Recently in dawah Category

The Islamic Circle of North America has been named in "a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is bent on waging "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

They say they want to encourage dialogue via these billboards. Great. I'll start. The billboard says that Islam is "the way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus & Muhammad." That is a reflection of the Islamic supremacist notion, rooted in the Qur'an (3:67, 5:116, 9:30, etc.), that the Biblical prophets taught Islam, and their messages were corrupted by their followers to create what we know of today as Judaism and Christianity. In this view, Judaism and Christianity have no legitimacy whatsoever: they are renegade, twisted, hijacked versions of the original Islam.

So my question is: How does ICNA hope to encourage dialogue by making a declaration at the outset that Judaism and Christianity are false, renegade religions? Wouldn't it be more likely to encourage dialogue if ICNA, instead of simply trying to convert people to Islam (which is really what this call to "dialogue" is all about), acknowledged the supremacist aspects of some Islamic texts and teachings, and offered a way forward for Muslims that would blunt the potential of those supremacist texts and teachings to incite believers to hatred and violence?

That is always way too much to ask. But if this call to "dialogue" were genuine, it would be merely Step One.

"Billboards going up to promote Islam," by Bob Von Sternberg for the Star Tribune, December 15 (thanks to Block Ness):

Hoping to encourage interfaith dialogue, an Islamic organization will unveil a pair of billboards in Minneapolis this week.

The Minnesota chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America plans to unveil the billboards Friday, the eve of the Islamic New Year.

The billboards will be located along Hiawatha Avenue in south Minneapolis and Central Avenue on the north side.

They are part of a nationwide multimedia campaign that also includes placing posters on buses and subways in other big cities.

The billboards will display a toll-free telephone number where people can get answers to questions about Islam, as well as obtain free copies of the Qur'an and other Islamic literature.

"Got Questions? Get Answers," the billboard states.

In a prepared statement, the campaign's organizers are quoted as saying, "Islam is often a misunderstood religion, leading some to hold bias view of Islam with discrimination and suspicion of Muslims. This ad campaign will provide an opportunity for the people of Twin Cities to take a fresh and positive look at Islam."

We've covered the dawah buses that appeared in various cities a few months ago, but has anyone seen anything like this white truck? In "A Different Kind of Ice Cream," November 23, the estimable Baldilocks recalls a strange visitor to her Los Angeles neighborhood:

[...] At midday, I was in the back of the house in my office--blogging, of course. At some point, a noise entered my consciousness. It was a voice, a tinned one and, as I listened I became aware of three things: that the voice was male, that it was coming out of a bullhorn and that it was repeating the same phrase over and over again. However, I could not make out the words at first. [...]

The voice was coming from speakers attached to the type of truck that is sometimes used by ice cream vendors. The truck was spotlessly clean and gleaming white except for the design on the side: the huge blood-red star-and-crescent symbol of Islam.

The occupant had been exhorting the residents of this neighborhood using a two-sentence phrase, most of which I have blocked out of my memory. But I do remember one part and, really, it's the only relevant part. The occupant was advising us to...

"Embrace Islam."

By the time I gained the presence of mind to grab a camera, the gleaming white truck had moved on. I haven't seen it since.

From the time that it came to light the Major Nidal Malik Hasan basically warned the FBI and the Army of what he was--if not of what he was about to do--I've been thinking of that "ice cream" truck and what that particular vendor was selling. Aren't Jihadis required to warn their infidel foes and invite them to convert before any attack?

"Embrace Islam," he said. Left unspoken was the alternative.

Read it all.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (BBC)

"A new video from a rebel warlord in Afghanistan is urging an uprising against U.S. forces." This from AP.

"The recording features the renegade warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, saying that U.S. and NATO forces have been unable to restore security to the country. He urged Afghans to join in a holy war to drive out what he called 'infidel forces.'"

Note that he doesn't just call for an uprising. He calls for jihad, because no doubt he is aware that that kind of language is what will resonate most with the largest possible number of Afghans.

Although Hekmatyar had previously made conciliatory motions toward the Karzai regime, now "U.S. officials say the warlord's fighters have allied with remnants of the old Taliban regime in attacks on troops and international aid workers."

Mamour Fall and family (Photo thanks to LGF)

"I know bin Laden. People want me to insult him and I will not do it. He is a great man, a great strategist, a great Muslim, and that is what interests us and not the fact that he is accused of killing people." These are statements of Imam Mamour Fall, a Senegalese imam who was deported from Italy last month. (The report is from Reuters, with thanks to nicolei.)

Says Fall: "Me, I am a Muslim who wants to apply all that Allah outlined in the Koran, like the Jihad (holy war), solidarity between the Muslims. What we can do today is defensive Jihad. If an Islamic territory is attacked as America and its allies are doing today, every Muslim has the duty to attack these invaders."

Fall's explanation of defensive jihad closely follows precisely delineated elements of Islamic law, as I explain in Onward Muslim Soldiers. They are echoed by radical Muslims around the world, who are exploiting them today to justify their actions and recruit terrorists.

But Reuters, ever on the job, assures us that most Senegalese Muslims reject Fall's radical Islam: "He's a minority voice in Senegal, but Imam Mamour Fall is not afraid to speak out for Osama bin Laden. Fall's support for America's No. 1 enemy strikes an especially jarring note in Senegal, a relaxed mainly Muslim country on West Africa's coast where religion is confined to mosques and churches and doesn't stray into politics."

How does Reuters know that that Fall's views are only held by a minority in Senegal? Did they take a poll?

Or maybe they just asked "Muslim preacher" Alioune Sall, who is quoted thusly: "Islam has never called on the faithful to devote oneself to violence. Islam is a religion of peace par excellence. . . . There are Muslims who commit terrorist acts, but this should never be blamed on Islam. Islam rejects all forms of violence. . . . If bin Laden is the author of the attacks he is accused of, he will answer to God. Because this religion that is a religion of peace does not allow anyone to take another person's life."

This is, Reuters tells us, a "widespread view." Great. But I do wonder what Sall would say to fellow Muslims like Maulana Masood Azhar, a radical Muslim leader who has said that in Islam the only legitimate meaning of jihad is killing.

Meanwhile, Reuters says that "the head of a U.N.-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone has said he had proof al Qaeda operatives were working in Liberia -- but their activities seemed limited to diamond trading and money laundering rather than recruiting among battle-hardened youths."

Oh. Just laundering money, eh? Well, that's ok, then.

And: "In neighboring Mauritania, fears of extremism run deeper as pro-Western President Maaouya Ould Sid-Ahmed Taya fears foreign-backed zealots are trying to turn his country into a hotbed of Islamic extremism. Taya has won the backing of the United States, which regards Mauritania as a possible breeding ground for Islamic militants. But even here, Islam is traditionally tolerant and there are few signs that more radical preachers are making serious inroads."

Well, that's reassuring. Thanks, Reuters! Here's hoping our luck holds. But until all these anti-terrorist Muslims start convincing radicals on a large scale that their form of Islam is defective, it would be worthwhile to stay alert.

The Hardline Movement, according to Aaron at Internet Haganah, who kindly pointed this out to me (thank you very much, Aaron), seems to be aiming to "recruit for jihad 'revolutionaries' of all types, who, over time, can be brought into the fold of Islam, inshallah. In other words, all you have to do is share the desire to bring down 'Amerika.'"

For background on the Hardline Movement, "see the related taliyah.org site. . . . Note also the focus at taliyah.org on jailhouse jihad. See for example: Islamic Revolution in Amerikkka," written by Mustafa (Al-Khemi) Lancaster, a prisoner in San Quentin.

Recruitment of jihad warriors isn't just something that goes on in far-off places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Egypt, and Paraguay: it has also been going on in the Texas prison system.

CBS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth has "uncovered a disturbing half-hour videotape apparently used as a recruitment tool in the Beto One Prison Unit in East Texas."

The confiscated video is titled 'A Message to the Oppressed' and carried a militant Islamic sermon in praise of terrorists to inmates before authorities seized it during Islamic services.

The tape features the anti-Semitic exhortations by the California-based Imam Muhammad Abdullah who claims that the 9-11 terrorist attacks were actually carried out by the Israeli and U.S. governments.

'Are we to believe that some person that some people walked in airports and hijacked airplanes and then just went and blew up buildings blew up the Pentagon? This is ignorance to the max.'

The Imam's tape ends by giving credit to Hamas, al-Jihad and Hizballah. All three groups are listed as terror organizations by the State Department....

Some terrorism experts say the videotape is new evidence of militant Islamic groups infiltrating prisons through religious programs. The Senate judiciary subcommittee on terrorism concluded recently that U.S. prisons and jails are a key area of recruitment for Al Qaeda and other terror organizations....

'There have been cases domestically here in the United States and some of the training we have received indicates that there is a possibility that there is a recruiting effort going on inside prisons,' said John Moriarty, Inspector General of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. 'As a matter of fact, in other states, other than Texas, there has been confirmation of that.'...

Comments Mark Briskman of the Anti-Defamation League: "You have a potential in this prison system, as these people begin to get out, in terms of recruiting them into whether it's al Queda or Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and possibly be recruited to fight overseas or possibly be recruited to perform terrorist acts in the United States."

The article notes:

Some prison chaplains say the discovery of the tape raises [concern] that religious freedoms in jail appear to have been abused to help spread a militant message that encourages terrorism.

Indeed.

In a continuation of the article, we meet Omar Rakeeb, who has "carried an Islamic outreach from his mosque in Midland as a Muslim chaplain to federal and state prisons."

He brought the videotape into the Beto One Unit, but he denies any knowledge of it: "'I didn't have anything to do with showing the tape,' Rakeeb said. He said an inmate ordered the tape to the chaplain's office. . . . Rakeeb was unable to explain who removed the tape from Rakeeb's office and who else, besides him, had access to a VCR to show it to inmates. . . .

The 55-year-old Chaplain said when asked about the message that he's not familiar with what Anti-Semitic means.

He declined to disavow the theory that Israel and Jews orchestrated the attacks that killed more than 3,000 innocent American office workers.

'Well, I heard that. I saw it in different...I heard it, I believe on TV and I read it somewhere on the Internet and heard people talking like that,' Rakeeb said. 'Usually, I just treat it as news, whether it is true or not, I have no way of knowning.'

The FBI warns that militant Muslim prison chaplains sympathetic to terrorists are trying to recruit inmates as future operatives.

(Thanks to LGF.)

"Saudi Arabia, known for harsh criminal penalties such as beheadings, is trying a gentler approach to get information from some al-Qaida captives." AP says that "Saudi interrogators often bring clerics and a Quran to their prison interviews to establish a religious connection, a technique that has proved successful in eliciting information from terrorist suspects and reorienting them to less violent religious beliefs. . . .

"Shortly after these al-Qaida prisoners are taken into custody, Saudi interrogators send in a cleric who appears to espouse militant Islamic views to help build a personal bond with the young men and open a dialogue based on Islam, the officials said.

"'Once we connect with them, the interrogators slowly hand them over to a more moderate cleric, who sits with them and goes over what the Quran says and discusses what the traditions of the prophet are,' one Saudi official explained.

"Over time, the clerics position the prisoners to repent and renounce their past allegiance to the network established by the Saudi-born fugitive bin Laden. Then traditional interrogators are brought in to question the prisoners and learn tactical information, officials said.

"'We have learned that what drove them into this cult, and what causes them to cooperate, is religion,' said one senior Saudi official involved in intelligence work."

You don't say. I'd like to know how this is done -- that is, what they show these prisoners from the Qur'an and Sunna that changes their minds. For it is usually radical Muslims, not moderates, who are rigorous about sticking to what the Qur'an and Sunna say about jihad and everything else. In Onward Muslim Soldiers I detail how high-level Saudis (including a chief justice of Saudi Arabia) have taught that the Qur'an's teachings on jihad are in three stages, with violence being the last one, abrogating the others. This is common teaching not just in Saudi Arabia, but all over the Muslim world. Al-Qaeda knows this well.

So how do the interrogators disabuse these imprisoned jihadists of such notions? If they are not doing so, then this story is a sham. If they are doing so, then maybe they have found the key that will destroy radical Islam. I rather think the former view is more likely, but I'd like to know more. (Thanks to Nissan Ratzlav-Katz.)

Where does the Taliban get recruits? In mosques and madrassas, says this profile of a Taliban recruiter in Pakistan from Asia Times.

"Abdul Zahir's day starts with morning visits to a number of mosques in the Pakistani border area with Afghanistan, where the faithful gather for the first of their five daily prayer sessions. And once his morning session is over, he goes to some of the many madrassas (religious schools) in the area, or shows up at social gatherings, such as weddings, if there are any taking place.

"Abdul is unflagging in his rounds because he has an almost missionary zeal: to find recruits for jihad - or holy war - waged by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Himself blinded in one eye from action in Afghanistan, Abdul tells prospective recruits: 'You might fight at the front line, or you might stand guard at night. You can cook for other Islamic warriors, or you can be a male nurse. Or you can give the fighters money or grain - everything is welcome because the jihad has started.'"

Evidently he has no fear that moderate Muslims in the mosques and Islamic schools where he makes appeals will rise up in indignation and repudiate his extremist Islam. (Thanks to nicolei.)

Endy M. Bayuni of the Jakarta Post offers a clear-eyed assessment of the future of radical Islam and democracy in Indonesia: "Political Islam has been making significant inroads ever since Indonesia embarked on democracy in 1998. To the casual observer, the specter of Islamist political forces overrunning secular parties in democratic elections seems all too real in a country where nearly 90 percent of its 220 million people are Muslims.

"If it happened in predominantly Muslim countries like Algeria and Turkey (where the military intervened and trampled democracy), then it could also happen in Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population, so the argument goes."

However, Bayuni doesn't believe that all is lost in Indonesia: "The reality on the ground portrays quite a different picture. As Islamist political parties discover their voice in a democratic Indonesia, they also find limitations of their influence in a nation that has had a long tradition of religious pluralism and tolerance. . . .

"Still, there are concerns that Islam is rapidly intruding into the political arena. These concerns are founded on indicators and trends that typically include the following:

"Bolder, open expressions that call for turning Indonesia into an Islamic state, or for the introduction of sharia (Islamic law).

"An aggressive campaign to have sharia written into the Constitution.

"Hamzah Haz' election as vice president in 2001. Haz chairs the Islamist United Development Party (PPP), which came third in the 1999 elections.

"The emergence of new political parties, besides PPP, and of organizations that use Islamic attributes.

"The adoption of sharia at local levels, starting in Aceh and, more recently, in a number of regencies.

"The establishment of Islamic paramilitary groups like Laskar Jihad, which sent its volunteers to Maluku and Central Sulawesi to fight in wars between Christians and Muslims, and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), whose members vandalized bars and nightclubs.

"The bomb attacks, including the ones in Bali nightclubs that killed over 200, mostly Western tourists last year, perpetrated by radical Islamic groups.

"Most of these are phenomena that would have been hard to find during Soeharto's rule between 1966 and 1998. Soeharto regarded political Islam the greatest threat to national security next to communism, and he used the Army effectively to decimate Islamic political forces, including moderate voices, from the outset of his rule.

"Today, with freedom of expression and of association guaranteed by the Constitution, Muslims and political Islam no longer need to suppress their aspirations. Now that the lid has been lifted, we find various kinds of political expression from Indonesian Muslims. And we also learn that political Islam comes in several voices. Some, unfortunately, use violence as a means to achieve their goals."

Bayuni says that there are now over 10 radical Muslim political parties in Indonesia, but "Islamist parties learned of their limitations as early as 1999, when Indonesia held its first democratic elections in over 40 years. Only three Islamist parties out of the pack won seats in the legislature. PPP, PBB and PKS pooled barely 15 percent of the vote between them. . . . Islamist parties were repeatedly defeated in their campaign to write sharia into the Constitution, but they have had occasional victories in other areas. This year, for example, they succeeded in promoting the national education law, which requires Christian schools to hire Muslim teachers to teach Muslim students."

Bayuni concludes on an optimistic note. Here's hoping indeed that he and others will be able to tame this tiger in Indonesia. (Thanks to nicolei.)

"Six Yemeni-Americans recruited to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have filled the government in on Al Qaeda leaders, their training methods and other topics, according to federal authorities." So says AP.

Among other things, the men reportedly explained "Al Qaeda recruiting methods, including 'how to identify potential recruits from among the American population.'"

How were these men recruited themselves? "Friends say the six men were manipulated into going to the camp by high-pressure recruiters who came to their mosque with a message of religious service . . ." Probably a message must like this one.

The Bali bomber has called on other Muslims to "continue the struggle" (which is jihad in Arabic):

"The Bali bombing mastermind sentenced to death for his crimes urged fellow terrorists in Turkey, Iraq and elsewhere to 'continue the struggle', a report here said Tuesday." This from AFP, with thanks to nicolei.)

"Imam Samudra, convicted of masterminding last year's attacks on the resort island, made the comments to reporters after he met other Bali bombers for prayers and expressions of forgiveness in the Bali prison to mark the start of the Eid-al-Fitr holy day at the end of the Ramadan fasting month, Detikcom online news service reported.

"'To all my comrades in Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Kashmir: Continue the struggle,' he said.

"In September, a court in Bali declared him the 'intellectual actor' behind the October 2002 attacks on two Bali nightclubs, which killed 202 mostly Western vacationers. He was sentenced to death.

"On Tuesday, he reiterated his wish to die a 'martyr's death', Detikcom reported.

"'I will not apologise except to Muslims, and we will not ask for clemency except from God,' he said.

"Detikcom reported that tensions rose during the greeting ceremony when Samudra and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, who authorised the attacks, suddenly shouted 'God is great'. . . .

"Mukhlas has also been sentenced to death for his role in the attacks, which police have blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional extremist network which the authorities say has links to al-Qaeda.

"The bombers said they were seeking to avenge injustices against Muslims worldwide."

Maybe. But Jemaah Islamiyah is also on record as saying that they're fighting to create a Sharia-ruled Islamic megastate in Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, and the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.

Says Reuters: "Unidentified men on a motorbike have handed Reuters an audio cassette purporting to be of supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, two years to the day after his hardline regime fled Kabul."

Says Omar: "I am talking about faith and Islam among the commanders, about those who are not participating in the jihad. I sacrificed my rule and all I had and if I can stand for my honour, why can't you? If you can't stand for your honour, it means your faith is weak. If you claim to among the faithful, why can't you be ready for sacrifice? I have sacrificed everything."

Omar appealed to Afghanis on the basis of their Islam: "If you have strong faith and have strong honour you should stand up to protect your country and your religion. Every Muslim should ponder and awaken his honour and protect Islam and the Koran and, God-willing, if he dies, it will be a great success and if he lives then it will also be a victory."

This is how radical Muslims gain recruits around the world, as I explain in Onward Muslim Soldiers: by portraying their struggle as a fight for Islam. They appeal to those who want to live out their faith in its fullness. This religious dimension of their appeal is denigrated and denied by those who wish to pretend that global terrorism is merely a response to American imperialism, or to Israel. They deny that there is a clash of civilizations, as if their opinions will influence what people like Mullah Omar think.

"Osama bin Laden, wearing the plain white head cover of a religious teacher, recites a highly charged, inflammatory poem about the condition of the Muslim umma (worldwide community), appalled, mobilized, and seeking vengeance against its enemies. In particular, bin Laden extols the young men in Najd, Saudi Arabia, who have risen up and joined the jihad. He also praises the young men in Aden, Yemen, who demolished the indestructible American destroyer USS Cole, directly indicating approval and knowledge of that suicide bombing in Aden.

"Here as in several other scenes, bin Laden is standing in front of a wall-sized map of the world, symbolizing the scope of the problems and solutions he wants his audience to be conscious of. The dagger in his waistband is typical for formal male dress in Yemen and Oman in southern Arabia. This suggests an affinity between bin Laden, the son of a Yemeni father, and the Yemeni suicide bombers who attacked the USS Cole. Visually, an explosion is superimposed over the hole in the hull of the USS Cole to convey the sense of watching the attack live."

That's just one of several video clips here. (Thanks to Charles at LGF.)

"Across Europe and the Middle East," says the New York Times, "young militant Muslim men are answering a call issued by Osama bin Laden and other extremists, and leaving home to join the fight against the American-led occupation in Iraq, according to senior counterterrorism officials based in six countries."

Wait a minute. Don't these "young militant Muslim men" realize that jihad is a spiritual struggle to bring their souls into conformity with Allah's will? Why do they listen to Osama and other extremists? Why don't they tell those extremist preachers and recruiters, "Hey, man, get out of here. Islam is a religion of peace"? Why is Iraq only one focus of jihad activity in the world today, with other battlegrounds stretching from Nigeria to Indonesia?

Could it be that violent jihad is not as marginal and discredited an idea within the Muslim world as most commentators would have us believe?