. Loftus has not yet made the 2005-06 IRS records available to the St. Petersburg Times. He says they show that Cherney donated another $50,000 last year. Cherney, who Loftus agrees was the summits' main contributor, was invited by Loftus to be the "distinguished guest of honor" at this year's event. But the United States has denied Cherney a visa since 1999 because of alleged ties to the Russian mafia. . . Konica Minolta was listed as a sponsor on the summit's Web site. That information was removed last week after Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Washington, D,C., asked the corporation why it was sponsoring "an event that is apparently linked to and hosting individuals who promote anti-Muslim bigotry and hatred." A spokesperson for Konica Minolta told the St. Petersburg Times that it had never consented to being a sponsor. "We have never heard of this conference and never agreed to be a part of it," James Norberto said. "We're not sure how we got pulled in." (MORE)
