On this the holiest of days for Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Protestant Christians comes an article on the necessity of spreading Islam in the West. “Countering Islamophobia: The Urgency of Da`wah in the West,” from IslamOnline, with thanks to the Norwegian Kafir:
USA:”A girl like you should take off this burqa and start getting an education,” a middle-aged white woman told a 17-year-old Muslim girl at the dressing room of a respected health club. The Muslim girl was shocked by these hostile comments, but chose not to reply. Later, she reported the harassment incident to the club’s manager. The manager apologized and assured her that this behavior is against their policy, and if it was repeated, he would take an action against the aggressor. Ironically, this Muslim girl is a national merit scholar who started her college education at one of the well-known universities at age sixteen.
In the middle of a friendly conversation, a receptionist at a medical clinic told a young Muslim mother who came to see a doctor for her baby, “You don’t know how to drive.”…
Good gravy! Women encouraging women to get an education and learn to drive! Will the harrassment never end? (Actually, I’ve been told “You don’t know how to drive” more than once, and several times while I was actually in the act of driving. I have yet to file harassment charges…)
Anti-Muslim Hate: Why Da`wah Is Our Top Priority
Since September 11, the damage of planned media campaigns against Islam and Muslims has been increasing exponentially with time. “Hateful, negative rhetoric regarding Muslims is on the increase both in tone and frequency. It has almost become socially acceptable to engage in bigoted and racist speech about Muslims. More frightening is the reality that the hateful thoughts and speech can turn into hateful, even violent action, which can ruin an innocent person’s life”, Karen J. Dabdoub-the director of the Cincinnati office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ohio, USA-wrote in The Enquirer.
I might have known that CAIR was mixed up in this somewhere. This is the group, of course, that has labeled telling the truth about Muhammad an act of bigotry and hatred.
Islamophobes are aggressively organizing propaganda that portrays Islam as a foreign religion that came with the backward, violent Arabs, who oppress women and deny them their rights of education, driving, working, or even leaving their homes.
Land sakes, where could these wicked Islamophobes have gotten these ideas? Hmmm, let’s see. Maybe from here and here and here and here. And as for “even leaving their homes,” there’s this: “The husband may forbid his wife to leave the home” (‘Umdat al-Salik, m10.4). I know: which are you going to believe: the Islamic whitewashers, or story after story coming out of the Islamic world? “Me, or your lying eyes?”
But of course, this is all the fault of “bigots”:
This completely distorted image is ingrained in the minds of the majority of the American public as a result of organized efforts by bigoted figures. Daniel Pipes, a critic of “Islamism,” has proposed the creation of a new “Anti-Islamist Institute” (AII), designed to expose legal political activities of “Islamists,” according to Jim Lobe of the Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS).
The draft of a grant proposal by Pipes’ Middle East Forum (MEF), obtained by IPS, reads, “In the long term… the legal activities of Islamists pose as much or even a greater set of challenges than the illegal ones.”
“Pipes is also working with Stephen Schwartz on a new ‘Center for Islamic Pluralism’ (CIP) whose aims are to ‘promote moderate Islam in the U.S. and globally'” and to oppose the influence of extremists,” Lobe writes.
Yet Schwartz haughtily refuses to explain how he proposes to counter the extremists. You can read my most unpleasant and unfortunate exchange with him here; in it, he uses the same reply-by-smear tactics that groups like CAIR, which he has fought indefatigably, employ with such skill. And here is my analysis of his recent downplaying of the evils of the dhimma.
Still, despite the fact that Schwartz seems to share their hostility to those who dare to explore and expose the roots of jihadist terror, IslamOnline is firmly in the opposition camp:
“The ‘extremists,’ according to the CIP proposal, are mainly represented by … an array of organisations consisting of CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Muslim Students’ Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), as well as ‘secular’ groups, including the Arab-American Institute (AAI) and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC),” he adds.
Muslim civil rights organizations, such as CAIR, are working day and night to counteract the effects of such campaigns. But they are limited in number and resources compared to Islamophobes. The American people are victims of the biased and racist media propaganda. Ordinary American citizens do not have the time or motivation to filter the information fed to them through media outlets.
Unless, of course, they read Jihad Watch.
Leaving this destructive tide unchallenged could lead to serious consequences: For instance, some Muslims-especially the young-will be forced or tempted to deviate from the authentic teachings of Islam in order to be called liberal or progressive. On the other hand, those who have strong beliefs will be persecuted for false allegations; they will be labeled extremists, isolated, and discriminated against.
In Islam Unveiled and in many other places I have written about just this: those who try to construct a peaceful Islam while rejecting and condemning belligerent verses from the Qur’an are always targeted by more literal-minded Muslims, who often apply the many Qur’anic verses denouncing the munafiqun (hypocrites) to them, and refute them using the Qur’an and Sunnah. And here it is in action: IslamOnline warns against “deviat[ing] from the authentic teachings of Islam in order to be called liberal or progressive” and says that those who have “strong beliefs” will be labeled “extremists.”
This is why, although I have been ferociously misquoted and viociously misrepresented on occasion, I never use the term “extremists” for jihadists. As I have made clear in both Islam Unveiled and Onward Muslim Soldiers, they are actually traditional Muslims, working in a mainstream Islamic tradition. There is nothing extreme about them except their actions.
To preserve genuine Islam in the West, every sincere Muslim has an obligation to educate as many people as he/she can about Islamic beliefs and values.
Islam is a complete way of life. We must adjust our lifestyle to our religion-not the other way round. That is, we cannot twist the laws of Allah and His message to fit our convenience or to please a person or group. To accomplish this noble mission, Muslims need to coordinate and unite their efforts to withstand the plots that aim at distorting Islamic teachings under slogans like “Reforming Islam” or “Promoting Liberal Islam.” We need to focus our energy in passing the genuine message of Allah to humanity….
I have many times here at Jihad Watch made clear my skepticism about the feasibility of reforming Islam. Reform will be well-nigh impossible because of this phenomenon, which I have noted in the books mentioned above: it is all too easy for hardliners to use the Qur’an and Sunnah to equate reform with disloyalty to Islam. How would FMCAT, for example, respond when faced with such a charge?
Oh, and to all those who are celebrating today: Christ is risen! He is truly risen!