• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

El Fadl denies report, threatens to sue

Dec 2, 2003 2:14 pm By Robert Spencer

ElFadl.jpeg
El Fadl strikes back (PBS photo)

The New York Sun (no link, subscription only) reports that Khaled Abou El Fadl, “a Bush administration appointee to the Commission on International Religious Freedom,” is “threatening to sue an Egyptian government magazine over an interview in which he allegedly calls President Bush a religious fundamentalist who is seeking to Christianize Muslim countries through invasion.

“The Egyptian publication ‘October’ quotes Commissioner Khaled Abou El Fadl predicting that America may invade Syria and Iran if Bush is re-elected and describing American soldiers in Iraq as mentally-ill nervous wrecks who wet their beds out of shock that the Iraqi people did not greet their invasion with flowers.

“‘I didn’t say any of this crap,’ Mr. El Fadl told The New York Sun in a telephone interview from Yale Law School, where he is a visiting professor teaching national security law and immigration law. . . .

“‘I can’t vouch for the translation, but the stuff that they have me saying is pure fabrication. It is not a case of tweaking what I said in a different way, or emphasizing or de-emphasizing what I said,’ he said.

“The article also quotes him boasting that he determined the U.S. ‘deployment plan of withdrawal from Iraq.’

“‘I would need to be a schizophrenic with serious delusions to say that. Give me a break,’ said Mr. El Fadl, who is a professor of Islamic law at UCLA law school.

“The article was translated into English by the Middle East Media Research Institute and posted on its popular Web site last week.

“Mr. El Fadl told the Sun that he did not agree to be interviewed by the magazine and has asked a lawyer in Egypt to prepare a possible lawsuit against the magazine. . . .

“Mr. El Fadl said an unidentified man . . . walked up to him during the meeting and asked a handful of general questions in a 10-minute conversation that was neither recorded nor written down. He said he now believes that was the basis for the article.

“He recalled being asked whether he approved of the administration’s Iraq policy.

“‘I said, I think Middle East needs democracy. We all agree on that, but it is a point of discussion on how we get there,’ he told the Sun.

“Asked whether America intends to invade [Syria] and Iran, he recalled replying, ‘I don’t know.’

“Asked whether he was a ‘Muslim stooge’ for accepting an appointment from the American president, Mr. El Fadl said he replied: ‘No. In fact, the administration had tried from the beginning to be inclusive toward American Muslims, to appear with organizations, to speak about the need for tolerance.’

“But the magazine’s rendition of the conversation was more elaborate. . . .

“The article also quotes him as saying that President Bush ‘permitted missionaries into Iraq before medicines.’ Mr. El Fadl said he has no idea whether missionaries were allowed into Iraq. . . .

“Fellow commission member Nina Shea dismissed the Egyptian press as ‘highly unreliable.”

“‘Based on my encounters with him, I don’t believe he said these things,’ said Ms. Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom of the human rights group Freedom House, in an interview prior to Mr. El Fadl’s disavowal of the report.

“‘This notion that Bush is a bigot that wants to forcibly Christianize the Middle East sounds more akin to wild conspiracy on the Internet than the reasoned analysis of a scholar. I just don’t believe he said these things,’ she said.”

I am sorry that El Fadl is going through these difficulties, despite my criticisms of his work in the past. If he did not say these things, their fabrication by the Egyptian magazine illustrates how desperate some segments of the Egyptian press are to keep hatred of the United States at a fever pitch.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: courtroom jihad, United States


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Crusades Were Right on Canadian Mental Health Association studies Muslim women’s mental health due to ‘discrimination’ and ‘hate crimes’
  • Crusades Were Right on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • curious george on Israel At A Crossroads?
  • Crusades Were Right on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • William Garrison on The Fantasy Islam of Rice University’s Craig Considine (Part 3)

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.