Tarek Fatah is a paradoxical figure; indeed, he personifies the paradoxes of most moderate Muslims. He speaks out strongly against Muslim Brotherhood organizations and Sharia encroachment in the West, but is extraordinarily concerned at the same to absolve Islam of all responsibility for the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings. Around ten years ago I spent a day with him and others in New York, where among other meetings, we met with Roger Ailes and other Fox News officials. Fatah was an amiable fellow, but I began to grow disenchanted when he replied exasperatedly to Nonie Darwish’s pointing out that the Qur’an was full of violent passages with the now-common dodge that the Bible contains violent passages as well — as if the world were as full of Christians screaming “Jesus is Lord” and opening fire on crowds of non-Christians as it is of Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” as they take out Infidels.
By the end of that long and eventful day I was extremely skeptical of Fatah’s sincerity. My suspicions were compounded when he attacked the courageous ex-Muslim truth-teller Wafa Sultan, in much the same terms that Leftists and Islamic supremacists use to smear and destroy those whom they fear and hate. He also engaged in sly apologetics to exonerate Islamic texts and teachings of any responsibility for jihad terror, rather than calling for and working for genuine reform — see Hugh Fitzgerald’s magnificent three-part takedown of Fatah here, here, and here. (The Sun News shows about which Hugh was commenting are gone from the Internet, but his articles stand on their own.) Fatah soon thereafter began to denounce me as a racist and bigot, which I expect coming from Leftist Alinskyites and Islamic jihad enablers, but was sheer opportunism and jockeying for market share coming from him. (Despite that, he showed up at a reception for me given before a speech I gave in Toronto a few years ago, pretending that we were friends and allies. I reminded him of his earlier statements and asked him why he had come; he had no answer, but I suspect it was because essentially everyone involved in resisting jihad in Canada was there, and he couldn’t bear not to be and lose out on a chance to appear to be an important player.)
And now there is a bounty on his head from the All-India Faisan-e-Madina Council, which only shows that the All-India Faisan-e-Madina Council, in its hatred, bloodlust, and savagery, doesn’t realize who its true friends are. In any case, however, this just illustrates yet again the uphill battle that Islamic reformers, and even pseudo-reformers such as Tarek Fatah, face: when they speak out against Islamic practices that have a foundation in the Qur’an and Sunnah, they’re threatened with death as heretics or apostates. That’s why we don’t see more Islamic reformers, even insincere and opportunistic ones.
“Muslim organisation announces Rs 10 lakh reward for beheading Tarek Fatah,” Hindustan Times, February 24, 2017:
A Bareilly-based Muslim organisation has announced a “reward” of Rs 10 lakh to behead Islamic scholar Tarek Fatah for allegedly promoting “un-Islamic” views through his TV programme.
The All-India Faisan-e-Madina Council also demanded an immediate ban on ‘Fateh [sic] ka Fatwa’, a television programme hosted by Fatah on a private news channel.
“Tarek Fatah is conspiring to disrupt harmony between Hindus and Muslims. He is as an agent of our enemies. He must be stopped at any cost and our organisation will pay Rs 10,00,786 to any person who will decapitate him,” said Moeen Siddique, head of the council.
“He and his programme are being funded by foreign enemies of our country and the government must initiate an inquiry against him,” Siddique said.
Fateh [sic], a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is known for his secular views against Islamic fundamentalism.
“In his programme, he claims that it is not required to wear a burqa and terms triple talaq as haram. Muslims must not listen to his advice and come forward against him,” said Siddique.
Other Muslim social organisations too voiced their resentment against Fatah.
Jamat Raza-e-Mustafa, another social organisation that works under the aegis of Dargah-e Ala Hazrat, has written a letter to the President Pranab Mukherjee, demanding a ban on the television programme and expulsion of Fatah from the country….